“Odd, you’re down to…oh, too late,” Jeremie groaned. Down in the scanner room, Odd emerged, weary but grinning. He soon joined Jeremie up in the main lab.

“How are things going?” Odd said. “Did I clear a big enough path?’

“At least as big as the one XANA’s making by diverting the river through Kadic,” Jeremie replied. “Ulrich’s down to 20 life points, but Yumi and Aelita are just fine and at the tower. Ulrich’s got mop up duty on the monsters you didn’t get.”

Aelita’s voice came over the speakers. “Tower deactivated.” Odd peered over Jeremie’s shoulders as the kid Einstein punched in the RTTP. A white light enveloped them and they were whisked back with nobody the wiser.

xxxx

“I knew you were reckless Odd, but that last stunt takes the cake,” Ulrich slapped the purple-clad teen on the back. “Making your laser arrows backfire in the middle of that swarm…kamikaze, but cool.”

Jeremie and Aelita shared a reproachful glance at Odd and Yumi chuckled. “We’re going to be late for science. Hurry up, you guys,” Jeremie said he left. Odd and Ulrich gave committal nods, but really had no desire to go to class. As long as Ulrich was there, neither did Yumi.

Knowing this, Odd decided to go back to his room and leave the two to their own devices. Odd knew he should be in class, but there was so much else to work on. He had his art projects, his music, movies, and the band. Kiwi alone seemed to take half the day to care for. Odd opened his door and flopped down on his bed.

“Jeremie can make a day seem like a week with all he crams into it,” Odd mused as Kiwi came up to lie beside him. “Ugh, Kiwi, I know summer’s almost here, but do you have to share your hair shedding with me?” As Odd plucked the hairs off his shirt, he was hit with an idea only Odd could get. Clutching Kiwi to his chest, Odd bolted from the room.

xxxx

“I’ve seen Jeremie do this enough; shouldn’t be that hard…” Odd mused as he sat down in front of the supercomputer. “I’m usually the first out of Lyoko, and I’ve seen him do it before.” Odd clicked some keys and looked around for the right file. “Ah, the virtualization program…” Odd frowned…Jeremie had said he’d streamlined the instructions in case he was incapacitated, but this still looked like Greek to Odd.

Painstakingly, Odd hunted and pecked around the keyboard, following every letter of Jeremie’s start-up process. He felt more than heard the scanner doors open on the next floor down. Smiling and wiping his brow, Odd got up and, Kiwi following interestedly went down to see his handiwork.

“You don’t mind, do you boy?” Odd held up some of the shed hairs. He placed one in each scanner and returned upstairs. “I need a test subject to see if this works.” Odd ran through the last steps of the program, and finished up with Jeremie’s trademark “Virtualization.”

Odd put on the headset lying next to the keyboard and patted his lap. Kiwi jumped up and stared at the screen, yipping happily. A yip answered from the confines of Lyoko.

“Who’s the genius now?” Odd smirked. “Well, Jeremie, but I’m overachieving here! Now, for the hard part.” Jeremie didn’t leave instructions on de-virtualizing the team because they came back from battles by being defeated or the RTTP most of the time. Odd had seen Jeremie type in the necessary sequence over his shoulder, but nothing more. Mustering his resolve, Odd punched in Kiwi’s name and the factory’s coordinates, then punched a button. He rushed to the elevator and went down. The doors opened and Kiwi ran ahead.

“Wait up, Kiwi!” Odd panted as the dog raced on. “Kiwi, here boy!” Odd swept his sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes and had to rub them to make sure. Two dogs had answered his call.

“YES!” Odd did an impromptu jig that would do Break Break Breakdance proud. He whipped a pocketknife out and sliced off some of his own hair. He threw a handful in each of the scanners and went back upstairs, whistling a tune.

xxxx

“Why does he keep doing this?” Jeremie asked Aelita s they were let out of their last class for the day. “I mean, I know he doesn’t care, but he could’ve at least told us what he was up to.”

Aelita gave him a small smile and Jeremie calmed down. “He has his reasons, Jeremie. And it’s nearly dinner. Since when does he miss a meal?” They laughed as they made their way towards Jeremie’s room.

“But what if XANA had attacked?” Jeremie muttered as he opened his door.

“Then I would have been ready!”

Jeremie jumped back and into Aelita, knocking them both to the ground.

“ODD! What are you doing in my room?” Jeremie picked Aelita and himself up and shut the door forcefully.

“I missed class, and figured you’d have the notes,” Odd cocked his head. “Kiwi was sick, so I stayed in my room with him.”

“You could’ve told us,” Jeremie had calmed down again, perhaps because of Aelita’s hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, here they are.” Jeremie tossed a notebook Odd’s way; Odd mimed shooting it with laser arrows before he caught it.

“Thanks a ton, Jeremie. I’ll see you at dinner.”

xxxx

Odd walked into cafeteria as if floating on cloud nine. Sissi took immediate notice and got behind him in line.

“What’s got you so happy? Found a girl that didn’t dump you after the first date?” She put some acid in her voice to rile Odd, but he turned around with a mile-wide smile.

“Yeah, actually, I’ve got three dates.” Sissi’s face fell. “And the best part is that none of them is with you.” Those around the duo in line laughed, including Ulrich, who’d just entered and cut his way in front of Sissi. They got their food and sat down.

“So, Odd, three girls? Two didn’t exactly work out well last time,” Ulrich intoned as he bit into his biscuit.

“Well, maybe they’re coming around to see the real me,” Odd shrugged and chugged milk.

“And the real you is…”

“I’m svelte, artistic, funny…I’m multi-faceted!”

“Now only if your brain was multi-faceted, maybe you’d learn something in school,” Ulrich chuckled as he threw the rest of his dinner in the trash.

“NO! Oh, the humanity! Starving people in this very room would be happy to have that food.”

“Dig it out then.” Odd momentarily contemplated this before realizing Ulrich had gone on ahead. As they settled down for the evening, Odd spied his notebook out on his bed and not in his bag. He flipped it open and saw the day’s notes there, along with some random song lyrics. Odd shut it and tossed it under the bed.

“No studying again? You had time to play soccer with me after class, but not for hitting the books?” Ulrich looked genuinely concerned, but Odd knew it may just be his poker face in full effect.

“So my priorities are screwed up? I live like I want to,” Odd groused.

“What’s gotten you worked up?” Ulrich definitely had an edge of emotion in his voice, so Odd answered honestly .

“I don’t know anymore.”