One hour later.

“Ok I get what you are saying.” Warren said as he sat on the hard floor of the Control Room. Over the last hour the others had explained what Lyoko was along with XANA and what they were doing to stop him. On some spots Warren had asked for a more detailed description of what they were doing. It had taken a while for the group to explain everything but Warren eventually understood. “So you want me to join your little group to help you out when XANA attacks. That is fine by me as long as I can go to Lyoko every now and then.”
“Well that might be a problem…I’d need to get stats in and everything.” Jeremie said.
“That is fine. Just let me know when I can give you some help on what I’d be.” Warren said, straightening. “Oh, one thing that you guys should know is that I don’t have a cell phone of my own, so unless someone comes and gets me I can’t really do a lot except when XANA does something big.”
“I think that we can take care of that when the time arises. Now let’s get back to the school before we get into trouble.” Urich said. The kids filed out of the Control room, going back to school…

Next day.

Warren got up when his alarm went off and took a shower, then when he got back he put on Cannon, the guitar version. He got dressed in camo pants and a black t-shirt, and shoved on his black tennis shoes. He grabbed his bag and his portable CD player, and then headed out the door. He wandered around the school for a bit just enjoying the quiet… then once the bell rang for breakfast he headed over to the cafeteria. He got there and noticed Jeremie and Aelita sitting together. Both of them had a kind of shy look on their faces, and Warren smiled. He got his food and then sat down at the table just a little from them, close enough to not exclude himself when the rest of the group arrived and far enough not to crowd them. He ate slowly for once, thinking about what the group did and what they went through on a regular basis. He was so caught up in his thoughts that when the rest of the group arrived he didn’t notice till Odd tapped him on the shoulder.
“Earth to Warren. You awake?” He said, chipper.
“Yeah, I’m just thinking about what has been going on here. It’s crazy what you guys go through on a regular basis.” He said, still minorly spacing out.
“Yeah, we go through a lot. But then again you do too.” Said a voice, and standing there was Yumi. Warren flinched; he didn’t really like to talk about that in public.
“Yeah, that’s right, just don’t mention it in the open like that…I don’t really like people knowing my problem.” He said. Yumi shrugged, “Then again you guys are real good at keeping secrets yourselves.”
The group smiled, “Yeah you could say that….uh oh” said Odd “here comes trouble.” Warren turned around to see Sissy and her two lap dogs following her. Warren let out a growl and then turned away, tense and ready for trouble.

Warren felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned around. “What?” he growled. Sissy stood there with her two toadies behind her.
“You got some nerve coming here and causing this fuss.” She said.
“You got some nerve coming up to me right now…if you didn’t get the hint last night I don’t like preps, and you wreak of prep. I don’t care if your father is the principal you cant leach off of him forever.” He said, his upper lip quivering with a snarl. Sissy looked shocked. Warren gathered up his stuff, took up his tray and left.
“What is his problem?” Sissy asked.
“Maybe he just doesn’t fall for your charm.” Urich said. “He has problems of his own without you and those two getting involved.”
“Warren has a temper and doesn’t like to be around people who tick him off. You saw what he could do last night.” Yumi said, walking over to her, a visible limp showing. “It is a good thing that we held him back or you wouldn’t have liked what happened at all.”
Sissy stepped back… “What?”
“He’s strong, both mentally and physically. But I would suggest that you don’t test him.” Yumi continued. Sissy gave a look around the group assembled, and then left in a huff. The others looked at each other for a second and then Urich got up.
“I’ll go look for him.” He said and the group nodded, and he headed out the door.

Urich eventually found Warren in the courtyard, listening to the CD player and at the same time reading. When he saw Urich he turned off the CD player and looked up. Urich leaned on the bench. “She is a pain. I know.” Urich said…and Warren chuckled.
“That is the understatement of the year.” Warren said, “She is worse than my sister, and that is saying a lot.”
Urich laughed “yeah she gets that way sometimes.”
Warren raised his eyebrows, “Especially when she is hitting on you right?” Urich nodded. “That must get old real fast.”
“It does.” Urich said BRING!! The bell rang for the first class of the day. They nodded at each other and then went their different ways. Warren had Algebra first thing…he wasn’t good at all math but at this point they were working on something that he actually understood. The day went pretty slow at some times leaving him time to think, about what was happening in his life and why it was happening.
It had all started a while back; his dad had gotten an offer from the Services where he worked and took it… then he had the whole family pack everything up and took them to a whole new city. He had completely moved them from the quiet are in Lincoln Nebraska where they lived to a city that was constantly noisy and crowded. His friends had given him their addresses for him to write them at…and yet they still seamed far off. For him they all could have been on the other side of the world. At least you have some friends here, one part of his mind thought. You could have come here and been a total loner for a while before someone decided to talk with you. Not to mention that you are away from Dad, which makes your life so much easier. Warren sighed, and paid attention to the teacher for a second while she demonstrated the advanced levels of biological predispositions. He wrote down the stuff that she put up in a personal notebook, which he had for each class’s notes.
When the lunch bell finally rang Warren got up and went to the cafeteria, lost in thought. He set his stuff down at a table then went to get his lunch, and when he got back Sissy was sitting there, arms crossed. Warren felt his lip curling back into a snarl. “What are you doing here? Unless you are blind I have my stuff there for a reason.” He asked, setting down his tray across the table from her and pulling his stuff to him. Warren looked around “Where is your entourage of lap-dogs?” this was the first time that he had seen her without her two little sidekicks.
“For your information I sit here every day. You just chose the wrong spot, your friends eat over there.” She said, and pointed to a corner. Warren looked, there sat Jeremie and Odd, both eating lunch. Without saying another word Warren gathered up his stuff and headed toward the table that the two were sitting at.
Odd looked up when he got there, “I was starting to wonder if you were going to stay with Mrs. Sissy.”
“As if… she drives me up the wall.” Warren said. He sat down and started to eat.
After finishing his own food Jeremie looked up. “We need to talk about the basic stats that you want if you want to go to Lyoko with us.” Warren nodded and looked up from his own food.
“Can I have the basis for most of the character types, the weapon descriptors and everything?” Warren asked Jeremie nodded, and then handed him a thick stack of papers. “Thanks. So where is Urich and Yumi?” Warren asked, half reading the papers half eating lunch.
“They are outside, they sometimes eat out there. Aelita should be joining us shortly.” Odd said, shoveling back food himself. Sure enough a few minutes later Aelita showed up and sat down beside Jeremie.
After finishing lunch Warren looked at some of the work that he had gotten in his Algebra class. “I hate math, but the odd thing is that I play Dungeons and Dragons, which is math based.” Warren said, smiling. “I mean I can read most of this but I hate doing it, but with DnD it is fun.”
“That is because you enjoy playing it, this stuff is just annoying.” Odd said.
“If you need any help you can ask Jeremie or me.” Aelita said.
“Thanks.” Warren said and then pulled out a pencil and started to work on it. When Warren was about to finish Jeremie’s laptop started beeping urgently, the others got this serious look on their faces. “Let me guess, XANA has woken up once again.” Warren said.