That night, Sissi was planning a very mean prank that she was going to pull on her cousin. First she took three buckets of ice water, then she fond string and then she took a jar of honey as an extra gift to her cousin. She snuck into their room and set up the three water buckets over all three of their heads, she added the honey into the bucket over her dear cousin’s head. All she had to do now was wake them up. She crept out of the room and headed back to hers telling Herve to throw a ball at their door to wake them up, as the ball hit Aelita was the first to wake up, screaming because of the cold, her scream woke Yumi and Nicole, and they got water dumped on them as well. Nicole felt the cold honey run down her face.

“SISSI!” She yelled. Yumi jumped off the top bunk and sped out the door.

“I’M GONNA KILL HER!” Yumi yelled as Nicole and Aelita ran after her. Yumi pounded on the door SO loudly, you’d have to be deaf not to hear it. Sissi opened the door.

“Oh, hello Nicole and friends, can I help you?” Sissi asked.

“KONO AMA!” Yumi yelled in Japanese because of her frustration.

“What?” Sissi asked. Yumi tried to attack her but Nicole and Aelita held her back. Sissi stepped back in alarm. “I’ll tell my father if you dare lay a hand on me.”

“Yeah, how ‘bout a fist?!” Yumi asked trying to break free. By this time, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie had woken up and ran to the scene.

“Ulrich, at last you’re here! Help me! This, this girl is trying to kill me.” Sissi said.

“You’re lucky we’re holding her!” Aelita yelled.

“If we weren’t here, she wouldn’t have thought twice about punching you.” Nicole said.

“Yumi STOP!” Ulrich called, but it didn’t work, she was still trying to get loose and punch Sissi in the mouth.

“Let me go! She deserves to get punched!” Yumi yelled.

“Ulrich, hold back your friend.” Sissi said.

“We’re not friends!” Ulrich said. “We barely met!” Yumi had broke loose from Aelita’s grip by Nicole got in front of Yumi and held her back by her shoulders. Sissi had had enough and slammed the door shut. Yumi was let go and she pounded on the door.

“COWARD!” She yelled, no amused by Sissi’s attitude. Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremie stood there, shocked. They never have seen anyone so willing to fight like Yumi was now. Her fists where going into the door, never flinching, she sent one fist after another as if Sissi were still standing there.

“Yumi stop.” Aelita said grabbing her friend’s wrist. “It’s not worth it.”

“Calm down.” Nicole said. “We can get her back later.”

“You all better change or else you’ll catch a cold.” Jeremie said. Yumi walked back by herself while Aelita and Nicole watched from a distance.

“Aren’t you going with her?” Ulrich asked.

“She needs space. She looses her temper a lot and normally all she needs is some time by herself.” Nicole said. The boys walked back to their rooms. Nicole and Aelita where headed to theirs when they saw Yumi walking toward them.

“Are you Ok?” Aelita asked, but Yumi walked past them without saying anything.

“Yumi?” Nicole called after her. “Come on Aelita, she’ll be back.”

“I hope so.” Aelita said as they walked back to their room.

The next day, Yumi was still missing. Aelita tried to call her cell, but there was no answer. Nicole and Aelita decided to head down to breakfast and try Yumi’s cell later. They met us with the three boys after they got their breakfast.

“Hey!” Odd called. Aelita and Nicole walked over at sat across from the three boys. “Where’s Yumi?”

“We don’t know.” Aelita said. “She left last night after changing.”

“Where do you think she went?” Ulrich asked.

“Dunno, maybe into town.” Nicole said.

“I don’t think she’s allowed to go into town.” Jeremie said. “Not without permission, I don’t think.”

“That won’t stop her. She breaks rules all the time.” Aelita said.

“Why? She could get expelled.” Odd said.

“We really don’t know why she breaks rules all the time.” Nicole said. “My cousin the devil thinks we were expelled from our old school, but that’s nothing but a rumor.”

“Shouldn’t we look for her? I mean if she’s been gone all night, what if something bad happened?” Ulrich asked. “She is a street fighter, what if she got into a fight?”

“No, we made her promise not to get into street fights. She never goes back on her word.” Aelita said. “She hasn’t fought in a while, she it would be stupid of her to try anyway.”

“Why do you all have a bad rep? I mean, Sissi thought you all were expelled, what’s going on?” Odd asked.

“Ha, I guess people are just all around afraid of us. Sissi might have connections with a few of the girls in our old school who hated us. Yumi used to be all by herself at one point and everyone was afraid of her even the teachers. We started hanging out with her because we where the only ones not afraid of her.” Nicole said.

“Why weren’t you? I mean I’d be afraid if even the teachers where.” Jeremie said.

“She looked lonely.” Aelita said. “We all started hanging out, Nicole and I never used to dress or act like this, but we like ourselves now. People on our old school used to call us the Hex Girls.”

“That was the funniest part! We were together ALL the time. They even started calling Yumi ‘Thorne’.” Nicole said.

“Who are the Hex Girls?” Jeremie asked.

“Jeremie, don’t tell me you never watched Scooby-Doo when you where little.” Odd said. “The Hex Girls are that gothic vampire/witch like chick band.”

“Oh.” Jeremie said. Ulrich stood up.

“Where are you going?” Aelita asked.

“I think we should try to look for Yumi, she might have gotten into trouble.” Ulrich said.

“OK.” Nicole said standing as well. “Me and Aelita will help you. Yumi’s a sister to us, we’re not about to have her get expelled.”

“OK, I’ll look in the park.” Ulrich said.

“Me and Aelita will look around the dorms.” Nicole said.

“Me and Jeremie will check everywhere else!” Odd said then looked at everyone’s trays. “But of course, we can’t let good food go to waste.”

“Change of plans, Me and Aelita will look around the dorms and the school buildings.” Nicole said as Ulrich walked out of the mess hall and toward the park. He walked around being unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Yumi had been walking around the park, and had fell asleep on one of the benches. Now she was sitting on the rail of the fence dividing the campus and the town.

“YUMI!” She heard someone called her name as she turned to the brown haired boy. “Yumi, I was looking everywhere for you!”

“Well, you found me.” Yumi said jumping off the fence back onto Kadic grass and started walking away.

“HEY! Where are you going?” Ulrich asked. Yumi stopped and turned to him.

“Look, I know when I’m not wanted. I heard what you said last night, if you and your friends want to hate me and my sisters, I don’t care.” Yumi said with coldness in her voice.

“I never said I hated you.” Ulrich said.

“But you where thinking it.” Yumi said. “You and Jeremie, I don’t think you two would have come within a hundred yards of us if it weren’t for your friend Odd.”

“Look, I don’t hate you.” Ulrich said. “It’s a jungle here at Kadic, everyone stays with their group of friends. Odd was new here, I guess that’s why he was nice to you and your friends.”

“Sisters.” Yumi corrected. “All three of us are sisters, maybe not by blood, but we love each other like sisters do.”

“You all are really close.” Ulrich said. “I’ve realized that from the moment you all got here. We’re all paling around, not really friends but we know each other and are getting to be good friends. The real question is why you ran off.”

“I ran off because I was angry at Sissi.” Yumi said, but it seemed like there was more to that.

“That’s not it. Your sisters are worried about you, I know they wouldn’t be this worried unless there was something really wrong.” Ulrich said.

“I’ll only talk if you’ll listen.” Yumi said turning to face him. For some reason Ulrich nodded and yes.

“Come on, there’s a bench in the center of the park that no one visits.” Ulrich said without knowing that he offered it. Yumi nodded as Ulrich led the way. As he sat down on the bench, Yumi sat next to him.

“What do you want to hear?” Yumi asked.

“First off what your feeling right now.” Ulrich said.

“What are you? A therapist?” Yumi asked.

“No, I just want to know what’s going on in your head.” Ulrich said. “How do you feel now, no lies.”

“Lonely.” Yumi said. Ulrich looked over at her. “Like an outcast.”

“Why? You have Nicole and Aelita.” Ulrich said.

“You don’t get it.” Yumi said.

“I know you have Aelita and Nicole and a family that must love you.” Ulrich said not knowing he said the wrong thing. Yumi pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face. Ulrich looked as confused as ever.

“Your wrong.” Yumi muffled sounding as if she was crying. “I don’t have a family.”

“What do you mean?” Ulrich asked.

“My family is gone, they all where killed in a fire when I was little.” Yumi said. Ulrich looked at her, now knowing why she was crying. “I was the only one who survived, people called me a witch because they thought it was the only reason why I lived. They thought I knew black magic and started the fire to kill my family, even though is wasn’t my fault. I was just the only one to blame.”

“I’m sorry.” Ulrich said rubbing her back. “I guess I understand why you became a street fighter, everyone putting you down and you wanted to prove yourself.”

“Yeah. I thought it would work, but I was wrong. My last fight was with a real champ. He was, believe it or not, the only one who didn’t look at me like a was a witch.” Yumi said.

“Who was he?” Ulrich asked.

“He’s name was Benizakura, he was a lot nicer they you would think.” Yumi said.

“I never went back to fighting like that, instead of sneaking out every night to fight like I used to, I would try pass my classes.” Yumi said. “But that didn’t mean my humiliation ended. A few days after I gave up fighting I met Aelita and Nicole and we’ve been like sisters ever since.”

“You try to solve your problems through fighting.” Ulrich said. “Jeremie said I have a habit of doing that.”

“Not like I had I’m sure.” Yumi said but was shocked when Ulrich answered.

“It wasn’t that different. I picked fights all the time because my father never excepted me.” Ulrich said. “Until I met Jeremie and Odd, I was Kadic’s number one fighter. I still sometimes fight to solve my problems.”

“Tell you what, if you help me break this habit, I’ll help you.” Yumi said.

“Deal.”