Chapter Two: House of Newbies

Aelita's POV:

It had been a few weeks since we'd decided to shut down the supercomputer, and with that, we finally let Sissi into our group. William had also returned from being under XANA's control. Needless to say, Jeremie got rid of the clueless clone.

"Hey," Yumi greeted us as she sat down next to Ulrich. It was lunchtime on Saturday, meaning classes had ended. "Did you hear? There are nine foreign exchange students enrolling today. Apparently they're from England."

"Naturally, Yumi heard this from me," Sissi drawled, pointing to herself as she took a chair and joined us. "My father told me this morning."

"It must be great having a father that's the principal, huh?" Odd asked sarcastically. "You can hear all the latest gossip form a reliable source, then go around and spread your own version of the story!"

"It's called over-exaggeration," Ulrich muttered. "Anyway, why are we getting nine new kids from England? I mean, it's a new term, but still. Kind of… suspicious, don't you think?"

"Not really," I put in. "Maybe there's some deal set up with both schools. We're probably sending nine of our own students to go live in England while they send nine of theirs to come here."

"Oh, Aelita, you really need to stop looking at things logically!" Sissi exclaimed, sipping her hot chocolate. "Daddy said their caretaker at their boarding school sent them here to keep them safe or something. Whatever that means."

I noticed Jeremie take out his phone and open to a new text message. A few seconds later, my own mobile went off with a message alert, as did Ulrich's, Odd's, Yumi's and William's.

The message read:

XANA? -J

I simply shrugged, as did the others. Sissi was nonplussed.

"What are you creeps doing?" she demanded. "Are you talking about me behind your back?" Before I could do anything, she swiped my mobile out of my hand. "XANA? Who's XANA?"

Ulrich and Odd put their heads in their hands while Yumi and William stared at her, defiant. Jeremie was the first to speak after I took my phone back.

"Sissi… if you're going to be a part of our group, there's something you should know."

Eventually, we ended up at the factory.

"So you mean to tell me," Sissi started off, staring at the holographic sphere, "that you've been playing James Bond the entire time without anyone knowing?"

"Pretty much," Jeremie answered nonchalantly. "But even though it's all over, you have to promise to tell no one. Not a soul, got it?"

"Yeah, of course," she nodded.

"Come on guys, we'd better get back," Yumi interrupted. "Jim's going to be wondering where we went."

"And the foreign exchange students are going to be here soon," I pointed out, filing into the old freight elevator with everyone else. "I'm actually looking forward to meeting them. Maybe we'll find out about England's culture."

"One of them's from America," Sissi pointed out.

"All the more reason to get to know them," William commented. "Are they all girls, do you know? Or are there some guys, too?"

"Daddy said there are four guys and five girls."

"And did your father have any idea how much you'd be blabbing it to the entire student body?" Odd joked.

Fabian's POV:

We all piled into three taxis with our luggage. Nina, Amber and I were in one; Alfie, Jerome and Mara in the other. Patricia, Joy and Mick were in the third.

"I can't wait to see our new school!" Amber squealed. She'd been doing nothing but that throughout plane trip to Paris, through the airport, and now in the cab. Nina and I were starting to get headaches. "I heard we don't have to wear uniforms - isn't that amazing?"

"Yeah, but they have Saturday classes," Nina pointed out. Amber's smile faltered. She then added, "but it's only for half a day."

"Either way," I cut in, rubbing my temples. "I think it'll be a… good experience. At least we won't have to deal with Victor anymore."

"And the Cup's hidden, right Neens?" Amber asked.

"Mhm," Nina nodded. "Actually, it's hidden very well. They'll never be able to find it."

"Where is it?"

"With us. It's in my suitcase - well, the pieces of it are. I disassembled it before we left."

"You're brilliant!"

I just sat back and smiled to myself, listening to the girls go on and on about life at our new school. There was a lot of excitement to be felt in the air, and everything otherwise seemed to be going quite smoothly. Also, Joy hadn't tried to win me over. It took her some time, but she finally realized that I'm with Nina and am not romantically interested in her.

After another half hour of driving, we pulled up to a set of wrought iron gates that led to a big courtyard with students milling about, surrounded by buildings and fields. One of the sports fields had a game of English football in progress.

The taxi drivers stopped and let us out, each of them going round to the back to get our cases. We were then met by a chubby, nice-looking man in a tweed suit with glasses, greying hair, and a beard.

"Ah," he said, smiling kindly. "I'm Headmaster Jean-Pierre Delmas, and welcome to Kadic Academy." He extended his hand for us to individually shake. "And this," he continued, pointing to a taller, more gangly man with a sweatband and bandage on his cheek, "is Jim Morales. Jim is the caretaker and P.E. instructor here at this fine school. He will show you to your dormitories where you may unpack and get settled. If you have any questions, feel free to ask him, or seek myself. Good day."

After Mr. Delmas left, I felt everyone, including myself, staring up at Jim. He looked both confused and agitated, like he'd done this too many times before.

"Well, uh, follow me," he grumbled, turning on his heel and leading us into one of the older buildings, under which there were large arches.

As we were walked through the courtyard, wheeling our belongings into the dormitory, I could feel everyone staring at us. Students were whispering to one another, some of them throwing out wild theories as to why we were there.

"I guess they've heard of us," Patricia muttered, not sounding too happy.

"Relax, Trixie," Jerome reassured her. I noticed him grab Mara's hand in the process, leading Patricia to sigh impatiently as we followed Jim.

"Girls sleep upstairs; boys, downstairs," Jim explained.

"Just like at Anubis," Mick sighed.

"Breakfast is at seven A.M., and dinner's at seven P.M.," Jim continued, acting as if he hadn't heard the side comment. "You're not allowed to be in your room between eight A.M. And four-thirty P.M. If you have any questions about the rules, feel free to ask- Ah."

Just as he was finishing his speech, a group of seven kids were walking towards us. They were in deep conversation - that is, until they noticed Jim. They quieted and stopped in their tracks.

"Or, better yet, ask them." He gestured to the group. "They'll tell you about the rules, as well as how they break them on a daily basis."

We continued on our way to find our rooms. It ended up being the same roommate situation as at Anubis, only with Joy having a room to herself.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I, uh, have some business to attend to," Jim muttered. After handing us our keys and making sure we had everything, he walked away.

I turned to Mick, who was pulling a granola bar out of one of his bags. "Eating already?" I asked. "We've only just gotten here."

"We missed lunch!" he exclaimed. "It's one o' clock now. Dinner isn't for another six whole hours!"

I sighed and rolled my eyes as I began to unpack my things. After about twenty minutes or so, I heard a knock at the door.

"It's open!" I answered, raising my voice.

Two boys walked in. One of them had messy brown hair, while the other was blonde, his hair gelled to stick up at an odd angle, almost resembling a troll doll. There was a streak of purple in the middle.

"I'm Ulrich," the brunette introduced himself. "This is Odd, my roommate." He pointed to the boy with troll-like hair. "We live across the hall from you guys."

"I'm Fabian, and this is Mick," I introduced ourselves, gesturing to my best friend. "Aren't you two part of the group we saw earlier?"

"Sure are!" Odd exclaimed. "You're part of that foreign exchange group from England, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Mick chimed in. "It's real different here compared to back home."

"What made you guys want to start attending here anyways?" Odd prodded. "I mean, we heard you were at another boarding school back in England."

"We did," I answered swiftly. "Uh, it's a thing with our caretaker. He decided to send our House here as foreign students."

"House?" Ulrich questioned.

"We lived in boarding houses, not dormitories," Mick explained, now munching on a second granola bar.

"Do you ever stop eating?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Looks like we'll get along great!" Odd exclaimed. They high-fived.

Little did they all know that an adventure was unfurling right before their eyes.