Hi guys, Noble Scotsman here with a new story from Code Lyoko. Although I know that there is a new season coming out soon, I don't see any reason why that should stop authors like me from writing fanfiction, so, without further ado, please enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

The autumn leaves shone in the sunlight as they danced in the wind, reflecting Aelita's mood as she watched them, giddy with the thought of the summer's end. It had been a long summer without the boys, and September was finally here. Yumi and she had so many great experiences during the summer, but it never felt complete somehow. There was always this empty space she felt without the others.

"I guess this is how it'll be after we graduate, huh…" she murmured to herself in a moment of sadness among her excitement.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Aelita?" Yumi said, turning from her pacing to look at her. Despite her claims otherwise, Aelita knew that she had missed the guys too…Or one in particular, rather.

"I was just wondering when Ulrich would get here," Aelita said casually, watching with satisfaction as a slight flush came into Yumi's face at the mention of his name.

"What do you mean?" Yumi challenged, crossing her arms.

"Come on Yumi, you know you missed him, didn't you?" Aelita smirked.

Yumi's blush became even more defined. "I-I don't know about that I just thought-" The rest of her sentence was cut off by a light touch on her shoulder and a soft whisper in her ear, making her jump.

"Hey."

"Ulrich!" Aelita exclaimed, waving to him from her perch on the wall. "You're the first one back; how was your summer?"

"It was ok; I guess…My parents hired my math tutor again, trying to get me prepared for this semester of Geometry I think…" Ulrich shrugged, casually throwing an arm around Yumi's shoulders and turning to her, much to the delight of Aelita. "So how was your summer?" he asked casually.

"I-It was ok…I had a lot of fun with Aelita…" Yumi faltered, looking into his forest-green eyes. "I'm glad you're back though."

"Well good," Ulrich smirked, shouldering his bag and walking over to give Aelita a high-five, making Yumi shiver as his touch slid away, not from cold but from the lack of contact between them. "So," he said to Aelita, "You made sure to not hassle Yumi too much, right?"

She smirked. "Thrice a day."

"So the only social time between you girls was when you brushed your teeth together then?" Ulrich laughed.

Aelita rolled her eyes. "You know, dentists say to brush your teeth twice a day…"

"These teeth don't stay white all on their own, you know," a voice said from behind Aelita. She swiveled around to see a blonde boy wearing purple and black clothes leaning against the wall next to her. "What do you think, Princess?"

"Odd!" Aelita gasped, hugging him. "Welcome back!"

Odd jumped up on the wall next to her, still with one arm around her. "Glad to see you've missed me," he said, giving her a dazzling white smile.

Yumi smirked at the sight of Aelita's blush, but was distracted by the sight of a slight, weedy friend of hers making his way through the gate towards them. "Jeremy's here!"

"Hey, Einstein," Odd called, waving with his arm that wasn't around Aelita.

Jeremy raised his eyebrow at the sight of them and pushed up his glasses, jumping immediately into a speech he had been preparing on the way over. "Hello, Odd. Say, guys, I've been thinking…" he was cut off mid-sentence by a sudden noise as Odd's stomach growled, making everyone else laugh.

"We'll have to continue this conversation later…" Ulrich laughed, patting Jeremy on the shoulder as he passed.

Jeremy stood still for a moment, shocked by his friends' lack of interest in his new theory. He looked down and sighed though, a smile on his face as he looked after them. "They haven't changed a bit, have they?" he said to himself with satisfaction, jogging to keep up with the pace Odd set in his quest for food. "Hey guys, wait for me!"

"Ahhh…It's great to be back, right good buddy?" Ulrich sighed, dropping his bag next to his bunk and leaning out the door to ask Jeremy if he needed help, hearing a faint 'no thanks,' he turned back to Odd. "Ready for dinner? Honestly, it's really like us to come back during a mealtime…Delaying the inevitable return for some consolatory food, Odd?"

"Ah, ya…Right," Odd said, distracted by a package he had found under his pillow. He was sure he hadn't left anything like this behind when they left…But it didn't have any writing whatsoever on it. "Hey, Ulrich, is this yours?" he said, turning to his friend with a puzzled look on his face.

"What's that you've got there?" Ulrich grinned from his slumped position on his bunk. "A package? I've never seen it before; I came in with you, remember?"

"Oh, right…" Odd said vaguely.

Ulrich sighed and sprang up, and with a laugh grabbed the ruff of Odd's collar and putting the struggling cat-like boy in a headlock, barely giving him enough time to stash his mysterious package under his pillow again. "Don't make Rosa's food get cold, Odd! Besides, Jeremy and the girls are waiting for us."

Odd grinned from his position underneath Ulrich's elbow. "Oh yes, Yumi's been waiting all summer for you, Ulrich, let's not make her wait any longer, hm?"

Ulrich looked away, quiet, and Odd took this chance to duck out of his grasp and make a dash for the stairs. "First come first serve!" he hollered with joy as he flew down the stairs, a startled Ulrich not far behind.

"Hey! No fair!" Ulrich laughed as he struggled to match Odd's furious pace, the airflow ruffling his hair, the sun dancing his favorite patterns on the stairwell, reminding him of how much he loved Kadic. "It's great to be back!" he hollered, hearing the shouts of assent from those students above and below him, echoing his excitement for the semester. No matter what year you were, what experiences you had, Kadic was a school you never forgot, and never failed to return to.

"Hmm…mm-mm…" Odd munched, his eyes half-closed with the pleasure of eating, much to the amusement of those around him. Rosa had gone the extra measure for her favorite student and recipient of meals, making Odd's favorite spaghetti and meatballs, and even promising him the remainder of the pot after everyone else had left. Ever since Odd had joined her cooking class last year and become her prized student, her whole mentality towards his appetite had changed, and she even called upon him to help man the kitchen when she was feeling overwhelmed.

"How's it goin', Odd?" she called to him now, one eyebrow raised, ladle resting on her shoulder.

Odd immediately stood up, spaghetti sauce around his mouth, holding a spoon in his hand. "Ma'am, I salute you and all makers of this wonderful meal!" he called, gesturing with his spoon dramatically before sitting back down to work.

"That's ma boy!" Rosa called back, satisfied before taking back up her weapon and entering the maelstrom of the kitchen. The mood at Odd's table was now more amused than ever, and Ulrich was in hysterics at his performance. After the laughter had died down a little, the group began to talk, sharing stories of their summer. Ulrich had gone back to Germany to see his family; Odd had been to California to see his parents and their work in Hollywood; and Jeremy had been to lectures at Oxford on the topic of 'cellular degeneration resignation signatures transcribed onto a digital 3-dimensional plane' and the 'process of re-animation in a transcendental avatarial form', in which, he shared, Franz Hopper was a world-renowned expert on the subject, his notes providing helpful information to other renowned scientists.

Still bewildered with the enormity of the information Jeremy took in over his summer, as well as the strangeness of his personal life, Yumi and Aelita told of their summer together, and how Yumi's parents had surprised them by taking them to Paris for a week, where Aelita had learned to draw from kindly street artists while Yumi had bought new clothes.

"So, there you were, first of all Yumi, wearing beautiful silks and satins, while Aelita was in jeans, a short jacket and covered in chalk dust?" Ulrich laughed, turning to Yumi, his forest green eyes making her heart beat unnaturally fast for some reason. "Is this true? How could you do that to poor little Aelita over here?"

Yumi looked away, blushing. "Sorry…"

"Hey," Ulrich said, putting an arm around her and pulling her closer, forcing her to look into his eyes. "I was kidding."

"Besides," Odd said, throwing Aelita a mischievous glance accompanied by a smirk, "Aelita looks beautiful in anything, or am I the only one who noticed?"

Aelita blushed, and broke eye contact, her heart fluttering madly.

"I-I noticed too!" Jeremy claimed, clearly upset about Odd's compliment, but more so by Aelita's reaction. He didn't understand what had come over Aelita, what had made him lose her adoring gaze, her gentle smile now given more to Odd than him. He shook his head to clear his thoughts; it was only the first day, and he didn't want to start anything between Odd and himself, Odd was too good a friend to lose trust from.

A moment of silence endured, each member absorbed into their own thoughts, before Ulrich shifted his weight, sending Yumi's heart pounded wildly, terrified at the thought that he might leave her. Instead he pulled out his phone, checking the time. Glancing over his shoulder at the gloom of night which had unexpectedly crept up on them, he turned to Yumi, saying something which sent her calming heart back into mad palpitations. "It's about time I usually walk you home, isn't it?"

Ulrich helped Yumi to her feet, earning him a muffled 'thank you,' to which he replied with a quiet chuckle. At this, the others got up, chairs scraping against the hard wood of the floor.

"Good-night guys, see you tomorrow," Ulrich said, keeping ahold of Yumi's hand and heading off towards the gate, there would be no curfew tonight since classes had not started yet. Aelita and Odd exchanged grins as the couple walked off.

"You know…" Odd commented, sticking his hands in his pockets like Ulrich, "We're just friends."

Aelita and Jeremy bust into a new wave of laughter, trying unsuccessfully to stifle their humor. They walked towards the dorms together, a heated discussion brewing between the three about Ulrich and Yumi, and although Jeremy was not one to gossip, he found this conversation relatively easy to join, and he was glad that Aelita and Odd welcomed him into their joke with such open arms. Bidding Aelita and Odd goodnight at the stairs, he disappeared from their sight through the doors, grinning back at them.

"See you guys tomorrow."

"Can't wait, Einstein."

"Good-night, Jeremy."

With Jeremy gone, Odd had no other reason to stay with Aelita, and he turned reluctantly away, sending a last-minute grin back her way, teeth flashing white in the moonlight.

"I'll see you tomorrow; sleep well, Princess," he said, turning away.

Feeling very alone in the moonlight, Aelita slowly made her way up to her room, feeling a strange sensation in her chest at the thought of seeing Odd tomorrow. Pushing the feeling aside, she was overcome by sleep, and drifted off to the world of illusion.

"Good-night, Odd…" she whispered into the dark, hugging Mister Puck tightly.

A floor below, Odd was opening his mysterious package. It was a small canvas sketch mounted on a wooden frame. The picture was simple, but beautiful, of a rose head, shaded darkly amongst the white, but beautiful all the same. In the bottom corner, in flowing script, were the words 'pour vous,' or 'for you,' in French, and Odd smiled a small smile to himself, putting the picture atop the desk. It was a beautiful drawing, but who had it been from, he wondered.

'Aelita…' all his thoughts, his hopes screamed.

"No! She's with Jeremy…" Odd muttered angrily to himself, shaking his head with confusion. Shrugging off his curiosity, he slipped into bed. Glancing back at the picture one last time before his eyes closed, a final question forming in his mind, more important to him than why it had been given, or even who it was.

"What does this mean for me?" he wondered aloud, troubled at the thought of being forced to reject a girl's love confession. He just wasn't good with it, that's why he had gone out with so many girls, he couldn't stand to see them cry, but Aelita might cry too if he went out with someone else…Or would she?

Troubled, Odd slipped into a restless sleep, disturbed by the questions he couldn't answer.

I hope you enjoyed it, I know it was fun writing it.

I'm not going to promise a new chapter every day, like I tried to do for my other story, Code Lyoko: High School Battles, but I will try to upload a new chapter once a week. I'm also attempting to make every chapter over 2'000 words, so you readers actually have something to read!

Also, I am going to add an original character into this lineup at some point, so please leave a comment to give me your ideas. Must be a girl, comment has to include Lyoko power, detail is helpful (eye color, hair color/style, height, complexion, ect) I will post a new chapter here with the fan favorites to let you vote on who should become the new OC, and winner will help me fit them into chapters until I have their correct mindset via PM (accounts are free). I know I used to have quite a large following here, but let's see who remained. Any suggestions are welcome, but I'll only wait a month (December 1) before I design my own OC.

Chapter 2 will be out soon!