Chapter 1

A good friend is a connection to life, a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. - Lois Wyse

Ulrich was not in a good mood. In fact, he was pissed, although he was doing a damn good job of hiding it. His friends were already used to him being grumpy, more so lately, so they didn't see much of a difference.

It had been about a month since Yumi told him that she just wanted to be friends, and today, he accidentally stumbled across her diary which had fallen out of her back pack and onto his bed. Odd wasn't around and the book had opened on its own. He just read what was in front of him.

After the first page, he wished he hadn't, but he was stubborn so he continued reading.

The two pages covered in full detail what Yumi liked about William, and not only that, but once they got him back from X.A.N.A and everything became relatively normal again, she was going to ask him out if he didn't ask her.

Over and over, sentence after sentence, she wrote something she liked about him and then tried to reassure herself that he liked her too. He couldn't take it anymore. Without closing the book, he lifted it and tossed it on Odd's bed for him to find when he came back with Kiwi from their walk. Not wanting to be there when that happened, he headed out for a walk of his own.

Odd had realized when he found the diary it was probably not a good idea to mention it to Ulrich, so he instead handed it off to Aelita who promised to give it back the very next day.

Even if he had only been looking at it for a few minutes, Ulrich found that he had almost memorized Yumi's words writing everything down William had that he did not. The words were replaying themselves over and over in his head as of now, which is why he didn't realize he was spacing out until he was sprawled on the ground.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" A girl exclaimed with worry. He propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look at her.

He'd never seen her before, that was for sure.

"Sorry sorry sorry!" She apologized again, shoving all the materials into her brown messanger bag on the ground. Ulrich chuckled a bit as he got up, finding that he couldn't help but think of her as adorable. She had chocolate brown hair (a bit lighter then his own) and messy side bangs that covered her forehead with the back tied in a high bun and honey colored eyes. She wore a long, low v-neck beige cardigan buttoned to just above her belly button over a white tank top. Peaking out from under it was a red and black plaid pleated skirt and the rest of her legs were covered by black tights. To finish the look, she wore old beat up black converse on her feet.

"It's alright? Need a hand?" When the girl looked up at him, her face was tinted pink yet again and she mutely nodded while stretching out her hand. He grabbed it and pulled her up, finding her a lot lighter then she looked. Somehow, she seemed scrawnier then Odd.

"I'm Ulrich." He told her as he let go of her hand. She clasped her hands behind her back and smiled up at him.

"My name's Aubrey. I'm sorry for bumping into you."

"Whoa, no need to apologize so much." He smirked. She bit her lip nervously.

"Right, sorry."

He raised an amused eyebrow at her as she mentally slapped herself over and over again.

"I just did it again! I'm sorry!"

He couldn't help but laugh at this, completely forgetting about his previous sulking. A few moment later, Aubrey began laughing too.

"This is ridiculous huh? Sor- you know what? Never mind."

Once they finished laughing together, he grinned lightly. At this point, the hallway was mostly abandoned by the students who were in class. "So, what class were you heading to?"

She snapped her fingers. "Right, class!" Then, from the pocket of her bag, she pulled out a folded piece of paper. Her eyes scrunched together as she looked it over.

"Let's see, today's tuesday so. . ."

Ulrich chuckled again. "It's Wednesday actually."

"Ehhhh?" She looked up at him with big confused eyes, and again he found himself thinking oh how cute she was. (He couldn't help it! She looked so tiny and innocent.) It was easy for him to fight the blush on his face as he had so much practice doing it.

"Why don't you just give it to me and I'll take a look for you."

"R-right. Good plan." She smiled sheepishly while handing him the paper.

He was surprised to find that not only were they in the same grade, but they also had almost all their classes together with the exception that she took art while he was forced into wood shop, another class that he completely sucked at.

"Oh, you're in my class, so just follow me." He finally answered while handing her the paper back. She smiled slightly with another blush on her face.

"Thanks."

'Adorable.'

Once they got to the class room, Ulrich signaled for her to stay outside while he informed the teacher of the reason they were late. Needless to say, he was not happy but when the teacher saw Aubrey waiting outside, he smiled at her in an 'I'm trying to be nice so you had damn remember what this looks like, because it won't happen again' way and motioned her in. She obliged.

"Class, I'd like to welcome the new transfer student from America. This is Aubrey Johnson."

He looked to her signaling she should introduce herself to the class, so she smiled lightly and blushed from the attention she was getting.

"U-umm, hello? I'm Aubrey, but I guess you already knew that since the teacher just told you. . . I'm sorry if my french comes off bad, I just recently learned it, please treat me well!"

Some of the classmates, (Including the girls) found themselves blushing. The girl had a baby face and a fair complexion, screaming that she could be everyones little sister despite the fact they were all in the same grade.

"Since you already seem to know Ulrich, why don't you take the seat next to him?"

Ulrich was sitting int he back of the room, meaning the seat she was supposed to sit in was placed between him and the window in a corner.

"O-oh! I don't really-"

"Now Miss Johnson, please. I do still have a class to teach." She blushed, something she did a lot and rushed over to the seat pointed out for her. Ulrich waved a quick greeting to her before trying to pay attention to the class. Emphasis on trying. Aubrey sighed, she'd already learned this back in America. Sure she got a C+ on the unit and probably should listen, but whatever. Second times the charm right?

Out of the corner of her eye, she studied the people around her. In front of her was a pink haired girl wearing an overall dress. In the seat in front of Ulrich was a boy who seemed kind of nerdy, clad in a blue sweater and khaki's and next to Ulrich was a boy with blond, gravity defying hair dressed in purple. Were all the people in france this different? Then again, she didn't really have room to complain.

A small paper landed on her desk. Cautiously, she opened it.

The people sitting around us are my friends. In front of you is Aelita, next to her his Jeremy and next to me is Odd." -Ulrich

Aubrey smiled at the note and cautiously took out a pencil to write a note back.

Everyone here is so different from my classmates in America! -Aubrey

He hadn't been expecting her to write back, but found a warm feeling in his chest when she did. It only took a moments hesitation before writing back.

Is that good different or bad different? -Ulrich

The note was slipped casually onto her desk. Aubrey giggled slightly to herself at the fact she was able to pass notes behind the teachers back. She felt like a rebel or something!

Good different! You wouldn't believe how crazy Americans are XD -Aubrey

They continued to pass notes, feeling like third graders while doing so, but also having fun. Aubrey told Ulrich a bit about what American kids were like and he agreed that the ones at her old school were way overdramatic, and in turn, he told her about his friends. Time flew and before they knew it, class was over.

Aubrey slung her bag over her shoulder and pulled out the schedule again. Next she had science. Where was science again? She had come to the school late last night so she didn't have the time to look around.

"Hey Ulrich?" She looked at him with her big doe eyes open in a pleading look.

"Yeah?"

"Wheres the science classroom?"

"Why don't I just show." He chuckled. She nodded with a heated face and followed him out of the room to the science lab. A bad feeling bubbled in the pit of her stomach. If she was bad at math, then she was absolutely terrible at science.

Maybe with Ulrich though, it wouldn't be that bad.

Odd wasn't stupid. He knew Ulrich had been a lot grumpier these days and he knew why too. When he found Yumi's diary conveniently on his bed, he decided to take a quick peak. The page Ulrich had been looking at was folded in a bit from where he carelessly and angrily chucked it on the bed, so Odd knew that was the page to look at. Sympathy washed over him in strong waves after reading what Ulrich read, and he knew that his friend had every right to be mad. Hopefully, he would take it easy letting all that anger out.

So when he saw that Ulrich was actually smiling and laughing with the new girl Aubrey, he knew that she was unspokenly his. Odd had been with plenty of the girls here at Kadic and usually did make a move on the new ones, but he decided that he could not flirt with the new girl just this once. He might have been raising his hopes too high, but it seemed like with Aubrey, Ulrich forgot all about his recent rejection. It was like none of it had ever happened. If she made him happy, then Odd could leave Aubrey alone.

Shame though, she was a cute one after all. Of course they could still be friends.

Quiet laughter filled the cafeteria, and not from the students but the two teens who'd just walked in. Ulrich was laughing at something Aubrey had said while she giggled along with him. Aelita sat down and grinned.

"So, who do you think the new girl is? Ulrich seems to have taken a liking to her."

"Who?" Yumi sat down with her three friends already there. Odd stopped inhaling his food for a second to look at her with a smirk.

"The new girl Aubrey. Take a look for yourself."

That's what Yumi did. She turned to see Ulrich and Aubrey in the lunch line together. Ulrich nudged her causing whatever food she'd put on the edge of her tray spill over and onto the counter. In retaliation to this, she picked up the spoiled food and chucked it at him. It was aimed perfectly rebounding off his cheek bone and to the floor. Aubrey then looked away from him and tried her best not to laugh, but was still snickering to herself.

A small wave of jealousy washed over Yumi but she quickly shook it off and smiled. This is what she wanted, right? Even if she wasn't totally over him, she wanted Ulrich to be happy.

One night after a mission on Lyoko, she decided that she needed to clear up how she felt about William and Ulrich. She knew that she liked both of them and William was being possessed by X.A.N.A, so Ulrich was the more obvious choice. Somehow though, the thought of losing William just hurt more. Ulrich was always going to be there for her and she was grateful for that. It took her a while to figure out that she was more in friend love with him then love love.

What she meant by friend love was that he was her best friend and she found herself wanting to spend more time with him. She was always excited to hear from him or practice combat skills, but it wasn't in a romantic way at all. Just a friend way. Friend love.

William was different. He made her heart beat a bit faster when they were alone together and something about him gave her a sense of security. Yumi loved how he looked at her like she was the only girl in the world and couldn't wait for the day he would do it again, the day he was free.

The jealousy she felt towards Aubrey then was not romantic, it was that she wasn't laughing with Ulrich and Aubrey was. He had been acting different around her a lot more lately and she couldn't understand why. Maybe he was bitter about being told she just wanted to be friends?

"Do you guys mind if Aubrey sits with us?" Ulrich asked. Said girl immediately jumped into defense mode.

"No! Don't worry about it, it's fine, really! I wouldn't want to impose. I can just sit over there, see? Nobody at that table. I'll just be going there now, bye!"

Odd laughed as he grabbed her arm and plopped her down in the chair between him and Ulrich. Yumi had wordlessly grabbed another chair for herself to put at the end of the table. She wasn't bothered at all and was totally fine with Aubrey sitting with them. In fact, Yumi was interested to know more about her.

"Not so fast! It's fine that you sit with us. I for one want you too."

Aelita raised a hand "I second the motion."

Yumi smiled. "And I third it."

"You know my vote." Ulrich shrugged taking a next to her. Aubrey could tell by the way Odd and Ulrich glanced at her a few times and sat on the edge of their seats that they would nab her should she try to escape.

"A-alright then. Thank you for the hospitality." She smiled warmly at them with a blush causing them all to smile.

"So Aubrey, how did you meet Ulrich?"

She gulped. Her hand twitched up to scratch the back of her head. "It's kind of embarrassing actually. I was running around trying to find my class and I bumped into him, knocking him to the ground. . . After that he helped me up and he offered to take me to the classroom since I didn't know where it was. Of course I was going to head to my tuesday first period class-" She rambled.

"Even though you had circled Wednesday with a red pen so you would remember it was Wednesday-" Ulrich added.

Aubrey's face flushed. "Pft! W-what's your point?"

The group laughed. It seemed like the Lyoko warriors had all taken an instant liking to Aubrey. There was just something about her that made you want to be around her.

"Oh, nothing. No point, just stating the facts." Ulrich mocked with a smirk. Aubrey glared back at him and when they made eye contact, a look of determination crossed both their faces. They didn't look away.

Aelita, Yumi and Jeremy watched awkwardly as the two stared at each other.

"Umm, what are you doing?" Odd asked. Aubrey raised a hand to quiet him.

"Shh. Staring contest."

"Why are you having a staring contest?" Jeremy questioned as he sat down too. Ulrich snapped at him and pointed.

"Shh, beating Aubrey in a staring contest."

"No you aren't!"

"Yes I am."

Both were squinting their eyes which had filled with tears, resisting the urge to blink.

Finally, Aubrey blinked.

"Ha!"

"Darn it!" The girl sighed in defeat, turning back to her food and taking a bite of it. Ulrich was grinning in victory.

"Don't get so cocky." Aubrey mumbled. "That only tied the score."

Aelita raised an eyebrow. "Tied the score."

"3 to 3." Ulrich answered while taking a bite of his croissant. Odd was staring at it longingly but Ulrich was making it clear that it was his.

Seeing they needed further explanation, Aubrey explained it. "Class is boring, so we needed something to do. After ten games of tic tac toe, four rounds of the dot game and six thumb wars, we decided on staring contests."

Jeremy scoffed. "You wouldn't be so bored if you paid attention."

Dead serious faces, Ulrich and Aubrey answered at the same time "Yes we would."

Everyone blinked, slightly creeped out by how in sync they were. Seriously though, did they practice in class or something?

Just then, a beeping noise could be heard from Jeremy's computer. The group exchanged glances except a little brown haired american who continued to munch on her food with happiness.

"X.A.N.A attack." Jeremy mouthed. The others nodded, getting up to leave.

"Sorry Aubrey, we have to go. See you later though yeah?" Yumi asked. The rest of the teens had already rushed out of the room.

Aubrey felt abandoned and hurt, but shrugged it off with a smile. "Yeah, of course! Bye Yumi!"

"Bye." The japanese girl waved, rushing after her friends. Aubrey sighed, and dumped the rest of her lunch in the garbage, no longer feeling hungry.