(Authors Note: Katie (a new character) calls Tovah the word "m*dget," which is a slur for people with dwarfism, which Tovah has. I cut the word off when she says it cause ew. But it moved the story along, so I added it. Anyway, I have dwarfism so I'm not using it as an average height person.)
-Yumi Ishiyama Kadic Academy Tenth grade student
"It's so hot," I lamented as I lay across Aelita and Tovah's bedroom floor, "has it ever gotten this hot at Kadic?" I fanned myself with a folded up piece of old homework. It had been ninety degrees that morning, and the temperature was increasing by the second. Aelita and T stood on Tovahs desk as they tried to slide the window open.
"It's not budging." Aelita said.
"In Bahir Dar, we would get Popsicles when it got really hot, I mean, we would also open the windows. Why don't these open? They used to open... Maybe we could get some Popsicles from the cafeteria, short-term solution. Also, it's really not that hot. Hot is like...one hundred and ten." Tovah shrugged.
I sat up, and I got up to my knees. The sweat was beading on my skin; it was getting hotter and hotter.
"I've never experienced this kind of heat before." Aelita said, "I think I prefer the cold over the heat."
"I'm more used to the heat than the cold." Tovah said, reaching for the doorknob, pulling the door open. Us three started down the hall, we had been hanging out that morning when it had started getting hot. We hadn't heard from Odd or Ulrich, but we knew that Jeremy was in the computer lab working on some new program. He had been short with us. He had been insisting that he was too busy with programming to hang out with us.
Tovahs phone began to buzz and inscentantly text after text, and she looked down.
"mhm," she nodded. "Okay," she shoved her phone in her back pocket. "Well, you guys will need to get those Popsicles without me. See you later." She said, walking away without saying another word. She sure could leave without telling us where she was going.
"Who do you think texted?" I asked.
"Odd," Aelita answered.
"It's funny they think we don't know." I replied.
"We all know."
"I think they don't want Jeremy to know." Aelita replied.
"Probably, or they just like the secrecy of it all." I shrugged.
Tovah Pressman Kadic Academy Tenth-grade student
Odd had called me, and I was a bit mad at him. He had already started talking to another girl, which I knew was just in Odd fashion, I knew I shouldn't take it personally, but really... I wanted him to fawn over me, to write me love letters, well not really, but to think about me at least. Instead, he was flirting with a girl named Katie Kramer. She was fine, besides not being Odd's type, not that I know or care whatsoever about his type. She was tall with blonde hair and brown eyes. She really loved cats, the animal, not the musical, and she was incredibly shy.
I was walking to his room where he asked to meet me, I knocked on the door and was surprised to see Ulrich open the door.
"Did you text me from Odd's phone?"
"No? Why?"
"Odd told me to meet him here."
"Odd just left."
"Are you okay?" I asked. "You seem," I gestured to him. "I guess just you."
"It's just hot." He replied.
"Maybe take the hoodie off?" I questioned. "Probably not helping you cool off." I laughed.
"I turned our room AC up." He paused, looking at the unit. "It hasn't gone down a degree."
"So you put a hoodie on?"
"I like to be comfortable, okay? Why did you need to see Odd?"
"I don't know, he texted me." I defended. "He's probably seeing Katie or whatever her name is."
"It's Katie, you know that. What, are you? Are you jealous?" He smirked.
"Of her?" I scoffed. "As if, moving on, do you know what he wanted?" I asked.
"Something about the upcoming beach trip?"
"Hm, well, I guess I'll go find him." I turned to grab the doorknob, but Ulrich stopped me.
"Do you want to sit on the bus together?"
"Sure, is everything okay?" I asked once again.
"Yeah, yeah, go find Odd."
I walked down the path leading through the campus to see Katie in the middle of the path, as if she were waiting for me.
"Tovah," she said, hands going to rest on her hips.
"Katie, see, I know your name, too." I laughed. "What's up?"
"Don't act cute." She snuffed.
"I'm not," I replied. "Have you seen Odd? He texted me."
"No, I texted you from his phone."
"Does he know you did that?"
"No, he never needs to know either."
"Okay, what is this creepy vibe about?"
"Stay away from Odd,"
"He's my friend, why should I? I don't have to do anything you say. It's not my fault you're insecure." I chuckled.
"Well, I didn't want to have to do this,"
"Do what?" I asked.
"Show Odd this." She held out my journal, great another person who had stolen my journal! I reached forward to snatch it out of her hand.
"How did you even get that?" I asked.
"Why would I reveal my sources?"
"So you either broke into my room or stole it out of my bag, great. What's your grand plan?" I questioned sarcastically.
"I wouldn't joke. You really show your true colors in here. Problems with your father, the way he used to hit you, how you feel like his alcohol problems are your fault, how you think you could like boys and girls, and how you think Sissi is really pretty... or how you still like Ulrich and Odd. Lots of ammunition in here." She read off my trauma like it was the class roll.
"You're a special type of poison flower." I bit the inside of my cheek.
"Sure, but I'm one who knows what I want, and that's Odd." I felt sweat on my face bead, not just from the heat, from my nerves.
I don't know why, Jeremy knew the stuff about my dad. It's not like I'm ashamed of anything in there, but they were my secrets, the things that I kept to myself.
"How can you prove that's even my journal? What if you wrote it, pretending to be me." I retaliated.
"Who's going to believe I made all this up?" She asked. I thought about all the secrets in there that I kept close, not letting anyone in.
"I like the part about your dead mom. It kind of made me laugh." She flipped through the pages before putting it back in her bag. "See you at the beach." She winked.
I had to talk to someone about all of this.
The next day.
"And today, I will be teaching you the graceful techniques that go into perfect diving. That reminds me of this time in Argentina -" he cut himself off. Odd raised his hand.
"What happened in Argentina?" He asked.
"I'd rather not talk about it." He shook his head.
"Dang, I thought that would work." Odd said.
"Why? Don't wanna get wet?" Aelita asked with a soft laugh.
"I got my hair to look perfect this morning. If I knew we had swimming today, I wouldn't have bothered."
"We always have swimming in gym class on Wednesdays," I said, rolling my eyes. I had been ignoring Odd all morning.
"Yeah, but it always feels like a shock."
"Hey T, are you okay?" Jeremy asked. "You've been kind of snippy today."
"I'm fine." I crossed my arms, just stressed. "I'll tell you what happened later." I looked over at Katie, sitting a few seats away.
"Katie and Tovah." Jim said suddenly. "You're first on the list today, time to dive."
I got up, walking past everyone else, I felt as though they knew what I was thinking.
"Alright girls, up you go." I climbed up behind Katie, thinking how much I wanted to drown her.
"Hello, Katie." I said as we stood at the top of the high dive.
"Tovah, I see you're looking as ugly as ever." I turned to her, brows arched.
"Are you always this mean?" I asked.
"I don't know, are you always a dumb midg-" I saw red, she could threaten me, but to call me that was over the line.
"Fuck you." I said turning away from her.
"Girls, are you gonna dive or just have a dialogue?"
I turned, diving into the water, gracefully I might add.
As soon as I was above water, I got out of the pool, taking the towel that Ulrich was offering me.
"Thanks," I was still visibly angry.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Tovah," he grabbed my arm, stopping me.
"Stop, I'm fine." I sat down, waiting for class to end.
-Yumi Ishiyama Kadic Academy Tenth-grade student-
I was walking to the cafeteria, happy as could be that at that time the next day I would be living it up on the beach.
Tovah breezed past me without saying hello, stopping to chat like she usually did.
"Hey!" I walked after her. "You okay?"
"No, but it's fine. What's up?"
"What's up is that you look upset, wanna talk about it?" She grabbed my arm, pulling me under the covering in front of Mrs. Meyers French class.
"What?" I asked. "You're acting weird. What's going on? Did XANA get a hold of you or something?" I questioned, trying to make a joke.
"No, nothing like that." She assured me.
"Then what?"
"It's that girl Katie, she um...she's blackmailing me." She looked behind her shoulder as if checking for someone.
"How?"
"She stole my diary,"
"Someone did that again?"
"Yeah, the irony, I know." She shrugged.
"Does it say stuff about Lyoko?"
"No, nothing like that, I'm not that dumb."
"So what has got you so freaked?"
"It has some other secrets in it. Also..." she paused. "She called me something when we were on the high dive. It just really made me... I guess mad."
"What?"
"She called me the bad word for a little person."
"She what?!?" I questioned angrily.
"Yeah,"
"Did you tell Jim?"
"Then what, I get branded a tattle tail because I got my feelings hurt?"
"That's ableism. She can't get away with that." I turned looking at the cafeteria. "What if I said something to her?"
"I don't want to make this all worse." Tovah said, "let me just deal with it."
"Okay, but that's not cool of her."
I began to wonder what else the journal said, what other secrets she had.
The next day
Aelita Stones Kadic Academy Tenth-grade student
It was time for the beach trip, a true break from it all! I climbed on the bus, finding a seat, pulling my bag in my lap. Odd came and sat next to me. Strange, I thought he would be sitting with Katie.
"Why isn't T talking to me?" He asked.
"Why don't you ask her?" I questioned.
"Because she won't talk to me."
"Well, go sit with her and ask."
"What if I just sit there and she tells me to go away?"
"Just go over there." I sighed.
Odd Della Robbia Kadic Academy Tenth grade student
"Hey, can I sit here?" I asked, holding my bag on my shoulder.
"I don't know, will your girlfriend let you?" She asked, not looking up from her book.
"She doesn't tell me what to do."
"Yeah, sure." She rolled her eyes.
"What is up with you?" I asked, sitting down.
"Seriously?" She questioned.
"You've been ignoring me all week. Are you jealous that I have a girlfriend now?"
"Are you serious?" She asked.
"Yeah, ever since I got a girlfriend, you haven't talked to me."
"Yeah cause -" my girlfriend walked up to us.
"I thought you were gonna come sit with me." I noticed that she was glaring at T.
"Yeah, I'm coming. See you around, T." I said, getting up and walking with Katie.
-Ulrich Stern kadic Academy Tenth-grade student
"Hey." I said as I settled into my seat next T. "What're you listening to?"
"Here." She handed me a headphone, I popped it into my ear.
"Nice." I smiled, "the shins." I nodded along to the song.
The bus drive dragged along, eight hours ahead of us.
"So," I looked over at Tov, but then the bus halted to a stop.
"What's happening?" She asked, standing up out of her seat.
"Sit down." Jim roared.
-To be continued-