Odd and Mel were waiting around a corner for Odd's dog, Kiwi, to wake up Coach Jim so he could catch Jeremy spray painting the school wall and earn himself a detention for the whole vacation. Ulrich was helping him out, but he planned on hiding before Jim caught him as well.
The reason they were doing this was so Jeremy could keep an eye on things in Lyoko over the holidays and make sure Xana didn't get up to no good again.
Kiwi's little yips were heard as he ran down the hallway past where the two best friends were hiding with Coach Jim chasing after him.
"Yeah, way to go, Kiwi." Odd whispered out as he and Mel shared a high five.
"Now we wait?" Mel said.
"Now we wait." Odd repeated.
****
Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and Mel were waiting outside the Principal's office for Jeremy to come out.
The door opened and Principal Delmas gave the bespectacled boy one last scolding before leaving him be.
"What did he say?"
"Well? Tell us."
"How'd it go?"
"So?"
Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and Mel all asked at once.
"He gave me detention for the whole week of vacation." Jeremy replied, pretending to be dissappointed.
It wasn't until they were all out of the office area that they let the act drop.
"Cool. He really let you have it." Odd said.
"As punishments go, you're a champion." Ulrich complimented.
"Couldn't have done better ourlseves." Mel said and Yumi nodded in agreement.
"Anyway, Xana won't get any vacation this time." Jeremy said.
****
It was after school and the group was walking through the school grounds.
"You get to go and see your parents at the other end of the planet. Yumi's off on a vacation in the mountains, and what do I get? A whole week of math tutoring." Ulrich complained.
"If they think they can make a good student out of you in one week, well, I say good luck to them." Odd said. "It sounds like mission impossible, if you ask me."
"That reminds me, do you have any fun plans for the week of vacation, Mel?" Yumi asked curiously.
"I'll be stuck here studying." Mel said with a sigh.
"I thought your grades were decent?" Odd asked curiously.
"They are, but my Dad's going on vacation with his girlfriend and I don't want be thirdwheeling or anything so he's letting me stay here on the condition that I study." Mel said.
"Yeah, I guess it would be pretty awkward if you did go with them." Ulrich said and Mel nodded with a slight shudder at the thought.
Ulrich knew that wasn't the full truth, but let it be none the less. Mel and her stepmother-to-be had a very rough relationship and he was well aware of that as Mel had told him all about it a few months back.
The woman would act all sweet and innocent when her father was around, but the moment he left she would turn cold towards her. She wasn't abusive at all, thankfully, but she often expressed her hatred for Mel during the rare few 'conversations' they had.
Mel never really knew why the woman hated her so much, but she figured it had a lot to do with her wanting her father to forget about anything to do with his past relationship with her mother, including the child he had with her.
She even subtly suggested to her father to put Mel up for adoption, but he declined the idea almost immediately which Mel was extremely thankful for.
She loved her father, as any child should, and she was more than willing to allow him to move on with another woman if it made him happy.
Just not the wench he was currently with.
"Are you sure you can managed on your own without us?" Yumi asked.
"No sweat. And if Xana decides to leave me alone, I'll be able to work on Aelita's materialisation." Jeremy replied.
"Oh, don't worry. He's not going to be alone."
They all turned to see Sissi Delmas standing before them.
"I'm staying at school too and I'll look after him. I'll be his guardian angel." Sissi said.
"Wow, Jeremy, are you lucky." Odd said, sarcasm lacing his tone.
"Alright, Young Man." Coach Jim said as he approached the group. "You think this wall's going to clean itself? Get to work, NOW!"
Sissi started laughing.
"Go on, go on, laugh while you still can, Young Lady." Jim said. "Your father told me to monitor your studying and that's what I intend to do."
Jim told Jeremy to get to work cleaning up the wall and the trio walked away.
"And don't know why, but all of the sudden my math tutoring doesn't seem all that bad." Ulrich said.
****
"Okay. That's enough of that for one day." Mel said with a sigh as she shut her math book.
She had been studying for about an hour or so now and was stuck on the current problem so she decided to take a break and see if it made more sense to her later.
Deciding a bit of fresh air could do her some good, she got up from her bed and put her shoes on. As she was stretching she heard what sounded like panicked voices and rushed footsteps in the hallway.
She opened the door to her room only to almost be bowled over by Coach Jim and Sissi as they ran past her, Jim grabbing her arm and dragging her with them as he yelled "Don't just stand there! Run!"
Mel was confused at first until she looked behind them to see a huge cloud of smoke chasing after them and picked up her pace.
The three of them ran around a corner and hid themselves there.
Sissi was shaking like a leaf and was absolutely terrified while Jim was keeping an eye out for the smoke.
Mel's phone beeped with a message and she checked it to see it was Jeremy telling her Xana had activated a tower and was on the move.
"You guys stay here. I'm going to go get help." She said before running off down the hallway, ignoring the calls from her gym teacher to come back.
****
Mel was coughing and wheezing as she ran through the smoke infested hallways until she suddenly ran into someone, sending them both falling to the ground.
"Mel?" Ulrich asked as he realised he'd bumped into his friend.
"Ulrich? Whag are you doing here?" Mel asked before coughing once more.
"No time to explain. Do you know where Sissi and Jim are?" Ulrich asked.
Mel nodded and the two quickly got up before heading back the way Mel had just come from.
Ulrich's phone soon started ringing and he picked it up as Jeremy's voice was heard on the other end.
"Ulrich, do you copy? How's it going?" Jeremy asked.
Ulrich coughed and wheezed a little and he glanced over in concern to see Mel was on her knees doing the same.
"I found Mel, but not Sissi or Jim." He replied. "I've been through most of the building."
"Ulrich, you and Mel need to get out of there. You can't stay in that smoke any longer it's too dangerous." Jeremy said. "And they may be outside already."
"I'll try one last room, then we'll go." Ulrich said.
He looked over at Mel to see her struggling to stand.
"Hang in there, Mel." He said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and helped her over to the last room he wanted to check.
"Jim! Jim! Sissi! Are you in there?" Ulrich called out as he tried the handle.
He heard a thud beside him and looked to see Mel was now laying on the floor struggling to breath.
"Mel!" He managed to wheeze out in concern as he knelt beside her.
"Ulrich, get out right now!" Jeremy said.
His voice continued to ring through the phone, but fell on deaf ears as Ulrich also collapsed.
Jim managed to drag the two into the room with them and the smoke soon started leaking into the room. There was already a lack of ventilation and the smoke was only making it harder to breath.
Mel was forcing herself to stay concious, but was finding it increasingly difficult to do so.
She could only hope Aelita would be able to deactivate the tower in time.
Soon enough, there was a bright flash of light that washed over them all and Mel smiled lightly to herself as she closed her eyes.
They did it.
****
Odd and Mel were waiting around a corner for Odd's dog, Kiwi, to wake up Coach Jim so he could catch Jeremy spray painting the school wall and earn himself a detention for the whole vacation. Ulrich was helping him out, but he planned on hiding before Jim caught him as well.
The reason they were doing this was so Jeremy could keep an eye on things in Lyoko over the holidays and make sure Xana didn't get up to no good again.
Kiwi's little yips were heard as he ran down the hallway past where the two best friends were hiding with Coach Jim chasing after him.
"De Ja Vu much?" Odd joked as he threw a glance back to Mel.
Mel laughed lightly at that as she nodded in agreement.
A/N: Another chapter for my lovely readers! I hope you all Enjoy!