Love me, will ya?

Sealing the gap

Aelita was sitting on her bed, looking at the ceiling and scratching Maya's ear, who was peacefully sleeping on her chest. She recalled the memory of the event earlier this day and thought what would happen if she stayed quiet, or didn't move. 

Would they...undress me? She thought when she recalled the feeling of the guy's hand almost grabbing her underwear down.

Surely they would. I can't protect myself. Aelita thought again and sighed. She looked at the alarm clock, displaying it was only 6 in the evening. The dinner is till 8.

She picked the cat up, woke her up, kissed her head, and placed her down on the bed. Standing up and stretching her arms, she grabbed her coat off the hanger and walked out of her room.

From the time she got back from the shopping, she had seen no one. She at least hoped that Odd would be out because she really wanted to hear at least one joke, but of course, she wanted to see Jeremie the most.

Walking out of the dorm building and looking up, there were gray clouds approaching the town, and it began to get colder. She buttoned up her coat right to her neck and resumed her walking.

"Miss Schaeffer!" She heard, stopping in her tracks. Turning around, she saw Jim walking towards her, but he wasn't angry.

"Yes, sir?" Aelita responded as he came close to her, stuffing her hands into her pockets.

"Be back till 9, because the snow could make it dangerous to walk," Jim said. "When I was your age I stayed out in a snowstorm."

"Snowstorm?" "I'd rather not talk about it," Jim said. "Okay, be safe."

Aelita nodded, surprised that the teacher didn't want a pass, and she continued going towards the forest, where she was headed.

Jim was always really strict with everyone, except her. She can't remember a time when he was angry with her like Aelita was the nicest person in the whole school. Yes, she was nice and had good marks in every subject, but she was far from being the nicest one to be treated specially than everyone else.

Soon enough, she came to her destination; the sewer entrance, which was beginning to overgrow with weeds. She kneeled down, and grabbed the handle on the cover, feeling the cold run into her fingers. She stepped into the hole, climbing down the ladder.

It was slightly warmer in the sewers than it was outside, which was surprising. Her shoes weren't the best for the sewers and the weather outside in general, because they were getting wet.

/-/-/-/

The doors opened, revealing the supercomputer on, doing some calculations. She walked closer to it, noticing the blankets hanging on the chair. 

Jeremie left them here? Why? Aelita thought, taking down her coat because it wasn't cold in the laboratory as it was outside. She hung the coat on the chair and sat down.

The calculations that the computer was making were for some kind of vehicle. One looked like a skateboard, but without the wheels, the other one was a motorcycle with just one wheel, and the last one was...she didn't know what was it.

Minimizing all of the windows, she opened another program called "Big Fat Cheese Head", which was really easily accessible from the desktop, and set the timer for 2 minutes. Pressing Enter, she immediately heard one of the scanners open a floor lower. 

She stood up, walked to the hatch, and opened it, revealing the ladder that the others used way too much. Climbing down, she mentally kept count of the seconds remaining. Once she was down, she walked right toward the opened scanner and stepped inside.