Code Lyoko: The New Girl (BK 1)

Chapter 27

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After the return to the past was commenced, Odd joined Saphire for dinner in the cafeteria. Returning to the room where she was nearly choked to death by Jim wasn't exactly high on her list, but she couldn't ignore the grumbling in her stomach any longer. Still a little sore from her brawl with the students but thankfully, showing no obvious signs of it on her face and body, Saphire quietly obliged when Odd insisted on walking with her — giving her no chance to escape to the library. Though she had wanted to check on its state and make sure all the books and chairs and tables had been returned to their original spot, Saphire knew she'd get her chance the next day.

Saphire tried not to eat like a completely uncivilized creature, but she hadn't realized just how starved she was until she was sat with a tray full of steaming hot food in front of her. Odd kept giving her weird glances while she ate but she could tell it had nothing to do with the way she was shoveling food into her mouth as if it might disappear into thin air in seconds if she didn't get to it first. After the third weird look, Saphire stopped eating and raised her eyebrows at him.

She was aware she had goop rolling down her chin and her cheeks were packed with food, but he made no joke about it. He had been oddly quiet since they met up, which was an unlikely character trait Saphire hadn't realized Odd could possess.

"Sorry, I just...keep thinking about what went down during the X.A.N.A. attack and everything you did." He answered.

Aelita and Ulrich sat close by and stopped eating when Odd spoke up.

"What'd she do?" Ulrich asked, looking between Saphire and Odd.

"She took down five people all on her own!" Odd gushed, a large grin taking over his face.

Saphire looked down at her tray. "It was nothing."

"It was so not nothing! She didn't even let me help her at all."

"Yeah, she was pretty amazing at stopping the mini-hurricane that rolled up in the science room. What was it you called it again?" Ulrich looked towards her.

"A gale," Saphire replied.

At least now she had an idea of how to stop one from wreaking havoc on Lyoko; too bad she couldn't contact anyone back home to warn them. But they'd figure it out. Lyoko had far better resources and tools; she wasn't positive but Saphire assured herself all was fine back there.

"How did you know what to do?" Ulrich asked, slapping Odd's hand away when he reached for his plate while Ulrich's attention was away.

"It was Mathias' idea."

"You were the one who was brave enough to even get in the room though. I don't know if I could have taken that risk." Ulrich shook his head. "I was only brave to go in after seeing you. But wow, when you went flying, that was such a close call!"

The rest of the table sported inquisitive looks.

"It's a long story." Ulrich offered as explanation.

Saphire let her mind wander while Ulrich began an in-depth retelling of the X.A.N.A. attack. Saphire let him tell it in the exaggerated format he had chosen; she didn't care much for the details. Her mind was focused on the book she had been reading before Theo snuck up on her. It had been an image book — yearbook, she had to remind herself.

You must speak as the Humans do. She chided herself. Or else you will never learn to be one of them.

She had gone through almost all of the yearbooks for the 2000s. The one she had been studying before the X.A.N.A. attack was for the year 1995. While going through the list of students and coming up empty on anything useful, Saphire had taken a moment to go through the teachers at the time. They were all collected under a section titled Kadic Staff. Instead of being ordered alphabetically as the students had been, staff were ordered by a particular hierarchy.