The Mechanist

XANA's Kiss

A few days later, Sissi strolled outside and saw Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi. "Hey, guys. Have you seen Odd?"

"No, not today. He's been acting kinda weird lately," Jeremie said.

"Odd weird or normal weird?" Yumi asked.

"Normal weird," Jeremie said.

"Yeah," Sissi muttered. "I think I'm the reason for that. I told him I knew about Sam."

"Huh? That shouldn't bother him," Yumi said. Sissi shrugged, but some kind of feeling wouldn't let go of her. It wasn't XANA. It was something else. Then her stomach growled.

"Let's just go to breakfast and worry about him later," She sighed. Jeremie and Ulrich followed her while Yumi walked to class. As Jeremie, Ulrich, and Sissi walked to the hall, they saw a familiar dark-skinned girl with short black hair and a streak. "Hey, isn't that Sam?"

"Yeah, what is she doing with-" Before Jeremie could finish, Sam kissed a random boy near the cafeteria door. The boy sputtered and stammered as Sam ran away. Ulrich and Jeremie dropped their jaws. Their eyes couldn't be wider. Then a low growling grumbled beside them, and they looked. Her hand clutched her cane till it nearly bled red. Her teeth gritted together and her eyes narrowed to furious slits. Sissi stormed off, leaving Ulrich and Jeremie to catch up with her. "What's wrong?"

"That little... She's playing Odd. That darn," She muttered the word she was trying to say. "I'm finding Odd." She stormed off, leaving Ulrich and Jeremie behind.

Later on, Jeremie and Aelita came out from class when a blond girl came stomping toward them. She shouted, "You have some nerve, Jeremie, kissing me at the cafeteria in front of Odd!"

"What?! What are you talking about? I never kissed you," Jeremie exclaimed. The blond girl huffed away. Aelita started walking away from Jeremie. "Aelita, Aelita wait!" It was too late. The sobbing pink-haired girl ran off to the cafe. "What is going on around here?"

Things got worse as the day went on. William saw Yumi kissing another boy and told Ulrich; Sissi told Odd about Sam; and after William told Ulrich about Yumi at the cafeteria, Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich left Yumi, Jeremie, and Sissi standing right outside the mess hall, speechless.

"What the heck is happening?" Jeremie shouted as they walked down the outside hallway.

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about it," Sissi mumbled.

"You think it's XANA? But he didn't possess us," Yumi said.

"He might not need to," She replied. Silence blanketed them until Sissi chuckled a bit.

"What?"-"I just find it funny," Sissi said to Yumi, "that William and Ulrich dislike each other enough to fight over you but respect each other enough to tell the other when you kiss someone else." Sissi sniggered, "I don't know if that's chivalry or combined idiocy." Jeremie covered his laugh.

"I didn't kiss anyone!" Yumi shouted.

"Much to your dislike," Sissi grinned. The air rudely hissed between the silent beasts, lightly playing with their black hair. Glare met cheeky glint: the growling tiger mocked by the devilish dragon.

"Guys!" Jeremie exclaimed after the long silence. "Could we get back to the issue of being framed?"

"Yes, but by who?" Sissi murmured. Just then, they saw Ulrich walking towards them. "Huh, maybe he's here to apologize to you." The school stud walked past Yumi and strolled right to Sissi. Before anyone could think, Ulrich kissed Sissi. Things dropped. No one could figure out what was happening. Jeremie darted his eyes between a jaw-dropped Yumi and a wide-eyed Sissi.