code: earth

 “Exactly. Sick wheelchair tricks are nothing compared to never sporting again,” he agreed with a nod. “What? Aelita, have you really ever been a bother, like, ever? That’s not a thing that you do.” His face scrunched slightly even thinking about it. “I mean, unless you count telling me to do my homework. But that’s not bad, I need that.” When she mentioned being unable to get Jeremie out of his room, Ulrich rolled his eyes. Jer was seriously a lame nerd who couldn’t take clues, which was annoying at times. Like now, when he wanted Aelita to branch out a bit. If Jeremie could just be a tiny bit more agreeable and less lame… “I’m not busy. Most of my time is procrastination, really. And sports, but that’s only for a few hours. But Odd isn’t a bad idea. Sick moves for a burrito.”

“Out of everyone in our group, I’ve always been the most reliant. You have to at least admit that...” Especially in the beginning, she relied on her friends so much. She felt like she was always asking silly questions and tagging along all their adventures, just so she knew what the real world was like. One of the many downsides of growing up so isolated was not knowing much outside what you were taught. However, she was proud to be able to carry her own weight in the group now, even if it was just helping everyone with homework. “Someone needs to remind you,” she chuckled. “Ulrich, you get enough exercise with the athletic fun you have. Odd probably needs the ‘exercise’ more than you do anyways. Specially if I’m bribing him with food to do so.”

“I don’t hate it, it just gets annoying after a while.”

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"We have it for a reason, even if it’s a bit pesky at times. It’s just all a part of how our education works so well.”

“When you say fun stuff, I feel like you don’t really mean fun.”

“Partially sarcasm. Partially honesty. I actually enjoy schoolwork to an extent, but I know most people don’t.”

 “Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been my neck and it wasn’t, so no big deal, really,” Ulrich chuckled. “Oh, of course. All the time, and mostly wins. Popped some sick wheelies too…” Ulrich trailed off for a moment, grinning fondly at the memory. He really hadn’t minded, and probably wouldn’t mind any other injuries all that badly, unless he got paralyzed or something. “I get a bunch of things out of breaking my bones. Everyone does everything for you, and there’s ice cream! But ambidextrous is so still cool. I can catch stuff and like…Oh, I can do that thing from the Princess Bride where neither of them are left-handed really!” Was that a victory? He’d take it as one. “Ah, you could probably get Jer to. And if he refuses, I will just cause I probably need to learn how.”

“That is very true... That would’ve stopped you from sports forever.” She chuckled as he seemed to reminisce. “As fun as being the center of attention is, I’d still hate to be a bother to everyone,” she shrugged. She even felt guilty keeping her father away from his work when she was little, despite how much she relied on him. Aelita just nodded at his reference. She vaguely remembered the sword fight scene. She watched the movie a couple of times, but she still didn’t usually catch the references her friends made. “As if I’d be able to drag Jeremie out of his room, for a dance class of all things. I could barely talk him into coming to my first DJing gig,” she reminded him. “You’re far too busy. Worse come to worst, I could probably convince Odd to do hip hop or something. I’m sure if I bribe him with food, he’ll do it for sure.”

 “I doubt it’s gonna happen. Worst that it’s ever been was…Well, once I broke both my legs and had to use a wheelchair, but other than that? Perfectly manageable. I can even write with both hands now thanks to bone breaking.” Hopefully she found his positive outlook on all his injuries as funny as he did. “Yeah, see? Physics! You’ll never know till you try.” Even if she didn’t, it wasn’t any loss for him. He just thought it would be cool for Aelita to have something else physical besides running. She’d probably never be on his or Yumi’s level of liking it, but it would still be nice to see her trying new things.

“Two broken legs? That’s still really bad. I mean, no soccer or anything.” Being pushed in a wheelchair did not sound all that manageable, especially by oneself. “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if you just challenged everyone to races wheelchair,” Aelita chuckled at the thought for a moment. She also wouldn’t be surprised if he won every time. It was at least one way to stay entertained. “I’m happy you got something out of breaking your bones. What a shame we’ve moved onto typing and being ambidextrous is no longer as cool,” she teased. Surely, there was some bonus to it in terms of sports, not that she would know.  “Maybe I’ll try it. Only if someone tries it with me though.”

“It totally is!” She handed the girl a solo cup. “Now drink up!”

Aelita only took the cup to set it down moments later. “Oh, no no. I’m good. I don’t drink at these things usually.”

“Ok, I know, but it still piles up.”

“Hm? Usually that prevents such a thing from happening. I don’t think they even started to give us the fun stuff yet.”

 “You would. But it’s good you like it, ‘cause somebody has to,” he chuckled. “And I don’t usually almost kill myself doing either of those. Only once in a while.” When she explained that it was gazelle he was thinking of, he nodded, trying to make sure he could remember that. “Then it’s gazelle. And spinning isn’t hard. It’s just a bit of..” The young man spun in the middle of his sentence. “That. There’s probably math behind it that would interest you.”

“But the one time you do actually kill yourself is the only time that really matters. You can’t make that mistake more than once.” She wasn’t actually scared of dying or hurting herself. It was more of an excuse than any real concern at this point. “There is a lot of physics involved...” Aelita thought for a moment. She could probably easy figure out the momentum needed for turns and the force needed to do more of the complicated turns. “There’s a difference between knowing what needs to be done in theory and actually having the ability to do it in reality,” she said as she broke out of her thought.

 “It is not. Exciting is mountain biking or managing to pull off a decent trick after almost spraining your everything,” replied Ulrich, thinking of how he had done the latter just yesterday. “Science isn’t too bad until like…biology. Chemistry and physics have too much math for me. To each their own, though, I guess. And yeah. I know you’re a good runner but like…I’ve seen you jump stuff, you’re like a graceful..thing. Gazelle? Gazebo? One of those, you know which one I mean.”

“Well, I find biology and physics quite exciting so... The math just adds to the nerdy fun.I’d much rather be launching projectiles and solving for the trajectory than mountain biking and almost killing myself,” she chuckled. Near death experiences weren’t exactly her cup of tea. Math never physically hurt anyone. “Gazebo?” she chucked. “Gazelle is the animal, just so you know. I’m graceful because I can jump over things? Dancing isn’t just jumping, I’m afraid. Lots of turns mixed in there, too.”

 “Yeah! I’ll probably end up asking you, you’re sort of better at explaining and not getting too excited about math.” Really, Ulrich knew that he probably wouldn’t get much lasting help. He just…wasn’t all that smart. Stuff didn’t always stick. His own fault, really, but he couldn’t help it. “Well, if you ever want to, you’d be good at something active. Like…dancing. I bet you’d be good at that.”

“What? Math is exciting! Can you blame him? Though I will admit science is way better...” She didn’t get too excited about school, but she definitely loved it. She possibility felt the same about school as Ulrich did with sports. Aelita just always loved learning, and, in a way, it reminded her of her father. “Dancing? I don’t think so. Running, maybe. Dancing, I’m not so sure.”

 “Boo, I need it now,” the boy half-pouted. “Yeah, he would. He’s already so into that kind of thing, it wouldn’t surprise me if he figured out how to get me into a different world somehow. And I guess I’ll just ask him for help instead of trying to steal his brain.” At the maybe, he chuckled. “Lots of practice! I only get up so fast ‘cause I’m not scared of jumping for it.”

“Asking for help also works extremely. Much less expensive, too. And there’s always me, if you’re willing to settle.” She was aware she did almost as well, if not as well, as Jeremie in their classes, but she still claimed to be the lesser of the two. “You’ve been an athlete your entire life. Meanwhile, I never left the house until 4 years ago. There is no way I could make up all that practice you’ve had, or even come close for that matter.”

 “No, just…Being Jer is not up my alley. Cause if it was his brain I’d…Man, I don’t even know. He’s a good guy, but I just. I like my brain. I just need a smart pill or something,” replied Ulrich with a shrug, mildly confused by them both. “Brains are so weird…I just want to skip to the future where I can plug myself into a computer and download math skills. Like Matrix. And you would not only get three feet! I bet you could get five at least.”

“Well, all those are in the far, far future. But if anyone was going to create the Matrix, it would be Jeremie.” Although she couldn’t quite remember the plot of The Matrix, she vaguely remembered some virtual world. “So maybe that crazy smart brain will help you in math someday,” she chuckled. “Maybe I can make it to 5 feet, but no more. That wall just gets harder as you get up... I still don’t get how people scale that wall so fast.”

 “Nah, Jer’s wouldn’t be any good, then I’d be too nerdy and lose all my muscle. Though it would get Sissi to not…” He made a face and shook his head. “No. Not worth it. And you don’t have to get on the wall if you don’t want to. Though it would be fun to see.” Ulrich didn’t really care that Aelita wasn’t super sporty, he just wanted someone to talk to.

“You make it sound like being nerdy is horrible. Careful who you’re talking to,” she teased. "I would’ve thought you’d do anything to get Sissi off your back. And it’s a brain transplant. You’d still have your body. Than again, if your consciousness stayed in tact, you’d be in Jeremie’s body, and he’d be in yours and....” Aelita stopped herself. She didn’t need to monologue about science, especially since Ulrich was avoiding school work. “It’d only be fun to see cause I’d only get 3 feet off the ground.”

 “Ah…uh…Yeah, probably gonna go to the rock wall.” Ulrich had started to argue with his friend, but he knew what part of him was stronger, and knew she did too. “Unless you can transfer your smart over for a bit for me to use? Because then I won’t mind being a decent student for once.” As he spoke, Ulrich was absently flipping through the book in front of him. “But we haven’t gotten there yet, so d’you wanna walk with me to where the not-work is?”

Knew it she thought, chuckling a bit on the outside. “Sadly, brain transplants are not yet possible... And if they were, you’d probably want Jeremie’s over mine,” she joked. “I’d be more than happy to walk with you, but no promises on getting me on the wall.” As much as her friends loved sports, Aelita was never athletic. The only person she could beat in any sort of athletic activity was Jeremie, and that didn’t say much.

“I can anssswer all of that with one word: MAGIC.” She chuckled.

“Magic, really? Getting drunk seems like a responsible use for such a thing...”

“Is anyone else’s homework still piling up?”

“There’s a wonderful called doing your homework when you get it.”

“Homework…Rock wall…Homework…Rock waaaalllll….” The young man made a face. He knew what he had to do, which was reading, but he could do that later when he wasn’t so inclined to climb something and get some energy out. It was an every day struggle for him, and honestly, he didn’t care that there were people who were probably thinking he was crazy for arguing with himself a bit. Though the one person just straight-up looking at him was a bit unnerving. “Uh…yo?”

Aelita spotted her dear friend and decided to see what he was up to. As she neared, she could hear him talking to himself. She was more or less used to her friend’s habits, yet she still found Ulrich arguing with himself entertaining. It was partially funny just because she already had a feeling about which side of him was going to win. She watched him for a moment until he finally noticed her presence. “Hey. Having this debate again, huh?” she laughed. “Because you should definitely do homework, if you ask me. However... You’re going to go to the rock wall, right?”