#code ss16

It started as a wisp of an idea, with Aelita saddened that Jeremy was locking himself in his rooms so much.

"He's always so busy," She had mentioned to Odd one day. "I'm worried he'll work himself too hard."

She seemed sad. Odd put a hand on her shoulder. "Ah, don't worry about it princess. He's working on your virus, ya know?" He said comfortingly. This was hardly a new worry, but it's one that she was expressing more and more recently. And Odd wanted to help, some way.

"I'm sure we could drag him out of his room somehow."

"But what?" She wondered, hand on her chin. Her experience with Earth wasn’t nearly as limited as it once was, but it still wasn’t the greatest. It had to be something fun. And it’d be really nice if it was everyone. The thought of time for everyone to just mess around and hang out? The thought was exciting.

They didn't discuss this incident for a while longer, but the seeds for what became something of a group tradition was planted.

The next time it came up, it was almost two weeks later. But the conversation hadn't started about Jeremy this time, rather, it was about probably the most Odd thing it could have been about.  

"You've never played a video game?"

Aelita didn't understand why her friend was surprised. She was a computer program who had, fittingly, spent a good deal of time in a computer. That was off. "No Odd, I never had the opportunity." It sounded intriguing, anyways.

Odd tutted and shook his head. "It's a tragedy. One that mustn't go uncorrected!"

His tone of voice made Aelita giggle.

“Well, maybe we could find some time to try them together then.” She said thoughtfully. It was another part of Earth culture to learn about. That was always a fun time. “And maybe… we could do it with everyone?” Her face lit up slightly as she thought about it. It really did solve quite a few problems.

Thankfully, Odd not only agreed, but seemed rather enthusiastic about the whole idea. “Princess, you’re a genius! There are a TON of games that would be great with a bunch of people!”

----

“This is a waste of time,”

Yet another week later, Odd, Aelita and Jeremy found themselves in Odd and Ulrich’s room with a small TV setup and a Nintendo Game cube connected. While Jeremy didn’t seem overly pleased to be there, he WAS there, and it wasn’t actually that hard to convince him. (Really, he had a hard time saying no to Aelita a lot of the time, especially when she was so insistent about it.) And the set up for it all was nice as well. Jeremy hadn’t been able to leave his laptop in his room, as unfortunately that was too dangerous, but it was over on the table where he couldn’t reach it. He would not be playing on it; not today.

“Oh come on Jeremy, it’ll be fun!” Aelita was far more excited for the whole event. It wasn’t anything spectacular, as she and Odd just made sure that it feel on a non school day and send someone (in this case, Ulrich and Yumi) for snacks because no good game session was complete without snacks! … Or so says Odd, but he also always wanted food.

Jeremy sighed. “Aelita, you know that finding the antivirus is important…”

“Einstein your brain is going to melt if you keep staring at that computer screen all the time. Live a little!” Odd exclaimed. Currently, the other blonde was digging in a draw, looking for a game. Triumphantly, he held up a case - Mario Kart: Double Dash, it read.

“For your information, I do have a life, Odd,” Jeremy shot back, but it just caused the other blonde to laugh.

“The world isn’t going to end because you took an afternoon off,” Aelita smiled sweetly, and that took the edge of his annoyance. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be looking for opportunities to get back at Odd but… that could wait for now. Besides, Odd was always poking fun at him.

“Besides, I bet we could beat Odd and then you could get him back,” Aelita hinted, poking Jeremy gently in the shoulder.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Aelita, he plays a lot of games, I’m sure that neither of us are going to magically good enough to beat him.”

Odd thrust a fist into the air. “That’s right! But, we’re just playing for fun. Even if I always win, as long as everyone enjoys themselves, then we’ve succeeded!” His triumphant speech only prompted a deadpan stare from Jeremy and a giggle from Aelita. “Besides, when Ulrich and Yumi get here, there’ll be too many people to all play at once, so then you’ll have a chance.” He popped the game into the system and scrambled onto the bed to sit next to his friends.

The game booted up with bright colors and cheery music.  “I thought we weren’t beginning until the rest of our friends were here.” Jeremy stated.

Odd shrugged. “Well, neither of you have much experience, so I thought you guys would get to practice until they got back with the snacks.And knowing those two, it could take a long time.”

“But the store isn’t that far from here,” Aelita responded, confused. Odd just grinned, and Jeremy dismissed it with a ‘It’s nothing, Odd’s just being dumb.’

Odd pulled up a basic 2 player game, since of course it’d be totally unfair for the master to play against the noobs right away. On the character select screen, Aelita naturally gravitated towards the princesses. Jeremy selected Toad and Toadette, because honestly, they looked decent enough.

Part way through the practice round, with Aelita in first place with Jeremy not far behind, Ulrich and Yumi finally returned.

Odd checked the clock. “Huh. Only half an hour? I expected that you’d have taken longer, good buddy.”

“Odd, what exactly are you saying,” Ulrich asked, looking distinctly unamused. Unfortunately, Odd looked very amused.

“That you’d have gotten distracted.”

Yumi looked over the group that had gathered into the small dorm. Odd and Ulrich had toned down their pointless arguing and had settled on either side of the group’s two resident geniuses, and was giving them tips. Yumi didn’t need the tips too much herself, having played this particular game with her little brother on more than a couple of occasions.