A Whateley Academy story

A Brief Personal History of my Summer Mutation

by

Nagrij

 

Part 4

 

Someone was messing with my feet. Gentle, kneading pressure. It felt rather wonderful, and I wanted to just stay put and enjoy it. It was not meant to be, however. Jeeves broke the pleasant spell.

“Please wake mistress Min. You are late for your school preparations.”

I glanced up; my alarm clock read 7:08. The alarm had been shut off.

“Oh, crap. Oh crap! Is the bathroom open?”

“It is. I have convinced Ian to wait for you and resume his own preparations after your shower.”

I looked down. There were visible smudges of oil and dirt on my arms and legs. I was also in a nightgown. Had I managed to change clothes last night? I couldn't remember. Last I could remember I had been stacking the android 'muscle' bundles in preparation for installing them to the frames. So the dirt was actually residue from the printing process. A step outside my door revealed a rather disgruntled looking Ian waiting, arms crossed and foot tapping as he leaned up against the wall.

He did a complete 180 as soon as he saw me though. I was determined to strike first though.

“Good morning, and I'm sorry. Thank you for waiting!”

And I was in the bathroom and had the door safely slammed. I only wobbled a little; I was getting good at moving while my balance was shot. I managed to look at the mirror, even as the room started to slowly spin. There was printer crap in my hair; and not just a little. It was streaked through the entire length. No wonder Ian had been struck speechless, I looked stupid. How had that even happened?

I managed to start the shower, but couldn't stand up in it.

Something was seriously wrong here; perhaps a bath was in order instead. I did the best I could and did manage to get clean, but a fog had descended rapidly over my thoughts. I wanted to give up and call Jeeves, but mom was adamant about him being in the bathroom with me before. I shook my head to clear it and crawled out. Drying off and putting my clothes on seemed to take forever, then I realized that somehow my clothes had made it into the bathroom. I did not remember grabbing them. The door was unlocked.

I had to use the walls, but the minute I got upright and opened the door, Jeeves was there. He helped me downstairs, where something smelled absolutely delicious. I tried to help, but by the bottom of the stairs he was all but dragging me. He put me down just before we were due to enter the dining room however, and let me walk on my own from there with just a little support. The clock in the living room read 7:37.

Ian still noticed. Gone completely was the anger or (whatever it was) of the morning.

“You alright sis?”

I waved off the concern.

“I'm fine, just a little tired. Sorry about this morning. You've still got time for a quick shower if you hurry.”

He didn't really. I had taken way too much time cleaning up. Everyone else had already eaten, bacon and eggs from the looks of things. And now they were staring at me; I don't think I was fooling any of them. Mom especially, which was awkward.

Jeeves helped me sit down.

“So what's for breakfast? It smells great.”

In fact, it didn't smell like bacon and eggs, it smelled more like chocolate. Jeeves put my coffee carefully in front of me.

“A skillet double chocolate chip cookie.”

“What? But cookie aren't for breakfast.”

Mom was strangely silent, but watching the byplay between us carefully. Dad appeared to be reading a file of some kind, but he hadn't turned a page since I sat down. Ian looked like he wanted a bite. Jeeves plopped a large slice of what had to be an absolutely huge cookie in front of me.

“We must defy convention today mistress Min; you require the nutrients. Please, do not hesitate.”

Finally mom spoke.

“What do you mean, Jeeves?”

I picked up a fork; there was no way I'd treat this is as finger food; the chocolate was liquid in the middle. I might even need a napkin or a bib in my current state.

“Mistress Min requires large amounts of sugar, fats, starches, and proteins today. Currently, Fats and sugars are paramount. If she does not receive this fuel she will fall into a coma, potentially for days. At the very least until she receives it. I would prefer she imbibe the things she needs before she slips into said coma, as opposed to feeding the nutrients to her intravenously afterward.”

Well, that certainly sounded ominous. I wasn't sure I believed Jeeves though. It felt like a standard sort of attack of mine since my mutation, just worse. I was already three bites in; despite not being breakfast food, the cookie was delicious, and quite obviously made from scratch, chocolate and all. I wonder where Jeeves got the recipe for the chocolate? Dad got involved just as mom predictably started getting worked up.

“How do you know this Jeeves?”

“I monitor mistress Min's health. It is, in point of fact, half my reason for existing; to monitor her health and take care of her, as well as serve her.”

Ugh. I hated when people talked about me while I was present as if I wasn't there.

“I'm right here you know.”

Mom shot me an apologetic look but pressed on.

“And what is the other half of your reason for existing?”

Jeeves didn't miss a beat, placing another large cookie piece on my somehow suddenly empty plate. Had I really eaten all that? I was still hungry. Ravenous in fact.

“To protect mistress Min from all threats, of course. You know this already. I was designed and constructed to be the quintessential house servant; obedient trustworthy and loyal.”

“To Minerva.”

Jeeves nodded.

“Yes of course. To mistress Min.”

Mom nodded, accepting that and leaning back. That made me a little nervous, but the cookie was too good to ignore. Maybe I could distract them both.

“Jeeves, give Ian a piece of this.”

It didn't work.

“So in your opinion, should Min go to school today?”

Jeeves handed Ian a small plate with a very small piece of cookie; barely enough to qualify as normal cookie size.

“In my opinion, no. While the condition is not life threatening, she is too ill to travel to school today, much less sit through the classes. If she goes, it is entirely likely that I will have to carry her here by lunch.”

He was underestimating me.

“Then why are you helping her get ready for school?”

He looked at me, and shoveled another cookie slice on my plate. This one wasn't large. I really wanted to turn it down, but I still had room for it, or at the very least, eyes for it.

“Because she wishes to go.”

Oh crap. With that the hard eyes of both parents rested on me once again, dad dropping his pretense.

“Is what Jeeves says true Min?”

“Yes.”

Mom got up to get some more coffee... and do that forehead feeling thing that moms all over are famous for. She locked eyes with me and I didn't dare move away.

“Why?”

It sounded so stupid when I acknowledged it.

“Because I didn't want you to think I was staying home because of the garage coming today. I didn't want you to think I was faking it or anything.”

And I also didn't want this stupid body of mine to dictate terms of when I could do things or when I couldn't to me. But I didn't admit that, no matter how loudly I thought it.

Mom slapped me gently on the forehead. She was satisfied I was telling the truth.

“You're staying home today. I'll call the school.”

I nodded gratefully. Ian looked like he'd eaten a lemon again, but I couldn't ask him what his problem was with our parents hovering. Dad checked his watch.

“Well time for me to go. Have a good day everyone, and feel better Min.”

We all chorused our farewells to him as he grabbed his briefcase and left. Ian and I should be following him out the door, technically. We only had about 15 minutes to get to school, but he ran back upstairs. For my part, the chair was comfortable and the room was spinning slowly, even though I was more awake than I had been. I was in no hurry anymore.

Ian came down in a blur mere moments later, almost slamming into mom as she sat down to her next cup of coffee. As soon as the door slammed mom looked at me. I think it was a stern look, but I was too busy holding on to the edge of the table to notice much.

“You, upstairs.”

I had to ask.

“Do I really look that bad?”

Jeeves picked me up, ignoring my protest again as Mom answered.

“I knew as soon as I saw you, so yes. But even if we had all been blind, Ian noticed something was wrong earlier. Your dad and I were in fact discussing whether you would try to conceal it from us to go to school, or if you were actually faking.”

“I wouldn't fake anything like this... because if I did, you would make me go to school when you felt I wasn't sick enough.”

She had done that once, it had led to me puking on a teacher in middle school.

“I stand by that decision. Your temperature was barely 99 degrees when you went to school. The real illness hit you later.”

Jeeves was carrying me out of sight with a grin draping his face, so I would have the last word!

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

There, mission accomplished. Jeeves gently placed me back in my bed and covered me up. Which was a good thing, since I was cold for some reason. It couldn't have been colder than sixty degrees out. The sheets and pillowcases were fresh; where Jeeves had found the time to change them, I couldn't figure out.

“Please lay there quietly a moment mistress Min, I will return with refreshments and entertainment.”

Well the refreshments should be coffee and probably something sugary. But entertainment? I was under the impression he wouldn't want me thinking too much today, since that was part of the problem apparently. So what sort of amusement could I expect that required little to no thought?

And how lame was my power, anyway? I lose my physical skills and size, and gain the ability to make things... but if I think about stuff too hard it lays me on my butt? Being a mutant just absolutely sucks. But there are no quitters in the Campbell clan; there had to be something I could do. Just not today.

Jeeves returned with the expected coffee, some assortments of teas, and a portable hot plate with the remains of the cookie he'd made on it. He also had my laptop. He set it up on a tray in front of me, and waited.

Oh right, it needed me to look at it in order to open, since it was shut down. Whoops.

Once I was done looking stupid, he quickly opened the browser and went to the streaming site I had checked out when learning to play that strategy game, and settled on a stream of professional players, playing it in a tournament. Well, it was better than television sit coms I guess. It was interesting watching all the different strategies and tactics in play. It was so interesting in fact, that I feel asleep as some point after the first game. Somehow the music of the intermission ads lulled me to sleep.

I woke up to find the finals of the tournament going on. My coffee had been replaced by hot tea of some kind, and the cookie was still warm, which meant the plate was still on. I didn't see Jeeves; that probably meant mom had chased him out at some point. I was all but cocooned in blankets; it was difficult to move at all.

“Jeeves?”

The door opened, true to form, and Jeeves stepped in.

“Yes mistress Min?”

“Could you help me up here? You seem to have weighed me down.”

It was pretty mortifying to be unable to work my way out of a few blankets, but he had them tucked in so tight, and I wanted some tea! He helped me sit upright and lean against the headboard. I snagged a delicate cup and sipped. The liquid in the cup was green tea, hot and with lemon? Weird, but good, somehow. Apparently the underdog was winning the semi-final best of five, so far.

“Where's mom? Is she here?”

I was such a wimp. I woke right up and looked for mom. But I had a bad feeling.

“She had an errand to run. How do you think you feel?”

Well that was an odd question.

“Well I think I feel better. Almost fine, even. Why did you ask the question that way?”

Jeeves took my tea cup away and refilled it.

“Because I know your current condition. Your opinion and your real condition don't always match.”

“Well that's rude of you.”

“My apologies, mistress.”

I had to ask though.

“So how am I actually doing?”

“You are recovering. However you are not well yet; you should not be out of bed or working yet. Please continue to watch your tournament.”

He smirked; having known what I had been doing. He intended that joke.

“Right, more sleep. After more cookie. And more of that tea.”

“As you wish.”

He set more cookie and tea next to my laptop on the tray, and I set to work. The cookie did not survive, and when I looked up, Jeeves had replaced it with what looked like a large bowl of chocolate pudding. It smelled like it had mint in it. I pointed at it.

“What is it?”

“Chocolate mint pudding, of course.”

“More chocolate?”

I really wanted a nice large burger or something.

“Your blood sugar is still quite low, and the fats are useful. If you are capable, you should consume as much as possible.”

Ugh, the cookie was enough, at least for now, and Jeeves seemed to understand that; he didn't press. I watched until the finals, when mom came in. Her hand went right to my forehead again.

“How are you?”

“I'm better. Jeeves says I'm not recovered yet, and I still feel a bit tired, but I'm OK.”

I didn't mention how weak I felt. I didn't really think I could get up, even to go to the bathroom. Which was kind of odd really; why didn't I need to go? I'd been eating and drinking all day so far, and my bladder was the size of walnut normally.

Was Jeeves actually right, and I needed nutrition so badly my body even now was using everything, leaving no waste at all?

That was a sobering thought really; didn't that happen when people were starving to death, or dying of thirst in a desert or something? Mom hugged me, breaking the train of unpleasant thoughts.

“It's alright honey; being a regenerator means you'll survive just about anything. You just need to focus on getting better, and let me know if you feel any pain anywhere, alright?”

I wasn't going to let her off the hook so easily.

“Where did you go?”

She grinned, with teeth, and my full stomach sank. She had been plotting.

“To your school. I wanted to get Jeeves registered as one of your guardians so he could have access to the school.”

I really needed a safety switch for my mouth.

“What? I thought you hated Jeeves!?!”

She pulled back and put a finger in my pudding, tasting it. Her face lit up, showing she approved.

“We've come to an understanding of sorts. That understanding does not let you off the hook, however. You need to be very careful in what you order Jeeves to do.”

Translation; if Jeeves keeps me out of this room again, he's scrap. Message received, loud and clear. I would not put money on Jeeves if he and mom got in a fight, even though Jeeves is stronger and well, a robot. Mom was, well... Mom.

“I will mom. So the principal went along with it?”

If he hadn't mom would have told me she had tried to get Jeeves registered, a distinction I was proud to catch.

“Simple, I told him Jeeves was your new personal nurse as well as servant. Your medical condition qualifies you as special needs, and since he isn't armed, and has in depth knowledge of your health and condition, he can now not only enter the school to pick you up, but follow you in the school itself. Um, he is unarmed, isn't he?”

I answered her absently, thinking. I wasn't happy to be told I was special needs. Even if it was true, and I wasn't sure it was, it smacked of calling me weak and crippled. Hadn't I been doing OK in school so far? Hadn't I been getting better?

“No, he's not armed with anything; that's your buddy X-ray's deal. Jeeves is just a butler.”

Mom read me like a book and swooped in for another hug.

“You're fine honey. I'm just taking the precaution, and knowing what I know now, I'd rather have Jeeves near you at all times. The thought of you passing out while walking the school and no one knowing what to do, well it makes me sick inside. Maybe it'll never happen... but if it does, having Jeeves there would be a load off my mind. He dotes on you, after all.”

Well when she put it that way, I had to agree with her.

“Of course he does; he was built to after all.”

At least if Gordo tried to throw me around again Jeeves would be there to catch me. I didn't want Ralph or Ricky trying that. Gordo could take Ricky alone, and while Ralph could beat him easily he'd get in trouble for doing it.

“Oh there was one other thing I had to do at the school....”

Ahh, crap. She had my homework.

“I expect it to be done by tomorrow, no matter how you feel then. I will be checking. Now, I need to wait downstairs for the delivery. I'll be back up to check later. Stay in bed.”

She kissed my forehead and left with a smile. All was completely forgiven apparently. Well I did inherit my temper from my mom, so not so surprising. I wish I could get a better read on dad though; he was so silent, so distant lately....

The underdog lost the tournament.

Well I was upright enough, I could play the game I'd just watched and try out those strategies I'd seen against other people. At least until I passed out again. Playing in the ranking system against other people made me a little anxious for some reason, but that was stupid. Worst thing that could happen was I lost, right?

Jeeves came back and frowned at me just as I claimed my first victory.

“Mistress Min, you should endeavor to complete your school work.”

Ugh.

“But I though you said I shouldn't think too hard?”

He smirked at me in a perfect 'who are you trying to fool expression.'

“We both know there is little threat of that in your schoolwork. That game however, requires more thought. Improvisation, tactics... you should be careful.”

Well it was nice to know we shared the view on how useless homework was. I rolled my eyes at him, but dutifully picked up the first book, which was math. I worked on the worksheet provided without cracking the book, and Jeeves picked another gamer stream. This one was a massively multi-player game, and the guy in it was running around rather randomly. He was also dressed in a cow suit and blowing an air horn randomly.

I looked at Jeeves. He looked back at me, and with a sigh, reached over and changed it. By the time I was done with the worksheet he had found a streamer who had almost no viewers, playing a 20 year old game (one of the first first person shooters) as fast as he possibly could, even to the point of using game bugs to go faster. It was more interesting than the cow kid at least.

English was harder than math now, it was just so time consuming to read “The Iliad”, and the silly language made it worse. As if Shakespeare wasn't bad enough....

And somehow I'd fallen asleep again, as if it was a surprise. The backing up of some large vehicle woke me. Jeeves was next to the bed, staring at me. He wasn't even watching the laptop stream. I started disentangling myself; after I got my hands free, Jeeves helped. I had something I had to ask him, now that mom had to finally be out of range.

“Jeeves, did you undress me last night and put me in nightclothes?”

He shook his head as he dragged me upright. I felt better; stronger. But not as strong as I should feel, even after my mutation. Still not even at the level of my new one hundred percent.

“Your mother insisted she do it. I saw no reason to argue.”

That didn't sound ominous at all. They had to have talked at some point. Mom was on the verge of scrapping Jeeves yesterday. Or telling me to do it; I wouldn't have, but I could see it in her eyes yesterday.

My window faced the side yard. I could see a cement truck backing up into our yard. That had to be for the foundation. Had I missed the digging and the pieces being moved? That was kind of embarrassing – not to mention frightening. I didn't want to sleep so soundly. It made me vulnerable. Part of the reason I'd never get rid of Jeeves; I couldn't really afford to. For all his bugs, I couldn't even afford to take him offline for a day in order to fix those, because knowing my luck that would be the day something went wrong. I couldn't really see much from the window, so I went back to bed and picked up where I left off.

English done, I turned to physics, which was reading a chapter followed by a short quiz. The quiz was open book, and probably just to ensure people read the chapter. I didn't need the book though, I'd already read the chapter a few days ago, and the quiz was easy. I had to actively focus on not making notes beyond what the questions asked; I didn't want my mind to wander on a tangent and lose another day.

Geography was literally just placing the names of cities in correct places on a map. The map was of Poland, and there were 20 cities to place correctly, but still, it was hardly difficult. I finished just as Ian Stuck his head through the open door.

“Feel any better, sis?”

“Yes I do. But you need to come in; we need to have a little chat.”

I had expected a case of nerves; not the flash of anger I saw before he schooled his features. He took a step in and closed the door.

“Alright, what's up?”

If I didn't know he was mad, if I hadn't been looking for it, I'd never have noticed. I took a nice cleansing breath and plunged ahead.

“Alright, you know me. I don't know how to deal with these things very well. So I'm just going to ask; what is your problem, exactly?”

And just like that the anger flashed again, mixed with something else. Something I didn't recognize, and wasn't sure I wanted to.

“No problem. What makes you think I have a problem?”

An odd response; he obviously had some sort of problem, why would he try to hide it? I was going to have to embarrass myself to get him to talk. Well, maybe.

“Ian please. You're my brother and I know you. Something about all this is annoying you, and I can't fix it if I don't know what it is. Please just tell me.”

And the anger surfaced fully as he sat down; I could feel the heat of it even under all the blankets.

“It's just... OK you mutated, so it wasn't your fault. None of this really is. But mom and dad are basically doing whatever you want. Min wants tools to make crap with? Min gets tools. Min makes things in the garage that could be dangerous? She doesn't get chewed out, she gets to keep them. Min gets a brand new top of the line computer, Min gets parts for anything she wants, Min gets a freakin' workshop to do stuff in... and Ian gets ignored. I get tired of being ignored, Min.”

I was right, he was jealous. I had to handle this carefully. And I was right, I would have to embarrass myself a least a little.

“Min can't do much physically. Min's brain takes a hike at odd moments and she has to build things; that's what the tools are for, and if those tools and parts and things Min had made or gotten did not exist then Min would be taking apart random things in the house and pissing everyone off. Min's laptop is part of that too; mom and dad are right about what my type of mutant needs, surely you can see that Ian?”

He nodded like a badly piloted marionette; he really didn't want to admit that.

“Alright, now on to business. The fun stuff. You do realize, that your loving sister can build technology and items by request, right? If you wanted a laptop like mine, all you had to do was ask. After all, having a 3-d printer means I can print whatever we don't have, and that even means those chips computers have. I could even redesign them to be better...”

“Min?”

Now Ian looked worried. I glance at Jeeves showed he was... pensive, I guess was the word, And I realized - oh crap, I'd been about to do it.

“Whoops, sorry. Back to the stream, I'll be good.”

Ian and Jeeves both noticeably relaxed. Which begged the question; I had seen it, but I wonder if anyone else could read Jeeves? I knew now that Jeeves had emotions; I'd checked the data on him and my other bots and they had been programmed in. Just simple lines of code, but I did good work. I wasn't sure they were emotions the way humans felt them, but then again, no other sentient being felt emotions the way humans did anyway.

I turned back to the stream, to find it changed; this one was a team battle strategy game. Ian leaned close to get an angle, so I moved it for him. And that put the pudding in range, so I went to work on that.

“So, how do you feel, really?”

Sigh, we knew each other so well, despite everything.

“I was able to get up for a few minutes earlier, when the cement truck woke me up. Other than that I haven't been out of bed all day. To be honest, I'm more than a little stir crazy. Do I look any better?”

He grinned; what was so funny?

“Yeah, your color is back. You look like you.”

“Was just wondering, I didn't even begin to feel terrible until after I got to the bathroom, just a little tired. But you knew right off, didn't you?”

Ian pondered.

“Yeah I knew, but I'm not sure how I know. If I had to guess, I'd say it was your color. Normally you're pretty white now. But this morning you looked... bleached or something, I don't know.”

Well if this condition had a warning sign, I was all for it. Jeeves broke in after being quiet the entire conversation.

“Something you may notice mistress Min, is a lack of body heat or chills.”

No way.

“Won't work Jeeves, I'm always cold. At least a little. Heat regulation does not seem to be one of this body's talents.”

“I would not say that mistress Min. Your natural regulation of heat borders on the miraculous on some occasions.”

He knew something.

“Oh, and what occasions are those? Cause I sure don't remember any such time.”

“When you are using your full mental capacity, of course.”

Wait.

“I generate heat when thinking hard?”

“I feel that word choice does not properly describe the situation, but in a word, yes. Your body has some very interesting ways modifications or adaptations designed to deal with heat dissipation.”

“And of course, in the times when I don't need it, those adaptations are still bleeding heat, leaving me cold. Obviously not to a significant degree, but enough so that the core temperature difference is normal.”

Biology was so imprecise. Such a system shouldn't always be on, and wasn't for the things humans built. But a human's own heating system was hopelessly primitive, so it shouldn't really be a surprise. Of course, the fact that I had adaptations in that arena meant they were probably needed....

“Mistress Min, please stop if you can.”

I came back to see two worried faces inches from mine.

“Eh, sorry about that. Was just thinking about heat regulating biology. And that led to heat regulation systems, and well.... yeah. I was about to do it again. But I'm totally fine now!”

They weren't buying it. Kind of a shame really, since this time I was telling the truth.

“Oh that reminds me. Ian, about the workshop... Mom said I can't let you into it.”

Always best to remind Ian to remind him where such ideas were born, especially given the conversation we just had. I overrode him as he started to protest; his face had actually turned red.

“But... she didn't say anything about you being unable to watch or see what's going on, or talk to us in there. Don't worry, if you are interested, I'll make sure you have a way to be part of the action. It'll take me awhile. Maybe a week, maybe a bit longer, but I have some ideas. Trust me, OK?”

He took a deep breath and wound down.

“OK. I'll trust you, instead of jumping down Mom's throat. Wouldn't do much good anyway.”

“Well not going to lie to you, the workshop is likely to be very dangerous. I mean, I'm going to be testing jet engines in there sometime next week, or at least I hope to. And I'd hate for something to happen to you, I'd just feel awful about it. But we Campbell kids have to stick together, and I don't want to leave you out.”

Now why had I said all that? I sounded like a sappy idiot. Ian was grinning at me, no doubt thinking the same thing. Perhaps a change in subject was in order.

“Right, well, I for one would like to get out of this bed and see the new addition. It should be just about up by now.”

I'd checked the website of the business mom had called. They guaranteed one day set up, or they took three hundred dollars off the price. A gesture and Jeeves was helping me. I already felt much stronger than an hour ago, perhaps I was over the worst of it.. and perhaps there was something in that pudding? A little extra ingredient perhaps?

“Are you sure, Min? I mean you look better, but...”

“I'm sure. I'm not made of glass; I won't break from a little walk.”

Not sure but unwilling to call me on it, he hovered like an annoying bee as Jeeves helping me down the stairs. I only needed to lean on him a little, otherwise my steps were steady and light enough, my balance finely tuned, and my head crystal clear.

We made it to hallway, when someone knocked on the front door. I knew immediately who it was, and reversed course. Jeeves beat me there of course, and opened the door to Ricky, Ralph, Maggie, and Sam. Maggie jumped in verbally before anyone else could; and possibly before her brain caught up.

“Hello Jeeves, we just came to see... Oh hi Min! Are you OK? You were out sick, but you look fine....”

Sam broke in before I could.

“Sick.”

Maggie looked dubious.

“Well if you're sure Sam. She looks alright to me, well maybe a little...”

“For the record, I am sick, though I'm much better. Regeneration is useful after all, I recover quickly.”

Ralph's eyes narrowed, along with Sam's oddly enough.

“And what did you need to regenerate from, exactly?”

“Well Ralph, all of you, I just found out that when I use my brain to it's utmost it drains my body. Using electrolytes and all that at an accelerated rate. Jeeves apparently knew, which is why he was doing all the cooking. Why he didn't see fit to tell the rest of us, I'll never know.”

Ralph shot me a guilty look.

“So you use more electricity, more energy, when you're in those fugue states of yours?”

He had made a slip. He had definitely made a slip just then. He knew something too. Jeeves answered him.

“Correct.”

Time to reel this conversation in with a nice convenient subject change.

“Anyway we were just going to check out the status of the workshop; did you all want to join?”

I carefully leaned away from Jeeves. I didn't even wobble, though looking up I saw Sam staring at me with the same look Jeeves normally wore; that was mildly disconcerting. I was starting to doubt my ability to read people. At least Ricky didn't look worried. I started leading the way.

Oh! Oh... Dad was going to be PISSED. The trucks had torn up his lawn. He loved his lawn; it was almost a third child or something. There was a clear track of torn grass and mud through the yard, and it ended in a patch of only slightly less ripped up lawn where the workers had stacked material and put things together and whatever else.

We were going to have to fix this. Well I was, it didn't seem right to rope Ian into repairing all this damage. Though if I knew Mom and Dad, he would be roped in regardless. We shared a look; he was irritated but resigned. No, I was going to make this whole situation up to him; I wasn't going to just let him get handed more work.

The shed itself was more of a small barn in make, a light tan color with brown trim, and both a garage door and normal door. It sat on a foundation of smooth concrete (how had they gotten that to dry so quickly?) and had large modern windows that looked better than the ones in our house. One side of the dark brown metal roof was empty. The other had a huge skylight inset in it.

Mom was supervising the workers putting the final touches to the interior from outside the open garage door. They were moving my printer. It was unplugged and therefore dormant, and hitching a ride on a small forklift. Hmm, the next one I made should probably have wheels, so we could move it without heavy equipment... or wheels and a small engine, so it could move itself....

Jeeves poked me in the forehead, of all things. I knew what he was doing, but it was still annoying.

“Jerk.”

He smiled and went back to watching the show. I don't think he liked the printer.

“You there, be careful with that. If you dump it, the mess will take forever to clean up. That's it, lower it gently.”

They were placing it in the far corner, which was probably the best spot for it. There were two large work benches, a desk with a computer chair that looked like I could sink completely into it... or that it could swallow me whole, a couch in the opposite corner, and a large solidly built table in the center. There was still enough room left over to park a car in, possibly two, and there were racks for the spare parts, and two large bins for raw materials. In short, it was perfect.

Well it was probably going to be too small eventually, and likely sooner rather than later; but for now, it was perfect. And I already had an idea on how to expand it if needed, so that wouldn't be an issue. Another look from Jeeves; this not thinking about things was harder than it sounded. Other people made it look so easy!

Ricky caught me looking at him. Whoops.

“What?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. So how goes practice?”

“Well we're still missing our best power forward, but it's getting better. For now Joe is stepping up, and he's getting better.”

Joe Stetz, huh? Yeah I could see that; he had the size to replace me at the very least.

“Good. I expect you all to win state without me.”

He grinned.

“We weren't gonna win state with you, let alone without you. But maybe we can cobble together a good winning season.”

“Well I'll take it.”

One of the workmen stepped up to Mom. The head guy maybe? He was tall and tan, chiseled and very buff. He was also sweating and stunk faintly.

“Anything else you'd like us to do while we're here with the equipment?”

She shook her head and passed over a check. I wanted to but couldn't quite make out the amount on it.

“No, that's everything. Thank you. Everything is set then?”

He nodded with a big bluff grin raked his hands through his hair.

“Yep. You can use it for whatever you want, right now. It has a cable set up, a wireless set up, the walls and supports are treated galvanized steel, the windows are high impact glass, the concrete is shatter resistant. It's one of our top of the line pre-fab packages for young devisors.”

So he knew what it was for then, and judging from the look he gave me, who.

“And the optional? The security and monitoring system?”

“All there Ma'am. We just need to set up the cameras in your house, and wire the other half of the intercom and button system.”

“Wait, what was this? There were cameras in there? Mom and Dad were going to watch me?

“I'll um, just get started on that.”

Mom noticed the guy noticing me, and looked over.

“Sure, you do that. The system should go in the den, second door on the right as you go in.”

As soon as he was gone, I asked her. My voice was remarkably calm.

“Video cameras? Audio too I assume?”

“Yes. Min, they aren't there to allow us to watch you. They are a panic system. In the event something goes wrong, the cameras turn on and an alarm sounds. Like if your new jet engine blows up, or the batteries you work on start to leak poisonous gas, or something like that, we can then see what's going on and rescue you. Otherwise they stay off.”

Bull.

“Bur you can turn them on if you want to, right?”

“No. We have an intercom we can call you on in case you're late to dinner or need to stop and go to sleep, but the cameras stay off unless there is an emergency. There are also going to be cameras around the shop and the house in order to catch intruders and thieves. Devisor labs are hit all the time, even the small ones.”

I went colder than usual. I was putting us all in danger, my friends, my family, my neighborhood, just by existing. It had always been in the back of my mind, but having a Dr. Doom type come after my family cause he wanted my printer just seemed ludicrous.

“What?”

“Don't worry honey. We aren't unprotected; that's what the CIA is hanging around for, after all. The cameras are just added security. We will both have monitors for them, and a separate alarm for those. The alarm connects to the police and the CIA, and is just extra layers of security for us.”

Why would it connect to the CIA at all? Surely the FBI would be a better choice, even given Mom's somewhat chummy relationship with them. It was very suspicious.

“And what does the CIA want in return for this added security? They aren't that altruistic, or at least that isn't their reputation.”

“Nonsense! They don't want anything at all. It pays to have friends in high places.”

Who did Mom and Dad know? The President, the Vice President, the Pope? Maybe the director of the CIA; that made more sense. But still, very suspicious. Something to ask later. I walked past the workers already on their way out for a better look.

The shop was bare, sparse; but I could fix that. Maybe some sound proofing. The walls were a nice cream color in between all the racks for tools and shelves for parts, but it looked bland. Wait, there was a partition wall, also metal. I thought this was the far wall, but there was a sink back here! A full kitchen, with a refrigerator and freezer, oven and bunsen burner, and a door which led to a bathroom and clean room shower. Holy crap, this place had everything. And once I equipped it with a small generator it would be power grid independent. Hmm, maybe with a little juicing on that score, it could make money for mom instead, to pay them back. Power companies had a standing deal that if you could feed power to them instead of the other way around, they would pay you for it, or at least the one around here did. Perhaps some solar panels on the empty roof....

“Mistress Min.”

“Right, sorry.”

So very hard.

“Alright Jeeves, I have some jobs for you. One is to move everything of ours from the garage to the shop; the workers seem to have moved all the really heavy stuff, but they left everything else. The second is to repair the lawn. If you need to learn how to do that, look it up online.”

Mom looked at me rather gratefully; she didn't want to deal with an angry Dad either.

“Understood. I will get started on the first job right away; though preparing dinner will slow full completion. I should be able to complete both tasks by tomorrow.”

My friends and Ian were taking their own tour of the new addition, a bit awestruck. Ricky looked a bit lost though. I could understand that; things had changed so much since summer. I hoped the new me wasn't someone he hated. He wouldn't tell me, and I was too afraid to ask; I don't think I could stand it if he did. He didn't seem to, but I made him uncomfortable now, somehow. And this was another one of those things I should stop thinking about.

“You really pulled out all the stops Mom. How much did this set you back?”

“As much as a small house. But you're wrong, daughter mine. It didn't cost me or your father anything. After all any money we've shelled out we get back; remember?”

How could I forget? I owed my parents a small fortune.

“I remember, just not sure how that's going to work. I'm still broke, after all.”

“Well, we will find out when your long lost second android gets here. According to him and Jeeves, you aren't as poor as you seem.”

The idea that I had another android out there was so weird.

“I don't get it really. Everything I've made is here and accounted for.”

Mom sharpened her stare.

“Alright, alright, almost everything. I think if Shecky had sold A.R.N.E.E. we would know.”

She shook her head, muttering something unflattering about devisors. I decided very carefully not to take offense.

“A.R.N.E.E. is what worries me, not Shecky. A.R.N.E.E. keeps making things on it's own. That sort of unrestricted action on the part of devisor tech is dangerous.”

She sounded like she knew firsthand; again, very suspicious.

“Well Jeeves still won't tell me where A.R.N.E.E. is, but I can ask him to pass an order along. And if that doesn't work, maybe I can think of something.”

She hugged me out of the blue.

“All I ask for honey. Now I've got to go inside and make sure that workman didn't track mud all over my floor. Enjoy the shop, but I expect to see you for dinner.”

“You will Mom.”

As soon as she left Maggie flew over, gushing in my ear.

“Oh this is so cool! It's like a clubhouse, or a second house really! You could live in it, and it looks like you could do all sorts of cool things in it, like jets fusion or even nuclear science! Maybe even anti-gravity!”

I held a hand up as Sam came over to slow her down.

“Please, don't try to give me ideas. It's not a good idea to do that right now.”

Sam started to drag her off.

“We have to go. Dinner.”

There was a new clock on the new wall of the new shop. It read half past dinnertime. Somehow just coming out to check the progress of the building had led to almost an hour wasted. And my traitorous body was beginning to get a little tired again. I wasn't going to let this beat me though.

Ralph and Ricky were both staring at each other while continuing to look around. It was weird, normally they just avoided each other; Ricky had no real problem with Ralph that I knew of, and the reverse was true. But here they were trying to stare each other down. It was kind of ridiculous, there was room enough for both of them on my friends list.

“Time to go guys. Please shut the door on your way out. If you want to stay for dinner you'll have to ask Mom.”

My shooing them out had nothing to do with the fact that my legs were a bit unsteady and I was once again ravenous. Nothing at all. Ralph responded.

“Nah, I'm good. Is it OK if I come over tomorrow though? I'd like to take a closer look once you add those finishing touches you're no doubt considering.”

In other words, he wanted to see the nerd girl in her natural habitat. I shrugged it off; whatever. No doubt he was worried I'd ask him about that slip he'd made earlier. I didn't forget, but I could be patient. Sure I could.

“Sure I don't mind.”

Ricky begged off too.

“I got to go too, my mom wants me to have at least a few meals at home.”

he had been spending a few nights a week over here, I suppose. Enough for his Mom to say something. A slight flutter; a vague sense of foreboding as Ricky shut the garage door behind him and they strode off together, shoulders almost touching. Ricky wouldn't really try something with Ralph, would he?

“Mistress Min, dinner.”

“Coming!”

I injected as much false cheer and strength into my voice as I could; Jeeves watched as I steadied myself and made my way over. His hand met my forehead at the door, his other arm slipping around my waist.

“I suspected this. You are fatigued again, correct?”

There was no point in lying. He knew me too well, and was testing my galvanic skin response besides.

“I am growing more fatigued, yes. I'm still mostly fine, and ready for dinner.”

He nodded and the hand on my head withdrew. The one on my waist stayed put and helped me to my chair. Mom noticed, and didn't say anything.

“Mom you better head Dad off at the pass and tell him Jeeves is going to repair the damage to the yard. Otherwise we will hear all about it.”

And we really didn't need to, was the part I left unsaid but Mom and Ian both heard. Dad was due home in about 3 minutes, perhaps less. Mom moved... that sprint would have done the prior me proud. As the door opened and shut I turned to what Jeeves was cooking.

They were burgers. Huge burgers at least a quarter pound of beef each, cooked on a little grill. On the stove was a deep fryer with french fries inside, judging by the smell. There were plastic storage containers filled with toppings like onions, tomatoes, and bacon. The buns were actual buns, and looked to be made from scratch. There was enough to give a fast food place a run for it's money.

I guess Jeeves had heard my comment about a nice large hamburger after all.

“Thank you Jeeves.”

He nodded, knowing exactly what I was talking about. Ian looked a little lost, so I pointed and he nodded, beginning to salivate. I didn't blame him, really; it all looked so good. Mom walked in just as Jeeves pulled the fries out of the fryer.

“...We knew it would tear up the grass, and Min has already volunteered Jeeves to fix it.”

Dad walked in right after, placing his briefcase to the side as usual with a sigh.

“Yeah we knew, but I just wanted to see how bad it was.”

Ian piped up.

“It's better you don't see it yet Dad. Just relax, Jeeves made burgers and they smell great.”

I wasn't sure whose side Ian was on at the moment. His smile seemed to suggest ours, but that first part...

Dad's face lit up.

“Wow, those do look good.”

We all sat down to eat.

Sidestory - The 2 R’s

Note: this text is a copy of a transcript from an unknown source, possibly a psychiatric visit, by one Richard Tanner. For further information on the relevance to this document to history, refer to document 1634-D.

Life was beyond strange; you skated through, doing what you could, learning and fighting and sweating and bleeding, when all of a sudden something so random, so beyond the ordinary happened and you were left picking up the pieces and wondering how any of what had come before could have even been a problem.

Take me, for example; I was in love with my best friend.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just I'm not one of those types. I like girls, the hotter the better. My best friend was the same way, or at least I think so. Some of the things I've seen since made me question those earlier events. But that doesn't matter.

We ended middle school friends, thick as thieves, playing basketball and creating havoc together; nothing really bad, just some neighborhood pranks like moving holiday decorations to different houses or using walkie-talkies to mess with people. Kid stuff.

When Myrc and I hit high school, we were determined to take the place by storm, to conquer the little kingdom and be the big shots. I had my eye on a little cutie that had filled out over the summer, and Myrc and Pam were well on their way to cementing themselves as the new crop of school stars, and the new golden couple; it almost seemed fated.

Then somehow, in less than a week, Myrc became a hot girl. A chick in more ways than one; small and fragile seeming, delicate with bones that reminded me of a birds, and a face and body that absolutely had to be the envy of all women everywhere. The exotic hair and eye color probably shouldn't work at all, should probably lessen the effect... but did the opposite. My friend the Irish spitfire was still in there, I could see him when he yelled defiance to Gordo or talked rapid fire about things I couldn't hope to understand; but it was hard to remember what was in the box when the wrapping was so damn gorgeous.

Seeing her work on her dad's car without even a clue, bent over and clearly showing me that perfect derriere while kicking her feet only made her the sweeter, as well as added fuel to the fire of doubt; she had no idea what effect she had on guys, at all. Had she ever known what true physical attraction was, as a guy? She had talked a good game as Myrc, but I wasn't so sure anymore.

It didn't matter now anyway.

I wanted to badly just to grab her and kiss her until I passed out from lack of air; but what would that do to us? So far she was still my friend, a good friend, and I could see she wanted things to stay that way. But I couldn't help wanting more.

What I settled for was going to see the new garage lab my newly brainy best friend rated... and maybe ask her to the Halloween dance coming up. Of course, there was no shortage of competition; even if some in the school hated mutants just for living, even if some were put off by the fact that she used to be a guy, there were still plenty of jerks lined up around the block and waiting to ask her out.

I had to protect her from that; she wasn't ready for the deluge of hormone-addled idiots.

And the worst of the lot was her new hang out pal, Ralph. I know I screwed up, it's hard to just hang out around someone so gorgeous and control myself for any length of time, she just makes everything so confusing – but that was why I knew what Ralph was after and what he was thinking. He was thinking, 'Myrc was always nice to me, and now she's Min and hot, and we're both mutants; match made in heaven!'

He had actually had the nerve to confront me in school the second day – or was it the third? That Min attended as Min. You want the story? Fine.

So I'm walking down the halls between classes, to Algebra. I'm running late and Ralph stops me in the hall, walks right up and checks me, and has the gall to say:

“Min needs a friend, not a boyfriend. Stop dicking around and be there for her.”

And he walks off. Like I don't know that; how could I not know that? I just mentioned it to you a few minutes ago. And I couldn't just pound him or I'd be late to class. Tougher than me? Sure he is, but that won't stop me at all; I won't just let people walk all over me.

Anyway, so I go to class, and the first thing I hear is Ralph is hanging around Min. The little hypocrite never used to do that before, and it's pretty obvious what he wants, and is thinking. But I have to be careful because Min is a gentle person and doesn't want her friends getting hurt. So if I pound Ralph, she will not be happy with me. If I do it and lie about it, then she will eventually find out, and the fallout will be even worse.

So for now I'm stuck with him.

So what do you think? Should I ask her to the Dance or not?

I guess you're right. Worst thing that can happen is she says no. And if I do it and she says yes, that stops the sharks from circling.

* * * * *

(The following is a recording from an unknown source.)

People are often stupid. I remember when I mutated; everyone started treating me differently, or just avoiding me outright. This town is pretty tolerant to mutants, as places go; I've traveled, I know. Let most people know you're a mutant, and its shock followed by fear. Here, you only get some of that; from a good portion of the population you get a shrug and a muttered 'so what?'

Myrc was one of the good ones. The best one, in fact. He'd still play basketball with me, knowing how much of an advantage I had. He would hang out if he had nothing better to do; I wasn't his best bud, but he didn't ever go out of his way to avoid me. Out of the many people I wished would manifest so they would know just how it felt, he was last on my list. Which is of course, why he is the one who actually did; Murphy's law.

Out of all of the people I would gleefully leave hung out to dry... well Myrc wasn't even near that list.

Minerva is... she's a force of nature and a bright light, all rolled into one; to my vision she shines like a little sun, all spots of activity swirling in her brain while fervently working on things I had no hope at all of understanding. Why are you asking me all this, anyway? My sight and what it does are on record with your people, and as for Min, you should leave her alone. Trust me on this.

Anyway, I well understand how it is being a freshly manifested mutant. All you want is normal, or as normal as you can get, and all you get is people's shunning fear or worse. Which is why even though I can sort of understand why Ricky would be doing what he was, since Min was a flame and he was very much a moth, but she didn't need any of that noise. She was in fact confused by it; she needed her best friend back.

And since I had never been that before, I couldn't really be that for her now. No, of course I don't want to be; but who better to understand her than me? She wants normal. She isn't very athletic anymore, and she's already been attacked once. I can take care of her; mutants need to stick together. I trusted Jeeves because Min did, but he might not be as effective as she hopes. And he wasn't allowed in the school anyway.

I should be the one to ask her to the dance.

I wasn't Ricky, so I didn't have that awkward factor he did, and we had always gotten along before while being distant enough for it not to matter. I wasn't like the others, all bigoted and cruel, and I wasn't the friend she wanted in Ricky. It made perfect sense... but Ricky is going to blow it; I'm sure of that.

…...........

The two met at lunch, well away from the other students. She hadn't shown up for school today, so now was the perfect time. Worry aside, this needed to be settled now. He was glad Min hadn't made it to school today; it would have made dodging her for this much harder; at the very least, her watchers would have seen something, despite the secluded nature of the spot chosen. He nodded to his counterpart.

“Ricky.”

An answering nod, and his name in greeting.

“Ralph.”

He had to ask.

“So, you ready for this?”

“Bring it. I'm not scared of you.”

He had to admit, that lack of fear was respectable. It was likely one of the things that originally drew Min to Ricky.

“Alright; here it comes.”

They launched at each other, fists flying.

He was stronger, but he couldn't go all out or he'd actually injure the other boy. Ricky had no such limitations, and had hard won experience. In the end, it was more a tie than anything, even though Ralph could probably force the issue if he wanted.

They slumped down, back to back. Ricky spoke first between deep rasping gasps.

“This don't change anything. I'm still going to ask her.”

There was only one thing to say to that.

“Stubborn ass. You want to ruin your friendship I won't stop you. I'll be asking her too.”

“May the best man win?”

He nodded, helping Ricky up.

“May the best man win.”

They both limped off in opposite directions by mutual unspoken understanding, as a way to squelch the rumor mill.

The next morning I felt fine; energetic, even. I woke up on time with no problems to the smell of coffee and muffins. Blueberry muffins, if I didn't miss my guess. Jeeves was downstairs and did not appear as I got up. I headed to the bathroom slowly this time, but Ian was awake and leaning up against the door. He stared at me piercingly before motioning me past with a grin.

“Go ahead. Just don't take all day this time.”

I gaped. Ian, being nice?

“Thank you.”

“No problem; just don't forget your promise.”

Right, I owed him a computer like mine, or as good as I could make. I already had some improvements in mind, and ways to make sure I wasn't sued for using any designs by a major manufacturer, even though Intel probably wasn't going to be happy. (Because really, AMD designs currently all suffered from heat problems, making them unusable as a basis; I didn't want anything catching fire.)

I'd still have to design a scanner to scan a few chips for a basis, then software to redesign it so the printer can print it, then a way to double check it as the printing would be ultra-fine work; at school the best thing to do would probably be to design the motherboard the CPU and other components would need to fit into. That would determine if I'd need to redesign them from the ground up too....

“Min. Hey.”

Ian was inches from my nose; despite myself my eyes crossed looking at him as he snapped his fingers in my ear.

“None of that yet, OK? You just got better. Go shower before you start to stink up the place.”

“Right. Fine... jerk.”

I slid past his insufferable smirk and closed the door.

Getting cleaned up took less time than yesterday at least. I pushed a few ideas on how to speed the entire process up with as much focus as I could muster; it took more effort than I liked but at least now that I knew there was an actual problem involved with indulging those thoughts, it was easier. And then I realized I'd forgotten to bring my clothes with me again.

They were waiting for me outside the door, and they were as good an indication of how well Jeeves understood me as anything else; blue jeans, a thin gray sweater (which had long sleeves, making it perfect for the fall weather while the material itself was thin enough that I wouldn't get hot in it indoors) and my lab coat. The statement made? It was time to get to work. He'd even replenished the pens, pencils, and gum in the pockets.

I would have skipped down stairs... if one could actually skip down stairs. I felt better; Jeeves thought I was better, and there were muffins!

Dad was at the table, paper in hand. I had no idea how he kept getting those this early in the morning; the small town rag we had stopped delivering or even printing a morning paper years ago – though my suspicion now is that he never read them, kept them all somewhere and that if I bothered to check that copy would have Nixon on the front page. He was all dressed up in his typical fall work apparel; a flannel shirt, jeans, and still muddy work boots that somehow never tracked so much as a speck of dust on the floor.

He looked like a refugee from a lumberjack commercial or something.

Mom appeared to be sleeping in, for some reason. At least, her coffee cup was clean and empty, sitting on the drying rack where she normally left it. My own solid gray one was thankfully full, with two absolutely enormous muffins next to it on a plate. Dad's own plate had two muffin tin liners sitting on it; Ian was busily scarfing down the first of his two, and there were still six large muffins cooling on the stove.

Looking closer, the steam was still rising off the muffins in front of me; how the heck had dad eaten his two so fast?

They were good; baked to perfection with actual fresh blueberries inside rather than the desiccated stuff in those mixes. Almost before I knew it mine were gone as well, and even full I couldn't stop the look of longing towards the others. Jeeves noticed, but did not shovel any more on my plate. Mom still wasn't up, so I braved the silence.

“Dad, where's mom?”

“Sleeping in today.”

...Sigh. Thanks, Dad. I knew that much.

“Is she OK? I mean, she's not sick or anything, is she?”

He looked up with a grin.

“No, you're not catching; it's just her insomnia.”

Mom did occasionally have problems sleeping; it was too bad I couldn't share my own issues in that respect. I could actually make all kinds of money if I just shared my own recently found ability to sleep all the time, for any reason. Well, I wasn't that bad, but it was close.

“Alright. You haven't looked at the lawn this morning, have you?”

He put down his paper.

“No, I haven't. Should I have? I do have your promise to fix things, after all.”

“No no no, it's fine! I just wanted to make sure; Jeeves, did you manage to fix the lawn last night?”

I was pretty sure that he had been doing all that after I went to sleep. He confirmed it.

“Yes. The repairs to the plant life of your families property are complete.”

I snagged my coffee, slipped my shoes on and opened the door to check. Around the side I could see level ground and no tracks. Something seemed to be wrong with the grass though....

A few steps closer and the truth was revealed. Not only was it much shorter than the other grass, it wasn't green; it was a blue-green that didn't quite match the shade of grass I was used to. It had to have been tinkered with; normal grass species don't grow that fast. It looked nice though, and it covered every inch of what had previously been torn up sections of lawn. Dad joined me, slipping an arm around my shoulder.

“Two tone grass, huh? Not sure I like that.”

Jeeves answered immediately.

“The color shall match within two weeks. The current differences are a side effect of the forced growth process.”

“That's acceptable. So how did you even the yard out?”

Jeeves stared at Dad... and said something that amazed me.

“Hacks, of course.”

He had told a joke! What the crap!?!

“Riiigght. OK. Just so long as it's not anything crazy.”

Jeeves shook his head, still straight-faced.

“I rented a lawn roller and walked it over the affected sections of property last night, filled in the rest with purchased soil and then re-seeded.”

All last night? I mean sure Jeeves didn't need sleep exactly, but he needed down time. He had to be running on his own reserves by now....

“I'll be fine mistress Min. Current reserves at full activity are twenty-four hours, thirty-six minutes and 18 seconds.”

Odd, he shouldn't be able to last that long without at least an hour of down time; had he upgraded himself somehow? I had designed some improvements for the power supplies of my androids for the crash test dummies and lab guardians I was going to make, but they weren't past the planning stage. And Jeeves shouldn't be able to make improvements to himself in any case. Again, he proved adept at reading my mind.

“A simple application of household current and storage cells mistress Min.”

I guess splicing a cable and running some household current with a transformer into his batteries would make quite a difference; that sort of thing wasn't added into my calculations. Oh well, as long as he was keeping at least to the spirit of things, I'd cut him some slack. He really proved his worth yesterday after all.

I drew the line at death laser arms though; those were for the combat models that would have much more strict programming.

“Guess it's time for school.”

Jeeves went back to get my backpack and laptop while I tied my shoes so I wouldn't trip and Ian came out to see what all the fuss was about. He actually bent to feel the grass.

“It feels a bit weird.”

Jeeves came back out.

“The grass I used to reseed the lawn is a hardier breed than the native stock.”

Uh oh. I'm not sure how he did it, but he must have. At least I was pretty sure he must have; used devisor grass that is. I'd have to ask him what he changed and how, but later. I didn't want to freak my Dad out. Thankfully he didn't seem to catch on to the shorthand code words like I had. Jeeves worked as fast as I did.

“Right, well gotta go! See you Dad!”

I grabbed Jeeves and pulled him along with me as I took off. A quick glance behind me confirmed that Dad was looking at us, obviously not fooled at all. Oops. I slowed down once I was sure he wasn't going to chase us; I wouldn't put it past him.

Jeeves looked amused. Amused!

“Tell me the truth; did you make devisor grass?”

“Yes mistress Min.”

“What exactly did you do, and how did you do it so fast?”

“I made the grass much tougher to destroy, nigh immune to most diseases and afflictions which normally cause such life to die and resistant to drought. I also set it's growth to be rapid, but to regulate at one inch. As for how, I programmed and used nanite cultures on the leftover grass seed your father kept in the garage.”

“Wait, nanite cultures? The same ones you claimed you were out of?”

“The very same. I was out of them; I do however have the schematic for them so I made more.”

I stopped and whirled. Ian was catching up.

“Tell me the truth Jeeves, are you out again? You didn't make more than you needed?”

“Of course I am, and no I did not.”

Quick calculations revealed he was likely telling the truth; The 3d printer could make a ton of those things, and the schematic was on my hard drive, but I'd shied away from using such things. They were too powerful, in my opinion.

That and they would do all the work for me when I wanted to take a more hands-on approach.

“For future reference, ask me before using those. They are too dangerous to just play around with.”

“Understood.”

If those things got out among the populace... programmed general purpose and use nanites. Scary stuff, the things they could do, even if they weren't ready for the more delicate work they could eventually perform. I mean plant life was one thing, and grass was simple... but the implications of nanite use on animals was something else.

Not to mention that if I tried I was pretty sure I'd get shot in the face by the CIA or something. Happened in movies all the time, and they were watching. Animal testing would be all kinds of wrong anyway.

“Secondly, Jeeves, I know how this sounds, believe me I do. But please, let me know and approve before you tinker with things in general; especially designs of mine.”

I think I had made Jeeves like me in a few ways after all; I wasn't positive he had the same urge to create that I did, but it was likely given his past behavior. I'd be able to tell for sure when I finally took him apart to fix him. He certainly looked crestfallen enough.

“I understand mistress Min; I shall do as you request.”

I decided to cheer him up.

“Don't worry, it's not that I won't let you work on anything, it's more that I don't want you to kill us both by doing something potentially morally reprehensible.”

Ian caught up.

“What's morally reprehensible?”

“You are, of course. But no, in this case, we are talking about grass. Jeeves re-purposed some of my tech in order to make the grass he seeded on the lawn. I'm kind of wary of making biotech like that, too worried about the potential misuse. Machines are... cleaner.”

Ian pondered for a moment.

“Yeah, I can see that. All kinds of scary. So, you going to tell Dad?”

“Of course, just have to know how to phrase it.”

He nodded; he knew dad.

“And that's why the strategic retreat.”

We had reached the corner, and Ricky was waiting, just like always. He looked nervous about something.

“Hey Ricky, good morning.”

I wasn't about to race him today. I felt up to it, but knowing my luck I'd end up collapsing or something. I settled for picking up the pace and hustling over to him. Ian and Jeeves kept pace, mainly in order to dodge the car that was coming, passing both of my more passive tails. Seriously, were the CIA and MCO asleep during the stake out classes, or what? Even Gordo would find them obvious.

That was probably the point, really; to fake me out. I wasn't really falling for it though, not that they needed to know that.

“Hey Min, good morning. Morning squirt, Jeeves.”

Ian protested.

“Hey, Min is shorter than me!”

I was not! We were the same height! Well, at least for now.

“Yeah Ian, but she's cooler than you, so that makes her taller.”

To ham it up, I preened under Ian's sour gaze.

“Whatever. I'm going to go over here before the suck gets contagious. See you both later.”

I shrugged. The middle school and high school were across the street from each other, so we were going the same way. But if he didn't want to walk with us, then he didn't want to walk with us. I thought I saw one of Ian's friends a street away, but my eyes sucked any more, and I just realized I'd forgotten my glasses. I patted my coat down, but I couldn't find the spare set that should be there for this very reason.

“Jeeves, you have my....”

He didn't even let me finish; just reach into my coat pocket, removed the case, and opened it, holding my glasses out. Insufferable; how was I supposed to know they were in the front with the pens? I could tell Ricky really wanted to laugh, but stifled it for some reason while I marveled at the focus and clarity I'd been missing. I could actually see things from farther away than a block, and make out details.

Details like Ralph, walking on an obvious course to meet us.

That was unusual; Ralph actually lived some distance away. This trip was blocks out of his way, and normally he rode the bus besides. He'd walked at least a mile just to get here. I could clearly make out the ready smile on his face, the brightening of his normal neutral expression. By contrast, Ricky scowled. Wonder what had gotten into him? All I needed was for him to pick a fight with Ralph; Ralph would probably annihilate him. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to beat him before. If they tried something I could probably get Jeeves to break it up though, so there was that.

Ralph jogged the rest of the way and ran up while we waited on him. I pretended not to notice the cars stopped in the middle of the street behind us, rapidly making a conga line of sorts. There was some sort of principle of the thing, though I wasn't sure what principle was at work there, I was sure it made sense to someone somewhere. I waited until he was close enough that I wouldn't have to shout before alleviating my curiosity.

“What brings you this way, Ralph?”

“Wanted exercise; the bus is boring.”

I smelled bullcrap. He grinned.

“Don't raise that eyebrow at me! I swear, you and my mom have the same look. I just wanted to exercise; I might end up all flabby in my old age.”

Not too likely, I thought he was an exemplar. Maybe I should ask... or check. Some sort of scanner for the mutant genome would be possible, but would be pretty useless unless it was hand-held....

“Mistress Min.”

Oh, right. School.

“Sorry.”

Ralph looked amused.

“I know that look; what were you thinking about?”

“A mutant scanner, hand held. Something that could scan for mutant genomes in plants and animals, using dead skin cells.”

He gave me a look.

“So what did you want to know?”

Wow, maybe he really did know my looks, and what they meant.

“Well, it's just you mentioned getting flabby and aren't you an exemplar?”

He nodded as Ricky looked a bit lost... and pissed while following us. I made a mental note to explain the terms to him later. Preferably before he blew up. We arrived at the school, and I smirked at the surprise on both my friends faces as Jeeves followed me onto school property like a ghost. The principle was at the door, and nodded as we went through. Ralph recovered first.

“I am. That was the joke you just stomped on.”

“Oh.”

Whoops. Before I could work up a really good case of mental self flagellation over killing a joke Ralph asked the expected question:

“So, Jeeves is now allowed in school?”

“He sure is. He's even allowed in class with me. Mom talked to the principle after my problem yesterday and signed him up as a guardian; the principle agreed to let him on school grounds, under the same laws that apply to service dogs or personal nurses I think.”

I didn't really like the implications of that but having Jeeves around would be worth it in the long run. Ricky looked even more sour, if anything. Did he not like Jeeves or something? Why would he care if Jeeves was around to help me or not? I'd have to ask him what his damage was when I had the chance; as it was we only had a few minutes to get to class.

Jeeves slid in front of me and started clearing the way through the students. Gently, which was good. Now was as good a time as any to quiz him on what he knew about my time spent here.

“So Jeeves, what is my first class, do you know?”

“Physics with instructor Frank Welch, room 121.”

“How did you know? Did you hack the syllabus or something?”

“Yes.”

Well at least he was honest about it.

Mr Welch wasted no time in establishing the new rules, point to Jeeves.

“You, to the back of the room, and be silent. The only time you're allowed to disrupt class is if Min is having an episode.”

Well gee, thanks Mr. Welch. Why don't you just call me an invalid to my face? Sigh. I sat down as Jeeves left my book bag on my desk and moved back, where he of course, loomed over the class despite his disinterested gaze.

The girls were also looking at him weird. He didn't care but it bothered me. Pam, who was back in class, spent the remaining time before class started ping ponging her gaze between Jeeves and me. Her expression was even more mystifying than the other girls; I needed a book on facial expressions or body language or something.

The class was just as boring as it always was; after handing in my homework I busied myself designing a computer chipset. The engine was already done, and Ian would kill me if I didn't have something to show him by the end of today. Under the watchful gaze of both Jeeves and Ralph, I kept things nice and slow. Any sign of weakness or extreme focus and I was sure I'd find myself in the nurse's office.

A simple copy of ARM was possible, but a few tweaks to the BUS and a few pipeline path changes, and I could easily increase the efficiency of the CPU... maybe I could even boost the size of the instruction strings. Yeah, that should be possible. Fewer transistors, less heat, more commands processed at speed with an improved BUS... I was almost totally surprised when the bell went off; my notebook sketch was about half done.

I could easily understand some people's fear regarding mutants; by the end of the day it looked as if I'd have a modest computer breakthrough that might have taken a team of people without my ability a year to create. And that was after all but building a revolutionary jet engine this week.

I mean sure, it was only a modest 18% improvement overall, and not the other even more outlandish ideas that even now were dancing in my brain (like the CPU sandwich), but a day for an 18% computing power improvement was still a little nuts. I wonder what Jeeves would be like with such a chip in his head?

Jeeves packed up my books and notebook quietly. He was proven technology by this point anyway, and it wouldn't be a good idea to try it without at least testing the chip. Which reminded me.

“Jeeves.”

“Yes mistress Min?”

“When I make that chip, remind me to stress test it first, before giving it to Ian.”

I'd forgot to write that note to myself in the notebook after all, and Jeeves wouldn't forget.

“Alright, do you know my next class?”

“Of course mistress Min. Algebra 101, room 208 with Mr. Howard Mullins presiding.”

He led the way, up the stairs and right to the classroom. Ralph and Ricky both were following. As with the first class, Jeeves dropped off my book bag and walked over to loom at the back. If anything, Ricky looked even more pissed. What was eating him? He could have just said something last class or passed me a note or some... oh. He had probably tried, and I'd ignored him, lost in my own little world again. I caught his gaze and mouthed an apology, which he seemed to get. At least, he stopped trying to glare a hole through everything.

Algebra was even worse than physics; the math came as easily as it ever did, I had already done all the assignments and even made notes and proofs in the book; that sheer boredom was why I had started work on jet engines, after all. Which reminded me; after I handed in my pre-written assignment I started working on chassis of my lab assistants and crash test dummies. Even using Jeeves as a template I needed to make changes, and then I needed to make security. And that meant security bots, which meant even more changes.

Everyone, including Mr. Mullins, did their level best to ignore me while I scribbled except Ralph. I had the sense that he was looking at me, but not really looking at me. I wanted to ask him what he was seeing, but it could wait; I didn't want to disrupt class any more than I already had.

In perfect keeping with my first hour, I made pretty good progress in the second, detailing the changes I wanted. Less intelligence, for less snark and potential problems; I wanted extra hands to do things when I couldn't, not another Jeeves. Besides, I'd seen terminator, and I was pretty sure the CIA had too. The fewer excuses I gave people to grab torches and pitchforks, the better. But I needed at least some intelligence for independent thought, otherwise they wouldn't make good test pilots. Maybe I could simply ratchet up the programmed restrictions on their activities instead?

Hmm, a certain aversion to danger avoidance might be necessary, as I was also intending them to be test pilots; having full self preservation protocols on them would make them rather useless for that role; perhaps a risk aversion assessment?

They would need to be tougher, if not exactly stronger, in order to avoid repairing them all the time. Rugged, redundant systems, nothing too delicate. But if I went that route, who was to say the vehicles I'd have them test wouldn't hurt more fragile humans? Best to make one of each type then. Small and large size, delicate and tough.

Just like with the chipset, I wasn't even close to done before the bell signaling the end of class rang. I knew I was getting things done, I knew I was being productive, but it felt like I wasn't doing things fast enough. This time Jeeves put his hand on my shoulder before packing my things up. He meant it to be reassuring, and it was. We had time.

“So, Min.”

“Yes Ralph?”

“What are you working on?”

I smiled and pointed to my book bag, currently in Jeeves capable hands.

“You'll have to wait till gym to see. By the way, I've got a question for you.”

He looked kind of nervous.

“Shoot.”

“what do you see when you stare at me? It looks like you aren't seeing me at all, somehow.”

Embarrassment mixed with... relief? Weird.

“Well I see the electrical activity your brain produces when you're thinking about things really hard. I can see electrical fields when I try to.”

Wait.

“You can see human nervous systems?”

He shook his head quickly, looking a bit unsettled. I tried to sit on the ideas such an intriguing idea gave me, even though the ramifications in the medical field alone were more than a bit amazing.

“Not most. Like, I can't see the nerve clusters in in your arms, there just isn't enough juice for me to see past your skin. But wiring in the walls, electrical stuff... that I can see.”

Well, that wasn't quite as promising as I'd first thought, but still, I persisted.

“And you can see the brain activity in a human skull through the electricity generated?”

He shook his head as we started up to our next classes.

“No... just yours. When you start thinking I can't help but feel that it's a wonder your head doesn't explode. The field you generate... well it's stronger than any human's I've ever seen.”

I shrugged.

“My skull is probably insulated or something. I can check later, I suppose. But I've got too many priorities to deal with for now.”

And he looked nervous again.

“Look, Min, got to go. See you at Gym, alright?”

“Sure, I'll be there unless I pass out or something.”

He waved and we split up. Ricky chose that moment to catch up. I'd known he was behind us, but he had seemed intent on just following at a distance rather than getting involved in the conversation. Almost as if he were avoiding Ralph for some reason, but he had no reason to do that, nor would he even if he did. It was Ricky, after all.

“So what was all that about?”

Never one to beat around the bush ladies and gentleman, that's Ricky.

“We were just discussing powers. Did you know that Ralph can see electrical fields?”

Ricky was mystified.

“No, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Apparently he can see the electrical field and activity my brain generates when I'm using my power.”

Now it was Ricky's turn to look relieved. What was going on, exactly?

“Oh, that's neat I guess. So hey, I wanted to ask you something....”

Oh, did he want a robot too or something? I was already on the hook for two; both Maggie and Sam wanted one. According to them, there were plenty others that did too but had promised to lay off until the terrible news hound duo got theirs first. Maybe he wanted one to play basketball with, since I was no longer tall enough to effectively block him, strictly speaking. Heh, that would be funny; a basketball playing android.

And then Ricky's hair bristled as Gordo arrived. He had been suspended, though the assault charges that the school had pending against him had been dropped; there had been no evidence of any injuries to me, even if everyone was pretty sure I'd had a concussion. Hm, maybe part of the reason Ralph could see my brain's electrical field was that my skull lacked it's former density? I think I could have taken a knock on the head like that before....

“Myr... Min. We need to talk. Alone.”

Of course that was all that was needed for volcano Ricky to explode.

“No way in hell, Gordo. You got something to say, you say it in public, where she's nice and safe.”

“Shut up, Tanner.”

Great, now they were glaring at each other. Knowing my luck they'd forget about me and go at it right in the halls, and I'd get squashed or something. But Jeeves was with me, so there wouldn't be a repeat of last time. I wouldn't be embarrassing myself twice. They were inches apart, and normally I'd be shoving my way in between them now, but I seriously doubted that I could do that now. Still, there were other ways.

“Sure. Let's talk Gordon.”

Ricky gaped at me. Everyone in the hall who had been so busy ignoring the confrontation forgot what they were supposed to be ignoring, and gaped at me. Even Gordon gaped at me. It made me more than a little angry, actually; I mean, he was the one that asked me! He shouldn't act so surprised I accepted.

I led the way past the geography classroom Gordon and I shared, and into an empty one a few doors down to it. I let Gordon in, and Jeeves followed, cutting Ricky off and shutting the door in his face. Gordon stopped, nonplussed.

“Don't worry about Jeeves; he's mine. Anything you can say to me, you can say to him.”

He took a breath and eyed Jeeves suspiciously. Jeeves just stared back impassively while leaning on the door. He gulped air again before plunging ahead, shocking me.

“Alright. I owe you an apology. I'm sorry I slammed you into the lockers; I lost my temper, and it won't happen again.”

Gordon had just apologized for something? To me? Had he been replaced by a doppelganger or something? I gathered my wits when he started to look mildly pissed off.

“Apology accepted; sorry, I just didn't think I'd ever see that.”

He snorted.

“You almost didn't. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like you, and don't like mutants in general. But I've had plenty of time to think the last couple of days, and more than a few people have talked my ear off about you. And well, coming back to school, doing what you're doing after all that's happened to you, that takes guts man. And I do respect you for that. So are we cool man?”

I held out my hand, and he wasted no time at all grabbing and shaking it gently. No hesitation at all; he wasn't afraid of me or what I could do. It could be simple ignorance, but I doubted it; the entire school knew about Jeeves by now, and more than a few were wary of him.

“Yeah, we're cool. Bygones and all that, though if you want to go at it like we used to I'm afraid I'll have to use a stand in. Speaking of which, can you do me a favor and stop tormenting Ricky? Please?”

He owed me this, and I'd try to collect. If I had to, I'd intervene, and he had to know that. He didn't want to beat on me, and I didn't want to use Jeeves, so maybe we could come to an accord. He waited; if he took any longer to think we'd be late. Ricky had gone from banging on the door to gone already, we had to have less than 30 seconds to get to class.

“I'll stop antagonizing him, but if he starts with me, I'll finish it.”

That was the best I could hope for, and I wouldn't have it any other way; Ricky needed to learn to stop poking people anyway.

“Deal. Now let's get to class before we're late. I really don't want a detention.”

I reached the door as he snorted; Jeeves let me out and I could clearly hear the mutter since the hall was mostly empty and therefore silent.

“Goody two shoes.”

I responded with a snappy:

“You want to spend more time at school than you have to?”

“Good point.”

I smirked as we both managed to reach the classroom at the same time, entering as the bell rang. Where everyone in the class was looking at me. Or rather, Gordon and me, next to each other, both of us smiling. Many a jaw was on the floor, not the least of which was Mrs. Carson. He knew how it looked, same as I did, and smiled again as the whispers commenced. Maggie looked ready to explode, and I knew she'd pounce later.

But for now, Romania. I kind of felt sorry for Romania; the place was so small that even with the long history it had, it only rated a single hour. Tomorrow it would be on to Spain, with many of us wondering why the jump in the first place. I mean, there were other eastern European nations that we still needed to cover, like Hungary. Which I was, come to think of it. That joke just never gets old, no matter who uses it, or how many times.

As soon as the class bell rang, Jeeves pressed a Snickers bar into my hand. Where had he even gotten one, and how did he have money? Oh well, I'd ask later. I needed the boost now. I checked; he hadn't run any students over getting to me, which was good, because Mrs. Carson looked angry enough as it was. She didn't take the chocolate away though, which meant she and the other teachers had likely been briefed on what my new energy requirements were.

So finally I was on my way to gym. I entered first since everyone was changing, a brief and amusing idea of going in the locker room to change and Jeeves following me in without a care in the world. Of course I still wasn't exactly comfortable there, and I'd just get cold without my coat anyway; the large ceiling fans were always on and the gym was usually a good ten degrees below the rest of the school. Good if you were exercising, but not so good if you weren't.

I took my customary seat and grabbed my pack as Jeeves sat beside me. Wait, this wouldn't really do.

“Stay here Jeeves. Watch for stray balls and other stuff like that headed our way. I'll just be a few bleachers up, O.K.?”

“Of course mistress Min.”

He faced front towards the gym floor as Ralph came walking up. Of course Jeeves would hear everything, and might even see it all as well somehow (I wouldn't put it past him, even if his eyes were based on a humans field of vision) but it seemed to offer at least some illusion of privacy with him faced forward.

“No need to try and play human shield today.”

Jeeves didn't even bat an eye as Ralph walked past. Seriously, he had stopped blinking; someone was taking things seriously.

“Well you won't hear me complain. So what's on tap for today?”

“Well I did say I'd let you know, so android test dummies and processor improvements. I owe Ian a computer, and need the androids done before I can work on the jet engine and vehicle for it. Always so much crap I need, just to get to the crap I want to make.”

Ralph dropped a light hand on my shoulder as he sat down.

“Don't worry, you'll get there. If it's any consolation, according to the internet, your frustration is a universal complaint among devisors.”

“Been checking up on the competition?”

“You know it, got to see what I'm getting into. Don't act like you haven't checked up on me.”

I smirked. The posts on exemplars were pretty short actually. Basically they all boiled down to 'better than normal'. A lie of course, since exemplar was on my MID, and I was worse physically than I had been. Well except for agility and reaction speeds. Both of those were still within human norms though. Most devisors made suits to offset their physical weaknesses, and maybe I would too... eventually. Whenever I got some kind of spare minute in between all the other things I had to do. Probably next year sometime, knowing my luck.

Other devisors usually got the ability to stay up and work long hours with little sleep or food somehow, sometimes for weeks at a time. Lucky stiffs; if I could manage twenty hours at a time I would be ahead of my own curve. No, I needed to make more hands. Easily programmable, somewhat intelligent, and absolutely loyal hands who would do as I asked while I was forced to sleep. That came before any suit.

“Wow, these sketches... I can't make heads or tails of them. A multi-level processor? Not a wafer... and another Jeeves.”

“Nah, a crash test dummy. Better than Jeeves for his purpose, but hardly the same thing.”

Okay, that sounded a little pedantic. Ralph wasn't offended.

“I get it. So will he be anatomically correct?”

He waggled his eyebrows. I didn't get it. Why wouldn't he be?

“Well, of course he will. He's a crash test dummy, he has to be for the tests, otherwise they would be invalidated.”

You don't just throw together some poorly made facsimile and throw them in a cockpit of something, not when you can do better; what if a person's crotch would normally be pinched by the seat belt or something, and you hadn't tested for it? That would be... poor design. Didn't tell me why Ralph was looking at me in clear disbelief though.

“What?”

“Nothing, just... never mind. Maybe I'll explain it later. So. There is dance coming up for Halloween, want to go?”

And this lead went here, and the transistor went here....

“Um, sure. I'd planned to go anyway.”

Wait, did he ask me out? I'd been planning to go alone as a punishment to Jeeves, stay awhile, and then get back to work. I looked up into his face; he looked out of it or something, as if he'd taken a locker to the back of his head or something.

“Are you asking me to go with you?”

His eyes stopped staring off into space and he flushed. His voice wobbled a little over his reply. Weird.

“Yeah. You want to?”

“Um, sure, if you don't mind Jeeves being along. Oh, and Sam and Maggie. Pretty sure they want to come. Ricky probably will too, come to think of it, and I'm pretty sure Maggie will want to co-ordinate all our costumes. Or as many as we let her anyway, I have an idea for Jeeves and I, and I'm not in the mood to change it.”

I had heard Maggie say something about the dance, I think, a few days ago. I couldn't remember what she had said, only a general sense of it, which was weird, because my mutation included perfect recall. Something had happened, or was wrong. I'd have to speak to Jeeves later, out of earshot of any potentially worrying friends to make sure. I looked up to find that Ralph's eyes had crossed and he was tense.

“Yeah, sure. That's fine. I'll talk with Maggie later, see what ideas she has.”

I was glad Maggie wasn't anti-mutant. Though I suppose if she were she'd have told me off the first day. I laughed a little.

“Just don't get too close. She'll latch onto you then talk your ears right off.”

Ralph relaxed and smiled; it looked a little melancholy. Had I said something wrong?

“Yeah, she will at that. No problems, I'll be careful. Now let's see what you can draw.”

I broke out the laptop, now that I wouldn't get in trouble for it.

“Sorry, not today. Got to get these things done. If I don't have something to show my brother, he will do very unpleasant things to me.”

“Ian? He wouldn't really do something, would he?”

Hah. I knew it, but on occasions like this he made it obvious.

“Clearly, an only child speaks. He wouldn't do anything directly, but little brothers can be pains, even when they aren't trying. He would actively try. If you have siblings, you must appease their wroth.”

“I... see. Alright, but I want to see something artistic later.”

“Oh ye of little faith. I'll show you something plenty artistic soon enough.”

After all, the new central processor I was designing was art of a sort. No way it couldn't be. Ralph settled in, doing his origami and watching as my fingers flew. I didn't even need to look up to keep an eye out for potential threats with Jeeves here, and the work went fast.

The bell rang, and everyone started hitting the lockers. I packed up reluctantly; another hour and I'd have the thing mapped and ready for a few computer modeling tests. I wonder if other devisors were as fast at things as I was? Could they all do the things I was doing? Might be something to look into, later. I wrote it down in my notebook before Jeeves took it from my hands.

Well, lunchtime. Ralph ate in the cafeteria, but I didn't want to. Oh, crap. Jeeves had been with me all morning, and so hadn't had time to cook me anything. I looked up into his impassive gaze, and he smirked at me and crooked a finger.

“Our usual place mistress Min, but a slightly different route. Please follow me.”

With a shrug, I followed. Not like I was in a hurry, other than being pretty hungry.

The different route turned out to be through the cafeteria itself. Jeeves left me and promptly walked in the back, to the kitchen itself while I waited, hands in pockets and feeling self conscious. It felt like every eye was on me. A quick glance revealed most of them were, and even the looks of bland curiosity got a bit overwhelming after awhile.

Jeeves came back with a covered platter and strode over to the side door. When he looked back and lifted and eyebrow, I flushed and caught up.

“So, the kitchen?”

“I am now allowed to use the facilities of this institution. I made your repast last night at home, and brought it here. A mere 60 seconds in a microwave and the dish is ready to serve.”

Ralph followed us out. Maggie and Sam were already at the tree, unpacking their own lunches. The table and chair were not placed, of course. I sat down in the grass next to Sam. She looked over.

“You need more androids.”

I nodded. I'd already come to that conclusion, after all.

From somewhere Jeeves had produced a small but plump cushion, and set it down. He moved me onto it, ignoring my completely dignified protests, and set a tray also from somewhere, on top of my legs. Onto that the platter rested, and my lunch was finally revealed. It was soup. Yellow soup, with some spices still visible in it. Beside it was a literal hunk of bread cut into small pieces. Jeeves gently placed a silver spoon into the china bowl, careful not to splash any.

“What is this?”

“Carrot Apple curry soup, with dark French bread.”

And he had the gall to smile at me.

“Trust me.”

I leveled the spoon off and brought it up. It was strangely delicious. Dipping a piece of bread in was ever better. It was too bad there were no seconds because I was pretty sure I would want some. Maggie looked over with a pang of jealousy, eying her own PBJ with disgust.

“Is it as good as you're making it look?”

I nodded again. Talking would mean I'd have to stop eating. Sam was bolder; she snagged a piece of bread and dipped it in. Her verdict was similar.

“...Delicious.”

I was surprised, Jeeves hadn't even made a peep. With a shrug I fed a similar piece of the bread to Maggie, who closed her eyes and moaned. Ralph, who had been drinking at the time, spit up his mouthful of coke and Maggie grinned at him.

“So Min, what are your plans for the Halloween dance? You're going, right?”

She knew very well I was. She had all but demanded I come, no less than three times, with Sam standing behind her in silent support.

“You asked me to come. Oh, Ralph wanted to come with us too. I said it was O.K.”

I tried to ignore the flutter in my stomach while Maggie looked over Ralph in an exaggerated show. Sam Just stared at me. Were they going to say it wasn't cool? If so I'd have to choose, and I really didn't want to do that. I'd given my word to go with Ralph after all. Maggie pronounced her verdict:

“... I guess it's O.K.”

Sam was a bit more harsh for all that her voice was soft.

“...Clueless.”

Clueless? Who was clueless, and about what? I poked her in the side and she jumped.

“Huh? We really need to get you to speak full sentences.”

I probably shouldn't have done that; she was probably going to kick me or something now. She didn't; instead she took her chastisement - and a positively huge bite from her sandwich - with dignity and grace.

Maggie was silent too, for once, though she looked like she was working hard to stifle laughter. She changed the subject.

“So, the new digs are open, right? We can watch the native mad scientist in her natural habitat?”

That comment was a twist in my gut, but I could tell she didn't mean it. Sam elbowed her while taking another bite somehow. I ignored it as best I could.

“Yeah, the lab is open. Jeeves moved everything last night, and it should be all hooked up, or close to it. I can set the printer to run off the new project as soon as I get home.”

Well, unless Mom had something for me to do. Maggie loomed.

“Cool! So what's the new project?”

“A new processor for Ian. He was a little jealous of my computer, so I'm making him one.”

I could see the sun again as she withdrew.

“Booooring! I want robots! Robots and jet packs! Make us robots, min!”

I really needed another, bigger 3d printer. Maybe eventually, when I was trusted more.

“Patience. Robots aren't built in a day.”

“Jeeves was.”

That... was a pretty good point. One I couldn't even refute.

“I was constructed in 3 hours, 42 minutes, and 17 seconds.”

The ever so helpful Jeeves.

“Thank you Jeeves, you're a big help.”

Apparently he couldn't read sarcasm.

“Thank you, mistress Min.”

I finished and Jeeves packed up. Maggie looked pretty down; forlorn even.

“Seriously Min, you need to make more robots as soon as possible. I need my leftovers!”

I couldn't agree more, actually. I was already missing the soup. That and bring my comfy lunch chair and table back; Jeeves had spoiled me. That should worry me frankly, but I didn't really have the time or effort for that.

“I'll work on it. Maybe by next week. In the meantime, I agree that we need to work out lunch plans better. But for now, back to the grind I guess.”

We still had several minutes before lunch was over, but I could use the time to just set up, and it would translate to more useful time in study hall. Today I wasn't going to bother with homework just yet. Too many projects, and I was slightly ahead anyway, since I'd used my down time well.

“What's the hurry? It's a pretty nice day. We should all enjoy the fresh air while we can.”

Ralph's words stopped me. Sam was nodding, and a part of me wanted to nod along. It was a very nice day; too good to spend all day indoors, really. But work beckoned, and I think the weather was going to stay nice. So plenty of time after school, on the walk home.

“Normally I'd agree with you, but androids don't build themselves.”

Jeeves opened his mouth, but my look stopped him. My classmates did not need to know, and neither did the CIA or MCO. They were all undoubtedly listening, even though I couldn't see them. It was mildly alarming that he had even contemplated giving away such things in the open, even to my friends. Plenty of time to tell them later, if they still wanted to know. Luckily, no one seemed to notice.

I hurried ahead while everyone packed up, with Jeeves on my heels. Saving the good desks in the back of study hall was important; it kept us together and kept other people from trying to read things from over my shoulder. I'd already caught one guy trying to do that a few days ago; all I needed was some random kid getting my jet pack and putting out an eye or blowing off an arm with it, or something.

I'd say people had more sense than that, but with some it was hard to tell.

Mr. Mullins didn't do more than just look up as I strode in with Jeeves behind me and plopped down with a sigh. He didn't even bat an eye when Jeeves carefully placed my laptop on the desk, stepped back behind me, and all but glared at the class.

The class found other places for their eyes to be.

Sam and Maggie came in and took the flanking desks, as expected. Ricky walked in a minute later, and scowled, deciding on the desk in front of me. I waved, but the bell rang before I could say anything. Which was probably for the best, because I wasn't sure how happy Ricky would be if I had actually said the first thing that popped into my head. I had been about to ask him if he wanted help with his homework, and that would probably have been all kinds of awkward.

I pulled the laptop out of sleep mode and the processor design came up. I started working on it; just like Gym, I didn't need to worry about anything crazy happening. Well, more crazy than Sam staring at my screen and just watching me. I really hoped I didn't have to have the same talk with her that I had with the other guy. What was his name? Gerry I think. Didn't matter, I guess; I mean, I could always just go over and ask. I looked the guy's way and caught him staring; he blushed and went back to his own homework. Math, it looked like.

I brushed aside all distractions and focused.

The processor took shape. It was almost done, in fact when the ringing bell startled me. I wanted to throw up my hands and scream; I was so close! Jeeves was already packing everything up.

“Pace yourself, mistress Min.”

Maggie was looking at me oddly. I took a breath and blew it out. Jeeves was right.

“What?”

“Nothing, you just zoned out. Ignored me entirely.”

“Ack! Sorry.”

“No problem, just the price of you being awesome.”

Sam nodded along with that as I resisted blowing her a raspberry. I looked over at Ricky; if I had ignored everyone, had I missed anything he had said to me? He did seem a bit angry, but it didn't seem to be directed at me. Still, I leaned over and whispered to Maggie:

“I miss anything?”

Maggie's ever-present grin widened as she answered with an even softer whisper than I had managed.

“Not much. He just invited himself along to the Halloween party with the cool kids is all, and didn't like the idea of us all coordinating costumes.”

“Oh. Well, what were your plans?”

“I was thinking superheroes!”

I caught Sam rolling her eyes as mine were circling. No way was I doing that, it would interfere with my own plans regarding Jeeves's punishment. I shook my head.

“Won't work. We need to do something 18th century if we are coordinating at all.”

“Oh? Why?”

I didn't need to whisper the last part; Jeeves would hear it anyway.

“Because I'm punishing Jeeves. You know, for being Jeeves.”

Jeeves for his part, just stared back at me impassively. Sam broke in, surprising me. Was that a smile, there?

“We can switch.”

A full sentence even! I was a positive influence.

We all piled into English class and were promptly bored. It was all reading today, anyway. I stood up and read when it was my turn, but otherwise went over the bot designs. I would need to buy more notebooks soon, so I'd stop using my class ones.

Finally, the bell rang and we were released from prison for the day. Jeeves packed up for me, and we left, Maggie and Sam keeping pace, and Ricky and Ralph both walking on ahead. Jeeves watched our backs, of course. It was finally time to get some real work done.

Today was the day. Today was the day I was to meet Shecky Green. And if I was lucky, I'd be able to start the actual design phase of my crash test dummy-bots, and get Ian's computer designed and made. Then maybe, if I did all that, I could work on the rocket engines I wanted. I had a pretty cool idea for a small plane, it was actually much better than yesterday's idea.

I stretched as the alarm went off. I couldn't really keep redesigning if I ever wanted to build, but yesterdays designs really were inadequate. The computer processors I designed might even be a little less efficient than the ones in my laptop. More computing power, but also more power usage and more heat. I could maybe set one of the bots to cook. I had spent all afternoon and last night loading the printer and making some last minute adjustments. The design wasn't perfect, but I'd learn more just by making one than I would from running endless simulations and second guessing myself; it wasn't like I didn't have the resources to make several already. If it sucked as an assistant then I could just melt it back down.

There was a polite knock on the door. “Time to prepare for school, Mistress Min.”

Odd, the last few times he walked right in. Maybe it was because I was awake and actually feeling good for once?

I beat Ian to the bathroom again, but I knew he was awake; his computer was on and something with explosions was playing on it. Was he simply waiting on me? Being nice, since I now had to take longer to get ready due to this stupid hair? That seemed a little difficult to picture; maybe he'd stayed up and fell asleep at his computer again? That seemed more likely. Either way, I wasn't about to ruin it.

My clothes were already waiting for me, as were all the soaps and shampoos and conditioners and other crap people expected me to use. I used it, showering as quickly as I could. A few (alright, more than a few brushstrokes through my hair and then I got dressed, in the dress shirt that seemed grafted to a sweater; I had no idea what to call it, really, even though I was sure it had a name. Both it and the jeans hugged me and were warm, so it was a good choice. It felt cold today. Well more cold; one of the things I noticed was that I felt a little cold even on warm days. Thermal regulation did not seem to be something my body did well anymore.

It made me glad my lab coat wasn't a banned item at school. Speaking of which, it was downstairs. Ian left his room as I left the bathroom, his computer now quiet. I had my answer.

Breakfast was ready, and aside from the coffee, it was weird. “Jeeves, what is this, exactly?”

Mom and Dad were already chewing away, making moans of pleasure so I doubted it was poison, but still, it looked like a weird sort of oatmeal with… were those sliced peaches added in? Grapefruit maybe?

“Quinoa porridge, with chia, peaches, grapefruit, and a touch of lemon.” Was the unexpectedly comprehensive response.

“And what is Quinoa?” I'd never heard of it, but it was obviously a grain of some kind. I poked at it with the spoon, trying to get a better idea by its shape.

“An edible grain, mistress Min. It is considered tasty when prepared like this by a majority of humans.”

Mom finished chewing and glared. “Sit down, quit picking at it, and eat it. It's good and very good for you. Helps to promote tissue regrowth, which is good for a regenerator.”

I took an experimental bite. It really wasn't bad; it tasted more like barley than oatmeal, but it wasn't bad. It was even better with the peaches. The coffee was smooth and mild today; did Jeeves tailor that to my health too?

Well, either way, I wanted more of it. Maybe a full pot. “This coffee is coming with me.”

Dad opened his mouth, then looked up; I met his eyes and he closed it. Darn right; he can have some, but I'm taking the rest. If I hid it well the teachers wouldn't catch on. Jeeves didn't even question it, instead pulling out a shiny, brand new looking stainless steel thermos I didn't know we had. It looked like it would be perfect for sample collecting later if I needed to.

Ian came down and stared into his bowl. Mom gently sat him down as she went for a refill; she cut in front of Jeeves before he could start pouring himself. “Eat young man, it's good for you.”

Ian's reply was expected. “That must mean it tastes like… a – err, it's awful.”

I grinned as Mom glared. We both knew what he had been about to say. He was poking at his bowl much like I had; I decided to ease his fears. “It tastes just fine Ian. Kind of like a barly cereal. Like fruit loops, sort of.”

He took a bite and gave a glare of his own. “This tastes nothing like fruit loops.”

Of course, that didn't stop him from eating more.

Jeeves set a glass of orange juice in front of Ian then started brushing my hair while I finished up. He didn't dish me seconds, which was good since I was pretty full. I left my dishes in the sink but took my coffee with me back upstairs. I had to collect the notes I made last night.

Most were on my nightstand, but some had drifted to the floor; I really shouldn't use loose-leaf sheets for note taking, I guess. I got them and checked the clock. I still had a good twenty minutes; that was plenty of time. I drained my mug on the way back downstairs and topped it off with the last liquid in the pot. Ian was eating seconds, and both Mom and Dad had topped off cups as well. Dad was still reading, but I realized he had switched from the paper to soldier of fortune magazine. He was probably looking at the guns again.

Mom was collecting dishes; that wouldn't do at all. “Mom, let Jeeves do that. Jeeves, do the dishes and make sure everything I need for the day is in my backpack. I'm going out to my lab, let me know when it's time to go to school.”

“Yes, mistress Min.” He waited until Mom turned to me, mouth open, then snuck in front of the sink; she wouldn't be able to move him now. I grabbed my coat and ducked out before she got over the distraction and returned to whatever she was going to say to me. If I didn't hear her say not to go, then I wouldn't have to obey!

A short jog and I unlocked the door, allowing the retinal scanner to do its work. It wasn't perfect, but between it and the fingerprint detector on the door handle, it would keep anyone but a mystique wannabe out. I would make the security a bit more robust starting today, but the first step to that was providing an android like my crash test dummy; he could at least be programmed with a list of who could be let in and who to raise the alarm about. I was glad I remembered to keep the keys in my coat.

My laptop was on the desk, sleeping. I hit the button for the window shutters and crossed over while they retracted from the windows and skylight with a faint rumble. Jiggling the mouse a little woke it up and I started feeding my last minute notes in by scanner, letting the program I'd build a week ago run a comparison match between the older and newer blueprints. It took about ten minutes, going by the clock on the wall.

I cycled the start up for the 3d printer then started the simulations on the latest merged blueprints. I was pretty happy with myself when the clock struck 7:30 and I hadn't gone into any sort of episode; I hoped that meant it was getting easier, but I didn't want to fool myself; it could just be that old designs (even a day old) didn't hold my interest the same way new stuff did. There was a knock on the door at 7:30 and 15 seconds.

“It is time for school, mistress Min.”

“Coming!” I wasn't sure why Jeeves didn't just come in, he was cleared too and had his own key (I wasn't absolutely sure, but if anyone would have made a spare key for themselves, it would have been him).

I set the printer on automatic, put the signs up so no one would stumble into it and get hurt. With the receptacle chute in place to prevent anything from getting damaged when it was finished, I left and locked up. “Jeeves, if you aren't doing anything else, can you check on the printer throughout the day? I have it set up but it really should be at least looked in on. I'll leave the laptop here so you can shut it off remotely just in case.”

“Of course, mistress Min.” So he really did have a key of his own; good. It would be a bit of a pain to just make notes for a day, but using my phone the way I used my laptop would get noticed, and I didn't have the clearance to use my phone that way by the school, so it'd just get confiscated as if I were making texts in class or something.

The slight irritation would be worth it, anyway; I'd made do with notebooks before, and it wasn't even that long ago.

I waved to my respective tails as we walked, and both of them (agent Sands and agent Douglas, both opposite each other in different nondescript cars, both not fooling anyone) waved back with sheepish grins. Agent Sands saluted me with his coffee as I passed. It was Starbucks, and that meant it was inferior. Between that and the donut on his dash, I almost felt sorry for him. I wonder if it would break some sort of code to invite him over for breakfast for a day? Of course, if I did that I'd have to invite agent Douglas over as well; wouldn't be fair to him otherwise.

Ricky was waiting at the end of his block, like usual, dribbling a basketball. Decisions, decisions… more time using my phone to plot potential weak points in robotic joint design, or steal his ball? I tucked my phone into my back pocket as we got close and made my move right as he opened his mouth to say hello.

“Morning Min. Hey, my ball!”

I still got it. Well, some of it, anyway. “Morning Ricky, how are you?”

I dribbled the ball a bit and passed it back to him. He caught it with that distinctive slap of ball hitting hand that I missed and went back to dribbling, falling in next to me.

“Pretty good, got all my homework done. Parents aren't flipping out about the C I got in history yesterday. They have changed priorities lately.”

Well, that sounded ominous. Ricky's parents weren't as cool as mine; they were always yelling at him about low grades or turning his music down or some other such thing… and I was pretty sure they did not like me. They hadn't met the new me, mostly because I was busy, but the way they had acted before – it was nothing I could really put my finger on, they were always nice and polite, but it was as if they considered me the reason Ricky got into all the trouble he did at school; a thought I'd shared with Ricky and we'd both laughed over in the past.

“So what's on tap for you today? That wayward robot coming home still?”

“Yep, that and I'm working on another. I think I'll name him Crash.”

Ricky made a humming noise, switching dribbling hands. “That seems like a pretty obvious name, even for a testing robot. How long will he take to make?”

Of course, it was an obvious name. I sucked at names. “He will probably be done tonight or tomorrow? I'm not really sure. He could take a week, but if Jeeves is there to oversee the production, it shouldn't take nearly that long. I kind of really need him for security; there are a lot of crazies out there, and I won't stay an unknown forever.”

I could do a lot of good, but only if I didn't piss off the wrong people or something. I was pretty sure a jealous devisor with more resources than I had would eat me alive, and that A.R.N.E.E. was right for hiding – or rather, I was right, for programming him to hide even from myself. What I didn't know, I couldn't reveal. On the other hand, I had to take it slow, or I might make everyone else nervous.

Like Ricky, he seemed a bit nervous right now. “You mean more like that one jerk?”

I wasn't going to treat his concerns lightly. “Or worse than him, yes. I just want to be ready.”

I could see me getting kidnapped for my tech, devisor or not. Or maybe I was just paranoid. After all, no one had tried to force me to do anything yet, and it had been weeks! The CIA hadn't even tried to force me to reveal A.R.N.E.E.. It wouldn't have done them any good, but they hadn't even tried. I was probably just reading too much into it; it wasn't like my tech was reproducible, even if it made perfect sense to me.

Of course, that didn't stop random people from stopping by and assuming this area was easy pickings. It had happened before, after all. Either way, it would ease my mind to be ready. Well, within reason; I didn't want to start a terminator scenario either. So far my robots had proven loyal, but their idea of loyalty was infuriating at times.

The school came into view and Jeeves stopped, handing off my backpack. It was heavier than I remembered. “Have a wonderful day mistress Min, and do not hesitate to call should you need me. I am heading back now to oversee the printer. I shall be waiting for you at mid-day at your usual spot with lunch. If you'll excuse me.”

I waved him off and he left; setting the backpack on a shoulder almost knocked me completely off balance. Ricky moved to help but was saved from a pounding by the arrival of Maggie and Sam. I wasn't THAT weak, it just took me by surprise was all; six books and notebooks shouldn't be that heavy.

I went to my locker and placed my books inside it; I'd read them already, so they were just taking up space. Anything I needed to refresh myself on I had my notes for, but I didn't seem to forget anything technical or any rote facts anymore. Even better it seemed to work retroactively, so I could remember past middle school lessons, especially the math and science. If I'd forgotten last years history lessons… well, I'd forgotten them, so how would I know? I didn't think I did, though, I knew how many people Washington crossed the Delaware with of all things, and I was pretty sure I'd forgotten that at one point.

I was proven right by my first class. A pop quiz, and I had it done in five minutes. I adjusted my glasses, pulled out one of my design notebooks and got to work, trying to ignore the way Pam was sneaking glances at me. She wouldn't even talk to me lately and it seemed like she was avoiding me. Other than her, though, the school seemed to be back to ignoring me, or at least no longer staring at me when I walked by. It could just be my imagination, but people seemed more friendly to me now. I kind of hoped it was just something I was imagining since it made no sense; people were distrustful and wary of Ralph, the other mutant in school.

Maybe it was because I was tiny. It certainly wasn't the hair, mine was every bit as bright as his, if less eye-searing. It took some getting used to, but I was getting used to it, slowly. It was a bit fascinating how quickly and easily humans could get used to changes in their appearance. Why it happened wasn't as easily understood – at least not for me. Maybe I could ask an expert. Well, just as soon as I found one.

Class periods passed in the same boring manner of school class periods everywhere. Algebra and geography were droning lectures covering material I'd already read and understood. It was interesting to see how the Rhone river had moved it's bed over the centuries, though, even if it was just a computer model and therefore likely flawed.

Gym was just more sitting around, writing in my notebook. A few modifications to my other robot design, and my newer jet design, and I looked up. Only fifteen minutes had passed, and something was wrong. Ralph, who had been sitting next to me reading a book, noticed it too.

“What's wrong, Min?”

I shook my head; it actually took a moment to figure it out, but the light dawned. “I'm bored.”

I was actually bored of just sitting here writing. I wanted to go do something, anything, more hands on that this. I stood up.

“Come on, let's go see the coach.” After all, if I was bored, Ralph had to be too, right? A look back showed he was following me and he hadn't objected, so that was a yes.

Coach Howard was watching the class play; he turned to us as we walked up. I opened my mouth in a hurry before he opened his.

“Coach, I know we're not allowed to participate with the other kids, but is there anything we can do? Kind of want to move a little, here. Maybe we can run laps outside or something? The day is pretty nice.”

Of course, I hadn't changed into any gym clothes, and that would make it harder to run… but for all that it was nice, it was a little chilly so my coat would come in handy. It wasn't like I was cheating or anything.

Too bad the Coach shot that idea down with a shake of his head. “You're both still under my supervision, and I'd have to be watching. If you went outside, I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on you. I don't mind you doing something, but it'd have to be alone or the two of you, and it'd have to be inside.”

He cupped his chin, thinking. I could actually see the idea strike him. “Got it. There is something you can do if you want.”

I didn't like his grin. “What is it?”

If he asked me to clean out the closets again, I was going to unleash mechanical spiders on him. I could do it, I knew.

“Ping pong. Table tennis. You can set up the table in the corner there, and play a few games. It located in the closet, far wall, next to the baseball bag. The balls and paddles are in the felt bag under the table top.”

Really? Ping pong? “Don't you have anything that's a little more… active?”

He shrugged back at me. “Not that you can dig out on short notice. I can plan a little something tomorrow, but you kind of caught me by surprise here.”

I could tell what he wanted to say. That I had been quite content before to write weird things and make paper animals. I couldn't even say I wouldn't be back to that tomorrow, because ping pong. But for now it was something to do, and a way to move around.

I went to the closet and Ralph followed me without a word. He stepped in front of me as I turned on the light (the closet had no windows, and was, therefore, dim) and just picked up the table by himself. Sure, it wasn't a heavy thing, but it was awkward, but every time I reached out to help he moved the table away, smirking all the while. I finally just held the door for him.

“Thank you, dear lady.” I smirked back at him when he banged the edge of the table against the door frame and almost tripped himself. Coach Howard spared him a glare; the sound had apparently been loud enough for him to hear and no doubt we would get a lecture later about being more careful with school property; never mind that the table as older than I was and made of old wood and steel.

We unfolded it together in the corner, picked our paddles, and I grabbed a ball, taking the coveted first serve. All in all, we squeezed in three games.

Ralph kicked my butt in all three. The guy was a ping pong wizard or something. I couldn't even see his hands move half the time, it was stupid, but I had fun anyway.

I was actually a little tired as I helped fold the table up and put it away. This time, Ralph let me help, though he supported all the weight; I just got to help him steady it and open the door again. It was a good sort of burn, though, and I was looking forward to lunch.

Ralph went to get his lunch and then ran back to my side, scattering people with a disturbing lack of caution. I waited a bit so he'd slow down, but he didn't. At least all that happened were dirty looks, and no one got hurt. My lunch was set up at the table under the tree, with Jeeves standing there, one hand on the covered platter, the other on the chair I liked.

I sat and he actually lifted the chair up and set it closer with one hand as he removed the lid. On the dish were a good ten or twelve items I recognized; grilled Panini.

I turned to look at him as he served one to my plate. “Losing your touch? I've actually had Panini before.”

“Zucchini Panini, mistress Min, Italian style.' He uncovered the other dishes and pointed to each in turn. 'Garden Risotto and Sicilian artichokes.”

Okay, I hadn't had any of that before. But one day, he would screw up and serve me something that didn't take a thousand years to make, and I would laugh at him. He poured some dark juice, and I took a sip; cranberry-pomegranate, one of my favorite. Knowing Jeeves, it was probably the best juice for the food, too.

Sam and Maggie came up and took their seats. Ralph had known better than to sit down. Neither Sam nor Maggie were carrying lunches, and there were place settings for them, but there was no way the three of us were going to eat all this alone. It made me worry how much money Jeeves was no doubt spending on food; could we even afford this?

The first question for Shecky, perhaps. Maybe right after why his name was Shecky; it all but screamed 'shyster'.

“Wow, these are really good!” Maggie exclaimed, talking with a full mouth. Sam just nodded along.

“Please consume the side dishes as well, if you please.” Jeeves chided as several of the Panini made their way onto the others plates. Maggie nodded, but Sam had the good grace to look repentant, stabbing artichokes with a fork and moving them over.

Ricky walked up empty handed and without so much as a word or thought snagged a Panini himself, cramming half of it into his face immediately while Jeeves looked on with clear disapproval. After chewing noisily for a bit he swallowed and spoke, sounding almost angry.

“So, you wanted to ping-pong today?”

Sam chimed in. “Good.”

I actually knew what she meant, that time. “Kind of you to say Sam, but I sucked. And yeah, I just wanted to do something. I don't mind folding cranes or playing chess or designing stuff, but I wanted to move, you know?”

Sam clarified. “Not you; Ralph.”

Maggie laughed. “Yeah, he was pretty good, wasn't he? Who knew he was a ping-pong ace?”

Well, now I felt stupid. “Gee, thanks, Sam.” She nodded as if to say 'don't mention it.'

Ralph was turning an interesting shade, though.

“Might even finish lunch early and walk around a little. It's a nice day.”

It really was, a slight fresh smelling breeze, sunny with only two white clouds in the sky. I pretended not to notice the unmarked van across the street and turned back to my lunch.

“Jeeves, what's the progress on Crash?” The name Crash did more than suit him, it described him, but I really needed to think of a different one.

“When I left, two hundred of the three hundred and twenty-seven parts were printed. Excepting the power system, of course. You will have to build that by hand, I fear. When I return, I shall begin the construction, with your permission.”

I nodded, thinking.”You have it.”

My technology was dangerous; a fully functioning android in a day or two. Looking human, with just a few quirks – and that was on one printer. I could simply make more than one printer if I wanted; streamline the process - end up making hundreds or thousands. It would be easy, with a little money.

But I wouldn't. There was nothing I needed such an army for, anyway. I needed to know if my creations would turn on me, too. I had some safety measures in place, but I had to make sure they would be enough. So far Jeeves hadn't fired eye lasers, yelled death to humans, or poisoned me, so I was pretty sure the programming was sound.

But I needed more data to be sure, and another android would give me that. Simulations could only tell one so much, after all. I just had to be careful not to go overboard; already ideas for weaponized androids were floating around in my head; robots who were only built for one purpose.

My power was scary.

It turned out that after two Panini, the Risotto, and four artichokes later there wasn't enough time left to do more than shuffle around to the side door while Jeeves packed up. Maggie fell into step beside me, prompting Sam to stop helping Jeeves (Something that was ridiculous, really; Jeeves wouldn't want help doing what he was made for, after all, it would be like reducing his purpose for existing.) and fall in behind us.

“Well, tough break. So, what are you planning after school?”

I rolled my eyes. “Same thing I said I was doing yesterday, Maggie. Working on the engine.”

She grinned. “Hey, I just wanted to make sure. You have changed your mind before, and you do have that robot coming over. We're still invited, right?”

I sighed. “Yes, you are. You all are.”

I would have to double check the safety measures and equipment before I turned anything on. Especially around the printer. I was pretty sure why the printer was acting that way, it was detecting metals, minerals, and other materials suited for the print jobs I was giving it, and trying to save effort and time by eating them.

Perhaps if I split the atoms of matter correctly, I could reconstruct it and make one type of matter into something else. Then I could have that device make the material for the printer, and it wouldn't be trying to eat people's computers, phones, or androids. No, that just wasn't possible. It would be possible to do that sort of thing with metals, making different alloys and such, or making gems or crystals, using pressure or chemical treatments, but taking a rock like sandstone and making it titanium? Just wouldn't work. Still, that was another machine, or even series of machines, to add to the list.

“Earth to Min?”

I looked up to find Ralph staring at me, Ricky looking vaguely pissed about something in the background. Maggie had the door open and a smirk on her face and Sam was... behind me?

“Sorry. Was thinking about something.”

“Oh? What was it this time?”

“Just going over the safety measures. I don't want anyone to lose an eye or anything, after all.”

Maggie shrugged and stepped inside. “I trust you.”

“Trust.” Sam seconded.

I stepped in after them, Ricky right behind. Ralph ended up holding the door for both of us.

School dragged. My homework took less than twenty minutes to do since I no longer needed to read any of my books, and I spent some time on making origami animals. Dolphins and sharks were easy, but the gorillas were crazy; I resolved to burn those before Ralph could see my laughable attempts.

Then I started writing the necessary molecule chain of a titanium/aluminum alloy that could be layered in mono-molecular sheets and fused; I couldn't possibly heat the materials I had high enough, but I there were other ways. I could make a batch of nanites to physically move the matter and then fuse to it. If I did it right, they could become the basis for any circuitry I would need later, but I really just wanted a blast shield and some movable walls from the idea now. Proof of concept.

And all this without my brain going into that mysterious upper gear it had. I had perfect recall of my location and situation! But I could still feel it lurking there, in the back of my mind. Keeping my thoughts grounded required constant vigilance.

English was boring. I collected my graded homework, blinking at the B; evidently my ideas on Shakespeare's midsummer night's dream were not sufficiently detailed. Granted, it was still better than my old work, but Mom was going to be pissed. I was pretty sure she expected A's in every subject.

The assignment Mrs. Holmes handed down was to read the next one on the list; King Lear. I'd already read it, but I probably should read it again. I knew what the problem with my last paper had been; I had wanted to get it done so I could work on other things, like Crash. That was something else I'd have to watch. I gathered my notebooks and left, nodding to Mrs. Holmes as I joined the exodus out the door. She frowned at me a little but didn't say anything.

Surely she wasn't disappointed in my B too? I mean I used to get C's in English, getting B's was a rare event. It wasn't really fair.

I wasn't the only one to get the disappointed eye. Ricky also got it, and he was still clutching his paper – I could see the large C on it. Oh well, there was nothing to do for it now, but to do better next time. I stopped by my locker with a sigh. King Lear was in it, part of the truly large literature text that was one-half of the English course. The other half was the grammar and writing rules text of course.

I spun the combination, grabbed the book, and shut the door. Ralph was revealed, waiting.

“Come on, I'll act as a trailblazer for you.”

True to his word he took off, using his bright hair to his advantage; the wave of students broke upon his personal space. I followed; my hair was pretty bright, come to think of it; I wonder why people didn't avoid me the same way they avoided Ralph? Was it because my hair was eye-searing? Was it some buried predator response leftover in their human psyche from nature, the bright orange denoting poison, while my own bright but softer hair just missed the cut?

No, that seemed stupid. Maybe it was his size; after all, he was as big as I used to be, and built, and I was tiny now. That was probably it.

Maggie, Sam, and Ricky were already waiting with Jeeves, who was just off school grounds. That was kind of odd since he was now allowed to accompany me to class if he wanted. He'd seemed so... if not excited, he seemed interested.

There was one possibility to account for that. “Jeeves, when did you arrive?”

He didn't hesitate. “I arrived at this location exactly seventeen point two three seconds ago.”

Right, he'd been busy, and rather than watch me at school he was doing as I asked. A point in his favor.

I started walking, and Maggie fell in on one side, Sam fell in on the other. Ricky, Ralph, and Jeeves walked behind us. That seemed a curious arrangement, but I refused to be distracted by it.

“Have you heard from Shecky yet, Jeeves?”

“I have indeed, fifty-six minutes ago. He is on the final leg of his journey, and reported he should arrive within the hour, barring complications.”

I had the butterflies in my stomach trained to do synchronized cartwheels. “Good.”

“Status on the print jobs?” On Crash?

“The part fabrications are roughly 77% complete. I have begun preliminary construction. The engine awaits your gentle touch.”

Well, that was better progress than expected. “How did you manage that, Jeeves?”

“I fabricated some of the required pieces for the engine personally, of course.”

Well, I hadn't told him not to, though how he did that and started Crash's construction was the question now; He couldn't multi-task any better than I could. Could he?

I mean unless he had more arms, he shouldn't be able to.

“So, anything new going on, Maggie?” Ralph asked.

Maggie thought he meant with the paper; he probably did. “Nah, nothing. This place is dead; other than Min, biggest news is whether the drought expected later this summer will actually happen and stunt the corn crop.”

No news was good news.

“National.” Sam said with a pointed look.

“Oh, right, you guys hear about the new mutant laws proposed? They are a clear violation of civil rights. It's in all the news.”

Ralph snorted. “My mom says they won't pass, but it seems like congress wants to waste time over stupid stuff.”

Sam nodded as I pondered that. I couldn't see how adding more laws and regulation would actually help the problem, but then again I was a kid, and not exactly the best versed on the issues. It might be time to change that.

Talk turned to the game scheduled next week against the town of Libertyville, and the chances our team had of beating them. The chances without me probably weren't good, but I'd be there cheering at least, maybe that would help.

And then we were home. “Be right there guys. Just going to drop my bag at the door and tell my Mom we're home.”

Sure, I could let Jeeves do it, but Mom would not appreciate that; she would want me to tell her I was home myself.

I opened the door and frowned; Ian's shoes were not here, so he wasn't. Normally he beat me home.

“Mom, I'm home! Going out to the lab with my friends, my homework is done!”

I dropped my bag in the corner and shut the door before I could be drafted for something. There, she was informed, and my conscience was clear.

My friends were waiting on me; Jeeves wouldn't unlock the door until I'd arrived. He opened it up and I went straight to the refreshments on the table, zeroing in on the cup of still steaming coffee. Everyone else grabbed sodas.

Jeeves had also made cookies... peanut butter and chocolate chip, by the looks of them. I wasn't hungry yet, but I knew I would be.

Sam was less shy, stuffing her face immediately as I went over to look at the engine hanging suspended in the center from chains, under the skylight.

“Delicious.” She gushed. Well, gushed for her.

The frame was together, the lines for power had been run, and the slotted sections designed to hold the delicate electronics and internals were all there. What was missing were the delicate electronics and internals. They were lying there on the desk, checking them for flaws, putting them together, and then slotting them in the case should be easy, if a little tedious. I set a magnifying glass above the parts, got my soldering iron out, and got to work.

Quick, delicate movements were the key. Luckily my hand-eye coordination was still very good. I was vaguely aware of conversations starting in the background, but it didn't bother me... it sounded like Sam and Maggie were doing their homework. Ricky joined in when the conversation got to English, and I approved; he needed the help.

“So, Min, what do you think about King Lear? Have you started reading it yet?” Maggie's question took me by surprise, but it really shouldn't have.

“I've read it, yes. I think the king is a stereotypical bumbling idiot with power, but he may be the origin, or one of the origins, of the stereotype. I think he really should have known which of his daughters was suitable to inherit, and should have known the political situation of his kingdom.”

I didn't add that I thought the entire thing was too trite and contrived. I didn't see any real king ever just giving up his entire kingdom and dividing it among his heirs.

Sam struck on my comments first, with a muttered “True.”

“Yeah, that's my take as well.” Maggie agreed. “I think Shakespeare was trying to illustrate a certain amount of stupidity of the noble class by ratcheting it up a notch, or something.”

I settled a recalcitrant transistor in place as Ralph took up the conversation. “The legend of King Lear is supposed to be real, though. He was supposed to be a real king, pre-Roman, and his story was recorded as mostly the way Shakespeare wrote it, at least in the general details.”

I turned to look at Ralph. Sam gaped at him openly. Ricky was gaping at him too. He hunched over defensively.

“What? I read.”

I turned back to my work with a shrug. “Well, if you're going to write that in the paper, you'll have to cite sources.”

I saw him wince out of the corner of my eye. “Yeah, I won't be doing that. Just something I read somewhere.”

Probably Wikipedia, when he knew King Lear was on the syllabus. I turned back to the circuit board with a frown; I had no idea what I'd write on the subject myself, but we all had time. The reading assignment had just been passed down, after all.

Where was Shecky?

I had the engine more than half assembled and Jeeves had long since left in order to prepare dinner when the lab doorbell chimed pleasantly. Everyone else looked up from their homework as I answered it; it seemed the novelty of watching me carefully construct things had already gone stale.

The man in the doorway was not a man. He certainly looked the part, being middle aged, chubby large, and happy looking with a broad smile on his face. The beady eyes and the pea green striped suit with red dress shirt underneath told the truth, however; no human would wear that color combination.

Why did he look so out of shape? Was it a fuel or power supply thing? Jeeves managed just fine with the magnetic turbine and that was only the size of a large fist, did A.R.N.E.E. do something different for Shecky?

He stuck out his hand as his smile widened. “Miss Campbell, pleased to finally meet you. I'm Shecky Green, your agent, business manager, and attorney.”

I could play along. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Green. Call me Min, please.”

There was a scraping of seats and suddenly my friends were behind me. I also spotted Jeeves coming out the back door. He didn't look happy.

“Look, sorry I'm late, Traffic outside Christown was a bear.”

Christown was a tiny hamlet even smaller than Paris was, so I doubted that. But it looked like Shecky was the type to make excuses and be late, so maybe both had been programmed in as quirks? Or maybe they were unintentional quirks?

“Almost time for dinner, mistress Min.”

“Thank you, Jeeves.” I was saved having to push past Shecky; he moved back on his own as Jeeves approached. Once I was passed he held out his hand.

“Pleased to finally meet you Jeeves, I'm Shecky Green.”

Jeeves ignored the hand, putting himself at my back as everyone else filed out of the lab. Sam, the last one out, locked it and tossed me my keys, which I had apparently left on the table. I nodded thanks as I watched the show.

Jeeves and Shecky didn't like each other, it seemed. Well, Jeeves didn't like Shecky at least; Shecky seemed more amused by the reaction than anything else.

Sorry guys, I think dinner's going to be family only tonight. Maybe tomorrow?”

Maggie nodded with a grin; she'd caught on too. “Sure thing, tell us how it goes, alright?”

“Sure, I'll have the engine done tomorrow too, so we can test it.”

Sam brightened. She had paid at least some attention to what I had been doing.

I waved and went inside; Mom was waiting in the kitchen, but when her eyes lit on Shecky, following us in, she stopped.

“Who is that? Is that your mystery robot? I thought he was a no-show.”

Shecky swept his bulk into a florid bow. “Pleased to meet you, madam. Shecky Green, agent, and consultant in legal matters, including patent law.”

Mom shot a sort of 'is this guy for real?' look and started laughing.

Shecky ignored her. “I don't mean to interrupt your families dinner, but I just have a few things to cover with you all. You and your husband mostly, since miss Campbell is underage.”

“Oh, miss Campbell, is it?” Mom kept giggling.

Dad came storming in. “Who's wreck is that in the driveway?”

Shecky answered. “My wreck, sir. Shecky Green, agent and patent lawyer.”

Dad clearly didn't know what to think. “Uh, hi.”

“So, can I get you anything Mr. Green?” Mom asked with a sparkle in her eye.

“No, thank you, Ma'am. I'm just here to discuss a few legal matters with you both, then I'll be on my way.”

“Alright, what legal matters, exactly? Something was mentioned about patents before?” Wow, we weren't even going to sit down for this. A major breach in etiquette... but then again, dinner was probably on the table.

“Right.” Shecky reached into his jacket pocket, slowly. Mom and Dad both tensed. He pulled out a small book; a check book? He held it out to me.

I grabbed it before Mom could intercept me. It had Paris national stamped on it and was definitely a checkbook. There was a bank balance book inside it, and one of the new debit cards inside that.

“That's your account, miss Campbell. The profit from the sale of the rights to produce the new coffee pot filtration system, the new flange for jet engine casing and flange design should already be in the account, by contract you keep the right to make anything you design without challenge, but I've not yet been able to confirm all the payments as the bank is currently closed. Mr. Coffee picked up the new pot filtration design for three percent of sales, and GE and Rolls-Royce are currently in talks about the engine and flange design.”

He grinned. I wasn't amused. “You mean the engine I haven't even tested yet?”

He waved a hand in dismissal. “It'll work, and you've had the design down for days. Besides, this is just for the basic design and casing, not even including the fusion reactor. I knew you didn't want to sell anything too advanced, like the nanites or the magnetic turbine or the printer.”

Mom's eyes narrowed. “And how did you know that, Mr. Green?”

He pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his face. “Tough crowd. Truth is, Ma'am, we all know about the boss and her dealings. Our jobs, our reasons for existence if you will, is to anticipate her wishes and help her as best we can. My job ain't the most glamorous, but she needs it. We keep an eye and an ear on her, and we can better do what she wants. Right now, what she wants, is her tech, her real tech, kept under wraps.

Things like the coffee maker and the flanges? Child's play. New ways to mold Titanium cases? Sure. The nanites or fusion or us? All of that can be world changin', and she don't want it getting out just yet. So it won't; or at least I won't be the one to do it. Only reason I'm stepping up the timetable now is miss Campbell needs the money to pay you both back.”

“Oh, and just how much money has the sale of these gadgets netted her?” Mom asked.

“Well, the coffeepot netted a hundred thousand up front; I talked Mr. Coffee into that, it wasn't something they wanted to do. That is actually in the account as of today. General Electric and Rolls-Royce are still in a bidding war for the engine. Something lighter than their normal and more efficient besides, translating to at least 3% better fuel efficiency without any power supply shenanigans aside, on an engine that can eventually be adapted to run on other forms of energy – inside a streamlined housing that creates less drag and can be machined easier.”

Shecky mopped his forehead and grinned, showing teeth before he continued.

“Right now the price for the design might top a hundred million.”

Jeeves caught me before I hit the floor. Mom wasn't far behind. And I'd been doing so well today too.

But the things I could do with actual money, on top of being filthy rich... even worse, the attention it would draw.

“We need a shell company, a trust, or something.”

Shecky, who was being blocked from checking up on me by Mom (Dad was on the floor in a daze, he had no Jeeves to carry him bridal style) nodded. “Already handled. You're a nameless, faceless inventor of SG heavy industries, as far as anyone knows. If anyone manages to get past that, your name is Consuela Jones and you live in the Philippines. No one will be able to track you down from your patents unless we want them to. Same with the payments.”

“Is there really a Consuela Jones?” I didn't want some random person getting hurt by someone coming after me.

“There are plenty, actually, but don't worry, anyone coming after you will do a background check first; they won't target random people.”

Mom nodded. I guess having friends in the CIA, she'd know. It all seemed a little too cloak and dagger-y to me.

I turned to Mom and Dad. It wasn't that I didn't trust Shecky – but I didn't trust Shecky. He just struck me as smarmy; kind of like a leashed used car salesman. One on your side, but still a used snake oil kind of guy.

“What do you think?”

Mom knew what I was asking right off, answering as Dad shook himself free of dollar sign dreams. “It sounds pretty good. Not foolproof, by any means, but with what my friends are doing? It'll be as close to ironclad as we can get here. Especially considering Mr. Green here can apparently hack and falsify records.”

Shecky actually blushed. How did he do that? “Aww shucks, Ma'am. You give me too much credit; I'm not the real hacker. But you're right that I can defend Miss Campbell from anything unlawful, at least on that side of things. We have friends.”

“The mysterious A.R.N.E.E.?”

Shecky grinned. “Got it in one, Ma'am.”

Dad finally managed to stand back up. “Young lady, that money and any other amount you earn, is going right into a trust fund; you're not getting it until you're eighteen.”

I looked at Shecky and he nodded slightly. He really was smarmy; he could get to the money if I really needed him to, wherever my parents put it. A good thing, really, because those kinds of funds could speed up my timeline by months. Strictly if I needed to, of course.

“Fine Dad, as long as I get an allowance to buy stuff every now and again. That way I won't run out of titanium or other stuff.”

Mom cut in. “That's fine, we can negotiate the amount later. For right now, dinner is getting cold.”

Mom had spoken. I poked Jeeves and he let me down. Shecky took that as his cue. “Alright, well I got things to do. I'll see if I can close that deal tonight if you'll all excuse me. I'll just leave my card right here and see myself out. Have a nice night.”

He left, shutting the back door behind him. I snagged it one step ahead of Mom; Dad was busy tracking him through the windows as he walked around the house.

The card was green ink on cheap card stock... and it proclaimed him as “Shecky Green, agent.” but when had he had time to order or make business cards?

We all filed into the dining room where dinner was waiting. Dinner was grilled pork chops, mashed potatoes, and Lima beans. I raised an eyebrow at Jeeves, and he nodded at my Mom. Well, that was a very Mom dinner menu; so she had cooked tonight, and Jeeves had what, helped?

Ian made typing motions with his hands as I passed. It was good to know all of us being rich hadn't made him forget about the important things, like his new computer. I mouthed 'in the lab' at him, and he nodded.

It was, too. Still in a pile of parts, but the computer did exist. I'd have Jeeves construct it tonight. Delegating counted, didn't it? I mean Jeeves was my creation, so him making it was like me making it, and I doubted he could screw up making a simple computer with the parts already printed off to tolerances. That would leave me to finish the engine, which was actually sort of dangerous.

Dinner was good, but a little bland tasting and disappointing, in a way. Of course, I was a genius now, which meant I knew better than to actually voice that opinion. Mom was already watching each of us in turn with a disconcertingly intense look like she was waiting for the wrong word or movement. Dad and Ian both looked at me as if to say it was my fault.

And Jeeves looked insufferable somehow.

 

To Be Continued