I watched as the squirrel I was connected to climbed all over so anti-air emplacent half a city away. Its spastic movent made it difficult for to do a thorough inspection, so I had ended up networking a couple beavers to both my feed and Nora’s tablet to help with the structural analysis.
Once the beavers gave their approval, I imdiately shut down the connection, sat up, and sighed.
“Are you finally going to get off that couch?” I heard Jane ask. I turned and found her sitting at the kitchen table, tablet in hand.
“I thought you were doing school stuff today,” I muttered as I rubbed my head.
“You an that full day of talking to students, going over their education options so Sir Froggington could put together custom learning plans?” Jane asked. “The full day I returned from an hour ago only to find you in the sa position I left you last night?”
I did my best to keep from looking at that judging look as I made my way over to the fridge. “I’ve been working! I’ve been connected to my surveillance network, doing checks on a lot of the defensive emplacents,” I explained. “Guess I lost track of ti; explains why I’m so hungry,” I mumbled as I dug through the edibles.
“I thought you were working with Nora on that… and you told her to take the day off,” Jane said. I couldn’t see her, but I knew she’d narrowed her eyes.
“She needed it!” I insisted as I closed the fridge, sandwich in hand.
“And you don’t?” Jane asked.
I paused, sandwich halfway to my mouth. “Noooooo?”
Jane sighed and pulled out a chair so I could sit down. “That’s a lie, and you know it, you little workaholic. The bags under your eyes are even bigger than when you were putting the finishing touches on the building. Take a break.”
I sat heavily on the chair, took a huge bite of sandwich, and sighed. “Fine.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Jane imdiately admonished . “I’d really like to stay here, and make sure you don’t imdiately slink back to your couch, but I have other things to do.” For a split second, I thought I might be able to get away with doing just that, but then I saw Jane’s smirk. My blood ran cold. “Jennifer!” Jane yelled.
The grease-stained teen poked her head out of her room. “Evelyn is going to help everyone with their howork. Make sure she doesn’t disappear before it’s done,” Jane explained.
“Howork?” I asked, aghast. “I am absolutely the worst person in the world to help them. You should get Alan to help instead.”
“You’ll do fine,” Jane insisted as she leaned over and patted on the head. “You just need to keep them on track and answer the occasional question. You know, regular family stuff.”
“I’m being punished, aren’t I?” I grumbled.
“No, I’m forcing you to spend ti with the family,” Jane said, switching to a quick bop. “When you get going on your projects, you forget the world around you. The kids miss you, so you’re going to spend ti with them. No questions!”
I pouted for half a mont before stuffing more sandwich into my mouth, while Jane stood up and imdiately moved towards the garage. “I’ll be at the school, discussing today’s results with Professor Froggington, you can call if you need .”
I waved at her back, half-heartedly, before turning back towards Jennifer, who was looking at in disappointnt. “How does it feel knowing she trusts a ten-year-old more than you?” the girl asked.
“It’d probably hurt more if I didn’t know it was deserved,” I mumbled before stuffing the last bits of my sandwich into my mouth. I slowly dragged myself to my feet and wandered over to the girl. “So what are you working on?”
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Jennifer instantly smiled and grabbed my hand. “Let show you!” I was surprised at how easily she pulled down the hallway. Guess that was the strength of an excited child. It actually surprised a little since I couldn’t rember the last ti I saw Jennifer this excited.
She shoved into her small room and over to her desk, which was absolutely covered in chanical parts. Not only that, but the top of her dresser and all the shelving I had the bears put in to provide extra storage were filled with parts too. I casually lifted a random part off the dresser, then raised an eye at the little girl.
“What? You shoved your bears into every possible crevice in the garage. At least my parts are organized,” Jeniffer muttered as she snapped the part from my hands and gently placed it back in place.
“I didn’t say anything!” I insisted. “So… what exactly are you working on?”
Jennifer pulled the largest amalgamation of parts forward and proudly presented them to . I didn’t have a clue what it was… it looked like half the scrap I pulled out of the scrapyard. “It’s wonderful?” I said slowly.
Jennifer punched in the arm. “It’s a hover engine for a bike,” she explained.
I looked at the device closer. It did look like sothing I’d pulled out of cars before. “And it works?” I asked.
“It hasn't been plugged into a vehicle or anything, but, yeah. One of the frog bots helped hook it into a testing rig. It started up and passed all the tests,” Jennifer said as she ran a hand across the little device.
“Amazing! I’m completely useless when it cos to machines. I’m so proud of you!” I announced as I grabbed the girl in a tight hug. She was surprised for a second but returned the awkward embrace after a few seconds. “Have you figured out what you’re going to do with your engine, now that it’s working?” I asked after we separated.
“I was thinking that I’d try and completely restore a bike and sell it to help the family,” she replied sheepishly.
“No, eff that. If you do all that work, you should keep it. It’s not like we need the money,” I said. “It’s not like we need the money anymore.”
Jennifer just stared at for a second. “Evelyn, I’m ten.”
“So?” I asked blankly.
“You’re not supposed to ride hover vehicles until you’re sixteen and you have a license,” Jennifer explained. “Shouldn’t you know this?”
“Look, no one in the undercity will pull you over and ask for your license,” I said. “In fact, only a handful of people HAVE working vehicles.”
“So you just didn’t completely forget about the law?” Jennifer asked with a smirk.
I scratched my cheek. “I’m going to be honest,” I said slowly. “I never really learned them in the first place. Wasn’t exactly necessary survival knowledge before, and I’m apparently above the law now that I’m a samurai.”
“You should probably make yourself familiar with at least the basics,” Jennifer replied, pushing the small engine back onto her desk.
I nodded slightly, fully intending to not do that in the future. “So… Now that we’ve done the show and tell, what howork can I help with?” I asked.
Jennifer gave a crooked grin. “I don’t have any,” she explained. “I finish my work in class, or the instant I get ho.”
I stared at her for a mont, my brain not comprehending. “So what do I help with?”
“You don’t,” she admitted. “I’m just happy to have you co by and look at my stuff. Alan and Issi, though, will definitely need your help.”
Sothing about the way she said that made suspect that wasn’t quite the case, but I still planned to check on them. “Is there anything else I can help with then? Personal issues? Is anyone bullying you?” I asked awkwardly.
Jennifer snorted. “No one would dare bully any of us. Not only are our faces relatively known around here, but you send a squad of bears to follow us around when we go out. They’d have to be insane to try anything.”
“Good, that was kind of the point,” I mumbled quietly.
“Seriously, thank you for everything you do for us,” Jennifer said. “I doubt many samurai would spend their points to revitalize a slum or send kids to school like you do.”
“I know a couple that would,” I said quietly.
“But they’re not and you are. So thanks,” Jeniffer said, hugging tightly. I squeezed her back gently.
“No problem,” I whispered.
After a few seconds the girl pushed away again. “Now that we’re done with MY howork, how about we go check on the other two?” Jennifer suggested.
I smiled softly. “Lead the way.”
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