When Serena’s sister finally calmed down she got a warm welcome when we went back to the living room. Her mom and sister both gave her a big hug and told her how much they missed being with her. It made me question how long she’d devoted most of her time to machines.

I managed to explain what was going on, leaving out some small tidbits, mainly the whole trying to kill me thing. I figured that was something they probably didn’t want to hear. But while we were in there it felt like she had no human emotion, like she cast it aside and focused fully and completely on machines and technology. Thankfully they took it better than I expected and didn’t press for more information; what with her feeling distant and having those around her understand her less and less.

 

We tried to figure out what we could do for her and ultimately decided in having her stay with me. It came as a shock to me, but I was the only one who understood her most after all, but her mom and sister were saddened by this. Her dad eventually came home as well which turned into a longer debate then what I would have preferred, which allowed Serena and I to sneak away. Her sister, whose name I later learned was Maple, but went by Dizzy, followed behind me. She was like my second shadow. But whether they officially decided to let her stay with me was up to her dad.

 

“How long do you think they’ll be?” I asked once I was sure we were out of earshot.

 

“Who knows? I don’t think they’ll, like, let her go that easily, but I can clearly tell she’s grown to like you in the few short minutes you were together.”

 

It was true. She may look young from her height, but she was only a year younger than me. It was still a shock to me to see how someone of her size could be so intelligent. I then looked down at her to see what she was doing and found her fiddling with the saucer I had dropped. She looked at me and turned away. I could tell she still didn’t quite trust me. But one thing was sure; she enjoyed building and creating and was always 100% in sync with it, her mind almost melding with the various gears and wiring in each creation.

 

“By the way,” I turn toward Serena. “Why are you in an AI class when you clearly enjoy running much more? You’d be much better in track or something. You ran here the whole way and didn’t even break a sweat.”

 

She shifted uneasily when I asked her, almost as if she was trying to keep it a secret. She then looked down at her shoes like they were her greatest treasure.

 

“When my sister was born,” she looked up and noticed her distracted by the saucer then continued, “my parents, like, started to praise her more than me. Everything you see,” she spread her arms wide and turned side to side, to indicate everything around us, “was, like, made by her when she turned 13, some of it from when she was even younger.”

 

She then looked toward the living room with a faraway look on her face, like she was trying to see beyond the wall that separated us from her parents, like she wanted them to see how amazing she was in her own regard.

 

“She slowly turned this place into something, like, out of a sci-fi movie. My parents interest in her slowly made me grow to, like, resent my choice in AI. Though my inventions were small and minute, I, like, used to be the one getting praised for it, then she…” her voice trailed off. “Suffice it say, I started taking up running. It like gave me time to think, to let me decide, like, a different path in life, you know? Maybe AI wasn’t the best thing for me, and my sister may, like, even surpass me in it. But that’s okay.”

 

“But isn’t it like you’re running from yourself? Not facing the problem, just continuing to go to Mrs. Natsume’s class but secretly run on the side?”

 

She shook her head.

 

“Well, I was. But now I’m not, like, running from myself. I’ll keep on running, but toward something better.” She turned toward her sister again. “She may be smarter than me, but I’ll always, like, be her older sister.”

 

After her mini speech I began to think. This girl next to me was supposed to be smarter than I was. And as impressed as I was by her inventions, even more so now that I know she made everything in this house, I kept running. Even when Aurora showed up I started to doubt myself, from my ability to create, to work, to even think. And yet Serena’s figured it out. She faced the challenge and took the route she saw as best, while I’ve been hiding behind it all. I’ve been running in circles, trying to figure out the best choice and always winding back up at the same spot.

 

“Random? You okay?” Serena asks with a look of concern on her face. I hadn’t noticed, but I guess I zoned out.

 

“Huh? Y-Yeah, I’m fine.”

 

As we continued to exchange words Serena’s parents came back in form the living room. Her dad had a grim and stern face and her mom was smiling, but I could tell she was trying to hold back tears.

 

“Random, we’ve come to the conclusion that we may not know as much about our daughter as we thought.” She turned toward Dizzy. “I’m sorry, Dizzy. We didn’t know.”

 

Turning back toward me I could see her wiping away a tear. “We’ve decided to let her stay with you, Random. You’ve got something that neither I, nor my husband, nor Serena, has. You have a connection with her that we just don’t understand. I want to see our daughter happy again, and if you can do it, I want her to stay with you.”

 

“But only until-“ her dad piped up but was elbowed by Serena’s mom. “Well, until she’s happy,” he finishes, rubbing his side.

 

“You’ve been nothing but a help to Serena and I never hear anything bad from her about you. Please keep her safe.”

 

I noticed Serena blush out the corner of my eye but said nothing. Then Serena’s mom walked toward Dizzy and knelt down. She stopped looking at the saucer and instead at her mom. Her mom then wrapped her arms around Dizzy, which caused her to flinch, like she hadn’t been hugged in years. Her mother withdrew and returned next to her dad, tears beginning to streak the sides of her face, like her daughter felt alien to her. Serena then walked over to her and ruffled her hair.

 

“Have fun, Dizzy. Random’s brilliant and has taught me a lot. You’ll be happy with her.”

 

She turned toward her parents with a smile, but I could tell she’d miss her. Dizzy then walked over beside me, saucer still in hand. Her dad just stood there, not bothering to move but just had a faraway look in his eyes as he looked toward the side.

 

“Well, I guess I’ll be going. Nice meeting you two, and Serena,” I stopped and then thought about telling her to tell her parents about her choices, but let it go.

 

“You’ll figure it out,” I finished with a faint smile. She smiled back and I waved one last time beforeI headed home, a new roommate now in tow.

 

The walk back was shorter than the run there, as I semi-knew my way back thanks to paying attention on the way there. The GPS on my minipad helped as well. It also felt quick as it gave me time to think about what just transpired. I had took on a task I wasn’t even sure I was capable of, but I didn’t regret the choice. This may have been something I needed to do, and I wasn’t going to look back on it.

Once we got back, I introduced Dizzy to Tipsy, who highly peaked her curiosity. She immediately began examining Tipsy and even tried to take her apart to see what made her tick. It made me chuckle a little. I guess curiosity ran in the inventing blood or something.

 

“Hey Dizzy,” I say, trying to distract her to allow Tipsy to get away. “The kitchens over that way, and I guess you’ll be staying in my room, which is that way and toward the right. I’ll probably need to make some clothes for you, which shouldn’t be too hard, just need to change the size… Oh, and the bathroom is just across from the bedroom, and…”

 

While I sat there trailing off, she wandered to the kitchen and began pushing buttons on the wall, causing various-and weird-food combinations to appear on the counter. After she finished she dashed toward the bathroom and I lost sight of her. She was like a 5-year-old playing with new technology. I guess all that stuff back at her home wasn’t enough.

After clearing the kitchen of food, I followed her to the bathroom, but she’d already headed toward my room. She headed straight toward what I was working on and began fiddling with it. I was about to stop her when she started making modifications I had been trying for the past week with little success. She was smarter than I was…

 

“Hey Dizzy, how’d you do that?” I asked, confused and shocked.

 

“You just simply connect this and that,” she said in her same voice from Serena’s house. “You also move this here and put that there instead. Also remove this,” she yanked out one of the power supplies, “and it’ll work just fine. Simple. But you should really treat machines more delicately. Another day or two, and it would have overheated and began melting the circuits, maybe even cause an explosion.”

 

She then patted the machine like it was an animal. I guess she really had a close connection to machines. But how could I have overlooked something as significant as that? I had been working on that for a few weeks now and hearing I could have lost all that work in two days? It felt horrible.

 

“But I’ve been trying to get that to work for a week now,” I say in protest, embarrassed at my own faults.

 

Dizzy just stood up and looked around, ignoring me. “You have a nice place, even if I would have designed it better,” she says, although a slight bit of mockery was included, although intentional or not I didn’t know.

 

“You know why I don’t go to school?” she asks as she stares out the window. “It’s because I don’t need to.” She then walks past me and heads toward the living room. Tipsy walked in a few seconds later, probably to get away from Dizzy.

 

“Are you all right, Miss Dadalian?” she asks in her calm, soothing voice.

 

“Yeah, Tipsy, I’m just great.”

 

I don’t know what kind of situation I got myself into, but I could tell working with Dizzy was not going to be the most fun thing I’ve even done. She was already starting to annoy me, and I thought she’d be fun to have around. Another thing I had to worry about was the school festival coming up next week, which I’d already ruined by storming off at school. Life wasn’t getting better anytime soon, and I needed to apologize to Cocoa and Cody when I got the chance, which probably wouldn’t be tonight. So I explained the rest of the home layout to Dizzy and went to bed.