Rin squinted her eyes.

"But...he's the same age as I am!"

"Yes, I know." The mother said walking up to her son and putting a hand on his shoulder. Jack looked thoroughly pissed off…

"He may be a teen, but he can be pretty dull sometimes."

"Mom!" he cried. "I can take care of myself! I don't need her to baby-sit me!"

"Oh Jack, you and I both know that that you still can't even dress yourself properly."

Rin choked on her cookie. It went down too fast and now she was coughing up a storm. She swallowed and finally looked back up with watery eyes. Both the mother and Jack were staring at her. She smiled her best smile, but it couldn't hide the fact that she was ready to burst out in laughter…and her cheeks were beginning to turn red from the strain. Jack frowned and crossed his arms while his mother giggled.

"Don't worry, you don't have to dress him while I'm gone. I think I'll leave that to Jack." she said.

"Oh no…it wasn't that, the cookie….just went down the wrong pipe."

"Alright dear, I know, I was only joking…Oh my, look at the time! I have to meet your father at the airport soon!"

The mother kissed her son on the forehead and rushed up the stairs. She quickly came back down, arms full of luggage and hurried towards the door.

"Wait mom! Don't leave me! Please!"

Jack ran after her but she quickly slammed the door in his face and was gone. He still stood there like a lost puppy…whimpering. Rin sighed and walked over.

"Look, it's not going to be that bad. I promise."

He stared at the door for a few moments and finally looked at her.

"Oh, and by the way, my name's Rin. It's nice to meet you, Jack."

She held out her hand for him to shake, but he looked at it and grimaced.

"Ew…no thanks, I don't need girl cooties." And he walked off.

When he was out of sight, Rin growled and shook her fist in the air.

'Girl cooties? How can you be so immature?'

She finally calmed down and sat on a couch in the living room. She looked at the clock. It was 6:00 PM.

"Well…I don't think an hour would hurt…'

She took a nearby remote and flipped on the TV. She surfed the channels until she found something she liked. It was a zombie movie.

Two hours later…

"Oh no! Get away you stupid!"

Rin watched in horror as a zombie inched closer to it's victim with blood thirsty eyes. She clutched a pillow to her chest, but she couldn't blink. Then…BOOM!

"Holy crap!" Rin shrieked and jumped in horror. Scrambling to find her comfort pillow, she grasped it and looked around. The movie was still playing, but what she heard was much louder. She took the remote and turned off the TV. The clock now read 8:20 PM, so she took the task list from her pocket and found Jack's bedtime. It was at 8:00 PM.

'Oh no….I totally forgot about the brat.'

She rose from the couch and walked off into the hallway…still clinging to her pillow.

It was dark and hard to see. She stubbed her toe a couple of times before she reached Jack's room. She knocked on the door and pressed her ear against it. It was totally silent.

"Um, Jack…I'm coming in for a sec."

She opened the door and walked in. With only the moonlight to see, she walked over to his bed. Sure enough, he was sound asleep. She smiled and walked out of his room, closing the door behind her. But on her way out, she took a wrong turn and went in the opposite direction. As she walked on…she noticed a strange looking door.

'Hm…I never noticed this. Must be the bathroom…'

She opened the door and walked in. But what she saw definitely wasn't a bathroom…unless if the designer was on crack. In front of her was a staircase that led down to a huge lab-like room. Not only that, but it was dark and had many strange metal things on shelves. She could only see a bright lit table that looked like a map of the world, when suddenly she heard a voice.

"You fool!" It shrieked. "Why do you waste your time exploding failed experiments when you could be inventing something to do it for you!"

"Because it's fun."

Rin recognized that voice as Jack's. But…he was supposed to be asleep. She crouched down and moved in for a closer look. Jack stood over a pile of black powder, but there was an odd, purple squid thing floating around him.

"Fun!" It screamed again. "What if your babysitter hears all of this noise?"

"Ah, that's nothing to worry about. These walls are perfectly sound proof."

"And…what if she goes to check up on you?"

Jack put his hands on his hip and grinned.

"I put a sleeping chip in one of my robots and stuck it in my bed. She won't know a thing."

That was it. Rin walked down the stairs and made the angriest face she could muster.

"Jack!" she yelled.

She chucked her pillow as hard as she could at his face. Jack turned around and screamed a girly-ish scream and landed on his back as the pillow flew inches from his face. His eyes widened as Rin got closer...and closer...until she was towering over him. Her eyes were on fire.

"Uh...do you like my lair? Heh..." He asked trembling.

The purple thing floated off out of sight.

"What is the meaning of this?" Rin muttered. Her eyes were pinned on his.

"Uh...well...funny story about that..."

Rin growled.

"Ok...ok...um, my parents gave me my own evi-er...lab to uh...practice on stuff with."

Rin raised an eyebrow. "So then, what was that purple see-through thing that was just here?"

"Oh uh…that?" Jack looked around nervously. "…It was one of my experiments. Yeah, an experiment."

He smiled and tried to look innocent. Rin, unfortunately, bought it.

"Well, it's time for your bed you know. And if I catch you trying to blow stuff up or faking yourself sleeping again...I'll lock up your lab for as long as I'm here. Then you'll have to do all of my chores. Understand?"

Jack nodded. Rin didn't leave until he was up and out of the lab. She followed him through the hallway and finally to his room. He went in and as she followed Jack stopped and turned around.

"Hey! What are you doing! Can't I get some privacy?"

"No. Not until you get that…thing…out of your bed."

Jack looked at his sleeping replica.

"Oh…yah, that."

He took the robot and pressed a button behind its head. Immediately it stopped snoring and all life signs were gone. He shoved it out of his room and Rin nodded in approval.

"Can I finally go to sleep now?" Jack sighed.

"Yeah. Good night."

Rin walked a few steps and looked back. Jack was still in the doorway of his room, staring at the ground and looking as if he were going to cry. Rin went back over.

"Hey…what's the matter?"

He only sniffed.

"You miss your mom, huh?"

Jack quickly looked up.

"Huh! No, no I don't! I don't need her…" he sniffed again.

Rin smiled.

"Riiiight. Look, go to bed. It's late. You need your rest."

Jack slowly nodded and trudged off into his room. Rin walked a ways and did the same into her own guest room. She dreamt of brain eating robots that night.