CHAPTER TWO

The door to Lisa's bedroom was creaking. Meaning, to avoid having to open it altogether and run the risk of waking his little sister up, Bart had to suck in his tummy and slip as far as he could through the available opening.

He gazed at the laptop to the far left of him, perched perfectly to the right hand side of Lisa's desk, now that he was in, what had to occur next was perfectly pitched tip-toeing.

One step gingerly transitioned to two, then to three, with each tread, the pacing picked up, and Bart sped towards the laptop.

As he placed both hands on it, the lamp on the dresser next to Lisa's bed lit up. Bart hissed like a cat at it. Lisa stirred, raised her head, sneezed a good few times, then rubbed her eyes and gazed at the would-be thief

"Bart, what are you doing with that?" she said, before sneezing again

"Ease your nostrils sis, I'm just trying to latch on to the laptop for a couple of free minutes"

"Use your own computer"

"I can't, it's riddled with spy wear. I don't look that fancy in a Bond tuxedo"

"Bart, I think you might not exactly know what spyware is" Lisa replied, "Which, at this stage of the World Wide Web's relevancy, really is perplexingly sad"

"Bart, you'd best be brushing your teeth, the bus is due in five" yelled Marge from downstairs

Bart clasped both hands together and begged Lisa to let him use the laptop, but her mind was occupied with other things as she clued in to what Marge had said

"School's in five? Why did she make me sleep this long?" she said, before letting loose another vicious sounding sneeze

"I think she might think you'll be struck down by the Bogey men" Bart remarked, "Now, can I use this or not?"

"What's the rush?" Lisa asked

"I need to let the Krusaderboard forums know what I think of their attitudes. The community there is giving Krusty's new show a hard time because they're fans of the main source material they're mining to fill up the action scenes. They're being kind of purist dweebs about it."

"So you're taking the side of the adaptation?" Lisa asked, "Why not just watch the original source?"

"Because I prefer Krusty's approach, I've seen this happen with old shows mined from the Toku genre before, it's early days, but Krusaders can be so much better if we all got together and told the peeps running the show you can adapt the source material but inject it with original elements to make it stand out better"

"That's very creative of you Bart" said Lisa, "And here I thought you'd just be spamming them with insults, but won't you be labled some sort of an apologist?"

"Lisa, true fans don't have to apologize for anything"

"Oh Bart, I don't think you should be using that term, it can really rile people up"

"All the more reason to inject it into the conversation then"

Marge entered the room, carrying Bart's coat and lunch box in both hands, "C'mon special guy, what is with the hold up? Get to stepping, you'll be late" repeated Marge

"Oh, way to delay me sis" vented a frustrated Bart, "Remind me never to express my righteous causes to you again"

"Mom, why didn't you wake me? I have a test first thing this morning, I can't miss it" Lisa complained

"You think the temperature you were exhibiting last night would earn you a pass with me young Lady? Don't be stubborn Lisa, you're not feeling well, thus you stay in. They'll be plenty of time for tests when you're better. The last test you need is with my patience. I won't argue with you about this"

Lisa's sneezes continued to cause substantial noise as Marge escorted Bart out.

As Bart walked down the stairs, he noticed his father Homer watching the television, which was reporting on the death of Orville ventriloquist Keith Harris

"Oh Orville, you wish you could fly up to the sky, now HE can" Homer said, with a tear in his eye.