The next few days hit Harley like a hurricane as the end-of-year tests snuck up on everyone. Pearl pretty much ignored her.
In his secret compound, Doji was dealing with Merci's sudden insecurity complex after being hacked. Maybe he'd made the robot a bit too intelligent. He also had to spend millions of dollars in repair work brought about by that sick Hagane kid.
Neither family member thought to attempt contact with the other; it would never have crossed Harley's mind, and if Doji had thought about it, he didn't show it.
But all good things come to an end.
Tests were over; Harley had barely passed.
Everything was repaired; Doji sat back in his office with a sigh of relief, not that he'd done any work himself.
Then he noticed the video chat window was open, and decided to check up on Harley.
Harley lay on the bed, head hanging over the edge, staring listlessly at the carpet. Pearl was gone again; so much for a roommate...she could at least be back before 10 more than half the time, Harley grumbled to herself.
A box of Milk Duds lay on the floor near the baseboard, about a foot away. Maybe there were some left.
She stretched out across the floor and her fingers touched cardboard. She almost had the box in her grasp when the video chat notification on her laptop started to ring. With a startled yelp she fell off the bed.
Glaring at the computer screen, she picked up the candy and sprawled backwards on the bed, hanging backwards with her hair brushing the floor, neglecting to answer her father.
Then the computer glitched and answered it automatically.
"Harley?" Her father's puzzled voice came from the screen.
"I don't wanna talk to you", she mumbled around a mouthful of caramel.
"Look, dear, I'm eating pizza!"
Harley bolted upright. If her oh-so-refined father was really eating pizza of all things, it was time to get him to a hospital.
Doji sat proudly at his overly lengthy dining table with a knife and fork, a vegetable pizza spread out before him, smiling happily. Harley puffed her breath out and fell back onto the bed.
"Eating pizza with a fork is so much more refined..."
"You're crazy."
"Ah, here we are." Doji's contented voice came through the speakers with the arrival of his next course.
"This is excellent dinner theater...you really should see it, darling!"
Harley grunted. "I said I don't wanna talk to you."
She could feel Doji's scowl from across the room. "You really should socialize more." But he was occupied with whatever was on the screen, and Harley preferred to keep it that way. She cut off connection when he wasn't looking.
Summer was finally here; school was over for a few months. Pearl was once again gone, probably at the pool with her friends.
Harley had fallen asleep on the floor in the middle of Robot Unicorn Attack 2. Her unicorn crashed while she was asleep.
The computer's beeping woke her up, and she was revived to the disconcerting voice of her father.
"...do you know why I hate cactuses?"
"Don't know, don't care", answered an obnoxious little voice from somewhere else in the room.
"Why do you hate cactuses, dad?" groaned Harley from the floor, then sat up to face the screen, dragging the laptop to the carpet with her.
Doji jumped, surprised at hearing her voice. "Harley? Where are you?"
"On your computer."
"Oh, the computer must've glitched." He sounded cross.
"So you really didn't want to talk to me?"
Her father changed the subject.
"What's on your face?" Harley lifted her hand up to her cheek.
"Oh. I fell asleep on the carpet."
"Don't you have a bed?" The obnoxious voice came again, and a spoiled-looking kid with loud yellow hair appeared at the bottom of the screen. Doji pushed him angrily. "Stop that."
"But does she?"
"Yes, of course she does, she-"
"Then why was she asleep on the floor?"
"Because-"
"Prove to me that she has a bed!" The connection cut off. Evidently the traffic-cone-hair kid had broken the computer.
Harley went back to sleep and woke with computer keys stuck on her face.
