"Alright, what's the big surprise?" I asked.

Chell and I were alone at her house to work on her science project. All that day at the office, she had been teasing me about some big surprise that she had for me.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the house to the dining room and threw her bag onto the table. "Okay, I'm going to switch back to potato batteries. It was a very good idea."

"You can't just keep switching off like that, Chell."

"I know, I know. But I've got it figured out now. Remember how I said my potatoes weren't big enough?"

I nodded.

"Well... don't tell anyone I said this, but my dad has been running some experiments that I think are illegal."

"Hm." I was confused. "Isn't your dad a programmer? Didn't he help develop the android brains?"

She shrugged. "No. But he helped develop the 'Handheld Portal Gun'. Whatever that is."

At this point she leaned over to me and whispered, "He's been running different kinds of experiments. Swiping things from the lab, testing things that shouldn't be tested. At least not by him."

She straighted up and spoke in a normal tone. "So, I took something from him that I think is going to help us." She started digging around in her bag.

"Wait, wait, wait. You stole from the lab?"

"No! My dad stole from the lab and then I'd stole from him. Technically it's not stealing if the thing didn't belong to that person in the first place."

"Technically, we're dead!" I snatched the vial out of her hands before she could even show it to me. "This- this is dangerous. We should NOT have this. Here, ever, anywhere! We- we have to put it back. What does it even DO?!"

"It's a growing serum," she sighed, "Look!" She shoved her arms into her bag again and slammed a potato the size of my head onto the table.

"Woah," was all I managed to say.

"I grew it in a day," she snapped.

After a few minutes of staring in disbelief, I shook my head. This is much too dangerous for you to be playing around with."

"You promised to help me with my science project," she said.

"I-"

"You PROMISED." She looked deadly serious...and desperate.

"I just don't think that-"

"You're not going to tell my dad, are you?" She looked worried now.

I sighed. "No. No of course not. I won't tell your dad."

"Then are you going to help me, or leave me again?"

I sighed again. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to guilt trip me.

And unfortunately, it was working. "Of course I'm going to help you, love," I said, "I made a promise."

Her face brightened. "Great! Let's get to work then!"

What was I getting myself into?

...

"It looks brilliant, Valerie," I said.

A round metal shell was resting on the table.

"Thanks. Jas stayed up with me till three in the morning making that," she replied. She sounded as tired as she looked. "It's just a shell, but it's a start."

I picked it up. It was very light, but it was incredibly detailed.

"So," Valerie said, jumping up from her chair, "I was thinking today, we'll finish up the internal wiring. The one problem I'm stuck on is how to attach the bot to the person."

"You haven't figured that out yet?"

She shook her head.

"That's the most important part though."

"Yes, I know that!"

I stepped back and lowered my eyes.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I'm just grouchy. I need coffee. Here." She handed me a sheet of paper. "That's the layout for the wires. I just need you to organize them so that later we can just hook them up with any confusion. Can you do that?"

"I can certainly try. Go get some rest. I'll do what I can."

She walked slowly up the stairs, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"She works herself too hard," I said, scanning the paper she gave me, "What on earth even is this? She must be mad to think I could understand something like this." I paused. "Of course I am talking to myself, so I suppose I outdo her madness... And I'm still doing it."

I sat in front of the wires and studied the paper a bit closer. "Well I suppose it's rather simple. This must be...hm... yes. I believe... Just a bit tangled in here, yes?"

I started to untangle the mass of cords. "That looks better...or worse. Ah well. What's the worst that could happen? Blue over here, red here. Erm... Yes. Problematic. Nothing to worry about...um..."

My hand was caught in the clutter of wires. "Er... Well that's one hand trapped. Possibly the reason I have two."

The more I twisted and tugged, the worse the knot became. "Hrm... yes that's um... Yeah. Uh... Well, this could be worse."

"Wheatley? What are you doing?"

I turned, a little too quickly and heard a small zap. A sharp pain drove through my hand. My whole body twitched violently and I could hear the buzz of electricity loudly in my ears.

Valerie dove toward me and pulled my hand out.

The pain stopped, but my hand was smoking faintly. My chest was tight and jittery. I coughed and saw a small puff of smoke rise from my mouth.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Peachy," I choked.

"I'm so sorry. I forgot to tell you to unplug it first. I was test running them last night." She handed me a rag to wipe my face with.

My hands were still shaking.

"At least now you know what it feels like to be full of energy," she said, half jokingly.

I tried to laugh, but it came out sounding maniacal.

We worked in silence for a few minutes. The wires were proving to be quite frustrating.

I needed to talk. "Chell changed her project back to the potato batteries."

"Again?" Valerie said with a chuckle, "How come?"

I panicked slightly and blurted out Chell's fake excuse. "Someone at the cafeteria ordered too many potatoes. Gotta find some use for them. That's why that one girl is using forty of them. Too many potatoes. She was a bit upset, since she did potato batteries for another science project last year."

She looked a little unsure, but she didn't question me. She reached a hand over to a side table and flicked on the radio. A jazz song waved through the speakers.

I gently tapped my foot to the beat. Unfortunately, even though I relaxed, the wires remained just as complicated.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.

"Need any help?" Valerie asked, popping up next to me.

"No no. Just a bit... vague on the details. Not to mention a little tangled."

"Well, that's the point of the work. The tangle isn't too bad from a certain perspective."

I chuckled slightly, then gasped. Her hands were sliding down my arms to my hands. "Look," she said, "Come over this way. And twist." She was moving my hands for me.

I tried to focus on what she was saying, but her warm breath was hitting my neck and my face was red hot.

"Erm...yes. This one...goes..." I slowly turned to look at her. My mouth went numb.

"Come on. Pay attention," she said teasingly.

My tongue lolled around uselessly in my mouth. I couldn't speak. Her face was so close to mine.

The music playing on the radio was suddenly overwhelmingly loud.

Valerie's smile was piercing my focus.

I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing anymore. One of my arms wrapped around her waist and the other grabbed her hand.

She laughed and started to sway with me. After her long working hours, she deserved to relax.

I didn't exactly know how to dance, but what we were doing wasn't really dancing. We swayed back and forth to the quiet music of that dark, dank room.

My hand was still blackened and my heartbeat was thrumming violently against my chest. Valerie could feel it. Her head was resting just over my heart.

"What are we doing, Wheatley?" she said, almost slyly.

"Erm...dancing?"

She hummed.

"Could I say something, love? Just a quick thing."

"As long as it's quick."

"I just wanted... to thank you. For what you've done for me. You've worked out so many problems and issues, just to help me. So thank you."

She smiled.

"Also, why?"

"Huh?"

"Why did you do all of this? You didn't even really know me. But you helped. Why would you go through all of this for me?"

She laughed loudly. "You are absolutely clueless, aren't you?"

I stuttered. What did she mean? I wasn't that clueless. Really. I could be smart when I wanted to. "I really don't-"

She grabbed my tie and yanked me down to her eye level.

Then she kissed me.

I felt like I was being electrocuted again. My ears buzzed and fireworks went off in my head. My chest tightened and jumped. I felt like I was flying and drowning at the same time.

Valerie's hands grabbed my face. I wasn't sure what to do.

After the initial shock wore off, I pulled away.

Valerie giggled nervously and straightened my tie.

"I said no making out down there!" Jason shouted from the library. Heavens know how he knew.

I cleared my throat and brushed my hair back. "I, um..."

Her face brightened. "I just realized how the external wiring works." She turned away, almost embarrassed and started furiously untangling the wires.

"Uh...yes. I have to...call...Chell." I cleared my throat again and practically ran up the stairs. In the reflection that my phone's screen offered, my face was nearly purple.

I was barely aware of the dial tone ringing in my ear.

"Hello?" sang Chell's voice.

"Hello! How're you?"

"Hi Uncle Wheatley."

"Hey. I was just wondering if-"

"Uncle Wheatley, could you come over?" she interrupted.

"I- What?"

"I need to talk to you. Can you come over?"

"W- Well sure! What's the matter?"

She sighed. "I can't say right now. Could you just come?"

"On my way, love. Hang tight."

...

"Hello? I'm here. Is anyone home?" I hung my jacket on the coat rack. "Chell?"

"I'm in here, Uncle Wheatley."

I ran into the dining room where her voice echoed from.

Nothing seemed to be wrong. She was sitting at the table, with a wired up potato resting in front of her. She didn't look sick or scared or hurt.

"What's the matter? Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" I blubbered, in my panic.

"No," she replied with a smile, "I'm okay. I just wanted you to be here when I test my experiment for the first time."

"Oh." My heart rate slowed. "Oh, alright then."

"You see, the potato I'm going to use for my real experiment is fresh, but this one is pretty old. I'm just running through some things before I finish up my poster board. I bet if we tried, we could power the world with potatoes."

I sighed and fell into a chair. "Yeah, if course. Whatever you want to do, I can help you with." I was just glad it wasn't a real emergency.

Her expression suddenly became grave. "But there's something I need to tell you," she said.

"Another secret?"

She shook her head. "No. Different from the last one. Worse."

"Oh. Okay. Well, go ahead then. I'm listening."

"Okay...but you can't tell anyone."

"I won't. Cross my heart and everything."

She leaned WAY in close to me. "My dad said not to tell anyone. But he's been exploring the facility. The test chambers. He says something's wrong and he's supposed to figure it out. He says he can't though. That he's not young and strong enough."

"Well that's good. Wouldn't want him running around where he shouldn't be, yeah?" I had a strong feeling that the bad news hadn't come yet.

Chell looked very serious. "He says he wants to enter me into the list of young test subjects."

It took a moment for the realization to settle in. "...WHAT?! That's positively mad!"

"Please don't shout, Uncle Wheatley," she said, "I'm scared too."

I stopped and looked into her big blue eyes. Tears were threatening to spill over.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. "You don't have to be scared," I said, "I'm here for you. And I won't ever let you go."

"He put my name in," she whispered, "It's too late for take backs. I'm going to start next month."

I held her tighter. "Don't worry. We'll see each other. It's all going to be okay."

"He wants me to figure out the secrets of the testing facilities." She sounded terrified.

"Don't worry. It's not a bad thing to feel scared. It's just human nature. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I'm going to protect you. I promise."

The moment I had shared with Valerie less than an hour ago, was nothing compared to what I was promising this girl now.

I had made a promise.

And I wasn't going to break anymore promises to this girl.