The next morning, Summer didn't come down for breakfast. When Rick, annoyed by the sight of uneaten eggs he'd cooked himself, went up to her room to investigate, he found Summer still in bed. She was snoring, loudly; her legs sprawled carelessly across the unkempt bedsheets. The alarm was blaring, continuously squawking in his ears. Rick immediately shut it off; it was giving him a headache, as was the task at hand. This was the part of guardianship he'd been dreading; discipline was something he'd always personally despised. He didn't but he needed Summer out of his hair, so he could concentrate on setting up his workspace in the garage.
"SUM-mer!" he half-belched, half-barked her name, as loud as he could, in her ears. "C'mon, there, kid-kiddo," he demanded, "Time to get up! Your, um, your break-breakfast is, er-getting cold."
"Get OUT of my ROOM! And, I'M NOT a KID!" Summer half-shouted, half-mumbled without lifting her head from the pillowcase. The last thing she wanted to do was get up. She'd had a miserable night filled with much tossing and turning, desperately trying to ward off the continuously imposing and harrowing images of twisted metal and broken glass. And also the faces-so many faces of people she thought she knew but couldn't remember the names of, no matter how hard she tried. She also had a headache she imagined was close to a hangover, and the pain shooting through her temples was horrendous. All of it, complete with Rick's demands on top of it, made her want to scream.
"Oooohhh NO, you don't!" Rick snapped, yanking the bedsheets off completely, shocking Summer out of her stupor. "YOU are going to SCHOOL to-DAY, BITCH! Don't think for one second that I'm gonna have you lying around all day while I play your, er, baby-URP-sitter!" He tapped his fingers against her backside urgently. "C'mon, Summer, UP and AT 'EM! The bus is, er, um, should be here innnn, um, annnny minute now…" He actually didn't know when the bus was supposed to get there, but from the time it said on the clock, he supposed it should be soon.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Summer was fully awake now. "Get OUT of my ROOM! And I'm NOT a BABY!" she yelled. "And I'm NOT a BITCH," she hollared at the top of her lungs, "EITHER!" She huffed for a moment before his words sank in. "Anyway," she added sourly, "What the freaking hell? Since when do you care what I do anyway?" Still delirious, she half-stood, half-stumbled, and half-fell out of bed, sending him a death glare as she went about gathering her wardrobe for the day, not realizing she'd gone to bed fully dressed. Then she stood there, hands on her hips, hoping that he would get the message.
He didn't get the message. Instead of promptly leaving, he just stood there like a statue, staring blankly back at her. "WELL?" she snapped back, with utter exasperation. (What was he going to do, stand there the whole time and watch her get dressed?) The thought alone was enough to nauseate her.
"Look, Summer…" Rick shook his head with heavy sigh of annoyance; didn't she understand their situation at all? "Normally, I wouldn't give a single crap about what you do. Frankly, I think public school is largely a waste of time for people with brains, buuut I digress...for some reason, your parents thought you needed it?….However, unFOURGHTunately," he belched mid-sentence, causing Summer to instantly bend over and gag, "your single-minded social worker would single-handedly have my HIDE if I were to, say, let you stay here all day instead of forcing you to get a goddamn education...SO," Rick continued to droll on in spite of himself, "it's either you go to school like a good kid would, or, the other option? The social services find out you're NOT sick, and then, I lose my post as your one and only guardian-and you get stuck in the foster system once again, lost without a trace, because you wouldn't have your dear ol' Grandpa there to rescue you." Rick paused to let his words sink in; Summer, meanwhile, was glaring coldly at him. Rick glared back. "Kapeesh?"
"Get," Summer hissed, pointing abruptly at the doorway, "OUT!"
Rick almost retorted with a witty remark, but upon seeing her expression, he quickly reconsidered. "Your EUGHs are getting cold," he added instead, before shutting the door quickly behind him. He could hear a large exhale of relief from Summer on his departure, but it didn't offend him. The feeling was mutual, as the response was an exact mirroring of his own.
Summer hated to admit when Rick was right, but deep down, she was terrified of the thought of going back into the system. So, instead of arguing with him, she got ready for school. After she realized (much to her own confusion) that she was already fully dressed, she headed downstairs, swiped a Pop-Tart and, begrudgingly, headed off to school….and, soon enough, she wished she hadn't.
First thing that happened was stepping in gum on her way to the school bus. Second was the kid in front of her on the bus let out a silent but deadly fart that left the whole bus either groaning or laughing and Summer nearly losing her breakfast on the way. Third was Mr. O'Connor pairing her with the "Weird Girl", Nancy, for a science project-which meant she'd have to spend time outside of school with one of the most unpopular girls in her class.
Nancy was the kind of girl who always got straight A's. The only other thing that everyone knew about Nancy was that she was in the high school marching band, where she played the flute and the conductor always sat her at the front of the group, so she could be heard the loudest. She always wore thick large glasses and never followed any of the latest clothing trends, which Summer absolutely despised. She was always trying to get Summer's attention, about one strange thing or another-like showing pictures of her cat-but Summer couldn't have cared less. Nancy was usually quiet during class and always sat alone at lunchtime, or with another nerd. When she did have something to say, she said it in the most nerdiest way possible; she made a big show of pushing her glasses up her nose with one finger and was clearly calculating every word she said as though she were being graded on it. Summer and the other girls in her class saw Nancy as being very "stuck-up" and "full of herself", thinking she was smarter than everyone else, even though they never really spent any time with her to back this notion upon. Also, rumor had it that Nancy was pre-selected for whatever college she had her heart set upon, so everyone was secretly very jealous of her already promised successful future.
Mr. O'Connor didn't know any of this of course when he paired Summer with Nancy. He saw Summer as a delinquent who often missed class, and he saw Nancy as a girl who always got straight A's. So, Summer was forced to give Nancy her phone number, and Nancy was forced to do the same. Both begrudgingly agreed to meet at the library after school. The project they were assigned to was "Create something out of nothing, that is completely functional and can be used in everyday life". Summer's mind had immediately gone to Rick's spaceship; however, she had a feeling Rick wouldn't want to take the ship to school, as he hadn't wanted to use the portal gun there. She couldn't blame him, she supposed, for not wanting to make a big deal out of it. She was then reminded about how nobody seemed to notice how Rick had found her with the spaceship walking down the street in the naked light of day-and nobody had stopped to stare, as well as news reports had been mentioned-as though everyone in her town was used to seeing a spaceship before. Maybe, she theorized, he had made the ship invisible to the naked eye, with some kind of clever cloaking device? Rick was an inventor. He had told her he'd made the ship from scraps of junk lying around. If he could do that, Summer theorized, Rick could definitely help her with her science project-and she could make Nancy look mentally challenged in comparison when she showed off the final results.
In the meantime, she'd humor Nancy while chatting with Alex in her spare time.
When they met at the library, Nancy was already carrying a bag full of books devoted to arts and crafts, causing a major eye roll from Summer. "Arts and crafts, Nancy? Seriously?" Summer grunted with disgust as they took a seat at the large table in the very back of the library, where there were no patrons around. "This isn't summer camp!"
"I know that Summer." Nancy sounded annoyed even though her face remained a mixture of calm and neutral. "I just brought these books for inspiration." She observed Summer carefully-much too carefully-for far too long of a moment. "Are you getting enough sleep for this project? You've got dark circles under your eyes."
"None of your business, Nancy! Gawd!" Summer groaned, loud enough for the librarian in the corner to shush her back into silence. This was going to be a very long process without Rick's help. "So-" Summer lowered her voice. "-Rick-er-my Grandpa?-He's kind of like, staying with me right now-he's like, a scientist, slash, inventor type-so, I thought we could, you know, pick his brain a bit….Or I could you know? And you wouldn't have to do anything except, well, take notes and stuff…"
Instead of looking excited by this idea, Nancy was frowning deeply in response. "I don't think it's wise to use someone else's idea for our project, Summer," she replied stiffly. "We should do this ourselves."
Great-so she's a goody-goody, too. "He's my Grandpa, Nancy," Summer hissed in the lowest tone she possibly could without raising her voice. "He's not going to snitch on us, okay? Mr. O'Conner won't know a thing."
She could tell the gears were beginning to turn in Nancy's brain. "What kind of things does he invent?" Nancy questioned hesitantly.
"ALL kinds of stuff!" Summer whispered emphatically. "He knows a LOT about science and, you know, technology."
Nancy sat for a moment, clearly thinking things over. Summer fought the urge to leave for the computer terminals, as the urge to reach out to Alex was growing. "Can...Can I meet him first? Before I make an educated decision?" asked Nancy.
Summer stiffened. She hadn't expected Nancy to want to come over to her house, of all places-and what would she think of her grandfather, who was clearly close to (if not) bat-shit insane, as well as a completely over-the-top alcoholic to boot, and addicted to God-knows-what-else? She wondered what Nancy would think if she actually caught a glimpse of Rick's spaceship. She wouldn't dare take her upstairs to her bedroom, because she'd want to know where everyone else was. She could say that they had to take her brother away to a special hospital or something, because….
"Summer?" Nancy's sobering voice brought her back to the present moment and their surroundings. Summer hadn't realized she was sitting there with her eyes closed. When she opened them, Nancy was staring back at her, her face showing slight concern. "You...okay?" Nancy asked quietly, and an awkward and uncomfortable silence ensued.
"Yeah," Summer answered finally, shaking off the image of Morty in her mind. "Sorry…" She suddenly felt like a dumbass. "I guess I could ask him tonight."
"Look, uh, Summer-" Nancy's face, for some reason, was suddenly beet red, and she was avoiding Summer's eyes entirely. "-I-I really don't have to-"
"No, Nancy, it's…." Summer let out a heavy sigh. "It's...okay." She paused for a moment to collect herself. "I'm...uh...just…" She avoided Nancy's gaze at all costs. "I'm just tired, I guess," she admitted half-heartedly, glancing over longingly at the row of unused computers. "Look, can we continue this tomorrow? I'll let you know what my Grandpa says, okay?"
"...Sure." She could still feel Nancy's eyes on her even as she abruptly stood to go. "See you tomorrow, Summer," Nancy said to Summer's back.
Summer took a seat at the computer as far away from Nancy's vision as possible. She opened the chatbox. Alex was not on. Summer sent him a quick message: Hey Alex, I just found out today I gotta do this lame science project thing, and I have to work with the nerdiest girl in school. I don't even like her, but she wants to come over to my house and meet my grandpa because he's a scientist and knows how to invent stuff. We have to make something out of stuff we find around the house, it's SO freaking lame. Are you still thinking about coming to visit for the holidays? I hope so. I think you'd like it here. She thought about how she wanted to end the conversation. She couldn't put "love" and anyway, she wasn't even sure if she felt that way about him really, and she wasn't even sure she knew what being "in love" felt like. In the end, she wound up putting some silly emoticons and pushed Send. She hoped Alex was okay; usually when she opened the chat box there was at least one message from him.
When she looked up, Nancy was gone, so she went straight home, still not sure how she would ask Rick for help, and presuming he wouldn't want anything to do with the whole project anyway.
Author's Note: Some of the characters in my stories have viewpoints that I don't necessarily condone. Unlike Summer, I highly approve of nerdiness (and always just being yourself)! Nerds, in my experience, are often quite quirky and fun. Everyone's different, and we all have unique traits that make us all the more enjoyable! There's also nothing wrong with getting straight A's, or playing in the marching band; both I find to be quite admirable. Also, unlike Rick, I don't think that school is just "a waste of time". It's an important part of growing up to get an education, whether you do it in public school, private school, or at home. It helps us learn about the world around us and each other. If you can make good use of your time at school, more power to you!