Vanessa was very, very angry.
She'd been angry for weeks, and she wasn't exactly sure who she was angry at most: her mom or her dad.
She was mad at her mom for kicking her dad out...but on some level she also understood that it hadn't been a good idea for them to live together anymore because of how often they kept fighting and, in her mom's words, wanted "different things out of life."
She was mad at her dad for leaving her...but she also realized that he hadn't wanted to, and that he'd been trying to get more custody of her during the settlement.
Then today, finding out that he hadn't been able to had been kind of the last straw, and she decided that ultimately, the one to be angry at was her mom.
As a result, they'd gotten into a massive fight before lunch that ended with Vanessa being sent to her room 'until she adjusted her bad attitude.' She had immediately proceeded to pack her backpack, climb out the window and take the bus downtown to her father's new apartment building. Because even though he was kind of weird sometimes (okay, a lot of the time), and often embarrassed her without even knowing what he did wrong, and his obsession with being evil was a little (okay, a lot) weird...he was also, in an even weirder way, more cool than she liked to admit.
Plus, whenever she was in a bad mood he tended to spoil her, and she really wanted to be spoiled right now.
"Vanessa?!"
For a moment her dad just stared at her, looking gobsmacked (a word she had just recently learned existed, and was vastly entertained by).
Then a delighted smile rose on his face, and he was kneeling and pulling her into a tight hug. "What are you doing here, baby girl?! Is it Friday already? Sorry, I didn't even realize, I've been kind of caught up in my work and haven't even finished setting up your room yet!"
Even though she told herself she was nearly twelve now, and therefore too old to want to be cuddled by her dad, Vanessa immediately melted into his arms and actually had to swallow down a lump in her throat. She blamed it on the fact that she'd barely seen him in ages.
"Don't worry, Dad, it's Wednesday. I just missed you," she murmured into his shoulder.
"Aww, I missed you too, pumpkin!" Dad squeezed her even tighter for a moment, before finally releasing her and straightening up. Then his eyes abruptly narrowed. "...Wait a minute. Where's your mom?"
Inside, Vanessa gulped. Part of her had hoped he'd be so happy to see her he wouldn't think to ask that… "She let me come visit you by myself."
Dad's eyebrows knitted together like they always did when he was confused by something. "She let you come all the way here on your own?"
Vanessa nodded, completely straight-faced. "Yeah. She says I'm old enough to do it on my own." Which was maybe kinda sorta half true.
To her surprise, her dad immediately glared, and for a terrifying moment she thought her cover was blown-until he muttered, "More like she didn't wanna see me."
Even as she sighed in relief at not getting caught, she got a small unhappy knot in her tummy at his words.
After a moment, Dad sighed. "Guess I might as well call and let her know you arrived safely, though." He started to put his hand in his pocket to get his phone.
"No!"
Don't act panicky play it cool
"...No, that's okay, I can do it." She pulled out her own phone.
Dad stared at her in disbelief. "Your mom got you your own cell phone?!"
"Yup. She thought it was another thing I was old enough to have, especially since I'm almost in junior high." Holding it away from his line of sight, she pretended to type for a moment, and then gave a little nod. "She says to have a good time."
Dad didn't exactly look happy anymore, but hearing that did seem to satisfy him; he gave her a weak smile, and then led her inside. "Oh, we are going to have a good time! In fact, now that you're here you can join us in our scheme for the day!"
It took her a moment to understand his words-and when she did, it drew her up short. "...Wait, our?"
There was a boy in Dad's lab. A boy several years older than her-who the part of her that had just started seeing boys as interesting beings thought was maybe kind of cute, causing the rest of her to gag in disgust-wearing one of Dad's extra lab coats, and staring at them like a deer in the headlights.
"Vanessa, this is my-well, I guess technically he's my new lab assistant. This is my new lab assistant, Stanley, who I accidentally brought forward in time from the 1970's."
Idly she wondered how sad it was that she wasn't even surprised by that.
"Stan, this is my daughter, Vanessa."
Stan waved awkwardly. "How's it hangin', kid?"
Vanessa didn't wave back; she just stared at him with a mixture of confusion and suspicion, while her grip tightened on the straps of her backpack
Dad seemed oblivious to the awkwardness of the situation (situation normal), as he gave Vanessa's shoulders a gentle squeeze and then led her over to the machine they were working on. "We've been working on a project together, see?"
She tilted her head. "...What is it?"
"Well, normally I'd wait until Perry the Platypus caught up with us to explain it, but since you're my daughter you get special privileges. It's-" he took a deep breath, and then raised his arms dramatically- "THE BLOW-UP-WEST-COAST-TECH-INATOR!"
There was a moment of quiet, before Vanessa wrinkled her nose in confusion.
"What's a west coast tech?"
"It's an extremely pretentious university that we don't like, so we're going to destroy it forever after moving all the people out of it."
"I thought you went to a community college."
Dad hesitated. "I did."
"...Then why are you gonna blow up a school that you never even went to? Is there some kinda tragic backstory about it that you haven't told me yet?"
Her dad...looked at Stan. She didn't know why, but something about the implications made her bristle a little.
It didn't help that all he said when he looked back at her was, "Long story, kiddo. The point is, we need to make a special trip over to the West Coast-well, obviously it's on the West Coast, if it was somewhere else they'd probably call it East Coast Tech, or North Pole Tech or something-"
And then she noticed the side of the machine.
Specifically where her father had signed his name-right under the name "Stanley Pines."
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
Dad was still talking.
"...and I understand if you don't want to come, I know you're not that into my whole 'evil scientist' thing, but I really don't want to leave you here alone, not when your mom let you come spend some time with me for the first time in weeks, and maybe afterward we can go to that frozen yogurt place you like-"
"Yes, I want to help!"
Dad did a little surprised blink. "...You do?"
"Yeah! Blowing up a random school for arbitrary reasons sounds fun!" She beamed, hoping it looked sincere.
To her surprise, her dad's mouth trembled for a second-before he scooped her up into his arms and actually twirled around in a circle.
"My little girl wants to help me do something evil! Oh, Vanessa, you can't imagine how long I've waited for this day! This will be the best evil scheme I've ever pulled off!"
She just wrapped her arms around his neck, and shot a brief glare at Stan over his shoulder.
Nice try, Stanley Pines.
You're not taking away my daddy.
No way THIS could go horribly wrong, right?