Lisa and Bob had had a nice day of DNA splicing, singing, and making s'mores. After finishing the chocolate-less s'mores, Bob, Lisa, and Homer went outside. As Bob had earlier suggested, Homer enjoyed the company of one of the Monsarno campus's numerous overfed squirrels. Homer still had a few graham crackers left from the s'mores, and the squirrel attempted to steal the crackers, but Homer put up a fight.
Bob and Lisa sat together on a bench nearby, and Bob noticed the way Lisa frowned, sighed, and slumped her shoulders as she watched her buffoonish father pathetically fight with a rodent.
"Is something the matter, Lisa? Aren't you enjoying yourself?"
"Yes, I am!" Lisa said quickly, meeting Bob's eyes and putting a smile back on her face. "Actually, I haven't enjoyed myself this much in a long time. It's just that soon I'll have to go home to..." Lisa gestured listlessly at Homer, who was trying to chase the squirrel up a tree. Homer being Homer, "trying" may have been a bit too generous a word-he was out of breath before even climbing the tree.
"Don't get me wrong," Lisa went on, "I love my family. It's just...I don't have much in common with any of them."
Lisa sighed and shook her head. After an awkward silence, Bob cleared his throat.
"Forgive me if I'm prying, Lisa, but...do you have any friends your own age?"
Lisa shrugged.
"Sometimes I play with my classmate Janey, but she's more of a fair-weather friend. We don't have much in common anymore. I used to be friends with this other girl, Allison, because we had a lot of the same interests, but...we grew apart, too."
"I'm sorry," Bob said, and he genuinely meant it. Sympathy was quite a foreign feeling for him. "I know the pain of being different from your peers. I wanted to reach out to other lonely, bright, under-challenged children during my time as a TV host, but...you know how that turned out."
Lisa seemed to sense his sincerity, as she gave him a sad little smile.
"Thanks, Bob. I really did like your show, while it lasted. You deserved that Emmy."
"Thank you, dear," Bob said, awkwardly patting her hand. "At least I managed to make an impact on one child."