Monique hung up the phone, laughing to herself. Perfect. Perfect was a word that didn't exist. Its only purpose was to torture teenage girls. Girls like Kim. Although, Monique could care less about Perfect. She'd go for a nice friendly, cute, caring guy. She knew very well that perfect did not exist. She refused to spend her life looking.
And then Kim had to call up, whining about her latest break up. With Ron nonetheless. Ron? Kim and Ron were perfect for each other. Well, maybe not perfect. There was no such thing as perfect. But, after Prom? Even with the lights and the music and the really good punch, Kim and Ron had kissed. She was sure that was no friendship kiss. Kim had it bad for Ron; she just didn't know it yet.
The phone rang again. Sighing, Monique picked it up.
"Kim I-"
"Monique?" a boy's voice called from the other line.
"Yes..." she said.
"This is Felix," he said.
"Felix?" she questioned. "How did you get this number?"
"Uh... Wade?"
"Fair enough. So... Felix?"
"Yeah, Ron's friend... Wheel chair-"
"Oh Felix! I'm sorry. Ron's friend! The Zombie Mayhem guy?"
"That's me," he said. "I know we've never really talked much, but our friends are friends! That's a connection... I guess."
Monique just laughed.
"Whatever. Did you hear about Kim and Ron?" he asked. "I cannot believe she dumped the poor guy."
"And yet Kim is all stressed out over it. I just spent an hour on the phone with the girl."
"Me too! I mean... Ron was bugging me about it today. He hardly moved up one level on Alien Mayhem Two!"
"So unlike Ron, I'm sure," Monique answered.
"Well, I have an idea." Felix said.
"Are you playing cupid?" She asked, surprised.
"Maybe, in a way..." Felix said. "Can you come over to my house tomorrow night? I have something to show you."
"Your house?" Monique asked, feeling strange about this guy asking her over to his house.
"Yeah, I have something, or Wade has something."
"Yeah sure," Monique said, growing interested. "What is it?"
"You just have to come and see."
"Ok," she agreed, wondering.
"Uh... Do you know where I live?"
"I'll get it from Wade."
"Great. 7:00?" he asked.
"Yeah, it's a date!" she exclaimed, then suddenly feeling extremely stupid, added, "I mean-"
Felix laughed from the other end of the phone. "I know what you mean. See you tomorrow." He hung up.
Monique was left feeling confused.
Saturday morning at the Possible house. "Kimmy! I made waffles!" Mrs. Possible yelled upstairs. Jim and Tim sat at the table half-covered in syrup.
"She's probably still asleep," Tim announced.
"Is she sick? She didn't say anything last night. She just went up and locked herself in her room for four hours," Mrs. Possible said worriedly.
"Probably all depressed," Jim laughed.
"From what?" The now concerned father poked his head out from behind his newspaper.
"Breaking up with Ron!" Tim replied, laughing.
"Ron? Since when have they been dating?" Mrs. Possible asked.
"Since Prom!" Jim yelled.
"Really?" Mrs. Possible asked. "All they did was go to Bueno Nacho all week."
"What about that romantic boat ride?" Mr. Possible asked.
"Oh, Honey, that wasn't them."
"What about the flowers?" Jim and Tim asked at the same time.
"That wasn't them either." Mrs. Possible sighed.
Mr. Possible put down his newspaper. "Really?" He asked raising his eyebrow. "But Kimmy and Ronald make such a cute couple."
Jim stopped wiping syrup out of his hair, "How could they break up after they smooched like that?"
Mrs. Possible froze. "Awww... That is so sweet. Kimmy! Waffles!"
It was Saturday night. Monique could have been at the mall or on a date or something. But she wasn't. She clutched the MapQuest directions Wade had printed out for her in her hand, hoping this was the right house. It was nice. She reluctantly knocked on the door. It was soon opened and Monique stood staring into the face of... a robot? Of course it was, no mistake there. It was wearing a suit and tie and in one hand it held a broom.
"Uh... I'm here to see Felix?" she asked slowly.
"Master Felix is here," it said in a monotone voice. "Please come in."
The robot moved aside and Monique walked through the door. A blond women, wearing stretch jean capris and a t-shirt with cherries on it walked into the room. "Thank you Niles, that will be all," the woman said, smiling happily. The robot rolled away.
"Mrs. Renton?" Monique asked.
"Hi Monique!"she squealed, throwing out her arms. "It's nice to meet you!"
Monique could barely say anything before she was pulled into a motherly hug. "Nice to meet you as well," she said, pulling away.
"It's so nice to see Felix with some friends over."
"He wants to show me something," Monique said, suddenly remembering exactly why she was there.
"I've curious to what it is. He's been up in his room all day working on something. Oh well, the boys are upstairs, you can go on up," Mrs. Renton said, smiling.
"Thanks," Monique said, climbing up the stairs. She followed the sound of two boys laughing into a wide room at the end of the hall. She walked in and recognized right away Ron's wheelchair-bound friend. And there was also another boy who Monique didn't notice, until he turned around. Wade. The little genius who ran the teen hero's website.
"Hey Monique!" Felix said. He pushed a button on the arm of his chair and rolled forward. "I'm glad you could make it."
"Hey Felix," she said smiling down at him. "And hi... Wade. The only time I've seen you, you've been in a computer..."
"I don't live in my room, Monique," he laughed. "How would I get to my little league games?"
"You play little league?" she had to ask.
"I do have the best batting average in the league," Wade said, showing off. He faked holding a baseball bat and swung it through the air.
"Believe him," Felix announced seriously. "I've been to his games."
Monique changed the subject. "So. What is it you wanted to show me?"
"Oh, yes" Felix said. He rolled over to something. A blanket covered it.
"Monique," he said. He seemed to glow with pride. "Meet Aaron Dipity!" He ripped off the blanket.
Monique's smile fell. She stood looking at one of the ugliest things in the world. It looked like a rag doll... only worse, it looked like a real person. It was moving.
"Isn't he a beauty?" Wade said, dreamily staring at it.
Monique stared. "No... not really," she replied dryly. "It's hideous! Now come on, what did you really want to show me? Do you have any idea how confusing these MapQuest directions are that Wade gave me?"
"This is it!" explained Felix. His wheelchair was rolling in circles around it, as though he had to observe it from every angle. "This is Kim's perfect guy!"
The doll smiled. Monique held in a shriek. "Man, that's not perfect. That's creepy."
"Well, it's only the prototype," Wade said, rather sheepishly. "I thought it was pretty cool... so did Felix."
"Yeah," Felix frowned, but suddenly cheering up he said, "Hey Wade! What if we were to attach a machine gun to its arm?"
"Yeah!" Wade cheered, giving Felix some sort of guy high-five.
"What is it with guys and guns?" Monique muttered. "So you call this Raggedy Andy perfect?" she asked, pointing to it.
"Yeah, Aaron here will eat an entire five lb hamburger in under ten minutes!" Felix said, showing it off like a game show prize.
"Wow, that's amazing..." Monique said sarcastically.
"He has the knowledge of every video game ever made! He can build cars!"
"And he can type 320 words a minute!" Wade added excitedly. Monique and Felix stared. "Or maybe not." He grew quiet again.
Monique was about to say something but was cut off again by Felix, "He can also run twenty home runs in a single base ball team! And he knows all the action moves from Rambo!"
"Why are you making the perfect guy any ways?" Monique finally was able to ask.
Felix and Wade stared at each other for a minute, mouths open. "Why were we making Aaron?" Wade asked.
"Oh yes!" Felix shouted. "It's for Kim!"
"Kim doesn't need the perfect guy! She has Ron!" Monique tried to explain. "Besides, remember what happened to the other robot boyfriend."
The boys stared.
"He was left to melt in the rain!"
"Oh, that won't happen to Aaron. He's virtually waterproof!" Wade explained. "Well, at least the water won't... kill him."
"But once again, why?" Monique was practically begging now.
"Kim broke up with Ron right?" Felix began to explain. "Why did she break with him?"
Monique thought about it. "I don't know, she told me she wanted a... oh!"
"Yes!" Felix yelled.
"Kim will have to choose Ron over... Mr. Perfect over there!" Wade added, pointing to the creepy doll thing.
"Yeah... she'll definitely choose Ron over that." She stared at it.
"It's beautiful..." the boys said in unison.
This is crazy! Monique thought. The perfect guy? What the heck were they thinking? Kim didn't really want the perfect guy; he didn't exist. The girl didn't know what she wanted. She and Ron had been so right for each other, and Kim just had to see it. But no way was a robot, especially this robot, going to pull off that miracle. If Kim ever really did meet the perfect guy... She gasped. "This might actually work!" she shouted aloud. Of course it was insane, and Kim would kill her if she ever found out. But maybe these guys were onto something. "But not him..." She walked over to the thing.
Felix was offended. "You think you can do you better?"
She smiled. "I know I can do better. I'll tell you how to program Mister Dipity." She stopped. "Wait. Why is his name Aaron Dipity?"
Wade froze, "Well... it was kind of accident. A bit of a long story behind it, I don't think you want to hear it."
"Whatever." She shrugged. "First of all, the perfect guy cannot be invented by a guy! No offense. So I talk, you program."
They nodded, looking afraid.
Monique circled Aaron. "The perfect guy... would be European with the accent, 6'1", wavy brown hair." She stopped. "Are you all writing this down?"
Wade nodded. "Yes ma'am!"
She continued. "Deep blue eyes, just the right amount of sensitivity... without being a baby, of course. He has to be able to sing, and great sense of humor... wait! I'll get back to you on the sense of humor, you're not allowed to design that. Oh! And he must be able to carry a girl over his shoulder..."
Monique flew down the stairs an hour later. A smile was on her face and she was very satisfied with herself. She was about to open the door when...
"Monique!" Felix's mom swooped into the room. "Did you have fun with my ickle Felix?" Monique stared. This woman was a cyber-robotics genius who worked with Kim's dad?
"Yeah, we had great fun." she said. Heck, she wanted to date Aaron now.
"But you never got to try Dora's homemade cookies." Another robot with a 50's style wig on its head came in. "I built her myself!" She grabbed a cookie and shoved it into Monique's hand.
"Uh.. Thanks."
"They're peanut butter!"
Monique looked down at her cookie and frowned. She was allergic to peanuts.
"You just have to see my scrapbook!" Felix's mom wandered over to a large bookcase and pulled out a what looked like a folded rug. "It's our entire stay here in Middleton!"
"But you've only been here for a little over three months!" Monique said.
"I know!" the happy women exclaimed. "It's been great!"
She pulled Monique over to a comfy couch and wrenched open the book with great effort. She began pointing excitedly to pictures.
"This is the moving van... this is the other side of the moving van! Oh, here's that nice dog we almost hit! And the neighbors who moved out a week after we moved in!" Monique stared down at a angry man, shaking his large fist at the camera.
"And this, this is Jell-o we got from the nice policeman down the street. It has carrots in it!"
Monique sighed, and sank into the couch. She'd be here a while.
