On the warm and sunny afternoon of May 8th, Lisa Loud was enjoying the mild spring weather on her walk home from the Royal Woods Science Center. Flowers were in full bloom and green buds dotted the barren trees: It had been a long and cold winter and was just now beginning to warm up, a full month past schedule.

Every day after school, Lisa spent an hour or so at the science center immersed in a world of possibility and innovation. Most days, she went with David, her close friend. David, who was almost as intelligent as she was, was, perhaps, the only one who understood her. He, too, was a child prodigy who loved math and science, who thrived on numbers and equations. They had many of the same interests, such as studying the world around them to gain a deeper, mechanical understanding of it and inventing things to make life easier and to benefit humanity. They were both also a bit egocentric, but aren't all geniuses? Is a man who can fight and knows it really better because he manufactures humility? Lisa dealt in cold, hard facts, and it was a fact that she was smarter than most people. Did that make her a better human or more valuable human being? Well, no, in a society, we all have our roles to play as well as our strong suits. Lisa could design a modern and innovative blueprint, but she could not build it. She would need workers - big, strong men who could carry heavy things. Of course, if you were to frame it in different scenarios, such as a zombie apocalypse like that show on AMC Lucy loved so much, then yes, she probably was more valuable. Who would you rather have on your survival team: An engineer slash doctor or a janitor?

Anyway, she digressed. She usually went to the science center with David but today he had stood her up, as the saying goes, and she was quite disappointed. She was very fond of David and rather enjoyed their time together.

She was a few blocks from home when her cell phone rang. She had built it herself since her parents refused to buy her one of her own. It looked just like the real thing. She saw that the call was from David and answered it. "I missed you at the science center," Lisa said without preamble.

"Something came up," David said, "you know how it goes. I wanted to apologize and also inform you that I will be out of town for the next several days."

Lisa raised her eyebrows. "Is it serious?" she asked.

"A death in the family," David replied. "A distant relative."

"Well, I regret that we won't be able to see one another," Lisa said.

"It's only a few days," David said. "I expect to be home Thursday."

"In that case, how about you come over to my house for dinner on Friday the 16th?"

Though she wouldn't let on, Lisa was extremely disappointed that he would be away, and came up with the idea of dinner as a means of compensating for the time they would lose over the coming week. Making up for lost time, you might say. She considered making it a sleepover, but rejected the idea as impractical. Even though she was only four and not given to the biological yearnings felt by those a great deal older than her, her parents would likely be uncomfortable with the idea of her having a boy over for a glorified slumber party. Nothing, of course, would occur between her and David, but you know the backwards values of small town denizens…even relatively progressive ones like the Louds.

"Alright," David said, "that sounds nice. I'll call you when I get back into town."

Lisa said, "Okay," and then hung up. She let out a deep sigh and hung her head slightly. The more she thought about David's upcoming absence, the more her mood darkened. She enjoyed being in his company. It gave her a slight, almost…fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach. She could neither describe nor account for it, but it was somewhat pleasant and she liked it. Now he would be out of town for almost a week and instead of that warm fluttery sensation, she felt an empty pit of dejection.

Her bad mood was so noticeable that at home, several of her sisters approached her to ask if she was alright. "Didja have a bad day at school, dude?" Luna asked. Her concern was touching, but Lisa was annoyed by her insistence that they "rap a little while, man." Lynn asked her point blank if she was being bullied. She squatted down and started to shadow box the air while leaping from one foot to the other. "Let me at 'em," she said, "let me at 'em."

"No, Lynn, I am not being bullied," Lisa told her older sister with strained patience. "I would let you know if I was."

"Promise?" Lynn asked.

"Promise," Lisa confirmed.

The furor eventually died down and she was finally able to hear herself think. Lincoln complained often about her and her sisters' penchant for overreacting, now for the first time she realized he was one hundred percent right. They did have a nasty habit of imposing themselves and escalating situations they had no business being involved in,

Huh.

She should try to rectify that.

She made a mental note to call a sisters' meeting, but promptly forgot about it when David texted.

Never before had Lisa and David stayed in close contact via text or instant messaging, but during that almost week long period, they spoke through text quite often. It wasn't the same as having him in person, but it would suffice for now, Lisa decided.

As the day of David's arrival approached, Lisa became more and more excited. He anticipated getting in late Thursday night. Lisa was slightly disappointed to find out that he had a doctor's appointment on Friday and would not be in school. Therefore, she would not be able to see him until he came over. Oh well, Lisa thought, good things come to those who wait.

The week passed at a sluggish crawl. She tried to lose herself in several projects but uncharacteristically, she couldn't concentrate, and wound up throwing in the towel. She finally managed to get her nose to the grindstone, as the saying goes, and completed a series of mathematical equations that, she believed, would one day help in the pursuit of building a time machine. Time travel did indeed seem to be possible, but only in an immaterial sense. If one were to go back in time, they would only be able to view, not to interact. In effect, they would be a ghost peering through the fabric of spacetime but unable to touch anything.

If you asked her, that was hardly time travel at all, but it would be a boon to the human race regardless. Imagine being able to go back and watch historical events as they unfolded. That, to her, was an exciting prospect that would unlock vast stretches of previously unattainable knowledge.

Maybe when David got back, she would recruit him to help her with it. Between the two of them, they could certainly develop Loudian time travel. Yes, that's what Lisa called it: Loudian. It might take years or even decades to perfect, but she was sure that they could do it.

If they didn't lose interest, of course. Lisa didn't know about David, but she didn't think she would be content working on one thing for the rest of her life. She had a wide range of interests and wanted to explore them all, not just focus on one.

Oh well, she'd bring it up to David later on and see how he felt about it.

Finally, at long last, Thursday rolled around. She waited on tenterhooks the entire day, checking her phone constantly for word from David. Just after 7pm, he messaged her to say that he and his family had just gotten into town. Lisa had secretly been hoping that he would get in earlier so they could see one another. She did not, however, hold her breath. David was a man of his word and if he said Thursday evening, he meant Thursday evening.

That night, sleep eluded Lisa, and after restively tossing and turning for several hours, she got up after midnight with a frustrated sigh and did some mathematical quotations on her computer to help herself relax. She finally fell asleep at her computer, then woke up a short time later and moved to the bed.

The next day, the hours at school seemed to drag into eternity. If she didn't know any better, she would say that the clock on the wall was mistakenly counting each second at two. Finally, the day ended and she met up with Lola, Lana, Lucy, and Lincoln at the flagpole. They walked home together. By now, they knew that David was coming over for dinner, and Lana and Lola teased her about having a boyfriend. Normally, such childish antics wouldn't bother her, but for some reason, today, they embarrassed her and put her on the defensive. "David is a close associate of mine," she told them, "not a romantic partner."

"hE's A cLoSe AsSoCiAtE," Lola repeated in a mocking tone. Lana spun around to face away from her, wrapped her arms around her own body, and ran them up and down her back, pantomiming making out with someone.

Lisa shook her head and rolled her eyes.

At home, Lisa went up to her room to wait for David. She felt the weird and obscene urge to make herself presentable. She had no idea what to do, so changed into another sweater exactly like the one she was wearing and pronounced herself ready.

It wouldn't be long now.

At precisely 4:45pm, David rang the doorbell of 1216 Franklin Avenue. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a yellow shirt with black stripes. He wanted to look cool and casual so he took off his lab coat and left it at home. He had missed Lisa over the last week and for some reason, found himself very nervous about seeing her again. She had assuredly not changed in a week, but it felt like he had been away for years, and perhaps he was afraid that things would not be the same.

He rang the bell again, and Lisa's mother opened the door. "Oh, hello, David," she said cheerily.

"Hello, Mrs. Loud," David said with a courteous half bow. "You're looking very radiant today."

The older woman laughed. "Why, thank you. Come in. Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes." She stepped aside so that David could enter, then shut the door behind him. "Lisa is upstairs waiting for you in her room."

David adjusted his glasses. "Thank you."

While she went off to finish preparing the evening meal, David went up the stairs, trailing one hand along the bannister in case he tripped and fell. It had happened before. He was, admittedly, quite clumsy. At the top, a greenish shape suddenly appeared before him, and in his haste to stop, he wound up tripping after all. He pitched forward and landed face first against something soft, pillowy, and fragrant. He stepped back and Leni, Lisa's older sister, looked down at him with evident concern. "OMG, are you okay?"

David realized with a slight flush that Leni's ample bosom is what broke her fall. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm fine," he said. "A-Are you?"

Leni waved her hand dismissively. "I'm used to guys falling on me like that. It happens all the time." A look of confusion clouded her features and she touched her index finger to her chin. "I wonder why. I guess, like, I have weird gravity."

Unsure what to reply, David uttered a forced chuckle. "Yeah. That's it."

When Leni was gone, David went to Lisa's room. When he poked his head in, he found her sitting at the computer. He looked around. "Your lab has gotten bigger since I last saw it."

Lisa turned around and flashed a tight smile. It was far warmer and far more genuine than it looked. "One must always expand their horizons. How was your trip?"

David sat in a chair next to Lisa and told her about his week. Soon, their talk turned to all the crazy antics they had pulled, together and on their own, in the name of science, She recalled the name she convinced Flip to allow himself to be be studied under Dr. Linnaeus, only to find out she had rather evil intentions, not to mention launching her and her thugs into outer space. He, in turn, brought up the time he invented a hypnosis ray and used it on his Aunt Mary, making her flap her arms like a chicken and go "bwok, bwok, bwok" at Thanksgiving dinner. They laughed uproariously, their normally calm demeanors fading away in the face of their affection and friendship. "The things we do for science," David said.

"Whatever it takes to advance human knowledge," Lisa said.

"I agree, I agree," David said, "but I could have made her do something else. I just wanted to see her do the chicken dance. She's normally so stuffy and uptight."

Lisa lifted and lowered one shoulder. "No one said that we couldn't have a little fun along the way."

Just then, Mrs. Loud called up the stairs to say that dinner was ready. David and Lisa both went downstairs to the dining room and sat at the table, where everyone else had already taken their seats. Lori was over at Fairway, so David took her seat. He scanned the table and could barely contain his awe at the bounty before him. David was wrong in assuming Mrs. Loud was making dinner, it was really Mr. Loud. He made his famous Lynn-sagna along with a nice salad and a chocolate bundt cake. To wash it all down, each diner had a big cup of Coca-Cola.

As they ate, Lisa's sisters bombarded him with a thousand questions. "How long have you and Lisa been dating?" Lola asked with a wicked smile.

David choked and Lisa turned red, Awkward silence emanated from everyone else. "We're just friends," David stammered. "Colleagues, you might say."

"Do you hold hands for science?" Lana asked.

"I can't say that we have," David said. He tried to smile but a hot color crept across the back of his neck and his face felt suddenly tight.

"I think it's cool that you guys are friends," Luna said. "Everyone needs someone who gets them, you know? Feeling understood is real important."

Something tickled David's shoulder and her turned to see a black spider from the corner of his eye. His heart rocketed into his throat, but he relaxed when he realized it was a fake. Dangling from the end of a string, it looked real. "Luan," Mr. Loud said sternly, "knock it off."

"What do you guys do for fun?" Leni asked.

"Oh, we do equations and theorems mostly," David replied. "Sometimes we engage in a little quantitative physics."

Everyone at the table - except for Lisa, of course - looked at him like he was speaking an entirely different language. And in a way, he supposed that he was. "I don't know what that is," Lucy said, "but if you two enjoy it, more power to you."

"It's a difficult concept to explain in layman's terms," David said, "but Lisa and I do quite enjoy it. It's one of those things that are better when you have someone to share it with."

Leni held her hands together, Luna said, "Awww," and Lucy muttered, "That's cute," in her normal monotone. David's cheeks blushed a bright shade of crimson and he flicked his eyes down to the table. A ghost of a smile traced Lisa's lips and she, too, darted her eyes to her plate. David didn't notice it, but she was blushing as well.

Mrs. Loud collected everyone's plates then cut the cake into equal pieces. David was surprised how big each one was considering how small the cake looked overall. Small, of course, when you take into account that it had to people. David remarked on this and Mr. Loud laughed. "I'm an expert at making things stretch. I've had a lot of practice."

Like any boy his age, David had something of a sweet tooth, and had sampled some of the finest confections known to man. Mr. Loud's chocolate bundt cake, however, was one of the best. He was amazed by how good it was, and asked Mr. Loud his secret. The older man laughed. "I can't tell you that," he said, "if I did, I'd have to lock you up in the basement and never let you leave."

He was joking, of course.

Wasn't he?

After dessert, David and the Louds adjourned to the living room. They gathered on the couch in front of the TV and Leni put on The Dream Boat. David had personally never seen this show and was not a fan of reality TV, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it, Lisa included, so he metaphorically unclenched his butt and tried to lose himself in it. Lisa sat next to him, and he whispered questions to her. "Who's he? What does that mean?"

"It's a long story," Lisa said. "Just watch and you'll come up to speed."

Oh well. It didn't matter as long as he was sitting next to Lisa.

Ten minutes in, David's mother texted him to say that she and his father were outside to pick him up. David didn't want this evening to end but he offered no resistance. He told Lisa that he had to go, and she looked just as disappointed as he felt. She walked him to the door. "It was a lovely evening," she said. She offered him her hand.

Instead of taking it, however, he leaned in and pecked her on the cheek. He rushed off, and Lisa gaped after him, a deep blush reddening her face.

She was shocked, stunned.

But you know what?

She also sort of liked it.