There was a knock on the door about an hour later.

Cosima looked over at her door from where she was lying on her bed, throwing her plush model of Schrödinger's Cat up in the air and catching it just before it hit the ground. "Come in," she said, hearing her door creak open and her mother walk over to sit next to her on her bed.

"Cosima, honey, I know you're very angry at us."

You're damn right, she thought.

"I just, we've decided to only give you a small punishment."

Oh, joy.

"That is, on one condition."

Cosima threw her plush up into the air again. "And what would that be?"

"Well, you're only grounded until tomorrow night – and that still means the usual, no computer, no television, no friends over – if you come to the party and promise to be positive."

Cosima stopped throwing the plush up in the air and set it down next to her, sitting up. "Wait, really?"

Her mother nodded. "Yes. We're going to be here to whole weekend, monitoring what you do, though, so don't even think about getting out of it. We want you to be happy, though. So just be polite, will you?"

"Yeah. Of course I will." She held up three fingers and put her hand to her chest. "Scout's honour," she finished, ignoring the fact that she'd never been a girl scout or anything of the like.

Cosima's mother raised her eyebrows warily before nodding and patting Cosima's knee.

"Okay, Cos. I'm trusting you. If you don't cooperate though, there will be dire consequences. Is that understood?"

"Totes. Completely understood. I got it."

Cosima's mother stood up from the bed and walked to the door closing it softly behind her. Cosima could almost hear the relief flooding off of her mother after she left the room. Cosima couldn't blame her. She was pretty difficult to deal with sometimes. Fortunately, her mother knew her well and knew that she would do pretty much anything to get out of being grounded. A week or two completely cut off from the world and her friends? No thanks. Cosima would rather stab herself in the eye with a pencil.

She sighed. Even though it was only a day, it was a whole day. A whole day without anyone to talk to or be with and nothing to do and nothing that she had to look forward to. She thought she might die of boredom. The only thing to do was… work. And not just any work – homework. Ugh.

She pushed herself off of her bed and walked over to where her backpack was. If she had a whole day with nothing to do she might as well start her project with Scott. Plus, this way, she might get to use a computer, since it was it for school, right?

By the time Cosima had finished her half of the project she was exhausted. The only good thing about doing it was that she'd had something to do and got to use the computer to check the email about what she was supposed to do from Scott. Unfortunately, now that she had finished, it was four in the morning and she had nothing to do for the rest of the day. The only thing she had to look forward to was the party, and that didn't seem like it would be much fun at all.

Though, seeing as she was exhausted, it didn't seem like she'd have too much time to fill anyway. It was already four in the morning, and being as tired as she was, she figured she could sleep through most of the day if she put her mind to it. Then once she woke up she could fill the remaining time with showering, getting dressed, and practicing be nice to jackasses like Leekie and all the people who worked for him.

The only problem was that as soon as she got into bed she found herself wide-awake. Or, not wide-awake exactly, but incapable of sleep. Her mind was racing and thinking about every single thing that could possibly happen at the party. What if Leekie spoke to her? Or what if her mom was right and there were actual teenagers there too? Wouldn't they all be conservative jackasses or something if they were there? Meeting conservative teenagers was not something she particularly liked doing. It was just too strange.

Slowly – a little too slowly for Cosima's taste – she drifted into sleep.

"Cosima!"

Cosima lifted her head, rubbing her eyes. "What."

Her mother walked into her room, fiddling with an earring and wearing a very expensive looking purple dress. "Wake up, you have an hour to get ready."

She rubbed her eyes again, sitting up fully and furrowing her brow. "What?"

Her mother sighed. "Mr. Leekie's party? Remember? You can come to it or you can be grounded for the next two weeks. Which sounds like a better deal?"

"I-I'll come. I'm gonna go get dressed now."

"Good." Her mother stood up and started walking out of her room. "And I want you to wear your nice clothes, okay, sweetie?"

Cosima sat up. "Yeah, sure." Slipping out of her sheets, she approached her closet. She wasn't exactly sure what counted as 'nice,' but she had a feeling her jeans and red coat weren't going to cut it. Eventually she settled on a dark red backless dress, tights, and a pair of black flats. That would be nice enough, wouldn't it?

Within forty minutes, Cosima was dressed, showered, and ready to leave the house. Her parents, however, were not. She thought it was ironic how she, who was kind of always late, was ready when her punctual-or-die parents weren't yet. Her father was walking around the house anxiously, holding his tie with one hand and a single shoe in the other.

"Has anyone seen my other shoe?" His eyes darted under the sofa and towards his daughter. "Cos? Have you seen it?"

She looked to the front door where his other shoe was sitting, one eyebrow raised. "Dad?"

"Huh?" He followed her eyes with his before finally settling on his other shoe and breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank god. You're a lifesaver, Cos."

She stood there; eyebrow still raised and asked, "Is anything wrong? You seem the tiniest bit stressed…."

"Huh? No, no, of course not!" He wiped a bead of sweat off his brow, his face looking awfully pink. "I'm just excited for your mother is all."

"Uh-huh, yeah. Sure."

He opened his mouth to say something but thought against it and clomped back upstairs to his room, yelling, "Honey! I found it!" and hearing a, "That's great sweetie! Now can you zip up my dress?" in return.

Cosima shook her head.

There was shuffling upstairs, and a bang as something hit the floor.

"You okay?" Cosima yelled up.

Cosima heard a muffled curse in return from her mother. "Yeah! I just dropped my phone is all."

There was a pause before Cosima said, "Are you guys ready to go yet?"

"Uh, yeah! Just give us one second, okay?"

Cosima sighed and slunk down onto the couch, closing her eyes. She wasn't looking forward to this party at all, but her parents were making it very difficult to just get it over and done with.

Her mother rushed down the stairs, as if suddenly remembering there was a time crunch. She held the hem of her dress as she ran, looking a little like Cinderella had when she had sprinted down the stairs at the ball, if she had been wearing a simple dress instead of a gown.

"Come on! We gotta go!" Her mother was holding her heels in her palm, looking frantically behind her as she yelled, "Michael! We're going to be late! Get your ass down here!"

Cosima heard her father shout back down, "I'm coming!" and then a muffled, "Jesus Christ, Karen," that she hoped for her father's sake her mother hadn't heard.

"I heard that!" her mother yelled back. Cosima winced.

"I was kidding honey! Totally kidding..."

Cosima sighed. "Are we going to go or not?"

"Yeah, we are. Michael!"

"What?"

"If you aren't down here in thirty seconds we're leaving without you!"

"I'm coming! Just go start the car, okay?"

"Okay!" Her mother jogged towards the door, motioning Cosima outside. "Come on, sweetie, we're going to be late."

Cosima nodded and followed her mother dutifully, dreading every second she was going to have to spend at this party.

"Mom?"

"Yes?" She opened the car door and hopped in, waving her hand to tell Cosima to get in the back seat. "What is it?"

Cosima sat down and clicked her seat belt. "How long are we going to be there?"

"I'd think until about ten or eleven. If you have a problem with being there, Cosima, you can always stay home and be grounded until June."

"Mom, I turn 18 in March. You can't keep me here after I'm 18 if I decide to move out."

Her mother sighed. "Fine, you're grounded until your birthday if you don't come. Better?"

"Yeah, sure."

Her mother sighed again and honked the horn loudly, sticking her head out the window and yelling towards the house, "Michael! Get your ass in here!"

Cosima could see her father scrambling around the house through the front window and running outside, his tie hanging loosely around his neck. He shuffled to the passenger seat and closed the door, breathing heavily and fanning his underarms. As soon as the passenger door was shut, her mother backed out of her parking spot and zoomed off on their way to the party.

"Nervous, dad?" Cosima asked.

"Huh?" He lifted his collar and sniffed, shaking his head and pulling a bar of deodorant out of the glove compartment. Applying it, quite generously, if Cosima said so herself, he shook his head. "No, no! I'm not nervous! Excited. Very excited."

"Well, you sweat a lot for someone who's just excited."

"It's perfectly normal to sweat when excited! I just, uh, I'm meeting your mother's boss for the very first time tonight. I'll meet all of her coworkers, actually." He took another deep breath and closed his eyes. "It'll be wonderful," he added, eyes still closed and his head resting back on the seat.

"Honey, stop it." Her mother took one hand off the wheel to pat her father's thigh. "It'll be fine. Honestly, they're not that difficult."

"O-oh, I know." He took another deep breath, eyes still closed and clutching the tube of deodorant tightly. "I'm looking forward to it, really."

Her mother rolled her eyes at him but didn't say anything else on the subject.

The only thing more painful in Cosima's mind than the actual party was the ride to the party. It was painstakingly awkward. Her dad was sweating like a pig the entire time, and her mom spent the entire time either rolling her eyes or checking her lipstick in the rearview mirror. To top that off, she didn't have her phone to keep her busy, so she was forced to eeither stare out the window or talk to her parents.

For what seemed like hours to Cosima, but was most likely only thirty minutes, they arrived at the DYAD institute, where her mother worked.

"Mom? Shouldn't they not hold a big company party at the lab?"

"Oh, don't worry sweetie, there's a floor specifically for gatherings like this one." Her mother opened to door, taking a deep breath and stepping out.

"Okay…" Cosima followed suit and exited the car, looking at the building. "Wow. Big."

Cosima heard her dad wheeze in the background. She turned around to see him pulling on his shirt collar and adjusting his tie nervously.

"You okay, dad?"

"Fine. Absolutely fine." He looked like he was just about ready to run for the hills. Her mom grabbed his hand, patting it.

"You'll be fine," she said, obviously attempting to appear reassuring but sounding distracted instead.

"I-I know that, Karen." He gulped. "Absolutely fine."

Cosima rolled her eyes and started walking towards the door, pushing it open to a woosh of air when she arrived. "Fancy," she muttered to herself.

A man in a tuxedo with a coat on his arm greeted them at the door.

"Why, hello there, Mrs. Niehaus. I assume this is your lovely family?"

Cosima's mom smiled back at the man and grabbed her daughter's arm. "Yes. This is my lovely husband, Michael," she said, pulling him closer to her and leaning her head against his shoulder. He looked about ready to explode with anxiety. "And this is our wonderful daughter, Cosima." She pulled her closer to her as well, patting her shoulder. "You know, she's a scientist as well."

"Oh!" said the man, grinning in a way that let Cosima know he was incredibly tired of pretending to care about his coworker's families. "That's wonderful. May I take your coat?"

Cosima's mother shook her head. "No, that's quite alright. I think I'm going to go and join the others now."

"Great! Great, really wonderful."

The Niehaus' took off down a long dark hallway to the main room, where the smell of cheese, wine, and expensive perfume was overpowering.

"Cosima," her mother began, leaning down slightly and pointing her finger, "if you so much as look at any of the alcohol here you will be grounded until you graduate from college. Is that understood?"

"Yes, mom. I got it. Can I go now?" Even though her phone had been taken away, sitting off to the side and thinking about things was better than sitting with her parents and trying not to disagree with any of Dr. Leekie's employees.

"No, I'm going to go introduce you to my boss."

"But mom, your boss is Leekie."

"Yes he is, and you're going to be nice to him." She grabbed her daughter by the upper arm and dragged her to where a bald man was talking to another bald man, Doctor Leekie.

"Mr. Leekie! It's so great to see you here!"

Leekie turned his attention from the bald man to Cosima's mother and smiled.

"Karen! How lovely you could make it." He grinned and looked back at Cosima and her dad. "And who are these lovely people you have with you?"

"Oh! This is my husband, Michael."

"Hello, Michael," Leekie said, holding out his hand. Cosima's father just let out a small squeak and slapped his hand into Leekie's, shuffling off to the bar mere seconds after pulling away.

Her mom laughed anxiously. "He's just excited to be here," she explained.

"Obviously." He turned his attention to Cosima, now. "And who is this lovely lady?"

Cosima fought back the urge to barf.

"This is my daughter, Cosima. Cosima, say hello to Doctor Leekie."

Cosima grit her teeth and held out her hand. "Hello there, Mr. Leekie. I'm a big fan of your work." She could almost taste vomit in the back of her throat.

Leekie just laughed. "And how old are you?"

"I'll be 18 in March."

"Ah! My stepdaughter is about your age! She's here, would you like me to get her for you?"

"No, no that's oka-"

"I'll be right back." He turned around and left, in search of his stepdaughter. Cosima sighed.

"Cosima," her mother started.

"I know, I know. Be polite. It's not going to help that she's probably a douchebag."

"Language!"

"Sorry, sorry. Pretentious," she corrected. She looked down at her hands and fiddled with her dress. She thought maybe she wouldn't be as affected by all the douchebaggery happening around her if she couldn't see it.

"Found her!" Cosima could hear Leekie stepping back to where she and her mother stood. "This is Ms. Cormier." He attempted the last name in an atrocious accent, causing Cosima to stifle a laugh.

French, Cosima thought. She looked up. I bet she's nowhere near as hot as -

"Delphine?"