At the dawn of the next day, Lisa and Darcy slowly woke up to find themselves sleeping on Darcy's bed, the girl being on the left side while Lisa was on the right side. They were hugging each other, and though Lisa didn't mind at first, she immediately separated from the girl and backed away when she noticed something coming out of her mouth.
"Darcy, are you drooling from your mouth?" Lisa asked with slight disgust.
"Of course I am, I mean, where else am I supposed to drool from? My nose?" Darcy chuckled and then wiped off the drool from her mouth. "Sorry, Lisa, but I had this dream where I was surrounded by so much delicious food animals: chocolate cake elephants, banana split monkeys, and even lollipop giraffes!"
The scientist felt her mouth drool a little before she said, "Wow, that really does sound delicious. And unexplainable."
"Lisa! Darcy! Time for breakfast!" Darcy's Mother shouted from downstairs. "Get dressed and get down before I give it to the dogs or something!"
"That's just some hollow threat, right?" Lisa asked.
The girls exchanged looks which slowly turned worried until they jumped out of the bed and got dressed before heading downstairs as fast as they could. Once there, the duo sat on the table and the woman brought breakfast.
"So, this is your first day living under our roof," Darcy's Mom remarked, earning a nod from Lisa. "What do you usually do after waking up?"
"Work on some experiments if I have enough energy, otherwise see if Lily or anybody else in the house is awake," Lisa answered as she adjusted her glasses, only to yawn as she added, "Speaking of which, I failed to find certain components or pieces of a chemical set, or a chemical set in general-"
"Ohoho, I know what you're planning to do, you little rascal, but I'm not going to let you do any experiments, specially if you're living with my little Darcy," Mrs. Homandollar sternly stated, giving the genius an angry look. "You honestly think you can live the same way you did in your house? Either you learn to adapt to how things work around here, or you can go back to your house."
Lisa looked at the ground, only to sigh and put up a little smile, "What's for breakfast?"
"Eggs and ham," Darcy's Mom answered before presenting the food to the toddlers. "You can eat that, right? Neither you nor your mother told me what you could or couldn't eat."
"Of course I can, Mrs. Darcy's Mother," Lisa answered as she grabbed a fork. "I assure you, I may be a prodigy, but I'm still human."
The woman raised an eyebrow before she just shrugged it off and went off to do her business, leaving her daughter and her friend to eat their food. And Lisa also took the chance to talk with Darcy:
"So, Darcy, after we're done eating, do you think you could show me what you do on an average day?"
"Sure, why not?" Darcy answered, solely focused on her food. "But are you sure you won't get bored? You seem to be more interested in robotics, and nothing of what I do is related to any of that stuff."
"Darcy, the purpose of my stay at your house is to ditch away my old, robotic and science-centric life, in favor for one that's more "normal", for lack of a better word," Lisa sighed. "Bottom line, I'm willing to engage in the activities that you enjoy, if it'll help us get closer."
And one confused look from the girl later, Lisa corrected herself:
"I don't mind doing things you like, really. In fact, I'm looking forward to it."
Darcy smiled at the remark, and ate her breakfast before beginning Lisa's first day as "a normal kid her age." So with all that jazz done, they immediately went to the best place to begin Lisa's journey for normality: The Royal Woods Public Park.
And then they headed to the playground right next to it.
"Ah, so this is the fabled playground that my older sisters have been to at least once," Lisa remarked as she took a look around the place. "I've seen pictures of this place before, but this is the first time I see it in reality."
"It's right next to the park, though," Darcy pointed out.
"I never said I bothered to look around, did I?" Lisa walked back to her friend and put a hand on her shoulder. "Now, what game would you like to show me first?"
The first game...
Darcy and Lisa stood in front of a hopscotch game, with several squares drawn on the floor. "This game's called hopscotch!" Darcy excitedly exclaimed.
"So, what's the point of this game?" Lisa scratched her head. "How do you win it?"
"You have to jump on each space until you reach the rock, then take the rock, turn around, and jump all the way back," Darcy explained as she guided Lisa to the starting line. "Come on, give it a try!"
Darcy handed Lisa a rock, then watched as the scientist scanned her surroundings before throwing the rock as hard as she could, causing it to land right at the end. Lisa glanced back at Darcy, who nodded, then turned back before she jumped up three spaces before being stopped by her friend:
"Wait, Lisa, I forgot to say something important: In the middle of the game, you must pick between the two spots, then jump in and back through the same spot. If you get the wrong spot, you lose!"
Well geez, thanks for telling her late, Darcy!
Even with the late advice, Lisa managed to go down the same route she did before, successfully winning the game. Darcy gave her a tight hug afterwards.
The second game...
Next thing Darcy showed Lisa was a rope. A jump rope, to be exact. "This is a jump rope, and it's not some sort of rope that jumps on it's own when you order it to."
"Well, now I'm tempted to test your hypothesis," Lisa adjusted her glasses, then barked at the rope. "Jump rope, jump for us!"
The jump rope did nothing.
"Okay, yeah, I probably should've seen that coming," the prodigy shrugged. "So, what are we supposed to do with this?"
Rather than tell her, Darcy grabbed both ends of the jump rope, then jumped up and down while swinging the jump rope in the same manner. She did this three times before she handed the jump rope to Lisa, hoping she'd at least understand the basics. And she did get them, for she swung and jumped on the same manner that Darcy did twice, before messing up on the third try and fall on her butt.
Surprisingly, Lisa actually did laugh for a moment before Darcy helped her get up. "Please tell me that doesn't happen often."
"Falling on your butt by mistake? No, that tends to happen from time to time if you're just starting out," Darcy answered, patting Lisa's back. "But that was good, I'm sure if you keep practicing, you'll get better at it in no time."
"Hehe, alright then," Lisa sighed and smiled. "So, what's next?"
The final game...
"And the last game we'll see today is a classic," Darcy took out a small beanbag. "Hot potato!"
"I'm more of a fan of french fries myself," Lisa answered, earning a deadpan look from her friend. "Wait, "hot potato"'s the name of the game?"
"Yup, and it's a fairly simple one as well," Darcy tossed the beanbag at Lisa, who narrowly grabbed it. "We throw the beanbag, or whatever object we're using, to each other while one of us sings a little song, and whoever has the object by the end of the song loses. I'll be the one singing the song, so all you gotta do is throw the beanbag at me when I give it to you, got it?"
Lisa nodded, then threw the beanbag back at Darcy, with the girls passing it back and forth between each other as Darcy sung a little song:
"Hot potato, dry tomato, who'll get it in the end, I have no idea my friend,"
Then the duo sped up.
"It's heating up, it's heating up, and by the way, bud, what's up?"
And they sped even further.
"It's heating faster and faster, it's getting hotter! Hotter, hotter, hotter, hotter aaaaand-"
Darcy paused and threw it to Lisa before finishing:
"It's on fire!"
Lisa immediately threw the beanbag in the air and ran all over the place, screaming as she flailed her arms up and down. Darcy couldn't help but laugh as she added, "Lisa, the beanbag's not really on fire! It's just a saying!"
"Oh." the scientist stopped freaking out and walked back to Darcy. "So, since I held the beanbag when it got set on fire, I lost, right?"
Darcy just nodded and nervously smiled. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll win next time. For now, how about we do something I really like to do?"
Lisa smiled, and mere seconds later, the pair were resting on the grass, looking at the clouds pass by
"Oh, look Lisa, that cloud looks like a horse!" Darcy shouted, pointing at the designated cloud. "And that one looks like a snowman!"
"Uh, that one looks like a," Lisa pointed at the cloud she watched, but when she realized it looked like a robot, she hesitated before saying, "Like a transforming automobile!"
Darcy giggled. "Lisa, that's a robot."
"Oh, it is?" Lisa chuckled. "I didn't notice."
The duo exchanged a look before they laughed for a moment, turning back to their cloud watching once the laughing stopped.
"Are you enjoying your "normal life" so far, Lisa?" Darcy asked, forcing a little smile.
"Yeah, It's been very... fun," Lisa nodded and smiled. "Thanks a lot for showing me what I was missing. And for being so accepting about the whole deal, too."
"Well, It's not like I even know how to talk about it," Darcy's smile slowly turned into a frown. "I still think you could've done something else to try and fix the situation-"
"Darcy, believe me, nothing else I had planned would've probably worked," Lisa shook her head and sighed. "And besides, I trust that Lincoln's plan will come to fruition. Even if he doesn't get our sisters to do a complete 180, and I hope it doesn't, I at least hope that they realize their faults and change for the better."
Lisa then noticed a cloud that looked just like Lincoln's face, and she couldn't help but frown and think:
"Good luck, Lincoln."
