AN: This one was so hard to think of something D: But thank you everyone who has been reviewing! I'm hoping to be able to start replying directly to you guys once I get through all the university stuff I have to do this week :D

A Drone Named Jeffrey

Chapter Ten

Ireland

In the short period of time I've been living with my human and her father, I have discovered something that I never expected…well, there's a lot of things I've discovered that I didn't expect, but this solely concerns my human.

She's a squealer.

Like, seriously—she has a squeal for every occasion. There's the "That's so adorable!" squeal; the "Don't let that thing touch me!" squeal; and one of my favorites, the "I'm so angry at you!" squeal and growl combo. I don't think I really started to notice it either until after about three orbital cycles, but when I did, it certainly became a fun pastime to tease her about it.

However, I have never heard her squeal loud enough to be heard from the inside of the house. Especially right before she had to leave for school; she was like death warmed over this early morning. Definitely, not awake enough to be so loud.

There was another squeal—a combination of the "I'm so angry" and a "What the frag are you doing?"—and Riley came storming out the backdoor with a nasty snarl. She didn't even have her cap in hand as she yanked open my driver's door and fell into the seat. "Get me out of here."

I started up just as Riley's dad ambled out onto the back porch. He chuckled when Riley snarled in his direction. "Have a good day, sweetheart."

Riley rolled down my window while we rolled past the porch. "I hate you!"

Her dad simply laughed. "You shoulda worn some green!"

Riley fell back into the seat with a huff, and I pulled out onto the road in silence. She huffed one too many times, and she squealed when I focused a burst of air through my vent at her. "Alright, what's gotten your human hormones in a tizzy?"

"Did you just say tizzy?"

"Yes…is that wrong?"

Riley leaned back in the seat. "Not…really? It just sounds weird coming from you."

"Then I'll say it more often. Now what have you been squealing about?"

I rolled through a stop sign while Riley slouched deeper into the seat. "My dad is a jerk."

"Uh huh."

"He pinched me." Riley sat back up and pretended to drive when a car passed. "All because I'm not wearing any stupid green."

"What does that have to do with being pinched?"

"It's St. Patrick's Day."

We were silent. "How dare he?"

"You don't know what that is, do you?"

"Nope."

Riley leaned forward and rested her chin against the top of the steering wheel, allowing her body to lean in the direction I turned. "It's just some dumb holiday that you get pinched on if you don't wear green."

"Why don't you wear it?"

"Because I protest against any holiday that doesn't get me out of school."

"That's kinda petty."

"I don't care. Where's my hat?"

"You didn't come out with one."

Riley cursed the rest of the trip to the school, and she cursed even more when I used the seatbelt to give her a little pinch on the way out. A new squeal has made the list: the "Curse and Squeal."