#4 Not Getting Work Done
Summer arrived anti-climatically, and while most people were heading home at least for a visit, Jeremie and Aelita were more concerned about how they'd get any work or monitoring done without direct access to the supercomputer.
Horrifyingly, Laura found a way to backdoor the majority of the programs remotely. It was information that she kind of nonchalantly shared between bites of salad when Jeremie and Aelita were chattering about well, maybe we could alternate weeks off and someone could stay here. Some back up is better than no back up.
Aelita looked the most skeptical. The "most" skeptical because everyone else looked varying degrees of relieved. But Jeremie figures, a few weeks later after his parents ask, then beg, then threaten, and finally blackmail him to come home, that as long as he and Aelita can monitor the supercomputer (and Laura) remotely they can spend a week at his parents' house.
So they do. And the first couple of days they check diligently at night and first thing in the morning, but then one day Jeremie gets up to find Aelita on the porch drinking lemonade and taking in the view and decides XANA probably will leave them alone for a few hours.
For the rest of the two weeks (Oh, we can stay a little longer! Look how happy your mom is to have you home!) Absolutely Nothing gets done. They go swimming and for walks in the park, they eat ice cream at the parlor in town, and go to street fairs, see two different street performances, and drink endless amounts of lemonade.
But they don't get any work done. They relax, and have family dinners, and go to block parties and a graduation party for Jeremie's cousin. They go to an art museum and a computer store and they play chess and cards on a blanket in the yard. It ends up being a perfect vacation-but work never gets done.
(A lot of work gets done when they get back to Kadic and find out Laura was remotely downloading mission logs, though.)
The rest of the gang seems a bit concerned when their favorite geniuses get home because, hello, bodysnatchers much? Odd almost gets punched because he spends a lot of time poking and prodding at the two of them trying to make sure they're real. Their Jeremie is just not that calm, he claims. One day he finds both of them sleeping in, until like eleven in the morning and that is just not a thing that happens-it's almost lunch time.
But Yumi smiles and tells them that she thinks vacation really suited them and she's glad they've unwound a little bit. She's sure by the time the semester starts that they'll be just as stressed out, but at least right now they're showing up for all of the meals they don't sleep through.
Gradually more work gets done from the duo and, begrudgingly, Laura starts to get actual work done too and not just her horrifying hacking that she likes to do between firewall testings.
They decide next summer maybe they'll spend another week or two not getting any work done, too.