Friday night however, while Océane spent the evening at Denise’s, there occurred in the Maxxim home an event unparalleled in Astrid’s entire life when Uncle Carl, Aunt Lauren, and Gloria came to dinner. It was beyond weird. It was like living in the Twilight Zone, or that episode of the original Star Trek where Mr. Spock was evil and had a beard. Here sat Astrid at the dinner table, along with her parents, face to face with their evil counterparts. Well, to be fair, she wasn’t sure that Uncle Carl was evil. In fact, within a few minutes of his arrival, he and Astrid’s father seemed to have patched up most of their differences and were laughing and trading stories of their youth. The girl inventor marveled at their descriptions of a world without cell phones, computers, or broadband. How could a person have survived in that kind of wilderness? Gloria seemed to be listening too, in a bored sort of way. Aunt Lauren didn’t say or do much of anything and seemed not to really want to be there.

“Want to play a game of Toad Town?” Astrid asked her cousin, after their ice cream dessert.

Gloria looked at her for a long moment. “Okay. Can we go out and get our feet wet?”

They went out the back door, doffed their shoes, and sat down on the lip of the swimming pool, dangling their feet into the heated water. Pulling out their MX-360s, they tapped the application and selected their characters. Astrid as usual, picked Tugboat. Gloria picked Tiffaberry.

“My dad’s pretty happy with how things turned out,” she said, not looking up from the screen.

“I’m glad,” said Astrid. “I think my dad’s pretty happy that he has his brother to hang out with again. How’s your mom?”

“She’s kind of upset. My dad’s pretty mad at her, but he’ll get over it. They love each other and stuff.”

“That’s good.”

“We’re not best friends or anything all of a sudden,” said Gloria. “You’re still just a sophomore and a nerd. We’re not going to hang out all the time.”

“Fine,” said Astrid, annoyed. “I’ve got my own friends.”

“But we are moving back to Maxxim City. Dad needs to be closer now, and besides my mother says graduating from Rachel Carson High will help me get into a better college.”

“Oh, I doubt you’ll have much problem getting into wherever you want to go,” said Astrid.

“I know.” Gloria paused as she switched lily pads in the game. “Aunt Penny is moving back here too, you know.”

“I didn’t know,” said Astrid. “I haven’t talked to her since Monday. Is she going to live in our house?”

“I think she’s buying a condo,” replied Gloria. “Anyway, what I was saying was you’re a sophomore and a nerd…”

“Yes, you said that bit already,” Astrid interrupted curtly.

“Yes, but… You’re not a total freak, so maybe we could do something together… you know, you, me, and Aunt Penny.”

“Well that must have been difficult to say,” said Astrid. “I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself.” She tapped the screen on her MX-360. “There, I have toad school, toad hall, and toad statue. I win.”

The next morning after breakfast, Denise and the two Valeries joined Astrid and Océane at the Maxxim home. They all put on their swimsuits and hung out by the pool. Though they spent a little while swimming and diving, except for Robot Valerie who wasn’t able to go in the water, they mostly just sat out soaking up the sun. Even Astrid, who didn’t really believe in tanning, wanted a little color after more than a month with very little sunlight whatsoever.

“It’s been so boring around here without you,” Denise told her. “Nobody even tried to kill me.”

“I knew you’d miss me when I was gone,” said Astrid.

“Who says I missed you? I happen to like boring.”

“Don’t listen to her,” said Robot Valerie. “She complained the whole time you were gone.”

“And she didn’t have anyone to text to,” added Regular Valerie, “because Mama makes us turn off our phones at night.”

“That isn’t true,” said Denise. “Alicia Noble and I spent many hundreds of hours texting back and forth about whether or not she should buy a new dress and what color it should be. I eventually convinced her to get the bright pink dress in the window at the Main Street Dress Emporium.”

“You don’t mean that very frilly, gauzy thing that they displayed for the senior prom, do you?” wondered Astrid. “I didn’t think that was very attractive.”

“I know,” smiled Denise. “It’s hideous.”

“Why would you do that to Alicia? She’s always been pretty nice.”

“She’s jealous,” said Robot Valerie. “She’s still mad because Christopher took Alicia to the Junior Prom.”

“I’m not jealous,” said Denise, but her face broke out into an evil grin.

“I’m glad I’m not your enemy,” said Astrid. “Or a, you know, casual acquaintance.”

“Astrid,” called her father from the back door. “Come in here please.”

Astrid followed him into the family room and the other girls came along too. The television was on but paused. When Astrid was in the room, her father picked up the remote and pressed play. A news story continued about the robot arm that Astrid had developed. So many scientific and technological developments came out of Maxxim City that all of the major news networks had reporters stationed there. That they had found something out about her project wasn’t a surprise, but that they had fairly extensive background information about Captain Bonnefoy and video of him and his family at Joyland the day before was.

“Is this all accurate?” asked Dr. Maxxim.

“Pretty much, I guess.”

“I say this all the time, but I’ll say it again Astrid. I’m impressed. You have a knack for seeing the possibilities in your inventions. This is pretty incredible— incredible in a good way.”

“There’s a bad incredible?” wondered Denise.

“Your mother might be upset about not controlling the story or having a proper announcement,” continued Astrid’s father, “but this is a truly wonderful invention.”

“Thanks Dad.”