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The night was a stormy one. Rain beat down on the windows and formed wavy patterns on the floor. A flash of lightning and the images were thrown onto the wall and they danced in a frightening manner. The tap of the rain was like fingers on glass and the wind howled as it sliced through the corners of the roof. Max sat up in his bed. It was dark and he pulled his knees, partially covered with his blanket, in close to his chest. The thunder made everything worse. His digital clock flashed on and off bathing him in red light. One more bolt of thunder and Max leaped out of his bed grabbing his blanket and dragging it behind him. He peaked out the doorway and looked down the hallway first right then left. Nothing was there but more darkness. He slowly stepped out into it and walked carefully toward his parents' room. He looked down over the balcony and saw a small robot rolling on its wheals on the first floor. He kept on walking and softly pushed the door open to the bedroom. It creaked as it opened letting the moon light in. A shadow was cast on the floor of a spiky haired figure. It grew elongated the more the door opened up. Frink opened his eyes as the light entered the room. Lightning flashed and outlined the black form of the spiky one who possessed the shadow.
"AAAHH!!" Yelled Frink at the sight and was joined by Max in the scream. "AAAHH!!" He ran into the room from the doorway and jumped into the bed between the both of them.
"Max! What are you doing?" Asked Frink once he realized what was going on.
"I was scared."
"YOU were scared? What about me?"
"Can I stay here?"
Frink looked over at Caroline. He swore the girl slept like a rock. After the scream fest and having Max jump on the bed she was still asleep. Frink slid back under the covers.
"Yes you can stay. Good night Max." Soon both of them were asleep.

Morning time in the Frink house, a typical day started off with the family being jolted out of bed by alarm clocks that sound like laser fire going off. All the clocks were synchronized all over the house and the three got up with out too much complaining. If any of them did over sleep their respective clocks would follow up the audio wake up call with a visual one of real lasers and flashing lights. The room would flicker on and off annoyingly in red until the alarm was shut off. Maximillian was a very well behaved child and his parents were lucky that they didn't have to chase him out of bed every morning though he wasn't always a ray of sunshine once he was up. Once downstairs breakfast was ready and served by their robot Floyd. Floyd was a butler, maid and cook all rolled into one. He was big and bulky, at least six and a half feet tall and ran on treads. His waist was flexible black tube and his head had a glass dome that contained his thought processing units. His arms were long cylinders as well that terminated into three digits for grasping objects. Another of Frink's creations Floyd looked after the house while the family was away. Caroline and Max enjoyed having him around, but Floyd and "the master" didn't always get along. Frink was often critical of his own work and believed Floyd had many faults and could have been constructed better.
"What was I thinking, glayvin. I should have left you on the blue prints. Look at these eggs. Ruined. Look an egg shell." He said holding up a tiny white speck and pointing at it. "Ya worthless hunk of junk."
"Honey be nice to the robot. He always tries his best to please you." Said Caroline. There was nothing wrong with her breakfast.
"Yeah dad. If you ate cereal like me all he'd have to do is add milk to it. Right, Floyd? It's much easier to make. You can't mess that up."
"I'm sure he'd find a way." Added Frink as he eyed his creation.

The Frink household was filled with all sorts of electronic devices not just invented by Frink himself but by Caroline and Maximillian. Being the son of two geniuses he was quite the bright little kid himself and helped add to the myriad of gizmos lying about. Yet unlike his parents, Max kept his smarts low key and didn't go around showing off his abilities or creations. Frink looked at his watch.
"Max you better go, the bus should be on its way."
"Bye Floyd." Said Max as he gave his mother a kiss then ran over to his father and did the same. Just as quickly he was out the door and on his skateboard heading for the bus stop. Frink got up and hugged his wife.
"I better go too, or I'll be late at the university. What about you, dear?"
"I'm not due into the plant today until later." She said sipping her coffee. "Have a good day dear."
"Always a good day when you're around, glayvin." He said shooting her a smile.

Caroline went through her runs at the power plant later that morning. She checked energy levels, temperatures, emissions, inputs and outs. So far everything seemed to be in order. This wasn't exactly her idea of a dream job and had never expected to take it when she finished college but it was a job for now until she could land something better. The timer went off and she couldn't believe how quick time had passed. It was lunchtime already. She scribbled a few more things on her notepad and headed to the break room. She had brought her own lunch and always did because she didn't trust any of the food that was served at the cafeteria. Caroline sat down at a table alone and pulled out her lunch. She watched the others eat and talk away. One table caught her attention. For one thing they were very loud. There were three of them there; a tall heavy set bald man he wore a white shirt and blue pants. On one side of his was another tall but thin man with black hair and suspenders. Across from him sat a black man who wore a sweater. They were playing a game with their food. Of course this was Homer, Lenny and Carl's table. Homer was at the head of the table sitting with his mouth open. They had bought a box of extra large donuts and were trying to use them as hoops to shot Twinkies through. If the Twinkie went through the donut hole it would make it into Homer's mouth or whoever's mouth it happened to be their turn. Lenny had white Twinkie paste all over his face and hair from an obvious unsuccessful attempt. Carl was holding the Twinkie in his hand as though it were a paper airplane and threw it. He hit his mark perfectly but the yellow pastry was still to big to make it through the hole and it splattered on impact dousing him and Homer in white goo. The three laughed and Caroline couldn't help but giggle. It really was a creative way to play with their food or a very controlled food fight.

Homer whiped the goo from his face and saw her from across the room. "Hey guys. Who's that? She a new recruit? I've never seen her before."
"Beats me." Said Lenny.
"Yeah me too. I never notice these things." Said Carl.
"Well ask her." Said Homer.
"You ask." Replied Lenny bluntly.
"No you ask her." Insisted Homer.
"Fine we'll ask her. Come one." Said Carl tapping Lenny on the shoulder.
"Ok." He said to his friend and the two walked over towards Caroline's table.
"Hello." Said Lenny in a nasal voice.
"Yeah hi." Added Carl.
"I'm Lenny and this is Carl." He said pointing to his chum. "We've never seen you before and wanted to know who you were."
"Well actually I had seen you before." Said Carl.
"Oh yeah, come to think of it so have I. It's Homer over there that wanted to know who you were." A loud "D'oh!" Was heard from across the room. Caroline looked up at the two still not sure what to make of them.
"I'm Dr. Frink. Nice to meet you." She said and shook their hands. "You still have Twinkie paste on your face." She said handing both of them napkins. Embarrassed they whiped their faces off. She walked over to their table with them.
"Hey Homer, meet Dr. Frink." Said Carl introducing her.
"Oh, are you Homer Simpson the safety guy?" She asked him as she sat at the table.
"Yeah. How come I've never seen you before."
"Simple. I usually work the shifts you don't. I've been here for over a year now."
"Oh."
"I ran into your wife the other day at the Kwik-E-Mart. Very nice lady."
"Oh yeah." Said Homer stroking his chin in remembrance. "She told me about that. I know who you are. You're married to the guy…who made the thing…uh right?" He said shifting his eyes back and forth as though trying to remember something.
"Yup that's him." Said Caroline with a smile. "And from what I've heard your son's in my son's class at school."
"Bart goes to school with your kid? From what Marge tells me you've got a good kid there."
"Yeah, he's very…"
"Bart on the other hand. Why I could kill that little good for nothing." Said Homer holding his hands out like claws as though he were reaching for an invisible Bart before him. "Let me tell you if it's not one thing it's another. One time Bart was…" Before he could finish the timer went off again this time ending the lunch period.
"Well back to work. It was nice to meet you Mr. Simpson. I don't know when I'll see you again. Like I said I usually don't work this shift. Say Hi to Marge for me."
"Can do."

That evening Homer was plopped on the couch watching television with his can of Duff Beer. Marge walked into the room to see how her husband was doing.
"Hiya Homie. Did you have a good day today?"
"Hey Marge. I met your doctor friend today. She works at the power plant too."
"Oh you met Caroline?"
"Hey what are we talkin' about?" Asked Bart as he came in with Lisa.
"Your father just met one of my friends today, Caroline Frink." Said Marge.
"Ah, Professor Frink's wife. Dr. Frink if I'm not mistaken." Lisa added in. "Has a nice ring to it. It's good to know we've got two great intellectuals living right here in our little community."
"Who?" Asked Bart unimpressed.
"Oh honey, you wouldn't know her." Responded Marge rubbing Bart's head. "But you've met her son. He's in your class."
"Yeah boy. So I want you to sit by this kid, you know get answers from him and stuff." Said Homer pointing at Bart's nose.
"What kid? I don't know who he is. Are you sure he's in MY class."
"His name is Maximillian." Said Marge.
"Oh yeah, he's in my music class." Lisa said.
"Ooooh. I think I might know who that is." Said Bart then went upstairs to his room.

The following day Bart was relaying this information to his friends Milhouse and Richard. Milhouse was a short kid, with glasses short blue hair and a huge nose. Richard was squinty eyed, grey haired and always had a cocky look about him. "So you guys know who this Maximillian guy is?" Asked Bart.
"Yeah, he's back there." Richard said pointing at Max who was writing something before the next part of class began.
"Hey Maximillian what's shaking man?" Asked Bart. The three boys surrounded Max's desk. He looked up surprised. Not many had talked to him directly in class before and certainly not this many kids.
"Uh nothing." Responded Max in a nervous voice.
"Hey I didn't know you were a geek too." Blurted out Milhouse excitedly.
"Yeah you're so quite that we didn't even notice you were there." Added Richard.
"Is it true that your dad's a mad scientist?" asked Bart. By now the school bully Nelson was listening in on the conversation and Max noticed this right away.
"Yeah, I'm quite. It's been nice guys, but now I'm going to go and be quiet over there." Max said as he shut his book, picked up his stuff and moved three desks down but still remained in the back row. The three boys looked at each other and decided that he was boring and went on to do something that was more fun like sabotaging the teacher's desk.

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