Kelly came out with her suitcase and dressed in a pair of jeans and a thin sweater, which was her normal outfit. After a quick goodbye to her parents, she followed Annie out of the house and to the car. She put the suitcase in the backseat and sat in the front passenger seat.

“Well, that went a lot better than I thought it was going to.” Annie said and pulled out of the driveway.

Kelly didn't respond right away and Annie gave her a glance and looked back at the road.

“What is it?” Annie asked.

“Are you really going to watch us all the time and never leave us alone?” Kelly asked.

Annie gave her another glance to see if she was serious, then she laughed and looked back at the road. “I never said I would be watching you.”

“But... you said...” Kelly sat there and thought about it. “Oh, my god!”

Annie laughed. “Yes, when you are together, Arnold's eyes will be on you and your eyes will be on him.” She said. “Neither of you will be left alone, because you will be with each other.”

“Mrs. Strickland...” Kelly started to say.

“Annie.” Annie corrected.

“Annie... you are amazing!” Kelly said. “I never even... that's not what...” She laughed. “You made me believe it, too!”

Annie took her hand off the wheel for a moment and touched Kelly's hand, then put it back on the wheel to maintain control of the car. “Most people will hear what they want to hear, and your parents have the most selective hearing I've ever heard of. I knew if I carefully worded what I said, not only would they be reassured that you would be safe, they would also assume it would be me that would watch you all the time.”

Kelly nodded and settled into the seat.

“I'm sorry that it came to this, though.” Annie said with regret. “I thought when Arnold met someone special, our families would come together and be happy for you both.”

Kelly sighed. “I know. That's what I wanted, too.” She said and looked out the car window. “My parents are great... were great... and I wanted Arnold to meet them. I thought they would accept him and be happy that I finally found a serious boyfriend.” She sighed again. “All they saw was someone Heather had used.”

Annie gave her another glance. “So, you did realize she was using him.”

Kelly turned to look at her and saw the stare. She nodded and Annie looked back at the road. “I was there when... we walked into the spare room to drop off my suitcase and Arnold was getting undressed to take a shower. Heather asked him to kiss her and then she...” She paused. “...started stroking him right there in front of me.”

“She did not!” Annie said loudly and gripped the steering wheel tightly.

“I had to yell at her to get her to stop.” Kelly said. “If I hadn't, she might have... well...”

Annie took in a deep breath and let it out. “Did anything else like that happen?”

“I wasn't there all the time they were dating, so I can't say for sure.” Kelly said and didn't mention Heather telling her about the things she liked doing. “I do know nothing else happened the weekend I stayed over, except for them having sex.”

Annie sighed. “Okay. I just hope she didn't...” She gave Kelly an odd look, then looked back at the road. “Arnold is very impressionable.”

“I know. Heather and I talked a lot about what it was like to date him when they were together.” Kelly said. “And her mom warned us about a few things, which made me start to see Arnold for what he really was. He's not the perfect boyfriend like Heather thought.”

“What is he?”

“He's someone that needs someone to take care of him.” Kelly said. “I'm sure he's okay most of the time; but, if he doesn't have someone to guide him, to tell him how to act in certain situations or to explain things to him...”

“...he can get lost in his own thoughts and interests and will ignore everything around him.” Annie finished for her, and she nodded. “I'm glad you understand that.”

“I am, too.” Kelly said. “He's just so... I just want to cuddle him forever!”

Annie chuckled. “Now I'm very glad that you're his girlfriend.” She said and saw the surprise on Kelly's face. “You didn't say, 'I want him to make love to me forever'.” She smiled. “You want to cuddle and protect him, not use him, and hearing that is as important to me as Arnold is.”

“Mrs. Strick... Annie.” Kelly said. “I... I do want to keep him safe. There's so many things out there that can... hurt him, and I... I don't want him hurt.”

Annie nodded. “Now you know why I kept the internet away from him for so long.” She said. “I even asked the teachers to restrict cell phone use if they could, just so he wouldn't be tempted to ask for one to see what it did.”

Kelly thought about that. “Arnold did say that you kept certain information hidden from him.”

“Especially computers.” Annie said. “During his youth, the internet would have...” She shook her head. “I kept it from him and didn't tell him what it did until recently.”

“After Heather showed him.” Kelly said.

Annie nodded. “Now he knows he can search for things. Thankfully, he's not really interested in a lot of things, so he hasn't searched for... well... when we had the sex talk, I was glad we didn't have the internet in the house.”

“Oh.” Kelly said and went quiet.

“Yeah.” Annie said. “That's why I occasionally ask him what he does during the day.”

Kelly caught her breath and her face flushed red as she blushed.

Annie let out a laugh and reached over to touch her knee briefly. “It's all right. I don't ask for details and he never volunteers them.”

“But... you know we...”

“Made out like bandits in the school library?” Annie asked and Kelly's face went even redder. “I said it's all right.”

“How can you be?” Kelly asked. “I was... we were all hugged up and... we got caught and...”

“No details.” Annie said with a smile and Kelly stopped talking. “I should probably tell you that I do not have the same restrictions in my house as your parents.”

“Wh-what?” Kelly looked at her with surprise on her face.

“I stopped Heather from hanging all over him and abusing his nature; but, she was being manipulative and only want him for her own gain.”

“How... how could you tell that?” Kelly asked.

“I've known girls like her. She probably thought she could wrap Arnold around her little finger and get him to do whatever she wanted.” Annie said. “I let him date her, just so he could get some experience with it. If I had known you were so close by, I would have refused and told him to ask you out instead.”

“Did you, after he and Heather broke up?” Kelly asked and her heart secretly wilted a little at the thought that he hadn't asked her out on his own. Please say no. Please say no.

“I just told you that I didn't know you were there.” Annie said with a chuckle. “He told me that he asked you out when he came home after school.”

Oh, thank god. Kelly thought in relief. He really did want to go out with me, all on his own.

Annie pulled into her driveway and parked the car. “Before we go inside, I want to set some ground rules.”

Kelly sat there and nodded.

“First off, I don't mind you cuddling. You can do that anywhere you like.” Annie said and turned slightly in the seat to face her. “If I'm in the room, please no fondling or groping. Either by you or by Arnold.”

“Wh-what?” Kelly's blush returned.

“Nudity is out, too.” Annie continued. “If you're going to remove clothes, take it to his room. I don't want to see anything embarrassing.”

“But... but...”

“The rooms are fairly soundproof, so as long as you shut the door, I won't hear much of anything if I'm in my room across the hallway with both doors shut.” Annie said. “I'm not giving you explicit permission to have sex as soon as you go into my house, though. Having it happen naturally and on its own is perfectly fine.”

“Annie!” Kelly exclaimed.

“Now I need to ask you a personal question.” Annie said.

“This conversation wasn't personal?!?” Kelly asked, surprised.

Annie chuckled. “It's personal, since I wouldn't be telling you all of this if I didn't expect you to understand why I'm telling you.” She said. “You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, because it's okay if you want to keep it to yourself.” She reached over and took her hand. “Are you a virgin?”

Kelly didn't speak as she thought about it, then she remembered Annie comforting her that first day they met. “Yes.” She said. “I haven't had sex before.”

“Thank you for telling me.” Annie said. “I'll have a talk with Arnold and I'll make sure that...”

“NO!” Kelly yelled and saw Annie's surprise. “No, please. You said you wanted it to happen naturally, so... if you tell him, he... he might do things differently.”

“Kelly, we both know that a woman's first time is different than just having sex.”

Kelly took a breath and let it out. “I know, and so will he if... when... it happens.”

Annie thought about pushing a little, then decided it wasn't worth causing her distress. “Then I'll leave it to you. If you need to talk about anything, just let me know.”

Kelly nodded.

“These next few days are going to be a crash course in living with someone, so I hope you're ready for it.” Annie said with a smile.

“I need to help Arnold adjust to working with the computer and using VR to full advantage, too.” Kelly said. “I brought over a bunch of things to help train him. I spend half the night downloading and copying them, since we can't download what we need.”

“I can't justify the expense of the internet if it's just going to be me at home.” Annie said. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay. You're right. We'll be taking our computers with us when we go to college, so it would be a waste to get it, assuming it would be installed before we left.” Kelly said.

Annie nodded. “Let's get you inside and settled in.”

They got out of the car and Kelly grabbed her suitcase from the backseat, then she froze.

“Wait! Where am I staying? You only have two bedrooms upstairs.”

“You're staying in Arnold's room, of course.”

“I'm WHAT?!?” Kelly yelled.

Annie laughed. “He will be sleeping on the couch, so relax.” She said and walked around the car. “I know you could sleep in the same bed and nothing will happen, probably.” She took Kelly's hand and led her to the front door of the house. “I'm not going to risk it on the very first night, all right?”

Kelly let out a relieved sigh and nodded.

Annie opened the door and waved inside. “Welcome to your new temporary home.”

Kelly wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, then Arnold came down the stairs in a pair of jeans and a beige t-shirt that was so tight that it looked like he wasn't wearing one.

“Good morning.” Arnold said and gave her a quick kiss.

Kelly let a smile grow on her face. “Good morning.” She said and handed him her bag. “Can you put this in your room for me?”

Arnold nodded and went right back up the stairs with it.

Kelly knew how to respond now and turned to Annie and gave her a hug. “Thank you.”

Annie chuckled. “It's not going to be all sunshine and roses, you know. Living with someone is hard, even when you like them.” She warned her as Kelly let her go. “They are going to do things to annoy you, and in some cases, you'll annoy them right back.”

“That won't work with Arnold.” Kelly said. She knew that, because Heather's stupid plan to make Arnold jealous was as fruitless as it was pointless.

Annie smiled and took her inside and shut the door. “I'm glad you know that you're the one that's going to be frustrated, especially if you don't learn to let a lot of the annoyance go.”

“You're going to help me with that?” Kelly asked. “Please tell me you're going to help me with that!”

Annie laughed. “You're going to learn both the good side and the bad side of being responsible.”

Kelly nodded. “I don't want to get annoyed at Arnold. He doesn't need me acting like that, not when he has so much to do.”

Annie nodded back. “That's right, so I'll let you off of most of your lessons for today. Go on upstairs and keep showing my son how to work that weird contraption.”

“You should try it yourself before we leave on Friday.” Kelly said. “It's really neat.”

“I think I can go without the thrill for a little while longer.”

Kelly smiled and went up the stairs to Arnold's room. “Start the beast up.”

Arnold turned the computer on. Unlike Heather's slightly older computer that took a couple of minutes to start up, Arnold's new computer started in just ten seconds.

“I brought over a bunch of things to install to get the system up to date.” Kelly said and opened her suitcase to get to the inner pocket where she had put the discs. One of her bras was right on top of the clothes and she turned to look at Arnold. He was looking at her hands and the discs she had in them, so she smiled and walked over to him. She didn't bother closing the suitcase.

“Which one first?” Arnold asked.

“We'll get the operating system up to the latest update, then we have to install antivirus software for when we do get you connected to the internet.” Kelly said. “After that, I brought a 3D editing program to install, then we can play these.” She held up three games. “You'll learn the best skills with these games. Each one has a component in it that is also in Fortune's Favour.”

Arnold nodded and they spent the rest of the morning updating and installing the necessary things on the computer. He memorized what Kelly did so that he would be able to do it when it was necessary, and she told him everything she knew about the operating system as they worked. The shortcuts, the program manager, the device manager, how to troubleshoot errors when they popped up, and how to run the virus scanner.

“Lunch!” Annie hollered up the stairs.

“Perfect timing.” Kelly said and looked at the progress bar on the last program they were installing. “This should be done by the time we eat and come back up.”

Arnold nodded and the two of them left his room and went downstairs to the kitchen. They sat down with his mother and they ate a light and sensible lunch. They talked about what they were doing and most of it went right over Annie's head and she stared at them with a blank face. Kelly couldn't help but laugh at that, because she remembered Annie refusing to listen to her explain about the games that Brad and his friends played when she had visited with the warning for Arnold.

“Sorry for boring you.” Kelly said as her laughter faded. “It's just too exciting for me to not talk about the great computer Arnold has.”

“Then I'm glad you're the one doing everything, because I'd be falling asleep trying to read some of those tutorials you're talking about.” Annie said. “No, thank you!”

Kelly laughed again. “We better get back to it.” She said and washed her hands, as did Arnold, and the two of them went up the stairs to get back to work. She saw that the last program had finished and picked up one of the three games she had brought. “Okay, Arnold. This one is called 'Magical Quick-draw'. It's a shooting game and you use the controllers and triggers... but... it doesn't use guns. It uses spells that you need to find, choose, prepare, and then cast.”

“Show me.” Arnold said and she loaded it up for him, then handed him the controllers and put the VR headset on him.

“Here we go.” Kelly said and started it.

Arnold's mind expanded slightly as he learned all about magic that day.