Jacob's father opened the door and paused. "Home already, Jacob?"
While he stood in the doorway and waited for a response, he slapped at a tiny inconsequential pesky insect buzzing in front of his face. His hand dealt the little beetle a glancing blow, sending it reeling with a panicked burst of staccato clicks all the way back into the yard.
Dad closed the door. "Nothing's wrong?"
"Everything is optimal, father," Jacob said and struggled to fashion a smile on its ape-like features.
"School was good?"
A quick review of memory. "No, school really sucked," he answered and confessed to the C- on his math test. He started to unburden himself of the other torments of a torment-crowded day, but his father glossed over it.
"Well, buckle down," he said. "You can do better than that. Oh, let's not have Mom hear you using the word sucked, all right?"
"Sorry, father," the new Jacob felt battered by confusion.
"You know how she gets," he said.
"Yes, Mom is very maternal," Jacob said, hoping to get back on track.
Dad laughed. "You can say that again."
Jacob started to demonstrate that he could repeat his statement, but Dad leaped to another subject.
He gripped Jacob's shoulder in a tight grasp and gave him a slight shake. "What about you and the girls? Doing OK in that department?"
"I know Emily," he said. "She is female. There's her sister, Kaitlyn, too. A girl I know, Hannah Robinson, is giving a party this weekend. I don't want to go, but Matt says we should."
Dad clapped him on the back. Jacob didn't understand all the hostile physical attacks, but figured it was a human male sign of dominance or some such silliness. Males are all so alike!
"I think you should go to the party with your friend Mark," Dad said.
"Matt," Jacob corrected.
"Anyway, it will get you out there," Dad said. "You can't expect to meet girls holed up with Mark playing video games."
"I assume you are correct," Jacob said. "But, his name is Matt, now Mark."
"Well, I just came by for a bottle of water," he said. "I am supposed to pick up your sister, Ashley, at the hospital. She started her volunteer work there today."
"Good," Jacob said. "I'll just stay here and do my normal actions."
Dad laughed. "You do that," he said, picking up a magazine he could read if he had to wait long for his daughter, and then left through the back door.
On the way to the car, he saw a tiny bug land on top of the white picket fence that surrounded the house and yard. If he hadn't had the magazine conveniently at hand, he might have ignored the insect. Instead, he rolled up the magazine and brought it down on top of the unsuspecting pest.
He then got into his car and drove to the hospital.