Ty's dinner with Lisa's family the next day was confirmed, and both Ty and Lisa were excited about that, but once again, both were at present lonely. Over the past few days, they had each independently come up with the idea of making copies of themselves, in various forms, to pass the time, and they both did that again. Thoughts of seeing each other helped them (their _many_ them!) get to sleep.
The next morning, when Ty went downstairs for breakfast, he found June in the kitchen, humming happily to herself as she got things ready. "Good morning, Mom," Ty greeted her.
"Good morning, Ty," she said, and a moment later, similarly greeted Dustin, as he walked in.
Usually Dad would already be in the kitchen before Ty and Dustin arrived. Ty wondered if his absence was related to the rift between his parents that he'd sensed at the dinner table last night. Then Dad walked in, as usual dressed for work, and adjusting his tie. "'Morning, June," he said, as he walked over to her and kissed her cheek.
"Good morning, Mark," she replied, and kissed him back, while continuing preparing breakfast. Ty didn't sense even the slightest bit of sarcasm or animosity from either. Had he misinterpreted their dinner conversation? He thought back to it, and it seemed obvious that there had been an issue between them, but maybe Ty's interpretation at that time had colored his memory of the exchange. But, no, he thought. Unless he misrembered the words that had been spoken, something had definitely been amiss. Oh well, he thought. There's nothing he could do in any case. If Mark had been upset with June, as it had seemed, maybe whatever disagreement there had been had since blown over.
"Good morning, boys,' Mark said, and they reciprocated. "Ty, please be ready at about 5:30 this evening, and we'll drive you over to Lisa's house. You can call us later, when you're ready for us to pick you up."
"Thanks, Dad, but it's not necessary," Ty said. "I don't mind walking over."
"That would be fine," June said, "but Maria invited Mark and me to drop in as well, though we won't stay for dinner."
"I could just teleport us over," Ty suggested.
June nixed that idea. "You know Maria isn't too thrilled about that sort of thing. She had us do that recently, on matters of urgency, but there's nothing that urgent tonight, so I think she'd be happier if we showed up at the front door, like normal people."
"OK, that makes sense. But I'll walk home."
"Alright, Ty," June said. "If that's what you prefer."
After breakfast, Dustin and Ty headed to the school bus stop. Dustin asked Ty, "Would you be willing to transform me?"
"We should get permission from our parents," Ty said. "I don't want a repeat of Dad being angry when I transformed Mom, but she hadn't told him. But aside from that, and as we discussed before, not doing transformations that harm others, or affect them non-consensually, I wouldn't mind transforming you. What kind of transform are you interested in?"
"Well, that's the thing," Dustin said. "I don't think I'd be as excited as Mom about being a phone app or the clothes dryer, but I don't know what I _would_ enjoy. Do you have any ideas?"
"Nothing comes to mind," Ty said, as he tried hard to _not_ think of Dustin in place of Lisa in any of the transformations he had fantasized about yesterday. "But why don't you keep thinking about it, and if you come up with anything, we'll talk about it."
"Sure, thanks," said Dustin, disappointed that Ty didn't offer any ideas, but glad that Ty was willing to transform him.