87 Boat Trouble

Zephyr's revving motorbike came to a halt as he parked in the driveway. Taking off his helmet, he quickly dismounted. 

"Hey!", Ronnie called out, "Sweet ride you got there!". 

"Thanks", Zephyr nodded. 

"What is that?", Ronnie asked, "Is it like a Ford or something?". 

"Nah", Zephyr shook his head, "It's a BMW S 1000 RR". Seeing Ronnie confused, Zephyr clarified, "It's a really fast German motorbike". 

"What's Germany again?", Ronnie asked, scratching his chin, "Is it food or something?". 

"It's a country in Europe", Zephyr explained. 

"I thought Europe was a country", Ronnie muttered, even more confused now than he was before, "Are you sure?". 

Zephyr pursed his lips and nodded, "Yes. I'm sure". 

"Meh," Ronnie shrugged, "Whatever" and returned to relaxing on his boat. 

Shaking his head in disappointment, Zephyr made his way over to the doorbell and quickly rang it. After waiting for a few seconds, Alex opened the door and was momentarily surprised by his presence, "Zephyr. What are you doing here?". 

"You've got your Princeton interview next week", Zephyr answered, "I came here to make sure that you're not stressed out". 

"I'm not a child", Alex rolled her eyes, "I don't need you checking up on me all the time". 

"I never said you were", Zephyr quickly defended, "I'm just concerned about the nerves of the interview being too much for you to bear". 

"Which is a nice way of saying having a break down", Alex interrupted. Before Zephyr could retort, Alex raised her hand, silencing him, "I know you're worried about me and that you don't want me to be overwhelmed and break down like I did during my birthday but I need you to understand that I'm not the same person I was before. I've gotten stronger and don't need you to be babying me". 

For a few seconds, Zephyr was speechless but he recovered quickly enough and brought in Alex for a hug. Although surprised, Alex returned the hug. Zephyr tenderly passed his fingers through her hair. "I know", Zephyr tentatively whispered, "I know". For a few heartwarming moments, Alex and Zephyr remained in each other's embrace, unaware of the fact that they were being watched by Ronnie and Amber. 

Upon separation, Alex asked, "Why don't you come in?". 

Zephyr nodded and was about to enter the house but was interrupted by a voice from behind. "Hey hot stuff", Tammy Lafontainne greeted, dressed in nothing but a skimpy two-piece swimsuit. Seeing him turn to look at her, Tammy struck a pose and seductively whispered, "Wanna have a better look?". 

Before Zephyr could refuse, Alex grabbed his arm, dragged his arm and slammed the door shut. 

Once they were gone, Amber looked at her husband and complained, "How come you've never been romantic like that with me?". 

"Because I'm the only one who can handle you baby", Ronnie teasingly answered, slapping Amber's ass. 

"You know it babe", Amber growled, seemingly forgetting her earlier displeasure. 

As soon as Alex turned around after slamming the door shut, she was met with Zephyr's eyes. "What?", Alex innocently asked. 

"You're jealous", Zephyr stated.

"Pft", Alex waved him off, "Whaaat? Me? Jelous? No way". 

"You're actually jealous of her", Zephyr reiterated, "Of all people, you're jealous of Tammy Lafontainne". 

"I'm not!", Alex raised her voice which became several octaves higher than normal. 

"You totally are!", Zephyr exclaimed, "You're actually jealous of her". 

After a few seconds, Alex sighed and muttered, "Fine. I admit it. I am". Seeing Zephyr's reaction, Alex defended herself, "But it's just because she throws herself at you at every opportunity she has. It doesn't help that she's really pretty and I'm ... not". 

"Oh Alex", Zephyr concernedly muttered, quickly bringing her in for another hug, "You don't need to worry about her. I'd never leave you for a slut like her". Zephyr then added, "Besides, you're like a hundred times more beautiful than her", to cheer her up. Fortunately, Zephyr's compliments were effective and helped cheer Alex up. 

"Thanks", Alex mumbled, her cheeks somewhat flushed from embarrassment.

"No worries", Zephyr answered, distracting her from her embarrassment. 

"Great!", Claire exclaimed as soon as she saw the couple, "Now we can finally decide what to do". 

"Do what?", Zephyr asked. 

"Right. You two come with me", Claire demanded, dragging both of them into the kitchen. "We have to do something about Amber and Ronnie's boat. That thing is making it impossible to drive in our driveway. And, it's an eyesore". 

"On the other hand, those guys are our neighbours and we have to see them every day", Phil countered. 

"Yeah, the boat is trashy", Haley agreed with her mom, "Living next to it doesn't feel 'on brand' for me". 

"You know", Alex added, "With rising sea levels, we should be glad we live near a boat". 

"I have to agree with Claire", Zephyr stated, "On the plus side, it'll stop Tammy from constantly flirting with me. As for the sea levels rising, I'm working on a solution for that". 

"I'm switching sides!", Alex exclaimed, suddenly remembering what Tammy Lafontainne was doing a few minutes ago. 

"Right, so that's 4 for getting rid of the boat and one for not sure what to do because they're a wimp", Claire announced, "I think this makes the result pretty obvious, but what do you think Luke?". 

"Count me out", Luke declared, getting up from his seat with an anxious look on his face, "This isn't a police state. That boat isn't hurting anyone". To make things look even more shifty, Luke ran out of the room without waiting to hear what everyone had to say. 

"Is it just me or is he acting a bit weird?", Phil asked. 

"I mean", Haley muttered. 

"It's Luke we're talking about", Alex added. 

"He probably just likes looking at Tammy Lafontainne sunbathing on the boat", Zephyr explained. 

"That's creepy", Haley muttered, slightly grossed out by the prospect. 

"Yeah", Alex nodded, "How can he like any of our neighbours?". 

"Okay!", Claire interrupted, "We need to decide how to get them to remove the boat". 

"How about you complain to the council?", Alex asked, "That's something you like doing isn't it? I'm told they made a separate line for all of your complaints". 

"They did", Claire nodded, feeling proud for a moment before realising it wasn't a brag and began coughing in embarassment. 

"We can't do that!", Phil raised his voice, "We need to be nice. I know! I'll make them some banana bread and we can go and talk to them and convince them to remove the boat". 

"Okay", Claire sighed, "You get right on that while I think of a better plan".

"Great!", Phil exclaimed, "Let me get things ready!". 

Claire shook her head and walked out of the kitchen. 

"Oh dang, I've got work to go to", Haley muttered, grabbing her purse and quickly exiting the kitchen as well. 

Once they were gone, Alex turned to look at Zephyr and curiously asked, "What did you mean when you said that you had a solution for rising sea levels?". 

"When you think of one of the biggest contributors to global warming and climate change, what comes to mind?", Zephyr asked. 

"Greenhouse emissions", Alex answered. 

"And what is the main greenhouse gas emitted?", Zephyr questioned. 

"Carbon Dioxide", Alex muttered. 

"And what is one of the main reasons for this?", Zephyr inquired. 

"The burning of fossil fuels is essential for generating electricity", Alex stated, "Without this, it'd be nigh-impossible for society to function". 

"Correct", Zephyr nodded his head, "So I'm on the verge of coming up with a way to replace the use of burning fossil fuels to create electricity". 

"How?", Alex asked asked. 

"Don't worry about it bae", Zephyr comforted. 

"Bae?", Alex questioned. 

"Greetings Ms Dunphy", a female electrical spoke as the hologram of a female appeared on her screen. 

"Argh!", Alex screamed in surprise, dropping her phone in surprise. Before it could drop, Zephyr's hand snapped forward and halted the phone's descent. "Wh-what the hell is that?!", Alex screamed, pointing at the holographic woman. 

"She's something I created", Zephyr answered. 

"You ... created this?", Alex muttered, shocked to the very core. 

"Yep", Zephyr nodded, "It was easy enough to figure out how to make her, but the implementation took me a while because I had a lot of code to write". Clapping his hand, Zephyr introduced Alex, "Bae, meet Alex. Alex, meet B.A.E". 

"Hello Ms Dunphy", B.A.E greeted once more. 

"H-hey", Alex muttered, slightly nervous. 

"I am Zephyr's assistant. I have been named Best Assistant Ever which has been shortened to B.A.E. I am connected to your device so if you require any help, you may call for me and I will do my best to aid you", B.A.E introduced herself. 

"Is she alive?", Alex whispered to Zephyr. 

"Nope", Zephyr shook his head, "Bae is an incredibly sophisticated program that mimics sentience very well but it doesn't meet the requirements to be a full AI, i.e., sentience". Shaking his head, he continued, "Anyways, where was I? Yes! That's it. I am attempting to build a fusion reactor and have been using Bae here to aid me. I do a lot of the hard stuff while she does the simulations to see if it'll work and sometimes the calculations. As of right now, I'm on the verge of figuring out how to shrink the diameter of the fusion reactor to around 1 foot and the energy output to around 1.5 gigawatts per second. The larger prototypes work already but I'm trying to maximise the utility. I'm also trying to create batteries so that they can be used in electric cars and trucks. Honestly, there's a lot to the project that it'll take me too long to list". 

"Huh", Alex muttered, utterly awestruck by his revelation. "So you're telling me that you've figured out how to create unlimited clean energy before even graduating from High school?". 

Zephyr thought about it for a second before nodding, "I guess, yeah. At first, I just did it because it would make running my personal experiments a lot easier and bring me more profit as I wouldn't have to pay for energy bills but then I was like, you know what? I could do a lot of good stuff with this so then I was like, why not?". 

"I'm not even going to try to understand what goes on in your head", Alex shook her head, "You're like a mini Tony Stark at this point". 

"You don't know how right you are about that", Zephyr muttered under his breath, just about inaudible for Alex. 

"What?", Alex asked. 

"Nothing", Zephyr rapidly shook his head.