All you could have hoped for

You silently celebrated as you saw Izzy’s level up and it was all mainly to do with the bonus effect from her passive.

Bonus: The User will now be able to gain seconds with the KDK for this subject while talking with them on a call. The rate at which seconds are gained is halved compared to skin-to-skin contact with the subject.

This is not limited to the device that the KDK is held within and this affects both voice and video calls using any electronic device.

Without that, you didn’t think you would have been able to make enough progress with her in order for her to fully gain your trust. There were a lot of things still up in the air as to if she could become a main member of your subjects but having this revealed to you was the final roadblock being cleared.

It also opened up the possibility that this bonus function could work on other subjects as well but even if that was possible, currently you would only really get to use that with Rebecca. All if your other subjects would just find it weird that you were calling them when you either lived with them or could just go next door to find them.

The actual passive and the active weren’t bad either considering they were level 1 effects. The passive didn’t mention that you had to be on a call for it to take effect so whenever Izzy heard your voice after today, it was sure to have an effect on her. It also gave you a good feeling about what her overall passive effect would be on the other subjects once she hit level 2, giving her the ‘all in this together’ effect which had been at the back of your mind for a while.

It also gave you a new hidden effect to now solve but you were already having enough trouble with the others to think about that.

Her active was also a convenient one, allowing you to call her some of the time for a casual talk and then you could use the effect to make her call you when you wanted her to reveal something. The mandatory 60 seconds also meant you had a surefire way of getting seconds with her and even if you could only use it a few times in a day, it was better than nothing.

You read through the descriptions again to make sure they were committed to memory but you decided to not spend too much time away from the group in case anyone got suspicious, leaving the bathroom and going back down the stairs to rejoin everyone.

They were talking as you entered the room and you just returned to your seat without wanting to interrupt anyone but they decided to fill you in anyway with Grace being the one to tell you first.

“So your idea wasn’t the worst but I just wasn’t comfortable completely lying to Mary. So, Izzy will be visiting me as she is on her way to visit ‘family’ and take Jack on a trip. You are all technically Jack’s family so it’s not lying. It’s better than completely not telling the truth but I don’t think we should mess around for too long with this” Grace explained, changing your initial idea.

Izzy would still be staying at Grace’s for the day but the reasoning had changed to something closer to the truth, something that eased Grace’s conscience a little more.

“Are you comfortable with that?” you asked Izzy, knowing it was all up to her if this was going ahead.

“I think even if I wasn’t doing this to help you I would have still gotten curious about John’s other family so I’m happy to come and visit you guys. It might be suspicious if me and Jack suddenly left but I don’t think John would really care if we left for a day or two. He’d probably see it as an excuse to do what he wants while I’m away” Izzy commented, the plan seemingly getting the greenlight to go ahead.

“How soon do you think you’d like to make the trip?” you asked, wanting to know her schedule before comparing you to your own.

“Well, I don’t have any major plans and Jack isn’t in daycare yet but I’d prefer later in the week. That gives me time to float the idea of me going on a trip instead of just suddenly disappearing. I’d say we could be there…Friday evening at the earliest?” Izzy suggested, working out the best schedule for her.

Next week was starting to look busy If you now included this. Your evening meal on the Tuesday with Rebecca, prom on the Friday, and then the football game to watch Sarah’s cheerleading. That didn’t even include your exams you had throughout the week which you should still be preparing for.

“Friday evening is a bit tricky for me and Emma as we have prom to go to. Saturday morning works though?” you suggested, hoping your plans wouldn’t conflict.

You did want to make the evening of prom special which was going to be a challenge for you as you wanted to keep both Sarah and Emma happy, letting each of them get a moment in the spotlight while you tried to hide that you had two dates to prom. Adding Izzy into the mix and having your attention split even more didn’t seem fair to either of them if you could help avoid it.

“Yeah, Saturday should work for the both of us” Izzy replied, turning to quickly check over Jack when she mentioned him.

“Are you okay with them staying those days?” you asked Grace, not wanting to be the one dictating who and when Izzy could stay at her house.

“Yeah that’s all good with me. You can both stay over Saturday night if everything isn't wrapped up in just one day as well.” Grace said, giving them plenty of time to do what they needed to do.

“No issues here either!” Emma added, looking happy to have guests stay over for the first time in a while.

“Cool, I think that sorts out most of it but I think we will need to reveal something about the trip this weekend, just so nobody gets suspicious. We don’t even really have to mention you Izzy as they don’t know you or Jack exists so it would all be about John. If you have any dirt on him that wouldn’t come back to you that you are willing to reveal, that would help as well. Otherwise I’ll just say he was actually working all weekend” You said, knowing Lucy would be on your case if you told her nothing.

“Hmmm…not anything huge. I know he was up for a promotion a few months ago that he talked about and his mood had improved but he stopped talking about it and went back to his usual self pretty quickly. I’m pretty sure it fell through but I wasn’t gonna sour the mood by bringing it up” Izzy revealed, giving you something to work with before you decided to do a bit more digging.