(Author's Note: The premise of this story is based on https://www.writing.com/main/interactive-story/item_id/2181073-Auto-Disaster-points-for-chapters, but multiple elements are rather different in the setup. Full credit goes to the author for the premise and some of the setup)
Andrew couldn't believe his mother had agreed to leave him alone for any length of time. He was the black sheep of the family. That didn't mean he was a troublemaker...he was just...average in a family of above average people. His parents had met while getting their doctorates, and between them had a half a dozen patents to their name, the profits of which were held in trust from him and his sisters as his Dad had passed away. He had two sisters, one was already in college, and had decided to work on some sort of research project for the summer. The other was still a toddler, and it remained to be seen if she was an overachiever like the rest of his family.
Andrew got good grades, but not top of his class. He was responsible enough for sixteen that when his mother got an offer to consult on a project in Europe, she was willing to consider letting him stay at home....with some rules. Which she had emailed him, and insisted on going over with him in person.
"Rule One, no eating badly. You get to pick what you eat, but the groceries will be ordered and the house will prepare the meals...so you can just choose from a menu...and it will include ordering once a week from a restaurant for delivery. Rule Two, you have to answer when I text you. If you don't, or don't respond...I'm sending one of your cousins, or your Aunt or Uncle over to check on you.
"But..." Andrew protested.
"I know, you want to see what it is like being on your own. You're still a minor. If not for the fact the house is programmed to take care of things, I wouldn't consider leaving you at home for that long, even at your age, but you have the house systems, and the Maidbots. And how many of your friends have Maidbots?"
"None of them..." The whole house system was an evolution of the digital assistants the big tech companies had been selling for years. It regulated environmental systems, ordered groceries, and other common household items. The newest part of the technology was the Maidbot system. His mother had worked on the project from her lab in the house, and as a result, had been able to integrate the technology in. The only other people using it were early adopters as it was not cheap. While they were well off, which allowed them to have a lot of space between them and the neighbors...necessary for the proprietary stuff his mom worked on, it would be too much of a luxury for them otherwise. A lot of her mother's money was sunk back into her research, which she sold and then used to fund more research...or so she'd explained....that and a trust for their college funds.
Maidbots were androids. They were designed to look like attractive young men or women, and contained advanced machine intelligence systems to perform tasks and respond to queries, connected by wireless network to the whole house system, which managed them. His mom had two charging and repair stations installed outside of her lab for them. Right now, she only had one actively working, as the other was broken, and the necessary replacement parts was backordered. His mom had wanted something other than an attractive model, especially with a teenage boy around, but apparently the nanny model wasn't set to be unveiled till next year.
"Rule Three...No parties. You can have your friends over to use the pool, or watch a movie...but I don't to hear you are trying something out of a movie."
"Mom..I don't have that many friends...and some of them are not in town this summer. And you've met all of the ones that are..." Andrew said.
She shook her head. "Fine. Rule Four..."
Andrew sat through the entire list, commenting, acting offended a few times, but ultimately, his Mom agreed to let him be alone. It wasn't like she was going to be gone that long, after all, or that he didn't have those relatives who could check on him if needed. Of course, the nearest one was at least 45 minutes drive away.
He escorted his Mom to the door, helped her put her bags, and his little sister's stuff into the cab, and waved as they headed off to the airport.
Then he went inside, and let out a whoop of excitement...which caused the Maidbot, who was dusting, to turn to him. "Unrecognized noise...please repeat."
"Nothing, Maidbot," he said.
The maidbot turned back to her duties, leaving Andrew to his first evening alone. He used the pool, Maidbot made him a dinner he chose, then cleaned up. He played some online video games and checked on the status of his mom's flight. The whole house system sent him a notification through his phone, asking what time he wished his alarm to go off, what he would like to have for breakfast. It also advised that a Maidbot software upgrade was scheduled for the following day, was scheduled to take thirty minutes, and Maidbot services would be unavailable during this time. He hit acknowledge without really processing it, and then got ready for bed.
