I was beyond bored. So bored in fact, that I had begun to count all the tiles on the ceiling. But maybe that's what you got when Darius Tanz was your father. I know, I know, surprising, right? The whole world was, to be honest. Darius Tanz, young tech billionaire, had a daughter?

When he first started making his billions, I was only a toddler and way too young to even remember. All my life, this had been my life. I didn't know any different than this expensive, pampered livelihood. When my mom walked out on him - only a month after I was born - he was poor and had no idea how to raise a baby. But he never gave me up, never gave up on me. He raised me the best way he knew how and we had a close relationship because of it.

To some, he was a teen-dad-turned-billionaire but to me, he was my hero. Just my dorky dad. I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair in the front row then, my leg threatening to fall asleep. My dad droned on when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy racing down the aisle before plonking himself into a seat. I arched an eyebrow, noticing his bare feet.

"Now I can see all these skeptical MIT faces looking back at me thinking 'Will he get me a job after graduation?' Maybe, maybe," my dad quipped, "Well, except for the guy that got here late. The one without the shoes."

I snorted, rolling my eyes as the brunette guy sank lower into his seat. An hour later, my dad finished and the next day seemed pretty normal - breakfast with the maid, write on my college paper online, lunch at 12:35, and back up to the apartment with dad and his business associates. That is, until a familiar brunette - this time with shoes on - slipped into the elevator with us. He seemed to be out of breath, possibly avoiding someone. He shifted his eyes around warily before speaking up.

"Sir, my name's Liam Cole. I'm a student at MIT. In a 186 days, an asteroid is gonna collide with Earth and we're all gonna die." he told is one big breath.

A few seconds later as the elevator slid open, dad's security guard had the poor guy shoved up against a wall with his arms twisted behind his back.

"My name is Liam Cole. I'm a student at MIT. My ID is in my wallet. It's-" the boy started to say when the security guard began to frisk him.

The guard found it quickly and confirmed it belonged to the boy.

"Let's shoot this guy," my dad sighed fakely and I stifled a laugh at the priceless expression on the boy's face as he began to protest.

"Whoa, easy! I got a flash drive in my pocket with all the data," he said, holding it up for everyone to see, "I've been running simulations, trying to solve the end-body problem how comets and asteroids interact with each other. Everybody at NASA is studying what we already know, I've been looking for the ones that we've missed. And I found one,"

My dad took the boy to his study and downloaded the data to his projector system hooked up to his computer.

"I got the visuals here if you wanna take a look," he offered, floppy brown hair falling over his eyes.

I paced across the room, arms crossed over my chest as dad's holographic projector flickered to life to the boy's amazement. Wow, he was impressed easily.

"Let's hear it then. We're listening, college boy," I spoke up and for the first time today, his hazel eyes met my dark orbs.

"Okay, yeah, well, uh, this is the solar system today and this is the asteroid. Let's call it Rocky. It's about 300 million miles out. Now my software, um, which I'm happy to sell to you, by the way-" he paused then, giving my dad a small smile and I stifled a laugh.

Boy was brave, I'd give him that. Most grad students wouldn't even try something like that with my dad - way too scared he'd have his security team drag them away screaming.

"-creates a trajectory for the asteroid to collide with Earth, like I said, in 186 days," he continued, "Given its location and orbital configuration, there is a 97.2 % possibility that this is a planet killer,"

Dad looked at him a moment before nodding, "Okay. Your sub-position hardly proves that you - all your data - are correct,"

"I showed my numbers to my adviser, Professor Croft. Five hours later, he disappeared. And didn't show up for class. His place was trashed,"

"Trashed?" dad asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"There were big, scary goons staking out his house. They chased me across campus. Now either this is an amazing coincidence or I'm onto something someone somewhere doesn't want public," he said in earnest, "I'm telling you, Mr. Tanz, the sky is falling and you may be the only person who can do something about it,"

Dad was silent a moment, mulling over what the boy had just said before ordering his assistant to start up the jet.

"Where are you going?" Liam asked him.

"We're going. To Washington. Marnie stays here, though," he told us, giving me a pointed look.

I rolled my eyes, "Why? I always come!"

"Yes but you, sweetheart, have class today. Remember? Didn't your classes open up today?" he said, placing a kiss atop my dark hair to which I nodded, "You can meet up with us later tonight. I'll have my assistant fly you out,"

"Fine. But don't have fun without me!" I called after him as he and Liam exited the room.

"Never!" he called back over his shoulder.