Like Father Like Son (Sequel to The Doctor)

Chapter 5: The Mall

"We meet again beast." I growled staring up at the bus beast. Lacey sighed and rolled her eyes as we took are seats. "I hate this thing.." I murmured. The bus was almost empty, just us and an elderly lady up towards the front. "I'm getting us one of our own." I declared. She snorted,

"Really?" She said skeptically.

"I swear it." I smiled.

"Okay where do you buy one?" She tested,

"Damn.. Plan foiled.." She laughed.

"The bus is fine, why waste your money?"

"To get away from this, own something, have something to our name, sense of entitlement, superiority, the list goes on and on."

"Whatever, if its really so important to you go ahead. But that's your project, it's all up to you." I smiled.

"Fine with me. I got this."

"Yeah... Sure."

"Thanks for the support. I enjoy your optimism greatly..."

"Was that sarcasm?" She asked looking at me suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You used sarcasm, maybe us humans really are starting to rub off on you."

"Meh." I said looking out the window. She just laughed and pushed me playfully.

"Welcome to society." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh my gosh and an eye roll! I think you might be getting ahead of yourself now, don't push yourself to hard." She teased.

"Oh hush, yes I'm starting to learn more about human ways, so what?"

"I'm proud." She said with a smile leaning her head on my shoulder. I couldn't resist smiling now, she was right, I was slowly learning and taking on my environment, I could probably pass myself off as a normal human now without looking like a complete idiot.

During my free time at the facility I've learned how to actually use the computers laying around, and the Internet so I've been learning about how things work. The days of staring at the door in publix trying to figure out how it magically opens by itself are over. It seems almost everything in the human world is mechanical, including the bus. They appear alive through electricity but they are really not living at all. 'Hmmm maybe I can find where to buy mini buses online...' I thought. The bus came to a screeching stop and the world outside the window seemed to fly by. Lacey stood up, breaking me out of my thoughts. I stood up and followed her on impulse. We thanked the beast wrangler and started down the side walk, ending up at a huge building with different dips in roof sizes and multiple store openings.

"This is called a mall, incase you were wondering." Lacey said as she pulled me through a main door and found ourselves standing in caos. It was noisy and crowded with metal tables set up in lines all though the main body of the space, leaving a few walkways to get to the small restaurants and each side. "And this is a food court. Pretty much every mall has them." She explained. I nodded, glancing around curiously and taking in my surroundings in silence. She walked me past all the food and tables and down another crowded walkway lined with shops.

"What are we doing here?" I asked curiously.

"Hayden's birthday is coming up and I've never been able to do anything nice for him to celebrate so I'm looking around for potential presents, maybe party ideas. I really don't know, I've never really done this plus he doesn't have any friends."

"He doesn't have any friends?" I asked in surprise.

"I know right? You'd think with his sunny disposition he would have all the friends in the world." She said sarcastically.