Murder Swap

Chapter 2 Part 2: Heart Beat

Jessica stood in front of the door that led to the classroom, she breathed in deeply before entering the classroom with the banner that reads: "It's Parent-Teacher Conference Day!" (AKA "That explains a lot!")

  Jessica sits down across from the teacher, "good evening Mr. Glitz."

  Mrs Glitz nods in response to Jessica's greeting, "hello Ms. James, your brother has been, uh... absent."

  Jessica sighed as she leaned into the chair, "I'm very aware of that. But I'm sure he'll be crawling back, he does this every time we butt heads."

  Mr. Glitz hummed as he went through some papers, "speaking on his behavior, Neo has exhibited... Unique interests.

(Flashback montage!)

  Mr. Glitz turned around from his lecture to look at Neo, "Neo, no adorable distractions in class."

  Neo looked up at Mr. Glitz with a horde of golden retriever plushies surrounding him, "but these are my comfort plushies :("

———

  Mr. Glitz was writing down notes for the class until a familiar buzzing sound was heard, "Neo, save your project outside of class."

  Neo looked up from his desk, currently welding wires to a prototype he was working on. Neo was about to say something before a crumpled ball of paper was thrown at his heard, it caused Neo to accidentally cause the prototype to explode and went up in flames.

———

  "Neo, this is a group project. You can't do this by yourself," Mr. Glitz says as he turns his attention to Neo with a hint of worry.

  Neo chuckles nervously as he looked stress and was holding a bunch of textbooks and notes, "d-don't worry Mr. Glitz! Heheh, I'm not doing this alone, I'm part of Lizzy's group."

  Lizzy scoffs as she flips her hair as she side eyed Neo, "no you aren't, you kinda freak us out nerd."

———

(End flashback montage.)

  Mr. Glitz grimaces as he puts down the papers in front of Jessica, "Yeah, he has trouble fitting in." Mr. Glitz then looked up at Jessica, "How is he at home? Has he ever shown signs of damages in his programming?"

  Jessica to tense up as her elliptical optics seemed to glitch slightly, "Uh... Sorry? I mean, Neo is a little himself at home, but damaged programming? I... maybe haven't spent much time..."

  Before anything more could be said, a Worker Drone peaked their head into the classroom, "Ms. James, there's been an incident..."

*̣̥☆·͙̥‧‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥˟͙冬˟͙‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥‧·͙̥̣☆*̣̥*̣̥☆·͙̥‧‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥˟͙冬˟͙‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥‧·͙̥̣☆*̣̥

  Meanwhile with Neo and U, Neo was pacing back and forth with digital sweat drops rain down his visor. U watches Neo as he mutters stuff under his breath, something about hygiene and not looking like an idiot.

  "What's got you freaking out?" U raise a digital eyebrow as she sat down on a damaged car.

  Neo chuckled nervously as he looked at U, "oh it's nothing, I'm just nervous to see Veronica. I'm... Not good with talking to girls."

  U stares at Neo through unamused eyes, "I'm a girl, and you seem perfectly good at talking to me."

  Neo rubs his head as he looks away from U, "well... That's cause you're different, you're easy to talk to."

  U gawked at Neo before grabbing a clump of snow and threw it at Neo's head with flustered frustration, "s-shut up! Stop being dumb!"

  Neo squeaked before chuckling softly at U, he was starting to like this developing friendship between him and U.

  Suddenly Veronica's head peered over Neo's shoulder, "Hey Neo."

  Neo yelped and stumbled back, accidentally falling backwards into the snow. Neo looked up at Veronica with an embarrassed expression and laughed weakly. "H-hey Veronica." Neo quickly stood up as Veronica handed him his pulse rifle, "thank you."

  "It's no problem N, you saved my life along with others." Veronica smiled warmly as she adjusted her glasses, "but I don't think the colony is even serious about all this banishment stuff, more just confused. Especially with the fact-"

  "That I'm responsible for endangering lives? That I'm friends with a Murder Drone? That I'm too rogue to re-enter society now?" Neo looked at his hands with a dramatic dark expression, "I can never return..."

  Veronica and U looked at each other with raised eyebrows before Veronica spoke again, "recent disappearances? A-and your murder friend's corpse? When I went to grab your gun, it kind of looked like it... crawled away...?"

  U's optics hollowed with shock, she immediately hopped off the car and looked around with high alert.

  Neo also had a shocked expression as he looked at Veronica, "okay, change of plans, we're going back. But first," Neo paused before looking towards U with a mischievous smile.

  U looked at Neo confused for a moment until she had a feeling what he was thinking, "Oh no, no, no, no. Not happening!"

*̣̥☆·͙̥‧‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥˟͙冬˟͙‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥‧·͙̥̣☆*̣̥*̣̥☆·͙̥‧‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥˟͙冬˟͙‧̩̥·‧•̥̩̥͙‧·‧̩̥‧·͙̥̣☆*̣̥