Heart of Silver

Rumours Only Grow

Eight years had passed since Silver was given her robotics, and she had grown used to the metal limbs and mechanical eye. Whereas most people would probably hide their robotics- wear gloves over their hands, always be wearing a jacket, part their hair and cover a mechanical eye, etc- Silver embraced what made her far different from her classmates. She altered all of her shirts to where there was no sleeve where her artificial arm was, minus where the metal combined with flesh; she wore skirts that showed off the metal legs, and even went so far as to ink a design reminiscing of metallic plating near her mechanical eye that Silver told several people she would get a permanent tattoo over when she was old enough.
   However, this led to Silver being picked on quite a bit at school. Everyone knew about how she could connect to the Internet without needing technology like a computer or a tablet, and so the rumour began that Silver excelled on the standardised tests because she hacked the database where all the answers were stored during the tests. There were several ways to determine whether or not these rumours were true, and each was used. The rumours only got worse as students decided that Silver deleted any record of visiting the database or even usage of her systems during the test.
   The rumours became unbearable after this one assignment in class one day.
   Define happiness and explain what it means to you. You may either write an essay, create a short film, or create a poster. This will be treated as a test grade, and will be presented to the class.
   "Now, does everyone have their assignment?" There was a murmur of "yes"es and nodding of heads. "Good! Now, does anyone have any questions?"
   Silver's hand shot into the air. "I'm a little confused about the word I was given."
   "Well what is it?"
   "Happiness. I don't remember what it's like to be happy."
   "Probably because you've been a machine for so long." There was snickering as one of the popular girls- Bloodrayne- made that remark.
   "I'm not a machine."
   "You sure about that, Tin?" Bloodrayne kept pressing on and on.
   "My name is Silver! Not Tin!" Tears started coming from Silver's natural eye.
   "Aww. Look at that. The Tin Woman is crying! As if she had feelings."
   "Ms Goldstein..? May I please be excused?" The tears dropped, and Silver expected it to burn as it hit her arm similar to how it felt during the fire, but all that happened was the tear fell.
   "Of course you may, Silver. As for everybody else?! Do you not understand what all Silver's been through?!"
   The cyborg didn't want to listen to the rest of what Ms. Goldstein had to say. She ran straight to the bathroom and cried until the bell rang for the students to go home.
   "Silver? Are you in here?" Bloodrayne's condescending voice sneered.
   "What should it matter to you?!"
   "All I want to say is that I'm sorry."
   "No you're not..." Silver mumbled.
   "What was that? I didn't hear you!"
   "I said you're not sorry you she-demon and you will never be sorry for any of your actions ever!"
   "Tsk tsk. And here I am thinking that maybe I could talk sense into you. Well, have fun being locked in."
   Locked in? There was a creak, and then a large thud and click mixed together as darkness surrounded Silver. She was trapped, wasn't she?! Of course Bloodrayne would do that to me. Ugh. Where are the lights?
   Once the lights were found and turned on, Silver tried her hardest to open the door. It wasn't that the door was locked- it was jammed. It was about the time for clubs to be meeting up, so there would be at least someone else on campus!
   "Help!" Silver yelled, making her voice as loud as possible. "Help! Someone locked me in here!" It was only pain that separated this event and the fire.
   "Oh! Silver! I didn't realise you were still on campus! You said you were locked in?"
  "Yes, Ms. Goldstein! Can you please get me out?!"
   "Let me get one of the custodians."
   The wait lasted an eternity to Silver. After all, there was nothing she could do really. She could probably access the Internet, but it was unclear whether or not the school's wifi was still on. When the door finally opened, Silver ran straight back to the place she considered home-
   The basement of the local library.