Too Smart to Love - RockyxZuma

A Rocky life

After a couple more missions throughout the day, we finally went to sleep, and I had to get ready for tomorrow, since it will be the day I actually learn how to swim, but then it got me thinking about Zuma. How did we become such great friends? And why would he agree to do such a thing as helping me get over my fear? It all brings me back way back to when I was a pup...

I honestly don't like to brag, but I was —and still am— a genius. As a pup, I learned letters and numbers faster than anybody else. I got into reading books at a young age, and by that I don't mean "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish", it was more like mathematics, advanced chemistry, physics and engineering

Though being the smart pup didn't make me acclaimed by others, more like rejected

Back to when I was at the puppy orphanage, the rest of the pups bullied me, saying that I was a freak and no one would ever adopt me, though I really didn't care about anything they said. I was happy being different, and after some time, I had accepted no one would want me, and learned to always be alone; to not need anyone, and to live by that I made up my motto, "do it by yourself", which I gladly followed

I liked observing things, such as people interacting, listening attentively at which words bullies would use, thinking they would have an effect on me, and looking at which preferences or standards people would have when adopting one of us, though I never tried to use them to be chosen, since that would be faking it, and it would mean that in order to avoid being returned to the orphanage or worse, kicked out into the streets, I would have to change myself to live by their standards of a dog, which, by the way, were undignifying

I remember so many people of all kinds coming into the orphanage with generally the same preferences: affectionate and playful, and that was completely unfair!

They didn't even give you time to get to know them, they just expected you to lick them all over the second they walked in. But that doesn't make any sense. I consider licking someone a sign of trust and friendship, which simply cannot be given to anyone without even talking to them once

And as to being playful, it would be illogical to assume all dogs would always want to play. We have feelings, you know?! Though it seemed like the other pups didn't see it the way I did, and they agreed to always be playful, even when they were tired, they still pretended to be wanting to play. It was all simply stupid

So while others were always ready to meet new people and be adopted, I wished to live by myself, and instead focused in reading to expand my knowledge. But it wasn't until I read about this amazing person, Thomas Edison, that I realized what my passion was, inventing

At first, I would sneak out of the orphanage to get materials from a nearby waste depot, which was easy, since there were far too many pups for my absence to be noticed, and even when the bullies couldn't find me they would just assume I was hiding from them

I started by building simple things, such as a toaster, then I studied the orphanage, analyzing everything from pipes and electrical stucture, to building structure

Then I moved on to electrical and mechanical stuff. I rebuilt broken drones, and eventually, built a remote controlled toy car from scratch

It was all going well for me until one day when returning from the waste depot with a damaged electrical scooter's motor to inspect and hopefully fix, that I was caught. Not by anyne from the orphanage, but by a very curious 12 year old boy

"What are you planning on doing with that? 'Cause if you're planning on using that as a chew toy, I got bad news for you"

I was startled, since I was used to going unnoticed by humans, but this kid caught my attention. He was alone, near a waste depot, which was definitely strange for someone his age