Whatever Happened... to Robot Jones? Continued

Chapter 10: The Game is On

Robot hadn't forgotten his objective to find the real identity of the supposed 'ghost' of Polyneux, but like Grampz sitting in the basement, Robot's new responsibilities had a way of eating up time for the things he actually cared about. It got to be Thursday at lunch period when Robot finally admitted to himself, and to his friends, that the case had grown cold again.

"I didn't know the case had ever gotten warm," Socks said, confused.

"It's just that all my leads have lead me nowhere," Robot said, tapping a basket of nuts and bolts with his fork. "If Steve was correct in that Andy could be from any school, I could be looking for years, in all different directions. The only name that stands out belongs to Allentown."

"Allentown?" said Socks, putting down his sandwich. "That's like fifty miles away!"

"Ever notice how 'lead' and 'lead' are spelled the same way?" Mitch asked the group suddenly.

"That's called a homophone," said Cubey, rolling his eyes.

"No, it isn't, it's a homograph!" Mitch roared back.

"If you know what it is, why did you bring it up?!" Cubey yelled back.

"Could either of you pretend," Robot broke in, with narrow eyes, "That you care for once about this?"

Cubey and Mitch exchanged knowing looks. They play-fought all the time, so Socks and Robot knew that they weren't actually angry at each other, especially not over an argument on grammar. In regards to Robot's question, they seemed to feel the same way. "Robot," Cubey said. "If you yourself said this thing is going nowhere, than you might as well give it up."

"Yeah, man," Mitch said. "The four of us will admit that Andy isn't a ghost if you just chill it with the investigation stuff. Are you really planning on carrying this on through graduation, bringing it to high school?"

Robot opened his mouth to reply, but paused. This wasn't the first time that Mitch had brought up graduation, and in regards to the other kids, Robot couldn't really care.

But in regards to himself, the thought was a bit unnerving. The reason being: He didn't know if he was going to go.

According to his parents, his mission was to studyjunior high schoolers. Why would that stop just because his friends were finishing up and moving on? Robot himself might mentally age, like his parents, but that didn't change the mission that was set out before him. The only reason Robot would have for moving onto high school with Socks, Mitch, and Cubey, would be that his mission was deemed finished, or if he was needed for another mission. But wouldn't JNZ have built a separate robot if they had needed one to study senior high schoolers?

Maybe they'd already had.

Robot hadn't noticed that he'd dropped his oil can until Cubey yelled. Once again, he snapped out of the void, and reached down with a stained towel he kept in his chassis to wipe up the floor, while Cubey wiped off his skates with napkins.

While he was down there, he became very aware of a particular girl's voice-not shy and lisped, like Shannon's, but confident. Convincing. He watched beneath the table as Pam Simon passed with another girl that Robot had never seen before. She was very small, with long a plaid skirt-probably from a previous school, although it didn't look like the Jagger Elementary school red that some sixth graders still wore, but a rich blue-over a white blouse. And when she turned to look Pam in the face, Robot noticed that she was fairly pretty, too. Maybe just a notch above the norm, for Polyneux girls, anyway-if he was grading on a Socks-Morton-grading scale.

Standing next to Pam, however, she was eclipsed, and not just because Pam was taller, and much wider, but it was like Pam's voice, no matter if it was buttery sweet or agitated, was the first thing anybody noticed within a certain circular perimeter around her. Pam's voice not only projected, but so did her confidence. If anybody else was within that perimeter, they were as good as invisible. Including Shannon. Robot remembered seeing her on his second day of school, standing next to Pam, and laughing alongside her when Pam pointed out the oddity that was Robot's computer voice. That was the first time I ever heard Shannon laugh, Robot thought bitterly, and it was directed at me.