Whatever Happened... to Robot Jones? Continued

Chapter 18: Trusting the Foe

"GOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, Polyneux Middle School!" suddenly rang out a high pitch, shrill voice from the PA, at the start of first period the next day. "The date is Wednesday, October the 27th! The sun is shining brightly through the clouds, making the temperature a lovely 60 degrees, so get out there after school and enjoy the last of Indian Summer before the frost sets in! The morning announcements are as follows: Lunch today will be Mac and Cheese with an assortment of various Italian noodles in place of elbows in place of the regular Macaroni, and what some sources claim mustard in place of yellow food coloring for the cheese-but nobody eats that slop anyway, so who cares? Everybody knows this place should get a salad bar. In student council news, Pam Simon and Jamie Martin are neck in neck for title of the treasurer in pre-voting polls, with Jamie Martin having recently come far from his humble beginnings as the smallest, most easily picked on kid in sixth grade-"

"WHAT?" shouted Jamie, looking around at his group of friends, all looking very annoyed.

"-and Pam Simon having used her 'powerful arms' to persuade the girls, as always."

A group of girls in the back of the room laughed. The Herculean girl's face turned as red as her hair, and Robot genuinely worried she would catch on fire, as a robot would under such anger. "The nerve..." Robot heard her mutter.

"In staff news, Polyneux's very own Mr. Stuart McMcMc has just been nominated teacher of the year by the Parent Teacher Association."

McMcMc, who'd been trying and failing to help Mrs. Raincoat set up a projector, turned and looked at the PA as if he could see its speaker and try to gauge if they were serious or not. A wide grin suddenly cut across his face.

"ME?" he asked, as Raincoat smiled awkwardly and clapped for him. The students were thereby obligated to follow suit. One by one, the first period class raised their hands and clapped for McMcMc.

Even Mitch, Cubey, and Robot followed suit, clapping reluctantly for the teacher, but the three of them gave each other the most confused looks at the news out of everybody. Clearly, none of them had even heard of McMcMc being nominated for any honor such as that, let alone the thought of whether or not he deserved such an honor was questionable. Sure, McMcMc taught multiple subjects and had coached the debate team, but plenty of the teachers at Polyneux wore different hats. And few of them were as greedy for accolades as he was.

"Lastly, on the night of the 31st, there will be an all-access Halloween Party at the house of Heather and Glenn Doppler, in celebration of their daughter's fantastic grades and nomination for class Valedictorian, located on 53rd and Brawnwin... wait-I'm not done yet! Madman, come on!-"

"Clara!"

the students heard Madman yell at her, following a door, presumably to his office, being opened.

There were then shuffling noises preceeded by what Robot had to assume was Clara wrestling the PA microphone back for a few seconds. "There will be chips and soda and cake!Admissiontothepartyrequiresthepassword'RogerPrattmanisaLoser'!Lookforthehousewiththeballoons-!"

"Ahem!" Madman said, clearing his throat over the PA as Clara's voice disappeared completely. "Now that the 'morning announcements' are complete, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance."

Robot, Mitch and Cubey rose to their feet and put a hand over their chest, along with the rest of the kids in the class as they began dully reciting the Pledge with Madman. "I pledge allegiance," the kids chorused, sounding very bored, some rolling their eyes "to the flag..."

"Won't Clara get in trouble for that?" asked Robot his friends. Nobody was allowed to dish out the morning announcements but Madman, not even Georgie, the class President. Technically speaking, although she did use the time on the microphone , she did also announce some things truthfully, such as lunch for that day, which Robot happened to know was Mustard Mac-n-Sleeze, and Pam and Jamie being tied in the polls.