Whatever Happened... to Robot Jones? Continued

Chapter 19: Simon Says

Robot was studying his reflection in a boys bathroom mirror at school. His chassis paint peeling away at the corner, eyelids heavily shadowed, lines under his eyes. The bathroom mirror and surrounding tiles had cracks in them, as if they had aged as poorly. He still needed to extend his leg joints to see into the mirror, which was set up at a height that was in favor boys who had experienced at least one growth spurt. As of now, Robot had never had one.

The door to the empty bathroom swung open, and a human stepped in. Taller than Robot, perfect height for the mirror, this boy had curly blond hair, and wore stained sweatpants. Upon recognizing these familiar details, Robot turned from the mirror in delighted relief. "Socks unit!"

"Who's 'Socks'?" asked the boy, whom Robot now saw was different from the human Robot knew by that name. This boy had a pointed nose, much longer hair, wore thick, blue framed glasses, and his plaid shirt was red instead of green, not to mention his voice was much higher pitched than Socks, even before the change. To top it off, this boy had several facial piercings. "It's Jacob, Robot, remember? Your best friend?" he said, letting the door swing shut behind him. "Oh, don't tell me: You're having another malfunction."

"Jacob?" Robot asked. That name meant nothing to him.

"Hey Ricky, you in there?" asked the boy named Jacob, knocking on Steve's stall near the back wall. "I think Roboy's got another bug, you wanna take a look at 'em?"

"Roboy?" questioned the automaton.

"Sure... gimme a second," said an unenthusiastic voice from behind the stall. After a flush, the door opened, and a shorter boy with black hair exited the stall. But unlike Cubey, this boy wore no glasses, had a longer face with tears in his jeans at the knees, and part of his hair hung over his left eye.

He approached Robot and took him by the shoulders, pressing his fingerless gloves tight against Robot's ball joint. "Stay still while I have a look at your insides," he said, removing one hand and reaching for Robot's chassis.

"Perimeter security threatened-back off!" Robot shouted, immediately feeling violated. "I don't even know who you are! I might let Cubey or Mitch run a diagnostic on my health, but you-"

"Mitch and Cubey?" the boy named Ricky said, in a joyless monotone which definitely did not belong to Cubey. He shook his head, making his long bangs flop back and forth in a hideously feminine style. "No, Robot, we've told you this: Those kids graduated already. They don't go to school here anymore."

"Graduated?" Robot said, fear climbing into his voice. Why am I not with them? "What is today's date?"

Before letting them answer, Robot pushed the boy named Ricky away, and went straight for Steve's stall. He didn't even bother to ask where Steve himself was, his mind only on one thing: The calendar that Steve kept taped to the door.

But when Robot opened it, the calendar, and its lewd female model, were not there, which only made Robot more nervous. He spun around. "Where's the calendar?"

"What calendar?" asked Jacob, looking genuinely confused.

"Dude's trippin' bad," said Ricky, still looking unmoved. "Probably gonna have to run a clean sweep. I'll tell Ned when I see him in Math today."

Ned. Another name that rang new to his digital roster. Was that supposed to be his new Mitch? Robot looked left, right, up and down, as if an explanation would be written on the walls somewhere. But the only thing his eye came across was a piece of paper, balled up by the sink. As the humans watched him in bewilderment, Robot ran to the sink, unfolding the paper and holding it out before him.