Whatever Happened... to Robot Jones? Continued

Chapter 23: I Am Rachel

"Hey Justin," said one of the football players, aggressively elbowing his friend in the ribs. "Look up. Fresh meat."

Once the Polyneux boys had heard those words, they knew they were in for a world of hurt.

After leaving James' apartment building, Robot, Mitch, and Cubey hurried back to their home side of town, where the public Senior High school was located. Not too far from the middle school, it was where most of its graduates ended up going-provided they didn't make it into college prep schools instead, but few of Polyneux's graduates ever did.

As it was, Robot was fairly certain his friends-and himself, if Crowe's warning was a lie-were bound for this school in less than a year. But as they stepped onto the football field now-which towered over them in a way that made Polyneux's massive campus look small for once-they were middle schoolers. And these football players were high schoolers. And as was common knowledge, high schoolers didn't take kindly to junior high schoolers. Or, at least the jocks didn't.

Too bad for Robot, Mitch, and Cubey, because football players were the only high schoolers they could speak to on campus on a Sunday afternoon. Mitch had heard that Roger Prattman had joined the football team since starting high school. He was someone whom Mitch and Robot had met in real life at least once time, and therefore would reasonably provide a reason for the jocks to not beat the snot out of them. So the middle school boys had been holding out hope that somehow, Roger would be there when they made this proposal. Maybe he would even offer some assistance in their pursuit to ruin Clara's reputation. After all, he had dumped her.

Unfortunately, Roger was nowhere to be seen, and the four football players didn't know any of these three from a hole in the ground. They couldn't even pass as high schoolers from a different area, being so short. Therefore they had no obligation to save them from the necessary pounding that the 'juniors', as they were called, earned from interrupting their practice.

It was while they were being mercilessly tossed, punched, slammed in the mud, and wrapped up in toilet paper from the boys' room-"Eh, I'mma make the robot look like mummy!" one of them shouted-that Mitch attempted to explain the plan.

It was only when bringing up Clara's name that the four highschoolers finally ceased their hazing. "Roger's girl?" the forth biggest player, a brunette, asked.

"Not anymore," Cubey explained in between coughs. He had swallowed a mouthful of dirt.

"They broke up," Robot offered, sparing Cubey the pain of talking. "Well... Roger broke it off with her. And sometimes I don't feel like Clara really got over it."

The football players looked at one another, unsure of what to make of this. The juniors wondered if it took four of them to formulate one complete thought. Finally, the blond one, who looked like the toughest of them all, turned and looked at Robot. "What is it that you want us for, again?"

Mitch shakily stood up from the ground, covered in mud. "We want you..." he said in a woozy voice, "... to come to Clara's party, and wreck the place. Have at it. Go crazy. Then beat it before she finds out there are high schoolers there. The place is gonna be packed, you can slip in and out like nothing."

The next biggest football player, a black haired guy with a nose that looked like it had broken at some point, asked in a deep voice: "You honestly think we have nothing better to do with our time than crash some lame-o pre-teen party? How bored do you think we are?"

"Ye-ah!" a third player said, a red head that sounding as if he came from California with the accent he was sporting. "Like, don't you think we're gonna be busy at Roger's party, stupid?"