Robot School - Chapter 1

"Dude, wake up! You're gonna to be late for school.� Tom's roommate, George, had installed an alarm clock chip into his brain. It was a complicated procedure, and the sound of someone screaming at him every morning was quite annoying, but at least it was better than the archaic beeping enjoyed by many of the older students. Tom sat up, and climbed out of his sleeping chamber. He was one of the few robots that slept laying down, or who slept at all. It was all part of a project he was doing on the ancient humans for the school science fair.
George was already up and getting ready to leave. "Come on man, we're already running late, get your gear and let's go.� Tom did not appreciate this pun at all, partly because he was a newer model, which did not use any gears in its design.
As he grabbed his stuff and headed out the door after George, he wondered aloud, "Why is it that we have to go to school anyway? Couldn't they just plug us into a main drive for a few hours and upload all the information directly?"
George had heard this all before, and had grown quite tired of explaining it. "You know as well as I do, the council wants to preserve some of the traditions of the past.� Tom knew this, but was not satisfied with the answer. There had to be some other reason for the council to want to waste so much time and money. George called from behind him, "Yo, Tom, this way.� Tom had accidentally passed by the turn they were supposed to take to get to the school. Tom often did not pay close attention to his surroundings, which was odd, because he had an upgraded perception chip.
As he walked back to where his friend was waiting, another thought came to his mind, "If they could use cars and planes 400 years ago in the 20th century, don't you think they should be able to come up with some mode of transportation that doesn't require us to move?� George was tired of answering the same questions every morning, so decided to just ignore this one. They walked on in silence, Tom deep in thought, all the way to the school.
As George had predicted, to an accuracy percentage point of .01, they were late. The vice principal, Mr. Richards, wanted to see them as soon as they came in. "If you two can't make it to school on time, ever, you may as well just stop coming. In fact, to make myself perfectly clear, I'm going to send you home today with detention. Now, get out of my sight"
The two robot students walked slowly out of Mr. Richards� office. George was beginning to freak out that this might show up on his permanent record, but Tom was already planning for his "day off". George looked at Tom, a worried look on his face, "Do you think this will mean that I can't go to college?� Tom just laughed off this question, knowing that if colleges refused admission based on one day of suspension, there would be very few students in college. "Dude, don't worry about it, just relax and let's try to have some fun!"
During his studies of the ancient human culture, he found that in most High Schools the students lived at home with parents. The robot version, because they had no parents, placed them in dormitories with completely randomly selected roommates. This system seemed a lot more like boarding schools, but the point was, they now had an entire day to do what they wanted. Technically, they weren't supposed to leave their dorms, but what was Mr. Richards going to do, give them detention?
George didn't quite trust this logic, but neither did he want to just sit at home all day, so he and Tom decided to take a walk downtown
They walked past the bakery, the hospital and even the Old Italian restaurant where Ralph used to eat as a kid. None of these were operational anymore, and neither of them had any idea who Ralph was. It was all part of a major tourist trap. Each building was built according to scale and according to ancient designs.
Finally, the two reached the real, cool, part of town. Here was CompUSA, Best Buy, and a Gateway Store. The entirety of each of these stores was about as big as an ancient ATM from the human days. Customers would just plug in, and download their merchandise. There was no need for physical material objects; anything you needed could be programmed into you. If you needed a calculator, you would just download a program. Robots had no need for dressers, footstools, or microwaves. All they needed was right in the mass of wires and silicon that they called their brains.
Tom and George walked past these stores, not having the money for any more upgrades at the moment. They continued on until they reached the arcade. This was where they liked to spend most of their free time. However, most games ended in a tie, as they had the same strategies programmed into them. They walked in and played a few rounds of Virtual Tetris. Which they soon tired of and went on to a round of virtual boxing where they both KO'd each other at the exact same time.
Having run out of money, they left the arcade and wandered around some more. "Hey, let's go down Neddibrof Street,� suggested Tom with a mischievous grin.
"Dude, you know we're not allowed on that street, Humans still live there"
"So, what are they gonna do to, drool on us"
"You know what they say about Human fluids. It can ruin our wiring or rust our shells. I just cleaned mine."
"Stop making up excuses, I know you're just scared. Admit it"
"I'm not scared,� said George "I just don't like Humans. Though, I guess I've never seen one."
"So, let's go see one. C'mon, it'll be fun. Besides, I can get some current data for my project on ancient humans. I can just see Mr. Richards� face when I win first prize!"
George finally gave in to Tom�s persistence, he always did. "Fine, we'll go take a quick look, but then we're leaving."
"Fine, fine."
Tom led George to the edge of town and down a little side street to Neddibrof Street. It was dark, and damp. And there were no uplink stores anywhere to be seen. Though it was commonly referred to as Neddibrof Street, it was considerably more than just one street. In fact, it was almost the size of a small town, and by the looks of it, it may have been one at some point long ago.
"This place is creepy� said George
"Yeah, I'm starting to agree with you there� replied Tom.
Just as they were turning to head back, a little human boy walked up to them. "Hewwo, my name is Biwwy, what's yours?"
Tom jumped and George's hard drive nearly crashed. "Please don't drool on me,� pleaded Tom. "We were only looking, I swear."
�Yeah, and we were just about to leave.� Added George.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. I just wanna be fwends.� said Billy, just as cute as can be, for a human anyway, George and Tom found him to be rather repulsive. All that soft skin, dirty hands, no metal whatsoever, how could anyone live that way? But, they thought it best not to anger the creature, so they agreed to be his friend.
"Sure, we can be friends... I guess.� replied Tom shakily.
"Where do you guys wiv? Do you wiv in the city?"
"Uh, yes, we live on the High School campus. We share a dorm room.� Tom answered, looking for a way out of this part of town without arousing the fury of the human. Finally he thought of something. "Would you like to see our place?"
"What are you doing Tom?� Asked George in a hushed voice. "We can't take him back to the city"
"George, I gotta get out of here, this is the only way. Unless, you�ve got a better idea?"
"Fine, but we can't let anyone see him.� George replied, and then to the human, "So, what do you say, want to see where we live?"
�Umm, Otay!� Billy said happily.
He seemed so innocent; Tom was beginning to doubt how dangerous it would really be to arouse this young child�s fury. But for now it was best to play it safe; he and George had heard many stories of robot�s encounters with human beings, and most of them did not end well.

Robot School