After waking up from a very unsettling last night, I felt tired and groggy. Sitting up and rotating my shoulders further proved this when I felt even more pain from my body. That struggle with Aurora last night and the nightmare that followed didn’t have me feeling all too well this morning. Most mornings I have no trouble getting out of bed, but today it feels like a led weight is on top of me, pinning me to this bed.

Letting the imaginary led weight crush me, I lay back down and toss and turn, struggling to get comfortable. I feel like every joint on my body is out of place. I’m glad we got the project completed, but it ended in a way I never saw coming and wish would jump off the TV to the black hole void that is the center and be forgotten.

 

Sighing, I finally push myself to sit up again and look around my room. Clothes, gadgets, and machine parts lay scattered about. Tipsy was also lying on the bed next to me, no doubt having snuck in here. I’m glad she was with me though, as it gets lonely around here.

Turning to the side and throwing my legs over the edge of the bed, I leap down and search for a few of my clothes and head off to the bathroom for a shower. After the shower I grab my backpack and head to school, skipping breakfast and hoping I don’t run into Aurora too much and hoping that Cody is there today.

 

Upon reaching the school, I notice Cody sitting on the rim of the fountain talking to another girl and laughing. My first thought is that Cody left me to be with someone else and that he couldn’t tell me. The other thought wants to lash out at him, as my anger was quickly reaching the boiling point and was ready to burst. He then turns toward me and back to the girl he was talking to before he finally realizes I’m mad at him and proceeds to get up and walk over to me, with some lame excuse no doubt. But I turn my head up at him and quickly walk up the school steps and inside toward my locker, ignoring whatever comment he was going to use on me.

To my relief I see Cocoa by my locker, which discourages any further attempt Cody had going; I didn’t think he’d want to talk to me around Cocoa. I don’t know why I’m relieved though, as when I tell Cocoa what happened last night she won’t believe me. After talking to Aurora just once, she’s already become friends with her, so it’s my word against hers.

 

“Hey Random, how did the project go last night?”

 

Slightly avoiding her question, I go to input my code into my locker while thinking of something I could tell her other than what actually happened, because either way to her, it’s a lie.

 

“It…went well. We got a little of the project done,” I tell her, closing my locker. “How are your projects coming along?”

 

“Well, I got a test today…oh!” Quickly shuffling through her bag, she pulls out a thick stack of papers. “I got this,” she says handing it to me.

 

“What’s it for?” I ask her while flipping through it.

 

“Things I need to memorize. They’ve stopped giving us projects for now and we just do a lot of written test and diagrams in classes.”

 

Handing it back to her, Aurora shows up. Not wanting to be around her, I try to sneak away, but she addresses me first instead of Cocoa, and Cocoa would find it weird if I didn’t respond.

 

“Hi Aurora,” I say dryly, really not wanting to be there.

 

“Thanks for the help on the project; I couldn’t have done it without you.” Lying little… Keep it cool, Random.

 

“You’re welcome,” I say, having to grit my teeth to keep from lashing out at her.

 

“Hi Aurora,” Cocoa adds in. “Random didn’t tell me any details. How did it go?”

 

Leaving those two be, I head off toward my first class. On the way, I meet up with Cody, who finally manages to stop me in my tracks by blocking off the door. He had a smile on his face that would normally melt me where I stand, but right now I was irritated with him for leaving me at dinner and showing up at school with someone else.

 

“Random, let me explain,” he says quickly. “It’s not what you think.”

 

“Then what is it?”

 

“It’s my sister. She was the one who sent me the text and she was the reason I rushed out from our dinner.”

 

And now I feel stupid.

 

“I didn’t tell you this beforehand, but my mom is in the hospital. She was going to undergo surgery the day I went on the date with you, and I wanted to be able to contact my sister to keep in check. I’m sorry if it seemed like I walked out on you. That was never my intention. She just went in earlier than expected, by the doctors or by me.”

 

The sadness and anger that boiled up within me began to simmer as he told me his story. I’ve never been the most attractive, but I’m glad to know that he did care about me, inside and as far as I could tell, outside.

 

“Is that why you didn’t show up for class the next day? Because we’ve been given a third partner and she’s…”

 

I trail off at the final statement. She’s friendly around me when I’m around others, but when alone she’ll bite my head off. Cody and I were still getting to know each other, so it would be harder to convince him than Cocoa, who somehow believes her more than me, and I’ve been her closest friend for 3 years and counting.

 

“She’s great,” I finally get out, feeling horrible that I lied to him but knowing he wouldn’t believe me even if I told him the truth.

 

“That’s good, could always use the extra help, right? Well, I’m off to my class, which is on the opposite side of the school, so I’ll see you later.”

 

With one final wave he walks off. Knowing that he hasn’t found a new girlfriend was a relief, but now, even when I wanted to be alone with him in our metal works class, I had no choice. Taking a deep breath, I head inside Mrs. Natsume’s class. Knowing that Aurora was going to be there though didn’t do anything to subside my anger toward her.

 

“Hello Class, I hope you’re excited for today.”

 

It wasn’t unusual for Mrs. Natsume to be excited to teach us, but today was different. The latest assignment she handed out was due today. It was to be about the inner workings of Artificial Intelligence and different designs of it. I’ve been so worked up over Aurora and angryat Cody I nearly forgot. Luckily I kept a copy on my minipad in which I was able to have it sent directly to her yesterday to look over.

 

“You’ve all did very well on the assignment I’ve given you, especially you, Aurora. I feel you’re all beginning to accept and understand just what the inner workings of Artificial Intelligence is, and for that, I’m going to be giving you all a small robotic companion using an older AI program placed into it. I want you to take it apart, put it back together and examine how it differs from AI today. The concept is to understand and appreciate even older ways of doing things while still using the basic application of how we do things today.” She shifts toward the white board. “Today we’ll go over just what I want you to and explain it in better detail, so you’ll want to write most of it down as I’m not going to repeat what I say.”

 

Thanks to the convenience of my minipad, it was able to write down every word she said as quickly as she said them, making note taking that much easier. Some of it was just outside of my understanding, not being around during that time period. But for the most part it sounded like our design using a simpler and more outdated scheme. If I sit down and study it a lot more than the hour I get in this class, I’m sure I could easily understand it.

 

After we received our robotic companion upon leaving class, I headed toward my locker to drop it off before moving onto my next class, Mr. Bit’s. We were instructed on the basic implementations on different machines. Some were easier to follow than others, but it was all well worth learning. Aurora didn’t pay me as much attention this time around in this class or Mrs. Natsume’s. Was she purposely avoiding me in classes?

 

“I’m happy to announce that Cody Belkin is able to rejoin us once more.” Mr. Reed turns toward Cody. “In your absence I have given you another partner. I want the 3 of you to continue to work together in my class all throughout the year. Her name is Aurora Crystalere and she is, so far, an exceptional student.”

 

After Mr. Reed finishes explaining the current situation to Cody, thus catching him up, he turns toward Aurora and I, that wonderful smile soothing my anger toward Aurora. I’ve already told him about Aurora, even though it was a lie, but the truth would have made it look like I was lying anyway. I just couldn’t win today.

 

“Hi, I’m Cody,” he says, extending a hand toward Aurora. She takes it and gives him a small smile, which he returns. He then takes a seat next to me and Mr. Reed goes over the progress of our projects. Since Aurora took control over it and Cody was absent, I didn’t know what to expect. He gave us a very high passing grade thankfully. Afterwards, he instructed us on what to do next before dismissing us.

 

Cody and I walked over to my locker while Aurora, thankfully, went off to hers. What was strange when I got to my locker though was that Cocoa wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It was a first for her, as I’ve always caught her up on what was going on. I hope classes aren’t holding her up.

 

“So, about our dinner date,” Cody starts while I take things out of my locker. “How about tomorrow night? No leaving early, promise,” he says, throwing in a wink.

 

Asking me with that smile should be against the law, but I can never tear my gaze away. Finally closing my locker I nod my head in agreement.

 

“No running away,” I add in, laughing a little.

 

 

 

 

“Finally got everything sorted.”

 

I had just finished getting all my papers sorted before I decided to head over to Random’s locker. I wanted to hear what went on with her classes, but our teachers gave us more work than what was really needed. Luckily I took care of half of it in class, even though it ate up a lot of time. But now that I was finally sorted I was able to go and see Random.

 

Much to my surprise however, she was with a guy, who I assumed to be Cody. I didn’t want to intervene and yet when I saw them together like that, laughing, I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. I didn’t know why though; it’s not like I didn’t mind if Random was with other people. But I felt it a privilege to be able to be the first to greet her after class. Now Cody was with her, and it wasn’t me she was talking with first. But I don’t know if it was because I was usually the first to greet her after class, or if it was because I wanted to be her best and closest friend…