That morning I felt groggy. My hands were still numb with pain, although slight, and I couldn’t really fall back asleep after that terrifying nightmare. Tipsy stayed by my side throughout the night and assured me everything was fine and would be okay, but I still found myself stuttering slightly and making no progress on a coherent sentence. I almost wanted to not go to school today, which was a first for me. It was 7:02 am and the sun was peering in just around the corner of my window.

 

“T-Tipsy I’m not… I mean I-I…”

 

“It is alright, Miss Dadalian. Let’s get you a warm bath going and a decent breakfast before we jump to any conclusions.”

 

I nodded, not trusting my lips to move how I wanted them too.

 

Tipsy went to run the bath and within minutes I was inside the tub, allowing the hot water calm me down and watching the bubbles all around me.

 

My mind wandered to Cocoa and the wolf from my nightmare. Why would Aurora do such a thing? I know she hated me but she looked like she at least cared for Cocoa. Even the way Cocoa was praising her made me start to believe they were becoming pretty close. How wrong I was…

 

The hot water really did start to clear my mind and calm me down. I was careful to keep my hands out of the water as I scrubbed my hair. Tipsy was with me the whole time in case I needed help with anything. Thankfully I designed her to be waterproof.

When I got to scrubbing my body I heard a knock on the door which made me jump. I guess I was a little jittery. Tipsy immediately ran out to see who it was. She then ran back in a minute later, informing me it was Cocoa. So I quickly got dressed, into a red tank top and dark blue jeans along with my pink boots, using my own invention that kept them in a button like form, and met Cocoa in the living room. She looked a little more normal than the day before, wearing a light brown long sleeve shirt and tan shorts, something I rarely see her in as she loves skirts, and blue sandals.

 

“Hey,” she whispers in my direction.

 

I wanted to tell her about my dream the second I saw her. She looked completely fine from what I saw in it and I was worried something may happen if I didn’t. But I didn’t know why she was here and I didn’t want to start more between us; we already haven’t seen each other for a while.

 

“Hey,” I tell her back, trying to sound calm. “What brings you over so early?”

 

“I told you the other day. We’ll be away for a while because of the upcoming assignments and tests. So I wanted to get time together with you while I can.”

 

Her telling me that made me feel a little embarrassed. I did want to spend time with her as much as we could, but my mind was elsewhere.

 

“Right,” I tell her, smiling weakly. “Um, I was just about to get something to eat. Come on,” I wave over toward the kitchen.

 

As we walked over to the kitchen I just realized I was talking in complete sentences and not stuttering. I guess Cocoa being here calmed me down, knowing something like that didn’t happen last night. But I was still scared… scared of her being attacked.

 

She sat at the counter on one of the stools while my hand moved lazily across the food choices. Not only could I have a specific meal, I could create various variations of it. Nothing like having freedom over food selections. But today I had no idea what I was in the mood for. I caught a glance of Cocoa before deciding to ask her what she wanted and saw her with her head draped down, like she was sad about something. I was about to speak up but thought better of it and went for eggs and salsa, sausage, toast, and orange juice. A simple breakfast to lighten the mood.

After I input the food I went to sit down next to her. Our food was served in seconds.

 

“Soooo,” I drag on. “What do you think we should help man next week?”

 

“I don’t know. We don’t exactly know what they’re doing yet.”

 

She was right, we didn’t know. They usually weren’t announced to the students till Friday, save those who are going to be manning one of the stands. The fact it was different every time also made it difficult to decide on what to do because we never knew what there was.

 

“Well, come Friday we’ll figure it out. There’s usually interesting ones there anyway. It’ll be fun, no work.”

 

She nodded but continued to roll her sausage around. I didn’t know if she could tell I was feeling really down and putting on a show for her or there was something else going on. I didn’t get time to ask with it rolling on to a quarter past 8. So we cleaned up, grabbed our backpacks and left.

 

On the way to school we noticed the clouds around town rolling in. Not the white and puffy kind but the dark ones before a storm. It made my stomach churn. I didn’t like bad weather, but I didn’t mind it either. But I was beginning to think I should have bought something a little heavier. But we both just ignored it for the most part.

When we got to school I told her I’d see her during lunch and grabbed some things from my locker. Afterwards I marched onward to class.

 

When I got to the classroom, I expected to see Miss Yodale sitting behind the desk, her carefree attitude showing. But it was Mrs. Natsume, checking over from what I could have guessed, our test results. She looked up for a moment from her papers and smiled at me before returning her eyes to her desk. I smiled back and went to take my seat, slightly relieved to have Mrs. Natsume back.

 

“Hey, Random.” The same girl I helped before was asking for help again. “Can you help me figure out what’s wrong with this?” she handed me her AI device that had burst into flames. It looked completely normal now. I told her it was okay since classes didn’t quite start yet, so I decided to help and see what I could do.

 

Shuffling through my backpack I pull out a few tools I used on my own project. Within seconds I was unscrewing and unplugging wires, trying to explain to her where she went wrong. She was quite surprised by the mistakes I pointed out. I even handed her the tools and tried to direct her best I could on what needed to be placed where. She had trouble at first, fumbling left and right and crossing wires in the wrong places, but she slowly got the hang of it. Mrs. Natsume finished the papers soon after we’d finished and got up to begin passing them back to us. I just realized I didn’t hand in my paper then, but it apparently didn’t matter because by the time she got to me she whispered, “Don’t worry about it”. I guess my grade was fine. I decided to ask her after class.

 

“Thanks a lot, Random,” the girl tells me. “You’re like, the smartest person here. When we first got here, Mrs. Natsume wanted to see our papers as we arrived, to make sure we got a fair grade and all. But I didn’t see her grade yours a second time. I guess she like, didn’t have to. Maybe you’re almost as smart as my little sister, who my parents call a genius.”

 

“Almost as smart as her?” I ask, slightly offended.

 

“O-Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. You see, ever since she was 5, she’s been making small contraptions out of lose stuff I tend to leave around the house. Metal, wires, panels, computer chips. She’d make small devices out of them that allowed her to do all sorts of things, like get stuff that was just out of her reach because she’s just naturally short. It’s like her mind was hard-wired for that sort of thing, right?”

 

“Yeah…” I murmur, returning to my seat. Someone smarter than me? And here I thought Aurora was…

 

I didn’t have much time to continue that thought, as Mrs. Natsume stood up and began to speak.

 

“As you know, we’re coming up on the end of the first quarter. That usually means we, as teachers, would pile extra work on you.” Everyone not interested in that groaned like it was the worst thing in the world. “However, I will not and do not expect you to do any additional work. From what I’ve gone over, very few of you, 3/16 of you to be precise, do not fully understand what I’m trying to communicate. As an AI class, I tend to look back on what was done to move forward. We have the leniency we have today because of yesterday. Do not forget this.”

 

She returned to her seat.

 

“That does not mean I won’t lecture you through the remaining days, so pay attention.”

 

And she was true to her word. She began on older models and newer ones. Soon she jumped to different programs, a few of which I thought were no longer in use today, do to sudden failures. It was easy to keep track of everything she said and get it on my minipad. Her being here made me completely forget about Miss Yodale.

 

Once class had finished, everyone began gathering up their things and started heading toward the door. I was the last one out but was stopped by Mrs. Natsume. She called my name the second the last student shuffled out the door. I wasn’t exactly afraid of her, but she was an intimidating woman at times.

 

“Yes, Mrs. Natsume?”

 

“You want to ask about Miss Yodale, don’t you?”

 

That set the hairs on my neck on end. How did she know I wanted to ask?

 

“Well, it was a last minute thing. How did you get someone so quickly?”

 

She spun her chair toward me. “She’s an… old acquaintance of mine whom I’ve kept in contact with for several years.” She stood up and faced the whiteboard. “Also, about your score, it’s 100% accurate. Yours was about the most well put together invention here, Random. Don’t let your talent go to waste. And as for where I went, don’t worry about it too much, okay?”

 

She then began writing on the whiteboard, a sign for me to take my leave. I still had hundreds of questions for her, but I didn’t stick around to ask. I left and headed toward the next class, then the cafeteria, where I’d end up enjoying a lunch with a not so favorite person. Still, someone smarter than me, but younger? I couldn’t shake the thought, and I had a feeling I’d be meeting them soon enough…