3.3 ROBOT INTEGRATION PROGRAM HQ
The next day went a lot smoother.
Fuzzy went to all of Max's morning classes and then turned his voice recognition subroutines off as they walked into the cafeteria. Max and the other kids were able to write notes to him on their qFlex bracelets, and then he could read their questions and answer normally.
Of course, it's hard to call any answer "normal" when the question—from Simeon, of course—was: "Could you kill Godzilla?"
After lunch, Max had gym. She wasn't sure what to do about Fuzzy. She knew she couldn't bring him into the girl's locker room. But then she wondered why not. He wasn't really a boy or a girl, just a robot. Then she thought about Fuzzy seeing her dressing for gym and knew that absolutely no way could he go in there.
She stopped before turning down the hall to the gym.
"Uh, Fuzzy, you better ask Dr. Jones what to do about gym class. I can't take you with me into the locker room."
"Why not, Max? Are you afraid I'll see you in your underwear?"
Max turned bright red and her ears turned even redder. How could he know about underwear? Could he have been making a joke?
Before she could think of anything to say, Fuzzy had sent a text message to Dr. Jones and gotten one back.
Fuzzy wasn't allowed in gym class for safety reasons. Dr. Jones wanted Max to drop Fuzzy off at the tech room.
Max looked at the time on her qFlex. Great. She would really have to hustle to drop off Fuzzy and get back to the gym on time. But she couldn't just ditch him.
"C'mon, Fuzz, we've got to hurry."
She sped up and started weaving past clumps of slow-moving kids in the hallway. Fuzzy kept up with no problem. He was apparently learning that you didn't have to watch every kid, just the clumps.
When they got to the tech room, she was ready to say good-bye to Fuzzy and hightail it to gym. But Dr. Jones and Nina wanted to talk.
"We are really impressed with the progress Fuzzy has been making," said Nina.
"Do you know he has written eighty thousand lines of new code today?" asked Jones.
"That's good, right?" asked Max, anxious to get out of there.
"Yes, that's what he's here for," said Dr. Jones. "Unfortunately, we just learned today that his launch date—that is, the time when we need him to be fully activated—has been moved up. We won't have as much time as we had hoped. So we need to do everything we can to keep him learning."
"How would you feel about spending some time with Fuzzy after school?" asked Nina.
"Uh, you mean like a study hall?"
"No, we mean away from school," Nina said.
"You don't mean like a date?" gasped Max. She thought about how Krysti and, of course, Biggs, were already teasing her about her robot boyfriend.
"Well, no, nothing like a date," said Dr. Jones. "But how about taking him home for dinner? He can ride the bus with you."
"Ride the bus? But what if—"
"Don't worry," said Nina. "We'll follow along, of course, with a couple of security units. But we want him to have as many typical kid experiences as possible. When you get to your house, we'll wait outside in case there are any problems. You'll have a chance to talk more and help him figure out this whole school thing. Then we'll bring him back here."
"Uh … I guess," Max said. "Listen, I've really got to go now. I'll be back after gym class."
She bolted from the room, but had barely started down the hall when the chime rang. And then came a voice she had heard way too much lately:
"Late for class. One discipline tag to M. Zelaster."
