A girl with platinum blonde hair and brightly coloured hearing aids glided through the school halls, a spring in her step. Not only were they starting Frankenstein in her English class, but she had also been on a 2 hour long video call to her girlfriend the night before.

A brown eyed boy ran towards the girl, startling her. "Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you, Azzy."

Azlan shook her head. "It's fine, Silas. What's up?"

"The sky", he replied sarcastically, ignoring the girl's eye roll. "You excited for English today?"

Azlan's face lit up. "Yeah! I love the monster in it! Frankenstein's awesome."

"Did you know that Frankenstein was the name of the monster's creator, not the monster itself?", asked Silas.

After a long pause, Azlan exhaled sharply. "Dude, if you put this level of smart a**ness into your work, you'd be top of your classes."

Silas chuckled. "Yeah, not gonna happen."

"Azzy!", exclaimed a blonde haired girl. She rushed over to Azlan, a grin on her face. "Hey, babe."

Azlan smiled when she saw the girl. She looped her arm with hers. The girl kissed her passionately and Azlan kissed back, smiling softly.

Silas mockingly placed a finger in his mouth. "I'm gonna barf."

They pulled away and the pair both rolled their eyes at Silas. The taller girl draped her arm around Azlan's shoulder. "Give it a rest, Silas. You love us really."

"Nah, just Azlan. You're not unbearable though", replied Silas, a smirk appearing on his face. The boy was closer to Azlan, seeing as they were both in the same robotics club. He knew Mary-Anne as Azlan's girlfriend and he was happy to keep it that way.

"I gotta go", said Mary-Anne. "I'll see you later, Azzy." She kissed the girl's cheek before running a hand through her hair and walking away.

Silas groaned. "This place will be the death of me", he muttered. He had lowered his voice considerably and looked at the ground, meaning that Azlan couldn't hear everything he said, or read his lips.

"What will be the death of you?", she questioned, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Silas raised his hands to just above his chin and attempted to sign 'school.' Still getting to grips with sign language, Silas had signed it incorrectly, but not so badly that Azlan couldn't understand what he was trying to sign.

With a sweet smile on her face, Azlan raised her hands and showed him the correct way to sign school. "School", she said as she signed.

Silas nodded and the pair continued to walk to class.

_______________

After a tortuously, or pleasantly long day, depending on how you look at it, the school day had finished and the after school clubs crawled from out of the shadows.

A girl with a pale blue headscarf was the first to arrive, her smile turning into a curious expression when she saw her grinning teacher. "You seem happy, Professor Harrow. Did your Mum finally buy you a new TV?"

"For the tenth time, I moved into my own house a week ago, Maya!", exclaimed the teacher.

Maya giggled. "I know, I know. Sorry, Sir. It's fun to joke around with you though. Not many teachers are as easy going as you."

"You say easy going, I say the human embodiment of childish", joked a boy. He wore a bright green top, jacket and jeans. His left sock, however, was blue.

Maya frowned. "Aww, come on, Yukishiro!" The boy would always come to school wearing bright coloured clothing, but more recently he opted to wear matching colours, aside from one item. It was sort of a way of teasing Maya, as it irritated her to see him wearing everything in one colour aside from one shoe, or one sock.

That was the kind of friendship the pair had. Full of playful teasing and joking around. But when it came down to it, they had each other's backs.

Yukishiro chuckled and sat down in his usual seat, making a point to wink at Maya when he placed the leg with the blue sock on the table.

"Legs off the table please", said Professor Harrow.

"Dàmn. Am I early?", questioned a girl with hazel eyes. She immediately made a beeline for the seat next to Maya.

"Yes. I can hardly believe it myself", said Professor Harrow.

"Quinn, Yukishiro's doing that thing again!", whined Maya. Quinn always sided with Maya, and Professor Harrow usually had to be the one to side with Yukishiro.

Quinn swiftly turned to face Yukishiro. "Did you do a bad thing?"

Maya nodded. "He did do a bad thing."

"No, she's lying!", exclaimed Yukishiro, in a mock baby tone.

Quinn glared at the boy. "Yukishiro?"

Oh boy. Quinn always referred to the boy as Leo, so any time his first name was used was a serious time.

Yukishiro pouted, before looking at Maya. "I'm sorry."

Maya grinned. "Apology accepted."

Yukishiro and Maya laughed in unison. Maya was usually sensible, but he loved how she wasn't afraid to joke around and be vulnerable. Yukishiro helped bring out that side of her.

A blue eyed boy was the next to enter the classroom. He had an eyepatch over his eye, ironically decorated to look like an eyeball. "Woah, loud mouth's here before me?"

Quinn glared at the boy, taking a step towards him. "This báll bag's been here all of 5 seconds and I already wanna punch him."

"Who you calling 'ball bag'?", yelled the boy.

"Quinn! Bennett! Enough!", yelled Professor Harrow.

"He's the newest member and he's acting like he's the head of this club", said Quinn, pointing at Bennett.

"Highlighter over there hasn't been here for that long either!", exclaimed Bennett, pointing to Yukishiro.

Yukishiro laughed. "Ha! 'Highlighter'. Man I love our banter."

Azlan gently shook her head at Yukishiro.

Despite Maya's pleading looks, Quinn wouldn't let it go. "Yukishiro's still been here longer than you!"

"Let's not fight about this! He joined us almost a month ago", said Yukishiro.

"Yeah, he comes back lookin' like a pirate and-", started Quinn.

"K375B RESPONDED TO TOUCH!"

The stunned club members just stared at their teacher, trying to process what he said. Years of hard work finally paid off. This wasn't just some half a**ed project, this was one they had to keep a secret from everyone. Well, not everyone.

You see, the current group couldn't have started working on the project, no way. This had been an 18 year old project. But some of their siblings? Their cousins? They had been there for the trial stages, the official production stage, all of it.

The project was the Harrow legacy. It was started by Professor Harrow's Uncle, before moving to his older brother. The last 5 years have been Professor Harrow's work.

"W-We...we did it?", questioned Maya, her voice nothing more than a hopeful yet unsure whisper.

Professor Harrow smiled. "We did it!"

Azlan laughed, raising her hand to high five Silas. "We did it!"

Soon, everyone started high fiving each other. Quinn and Bennett even put aside their quarrel to share some of the love. Yukishiro picked Maya up and spun her around.

Maya blushed a deep red, not used to that much physical contact with males. Yukishiro's eyes widened.
"I'm so sorry!"

Maya shook her head. "Don't be. You were just excited."

"Hey, I'm up for a hug!", exclaimed Azlan, opening her arms up. Yukishiro smiled and happily hugged her.

"So, what now?", asked Bennett.

"I'm going to call up everyone who helped with the project over the years. We're all going to get together after school tomorrow and have a little party", said Professor Harrow.

Maya grinned. "Yaz will be so happy! She loved working on the project", she said. Her Aunt Yaz was one of the reasons she decided to join the club in the first place.

"Can we see it?", asked Bennett.

A hesitant Professor Harrow paused for a brief moment.
"I'm not sure..."

"Come on, Sir! We should get to see it", said Silas.

Yukishiro gave his best puppy dog eyes, somehow roping Quinn in to joining him. The others joined in, with Silas pretty much being forced to do it by Azlan.

Bennet folded his arms. "I'm not doing that."

Quinn glared at him. "You bet your Cyclop's looking a-"

"-Ok! I'll show you, but you and Bennett have to stop fighting for a week!", exclaimed Professor Harrow.

"Only a week?", asked Maya.

Professor Harrow. "Any longer and it'd be like trying to get orange juice from a cow."

"I can't believe it's ready!", exclaimed an astonished Quinn.

Azlan smiled. "I guess we're like Frankenstein."

"Isn't that the monster?", questioned Quinn.

_________________

After Professor Harrow showed how K375B responded to touch, the group wrapped up their session. It was Maya's turn to lock up.

"Remember, press down on the red button to lock K375B in the device, ok?", reminded Professor Harrow.

Maya nodded and turned away as Professor Harrow left.

Maya stared at the human like girl in front of her. "I can't believe you're finished."

"Would you like me to produce a copy of my creation records, Miss Maya?", asked K375B.

Still getting used to the voice, Maya paused before speaking. "No, th-that's ok. And it's just Maya."

K375B nodded.
"Human detected. Human approaching."

Maya's eyes widened. She quickly wheeled the transportation device into the hidden storage room, before rushing back to her desk.

A brunette girl appeared, a sweet smile on her face. Her smile vanished the moment she saw Maya.
"Oh."

Maya frowned, playing with a loose thread on her headscarf.
"Hi Elodie."

"Is Professor Harrow here?", she asked, ignoring the girl's greeting.

Maya shook her head. "I think he's in the staff room. He said something about getting his mug before he goes home."

Elodie nodded, her eyes never meeting with Maya's eyes.
"Oh right. Thanks."

Finding the silence unbearable, Maya spoke again.
"Did you um, did you need anything else?"

Elodie shook her head and grabbed the papers she had placed on the nearby table.
"No."

And with that, she turned around and walked away.

Maya's phone vibrated.

UNCLE: Maya get home! I've made food!

MAYA: Meaning you burnt the rice so ordered pizza?

UNCLE: Whatever man get home

MAYA: Alright I'm on my way.

Maya rushed out of the room, quickly locking the door, her mind still thinking about her encounter with Elodie.

_________

Hi! I'm sorry that this is so long! And there aren't that many interactions because not all connections were done at the point of writing this. But that's ok! The interactions and storytelling will hopefully get better!

It was hard to make jokes about Bennett's eye, but his admin assured me that it's something Bennett himself would do, and it makes sense for that to be something others pick on. He's a pretty private guy otherwise.

I didn't show the group's reaction to the robot's response to touch because the chapter would've been too long. But there will be plenty of interactions with the robot and the group.

What are your thoughts on this chapter?

DoodleYeet

LeMystical-Puffle

hopefulfirebird

agathokakological_05

italllic