CHAPTER THREE | i get a robot as a coworker

RANDOM SONG OF THE CHAPTER:

Not The Only One - Madalen Mills (Jingle Jangle)

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"When life gives you lemons, freeze them and throw them at the people who are making your life difficult."

Edit: I've made myself a green ninja sharpener ☝️

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People don't talk to me unless they wanted something. They want me to set them up with a date, they want a pencil, blah, blah, blah. Even Mina does it. In her case, she always wants me to clean the bathroom. Which was so rude because I'm pretty sure most of those hairballs were from Kat.

Anyways, there I was, sitting in my desk chair criss-cross-applesauce and attempting to appear serious and intimidating. My face contorted into questionable expressions as I attempted to do that stone-cold glare people do. Zane was starting to stare so I quickly stopped.

"Sooooo..." I drew out the word nice and long. For good measure, I made a nice popping noise with my lips at the end. "What has brought you to this creepy corner of the universe?"

Zane thought for a moment, considering his words carefully in a way I never did. Huh. Maybe that's why people don't like me.

"I am starting an experiment and I was hoping you would be my partner in this project," Zane explained carefully.

I snorted loudly. When he didn't yell: "SIKE!" or laugh in my face, I paused. Zane gave me a look of confusion as I pointed a finger at me. "Hold on- you aren't kidding?"

He shook his head. I snorted again. "I'm sorry, but I am one of the worst possible choices. I can't even light a bunsen and burner."

To those who do not know what a bunsen and burner is go back to high school and find the thing that lights up into flames. When you find it, steal it from the naive high school student using it, and then toss it into flesh-eating acid.

"This experiment does not require any of the laboratory tools from a science lab," Zane told me, uncomfortably, his striking blue gaze moved to my messily made bed.

I placed my feet back onto the ground, pushing off and spinning around in my chair. "I'm not that good at math either. I mean, I know ten plus ten equals twelve but the big fancy formulas don't exactly come naturally."

"Ten plus ten isn't-" Zane broke off and let out a slow exhale. After taking the steadying breath of a parent when dealing with an insolent child, he paused. His brow furrowed when he realized something. "I thought you were an engineering student?"

"I am."

There was a small beat of silence before he just dropped the subject and continued with whatever he had been talking about. "I have heard you are good at this..." he hesitated a moment and stumbled a bit over the word. "Matchmaking?"

"I dabble in it." I dabbled in it a lot. Ever since I paired up my cousin with my childhood friend, Betje, I became aware of my own little superpower.

It wasn't anything big or supernatural I was just good at reading people. Different people gave off different auras or 'vibes'. After spending a bit of time with someone usually, I can gauge their personality. Then I was able to see who they could vibe with for the rest of their lives. Whether it be friends or long time relationships, I could just see who could ride off into the sunset with a sign saying "Just Married" and who would be ripping at each other's throats in a matter of seconds.

I was getting some interesting vibes from Mr. Zane over here. A little bit of innocence but maybe an underlying tough guy sense. He would be great at poker. While I was trying to remember if you said "go fish" in poker or not Zane started talking again.

"I am hoping to study android emotions." He continued. "Particularly... in the romantic category."

"Ah." I planted my feet so I stopped spinning. "You wish to give your little WALL-E an Eve."

Again Zane appeared confused but moved on anyways. "Well," he said slowly, grimacing a little bit. "It is much more complicated than that."

"Oh?" Nice. Some tea's gonna be spilled. I'll finally get to see what I missed from all those tween sleepover parties I was never invited to. "What kind of complicated? Previous relationship complicated? I-lied-to-my-mother complicated?"

"The sort of complicated one would have when they hoped to experiment on themselves."

I went to say something but the words suddenly flew out of my head. So I intelligently responded with: "Huh?"

"This information is very personal," Zane said seriously. "I am only revealing it to you with the utmost trust that you can keep a secret for my safety and your own."

Oh my god, is he an alien?!!!!

Very slowly, keeping both hands out so I had a clear view of what he was doing, Zane carefully moved his hand to his chest, as soon as he touched it to the centre his whole body started glitching almost. The pale skin was replaced with shiny silver, his white-blonde hair changed into sleek metal, the already striking blue orbs blinked away and began to glow like lights on a Christmas tree, sending a shiver up my spine when they locked in on me.

Holy freaking chips.
He is an alien.

Or a robot rather. An android. A walking talking piece of metal. That is so stinking cool. I think my brain was moving slowly from the lack of food... and lack of brain cells so instead of screaming like any normal person would I just sort of stared at him.

"That's...an unusual ability," I said slowly, my breathing was starting to quicken and my heart was pounding in my head. Why was it doing that?

Zane gave a half-shrug, watching my reaction with an unreadable gaze. I was starting to sweat so I jumped to my feet and started to pace.

"Um... so you're a robot?"

"...yes."

Oh my first spinjitzu master there's a robot in my room.

"So I have a robot in my room?"

"...yes."

"I have an actual freaking robot, sitting on my bed, going through my comic books- hey stop that!" I snapped at him, my foot kicked at his hand before he could start flicking through the adventures of Fritz Donnegan.

"My apologies." Zane sat back, those glowing eyes following me back and forth across the room.

"So this is what it's all about." I thought out loud, piecing together the puzzle he had dumped onto the table in front of me. "You want to get a date."

Zane almost looked embarrassed, his voice glitched in a flustered tone as he spoke, "I don't want a date!" He said defensively. "I just... I want to believe that android's can find love too."

I felt like smashing my head through the drywall and just staying there for a while. Now I know that Ninjago City is full of crazy stuff. Elemental ninja, monster warlords, and a sea-themed army. But I came from a very small town that was quite far away from Ninjago City. We kept to ourselves and avoided all the dangerous crazy stuff until my father forced me to go to NGCU (thanks dad), so all of this was a slap in the face for me.

I took a deep, steadying breath, then took another for good measure before I finally stopped and got a good look at Zane. He looked humanoid enough. He just had an unnatural sheen no moisturizer or human sweat could make. But he wasn't as....void of life as I imagined robots to be. When I really focused on his glowy eyes I could see there were emotions in there. Self-doubt, fear, anxiety, a slight sliver of hope? All things that filled teenage me as I struggled through high school.

"People are different, Gwen, but even the most different of people deserve a little ounce of kindness." I could hear her voice in my head so loudly that I had to suppress a roll of my eyes. "You are full of something so magical that no one else has. You have been blessed by a gift. It's your responsibility to share that gift with everyone. Help them see life the way you do."

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Carefully going through all my life decisions. A lot of them were questionable. Not in the I-robbed-a-bank-way but a I-robbed-a-child's-mud-pie-bakery-then-felt-bad-and-gave-it-back-kind-of-way. Maybe I could make a difference in this man-er-robot's life. Maybe I could be absolutely no help and he'd just find a new partner. Either way I came out generally unscathed.

And maybe Zane would lose that sad, defeated look in his LED eyeballs.

"You need a partner, you say?" I sigh, at last, turning to him with a small smile.

His eyes widen slightly as I stretch a palm out. Hesitantly, the android stood, carefully slipping his hand into my mind and locking our fingers. His hand was cool but not cold, without the same softness of a human hand but still felt comfortable in my palm.... WHY AM I OVER THINKING A HANDSHAKE?

"So, what's the name of this big project I'm about to belly-flop myself into?" I asked him, trying to keep the nerves dancing in my stomach like tap dancers at bay.

"Project Artificial Love." His voice held an echoed sound to it and he smiled down at me. His tone holding a sense of relief.

The awesome genius inside of me must've already started working because the next thing I said to him was:

"I'm gonna call it PAL."

"Please do not call it PAL."

"I'm so gonna call it PAL."