Of Cogs and Teenage Boys

Chapter One

The Robots

Mornings were the worst. Or, at least I thought they were, until the nights came. Then the nights were the worst. It was a bitter loneliness that made me realize that there was no one else out there. I was going to be stuck in this rut of nothingness for the rest of my life. No one else would ever understand me or what I had been put through.

"Good morning, miss." The curtains were swung back and the inside of my eyelids lit up a funny colour. I didn't want to open them and look at that thing. "It is a lovely day outside, miss."

"Well it couldn't be a lovely day inside, could it?" I mumbled in reply, not thinking about what I said before saying it, knowing it heard me either way. Super-sensitive hearing. My eyes fluttered open and I could see its smiling face through my eyelashes and sleep. It was the face that made it so realistic, I believed. If it didn't have one, it would just be another hunk of junk that I could live with. But I haven't been able to live with them since it happened.

"The mistress wishes to know if you are attending school today, miss." I blink a few times at the words. I hadn't been back to school since it had happened. I hadn't wanted to face everyone after the story was published in the newspapers. Of course everyone had heard and of course everyone knew I was involved. I was there, in the crash. I was the one in the car, I was the one who should have died, not Trent.

"Miss?" I tried to move my head to look at the damn thing, but I found my vision clouded with my own tears. It happened every time I thought about it. Three months was all it had been. Three months of nothing but lying in bed and crying every time I tried to remember why I was in bed.

"Tell her yes, I am." Robots don't understand emotions. They don't feel anything like us humans do. That's why Giorgio would never understand why I cried so much. It had been there for me. Every day it had been there for me as my parents couldn't take so much time off work. They had at first, during the first week, but had to return. Unlike me. I had ten whole school days to waste before they would phone and ask about me. My mother tried to bargain with them, saying how in distress I was. They didn't listen, and for the past ten weeks, I had simply been marked absent without a reason every school day. This was stupid, because everyone surely knew where I was. But my attendance took a toll for the worst. It should have bothered me. It would have bothered me under other circumstances. But I didn't care anymore.

The first year is always the hardest, my parents constantly reminded me of that. Not that I thought it was ever going to get easier. But once that first anniversary was out of the way, things would get better. I may even start to move on.

Nine more months.

Giorgio didn't stay in my room for long. I don't know why my mother let it stay at all. I hated the thing. I had never liked it. It used to watch me when I was a little girl. We'd gotten it shortly after my sixth birthday and it had acted as my babysitter at first. Then it was programmed to cook and to clean. It was the ideal thing to have around the house with two full time working adults and a young girl who was only in school for so much every day.

But both my parents knew what had really happened that day. They knew that the hatred I held for robots only grew stronger. Robots were pointless and stupid. But my opinion failed to go far.

That was one reason why I adored our history so much. Did you know there was a time when every home didn't have a standard issue XP 2057 model? Hard to believe, I know. We did have an old XP 2045, so I never knew life without one. But, once almost every home had one, they became standard issue and a newer model brought out again. They are always creating newer models, but none usually makes it to sales. Always bugs, always a fault. I'm sure there's a fault with XP 2057's too...

My father told me not to be so stupid, the XP 2057 were a top class model. I begged to differ. But my mother agreed with him, telling me not to waste so much time wondering what was going on inside a robot's mind. After all, they didn't really have one, and you can't understand what doesn't exist.

By the time I was ready to catch the bus, my parents had long gone. It was just me and Giorgio. It was prepping a meal in the kitchen, I was ready for school. Or at least pretending that I was. I would never be fully ready to go back to my old life. My friends would say they understood how I felt, but they never could. No one understood how I felt. I was the one whose boyfriend died because of her stupid mistake, no one else's.

"Miss." I blinked a few times, stopping the tears before the started. I looked to Giorgio who had a clear container with assorted foods inside held out to me.

"I'll get something at school." I told it, not looking directly in its direction. But I could see it hold the other hand out, showing me a ten dollar bill. I waited for a moment, moving my eyes upwards to its plain face. No emotion at all. Lifeless. Completely lifeless. It was horrible to look directly at it, so I quickly averted my gaze back down to the floor as I snatched the money away and slammed the front door behind me.

My mother was always telling me not to be so rude, to say thank you everyone once in a while and learn to adapt to some manners around the robots. I didn't understand why. Why should I show those tin cans any respect? They had never done anything good for me in life.

I was left with the thought of Giorgio earning my respect as I waited for the school bus to pull up. I leaned against the metal bus stop sign, knowing that no other student was going to show up at my stop. I was always the only one. I didn't want to catch the bus, but I hadn't been able to set foot into a car since the accident, and I didn't plan on starting now. Buses weren't much better, of course, but I had to get to school somehow. Walking was not an option for the 24 mile distance.

"Courtney!" The familiar voice called to be as soon as I stepped on board. I had missed the hugs and gossip that came with my best friend Bridgette. She had texted me a lot of times in the past 3 months, but I hadn't replied to any. My phone had been severely damaged by the water, but it still worked. I was just pretending it didn't.

I took the seat in front of Bridgette and her boyfriend, but she carefully climbed over to sit beside me. I was fully engulfed in a loving embrace before the blonde haired girl started telling me how much I had been missed and asking what I'd been up to. Everyone else on the bus was the same way (minus the overly-affectionate hugging). Everyone skirted around the one topic they were all dying to talk about. It was obvious from the looks I was getting when people thought I wasn't looking. And it was only the ride to school. I could instantly tell that the rest of the day was not going to be easy for me. I hadn't expected it to be in the long run, but I had tried my best to brace myself for everything that was about to be thrown my way.

It had been no use. Nothing could ever have prepared me for returning to school without him by my side. Trent had been my everything for so long. But I couldn't cry. Not here. Not now. School was not the place that I was going to break down. I had been doing it for 12 whole weeks in my bedroom; it could wait until I was back there again.

Bridgette was acting a lot more protectively over me. She didn't leave my side, not even when Geoff had tried to pull her in for a longer kiss after we got off the bus. She had pulled away, stating that she'd 'catch him later' all because she didn't want to leave me on my own. I loved Bridgette. She was my best friend, and had been since the first week of school when we were five. We'd always stuck it out together, side-by-side.

But, even as she carefully led me to first period History, what was usually my favorite subject, it could never have braced me for the feeling I got. We stood by the door for a while, me just staring at my empty seat. I refused to move my eyes to anywhere else in the room because I knew as soon as I left my table and chair, my eyes would move to his table and chair. I couldn't do it. I had to make sure that I didn't think about him too much.

It took us a while, but Bridgette managed to get me to my seat just as the bell rang and class began. She took the seat in front of me and I knew I was in for a bumpy day.

"Courtney, how lovely to see you're back." My History teacher, Mr. Brooks, spoke in a very calming manner. It was much different from his usual up beat nature. He was part of the reason I loved History class. He was definitely my favorite teacher.

"Thanks." I muttered, letting him get on with teaching. I couldn't exactly say 'Nice to be back' like I should have, because it wasn't. I didn't want to go back. If I didn't have basic human needs like eating and bathroom breaks, I would have easily stayed in my bedroom for the rest of my life. I would hide underneath my blanket and never show my face to the world again. There was nothing I would rather do. I couldn't find a reason to keep living.

"Umm...Excuse me?" I instinctively turned my head to the right side, all my thoughts of Trent playing trick as I half expected him to be sat there talking to me. It wasn't. But I wasn't met with disappointment like I should have been. "Were you even paying attention?" He had blue eyes. Bright blue eyes that grabbed my attention and didn't want me to let go. "Great, my first real partnered assignment and I'm given an idiot."

"Excuse me?" I snapped out at that comment.

"Listen, darling, I can see that this is only your first day back, but you may wanna start paying attention so our History project isn't a complete fail." Screw his blue eyes, I wanted to lash out and slap his well chiseled face-His what?

"I'll have you know that I am-Was an A grade student. I've studied this textbook and know it like the back of my hand, you jerk. I know what I'm doing, so you better buck and up and find out what you're doing." Of course I hadn't been paying attention, I was too busy worrying and trying not to cry. But from what this ass had told me, I guessed we were now project partners. I turned my head to Bridgette, but she was happily chatting away to her own partner. So, I moved my attention back to the boy in front of me, the one who had taken Trent's space in class. He had a smirk on his lips and a shine in his eyes, staring at me like a dog stared at meat. History was starting to fall down the favorite subject list.

A/N: A NEW STORY?!

I know, I'm on a roll xD hahaha!

This idea came to me after watching I, Robot a couple of months back now! And it basically the sae idea if Detective Spooner was a teenage girl and it was romance instead of a murder mystery xD hahaha! Not QUITE the same thing, then...

I wrote this a while back and posted it on dA...I wasn't gonna post it here until I'd written a couple of chapters, but I realized that I need to post things on FF for me to have the inspiration to write more chapters for it.

So, please, review and give me the inspiration!

I love you guys, I hope ya'll enjoy this story a much as I enjoy writing it :D

Thanks for reading, please review (:

Love, DysfunctionalFamilyMember (Chloe for short)