All was quiet in the house except for the radio, and even so it seemed to be whispering her a song instead of singing it. XJ9 was carefully tuning into the little bit of it she could hear as she boredly swung her legs back and forth. She was currently sitting in a chair in the lab and waiting on her mom to finish reading the test. Sadly, it didn't seem like she would be shooting anything today. She grumbled to herself and kicked her legs out a little harder.

"XJ9, today we'll be working on your scanners again."

Wakeman set down a paper with a picture of a city, and XJ9 immediately knew that it was like the test from before. Sure, enough, she was right. Wakeman held up cards again, and it was her job to locate them on the picture as fast as possible. Granted, she would admit the searching test was a little fun, but it did little to lighten her mood. When the test was over, and her mom wrote things down, she tried her best to cheer up. She was sure these other tests were important and all, but she still really wished she could've had another shooting test today. Her legs swung slower and slower until they stopped, and without even realizing it, her pigtails began to droop.

"Are you alright?"

She hadn't realized that she had been staring at her feet for a few minutes now or that the sound of her mom's pencil on the paper had stopped. The radio echoed quietly in the room. She looked up from the ground at her mom and opened her mouth but only managed to spit out a strangled cry like sound. She quickly slapped her hand over her mouth, and her cheeks flushed blue. As the new feeling of embarrassment washed over her, she quickly looked away from her mom's eyes.

"Oh, don't be upset about not being able to talk, yet these things take time, and I'm sure soon, with enough practice, you'll be speaking in no time."

She smiled a little at that, but it didn't reach her eyes, and it fell after the moment. Wakeman looked concerned at that, but quickly smiled again and set her things down to grab something,

"Don't worry, I have just the thing to cheer you up."

XJ9 raised her eyebrow at that and watched her mom get something. Unless she was about to do some practice shooting or suddenly talk, she didn't think anything could brighten her mood.

"How about a treat?"

Nevermind, she was wrong. There was something that could cheer her up. She quickly and harshly shook her head, yes.

"Easy now, you'll shake your head off."

She stopped nodding but practically buzzed in her seat. Oh, boy, it had been too long since she had a treat. She couldn't wait. Oh...boy. Her excitement plummeted as her mom handed her the strange can thing with the nozzle on it from before. Scratch that, her mom was wrong; nothing could cheer her up now. Wakeman noticed the deadpanned expression on the robot's face and gave her a look as well.

"Come now, XJ9. It's literally the same treat you've enjoyed before. The only difference is that it's not in a bottle."

The robot just crossed her arms and turned away from her mom in a huff. The dumb can had only made her feel worse.

"If you would just try it, you would see it was the same. Here, I'll even open it for you."

Wakeman cracked the can open, and the little pop sound made XJ9's eyes snap to it. She liked the tiny little snap but attempted to hide it. She wasn't going to like this treat intruder no, not one bit.

"Try it. I swear you'll love it."

Her arms were still crossed, and she still didn't like it, but she did turn back towards her mom. The woman's pleading and hopefully smile were enough to do it. She wasn't happy, no, not one bit, but she decided to go ahead and get it over with. Maybe once her mom saw that she didn't like it, she would go back to getting the nice bottles. She slowly took the can from her mom's hands, and grumpily looked over it.

What exactly was she supposed to do with it? She starred at it, back towards her mom, then towards the drink, and repeated this multiple times before her mom snapped her out of it. Wakeman put her hand on XJ9's hand that was holding the can and gently guided her hand up to her face. She glared at the nozzle but put her mouth on it, guessing that is what she was supposed to do. Then her mom titled the can in her hand a little, and the oil flowed into her mouth. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at the surprise. It was the stuff from the bottle….IT WAS THE SAME GOOD STUFF FROM THE BOTTLE!

In her rush to drink more, she tilted it back, and her mom was powerless to stop her. All of the oil poured into her mouth and gushed out of her metal cheeks. It ran out of her like a dark waterfall and covered her all over. Even with it all covering her, XJ9 made sure to swallow her mouthful of oil before shrieking in surprise.

Author's Note- Thanks for reading! The story will now be updating on Sundays or Mondays. Because work schedules are crazy sometimes. Anyway, please leave a review they really help and encourage me to keep writing.