Skyla's POV

I groan when I feel the morning sun hit my face. I try to roll over, but my body still aches from my parents 'celebration' of discovering that I graduated early. I soon give up on trying to sleep in and slowly push myself out of bed. Tech hands me a change of clothes and my makeup kit. After I finish putting on my makeup to hide the bruises on my face. We leave the room, and head to the cafeteria. I sit down at one of the tables. Tech gets me some food. He sets the tray down in front of me, and I happily start to eat the food. I look up from my plate and see a boy around my age sit down across from me.

"Hi, I'm Jake. Now, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" Jake asks.

"Hello Jake, thank you for the compliment, but I don't want to talk about it," I say, swallowing the malt-o-meal in my mouth.

"So, Jake, why aren't you going to school?" Tech asks, changing the subject.

"I come before school to volunteer, I like doing it," Jake answers.

It's good to know there are some people here that have a good heart, unlike my parents.

"Wait. Did you build that robot?" Jake asks excitedly.

"Yes, I did. His name is Tech,"

"Jake, stop flirting and get back to work," a voice shouts.

Jake turns around, and I see the woman shouting at him.

"Okay, mom," Jake shouts back, getting up with a sigh.

The boy leaves, and I heave a sigh of relief, then go back to eating my breakfast. Two minutes later I'm finished, so I get up to throw my trash away. Tech and I get my stuff and leave the shelter. We get halfway down the street when my left ankle starts to hurt. I sit down on a bench to rest for a bit.

"Tech, where are we going exactly?"

"A city in Nevada called Jasper," Tech replies.

"And why do we have to go there?"

"I'm not sure what happened last night, but I got a vision of an old robot," Tech says, "It told me that we need to go there,"

Why would Tech be having visions? Did this old robot do something to him before I built him? I guess I'll find out in Jasper.

"I have a better question: how, exactly, are we going to get to Jasper? Hitchhiking isn't very safe. At least... Not in this century."

"It looks like we have to make a stop at the library and do a little research," Tech shrugs.

"Sounds good, let's go,"

Tech's POV

Skyla hops down off of the bench. She winces in pain as soon as her left foot hits the ground. It causes her to sit back down again. I wish there were another way I could help her. All of a sudden my head turns on its own when I hear a motorized scooter drives up to us. The driver parks and goes inside the store. Then a blue beam shoots from my eyes and scans it. The specs of it flash on my internal monitors. I feel my body change shape as I hop down onto the street. Skyla turns around and gasps in amazement at what had just happened.

"Tech, how did you do that!? I know that wasn't one of the upgrades I was planning on adding to your systems," Skyla says.

"I'm not sure, but we should get going before that other person comes back,"

"Shouldn't I be wearing a helmet?" Skyla asks nervously.

"We'll deal with safety equipment later, just hop on,"

Skyla's POV

Could Tech be something else altogether?

I hop down off the bench again and limp over to Tech. I still can't believe that he just turned into a Moped, right in front of my eyes! I sit down on the seat and take a firm grasp on the handlebars.

"Okay, Tech, go for it,"

Tech pulls away from the curb slowly, and we drive down the street towards the library. When we pull into the parking lot, I tell him to park behind the dumpster, so we draw less attention to ourselves. I get off and lean up against it and watch him change back into his robot mode.

"How did you know how to do that?"

"Again, I haven't an inkling," Tech says. "Let's head inside so you can rest your foot for a while, alright?"

We head inside, and the librarian walks up to us. "Skyla, what happened to your ankle?"

"I missed a step when I was leaving school yesterday,"

I'm lucky that the dressing on my ankle covers the cut I got from falling through the porch. Another patron walks up and asks the librarian for help, who leaves to help her with a concerned look backward. Tech helps me over to one of the computers, and I sit down in the chair. I log on, click Google Chrome, and start searching for directions to get to Jasper, Nevada. I look down at Tech as he puts one of his fingers into the flash drive slot. I copy the directions to his memory. When it's finished, I safely eject him from the computer and sign off. We leave and go back the dumpster to hide behind it again.

"Do you think you can remember how to change back into a moped?"

"I believe so," Tech nods.

After Tech changes back into a moped, we drive off to a store so I can buy some safety gear.

I'm worried what I might discover when we get to Jasper. Will Tech and I still be a family?