"Hold still." Professor O'Shay instructed as he helped the android put on a rather large backpack.

A few days ago, after Astro had brought Skunk into custody and his nature of a robot was revealed to many different witnesses at the police station. After a rather heated discussion on how robots like Astro weren't allowed in Metro City, and just because O'Shay was in a position of power he was not above the law, Chief Inspector Tawashi and Professor O'Shay came to an impasse. The solution they had to the problem was still a problem, but it could delay it a bit; for now, Astro was to pretend to be a human child.

The first thing to do to pass the android off as human; school.

"We're going to be late." Astro told the professor anxiously as the old man went through his backpack to make sure he needed everything to get through his first day of school.

"No we won't." O'Shay assured as they started to head toward his car. They got in, got buckled, and were soon on their way.

"Remember Astro," Professor O'Shay reminded the android as he drove, "No flying, no weapons, just… simple."

"If you have that much distrust in me, why didn't you just disable them?" Astro wondered.

"As far as Tawashi is concerned, they are." O'Shay told him, almost in a smug tone. "Just don't…"

"Ruin it?" Astro finished, raising a curious eyebrow. Professor O'Shay nodded.

"We were lucky that Tawashi gave us this chance- rumors about what happened at the police station are going to rise eventually, but as long as you keep low, no one would know that it was you."

"But what if someone's in danger?" Astro inquired, the thought of something horrible happening nagging at the back of his mind. Professor O'Shay gave a heavy sigh that informed Astro of what his thoughts were on the subject. The little android sunk low in his seat in a shame he couldn't name as they went along with the rest of the car ride in silence.

When Professor O'Shay pulled the car by a curb at the front of the school, the only acknowledgment the android and the professor gave each other was a short nod before Astro left the car. Keeping his head down, Astro made his way into the school and to his locker.

Meanwhile, Uran drudged her way through the halls after coming from her locker. As she walked along, she went past three boys she knew well but did not acknowledge them.

"Yo Uran!" one of them called out. Now feeling obligated, Uran turned around and gave the boys a smile.

"Hey Abercrombie, Kennedy, Tamao." She greeted dimly, saying their names as if she were remembering who they were. The boys picked up on this, and had a sense of knowing why she was acting that way.

"You still feeling kind of down?" Kennedy asked. Uran looked up at her classmate to give him an unreadable face and a small shrug.

"I'm alive." she said. "Isn't that enough?"

The three boys gave her a wary look. The girl quickly picked up on this and shrugged it off.

"Look, you guys are sweet for caring and all, but I can't just stay cooped up in my house all day with Jump and say that I'm getting better."

"But Uran…" Tamao pipped up, "Ignoring us when we're trying to help isn't going to make you feel any better either."

Uran's face lost all emotion as it simply glared at the boys. Without another warning, the girl turned around and started to walk to class.

"Uran, wait!" the boys called out, but she ignored them- almost running into a new student in the process. The new kid jumped as Uran brushed past him as if he had realized something, he even turned around to look at her and almost call out her name before Abercrombie recognized him.

"Hey, aren't you that kid that we met at the fall fair a few weeks back?" Abercrombie asked the kid, who then turned around to face the boys. For a moment, the kid had to recollect his memories, but when he did recognize them, his face grew into a wide smile.

"Yeah, I am." He agreed. "Did your sister like the present?"

"Yeah." Abercrombie agreed. "She spent all night with it like it was the greatest thing in the world. Thanks."

"No problem." The kid told him, his smile growing even wider.

"We didn't catch you name though." Kennedy added. "I'm Kennedy. The big guy's Abercrombie, and the shorty's Tamao."

"I'm Astro." The kid told them without a second thought.

"Astro? That's a pretty odd name…" Tamao said. Immediately, the kid's face flushed red with embarrassment as he nervously scratched the back of his head.

"I-it is? I… I never noticed before, heh…."

"No biggie." Tamao then claimed, much to the kid's surprise. Before the kid could say anything else, the warning bell sounded, alerting the kids to get to their classrooms.

"Hey, where's your first class?" Kennedy asked, getting closer to Astro so he could read his schedule. After reading it once over, Kennedy turned to Astro with a proud smile. "You need to follow me Astro."

"Why?" Astro inquired, unsure of whether he actually wanted to know the answer or not.

"Because we're in the same first period class together, that's why!"

Without any other warning, Kennedy took hold of Astro's arm and started to run to their class.

. . .

Kennedy and Astro arrived in class a few moments before the teacher came in, and were able to find seats that sat next to each other. As Kennedy helped Astro turn on the tablet they needed that contained their textbook, Astro had something else on his mind while he observed Kennedy.

"Hey, Kennedy…" Astro started to say as Kennedy finished booting the tablet for him.

"Yep?"

"That girl that ran into me- isn't her name Sarann?"

Kennedy's face twisted into an odd expression before he realized who Astro was talking about. "Oh! You mean Uran?" Kennedy asked. "No one around here calls her Sarann, at least, not to her face."

"Why come?"

Kennedy sat back down at his desk before giving Astro a look of curiosity.

"Have you lived under a rock for the past ten years?" Kennedy inquired. "Everyone knows why Uran wants to be called Uran."

Astro let out a nervous chuckle before it dawned on Kennedy that he wasn't aware of Uran's preference.

"You must be out of town or something." Kennedy then said, giving Astro the cue that it wasn't such a big deal. "You see, Uran's mom was… odd for a while. Kept going from guy to guy, you see. There was one guy whose family once helped with the discovery of uranium, and Uran loved this dude more than her mother really did, so the guy set out to adopt her."

"What happened?" Astro asked, his eyes growing wide with fascination.

"From what I understood, the adoption went through, and she lived happily with him while her mom just ignored her." Kennedy then explained. "But… the guy was kind of old any way and he had some heart problems. He… he, uh… died a year or so later. Uran uses his last name to remember him by. Say what you want about her, but she's seen some stuff. Stuff most of us haven't dreamed or thought about before. It's… it's kind of horrible… for her…"

"Oh…" Astro mumbled, shrinking a little from the thought of what Uran had to have seen when she came home and saw her adoptive father had died.

"But she's still a pretty sweet girl!" Kennedy quickly said to cheer Astro up. "The guys and I joke and say that she's like the weather; you can try to predict her, but you can't quite get a hold on her either. Some kids say that she can talk to animals too, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. Don't know anyone else that can do that! Although most kids just say that to be mean, but Abercrombie, Tamao, and I think it would be pretty cool to do that."

Astro looked at Kennedy. "Do you guys protect her or something?" the android asked, genuinely curious. The question made Kennedy blush a light shade of red.

"We all have an admiration." The boy admitted sheepishly. "Everyone does, I think, really. She's just like… a little sister or something. You know?"

Although he didn't quite understand it, Astro gave a nod.

"Do you… do you know if she has any robotic implants?" Astro then asked. Kennedy gave Astro a bewildered look.

"What…?" he asked, sounding as confused as he looked. Astro sheepishly grinned as he scratched the back of his head.

"N-nothing." Astro stuttered. "It was a dumb question. Sorry…"

Before Kennedy could press on what Astro had meant, the teacher arrived to finally start the class.