A little scrap of a story

petey · Post by **petey** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:38 pm

Hi folks.
Once again, thanks for the kind comments on my last story. I actually wrote this a while ago and never got past outlining where the first half of the story goes from here. But since I've got spare time, I did some more background work, and I'm considering writing more. I'm just not sure if the idea is really worth it, so I'm going to see if anyone here is tickled by what's written so far.

Cindy stared across the lunch courtyard. She was sitting with some of the most popular girls in school, and there was plenty of teenage chatter, but Cindy couldn’t stop looking at the table of the really popular kids.

The girls she was with were strictly second-tier in the social hierarchy. Before, she wouldn’t have spoken more than a dozen words to them, let alone eat lunch with them every day. A year ago she would have been sitting with the pod of girls now in a silent circle. Exchanging makeup tips with Frannie. Discussing boys with Stephanie. Or just killing time with Trish, her best friend since the second grade.

Hannah punched her in the arm, “Hey, stop gazing at those overgrown Barbie dolls and give us your opinion.”

Cindy blinked and turned back to those at her own table, “sorry, was trying to process Graham’s lecture.”

Sarah gave her a sideways glance, “sure you were.”

Cindy did her best not to give Sarah a really dirty look. It always went unspoken that Cindy would rather not be in the group. She didn’t want to insult the others and the others didn’t want to be insulted. That, and Sarah had religious objections to the girls Cindy preferred.

“Anyway,” Hannah continued, “What do you want to see, the remake of ‘Titanic’ or ‘The Notebook IV’? Right now it’s two to two.” She pointed at Xiu and Teresa to indicate their preference was different that hers and Sarah’s.

“I don’t care. I’d almost rather see the Gargoyles movie.” It was a small slip-up, revealing her love of old cartoons. Then again, it’s not like these rejects would begrudge her a trace of geekiness. “In fact, I think I’m just going to stay in, rest up for the weekend. You have fun.” There were mumbles of sympathy, but no strong protest. Cindy got up and they all said their goodbyes. It wasn’t time for them to return to class, but Cindy had her lunchtime ritual to do. The thing that helped her make it through the day.

The bathroom was nearly empty. Cindy went to her normal stall and sat on the seat. Then she reached into her purse and pulled out the slightly faded magazine. She looked at the model’s smiling, perfect face on the cover and sighed. She thumbed through the pages, looking at all the perfect breasts, legs, eyes, and tummies. Finally she turned back to the cover.

FORD ROBOT COMPANY: FALL CONVERSION-MODEL ANDROID CATALOG

Cindy indulged in the fantasy of being an android like all her old friends. Perfect skin and hair with virtually no effort. A killer body. No anxiety. No pain. She imagined her navel opening up to reveal an access point. She envisioned the hand that gripped the catalog easily separating from her arm. Being human sat like a bad sandwich in the pit of her stomach.

Fucking ‘rents, refusing to sign the fucking release form. And fuck the government for not letting 18-year-olds make their own choices about conversion. Legally I’m an adult. I can buy cigs and cannabis. I can join the Army. Which wise-ass made the age limit the same as it is for liquor?

But these were things she had gone over in her head, and in conversation, over and over again. She couldn’t even raise enough anger to punch the side of the toilet stall. At least this time she didn’t tear up during the little pity party. Longing over the images in the catalog was pathetic and Cindy knew it, which is why she didn’t do it at the table. That, and it would have resulted in Sarah giving everyone a lecture on the human soul.

The lunch bell rang, which meant it was time for Cindy to get back to her Math class. It was her least favorite, which meant, of course, that it was the one that lasted the longest (The period with lunch was extra long to prevent a cafeteria pile-up, even once you took out the 30 minutes of eating. Or recharging, as the case may be.) She had never been good at math, but trying to compete with a dozen walking calculators was impossible. Why the powers that be required machines to take classes in algebra was beyond Cindy’s comprehension.

She walked into the classroom and frowned at the androids aligned alongside either wall. The teacher had done it in case any of them needed a charge. Cindy had never actually seen one of them plug into the wall, but whatever. The teacher thought she was being thoughtful. The androids all had external batteries in their bags in case of emergencies, anyway.

Cindy took her seat, but noticed Trish smiling at her. Trish rarely smiled at school, before or after her conversion. She sat there staring at the smiling android with a look of puzzlement. Trish made no further moves to communicate, and the beginning of the teacher’s lecture broke her concentration.

Cindy split the class between a few activities. She took some sparse notes on cylindrical coordinates. She wrote out a shopping list for her trip to the art supply store. But mostly she tried to figure out just what in the hell Trish was smiling about. It was hard to read her face. Maybe she and the other bots had something embarrassing planned for Cindy. Maybe it was a good surprise. Cindy considered that maybe Trish wasn’t looking or smiling at anything, just going through a pleasant sub routine before class. The rumor was that the androids loaded up sex programs and delinked the physical manifestation. Especially in a class like this, the androids might be just blissing out without letting anyone know.

Teknophile · Post by **Teknophile** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:57 pm

I like it. It's a different take on the whole conversion idea - what if a person wants to be converted to a technological body, but has the opportunity denied them?

If you feel the urge to keep going with this, Petey, go for it!

Sthurmovik · Post by **Sthurmovik** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:50 pm

Go for it Petey. I saw your bet, not time for you to raise.

Stephaniebot · Post by **Stephaniebot** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:51 pm

Yes, I'd be interested to see where this goes as well

Adon · Post by **Adon** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:57 pm

Interesting. And I am curious as to why her old circle of friends don't hang out with her any more. Is it her avoiding them, them avoiding her, or both? It's a little early to say from the snippet, obviously.

If your previous story is anything to go by, I'll definitely be watching this one!

DollSpace · Post by **DollSpace** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:36 am

I'd like to see you explore this, too! I wonder if the reason her parents won't let her convert herself is because she's already converted, or was built from scratch, going for an exact human copy with more humanity, or something like that? That her parents see the perfection and unoriginality as monotonous or even the beginning of the death of original thought, and therefore the human race... So many things to explore with this!

crimsondragon1982 · Post by **crimsondragon1982** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:10 pm

So when are the next parts coming?

csoloist · Post by **csoloist** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:54 pm

What crimson said.

petey · Post by **petey** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 3:41 pm

It's going to be a while. I've been doing job interviews and haven't been in the right frame of mind. Plus, I don't want to start posting things until I figure out what's happening in act three.