Kid-Droids: Lulu 2

“God...damn, can’t turn anywhere without almost spinning out.” muttered a man under his breath.  Trying to drive through the streets that were all laid with heavy pools of water

This man was Hank, the driver with a bad haircut and clearly hadn’t had anytime to shave this morning.

It was a struggle to drive through the rain, and flooded roads the night before. It kept up non-stop, and it did more than a number on his mental state, and his vehicle.  But he reminded himself that as long as it was for her, it was all worth it.

The little dark hair bundle of joy playing with her toy in the back. Lulu.

After navigating through the 8th Ocean of the world that set up residence in his town, the man parked his car right in front of the school building. It was a small one, rather humble place.  Backed up by the community, and funded by it as well, it was a small education center that was well maintained both inside and out.  A handful of parked car’s sat outside the building, many of them old, or from a handful of years ago.  Nothing too fancy on display here, except for one thing. One vehicle that did catch his eye was a brand new model by ToTo Motors, that car could take a beating.

The driver wished he could say the same, the car he drove had definitely seen better days.  More or less it needed something fixed or changed every few months, sometimes something minor, sometimes something major.  He was going to get something new and permanent some time ago.  But then Lulu was plopped into his life, so those plans had to go on hold for now.  Anything she needed or required came first.

And whatever that may be ate up almost all of his disposable income.

“Okay kiddo...You ready for school?”  The man shifted the gear into park, and turned behind him.

Lulu was already facing her Caretaker head on.  And silently shook her head in response.  She could already see her final destination through the window and shuddered in silent terror from what it meant.

The girl had a Purple Sweater that was somewhat beaten up, and a polka dot skirt that had a few signs of embroidery upon it.  And her hair itself was somewhat messy, but that was how Lulu preferred it.  The Caretaker knew why, she did have a rather large hole where her eye should be...It was a sad thing.  Her hair hid loose circuitry exposed connectors.

He could still remember the night he brought her home.  The poor thing still had the broken optical hanging off her. Like a thick, long loose piece of skin hanging from the body, that needed to be torn off.

But that was the past.  He’d rather not get himself riled up with sadness and anger right now.  Besides, he had a surprise for soon.  Coming up near the day he brought her home coincidentally!  So, it should be a nice surprise for her.
“You want me to walk you in?”

Lulu nodded, tucking her face into her sweater, and holding her stuffed animal close.  A small white rabbit she dubbed “Mr. Popo.”

“Okay. Come on.” He unbuckled his seatbelt, exiting his car to lift the little one out from her seat.  He lifted her up and placed her gently on the ground before extending one hand to her.  The tiny gentle fingers wrapped around his rather dry hand, as she kept the stuffed Rabbit close.  And the two walked in.  He went slow, matching the pace Lulu wanted to set.

Which just so happened to be about as slow as a snail.

He said nothing as it took a very long 3 minutes to get into the front door.


Hank waved to the security camera, the person at the front counter recognized them, and he opened the door in front of them.  Pull open doors that showed the inside of the school.  And in front of him he could see cute little lockers set up along the hallway.  Wooden frames for kids to put their items.  All nice stuff
The building taught kids from Preschool all the way up to the end of Elementary.  The town had  a decent number of schools, so putting them all in one building wasn’t a problem.  Well, not at the moment, alot of business was being attracted to the town, ever since Sterling decided it needed another Headquarters in this part of the country. And with that, comes business and people.  People...Man, Hank hated alot of people.

But looking on the bright side maybe some of them would be good people, and maybe they’d even come in bringing some kids. Some more chances for Lulu to make some friends

“You wana lead me to your class or do you just wana-”

The Robot girl already started tugging on his sleeve and pulled him in the direction of her classroom.

“Okay-Okay!” He laughed.  Smiling at her cute little quirks.

Lulu really did seem to be in a world of her own sometimes.  Refusing to talk a lot and letting her actions do the speaking for her.

She led him to her class, the door marked with the words “Mrs. Betsziwer” on the glass, and a bunch of the pictures drawn by the kids in her class adored on the door.  Lulu’s drawing faced her directly at the door, as it was as high as she could reach when she was putting it on with just tape.

“You gonna-”
The door swung open, Hank grabbing Lulu and pulling her into the air, and twisting his body to shield her from any kind of collision

Lulu shook in her Caretakers hands.  Like a purple beached crab in his arms, trying to break free in her panic.

They were both greeted by Lulu’s 3rd grade teacher.  She was a short woman, with her hair done up with a bun.  Giving off a very friendly and welcoming aura to the two.

“OH! My GoD! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to almost hit you” The woman chuckled over her words.  Covering her mouth out of embarrassment.

Hank sighed and cracked a smile and placed Little Lulu down, allowing her shaking limbs to finally touch the ground.

“Oh hello Lulu! I was worried you wouldn’t make it today!”

“Yeah.” replied the man. “I’m sorry it took so long, the roads were flooded, I could barley drive.”

“I know! I had to leave my house a whole hour early!”

“We did too.”
“Ah! But what took you so long?  We started about an hour ago!”

Rustling Lulu’s hair. Her cheeks glowed red. Knowing exactly why they were late.  That late Movie Night she decided to pull cost her pressure hours of sleep/recharge time.  And her Caretaker was too tired when he came home to really try and hammer down any rules about curfew or bedtime.

She didn’t mean to make the two of them late. ‘It’ just happened’ she thought to herself.

“Oh. Well. Whatever the reason, it’s good to see you today Lulu.” Ms. Betwsizer leaned down to say to the child.

“Y-you too.” Replied Lulu.  Giving the lady a grin.

“Why don’t you head on inside and find your desk. You’ll have all the papers you should need, and the instructions are written on them, you shouldn’t have too hard of a time catching up.”

She nodded and slowly crept her way into the class, with her little rabbit by her side.  She could care less if people thought she was getting too old for him.

“Oh. Do you have a minute to talk? Or are you late for work and need to hurry?”

“No. I have time.”

“Okay great.  It’s about the new stu-”  Lulu lost track of the conversation her Father and teacher were having and she walked out of range.

The classroom was filled with alot of kids, Lulu thought to herself. More than there usually is.  Some had their noses down to their pencils and focused diligently on their work.  Other’s ignored it and were talking up a storm about some sports or TV shows or whatever Lulu thought kids her age liked.

Her desk was still vacant, all the work piled up on it, as she crept towards it.  Setting her stuff down she plopped herself onto her desk and cycled through the sheets.

2 sheets of math. Multiplication.

“That’s not too bad” she thought to herself.  She didn’t love math.  But she liked anything that just had simple instructions and didn’t require her to get too complicated.  Maybe some other kids thought math was hard, but that wasn’t the case for Lulu.

No it wasn’t because she was a robot. She was just really good at math.

7 x 5
6 x 5
6 x 1
5 x 3
5 x 5

Time flew as the little Nandroid wrote down the answers.  Diligent in her work. Only looking up when she had finished it

She eyed up at the signs that decorated the room.  Though she had seen them a thousand times, she couldn’t help but focus on them whenever she could

The months were displayed on the side of the room, all with bright colors and cute little images to go along with them. She got lost in them.  Imaging herself in a bright grassy field in May. The hills would roll on and on, into the horizon, as she could dance away the whole day. Rolling down the hill without fear.

Or maybe even in August.  She could hide in the piles of red leaves and pretend she was one of them.  She could float down from the big oak trees in the forest and join her leafy brethren in harmony.

Pure bliss...Or in Oct-
No never mind. Not October. That's the scary month. Never mind. She thought to herself.



She settled into her desk and looked at the white board.  Well she tried too.  Lulu, working with her one optic, tried to see past a girl’s thick set of blond hair and see what Mrs. Betswizer dotted down.  She didn’t want to get out of her chair either. She couldn't, the rules were clear “Once you sit down, you stay in your chair until the bell, or I say you can get up!”  Even though alot of kids didn’t follow this rule, she wasn't gonna be like them! She thought to herself. She was gonna uphold the code of law laid down by their teacher!

As the Nandroid pondered what was on her left.  She was greeted by a face staring right at her. Getting in too close.

She recoiled and scooted herself away from the boy who had his eyes dead set on her.  Afraid now at what he could possibly want...come to think of it.  Lulu realised that she had never seen this person before.  Now her anxiety grew, wondering what this stranger could possibly want.

He had a bandage on his nose, and a pair of thick glasses on him.  His hair was messy, clearly in need of a better haircut and he looked like he dressed himself this morning.

“Hi!”  He greeted Lulu.

“...”

“Did you finish early too!?”

“...”

“Well I did! I was wondering if you wanted to check each other's work!  You know since you finished so fast like me!”

“..N-no. I’ don’t want to.” She muttered under her breath.  She didn’t like how close this boy was getting to her, especially how close he seemed to be getting to her face.

A thousand worst case scenarios ran through her mind, like what if he decided to take the paper from her? What if he moved her hair and showed the whole class her deepest secret, that she was missing a eye? Or worse...what if he just never stopped trying to talk to her all day?

“IM NOT BUILT FOR THIS!” she screamed internally

“...I-I...I don’t know you...s-sorry I don’t really wanna talk right now.”  Lulu mustered what little confidence and assertiveness she could to the strange boy.  Hoping it would send a message to him
“Ah! That’s okay! I understood”

“Oh thank fucking God”  she thought to herself. She got a gut feeling she shouldn’t say or even think that, but she heard her Dad say it once so, it must’ve been okay.

“B-but you wana share notes later?” asked the boy? Worried that he might not get another chance to talk to his new...buddy? He wouldn’t say they were friends yet...so maybe not even that...his new deskmate. Yeah, his new Deskmate!

“....yeah sure.” she said really fast.  Already regretting the words she chose, not even thinking them through.

“Awesome!” Satisfied, the boy sat down in his desk. Before immediately going right back up to Lulu and extending his hand

“Oh yeah! I forgot, my Dad told me it’s always nice to introduce yourself to new people!”

“My name is Nathan!”

Lulu eyeballed up and down his one hand.  And very cautiously slapped it. Like a Hi-Five.  And then turned her back to him.

Nathan was confused by this. But was fine with the result nonetheless. She didn’t slap it away, so it wasn’t that bad.

Like that, the teacher returned to the room, After being gone for about 5 minutes to do whatever it was that she did.

“Sigh...Alright! That’ should’ve been more than enough time! Let me see what you got done!”