Chapter 6

Monday brought changes as girls and even some guys started saying hi to me in the hallways before classes. I recognized some of the guys from the tryouts on Friday but didn’t know why girls knew my name and were saying hi.

“It appears that word of your hockey skills spread from not only the guys on the team but by the girls team watching prior to their practice,” Base informed me. “There were a few pictures and videos taken by the girls and they’ve been passed around, not only around the school, but throughout the town and beyond. One taken of your time trial is now going viral as it was better than a lot of NHL players on a harder course than the all-star layout.”

“Well, we wanted my name out there, but not necessarily for hockey,” I sub-vocalized with a mental shrug. “At least some cute girls are now willing to talk to me, though I’d rather it be for my brain then my hockey skills.”

“The point is that they are talking to you,” Base stated. “Enjoy it and see where it leads.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

At lunch, I noticed that the brunette from my first day was sitting with Riley from the robotics club at a table in the cafeteria. I sat down at another empty one that had a good view of the pair. Looking between them, even though Riley was in her usual loose clothing and had her hair hiding a lot of her face, I realized that they were related, cousins or maybe even sisters. I kept my staring down to a minimum and just watched as they got up and put their trays away before leaving the room. Riley was as tall as the older brunette and was probably in as good shape as well. I would have to explore things further with her, especially as we were on the same robotic team. She was in my math and computer science classes on Tuesday’s and Thursdays as well as my English and History on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. She didn’t sit close to me in any of the classrooms so it would take some ingenuity to get her to talk in tomorrow’s classes as English and History were already done for the day. I’d have to wait until Thursday for robotics club if an opportunity didn’t happen during normal school hours.

I fried up some fish, rice and vegetables for supper when I got home and then worked on my ideas for robotics club with Base. One of them was an eagle, full size, with working claws, beak and wings. It was to be as lifelike as possible and would fly inside the gym or outside. The second one was a full-size disaster robot for emergencies, including evacuation and medical assistance. It had a stretcher, four robotic arms, a body-lift, and both wheels and treads to move over rough ground. Our third concept was a pair of dancing robots, one-eighth scale, that we would program an AI controller to dance as many of the dances from around the world. That would include native dances as well as the various ballroom and modern versions that we could get done. As a bonus, we thought that they could learn new dances just by being shown it once or twice on a video or live in front of them. Our final concept was to be a pair of hands that would do anything a human’s could do, while mounted on a stationary set of arms mounted to a base. Tricky things like snapping fingers, making pointy guns, various finger and hand waves along with the usual clapping, making jazz hands and even starting giving the audience double fingers before changing it to the peace sign. The final thing they would do would be to mimic someone’s actions in front of them, using a camera on the base. Dinner was ready as the rents came in the door, so I put my laptop to the side and set the table while they changed.