Mechanical (11 page)

“I mean, there are tons of guys here who are
perfect,” she stated. “You’re not bad looking or anything, so you
don’t have to dig around down on the human level for a guy.
Although some androids might want to,” she added disdainfully,
making a face.

I didn’t laugh, suddenly realizing something
I should have figured out a long time ago. “We’re not perfect
Yvonne,” I said in monotone. When she looked up, I glared at her.
“No matter how perfect you think we are, we’re not.”

She straightened up, getting ready to
protest, but I beat her to it.

“We’re no better than those
humans
you
think so lowly of.”

Yvonne started to look irritated.

“They tried to make us perfect, but they
can’t.” My voice rose slightly. “Not without the most important
piece.”

Yvonne sighed with condescension. “Not this
soul thing again, Drew,
please
,” she said snottily. She
looked away, exasperation lining her features.

“What? It’s what makes someone different and
not a robot! We’re not really alive. We’re just a bunch of
mechanical parts jumbled together to resemble the humans. We’re
just a copy of them. A copy that looks nice on the outside, but
that’s empty on the inside.”

Yvonne stared pointedly at me, her dark-eyed
gaze dangerously pinning me to my spot. “You always need a rough
draft first before you can perfect something,” she argued, seeming
to think it was a good comeback.

I shook my head. “I think the creator of the
humans did a good enough job in the first place. We weren’t
needed.” My comment stung me just as much as I knew it had insulted
Yvonne.

“You know what?” Yvonne stood up, her
expression shooting daggers at me. “I don’t need to hear you mope
about how badly you want a stupid soul. It’s not worth it,” she
snapped, her dark eyes flashing furiously.

“But don’t you see?” I replied. “It’s not
fair to us. They made us, but we’re not...” I trailed off, suddenly
not wanting to fight anymore. It was no use. No matter how badly I
wanted it or how upset I was, there was no way I was ever going to
get a soul. I stopped talking and stared out the window.

“Whatever,” Yvonne snapped and walked towards
the door. But before she left the room, she turned back to me. “I
just hope someday you realize how much better than them you really
are.”

And with that, she abruptly left me
alone.

Chapter Twenty

The lights in Glen’s study were dim and
papers lay strewn about his desk, something unusual for a man of
such orderliness. I sat across from him as he ruffled through a
pile of documents. “Okay, Drew. You’re getting farther in your
mission now,” he said to me. “We’re going to request that you, like
we’ve asked a few others already on this mission, to start bringing
people in.”

“Bringing people in?” I asked numbly, not
believing my ears. Was he finally asking me to get on with the real
mission? He finally trusted me? I was going to be able to be as
good an android as Yvonne and Jeremy. I expected some sort of
excitement, some form of elation at the fact that Glen had just
bestowed upon me his confidence and support, but surprisingly, no
elation came over me.

He nodded and handed me some information.
“Her name is Cecelia Fleming.”

I looked at the picture. I didn't know
Cecelia very well, but she was in a few of my classes at school.
“Why are we bringing people in?” I asked. When Glen had ordered me
to bring Marian back, the order had made sense. I was bringing her
back because she was malfunctioning and the creators needed to fix
her – and they did. But what did they want the humans for?

Glen smiled, although it didn’t reach his
eyes. “That’s not for you to ask. You’re job is simply to bring her
here.”

“How?” I asked. “And when?”

“Today. And I don’t care how, as long as you
don’t cause a lot of attention to yourself and what you’re doing.
Lure her here somehow. Tell her you have something to show her,”
Glen suggested. “See you after school.”

I smiled uncertainly. I had been waiting for
this moment for what seemed like forever, but it didn’t feel like I
had thought it would. Actually, I hadn’t really thought about it
for quite some time. I shrugged the thought away. I was going to do
this for the creators. I was going to show them that I could
fulfill the mission and that I would be good at it.

* * * *

I walked through the school hallways, still
trying to think up a plan to get Cecelia to the Institution. I
wondered why Glen wanted her. Didn’t he always tell me to keep what
I was and where I came from a secret? Why would he purposefully
want a human at the Institution? I needed the answers to these
questions eventually, but at the moment, I was willing to fulfill
my mission.

The bell rang for school to be over and I
knew I was out of time. I had thought up one plan, hoping it would
spark an idea for a better one, but I couldn't come up with
anything else so this time it had to do.

I went through it again in my mind as I
walked towards Cecelia’s locker. “Cecelia,” I called, and a girl
dressed in a hot pink shirt, white skirt, black leggings and
knee-high boots, looked up at me. She had pink steaks in her long
blonde hair and thick black liner around her eyes, creating a
strange gothic look.

“Hey Drew,” she said.

“I think I found something of yours. You lost
a jacket yesterday didn’t you?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, that was my favorite one.
Did you find it?” she asked hopefully, turning towards me with
bright eyes.

“I think so.”

“Is it light blue?” she asked.

I nodded and smiled, although I had no jacket
of hers. I had only heard that she had lost it the other day. “It’s
at my house. If you want to walk home with me, I can get it for
you,” I suggested. “It’s not a long walk.”

Cecelia looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Well, you could just bring it to school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but I’d like to get it out of my
room,” I told her. “And I’m usually pretty forgetful. I’d probably
end up leaving it at home.” The lie was hollow, but it would have
to work.

“Oh.” Cecelia replied. “I guess I could walk
home with you.”

“Great,” I said with a smile. “You
ready?”

She shut her locker and we headed for the
front doors. As we walked across the school grounds and along the
sidewalk in awkward silence, I racked my brain for something to
say. “Are you walking home afterwards?” I asked lamely, thinking of
nothing else conceivably relevant.

She shook her head. “I have a piano lesson so
I’ll be walking there after I get my jacket back.”

“Oh. Cool, I didn’t know you played,” I said,
genuinely surprised.

“Yeah,” she smiled. “I love piano.”

I looked at her. She didn’t seem like someone
who would be into something so ordinary as piano. She seemed the
more extravagant type. “I never thought of you as the piano
type.”

Cecelia laughed. “Yeah, a lot of people don’t
seem to think I would like it at all,” she said. “But I really do.
I want to major in music for college. I know I don’t exactly look
like that kind of person, but I totally love classical music.
Clementi’s my favorite.” She stared at me with genuine
happiness.

I stared back, surprised. “That’s cool. I’ve
never been able to play a musical instrument.”

“It’s actually not that hard. And super fun,
by the way.” She smiled, more to herself than to me, and started
running her fingers through her hair to smooth it out.

I nodded as we walked along. Cecelia hummed
quietly to herself, her boots making clicking sounds as she
strolled along the pavement.

I had never suspected, ever, that Cecelia
would play classical piano. She just seemed like the
statement-making girl in my class who always wore rocker attire.
Her image warded off people. I had never suspected she had another
side to her.

Suddenly, the Institution came into view and
I started thinking up excuses to tell her about my living
conditions. “They’re condos,” I told her, feeling the lie burn on
my tongue like fire.

We walked up the front steps. “But that sign
says—” Cecelia started, looking at the words painted on the
Institution doors.

“It’s from the old business that used to be
here,” I interrupted her, leading her inside.

Once we were in the lobby, I stopped. What
was I supposed to do now? I had no idea. They had just told me to
bring her here. I’d done that, now what?

Just then, David walked into the room. “Hey
guys,” he said, looking at me.

I thought quickly and made something up on
the spot. “Um, I put your sweater in the lost-and-found here...” I
blurted out lamely. “David will show you where it is.”

“Okay ...” Cecelia said slowly, giving me a
strange look. Then she eyed David suspiciously.

“Hi Cecelia,” David said with a smile so fake
it made my mouth hurt. “Follow me.”

I watched Cecelia follow him cautiously
through the doors at the end of the lobby and disappear behind
them, leaving me alone in the silent room to deal with my thoughts.
I wondered why they wanted her. Were they going to let her in on
the secret of what we were? I really could think of no other
explanation.

“I see you've finally figured out how to get
to the next level,” came Yvonne’s syrupy drawl from behind me.

I nodded, wondering how Yvonne always seemed
to show up at the worst times. I spun around. “So you’ve been
bringing people in, too?” I asked.

She nodded, as though it was the most
ordinary thing to do in the world.

“From your school?”

“Yes.”

We stood in silence and I stared at the
double doors through which Cecelia had vanished only seconds
before.

“Why? Do you know?” I asked, turning towards
Yvonne.

She raised her eyebrows in an indifferent
expression. “Doesn’t really matter. As long as we do what they want
us to, we get what
we
want.” A smug smile appeared on her
face.

“Huh,” I replied. “But doesn’t it bother you?
I mean, they could be giving away our secret; what we are. I mean
... don’t you want to know what they’re doing?”

Yvonne looked thoughtful for a moment. “Don’t
really care,” she finally said.

I gave out an exasperated sigh and started to
head for my room. Or should I say my and Yvonne’s room? Because she
followed me right there.

We talked briefly until we started
doing our own things. I mostly thought about Cecelia. What were
they talking to her about? And what was I going to tell her when I
saw her again at school?

Chapter
Twenty-One

I walked slowly towards my history class,
trying to think up some excuse to tell Cecelia about the day
before. I hadn’t seen her since yesterday when I brought her in.
Would she be angry? I didn’t even know what they had talked to her
about.

I walked into the history classroom and
scanned all the faces for Cecelia’s, even though I knew she was
always late to class. But then, surprisingly, I saw her at the back
of the room. She was hardly recognizable without her signature,
edgy black jacket and boots that had been replaced with some plain
jeans and a white T-shirt. When I took another glance at her I
noticed the bright pink stripes that had once littered her hair
were gone, replaced with her natural dirty-blonde hair.

I walked to the back of the room and
approached her. “Um ... hi Cecelia,” I said timidly.

She looked up at me. “Good morning, Drew,”
she said with a smile that was very unlike the Cecelia I had
known.

“So,” I said, sitting down at the desk beside
hers. “What did they talk to you about yesterday?”

She looked confused. “Yesterday?”

“Yeah,when you came to my um ... house.” My
skin tingled, sending chills through my body. Something was
wrong.

She still stared at me like she didn't
understand what I was talking about and I was starting to get a
little freaked out. What was wrong with her? She looked completely
different—and acted like it, too.

“Well, how was your piano lesson?” I asked,
trying a different approach.

She still looked confused. “Piano?”

“Yeah,” I said, now officially concerned.
“You really like it.”

“Oh ...” she said vaguely. “Then I must’ve
stopped or something. ‘Cause I don’t play piano.” She looked at me
blankly, her hazel eyes expressionless.

“Cecelia,” I said firmly, shaking her a
little by her shoulders. “What’s wrong? Snap out of it.” I heard my
voice rise a little.

She didn’t do anything, just sat there
staring at ... nothing. I let go of her and watched her face the
front of the room again. I noticed other people in the class give
her strange looks once they realized it was actually Cecelia and
not some new kid in the class.

Eventually I turned away from her and tried
to focus on the lesson. But how could I? What had happened to
Cecelia? What had they done to her?

Throughout the day, more and more people
noticed the strange change in Cecelia. Her friends seemed even more
freaked out than I was, and all Cecelia seemed to do was go through
the motions. She didn’t seem to be living at all. Even Jessica had
noticed and told me about it, but I brushed the subject away, not
wanting to think that what had happened to Cecelia was my
fault.

Later, as I walked outside towards the van
after school, I heard footsteps approaching quickly behind me. I
turned to see Caroline and smiled at her. “Hi,” I said.

“Have you seen Cecelia?” she asked me, her
blue eyes sparkling with the excitement of some good gossip.

I nodded. “Yep.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” she
said, drawing out the subject in hopes of some information or at
least a good talk.