Augmented Reality by Victor Appleton

Author:Victor Appleton [Appleton, Victor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

8 The Companion Confrontation

“SO, AFTER SEEING THAT CLIP, how do you feel?” Joey asked me.

“Uh…” I slowly shook my head, my mouth still wide open. “Stunned.”

Noah was supposed to be my best friend. Is that what he really thought about me? He had to have been showing off for the show. But why would he say those things when he knew I felt the exact opposite? Maybe he didn’t really believe me?

“Care to elaborate on that?” Joey asked, interrupting my runaway train of thought.

“I don’t know,” I said with a big sigh. “I thought he was my best friend.”

Joey winced. “That doesn’t sound like something a friend would say, let alone a best friend.”

There was another awkward silence as I stared blankly at the camera, focused on the little red recording light just to the left of the lens. Suddenly, I felt embarrassed to be in the makeshift room. I wasn’t about to cry or anything, but I could feel the camera capturing every inch of devastation on my face. I had to get out of there.

“Excuse me,” I said, standing up and moving toward the curtain.

Joey switched off the camera. “We’ll pick this up another time, then?”

I gave a quick nod as I drew back the fabric. “Okay.” Grabbing my lunch tray and notebook, I hurried out of the room, back toward the cafeteria.

I must’ve been in a daze, because I hardly remembered dumping my tray, swinging by my locker, or heading to robotics class. Some classmates might have tried to talk with me in the hallways, but I couldn’t remember who or if I answered them. I felt numb.

And worst of all, I knew I’d have to face Noah in class. I didn’t know what to say to him. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d be off with one of the camera crews again.

No such luck.

As everyone filed into class, in came Noah followed by Sean and Mike, the other camera crew. As Noah put his stuff down on our worktable, I caught Sean recording us out of the corner of my eye. I tried to ignore them all.

When Noah pulled out his notebook and began writing, I focused on my robot, taking apart one of the arms so I could replace its rubber belts with slightly smaller ones. I hoped the new additions would make the arms more sensitive and able to handle simple tasks with greater ease.

I guess what I was doing was too boring for the show. Sean and Mike moved to another worktable on the other side of the classroom, where Mia Trevino was mixing a powdery substance with water in a bucket. It almost looked like she was making her own pancake batter. Except pancake batter wasn’t supposed to be pink.

Meanwhile, Sam sat on a stool next to her. Sam removed her shoes and socks, rolled up her pants, and positioned two short, stubby cardboard tubes next to Mia’s bucket. Since Mia’s father worked in special effects for movies and TV shows, I

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