Date September 1st, 2255

  Four years ter.

  Haa, my first day of school in this world, this shit is going to suck.

  Not looking forward to the dreadfully b time I'll be subjected to in a bit here. I relutly got dressed and headed out of my room down my home's light gray hallway to the living room, where both of my parents were having their m coffee and tea.

  "M sweetie, how'd you sleep?" Mom asked me in her usual bright voice.

  "Not too bad, but do I really have to go to school? It's not like they teach me anything I already don't know." I answered her before asking whether it was really necessary for me to go, not sounding too pleased.

  "Yes, you have to, son. Even if they 't teach you anything, you still he social iion you'll get from it." My father relutly answered me.

  "It's not like I'm socially awkward or anything and don't I already get plenty of iion with Alice almost every single day of the week, isn't that enough?" I tered, attempting to use reason to weasel my way out of having my time wasted at school.

  "You're not, but just the two of you hanging out together isn't really suffit in our eyes, so you'll o i with other children around ye." He tered back, though I saw the cracks beginning to form.

  I have my old man on the ropes, hehe.

  "Mom and dad, do you really want to stifle my learning by sendio school to waste a good part of my life learning things I already know?" I followed up, not the least bit ready to admit defeat and resign myself to wasting my time at school.

  Pulling out my legendary secret on, the glistening eyes mom caved first. "Well, how about you give it a try, at least for the first day, and if you still don't want to, we'll discuss a promise. How does that sound?"

  "Okay deal. I'll try the first day and if I still don't want to go, we'll e up with a promise ter when you guys e back from work." I answered her before both she and I turned and looked at my father, waiting for his answer.

  "Fine, you win son." He answered relutly, though relieved from the looks of it, that I would at least give it a try.

  After a few cheers from me, dad decided to cook breakfast for the bunch of us. Giving mom a break from chef duties for once, even though mom didn't seem all that happy about not being able to cook like normal. But whatever, she needed a break every on a while.

  When dad finished cooking and brought the food to the table, he and I both immediately started ravenously dev the food after mom filled her pte with what she wanted. Several minutes iing, there was less than a third left of what dad prepared. Thus, the two of us engaged in a battle with each other for what little was left, causing mom to occasionally giggle at our antics.

  *Burp*

  "Your cooking retty good, dad. But still nowhere near as good as mom's." I plimented him with a smirk on my face while patting my full belly.

  "Why don't you just appreciate my cooking, you little rascal, without putting me down. And of course, it will never be as good as your mother's." Dad responded while clearly faking that he was annoyed.

  With my mother smiling and clearly happy with dad's and I's bad-forth breakfast came to an end. So with all of us fueled up, the three of us begaing ready for the day while the very handy Miss Maid robot my parents bought four years back got to ing up the mess we left behind upon finishing our meal.

  As soon as everyone of us was ready, we headed for the garage and piled into the slick-looking SUV dad purchased the month prior. The three of us on board the right side garage door opened and slid into the ground. Garage door out of the way, my old man took off in the dire of the Gee Washington school. The school I will be going to for the 13 years if I don't do anything to prevent it.

  Leaving e standalone home behind, a btantly obvious sign of my family's wealth, dad only took a few miime to reach the school. And right as we arrived in front of the rge expansive building of crete and steel aed dad's pretty sweet new SUV, I saw Alid her parents doing the same from a short distance away.

  Looks like our arrivals are clearly pre pnned by our parents. I guess they're pnning to take a couple of pictures of us before Alid I head ihis is probably the real reason they wanted me to go to school.

  "Alright, sweetie, hold Alice's hand and stand right there." My mom directed me with some excitement in her voice.

  Wanting to get this over with, I held Alice's hand, causing her cheeks to flush a bit ahe two of us to the position of the crete stairs our moms and dads wanted us to stand at.

  "Alice, you've been reading those romanovels again, haven't you?" I whispered to her as we headed over to the stairs.

  "Nn." She responded with her cheeks even more flushed than previously, clearly embarrassed.

  Sigh. No wonder she's beeing flustered retly when we hold hands.

  "Okay, good smile you two." Alice's mom Aura said, right as Alid I were in position.

  "Alice, just don't overdo it with the romanovel and focus on the books I assigned you to read. You wouldn't wao leave you behind if you 't keep up in your reading?" I said moments after our parents were satisfied with the pictures they had taken.

  "No Dom, please don't!" She responded while tightening her grip on my hand, fearful of losing me.

  Whoops, my w may have been a bit too harsh.

  "I have no iion of leaving you Alice, I just want to make sure you don't lose focus so you keep up with me." I responded quickly before the waterworks could begin.

  "Ah, you scared me. I thought you were really going to leave me." Alice responded, relieved.

  "But I promise I won't fall behind you, so we always stay together and achieve our dreams." She tinued with determination in her void eyes.

  "Then I promise to always keep you by my side and if you ever fall behind, I'll make sure you catch up to me no matter what." I promised, stly sealing the deal with pinky fingers before I gave her a kiss on her forehead. Which was instantly followed up by a fsh of light from our parents' dire, then a giggle from a now very happy and thrilled Alice with pink dusted cheeks.

  "Haha, I got a good one." Alice's dad David said aloud, very pleased with himself while holding a camera in his hands.

  "Nice job, Dave. Be sure to send us a copy of it ter. Jane will no doubt want to put that moment in a frame." My dad followed up while patting his best friend on the shoulder.

  "Will do Robert, I'll forward it to you ter today."

  Our parents, more than satisfied with their pictures, I turowards Alice.

  "I think that's enough pictures for today. Let's go, Alice."

  "Okay." Alice said just prior to taking my hand into her own of her own volition.

  We waved our parents goodbye and headed into the school hand in hand with the many other children arriving oer another via their own parents; I presumed.

  ...

  A couple of hours ter.

  "Dom, I'm so bored." Alice whispered to me at our small table at the far rear of the , with just the two of us sitting at it.

  "You want to get out of here and go to my house?" I suggested in response, as I was drawing up a blueprint for one of my robot ideas. Specifically, a Worker Bot that could handle basically any task a human could, ranging from bor and manufacture to bat, farming and many other such tasks without the o rest.

  "Yeah, we're just wasting our time here and we 't really get any real social iion with them when they barely know their ABd have such a limited amount of words they use to talk with us." She answered, ready to leave.

  "Okay, let's head to the bathroom and on the way, we'll find a way to leave without being spotted." I replied, beginning to fold up my drawing to take home.

  "Alright, whenever you're ready." Alice said stly.

  The sed I had my drawing folded up, I slid it into my pocket and walked over to Ms Betty, our teacher with Alice, and politely asked if we could go to the bathroom. She asked us if we khe way and I told her I did, hence she let us go, not knowing we had no iion of ing back.

  A short walk through the light gray crete hallways, we arrived at the male and female bathrooms. Heading into the male side since we were less likely to get caught in them due to there being many more female teachers than male ones.

  Actually, I don't recall seeing a single one, so there may be hough I doubt that is the case.

  As we walked into the bathroom, I utilized my perceptiohat I had up 24/7 and sed the ehroom to ehat there wasn't anyone in it. Once I was sure that we were all alone, I headed over to the window ihroom and ope up.

  "Looks like the coast is clear. e on, Alice." I said to her when I pulled my head in.

  "But we're on the sed floor. Wouldn't it be dangerous to jump out the window from the sed floor?" She questioned, not too sure about my idea.

  "If it was just you jumping out by yourself, sure it would be dangerous, but since I'm here there's nothing to worry about, you trust me don't you?" I responded back.

  "Nn, I do." She answered, putting her faith in me.

  "Okay good, let me go first and when I give you the signal you jump too, I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you and you get down safely." I said st, receiving a nod iurn.

  With Alice's s addressed, I climbed out of the window first and dropped down. And thanks to my extremely durable physique as well as my lightweight, I nded on the ground outside with no issues.

  From there, I turned back around and waved for Alie down too. She hesitated for a sed before climbing up and leaping out of the window, too. As she was falling towards me, I raised my hands up above my head and decelerated her before ending it in a princess carry to earn myself a few extra brownie points.

  "See, I told you, you would be just fine." I said with a grin pstered on my face as Alice's cheeks began to burn up and take on a pinkish hue.

  After putting a pleased Alice who now also sported a small smile down, the two of us made our escape from the school's premises and started making the journey home to my pce while staying out of view of all people so we wouldn't get caught.

  A short while ter, as we were cutting through a park, the amount of walking we had been doing was beginning to take its toll on Alice. So, with her tiring out, I had her get on my bad carried her the rest of the way to the house. Only after about half an hour did we make it to my home without getting spotted. It would've been a shorter trip, but she and I had to take cover and hide more than a few times.

  "Good, we made it without getting caught." I ented aloud.

  "We did, didn't we. I was nervous we were gon caught a couple of times there." Alice said, relieved.

  "Alright Alice, let's go inside." I said to her after putting her down and as I retrieved the missing keys I borrowed from my parents a while ago from my pants pocket.

  "Okay." She respoly before I opehe door and the two of us headed inside.