Another Day, Yet Something Else
Tags: Sweet, Children, Fiction, Bullying, LGBTQ

It all began with an incessant beeping throughout the house. The home’s emergency techs made quick work of the small fire, but that didn’t make the situation much better. Billie sat in the farthest corner of the backyard, pouting when she wasn’t coughing. After checking on Billie, Sid had already run back inside to make sure all the windows had opened properly. The flames had barely left the countertop, but the smoke wafting off the toaster was horrendous.

“So much for Waffle Wednesday,” Sid mumbled as he dumped the ashes of breakfast into a trash bin. Outside, Billie curled up on the artificial grass, her eyes narrowed squarely at a small patch of colorful plantlife. As she pondered if they were flowers or weeds, Sid walked back outside with the bin of waffle ashes in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

“I’m pretty sure it’s all-clear, if you wanna go back in. If we hurry, we could have enough time to take showers and still get you to school on time,” he exclaims to Billie, forcing a smile across his face to mask his panic. Though, the nervous sweat plastering chestnut fringe to his forehead says otherwise. At Sid’s comment on taking showers, Billie buries her face in the sleeve of her pastel pink sweater and scowls at the smell of campfire. The small black skulls scattered across it stare up at her as she realizes she won’t be able to wear it to school. At this thought, Billie’s demeanor droops further.

“Neither of us are going anywhere until I get my Waffle Wednesday,” Billie demands, returning to analyzing the flower weeds and searching her databanks for matches. Having only 9 years of memories under her belt, she didn’t have much to work with, and her father refused to let her link with The Cloud. After finding no possible means of identification for the plantlife, Billie vows to ask Cloudy about them later, stands up, and trots to the opposite end of the yard to take a seat at the swings.

Sid sighs, setting down the trash bin and sliding the bottled water into his coat pocket before sitting down two swings over from Billie.

“Well,” Sid begins, trying to form the best argument that would get Billie to school before the bell,”would eating those waffles be worth missing out on time you could be spending with your friends?” Billie seems to ponder this for a moment, but says nothing, kicking out her legs to get some momentum going on the swing.

“Here’s an idea. We both jump in the shower real fast, I get you to school on time, and then we’ll have waffles for dinner tonight. How does that sound?” Billie twirls a lock of her lilac hair, the rest flowing behind her to dance with the grass.

“Throw an extra packet of hot chocolate in my lunch box, and you’ve got a deal,” she says as a bright smile wipes away the disappointment of moments ago. They both hold out a hand and shake on it before running back inside to get ready for school and work all over again

* * * * *

An hour later, Billie and Sid were out of the house and walking the streets of Scholaris, dashing in the direction of Billie’s school. It was as crowded as usual in the technological and social hub of the galaxy. While anyone can move to planet Reliq, only those with technological prowess can survive in its capital.

It didn’t take long for the father-daughter duo to navigate the bustle of people on their way to work, as well as the cleaners sweeping up any sand that blew in from beyond the city walls. The two soon arrived at the school gates. Sid shoves Billie toward the front doors with one hand and tucks a packet of hot chocolate into her backpack with the other. Billie pushes the front doors open, smiling at him over her shoulder.

“Bye, Silly! I’ll be waiting out here when school ends, okay?” Billie flies through the doors and down the hall to try to make the bell. Though, as the doors close behind her, Billie looks back for a moment. She stands there with a wide grin and a glow in her electric blue eyes that sends a wave of relief over her father. The doors slam shut in front of him, separating him from his daughter, but Sid returns to the streets of Scholaris knowing she’s safe.

Inside Scholaris Preparatory School, Billie arrives in her classroom seconds before the bell with no time to catch her breath.

“I’m glad you could join us on time for once, Ms. Facere, but please do try to get here sooner. I feel my battery running low just watching you. Now take your seat before I decide to count you late, anyway,” the administrator demands. Billie quickly sits down, and class begins. The day’s lessons in language and the sciences went by without the teacher having any malfunctions or the students disrupting instruction time.

After what felt like years, the class was dismissed for lunch, and everyone quietly filed out. As per usual, they were first to arrive in the cafeteria, and students began to split off in groups to either sit at the lunch table or take a spot in the school’s lunch line. As the large room fills with other classes, Billie and her friends sit down at their table in the bottom left corner. Finally out of view of other students, Billie speaks.

“What’s the rumor today, boys?” she asks, pulling her lunchbox from her backpack. At Billie’s question, her two friends look to each other with concern etched on their faces. Across the table from Billie’s seat, there’s the sound of a spark and an electric hum as Veira reaches out to hold Billie’s hand. Veira’s arm is slow but effective and easily conveys the message that the news is worse than usual this time. All the while, Veira puts her head down, staring blankly at her food. Duplic, the youngest of everyone in the entire grade, speaks up.

“Are you sure you wanna hear this one? You’re not gonna like how it turns out.” Still in the process of training out his lisp, Duplic struggles to get through his S’s and Sh’s.

“I’ve dealt with this every day since Grade 1. I can handle this,” Billie says, tightening her grip on Veira’s hand. Veira raises her head and looks at Billie with an apology in her violet eyes. Billie keeps her gaze focused on Duplic, never turning to meet Veira’s.

“Duplic. What did she say.” Billie speaks in a way that’s less a question and more a demand. The table goes quiet as Duplic’s head falls, his bottom lip quivering. In her peripheral vision, Billie notices Veira hasn’t dropped her gaze. A pit slowly forms in Billie’s stomach, and she clenches her open hand, slamming it against the table.

“You know what? Fine. If you guys are gonna be that way, I’ll be at the food machines. Don’t talk to me unless you plan on telling me what’s going on!” Billie yells. She pushes herself out of the seat, grabs a hot chocolate packet and mug from her bag, and storms off. The eyes of students from other classes follow her as she goes, their attention drawn by her anger. Billie’s friends stay seated. Both of them know they need to tell her, but neither of them want to volunteer. Veira’s chin meets her chest again and stays there.

Billie reaches the wall of food machines, shoves her hot chocolate packet into her mug, carefully places it inside the machine despite her anger, and slams the door shut, attracting a scolding from one of the administrators. After plastering a grin across her face and apologizing with as much fake sincerity as she could muster, Billie turns back around, presses some buttons on the food machine, and slides into the gap between her machine and the next.

From her hidey-hole, Billie could just hear her snickering. She peeks out and sees Plaga poking at a salad, stretching and relaxing her new mechanical wings. Plaga’s eyes light up as a sly grin crosses her face. She stands up and marches with a mission over to a table of other girls. The pit in Billie’s gut seems to grow, and she checks the machine to see how much longer the hot chocolate would take. As if on cue, the machine beeped, the door opened, and Billie grabbed her drink and bolted for her table. She barely makes two strides before running over Veira.

“Veira! You nearly scared me half to deaths!” Though, at the sight of Veira, Billie suddenly loses her drive. Veira is raising her arms, reaching out to offer a hug. Billie walks into the embrace of the one person who truly understands.

“I’m really sorry, Veira…I know this is hard for you, too.” Billie’s apology comes out muffled through her friend’s hoodie. Backing out of the hug slightly, Veira gives herself enough room to carefully sign out a message for Billie, letter by letter. She would’ve used her normal sign language, but Billie has only had time to learn the alphabet. As Veira signs, Billie slowly sounds out the letters.

“I — T — S — O — K — I — U — N — D — E — R — S — T — A — N — D.” At this, Billie closes the gap for another hug, and after a few seconds, they separate and head back to their table.

“Billie, Billie! Hey, I’m really sorry about earlier I was just scared of what you’d say and I want you to be okay and I don’t want you to be mad or sad but knowing this will make you sad or mad and I don’t want that and-”

“Duplic?” Billie says, placing her hand on his shoulder,”Everything’s gonna be okay, I promise. Will I be sad? Yes. Mad? Probably. But I will never be upset with you, and you’ve done nothing wrong. Even if you’re the one to tell me, while it does upset me, always know that my anger isn’t directed at you. You’re not the one doing this to me.” As Billie was consoling Duplic, Veira had walked around the table, taken her seat to Dulpic’s left, and placed her hand on his other shoulder. At Billie’s last line, Dulpic nods and wipes his nose on his arm.

“Veira, do you mind getting him some tissues? I wanna stay here with him, and I don’t think I could walk by Plaga another time without tearing off those new wings of hers.” Veira smiles slightly and nods before standing back up and heading to ask her interpreter to request tissues.

“When Veira comes back I need you to tell me what Plaga’s been saying, okay? I know it makes you scared, but I’d rather find out from you or Veira instead of some random kid I don’t know. And I know you two feel the same. That you feel the same.” Veira returns with a box of tissues and hands them to Duplic before taking her seat. The trio wait patiently as he calms down and blows his nose. After some time, he clears his throat.

“What happened was…Plaga either found out, or she maybe she made it up on her own, but…she’s been telling everyone you’re an android. And a lot of people are believing, even after all the lies she’s told about you.” Billie freezes for a moment, not sure what to make of this.

“How do people believe her? Why?! Everything she’s ever said about me was a lie, so why would they start believing her now?” As Billie talks, her exaggerated hand motions send her hot chocolate splashing everywhere. Realizing the mess she’s making, she stops, sets the mug down, and lets Duplic carry on.

“Some kids believe her, others don’t. The ones that believe her think that because you act so different from everyone else, plus the perfect memory. The people that don’t believe Plaga think you just have a memory implant, and they don’t care if you act ‘weird,’” Billie lays her head in her hands and groans.

“If the school finds out, Dad and I are gonna have to move, and I can’t put him through that after everything he went through to get to Scholaris. I’ll never understand why android rights are such a problem. I mean, everyone else can be happy and free, so why can’t I?!” Billie notices she’s standing and near to screaming as this half of the cafeteria is silent. She quickly plops back into her seat and covers her mouth, looking at Duplic and Veira for answers. Duplic shrugs. Veira puts her head down on the table, cushioned by her good arm. The mechanical one twitches at her side. In the midst of the quiet, a flash of white envelopes a nearby window, and thunder shakes the walls. Being a desert planet, rain is very rare on Reliq. But, when it does rain, it absolutely pours.

“Are you kidding me? The one day I don’t bring my emergency rain pack…” Duplic whines. Meanwhile, footsteps slowly approach the trio’s table.

“Uh oh! Looks like poor wires for brains won’t be able to get home today! How sad…Maybe, if it didn’t go around pretending to be one of us and just did its job like a good android, this wouldn’t have happened!” Plaga speaks with a lilt in her tone and a breathiness in her voice that Billie quickly grew to hate. Duplic has gone completely still, staring at his food while he waits for Plaga to finish what she came to do and leave. Veira’s head bolted up at Plaga’s first word, and she stands up, turning to meet Plaga’s gaze. The girl’s eyes are a vibrant green yet void of color, as if there’s no life behind them. Whatever personal Hell Plaga has gone through, Veira hopes the girl will one day overcome it, apologize for her actions, and move on.

“Is the cyborg gonna try to help her so-called ‘friend?’ How sweet! You know what? All you gotta do is say the word, and I’ll leave, pronto. Can you do that for me, Veira? Say,’Could you please go back to your friends?’ Come on, I know you can do it,” Plaga drawls. All the while, the android administrators stand by idly, not registering the threatening undertones to Plaga’s words. All they hear is the innocence of a child talking to her friends.

“What was that? Did you say something? Could you speak up for me?” Plaga says, cupping her hand around her ear and turning it toward Veira. As she hears this blatant mocking, Billie shakes in her seat, her head drooping, her palms against the table.

“Huh. I guess she just doesn’t care about her ‘friend’, anymore. I’m not surprised. How can you care about something, if you don’t exist? I mean, a human is nothing without their voice.” At this, Plaga spins around on her heels, flaps her wings a few times, and begins her victory walk. Though, before drifting out of sight, Plaga looks back over her shoulder to deliver one final comment.

“Like I said, good luck with the rain, Robitz. I can’t wait to see your circuits fry in the arms of that man you call a father.” At that moment, time seems to move in staggered breaths. In the first picture, Billie charges at Plaga’s back. In the next, Plaga is pinned to the blue tile floor by mechanical arms sprouting from Billie. Another picture, and one of Plaga’s wings is imbedded in the far wall. Billie makes quick work of the remaining wing, as drills, screws, and scissors have replaced her fingers. Another frame later, and the administration androids have entered the scene, pulling Billie off of Plaga. Time returns to its normal pace, and Veira snaps out of her shock.

Where Billie’s right hand should be is a cannon, turquoise glowing from within. As the androids restrain her, Veira can feel the anger radiating from Billie, hear the hum of electricity and the whir of the cannon. Though, Billie has no intent to fire. There’s no point. As the cannon becomes her hand again, Billie is dragged to the principal’s office, Veira and Duplic following behind her, and Plaga is escorted to the medical center.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The storm pours buckets at the school’s entrance as Sid struggles to open his umbrella. Billie smiles weakly at her father’s struggle.

“So can you tell me what actually happened in there? I’m pretty sure I never programmed you to be a wardroid. I mean, I don’t exactly approve of you assaulting someone and causing hundreds of thaler in property damage, but I know you wouldn’t do it without a reason,” Sid says, concern ebbing in his voice. The umbrella finally opens but barely covers Sid himself, more or less his daughter. Billie takes one step into the rain, holds out her palm, and out pops an umbrella better fitting as cover for a group of five than a small child. The roof of the umbrella hovers comfortably over Sid’s head. Sid nods Billie a thank-you, and the pair begin their trek home. As they walk through the nearly empty streets, Billie recounts the events of lunch, finally confiding in her father about the bullying.

“So, in summary, this girl has been spreading rumors about you and generally bullying you for the past…three years? And today, she was telling everyone you’re an android. You’re not sure whether she actually knew or not, but some kids did believe it. Then the girl came over and started throwing slurs at you and mocking Veira. But, that isn’t what made you snap, is it?” Sid looks down at Billie with nothing but love and worry for his daughter, and she sighs.

“She made a comment about me dying in your arms because of the rain, and she added that you weren’t really a father, and…that just broke me. She has no right to say anything like that about you!” Billie wishes she could cry but holds herself with her free arm instead. Without any warning, Sid rushes down, lifts her into his arms, and hugs her as if the fate of the universe depended on it. The umbrella falls from Billie’s hands, and they stay like this for a moment, the rain drenching their clothes.

“Silly Billie? I want to make sure you know that you should never worry about sticking up for me in a situation like that. You know why?” Sid asks as he lets Billie slide back to the ground. She looks up to him with inquisitive eyes, waiting for the answer.

“Because you should know better than anybody that what that girl said isn’t true,” he states, booping Billie’s nose on the word “true”. She giggles at his gesture, picks the umbrella back up, and they start walking again. As the pair draw closer to home, Sid pats Billie on the head, and he starts to speak.

“Honestly, I know exactly how you feel, B. I went through something pretty similar at your age, at least in terms of how people treated me,” he begins. Billie looks up to her father as he continues his tale with a faraway look in his eyes.

“Now, it’s no secret to you that I once was a girl in my younger years. I’ve had all the discussions about that with you, but I guess I’ve never really thought to tell you about how the people back home thought of it. The least I can say is that residents of the Old Planets don’t like people like me. Similar to you, I got called a lot of things, I didn’t have a lot of rights, and I had to go into…hiding, I guess. I had to pretend I was like everyone else for a long time because no one there could wrap their heads around the idea that I’m like any other guy. Just a bit different.” Billie kicks at wet sand on the sidewalk that was missed by the cleaners.

“What I’m trying to say is that I’ve been through what you’re going through now. It isn’t exactly the same because you and I are different people, but the point still stands. I just wanna make sure you know you can talk to me when things like this happen… because the reality is that they may never stop. As someone who’s walked in similar shoes and as your father, I’ll always be here for you.” Silence falls between them for a moment before Billie leaps back into his arms. They stay like this for quite some time before Sid slowly makes the rest of the walk home with Billie nearly drifting to sleep on his shoulder.

Upon reaching their home, Billie bounds to her room to change out of her clothes before planting herself on the living room couch. The television clicks on at her presence, turning to her favorite channel. Sid walks to various places across the house and returns with blankets, pillows, two mugs of hot chocolate, and Billie’s skull sweater, freshly washed. Billie’s eyes light up as she snatches the sweater from him and puts it on. Meanwhile, Sid takes the couch cushion next to her and hands her a mug of peppermint hot chocolate.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Sid bolts up and out of the room, darting for the kitchen. Thirty minutes of TV pass before a quiet ding comes from the kitchen, and Billie finally realizes what’s coming. A few minutes later, Sid turns the corner with two masterpieces. As he takes his seat back and hands Billie her plate, the two enjoy their feast with some of Sid’s favorite childhood movies, switching over to one of Billie’s cartoons here and there. Full of sugar, sweets, and joy, the duo curl up under the blankets and continue their movie marathon. As the night draws on, their eyes begin to grow heavy, and they gradually fall asleep, lulled into their slumber by the sound of rain against rooftops.