Slumber Five

Bijou didn't need to be psychic to understand that she was bad news. She didn't look friendly, nor did she make an attempt to be. And the way Eleanor spoke to her suggested that she wasn't interested in friends. Still, Bijou tried to be polite and introduced herself. The girl nodded her head slightly as if she wasn't really listening. Then she walked over to her side of the room and plopped down on her bed. She said,"I know you're probably not used to being in a place like this. And were probably hoping to make friends with me."

"Well, I was hoping that we could be friends or at least try to get along.",Bijou admitted. A sudden loud humorless laugh came from the girl. It sounded like a laugh that she would have expected from a villain in a cartoon. She gave a frown at her behavior. In a gentle voice, she asked,"What's so funny, Eleanor?"

"I have never made a friend with any of my roommates.",she said. Looking over at Bijou, she couldn't stop herself from laughing. Her hand fluttered over her mouth as Eleanor tried to stop her laughter. It was strange how someone could hate her even when they had barely just met. And she noticed that Onyx wasn't comfortable with it. He set his hands on where his hips should have been. He suggested,"Maybe you haven't made any friends due to your horrible personality and nasty treatment of others?"

That made her stop laughing for a moment before she sneered at Onyx. Her eyes seemed to bore holes into her droid's body. The room was quiet as the girl glanced him over. With a smile, she said,"My,my,my. Your robot seems to be quite the chatty thing. I think it might be broken, its so uppity."

Holding Onyx by his arm, she tried to calm him down as he started cursing. His language was all over the place. Not even speaking the same as both girls were anymore. It sounded like he was calling her every nasty name he could pull up on his files. And if it wasn't for the fact that she was holding him back, she would have found this hilarious. Instead of laughing at this, she glared back at her roommate. Angrily she said,"You should apologize. He isn't a thing, and he has feelings."

"What's practical about a robot that feels emotions?",Eleanor questioned. There was no reason as to why Onyx needed emotions. But it was Sethunya's idea to build him with it. Make him seem more human to the little five-year-old he was in charge of. But Bijou didn't think she had to explain this. And she said,"I don't see how his feeling makes him work any less than a robot who isn't programmed with emotions."

"It's still impractical. I don't know why anyone would be so dumb as to program a robot that way.",Eleanor said. Her roommate got off her bed then walked over to a bookshelf. She kept her back turned to Bijou as she looked for something on the shelf. It was obvious that she was just trying to pretend Bijou didn't exist. So, she decided that since her roommate was being awful, that she should just explore. And she got off her bed as she mumbled,"We should go check out this library that I saw on our way up here."

"Alright Bijou, if that's what you prefer.",Onyx said. When she nodded, she followed him out of the dorm room. And they started walking towards the library that she remembered seeing it last time. She visually checked the rooms as she asked,"Onyx, do you see anything that even resembles a library?"

"Yes, there's a sign pointing to it in front of us.",Onyx said and pointed in front of her. Looking up, she smiled a little sheepishly as she followed his finger. Bijou would've seen it if she had been paying the least bit of attention. She said,"Well, I'm glad that one of us found the dang thing."

They hurried off into the library to find a book that she'd like to read. She couldn't bring her books with her and Onyx couldn't download them. But at least she was going to have a place to get some books from. Even if she wasn't going to be able to keep them for very long. And she could get away from her jerk roommate whenever possible. And from what she saw, it wouldn't be too hard. The selections were easily marked with a small statue. Horror/Suspense section was marked with a little pumpkin headed creature that hid an ax behind its back. There were a few others that looked like they'd have a wonderful selection. But all Bijou wanted was something that would scare her. So, she hurried into the horror section and started looking. So far, she found books she already read but wasn't interested in reading again. It was nice to know that she could read them when she felt like it.

Continuing her search, she tried to find something new. So far the high school's selection was disappointing and she couldn't find anything she liked. Some of the names just sounded sillier than she guessed they would be. And others just didn't look good. Then she came upon one that had a nice cover. It was called "The Cellar", on the cover was stairs with a flower on it. Of which she couldn't really recognize that well. But it looked very nice. So, she assumed it would be fun to read too and grabbed it. Then continued to look for books she might've missed. And she noticed one that was called "Only Daughter". Reading the back, she felt her curiosity grow. Smiling, she said,"Hmm...I don't know if this really counts as horror. But it looks pretty cool."

"I do believe that some thrillers are considered horror.",Onyx said. Though he sounded like he was going to check that out for himself. Just to be absolutely sure that he was right about what he said. And he took the two books from her. Then he asked,"Are you going to read anything other than horror this year?"

"I might. I'm not entirely sure if I want to though.",she told him. A small smile on her face as she shrugged a little. The horror genre was more interesting to her. And she had tried to read more than that for a while now. But some of the other genre of books were just too boring. All the stories were the same to her. But she knew she should read other things than just horror for the rest of her life. Bijou sighed in annoyance, and she asked,"Well what do you think I should try to read then?"

"Why not try reading fairy tales or even some young adult books?",Onyx suggested. Bijou gave a frown at this suggestion. Usually, these kinds of books were cliched out the rear. But she figured that she'd find something interesting. So, she walked over to the section they had for YA and checked it over as she said,"I'll try some stuff in young adults, but I doubt that I'll even find anything. This stuff is usually boring."

"Just try to have an open mind here.",suggested Onyx shifting the other books to under his right arm. And he checked the shelves for things that might be in her interest. He kept a memory of all the things that Bijou got book wise. And guessed that if it was action packed or even mysterious, she'd enjoy it. So far, he couldn't see anything that stood out. There were some young adult books that just looked drab. Or like there was a romance in it. Bijou didn't like romance novels; he knew she'd prefer to not read them. So, he opted for books with almost horror sounding names. One book caught his attention immediately. "City of Bones". It probably wasn't an undead city of reanimated skeletons, but he hoped it would have something she liked. Picking it up, he held it out to her. He said,"I found something that might be to your liking. It looks like it might be a supernatural book."

Taking the book from him, she said,"Might be, huh. Well then, I definitely have to check the thing out along with the others. It'd be a shame if I didn't."

Onyx nodded as he took it from her and held it under his right arm. Then he followed after her as she hurried to the librarian's desk. The librarian was a droid. They looked like a similar model to Onyx but much more sleek. Their eyes were a soft blue color and were fixated on the screen in front of them. Bijou watched in amazement as their fingers typed on the keyboard in an impressively rapid manner. Onyx couldn't type that fast and neither could she. The droid must've been doing at least five hundred words per minute. Or per second. Their work seemed to be very important. She felt slightly guilty when she tried to get their attention. Giving her best smile as she asked,"I'd like to check out some books for the month, please?"

"Very well. Set them on the table for a moment.",they instructed. Onyx did as the other droid told him to do and opened each book's cover. The other droid took a stamp then quickly imprinted words on each page. They said,"There you are. They're due on November twenty-first. Please bring them back or we'll suspend your ability to check out books."

"Thank you um...",Bijou said. Handing the books to Onyx with a small smile, she checked for a nameplate. Anything to call the droid something other than just droid or robot. Which seemed rude to her. Calling someone by what they were rather than what they prefer seemed...bad. So, she looked at the droid's face as she asked,"I'm sorry but I can't seem to find your name anywhere. What is the title you've been given?"

"You may call me by the name Perle.",the droid said in a patient voice. They seemed to be used to this question. And she guessed that mostly students had been asking them about their name. Then she said,"Okay. And thank you for all your help, Perle."

"It was my pleasure. Have a pleasant evening.",Perle said. Nodding, Bijou hurriedly started to walk to her dorm room. Onyx was keeping up with her as best as he could. And she said,"So aside from the mean roommate, today's been okay. Hopefully the workload from classes won't be too hard."

"You still have me to help you with them, Bijou.",Onyx informed her as they got closer to the room. It would be the least he could do after getting her in trouble like he had. And he wanted to make up for most of the trouble he got her in. She knew that. Bijou nodded as she said,"I know, I know but regular school always seems tougher than homeschool work."

"I suppose. But at least you won't be studying alone.",he pointed out. She shrugged as they got inside the room. It seemed Eleanor had somewhere else to be and she considered herself lucky. If she had to stay with her for longer, she'd probably hit her. Well. Maybe not hit her. But definitely not treat her as nicely. And she figured that'd be bad enough as she sat on her bed. Onyx shut the door behind him as he said,"Now let's forget about schoolwork until you need to do it. Right now, let's enjoy the books we got."

He hurried over and handed the "The Cellar", then he carefully sat down next to her. Bijou opened the book with a small grin as she started to read out loud. A tradition they always did when they were home, and she got a new book. It had helped Bijou learn how to read when she was younger. And it relaxed Onyx. So as long as her roommate wasn't around, she would be just fine. Hopefully.