"And that class is the end of your final lesson. It has been a pleasure teaching you this year, and I hope all of you have a wonderful summer.”
This was said by a pleasant looking old man on a large screen at the front of the classroom. He smiled as the bell rang and the students stood and saluted him.
"Thank you for your guidance Ai," the class chorused back happily, before packing their things and almost running for the door.
The old man chuckled as he watched the students disappear into the corridor, than turned to smile at the last student in the room. "Student Platnim, I hope you have a good summer as well," he said respectfully.
The student finished packing his things and smiled at his synthetic teacher. He was a smaller boy for his age, with short brown hair and brown eyes that glittered with mischief. He wore the standard slack and blazer uniform, but with a turn of the device on his wrist the clothes changed into a more casual pair of jeans and t-shirt. He clicked his tongue as he gazed at his teacher.
"Sir, I believe I’ve informed you my going name is Plat, not Platnim. Platnim is too weird of a name," he complained
The old man chuckled, "Once again, I must remind you the name parameters cannot be changed once I have downloaded the student identities into my memory matrix. This very example reminds me why I'm so glad I chose human development as my digital vocation. Perhaps that can be the start of my new dissertation: Human obsession with Names; a Need to Control or a Part of their Nature. Why, I can just start my research now with the hours of collected data collected educating . . ."
Plat coughed awkwardly, "You are digressing Artificial Intelligence 5637485 of . . ."
The old man froze on the screen for a moment before the picture reset. AI5 cleared his throat before continuing, “Apologies for that young Platnim, over half my programs had begun to focus on research. Please stay safe and have an enlightening summer.”
Plat smiled and nodded as he slung his backpack onto his shoulder, "I hope you have a good summer as well sir. Though, I recommend you increase the number of redundancy checks so you don’t get so easily distracted next year."
The old man snorted, "Very funny young human. Well, get going now. I can't wait till I get to teach the next patch of youngsters next year; it'll be a great help to my thesis. While summer may be fun to you humans, for A.I.'s like me it's a bore. “
Plat nodded and waved back as he exited the room. As he left, the old man winked out of existence on the screen as the classroom shut down. Plat hurried out of the school and headed toward the nearby park, which was directly across from the school building. He soon joined a small group of teens who were huddled under a tree.
"Oy, hey there guys!" Plat called out happily, "Dia, Reva, Henry!"
The trio turned and waved as they saw Plat running toward them. When he reached them, they exchanged high-fives and laughs as they crowded together in excitement.
"Yo Plat, we've been waiting!" Dia leaned down and picked Plat up in a massive bear hug. Unlike his three friends, Dia was very tall and wide for his age and was an excellent athlete on the field. He often expressed himself loudly and didn't put as much thought into what came next. He was very sweet and loyal, however, and always had his friend's back when they needed him.
Reva giggled as Plat struggled to breathe, "Dia, you'd better let him go before he passes out. Ideally, I'd like to start the summer with all three of you instead of two and a corpse." Reva was the only girl in the group, but there was no way she would be called feminine with her normal appearance. She played sports as well, but preferred the track and field to playing with a ball. She was also in the top 15% grade percentile of their school level, making her the smartest in the group as well. Today, she had two ponytails instead of her usual one on the back of her head, making sure the wavy hair would not be mistaken for pigtails. Combined with her ebony skin and purple eyes, Reva was a welcome member of their little group.
As Dia released Plat from the obviously friendly hug, the last member walked up and clapped his hand onto Plat's back. "My main man; how is it going?" Henry smiled and embraced Plat in his own hug. The two had been friends the longest, going back all the way to the start of middle school. Henry was average height, with an easy going grin and a face most girls described as "lazily handsome". He was pretty popular with many of the social circles in the academy and often went on dates. Still, he always prioritized hanging out with the group and making sure they all had a great time.
Plat smiled cheekily and pushed Henry back. "I'm quite surprised to see you here Henry; didn't you have a date today?"
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Henry coughed awkwardly and smirked, "Well, let's just say I hooked her up with a man she wouldn't mind seeing."
The other three groaned at this. Henry had the annoying tendency to play match-maker whenever he grew tired of the girl he was seeing. It was annoying because the girl involved often didn't realize she was being "let go”. This sometimes led to the group having to make a few get-aways from the angry girls; which, while amusing, took up a lot of time while Henry tried to reason with her. Even with his playboy nature well-known, girls still tried to make him theirs and thus the cycle continued.
"Are you sure she won't mind this time? Last time, it was that girl from the tech department and she chased us with her new auto lock-on ink missile viruses," Reva complained, "My favorite outfit was ruined when that horrid ink rewrote the program; now the outfit has permanent ink stains." To illustrate, her clothes shifted into a casual shorts and blouse outfit, but stained black with ink.
Henry nodded, "No worries, this time the girl just wanted me to help her get with another guy; no ink missiles, girl volleyball team ambush, or yoga pretzels this time," he quickly changed the subject, "Anyway, we're wasting time here. Let's head to the Game Station."
Dia rubbed his hands together in excitement, "It's finally here isn't it? I've been waiting so long for this."
"Me too," Reva agreed, "It's finally time and just perfect for starting the summer with."
"Let's go then!" Plat declared, taking the lead, "To the Game Center!"
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The four friends left the park traveled along the walkway leading to the downtown area. The academy was located on the outskirts of the city and held the classrooms, park, sports fields, and dorms for the students. The city itself was rather small in comparison, being a small square area with buildings dedicated to the needs of the students. The Game Center was located right in the middle of the city, and was always full of kids eager to try out the newest or oldest game or to buy classic movies.
Plat led the three into the large sales floor and walked straight up to the counter. He smiled and greeted the man behind the counter.
"Morning Nick, how are things going?"
The man, who had been snoring with his ball-cap over his face, snorted and raised his hat in annoyance. Nick was a tall, average size man with a hint of chubbiness and short blond hair. He had a light beard and mustache combo and always wore gaming memorabilia t-shirts over his chest. His face lit up when he saw Plat.
"If it isn't my favorite former employee Plat; how ya been?"
Plat shook the man's hand and smiled up at him, "It's been great sir. I really do appreciate you letting me work here for the job assignment for school. It was a real blast!"
Nick waved him off, "It was nothing kid; in fact I haven't had a chance to sleep like that since you left." He sighed sadly, "In any case, what brings you here today?"
Plat grinned and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "I was wondering if you could hook my friends and I up with the thing I talked to you about before."
Nick scratched his beard and leaned back into his chair, his eyes wandering around the air, "Can't say I know what you're talking about kid; must be something you thought we agreed on. Maybe you asked me when I was sleeping."
"Nickkkk," Plat whined, "Please boss, don't play with me like that." Plat turned to his three friends, who were all holding back grins on their faces, "You guys help me beg here."
Reva giggled and covered her mouth, "Sorry Plat, this is your quest; not ours. Just remember you who promised you’d get it for us, and we’ll all blame you if we don’t get it."
Plat sighed and returned to look at Nick, who grinned at him. "No worries boy, I remember our little talks." he chuckled, "Just wanted to hear that cute whine again." He winked at Plat, who blushed heavily as his friends guffawed at him from behind.
"What kind of grown man takes pleasure in the whining of high school seniors?" Plat asked angrily.
"What kind of high school senior barely breaks 5 feet in height?" Nick countered with another infuriating grin, "Besides, it's amusing to see you try to act like an adult when you’re clearly a kid on the inside, kid."
Plat rubbed his temples and sighed, forced to give this battle to Nick. His small stature was the bane of his existence and the source of many problems in his life. He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest in an effort to appear intimidating.
Nick laughed and reached down beneath the counter, pulling out a white bag. "I have four copies right here for you four, though I have to tell you the game itself won't be active until the servers come online," he warned them, "Feel free to try the included tutorial, but don't try to enter the game until midday tomorrow. I don't want the mods finding out I gave out copies early; I have enough trouble as it is with you brats running around here thinking you can get away with anything. Things like that take away from my dreaming time."
As he gave them the bag, an alarm began ringing in the Game Center. Nick sighed in frustration and got up from behind the counter. "See what I mean? Idiot brats think they can leave without paying."
Two tall androids walked up the counter holding two boys; one was sheepish and the other was angry.
"Boys, you should know stealing is wrong," Nick began his lecture.
The angry boy tried to spit on Nick’s shoe and glared, "No one cares you lazy old man! Hurry up and let me go so I can leave this dumb place."
The sheepish boy began sweating and shook his head, "I'm sorry Mr. Nick; I won't do it again."
Nick's eyebrows twitched in annoyance as he continued smiling at the two boys. "Well then, looks like someone hasn't learned the proper respect for his elders." Nick reached behind the counter and pulled out a see-through plate and began typing on it. Information appeared and disappeared as he scrolled through code and information. He continued smiling as he looked up.
"I see we have a Mr. Jimmy and a Mr. Rory here. Mr. Rory, it appears this is your first offence so you can go." The android released the apologetic teen, who quickly thanked Nick and ran out of the store. Nick continued, "Mr. Jimmy, it appears that this is your third offence in the shopping district and you have been noted as someone in need of . . . assistance."
Jimmy began to look a little nervous as Nick continued to speak, "I see you are on a decent track in the Body classes; yes here it is, a rising star in agility lessons. Now, let's go ahead and change all your classes to Soul for the next semester."
Jimmy turned paler than a ghost at Nick's words, "You can't do that! You're not a teacher, and that would kill my Body score!"
Nick chuckled and pulled his hat brim over his eyes, "Yes, I'm sure your coach will be very disappointed, but he'll just move on to the next so called "rising star" right? In any case, I feel like some good meditation and philosophy classes will be good for you."
"You stupid old man, I'll kill you!" Jimmy's face was now red as he struggled to free himself from the android's grasp.
Nick held up his hand to his ear, "What's that? You said you wanted to start as soon as possible? Sure, I'll go ahead and sign you up for summer school too; those old peace-loving farts love a proactive student. Andro 1 and Andro 2, you mind escorting our little eager beaver to his new summer quarters?"
The androids grinned at Nick and winked, before dragging the wailing boy behind them out of the store. Nick grinned and returned to his chair, adjusting his hat back to its previous position.
"You kids have fun now, and remember to be careful with it. Otherwise I'll be in trouble, and little Jimmy will have some company in summer meditation."
Slightly pale, the four chorused their thanks and quickly left the Game Center as fast as possible. Nick watched them go before lowering that hat back over his eyes. His snores soon resumed as kids and teens ran around the store, all eagerly looking at the poster advertising the newest online game, Everlife.