“Alright maggots,” the coach began loudly, “today is dodgeball day!”
Most of the class began to grow excited, but Gavin, a spry senior, always hated gym class.
“You know the drill by now,” the coach continued. “Hit a person, they’re out. Catch a ball, they’re back in and the thrower is out. Got it?”
Everyone nodded.
“Good.” The coach blew his whistle and the class split off into two teams. Gavin’s team had one fewer person than the opponents, but luckily Billy, Rory, and Todd were on his side.
Billy ran around trying not to get hit, only occasionally throwing a ball. Rory tossed and caught balls left and right, only stopping because someone outside of his peripheral vision hit him in the shoulder.
Todd stood in the corner, waiting to get out, but no one got him. After a few tosses and dodges, a loose ball from seemingly nowhere hit Gavin square in the face, knocking him to the floor and making his nose bleed.
“Oh, wipeout!” the coach cried out as Billy, Rory and Todd rushed to his side.
“Jesus Christ,” said Billy, “you good?”
Gavin tapped two fingers to his philtrum and looked at his fingertips. To his surprise, his blood was colored black instead of a deep maroon. Confusion began to arise in his head as his classmates watched him get escorted to the nurse’s office by his three friends.
“Well, aside from the discoloration, nothing seems to be off,” said the nurse. “You’re free to go back to class, Mr. Vermogen, just make sure you don’t take out the tissues in your nose unless you’re sure that the bleeding has stopped.”
Gavin nodded and hopped off of the little bed with his backpack draped on his shoulder. When he exited, he was surprised to find Billy there waiting for him.
“Oh, hey,” he said.
“Hey man,” said Billy, “everything okay in that head of yours?”
“Yeah, the nurse said not to take it out unless the bleeding had stopped.”
“That’s good.”
“…Why aren’t you back in class?”
“I wanted to make sure you were cool, and also I wanted to talk about stuff.”
“Oh, okay.”
Gavin and Billy began to walk together as the clock struck noon, lunchtime. The bell rang and students began to pile out of their classrooms.
“So about the nosebleed,” said Billy with his hands clasped together.
Gavin looked at him funny. “What?”
“Why do you think it was black?”
“Uhh, I don’t know. Isn’t blood supposed to be black?”
“Not really. I’d think you would’ve known about this, right? I mean, you’ve seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with me!”
Gavin shrugged. “Maybe I’ve got a disorder.”
“Or maybe you’re a killer robot!” Billy outstretched his arms and began to walk around like a mummy. “Bzzzt! I’m a killer robot coming to eat your children!”
Gavin laughed as Billy began to run around the hall screaming killer robot phrases until one of the teachers stopped and scolded him for doing such a thing.
Later, at his house, Gavin relayed the story to “Pappy” Vermogen, his grandfather, who sat at the kitchen table reading a newspaper.
“The next thing I know, wham!” Gavin said as he dug through the fridge looking for snacks. “I’m on the ground and my nose is bleeding all over the place!”
“Hm, interesting,” said Pappy.
“The weirdest thing about that whole thing was my blood. It was black, for some reason.”
Pappy looked up from his newspaper. “What?”
“Yeah, Billy did this funny thing where he walked around like a Frankenstein creature before he got caught by a teacher. Haha!” Gavin outstretched his arms and began to walk around the kitchen in a circle. “Grrr! I’m a spooky robot and I’m going to take over the world!”
Pappy stared at Gavin as he continued to trot around. “I’m sure it’s nothin’,” he said after much deliberation.
“Listen, all I’m saying is, if I could, I would,” Rory said before he bit into his sandwich.
“Oh, please,” said Gavin, “you couldn’t run a 5K even if your balls were on the line!”
“Shut up!”
“No you shut up!”
“Guys!” Billy shouted. “Why don’t you two fuckin’ race or something? I don’t care!”
Billy dropped his head onto the table, extremely tired and anxious due to the four tests in a row he was supposed to take. Two down, two to go, and all he needed was some shuteye. Gavin and Rory looked at each other, then down at Billy, then at Todd.
“I’ll watch him. You two race,” he said quietly.
Gavin and Rory looked at each other before getting off their lunch table and standing next to each other. They each put one foot forward and, since Rory was a track star, he placed his hands on the lunchroom floor, which disgusted some onlookers. As more buzz began to spread around the room. Rory counted down and, once he reached zero, the two sped off into the main hall.
As they ran, Rory could feel himself growing tired as they reached the second turn. Unlike Rory, Gavin was barely breaking a sweat, keeping a quick and steady pace. He could hear the athlete panting behind him. “Aw come on, medal winner!” Gavin taunted. “What’s wrong, can’t seem to keep up?”
Rory hated being taunted, but all he could do was desperately keep up as Gavin won the race in a landslide. Gavin triumphantly raised his fists as students and even teachers began to applaud him while Rory slumped next to Todd, who rested his hand on Billy as he snored.
Gavin basked in the glory as he sat next to Billy and outstretched an open hand to Rory. “My victory milk, sir, posthaste!” he cried.
Rory, angered, grabbed an unopened carton of milk and, with much force, squeezed it open, letting the milk spray onto his face. Shocked, Gavin fell backward and began to shake and writhe around violently.
Rory began to laugh. “Come on, man, you’re doing some sort of chicken-shit thing!”
Todd tugged on Rory’s shirt. “I don’t think he’s faking it,” he whispered.
“What? Of course he is! Look at him, no one shakes their head like that! It’s usually like a bunch of muscle spasms or something.”
Gavin’s head bounced side to side as his arms curled into themselves like a dinosaur’s. Billy raised his head and stared confused at the crowd that began to form around their table. He looked down at the floor.
“Gavin, good God!” he shouted in surprise before turning to Rory. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
Billy took Gavin under his arms and ran to the nurse’s office as Rory and Todd watched, confused. The crowd, who once watched Gavin get escorted out like a princess, now turned to face the remaining two.
“Don’t you assholes have anything better to do?” Rory shouted.
The crowd immediately dispersed. Todd covered his face, slightly embarrassed.
Several hours later, Gavin woke up in his room, staring at his poster of Prince, who was staring back at him. He cleared his throat and sat up out of bed before Pappy walked into his room with a glass of water and a bowl of Goldfish crackers.
“Hey,” said Pappy. “Is everything doing good in that head of yours?”
“Yeah.” Gavin pulled his feet onto his bedroom floor. “Is that for me?”
Pappy placed the snacks onto the bedside table. “Yeah.” He looked up at Gavin’s poster of Prince on the ceiling. “I’m assuming he kept you company while you were down and out?”
“Yeah, he’s got that eye imagery for a reason.” Gavin rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”
“‘Bout six o’clock.”
“Six? Jesus, I must’ve been hit pretty hard. What was it that got me out… milk? That can’t be right.”
“Honestly, it might just be sensory issues. I was the same way with dairy products when I was a young lad. Now I can’t get enough of them. Maybe it’s that.”
“It couldn’t be that. I had a cheeseburger for lunch today.”
Pappy stood there for a moment before putting a handful of Goldfish into his mouth and walking out of Gavin’s room. He said something, but Gavin couldn’t understand what it was with all the Goldfish. All he could do was sit and wonder, but since he found that too boring, he hopped on his computer to see what his friends were playing.
The two-month mark before graduation came, and Gavin’s teachers began to lock down on learning and testing. Entire subjects were completed in a week’s time, and yet Gavin’s history teacher managed to bring in a special guest speaker: a robot nicknamed “Asimov” by the media.
He was a trailblazer for workers’ rights for both humans and robots, and this was his last stop on a tour through high school history classes. Visiting classes worked better than speaking at loud assemblies where people weren’t paying attention.
On and on he went, covering everything from the serfdoms of Medieval England to an event two years earlier in a factory where he had worked.
“Although it would have been in my best interest to participate in such a riot,” he said as the projector lit his gray face, “I decided not to. If our benefactors wish to continue hiring automatons like me or that person over there, they should understand that we robots are just as conscious as any man, woman or child.”
The person that Asimov pointed at was Gavin, who stared at the robot with confusion.
“I am not a robot, sir,” he said.
“What’s the matter, freakazoid?” a classmate shouted, “can’t seem to get along with your fellow clanker?”
“That’s enough,” said the teacher. “Principal’s office, right now!”
The student scoffed before grabbing his things and leaving.
“I’m so confused. I’m not a robot, I’m sure of it,” said Gavin.
“Oh, sure you are!” Asimov said. “The way you move and process information tells me that you’re an automaton just like myself.”
Everyone looked at Gavin. “That can’t be,” he said. “I have memories of middle school, elementary school! I remember my first memory!”
Asimov tugged his shirt collar. “Uh, I think this might be something to discuss with your guardians,” he said, exiting the room.
Everyone kept staring at Gavin as a looming dread began to overwhelm him. This could explain why he’d always felt so different from his peers or why his former schoolmates didn’t remember him prior to his move.
But really? Would his Pappy stoop to such a level? It was possible. He thought about Pappy constant brushing off of Gavin’s concerns with things like “Oh, it’s just anxiety.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?” Gavin thought to himself.
“Pappy, am I a robot?”
Pappy set down his newspaper and rubbed his face before he took a deep breath and got off of the kitchen chair he was sitting on. “Technically an android. But yes.”
Gavin stumbled backward near the kitchen counter as the feeling of air quickly exiting his synthetic lungs took hold of his face like a wet paper towel. Pappy grabbed onto his arm to keep Gavin from falling over, but this only made him look at his grandfather with scorn.
“What do you mean I’m an android?” he shouted. “You mean to tell me after all this time that I was a robot? What about my youth? All the people that were in my life prior to the move? Were they real?”
Pappy cleared his throat. “I generated them. You were built sometime around your freshman year. The move was a lie. It was a cover story just to get you to not guess anything.”
“Oh my God. And you just didn’t say anything about me? Letting me go out there all alone just to tough it out. God, you’re a real selfish piece of shit, you know that?”
“You wanna call me selfish? I spent every waking moment of my life worrying and hoping that you’d turn out alright. Do you know how long it took for me to clean the milk out of your inner body? I should give your Rory friend an ass-kicking!”
“This would’ve never happened if you just told me!”
“What do you want me to say? That I needed a replacement son because my three children are either dead, in prison, or both? I raised you because I wanted someone normal, someone who could rise to the challenge any normal person can. You are just as good as anyone else, and I know that for a fact.”
Gavin, without thinking, ripped a chunk of skin off of his arm, revealing the oily, metallic skeleton underneath. He would have said something had he not been programmed to feel pain. He fell to his knees and began to sob. Pappy stared at him for a beat before getting his android grandson onto his feet and steering him toward the garage.
He placed him onto his worktable and began to resew the lost flesh back onto his arm as Gavin watched. “You know,” he started, “I was planning on telling you at some point. But you had all of those tests coming up and I didn’t want to burden you. I guess I should’ve told you. I’m sorry.”
Gavin didn’t say anything else, he just watched Pappy sew.
Two months passed. It was time for graduation, and Gavin was sitting by a pond contemplating in his coat and cap. Despite everything that happened, he had somehow managed to pass his classes, albeit barely. Now all he had left was the ceremony and he’d be done. The only question was, what now?
Despite wanting to be alone, Billy, also in his graduation outfit, sat next to him with two small lollipops. He gave one to Gavin and said, “Hey, you doing okay?”
“I don’t know,” said Gavin. “Life’s been pretty shit at the moment.”
“Mm-hmm, what’re you gonna do after school?”
“I don’t know, might kill myself.”
Billy looked away from the pond and stared at Gavin. “What?”
“I don’t know, maybe. I just don’t see the point of living after high school. I was built as a teenager, I’ll probably stay as a teenager indefinitely.”
Billy took his lollipop out of his mouth and held it between his fingers like a cigarette.
“The way I see it, you’ve been given the gift of life. Might as well use it to the fullest. And plus, Wondrous Oblivion is going to be playing a show in town soon. Do you wanna come with me?”
Gavin looked at Billy and smiled. “Yeah, sure.”
“And look on the bright side, maybe they’ll invent a brain that decays so you can feel truly human!”
Gavin laughed. “Maybe. Let’s just focus on one thing at a time here.”
The two stood up and walked back toward the gym where the ceremony was about to begin. Behind them, the pond sat unbothered, fading into the background as Gavin readied himself to face the rest of the world.
Velocity 
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