Jast picked up Xara's head and walked over to where her little robot body lay. Unfortunately, this happened a lot. To often, in fact. She quickly attached it to her body. Xara immediately stood up and smiled. "Sorry, Jast," she said apologetically.
Jast waved a hand in dismissal. She glanced around and picked up her small toolkit, and the badge that was placed beside it. "Xara, we need to find a shelter of some kind. Scan the area."
Xara's expression went blank as little white rays exploded from where her eyes should be. She swiveled her head around, then paused. "Jast, there's an empty shelter six miles southeast."
"And the coordinates?"
Xara searched her memory base, then sent the coordinates to Jast's badge. Jast grabbed a hold of her robot companion, and they disappeared abruptly, reappearing in front of the abandoned shelter. Jast noticed a sign out of the corner of her eye. "Xara, what does that mean?"
Xara studied it. "I think this house was supposed to be given to a human that had enough currency."
Jast tilted her head, then picked up the sign and walked up to the door of the house. She twisted the door knob, and it opened, surprisingly enough to Jast. She then glanced around the strange array of houses and shut the door after Xara was inside.

Tony stared blankly at his ceiling. Another dull, monotonous night. He could hear pop music playing loudly from his sister's room; shouting and cursing came from the room of his video game-addicted brother. What time was it, anyway? He glanced at his watch. Seven-thirty. The weather report called for rain tonight. It hasn't started yet, but he noticed the thick clouds gathering, spreading like a blanket across the dark sky. Fantastic. As if that evening couldn't have been any more dreary.

His cat mewed as she leaped onto his bed. She began rubbing her head against his. "What do you want, you little monster?" he asked, grinning. The cat began to purr softly. Tony pushed her away and sat up, stretching his back. "Hungry?"

The cat meowed, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Forget it. I just fed you."

She continued to stare at him with her unblinking yellow eyes.

"Alright, fine," he sighed. The cat dashed up to him and rubbed against his legs, her purrs loud. "Stop it, suck-up."

Tony walked downstairs to the kitchen, where they kept the cat food. His mother was staring out the window, deep in thought. It was a common behavior of hers. She was fairly social with their neighbors and always wanted to see what was happening on their street. "That's strange..." she muttered to herself.

"What?" Tony asked, grabbing the bag of cat food from the pantry.

"The For Sale sign at the Johnsons' old house across the street... it's gone."

"Good for them."

"The house was a foreclosure."

"Good for the bank, then." He paused. "What's so weird about that?"

"I could've sworn that the sign was there this afternoon."

"You're imagining things, Mom," Tony said offhandedly, pouring dry pieces of cat food into a plastic bowl.

""Maybe..." His mother said quietly. She turned toward her son. "I thought Domino just ate."

"She wanted more. What could I do?"

"You need to stop spoiling that cat."

"Fine. Okay."

Domino trotted over to her bowl and began hurriedly devouring her kibble. Tony edged over to the kitchen window. Sure enough, his mother was right; the real estate sign in front of the house across the street was gone. Funny- he thought he'd seen it earlier that day, as well. Must have been his imagination or something. Through one of the darkened widows, he thought he saw a head move.

It began to rain.

Janet tossed and turned in her bed trying to make herself comfortable, but it was no use. She sat up, and started to walk away from her bed and to the small kitchen that was placed in her dorm. She poured a small glass of milk then began to drink. "Couldn't sleep huh?" Said Janet's roommate.

"Yeah..." Janet said groggily making her roommate 'Awww'.

"You poor baby, you must be stressed with the midterms coming up." Her roommate teased.

"No, I don't feel all that stressed. I just cannot go to sleep is all." said Janet with a small pout.

"Did you try to sleeping with music?"

"If I did then I would miss my alarm clock." Janet said as she looked out the single window in their room. "Do you have any other ideas on how to sleep?"

"Hmm...how about I wrap you up in blankets?" Her roommate asked. "I know that heat has its way of making you very sleepy." Janet gave it a slight though then nodded.

"Yeah sure let's try that out." Janet gulps down the rest of her milk then she, and her roommate dragged her to bed then wrapped her up in big warm blankets. Soon Janet started to feel warm and comfortable enough to where her eyes started to droop then close fully for her to fall asleep.

Jast sighed and slumped on the bare floor, leaning her head against the wall. She started digging through her toolkit and grabbed out a strange instrument. She glanced over at Xara and smiled. "Time to update your memory chip."
Xara walked over to where Jast sat and flopped down on the floor in front of her. Jast flipped the little latch on her head and carefully reached in to pull out the fragile little chip. It was so close to being broken from the time she'd been rough with it when she was smaller.
Xara switched off, and Jast carefully set her in a corner, then carefully set the chip down next to her bag. She picked up her badge, smiling slightly at it. She remembered the day she got it. Man, she was the happiest she'd been in her life. At least, until now. She was the first engineer sent to survey an unknown planet. Granted, her leaders had already some information, but not enough for them to come just blow up the planet. No- they could be killed if they didn't know what they were dealing with. But so far that Jast had seen, they weren't really an advanced race. She couldn't even get some technological equipment from the tall brown things that grew out of the ground.
Jast focused herself on Xara's chip now. She'd probably be working on it a while, Jast hadn't updated it in a long time. Jast continued working until she saw the golden rays of the sun peek out behind the clouds. Then she just sat there, wondering, what was that thing?

"Wake up."

"Unnhh..."

"WAKE UP."

"Fi... mor... minnnn..."

"GET UP!"

Tony hollered as his younger brother pushed him off the side of his bed, hitting the floor with a dull thud. He glared at his sibling from the ground. "Geez, Will, what was that?!?"

"I told you to get up," his brother said bluntly.

"Well, I'm up. Happy? Now, what do you want?"

"My console's busted."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Um, fix it," Will replied as if it couldn't have been more obvious.

"I can't fix that kind of stuff."

"You fixed Lori's phone last week!"

"She had her SIM card in wrong. It didn't take any effort. You expect me to fix an Xbox because I could turn a stupid SIM card around?"

"C'mon. You just don't wanna help me."

"Believe me, no one can get you help," Tony muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing you'd understand." Tony stood up. "So why else are you here?"

"That was it."

"Then get out, will ya?"

"Fine, whatever." Will walked toward the door. "Hey, are you gonna wear that stupid tie again today?"

"Yeah."

"It makes you look like an idiot."

"That's still better than you," he said under his breath. His brother didn't catch it and left without another word.

Tony sluggishly made his way to his dresser, pulling out jeans and a t-shirt at random. He slipped a red necktie on over top of his shirt. Sure, maybe it looked a bit tacky, but what did it matter? At least he didn't rewear stain-covered shirts three days in a row, like his brother. And his sister wore heels he didn't think it was possible to walk in. If that was their idea of fashion, then forget it. Besides, his tie wasn't that bad...

Ashe made his way downstairs, he heard his mother washing dishes. As he entered the kitchen, she looked up from her work and grinned. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Same as always."

"Say, Tony..."

He knew that tone. Favor-for-Mom time.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to greet our new neighbors later today."

"Er..." He wasn't overly find of introductions to new people. They could be pretty awkward, and he had a tendency to think before he said anything, making a lot of people...off-put with him. But knowing his mother, there was no getting out of this. "Sure, I guess."

"Good," said his mother, smiling. "Now, if you wouldn't mind feeding the cat?"

"Sure. She's the only one who'll eat anything I give her."

His mother laughed. "That's why I make breakfast."

"Indeed."

Janet woke up to the sound of her alarm. She slowly got out of her warm bed, and changed into a pair of basketball shorts, a tank top, and sneakers. She then proceeded to grab her Ipod, and played some music while she went over to her favorite neighborhood to jog. As she jogged through the place she noticed that the for sale sign on the old foreclosed house was gone. She shrugged it off, and continued to jog.

Jast was putting the finishing touches on Zara's chip when she heard a knock at the door. Her eyes widened, and she quickly replaced the chip, her wide eyes locked on Xara. "There's humans at the door," Jast whsipered. "What do we do?"
Xara glanced around, trying to think. Xara rummaged through Jast's toolkit and pulled out a small device. Xara tucked it into her boot, and a hologram immediately shimmered over Jast. "There. You look like a human now," Xara said with a smile. She then got close to the ground, and Jast noticed she had fur covering her now. Jast shrugged, trusting her loyal robot friend. With a deep breath, she opened the door.

Idon'twantodothisIdon'twanttodothisIdon'twanttodothis.

Yes, he had agreed to do this.

Yes, it was the right thing to do.

Yes, it had the potential to make what quite possibly be a difficult time for someone a little less difficult.

Did that mean that he wanted to do it?

Absolutely not.

But here he was, so he might as well suck it up and be a man.

His mother rang the doorbell, not noticing her son's somewhat anxious expression. Not that it mattered, anyway. There was no backing down now.

God, man, you're just meeting a new neighbor. Relax.

Tony's mother smiled as the door opened. Standing just inside the threshold was a girl around his age, with tanned skin and red hair. A little cute, he thought briefly. The girl was giving them a slightly curious look.

"Good morning," his mother said. "I'm Christine Maddock from across the street, and this is my son, Tony. Just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood."

The girl tilted her head to the side. After a moment, she replied, "Ah. Yes. Thank you. I'm...Jazmine."

"Are your parents home?" Ms. Maddock asked.

"No, they aren't."

"Oh, that's a shame. Well, please tell them that we're happy to help with anything they need."

"Yes, yes. I will. Thanks." Jazmine eyed Tony oddly. "What?"

He shook his head. "What?"

"What's with that look?"

"What look?"

"You...never mind. Nothing," Jazmine muttered exhaustedly. "Sorry."

Well, that sounded incensere.

"Thank you for stopping by. I'll...ask if I need anything," Jazmine said, giving a small smile.

"Alright, good luck with the move! Have a nice day!" Mrs. Maddock said, waving as Jazmine closed her front door. Satisfied, she turned to her son. "She seems like a nice girl. Straightforward, too."

"I guess," Tony murmured. He hadn't been aware that he has been giving the new girl a strange look. Yet something about the whole exchange didn't seem right. Never mind. It was probably just some stupid, irrelevant thought of his. Forcing the idea out of his head, he turned to his mother. "Hey, mom? Is it okay if I go to the university today?"

"I don't see why not," she replied. "Just be home by seven, okay?"

"Got it," Tony said, turning toward a different road. "Later!"

He'd wanted to gain admission to Leroux University since the eighth grade. Now, as a seventeen-year-old junior, and it was high time for him to to work toward earning a scholarship. For the last couple of months, he'd been meeting with a girl named Janet Whitt. Janet, who already went to Leroux, was helping him with meeting scholarship requirements. Things were going well. She was a great help and, admittedly, kind of-

No. Not addmittedly. There was nothing to be admitted.

Not a thing.