for lunch sheâd finally have a chance to really talk to Fuzzy. But almost as soon as they walked into the cafeteria, he started slowing down. Max guided him over to their table, and then he just sort of sat there. He wouldnât answer anyoneâs questions, and he hardly moved.
âI bet his batteries ran down,â said Biggs.
âNo way, bro. They last for 55.3 hours without recharging,â said Simeon with that know-it-all tone of his that really drove Max nuts.
âFuzzy, I wanted you to pose, dude,â said Krysti, holding up her sketchbook.
But Fuzzy still just sat there.
Then Dr. Jones and a couple of technicians with a motorized cart showed up.
Max panicked. What had she done wrong?
âIâm sorry, Dr. Jones! I donât know what happened.â
âItâs not your fault, Max,â said Jones. âI should have anticipated this. I just forgot how crazy school cafeterias are.â
ââCrazyâ?â said Krysti. âItâs totally boring.â
âIt may be boring to you,â said Dr. Jones, âbut I can barely hear myself think in here. There must be two hundred kids talking at once. In fact, look at this . . .â
He held out a book-size qScreen showing hundreds of lines of computer code on its LCD screen.
âMake that two hundred and fifty-seven,â said Jones.
The code looked like gibberish to most of the kids, but now Max knew what to look for.
SpeechRecog(stream(254))
SpeechRecog(stream(255))
SpeechRecog(stream(256))
SpeechRecog(stream(257))
âSmoke!â she said. âHe was trying to understand everything everybody in the whole cafeteria was saying at the same time.â
âWeâll take him back to the room for a reboot for now,â said Jones. âAnd then weâll either have to turn off his voice recognition when he comes in here or figure out some way for him to listen to just one person at a time.â
The technicians loaded Fuzzy onto the cart and wheeled him away.
Dr. Jones stayed long enough to say to Max, âYou gonna help us again tomorrow?â
âYou mean, I can? I thought youâd be mad that I let him freeze up again!â
âNo, no,â assured Jones. âYou did a great job with him, Max. And we could definitely use your help again tomorrow . . .â
âYou got it!â
3.3
ROBOT INTEGRATION PROGRAM HQ
The next day went a lot smoother.
Fuzzy went to all of Maxâs morning classes and then turned his voice recognition subroutines off as they walked into the cafeteria. Max and the other kids were able to write notes to him on their qFlex bracelets, and then he could read their questions and answer normally.
Of course, itâs hard to call any answer ânormalâ when the questionâfrom Simeon, of courseâwas: âCould you kill Godzilla?â
After lunch, Max had gym. She wasnât sure what to do about Fuzzy. She knew she couldnât bring him intothe girlâs locker room. But then she wondered why not. He wasnât really a boy or a girl, just a robot. Then she thought about Fuzzy seeing her dressing for gym and knew that absolutely no way could he go in there.
She stopped before turning down the hall to the gym.
âUh, Fuzzy, you better ask Dr. Jones what to do about gym class. I canât take you with me into the locker room.â
âWhy not, Max? Are you afraid Iâll see you in your underwear?â
Max turned bright red and her ears turned even redder. How could he know about underwear? Could he have been making a joke?
Before she could think of anything to say, Fuzzy had sent a text message to Dr. Jones and gotten one back.
Fuzzy wasnât allowed in gym class for safety reasons. Dr. Jones wanted Max to drop Fuzzy off at the tech room.
Max looked at the time on her qFlex. Great. She would
really
have to hustle to drop off Fuzzy and get back to the gym on time. But she couldnât