GIRL, UNPLUGGED

YA Novel Chapter 4 | 5 minute read

This is Chapter 4 of a YA novel. To see where the story began, check out the GIRL, UNPLUGGED table of contents post, or head to the GIRL, UNPLUGGED section of the Story Hoarder Substack page to see all the chapters.

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CHAPTER 4: Robot Rosie

Posted to TALIA’S TALES  
Oct 6 @ 10:16AM

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all the comments and interest in today’s fanfic post. 
Day’s been really nice so far.

~Talia
#siprep  

Just as Murph and I joined the rest of the group, Daria Abel took off running away from us, toward the street, screaming, “What are you doing here?” She ran up to a skinny, hooded girl wearing sunglasses standing in front of an “Access-a-Ride” car and threw her arms around her. All eyes were on the two of them. I was elated to have the distraction.
“Oh shit. Is that Robot Rosie?” Colin whispered. I gasped grappling with the impossibility. 
“Is it really her?” Murph whispered to me. 
Dustin punched Colin in the arm. “Don’t be an asshole, man.”  Dustin was right, of course. Calling her “Robot Rosie” wasn’t nice, especially since she had no idea about the nickname, but that’s how we knew her. And the name fit. Rose Summers was — technically — a student in our class, but her presence was more like that of some artificial intelligence inserted into our classroom than an actual human. 
“Did you know she was coming?” Murph leaned in to ask me. 
I shook my head no, feeling his breath on my cheek. “I didn’t think she could…” I said quietly, hoping she didn’t hear me as she approached with Daria. Who was I to determine who could and couldn’t come on a class trip?
Rose attended Staten Island Prep from the comfort of her own home. Half the time I forgot she was there, but every once in a while Mrs. Krimble would call on her in class and a voice would come out of a screen in the back of the room where we could see her face like she was some YouTube personality acting as a high school science class spy. I wasn’t sure if anyone knew exactly what was wrong with Rose (except, maybe Daria), but I had heard every rumor from the extreme diagnosis of brain cancer, including brain surgery, all the way to what some students suspected was anxiety. I figured it had to be somewhat serious since the school made so many accommodations for her. Plus, she needed Access-a-Ride to get to our trip.
“No fair! How come we all didn’t get car service?” Russ called out. A couple of other voices echoed the sentiment, but all I could think was No thank you! My grandmother needed Access-a-Ride and it was nowhere near as cool as it seemed. Here’s how it is supposed to work: call a number, give them a time and place, they send a ride to your home to take you there, you pay the same you would for a city bus ride. The problem? They never came on time, a bunch of the drivers drove crazy (like my grandmother doesn’t get on an Access-a-Ride without her rosary beads clutched in her hands kind of crazy), and, most times, you ended up spending more of your day on their buses and in their cars than at any destination you needed to go to.  I remember on one trip Rog and I took with our grandmother to the grocery store while staying with her. Rog and I kept saying, “Grandma we could have walked here so much faster!” and we begged her not to call them to drive us home. We hadn’t realized at the time that her arthritis had taken away that option for her. Rose must have gotten up at the crack of dawn just to make it here on time. As I watched her smile and chit-chat with Daria, I wondered what took the option away from her.

“So happy you could make it with us today Rose,” Mrs. Krimble said as Daria and Rose walked up to the group. She had her clipboard in hand and wrote something down. “Nice to see you and Daria are already friends.” Mrs. Krimble looked uncomfortable addressing Rose, as if she were as weirded out as I was by the actual humanity of Robot Rosie. “Are you feeling up to this?” she asked with an edge of seriousness.
Rose nodded while chewing wildly on a green piece of gum, and gave Mrs. Krimble a thumbs up. “I’m taking it one hour at a time, Mrs. K. I’ll let you know if I need to tap out.” I couldn’t see because of her sunglasses, but something about Rose’s movement made me think she just winked at Mrs. Krimble. There was an irreverence about her that felt both intimidating and charming.
Daria laughed and threw an arm around Rose’s shoulders. “I’ll keep an eye on her Mrs. K. I promise. You lead the way into the big box of knowledge and we’ll follow along.” Then Daria pulled out her phone and looked like she was about to snap a selfie, but instead started talking to the camera. “Buenos dias mi gentes!” she said with an enormous smile.
“Here we go,” Colin said. “Daria’s broadcasting!” Then he elbowed Russ, and grabbed Dustin. They ran around behind Daria bouncing up and down making all types of silly faces just like those randos trying to get their fifteen seconds of fame behind a local reporter on the six o’clock news.
  “I’m coming to you from the Big ol’ Apple,” Daria continued unaffected by the hi-jinx. “I’m a bit early and that’s cause there’s a surprise that just need to be shared live: Thorny Rose is with me!” Daria was a vlogger. I didn’t subscribe to her channel, but I tuned in a couple of times. Daria’s Day was a great place to get caught up on any big happenings in Staten Island Prep when you didn’t have your own social circle to tap into. She tilted the camera so it faced her and Rose, “Tonight’s edition of Daria’s Day is gonna knock your socks off, so make sure you tune in to capture it all as soon as it posts. Soo that’s a wrap —” She pointed to Rose.
“A wrap!” the boys in the background echoed.
“Go take a nap,” Rose said dully sliding her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose peering over them flashing her hazel eyes.
“A nap!” the echo shouted again.
“And remember the comments are your place to clap!” Daria ended with some twisted duck face. 
“Clap! Clap! Clap!” the boys sung while slow clapping. Daria stepped out of the way, facing the camera right on them before tapping it to finish recording.
The wrap-nap-clap thing followed by some funny face was Daria’s sign off. Sign-offs were a great idea — especially when you saw how much it resonated with the audience. It made me think I needed to seriously consider a signature for my blog. 
Mrs. Krimble, who had remained quiet for the entire recording, blinked twice before saying anything. “Yes… well… Now… that was exciting. Why don’t we get Daria and Rose some material for their big production?” She turned to lead us to the nearly imperceptible entrance of the museum in the middle of the reflective cube. I typed while I walked, grasping onto the tendrils of an idea.

Posted to TALIA’S TALES  
Oct 6 @ 10:21AM

SIGNING OFF

Hey peeps. I’m having a thought. What about goodbyes? I’m conflicted about adding a sign off or something more than my name in a signature because I feel like our conversation is constantly ongoing. But I just watched a vlogger use a sign-off as a sort of nod to her subscribers and it got me wondering, am I missing the point? Looking for your opinions about sign-offs on blog posts — do they make sense? If so, any suggestions for a TALIA’S TALES sign-off? Let me know in the comments.

~Talia
#imnogoodatgoodbyes

Leave a Comment - Has “Robot Rosie” lost her relevance?

First, thank you for reading this part of my novel GIRL, UNPLUGGED. A new chapter will be posted on Wednesday. A new short story will be back on Friday.

I wrote this book long before remote learning was a coomon idea in the world. I wonder if this concept of “Robot Rosie” is still relevant in a post-pandemic world when Rose’s classroom representation was everyone’s norm for at least a year. What are your thoughts about this? Leave a comment to let me know!

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