Glitch (boyxboy/android)

Chapter 10: Download

"He can't clean your room Enzo. You need to buy an additional download."

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"Hey, hey, tutor." Enzo impatiently taps the arm of the non responsive android. Whilst his parents were out and his brother was working a shift at the diner, the teen had been curious about this new toy and was now trying to get it to do his bidding.

"You know, it doesn't work like that." Jojo, his best friend, steps a little closer to the droid.

"How do you know so much about how a tutor works?" Enzo says in a half responsive tone, not taking his eyes from The PTs currently orange charging ones.

"My sister's friend has a girl one." Jojo replies, adding, "You need to touch it's hand."

Enzo reaches a hand forward and pokes the top of The PTs synthetic skin on its left hand. "Are you sure? It's not doing anything." Enzo gives a couple more jabs before dropping his hand once again.

"No, not like that, you gotta go palm to palm." Jojo says, holding up his hand.

"Oh!" Enzo replies, before trying again, this time pressing his right hand firmly against The PT's left one.

The orange eyes now spark into life, turning a deep green before it speaks. "Hello, Bonjour, Hola, Annyeonghaseyo, Bona. Please speak so I can identify your language."

"Oh uh omg...ok. yeah, I'm Enzo." Enzo is even surprised with himself at the realistic response of The PT.

"Hello Enzo I am The PT. Please place your palm on my palm so I can correlate your algorithm."

"What?" Enzo looks at the tutor, then at his friend in confusion. "Jojo, what's he talking about?"

"He wants to assess your IQ dummy, I can do that for you, it's 40." Jojo snorts out a laugh, which earns him a heavy slap from Enzo. He again turns his attention to The PT.

"I don't need you to teach me bro, I just need your skills." Enzo says, his thoughts focused on his mission.

"I must correct you, the right pronunciation is brother, which I am not..."

The PT gets cut short by a now very impatient Enzo. "Yeah whatever, I just need you to go clean my room."

"That I cannot do. I am a level one auditory tutor. You can download the kinesthetic package at www..." The tutor again gets silenced by a raise of a hand.

"Woah, woah stop.... what's he saying now?" Enzo is now getting frustrated by the tutor's lack of help.

Jojo rolls his eyes at his friend at his lack of jargon knowledge . "He can't clean your room Enzo. You need to buy an additional download."

Enzo rubs the back of his neck in thought. "And how much is that exactly?"

"Lemme check." Jojo replies, pulling his phone from his pocket and randomly searching for tutor add ons in the search engine. "Um...£1,000."

"Seriously?" Enzo says eyes wide, dropping his hands to his sides in defeat. "I don't have that kind of money!" He momentarily contemplates trying to locate Leo's stash of cash he had hidden somewhere in his room, which Enzo had seen him count on the bed before being sworn to secrecy not to tell their parents...well the exact words were. "If you squeal I will end you." Leo always saw his threats through.

"Hey just..." Jojo goes quiet, leaving Enzo hanging with baited breath.

"What is it?" He questions impatiently.

"Look." Jojo holds his phone at an angle so they can both see. There on the screen is a video. 'Free tutor hacks'. He presses the link and a few videos show up on screen. After watching the first one with the most likes, he looks up at Enzo. "What do you think? Should we do it?"

Enzo looks at the screen, then at The PT, then thinks about the state of his room, which he had promised to clean before his parents got home. He wets his lips with his tongue before nodding. "Let's do it."

This conversation hadn't gone unnoticed by The PT, who turns its head towards the two scheming boys. "Unauthenticated downloads are prohibited and may cause damage to your tutor."

"Yeah whatever... Jojo, how do you turn it off?" Enzo now shows more of an interest in Jojo's phone screen than the The PT in front of him.

"Just touch the hand again." He replies, clicking the link attached to the most promising search.

The tutor powers down. Its fate now seemingly in the hands of two 15 year olds. Jojo and Enzo watch the 5 minute video intently. "So...it looks like all you need is a laptop, a wire and this website." Jojo deduces.

Enzo pulls his lips into his mouth in thought, now having just that element of doubt creep in. "Are you sure it's safe?" He asks Jojo a little hesitantly.

"Look. The video has lots of likes and views, so it must be ok, plus the only downside are the glitches." Jojo tries to reassure.

"Glitches...what do you mean by glitches?" Enzo looks at Jojo warily.

"It might just give out incorrect informition or facts sometimes...I'm pretty sure that's all." Jojo shrugs. The damage seemed minimal.

Enzo nods in agreement. "Yeah that sounds ok....i'll go get my laptop." He heads for the door only to return a few moments later with the device. He sits on the floor, next to the The PT and pulls its wire from its lower back and reconnects the tutor to his laptop. "Ok Jojo my friend...what next?"