One sunny day, Shantal suddenly felt like going to a library and so she decided to drive and visit the nearest library in her place. Out of the countless books in the shelves, she immediately felt drawn to the storybook section.
She let her fingers glide on the borders of the book when her eyes landed on a specific book. She took it and there she saw its title that says,
The velvet rabbit doll...
For some reason, the book gave her off some sense of familiarity, and before she knew it, she was already immersed in reading the children's book. She reckoned that if Alex was there with him, he would definitely pick the same book.
The story revolved around a stuffed rabbit sewn from velveteen. It was given as a Christmas present to a small boy. The boy plays with his other new presents and forgets the velveteen rabbit for a time. These presents are modern and mechanical, and they snub the old-fashioned velveteen rabbit. T
While Shantal was at the phase of wallowing over her newfound love story that died out due to her Android Partner meeting its untimely end, she was also reminded of her past and the old wound that was brought by an old romance was reopened. Unbeknownst to anyone, way before meeting Alex, Shantal had already met a robot the same age as hers. It was right after Zoren's death when she decided to transfer schools. The pressure from the comparison between her and Jodi at that time was not helping as her guardian, Butler James decided to enroll her in a different school. He was the father of her current Butler, Butler John. At that time, Shantal trusted her butler more than anyone else, and the other party also used to be her father figure. Her foolish self, young and wild, at that time, let herself fell in love with the robot and it obviously did not end well for both of them. That was why she was not fond of keeping an Android Partner for herself and even swore not to al
Classses rushed by very quickly as she hop from one to the next and Shantal was only given a breather when she finally heard their Music teacher announced to the class,"Alright, children. Time for lunch""Bye, Mrs. Sales."Shantal together with the rest of the other students answered in unison the they all headed to the lunch room. Shantal fell in line and waited for her cue to get her lunch at the school cafeteria. As soon as she got her food, Shantal sat at the table in the corner of the room. Somewhere that was usually designated for those who don't have friends. just like her. She settled at one of the chairs and thought that she could get peace as she ate her food. Yet just as when she picked up her fork, the same three girls from the earlier class that snickered at her walked over to her."Are you trying to label yourself as a nerd by sitting on your own?"The one that looked like their leader said. Shantal recalled their teacher
They continue their lunch together until the bell rung."I guess it is time for our class."Shantal said as she got up and threw her food away."I guess it is. What is your next class?"Steve asked."Oh, I have science."Shantal answered and Steve broke into a big smile when he learned that they will be sharing the same class."Great! I do too."The two walked together to their class and picked the seats that were right next to each other. The class goes by in almost an instant for Shantal because she only focused on Steve the whole time. For some reason, she could see so much in him and could feel feeling for him than she ever felt to anyone before that even to herself, she could not understood why.As class end, Shantal rose to her feet and looked at Steve. This time, she was the one who initiated the conversation."Well, do we have any other classes together?"She asked, hoping that they coul
Shantal held onto Steve as they see through the air with great speed they arrived at her house in less than three minutes cutting the travelling by nearly 10 minutes. Shantal slid off of Steve's arms and on the ground she fixed her hair and looked at the other party with exhilaration.That was awesome, Shantal said as she took a deep breath and breathe steadily"Agreed, it was fun!"Steve said before turning to walk in the opposite direction"Is it not funny that we live right across the street from each other"He asked and Shantal laughed a little bit."Yeah, it is."She mumbled before sheturned toward her front door, eager to tell her butler what had happened.She heard Steve walked through his door and closed it. Meanwhile, Shantal started to walk in but she suddenly noticed that the door was cracked open in a tad. Curious, she walked in slowly."Butler James?"She asked as she stepped into an empty
Shantal wakes up to her alarm clock blaring at her. She never did like it, but she always obeyed it as if it were her mother asking to get up. That is when she had a mother. She gets up and turns the alarm off."Good morning mom. I'm gonna try to have a good day today." She says to a picture of a robot on her nightstand.Shantal walks out into the kitchen and gets herself a bowl of cereal. "Do you want anything, BUutler John?" She asks as she sees the other party walk up from the basement."I'll just have some coffee."He says in his usual gruff voice. For a man who works on inventions all day and hardly eats, he still managed to be overweight. Shantal grabs his coffee and sets it on the stand next to his chair."Maybe one day you'll invent the razer to shave your beard." Shantal teases."You sound just like your late mother."He says as he takes a sip of coffee and reads the newspaper.Shantal eats her breakfast
While Shantal ponders over what she's heard, she sees a figure walking toward them making minimal sound. she looks over and sees the principal. Steve says something that rocks her world to the core. "Hey dad!" Steve says enthusiastically. "Dad?!" Shantal says as she looks at her principal, Mr. Jameson.The Principal only wears a black cloak with a large black ancient cowboy hat. No one has ever seen what he looks like other than the part of his face that isn't covered with a scarf, which is just an eye with a little bit of hair. "Yes Shantal, I am Steve 's father. And I'm actually glad you're here, because I needed to talk to you." Mr. Jameson says flatley."Uh, can you do this a bit later dad?" Steve replies. "We we're about to go to class together." Mr. Jameson looks slightly inconvenienced, well as much as you can tell with only seeing one eye. "Sure, that'll work." He says as he walks off.Shantal closes her lunchbox
Steve and Shantal turn the corner into their neighborhood."So, do you want to go to the movies later? Like, Tuesday?"Steve says as he gently puts Shantal down."Movies? Yeah, sure. I'll have to check with my dad to see if it's ok, but I should be fine."Shantal replies as she starts walking toward her house."Thanks for the lift, Steve."She says as she walks inside and closes the door.A few minutes later, she hears a knock on her door. she walks downstairs and looks through the peephole to check. It is Mr. Jameson. She opens the door to see the tall black figure casting a shadow on her."Uh, Mr. Jameson! What a surprise!"She says. The other party, on the other hand, stares blankly at her for a few seconds, then says,"Shantal, I want you to be a soldier."After a few seconds, her eyes widen in confusion and horror."You want me to do what?" She blurted out when she recovered from her initi
Shantal walks happily over to Steve's house and knocks on the door. There's no answer after a few seconds, so she knocks again, this time hearing someone running down a set of stairs and then a large, mechanical object fall down. The door opens, showing Steve dusting himself off and picking up the broken pieces of glass that are remains of his facial screen."Oh my goodness, are you ok?" Shantal says as she walks in and lays her hands on Steve's shoulders. What's left of Steve's screen turns bright red as he looks down at Shantal. "Yes, I am. Do you think you could help repair me?" He says looking at the broken glass. Shantal steps around the glass carefully as she walks into the house. It's quite big despite the look on the outside. For some reason, Shantal remembers boards on the windows not too long ago. Steve starts to walk down a set of stairs next to the kitchen. "Follow me, there's a laboratory down here with some spare glass!" He says as his feet stomp o
"Gosh it's good."Harold said when he got to taste how refreshing the drink was. When he looked at the other two guys, he saw them gesturing to their head but he did not give them much attention."Yes.Sam repeated the same thing with a voice and face devoid of emotion."Something needs fixing."Harold told Sam afterward and so Sam fought back to urge to do and eye roll before replying flatly to him."Okay."This time, Harold noticed that Rico and Michael still keep on doing the same thing so he asked them instead,"What? Is your scalp itchy.""No."The two answered in unison. Jodi on the other hand who was watching all of this farce unfold right before her eyes, could not help but let out a sigh."You sure are made for each other."She said to no one in particular and it was also as seemed she was only talking to herself."Anyway. Michael, I need you to go to Casterly."
"I am right here. Respect my existence."Michael insinuated afterward before he sarcastically added,"Do you guys want be to get you a room instead?""I should not have fallen asleep that night."He muttered to himself as he recalled the night Jodi asked Rico out for a date. He believed that if only he was not asleep that time, then maybe Jodi would also consider dating him.On the other hand, Rico seemed to be out of it and oblivious of him."Lover."The other party mumbled to himself as he observed the tarot card in his hand.'"I did not know this will happen. I feel so lonely."Michael muttered to himself out of despondency and while he was in the middle of self pity. Someone walked into the room.They though the one arrived was some random girl who was in full glam and obviously had just gone to salon for her touch up when it decided to have some coffee."Wow! I told her she would be pretty."
"That robot was sometimes human and sometimes a robot for me and that was why others who can't understand my situation mistakes me as someone who hallucinates and believe a robot as a human just because I am treating it just like one. But for my opinion, my situation was no different from those who loves their pets so much, they even considered them as their child and called themselves as furparents.""My emotions were input into that robot and that person. That is how this miracle happened. That fact completely changed the way I view things. This will be yet another scoop for the reporters present. Nordstorme Corp will go from financing mergers and acquisitions to investing in futuristic industries that involved human sensibilities. Just like what Alpha Tec Inc pioneered years ago.""This is your first change in business strategy in 15 years. Do you have anything mapped out?"One of the reporters raised a question just like what a normal press conference should
On the flip side, just like what Shantal assumed, Mr. Takashi with Mathilde's instruction called for an emergency meeting on that afternood. Which happened to coincide to the time when Shantal will hold her press conference.Moreover, since Mathilde would not be able to make it there since she was still held in prison, her secretary presided the meeting."We shall begin the emergency board meeting."Secretary Ye declared loudly and her voice reverberated in the room. Jiro was also there along with other board members."The agenda is the dismissal of Director Shantal Nordstorme and the cause is as you were all informed. An illness."She continued while everyone was silent and anxiously prayed so they could ever this meeting once and for all. On the contrary, Mr. Takashi was nodding his head on the side and though he was anticipating for this day come.Mr. Takashi nodded his head toward Secretary Ye to signal her to start it once and for
In there, Jodi found a list of shares under her name as well as a soft copy of memorandum of renunciation address to Shantal with her name on it and it was then that Jodi realized that her mom had already long planned about it ahead of the time.As it turned out, Mathilde was thinking of using her influence to oust her cousin out of the position.In addition, inside the flash drive she also found an old email account with records of bunch of emails and it took Jodi more than four hours to go through all of them.But by the time she finished reading the exchange of chats Mathilde had with her hitman, Jodi's eyes was bloodshot.It was unsure if this was cause by her prolong exposure to the screen or if it was exhaustion that was doing this thing on her body, but when she get up from her chair, Jodi balled her hands into a fist.She slammed the door shut behind her back as she left the office and on the screen, the last conversation
It was late in the evening when Jodi received a call out from nowhere. When she checked that registered on the caller ID, she was surprised to see Jiro's name.Truth be told, he was the least person he would expect to contact her. After all, the two of them never talked to each other for ages.Jiro used to be a good friend of hers as well. Just like how she and Shantal were cousins, Jiro and and Zorens were first cousins too so naturally all four of them get to know each other and as a child, they eventually became acquaintances in no time.Besides, since Zoren's parents were a family friend of the Nordstorme they often had an opportunity to hang around during their childhood.However, ever since the day Zoren committed suicide due to the incident regarding the Nordstorme controversy, Jiro also stopped communicating with them.So this made Jodi wonder what had come to Jiro to decide and phone her at this time of the night.But
"In other words, she wants me to become director and cover up all his shortcomings?"Mr. Takashi insinuated after his contemplation. He did not exactly declined the offer this time, unlike before. Although he also did not directly implied that he would do it.Nonetheless, Secretary Ye considered his response as a good sign. At least, the other party was no longer adamant at turning them down.So with the same insinuating manner, she answered him back."That would make it easier for you to do your duties once you become a director. All that was left for you now is to leave Ms. Shantal Nordstrome no other choice but to step down and abdicate the position of board directory to your hands.""Ousting her is not enough. He will just come back. We must make sure he loses the will to come back."Out of nowhere, Mr. Takashi declared with conviction and for a second, the secretary was taken aback by this.One moment, he almost drove her a
"You told Jodi about everything?"Mathilde asked her secretary as soon as the two of them were finally allowed to have some private conversation within the prison hall where she was currently detained. Panic was noticeably present on the other party's face when she raised her question. Meanwhile, the secretary remained silence yet that was all enough for Mathilde to guess her response and not long after that, her shoulders dropped on the side when the realization hit her."I guess she was bound to find out about it sooner or later."She muttered under her breath with despondent undertone.An exasperated sigh escaped Mathilde's lips afterward. But then, she suddenly tenses up when she recalled about something else.Leaning towards the other party all the while grabbing a hold to the iron bars, Mathilde looked around her warily first to make sure that no ears were on them.Only when she confirmed for the umpteenth time that no one was listenin
Adelaine Smith's P o V~~~~While Jodi and I were driving down the road looking for any sign of the robot, I received a call and when I checked who it was, I found out that it was Amanda so I accepted the call right away."Ms. Smith, the robot just got on the bus number 707."I heard her voice telling me the moment it picked her call"Great! Thank you for the information."I replied and not long after that, she hung up on her because I reckoned that it would be best if I could relay this news to the other search parties. In this way they would also know where to start looking. Of course, the first one that I tried to call was my lady boss. However, to my dismay, I was only redirected to the voice call feature of the phone.'The number you have dialed is busy at the moment. Please try your call later or leave a message aft