The Robot's Desperation

Jenny sipped away at her oil. She was in the high school cafeteria, and it was lunchtime. Unlike the rest of the students at her school, Jenny was a robot. This meant she didn't eat or drink, at least, not in the traditional way. She ran on motor oil, so that was what she had for a snack. If she tried to eat or drink anything else, she wouldn't even taste it, and it would just stay in her storage compartment until she took it out. So, she stuck to oil.

Normally, she would only have one can at lunchtime, but she had decided to treat herself today and had three whole cans. Her friend, Brad questioned her about it, and she sighed in response. “I had to wake up from sleep mode at five in the morning to stop a meteor from crashing into Earth.” She said, exasperated. “Then, the space bikers attacked me on my way to school. And finally, The Cluster decided to attack during math class! So I’m going to have as many oil cans as I want.”

Brad blinked, looking a little scared. “Whatever you say, Jen’.”

She resumed sipping away at her oil. Just as she finished it off, the bell for the next class rang. She tossed it in the trash as she left the cafeteria. Her next class was biology. She wasn’t a huge fan of it because it wasn’t very relevant to her. (Again, robot.) Still, it wasn’t her least favourite subject.

As she walked through the hallway, a twinge came to her through her midsection. It was her excess oil storage compartment sending signals (literally) to her brain module. While she was a robot, what remained of oil after she converted it to power had to go somewhere. Of course, though, she didn’t want to be late to class. Their biology teacher was incredibly strict, and she would surely get chewed out should she arrive late. So, she muted her signals for the time being and continued to the classroom.

When Jenny reached the room, the teacher looked to be in a foul mood. She gulped (Don’t ask.) and took her seat. “Pop quiz!” Her teacher shouted as soon as everyone was seated. “We covered this just last week, so I would hope you remembered this all!”

She raised her hand. “Uh, sir? Can I use the bathroom first?”

They scowled at her. “You should’ve gone during the break. You’ll have to wait until you've turned it in.”

Jenny did everything in her power not to groan. Soon, the test was passed out through the room. She wrote down her name in the space asking for it. As she started on the first question, she became more and more worried. Normally, she was able to fly through tests, but today was different. The alerts, which were continuously un-silencing themselves, were taking her brain module’s power away from the task at hand.

Before she knew it, there were only ten minutes left, with her only being halfway through the test. She took a deep breath (Again, don't ask.) and started exerting power the most she could. Her writing became so fast the paper seemed like it was going to catch on fire. Most of the questions she was probably getting wrong, but that hardly mattered to her at this point.

When she finally could put down her pencil, she had lost track of time. “Sir?” She called, putting her hand up. “I'm finished. Can I please use the bathroom now?”

They looked at the clock. “There's five more minutes left of class. You can hold it until then.”

Sometimes, it was hard having so many built-in weapons. Whenever someone was mildly annoying her, the temptation to murder them was almost too strong. Thankfully, she managed to fight the urge and simmered down.

Every second felt like an eternity for Jenny, literally, her internal atomic clock was ticking a billion times a second and she could feel every. single. tick. She wondered if she could make it... or if it was even possible for her not to make it. This was the most she had ever held in her (admittedly short) life. She knew she should’ve read her manual more carefully.

Regardless, she managed to hold it until the bell for the next class. She rushed out the door as fast as she could. The walk to the bathroom felt like torture for the robot girl, however, she managed to hold on to the hope that she could use the bathroom. However, her face turned horrified upon seeing a massive line for the bathroom. Next to the door, there was a small machine with a sign saying “Take A Number”. She took one as the sign instructed, drawing 467. She looked up at who was being taken at the moment, and nearly shot down the door upon seeing it was at 23. Her face turned into a frown.

“Wait, you’re a robot!” The person in front of her commented. “Why do you need to use the—”

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!” Jenny shouted. Her peer flinched back, obviously a little afraid of her outburst. “Um, sorry.” She apologized,

After a few minutes, it became increasingly clear that she wasn’t going to get in the bathroom without being late for her next class, math. She groaned, and took off with her built-in jetpack, keeping her hands shoved into her metal skirt. She arrived in the classroom just as the teacher was taking attendance.

“Jenny Wakeman?”

“Here!” Jenny shouted, taking a seat next to Brad, who looked at her, confused.

“What took you so long?” He whispered.

“Long line for the bathroom.” She whispered back.

“Oh. Well, at least you got to go, right?”

“Not quite.”

“Ah. Wait, you use the—”

“None. Of. Your. Business.” If she had teeth, she’d be speaking through gritted ones.

“Okay, sheesh. Well, maybe the teach’ will let you go?”

“Here’s hoping.”

As soon as the teacher was done taking attendance, Jenny extended her hand up so far she nearly broke a hole through the roof. “Yes, Miss Wakeman?”

“Can I use the bathroom, please?”

The teacher raised an eyebrow. “You should’ve gone between classes. Wait until I’m finished explaining what you’ll need to know for today’s lesson.”

She groaned softly, squeezing her legs together. “I hate this school.” She whispered.

Her auditory sensors weren’t taking anything in. All of her resources were focused on containing her storage unit. Whatever words she could make out felt like they were being spoken in slow motion. Subconsciously, she crossed her legs, which made her feel a little better, but not by much.

Not paying attention to the lesson was probably going to bite her in her shiny metal ass later, but she had no choice right now. If she took her focus off her excess oil for one second, some of it would probably escape her.

“Hey, are you holding up alright?” Brad whispered to her again.

“No! I feel like I’m going to explode here!” Jenny whisper-shouted. Suddenly, she gasped, feeling a small leak of oil entering her underarmor. She whimpered as quietly as she could.

“What happened?” He looked worried.

“A little bit came out!”

“Okay, students!” The math teacher said, interrupting their conversation. “That should be all you need. I’m going to pass out some questions for you. Any questions?”

Jenny's hand shot up.

“Yes, Ms. Wakeman?”

“CanIusethebathroomnow!?” She said in one (metaphorical) breath.

He frowned. “Yes, Ms. Wakeman. Make it quick.”

Still pressing her hands into her crotch, she ran out of the room as fast as she could. Some other students were laughing at her, but she simply ignored them. As she ran, she felt another leak release itself as soon as she left the room. She tried to ignore it, but one leak turned into two, which turned into three, creating a small trail behind her. Finally, the leaks stopped being leaks and started releasing at full force.

She stopped suddenly and crossed her legs. That seemed to put a stop to it for the moment, but there was a small trail of oil running down her legs. Her legs tried to move, but they were refusing.

-

Brad noticed how long Jenny was taking in the bathroom. “Sir? Can I use the bathroom too, please?”

The teacher, who wasn’t paying much attention, nodded. “Uh-huh. Don’t take too long.”

He left the room and found a small trail going along the floor. The trail led to Jenny, who had her legs crossed and eyes closed.

“Jen’?”

Her eyes opened and she turned her head backwards to look at him. “Oh, Brad!” She said, surprised. “This is, uh–”

Suddenly, her heads-up display came up with a message: “Warning! Internal storage has reached critical mass. To avoid damage, storagecontrol.exe has forcefully quit.”

“What!? No, no, no!”

“What is... it?” Brad trailed off as more dark yellow liquid expelled itself from under Jenny’s skirt.

Jenny felt her underarmour being completely flooded. It was now completely undeniable that she had wet herself, despite the liquid being a slightly different shade from human urine. “Look away, please!” She begged Brad, who obeyed immediately.

The oil felt warm, which was to be expected, given it had been processed through her systems. It continued the existing trail down her legs and formed a dark puddle on the floor below her. She whined for a good few seconds, before sighing in relief. It admittedly was pretty good to finally let go, willingly or otherwise. Still, she’d prefer to be going inside of a toilet, and not in front of her best friend. As her “pee” began to slow down, the embarrassment began to really hit her.

“You alright?” Brad said, still looking away.

“Uh... yeah. Mostly.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, you know.”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m going to run to the car wash real quick, though. Cover for me in class?”

“Anytime.” He said, smiling.

“Thanks.” She smiled too, blasting off through the halls.

Brad finally turned around, seeing the big yellow puddle on the ground, with a smaller trail leading the way through where Jenny blasted off too.

“Sorry, Janitor. Hope nobody drops a lighter...”