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team.”
    â€œYes, it’s been fascinating for all of—” began her father.
    â€œI’m afraid that’s exactly the sort of extra activity that can distract a student from their #CUG scores,” interrupted Brockmeyer. “Max will have to give that up.”

6.1
HALLWAY B
    Fuzzy froze up.
    He didn’t fall over this time. He just sort of slouched against a wall.
    â€œUh, Fuzzy, what’s going on?” said Simeon, who had enthusiastically volunteered to replace Max in escorting Fuzzy to classes. But they hadn’t even made it to the first class.
    â€œNice job, Simeon, you already broke it,” said Biggs as he walked up. “You’re as bad as Max!”
    â€œC’mon, Fuzzy,” Simeon pleaded. He tried pinging Fuzzy in the side. No reaction.
    Then he saw Max down the hall.
    â€œMax! Can you help me out here?”
    Max, of course, was already upset about being replaced, and she certainly didn’t want to get in more trouble by getting caught helping Fuzzy. But she walked over to make sure he was OK.
    â€œI’m surprised the technicians aren’t here already,” she said. “Why don’t you text Dr. Jones?”
    â€œUh, I forgot the number,” muttered Simeon.
    â€œAll right, I’ll do it,” said Max, keeping her distance from both of them in case Barbara was watching.
    She clicked the message into her qFlex bracelet.
    â€œUnauthorized use of text-messaging device,” chanted Barbara from the closest screen. “One discipline tag to Maxine Zelaster.”
    Max was furious.
    (She would have been even angrier if she had known that Barbara had blocked the message. She got the discipline tag without even getting to alert Dr. Jones about Fuzzy’s problems.)
    A chime sounded. Great, now she only had one minute to get to class or she’d get another tag.
    â€œI’m sorry, Fuzzy,” whined Simeon, “I’ve got to go to class. You think Dr. Jones is coming?”
    Fuzzy didn’t answer.
    â€œSorry, Fuzz. Good luck, Simeon,” said Max, and she hurried off as fast as she could without triggering Barbara’s “no running” detector.
    â€œListen, Fuzzy,” said Simeon. “They should be here any minute . . . and I’ve got to get to class myself. So . . .”
    And Simeon took off, too.
    He and a few other stragglers slipped into their classrooms just before another chime sounded.
    The halls were empty now, except for Fuzzy, still leaning there.
    He was still on, still thinking, but he was stuck in a subloop: HelpMax(TestScore()).
    At first the loop was running in the background, but it soon took over all of his processing power. The loop was very complicated and had all sorts of bits of data and complicated algorithms in it. But if it was translated into English, it would go sort of like this:
    >>Max answered 74 of 75 questions correctly.
    >>Barbara grades test.
    >>Barbara reports Max has failed test.
    >>Analyze maxtest.jpg. Compare to correct answers.
    >>Max answered 74 of 75 questions correctly.
    >Barbara grades test.
    A normal robot could get stuck in a loop like that forever and need a reboot. But Fuzzy had been programmed to use what was called fuzzy logic. He was learning to break out of loops. When he realized he was stuck, he began inserting new variables into the loop, trying to think more like a person. More like Max.
    He tried this:
    >>My knowledge of science is faulty.
    To test this, he began searching online science libraries. He double-checked every answer from the UpGrade test. No, he had been correct right down the line.
    >>The test’s answers were incorrect.
    He accessed the test makers’ secure website, easilybroke their encryption code, and peeked at the answers. No, they were the same answers.
    >>Barbara is making mistakes.
    This didn’t make sense. There might have easily been a glitch on one question on one test, perhaps a corrupted data