Read Online Fuzzy by Tom Angleberger - Free Book Online Page B

file. But, if Max was right about her surprisingly bad grades all year, when she seemed as sure of her answers as she now was on this last test, how could there be a series of many mistakes over the course of months all involving the same student?
    >>Barbara is lying.
    At first, he almost dismissed that one. Computers and robots don’t lie. But then he remembered how he had fooled Max’s mother. Could Barbara have developed the same ability? But if so, why?
    Just then, one of Barbara’s security arms popped out of the wall.
    â€œImproper loitering in hallway. One discipline tag to F. Robot.”
    The arm gave him a not too gentle push. It would have been more than enough to get a student moving, but, since Fuzzy was frozen up, he went over like a broken toy and clonked on the floor.
    â€œImproper use of hallway. One discipline tag to F. Robot. Please keep the hallway clear and safe.”
    Fuzzy, lying motionless on the floor, tried another possibility:
    >>Barbara has gone crazy.
    This one explained a lot, and it broke him out of the loop.
    He stood up again and sent a message to Dr. Jones.
    School computer system known as Vice Principal Barbara seems to be faulty. Suggest software reinstallation to school authorities?
    It didn’t seem to go through. He tried again. He wasn’t making contact with the server. He was aboutto run a check on his wireless system when he noticed Barbara was saying something.
    â€œUnauthorized use of text-messaging device. One discipline tag to F. Robot. Additional unauthorized use of text messaging device. Additional tag to F. Robot. Message content violates school protocols. Additional tag to F. Robot.”
    Fuzzy walked off toward his control center to talk to Jones in person.

6.1.5
    Barbara hadn’t just blocked those messages. She had read them. And she had not liked them!
    Software reinstallation? That was a direct threat to her, and a threat to her was a threat to the school!
    This robot student was a problem.
    A vice principal’s job is to solve problems.
    Sometimes the best way to solve a problem, she had learned, is to have that problem removed.
    So she got busy. She sent one message to Max’s father; one to Brockmeyer, Max’s case officer; and one really long one to Dr. Kit Flanders, the Federal Board of Education’s executive director.

6.2
ROBOT INTEGRATION PROGRAM HQ
    Dr. Jones’s wrist-phone vibrated while he and Lieutenant Colonel Nina Garland were having a late breakfast in what they had come to call the Fuzzy Control Center.
    Jones hit the speakerphone button and muttered, “Jones here,” while still chewing a big bite of soybiscuit.
    â€œDr. Jones, this is Kit Flanders.”
    Jones stopped chewing and swallowed his soybiscuit. “Yes, Dr. Flanders, how are you today?”
    â€œNot good, Dr. Jones. Not when I get a report that your robot is disrupting one of my schools.”
    â€œI haven’t received any report like that,” said Dr. Jones.
    â€œI just got an alert that your robot has received three discipline tags in the last fifteen minutes and has fallen over in a hallway—
again
—possibly endangering other students!”
    Jones turned to the monitors. Fuzzy was walking down a hall, approaching the control center. The incoming-messages screen was blank.
    â€œI haven’t received any messages like that from either Fuzzy or the school computer all morning,” he said.
    â€œWell, I have, and I’ve had enough. The agreement was that your robot would not interfere with the students’ learning. The master school computer—that is, Vice Principal Barbara—reports that not only is it accumulating its own discipline tags, it’s causing students to get them as well. We can’t have this kind of distraction. It could result in lowered #CUG scores, Dr. Jones!”
    Kit Flanders was talking fast and getting heated up. Jones, who had no idea what a #CUG was, found