I Heart Robot Read Online Free Page B

me.
    “You said I could play if my grades improved.” Maintain a better average was what Mom said. If my grades start slipping, it’s bye-bye violin.
    “And you call going from a C to a B- average improvement?” She gives that arched eyebrow look.
    “Isn’t it?” My cheeks burn.
    “You’ll need better grades to get into college.”
    “I’ll keep improving.”
    “I hope so.” Mom sighs and the pain of disappointing her needles my heart.
    “I want to be a professional musician. Math and physics don’t matter when I’m this good at violin.” I resist the urge to slump down on the stool beside Rurik. Standing makes me feel more powerful, like I might have a say in my life’s trajectory.
    “Math and physics might surprise you,” Rurik adds.
    “Don’t gang up on me. Music is what I want. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
    “You weren’t meant to be a musician,” Mom says and then looks a little guilty.
    “Well, I’m sorry if the sperm cocktail you selected is a disappointment, Mom.” Maybe my dad is a musician; maybe he’d understand what Mom clearly doesn’t. Those needles poking my heart turn to spears.
    “That’s not what I meant, Tyri.” She steps around the table and gives me a one-armed hug. “I just think you have far greater potential. You could do anything if you applied yourself. I want you to reach your full potential and not waste your talents on music.”
    “I have a talent for music.” I shrug away.
    Mom sighs again. “Yes, you do. I still think you should go to university. You’ll need a scholarship and those aren’t easy to come by. Don’t you agree, Rurik?”
    “Don’t bring him into this.”
    “He knows first hand how hard it is to get into a good school. Look at how hard even he had to work for it.”
    Even he? Implying what Mother? “I will get into a good school, but I’ll be going to the Royal Academy of Music, not Osholm or Baldur Tech.” If I don’t make it into the music academy, then my options are limited to apprenticeships in bot factories or bug manufacturing. I’d rather join Nana in the dirt than spend the rest of my life building robots for M-Tech.
    “We’ll see,” Mom says, and I feel like screaming. Rurik reaches for my hand, squeezing my fingers. He’s trying to be nice, supportive, but it feels patronizing, Mr. Perfect Score. I pull away, stomping into the living room to join Glitch on the sofa. She greets me with ear licks and doggy cuddles. At least Glitch loves me.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    After dinner, Rurik suggests we go out for dessert. Mom disappears into her study to do whatever it is she does in that cramped box of hers. Glitch sprawls on my bed preventing Rurik from getting too close. I’m not in the mood for making out anyway. We don our coats and head into the frigid night. Frost dances in the breeze, sticking to my eyelashes. It’s not even winter yet.
    “Ice cream or pancakes?”
    My usual favorites, but Nana would’ve baked me a cake. Mom couldn’t even congratulate me without choking, and Rurik has yet to truly acknowledge my achievement.
    “I want cake.”
    Rurik opens the door of his hoverbug. A wave of lemon freshener washes over me.
    “Ander’s?” He looks hopeful, but I’m not in the mood for the gauche decor of the popular fika establishment.
    “Let’s try that place in lower Baldur. Olof’s Tea House.”
    “I hear they make great semla.”
    “I want cake not marzipan.”
    “Botballs, you’re in a mood tonight.” Rurik orders the bug’s navigation system to Olof’s, and we zoom off downtown.
    “It would help if you actually congratulated me.”
    I receive silence as Rurik contemplates how many macho points he’ll lose for caving. I could threaten him with no making out for a month, but that makes it too easy.
    “I’m happy for you, Tyri,” he eventually says as if it pains him. “It’s just…”
    “You don’t approve?”
    “Music isn’t going to get you anywhere in life.”
    “But