About the Book
Stranger Things meets robots in this sweet story about an unlikely friendship between two boys—one human, one android.
Eric Young is an android, but he doesn’t know. He does know that he’s just moved to Ashland, so it’s important to make the right kind of friends—the kind that would be interested in skateboarding and the new Slick sneakers his Uncle Martin sends him.
Danny Lazio doesn’t have any friends, but he doesn’t care. Even if his classmates don’t accept him, he still has Land X, the online role play game that he’s actually really good at. But then Eric takes an interest in Land X, and suddenly Danny thinks he might have found a real friend…if he can figure out the mystery behind Eric’s sudden disappearances and strange lifestyle.
It becomes harder to ignore the weird events that happen only around Eric. But uncovering the secret behind Eric’s identity is an act that might cost them both as powerful forces soon move in around them.
This heartfelt story about friendship and what it means to be human is sure to tug at your soul—or your soul-chip if you’re like Eric.
Praise for FRIENDROID
"A timely parable for this generation of digital natives." ―Kirkus
"Vaughan presents another noteworthy sf middle-grade offering peppered with mystery." ―Booklist
"For middle-grade readers who are ready to fight the power." ―Publishers Weekly
FRIENDROID BY M.M VAUGHAN EXCERPT
Slick: Wednesday, October 31
We left the house at 6:12 p.m. to go trick or treating. I was carrying my Baltic Wave skateboard under one arm and a black bag with a skeleton on it to collect candy in the other. I looked up what a zombie was this morning, and they are only interested in eating human flesh and organs, so I don’t think they’d be carrying skateboards around, or bags to collect candy. But as zombies are not real, I guess nobody can say that they definitely wouldn’t. Even so, I thought other people might think it was weird, but nobody said anything, so maybe they didn’t. Or maybe they were being polite, like how nobody mentioned that Tyler was dressed as an entertainer for little kids parties.
I had never been trick or treating before, but it looked like everybody in Ashland had. Harry’s street was already full of kids when we went out. The younger kids had adults with them. We were old enough to trick or treat without an adult, so we went on our own.
The streets looked very different from how they normally look at night. This is because most people decorate their houses for Halloween with lights, pumpkins, candles, spiderwebs, ghosts, bats, and witches. Some people had put gravestones and dead bodies on their front lawns. Not real ones.
We did not decorate our house. I will tell Mom and Dad to decorate our house next year.
We went to thirty-two houses. Sometimes we had to wait a long time to get to the door as there were so many kids in front of us. Some of the houses ran out of candy. The code for running out of candy is to leave an unlit pumpkin outside your home.
One of the houses had a big basket filled with candy on the front porch. The owners of the house were not there. The basket had a sign saying TAKE ONE. Harry, Luke, and Tyler grabbed handfuls of the candy even though the sign was stuck on the handle of the basket and the words were written in large orange letters, so they couldn’t have missed it.
I took one.
“Seriously?” asked Luke. He was looking at me. “It says take one,” I explained. Harry, Luke, and Tyler all laughed. I think they were laughing at me. “Don’t be such a loser, Eric,” said Tyler. “There’s nobody here.”
I laughed too. “Yeah, okay,” I said. I put my hand in the basket and pretended to take more candy and put it in my bag.
Everybody smiled, and Tyler grabbed another handful. Then we all walked away.Luke, Harry, and Tyler kept comparing how full their bags were. I did the same. Even though I didn’t take that extra candy from the basket, my bag was more full than Tyler’s. This is because he kept eating his candy as he walked.
My friends were very excited about trick or treating. I was also excited because friends should be excited about the same things. Sometimes I don’t feel excited about the same things as them, but I don’t want them to know that, so I pretend. Sometimes I get it wrong, but then I learn and I don’t do it again. Like at 42 Locke Road. The woman who answered the door was dressed as a doctor with blood on her white coat and on her face. She told us that candy would rot our teeth and gave us an apple each. We all took one. As we walked away, I acted excited, just like Harry had done at the house before, but then I saw that Luke, Harry, and Tyler were all frowning.
“You’re being sarcastic, right?” asked Harry. “Sarcastic” means you say one thing but mean the opposite.
“Yeah, of course,” I said, just to agree with him. Harry, Tyler, and Luke all nodded.
“So lame,” said Tyler. He threw the apple onto the sidewalk.
As we walked to the next house, I thought about what had happened, and I decided that it was only okay to get excited about candy.
We finished trick or treating at seven p.m. On our way back to Harry’s house, Luke said he had an idea.
“Your best friend’s house is down there, Eric. Why don’t we pay him a visit?”
I wasn’t sure who Luke meant, as I don’t have a best friend yet. I thought Luke, Harry, and Tyler were the best friends that I had in Ashland.
“Who?” I asked.
They all laughed. “Danny, you idiot. His house is down there.”
I didn’t like that he called me an idiot. I didn’t know why they wanted to go to Danny’s house as I knew they didn’t like him, but I didn’t want to say anything else in case they called me an idiot again.
Danny’s house was much smaller than mine. The front yard had some grass but no plants or flowers, and the outside of the house was painted dark green.The paint was peeling in a lot of places. There was a pumpkin with a ghost shape cut out of it on the front steps. It was not lit. The front door was shut, but the lights in the house were on. We stood on the sidewalk in front of the house, and nobody said anything for a moment.
“Any ideas?” asked Tyler. I didn’t know what he meant.
Luke looked around. He walked over to Danny’s mailbox and bent down. He picked up a rock the size of his hand.
“Everyone get one of these. I’ll count down from three. Then throw and run the hell out of here,” said Luke. He was grinning.
I didn’t know what we were doing. I figured it was a Halloween tradition that I didn’t know about, but I didn’t want to ask, so I just did what Harry and Tyler were doing and looked around until I found another rock the same size as Luke’s.We stood in a line next to each other.
“Seriously, are we doing this?” asked Harry. He didn’t look happy.
“Shut up, Harry,” said Tyler. “But I . . . ,” began Harry.
“Quit stalling,” said Luke. He raised his arm, the one holding the rock. Tyler did the same.
I had no clue what we were doing. Luke counted down.
“Three . . . two . . . one . . .”
I looked over at my friends and realized, from the way their arms were moving, that they were about to throw the rocks at Danny’s house. In that split second, I knew that the way they were about to throw those rocks, the rocks would likely hit Danny’s house and cause damage. This is a criminal thing to do. I couldn’t allow it to happen, even if I’m not friends with Danny. I didn’t have time to think of an alternative solution, so I ran out in front of them to tell them to stop, but it was too late. I managed to reach out and grab the rock that was coming from Tyler, but I only had one free hand and couldn’t do anything about catching Luke’s or Harry’s rocks. The last thing I remember is seeing Harry’s rock heading straight in the direction of my head and thinking what a lousy shot Harry was—his rock would never have hit Danny’s house, even if my head hadn’t gotten in the way.
After that, everything went black.
Copyright © 2019 by M.M. Vaughan
About the Author
The daughter of South American parents, Monica Meira Vaughan grew up in Spain before moving to London at the age of five where she learnt English by watching Sesame Street and reading every Roald Dahl book she could get her hands on. On leaving school, and after a brief stint in public relations, Monica decided to train as a primary school teacher. She spent over ten years working in special needs, mostly with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, before becoming a full time writer.Monica loves writing after midnight, building cardboard cities and playing Lego with her daughter. She lives in London, UK.
PHOTO CONTENT FROM M.M. VAUGHAN
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ENDS: APRIL 8, 2019
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