Deal

Ball had napped for an extended amount of time afterwards. The stress relief was incredible. When she awoke again she was sitting in the freshman's lap as he watched something on his phone.

"W, wa?" She stuttered. Ball had forgotten that she fell asleep here rather than her bed.

"Oh hi there Ball. I've got to go soon, so it's good that you woke up now," He said softly and slowly.

"Why do you have to go?" Ball didn't want him to leave.

"I have to go home eventuality. I only have maybe 3 hours everyday to spend time with you y'know. My parents are going to be here in about 5 minutes," He said in the same tone.

"Where do you reside? Can I come with you?" Ball said.

"Not today. But maybe all of us can have a sleepover sometime and we can play more games," He smiled softly.

"Ok,"

A few minutes later Oscar's parents entered the room alongside Johnson, who was talking with them. She watched the family walk down the hall without her. Fondness was leaving her home. It was colder, and seemed without a point. She began to walk down to her room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Johnson asked casually. She didn't usually go anywhere on her own.

"My room," Ball said.

"OK then," Johnson looked back over to the Creed family, and then back at Ball. He rushed over to her.

"Seems like somebody did not drink my elixir," He said quietly next to her, "Too bad for those other kids. They better not, you know, die. Because I swear I am going to get sued if they do,"

"Why would they die?" Ball did not look at him, but rather just kept walking.

"Well, seeing that you already know some of my secret I let you in on it all!... as a sort of alliance deal. Now if you ever betray me, I will never forgive nor trust you ever again. And there is also a chance of more punishment along with all the other things that include double crossing me,"

"Ok," Ball stopped walking and decided to listen.

"Good. Now if these students survive this first dose than I predict they will grow to become immune to the effects that previously caused them to be so harmful. They should take as little as possible before we can start giving them bigger doses,"

"You've been experimenting on the Yoyel 3!?" Ball didn't know how to feel.

"Well only 2 of them. Oscar never took his first dose, and to be honest it would probably kill him if he did, so I'm not going to have him take anything," Johnson said.

"Well what about the other 2?"

"Experimented on... full force. I was given this strange and mysterious liquid called activator. It was given to me by space aliens, the deep voiced things. It was used to make you actually. In exchange, the aliens wanted entertainment in the form of live television, but there is a problem. Our television networks can't reach them when they are going warp or whatever. And it also has trouble connecting farther than the moon. For right now I have only a couple of months to find a way to get them television up there, or I don't know what they'll do," Johnson vented.

"How did you use the activator to make me?" the image of Rocky still in the waiting room arose in Ball's mind.

"It actually isn't that difficult. It took a while to figure out though. Let me show you," the professor started to walk in a direction to a place Ball hadn't been before. The door had to be opened with a code.

"What is the code?" Ball asked.

"Eh 7777777," He said typing it in.

"7, 7 times," Ball whispered to herself. The door opened to reveal 2 bubbling tanks about the size of a large fish tank.

"What is that?" Ball asked about the tanks.

"It's activator. I like to keep it hot, because it only works when it's hot. It's also incredibly explosive I now realize. Mixed with water it calms that down though,"

"Why do the tanks not become lively?" Ball asked.

"Well it's all about the way a certain person were to feel about one of these tanks. I've said it before. It's all about sentimental value," Johnson said.

"Yeah, but what is that anyway? Why does an object need to have value in someone's eyes to be brought to life. It doesn't make any sense," Ball said.

"It is a mystery. But it's not something that will be that way forever. We would had to research it for different traits so It wouldn't be such a mystery. For now I'm just messing around with it,"

"Sentimental value… so someone had sentimental value put on me?" Ball looked at the floor, which was shiny enough to make a vague reflection.

"That is correct,"

"Who?"

"It was my… sentimental value that was placed on you Ball. I do not know what that means for you, or if we are connected in any way," Johnson said.

"How did you even place that on me? You valued me even before I was living?" Ball was curious, and enjoying the conversation.

"Well yeah. The value mostly comes from when I was a kid. You were a lot smaller before you were alive just so you know. Maybe about this big," Johnson illustrated a size around an average golf ball with a pointer finger and thumb, "I found you by walking along nature trails with my friends. I was probably around 8 years old. Most of the time you were in my pocket, but since you were always around I could do a whole lot with you.

You could be a stand in for an action figure, a bowling ball for dominos. Sometimes I would roll you down the sidewalk so I could chase you just for fun. Ya know I always liked to travel a lot. Any chance I could I would try to find a salamander, turtle or insect I never saw so I would have something new to see before I was pushed back home. That was when I was in elementary school.

When the grades started getting deep I didn't really want ta go out and explore anymore. I was too tired, and my studies had turned to smaller more compact places and things. I also outgrew my jacket, and left you in my pocket for a real long time. That is until I went on home looking for things with value to use for my experiment. So I found you again, made sure to reminisce, and then came back here to see if it would work," Johnson explained.

"Do you think that I could put sentimental value on something?" Ball asked.

"Of course. It's easy. I think even dogs can put sentimental value on their toys. Don't quote me on that though. I do not know much about dogs," Jonson said, "... Well that's that. Uh, back to the deal I'm making with you. When you get to school you put these swift dissolving tablet things in their drinks," Johnson took a vacuum sealed packet of them off of a table, "Only Nelly and David by the by. We don't want to experiment on the whole school, and Oscar can be our control group. Give them only a single tablet once a day, but do not let them see you do it."

"They can not know about us experimenting on them?" Ball was nervous.

"No. They wouldn't like to hear that. You can even lie if they catch you and say it's something else. They cannot know about it," Johnson said.

Ball thought about how difficult it would be to try that. She would have to use all the dexterity she had to just open the packet, "Don't worry. I'm on your side in this. We'll find a way to make it easier for you," Johnson sounded like he had read her mind.

"Why am I armless?" Ball asked.

"The government said that would make you too powerful," Johnson began to stroll towards the exit, "Come. We have new tests to do,"

The new tests were much stranger than before. They were in the usual test lab, but there wasn't anyone else there. Johnson called them 'trust exercises' and they lasted for 2 hours. In these trust exercises Johnson was someone to lean on whether it be through a multiplayer simulation, walking blind relying only on his instructions, and a number of trust leaps in which Johnson would catch her. In all these Ball didn't feel as comfortable being held as she did when Oscar held her.

'Fondness'. It was still something that the professor did not show to her. She decided that she would just have to wait for tomorrow when she saw her friends again...