Leo was going to fail his class again, to no one's surprise.
Ever since he was in the primary and was asked to do his very easy, very simple AI art of a house on a cliff, Leonardo was failing the AI Description of Art class.
His parents had already stopped trying, now they just paid the teachers a huge sum to pass him and to not talk about the fact that the oldest son of one of the greatest AI artists lacked talent with the use of said platform.
His sister loved to throw in his face his incompetence, especially when she was the Golden Student in this class.
Now things would be better if he at least managed to have his mom's talent in the AI Themed Writing and AI Musical Production. But even there he was useless.
It wasn't his fault that everything he did in the AI mechanisms just… it looked wrong to him!
Soulless to be more specific, he learned that's how he felt when the teacher asked the class to create an image of a bird in the third grade.
The bird he saw outside of his window, and the bird that the AI gave him were completely different in his eyes.
The one outside of the window looked alive, with its beautiful colors and singing, while the one in his computer looked dead, the colors of the bird were all dead, the same could be said for the way the bird was positioned on the screen.
When he told this to his teachers, his parents were called to the school and the principal had asked them to visit a doctor for my eyesight.
At least he was able to use the AI research program pretty easily, but the other means?
Nope, nada.
He was on his second year of middle school and he couldn't produce half of the things his peers could.
Leo knew that his parents were planning on disowning him.
He had overheard them talking about sending him away and disowning him so he won't be able to destroy their reputation.
He only had until they decided where they would send him to prove that he could still make them proud.
But seeing his failing grades, Leo knew there was nothing he could do.
Going home was a lonely matter, his sister was very popular and always stayed out late with her friends.
He on the other hand only had one friend, MIC, who lived on the opposite side of the city.
MIC at least went with him for half of the way, MIC was amazing with the 3D printer, the teachers said that he would become a great printer if he decided to pursue that career.
MIC said that 3D printing was way too easy for him. He wanted a challenge. But he would probably end up doing 3D printing in order to appease his parents.
"I'm home."
"There you are Leo. Come sit with us."
His parents were already waiting for him, which was a bad sign because his father was never home and his mother was even more absent, thanks to her worldwide performances.
"Leo… we wanted to talk to you about your grades. We think it would be better to send you away for this summer until we can figure out where you would be more comfortable despite your… problems with AI."
There it was. He remembered what they were talking about on that night when he overheard them. First they would send him away for a couple months then keep delaying his comeback, successfully keeping him away and saving their reputation.
"Where are you sending me to? Is it going to be for too long?"
"Only a couple months… and you will be visiting your grandpa! Isn't that fun?"
His grandpa on his mother's side was dead, which meant it was his father's father that he would be visiting. Leo had heard from his parents that the old man was crazy and "out of his mind", though Leo himself had never met Grandpa Homer.
His father told him he would be leaving in the morning, as he excused himself to go pack his things, he overheard his father sighing in relief and saying that they were finally getting rid of the burden. Leo ran to his room and while he was starting to pack his things a tear fell from his eye.
His father had always said that crying wasn't something men should do but Leo couldn't stop it. His parents were getting rid of him and sending him to someone he had never met. While his sister would probably celebrate his disappearance.
Leo could only hope that Grandpa Homer wouldn't be so disappointed in him that he would send him away.