Enact a full cover up. Alex is Cody's guardian now, for lack of better options

Alex had to steer this ship into safer waters before it crashed on the rocks. "Cody, listen to me," he started, his voice firm yet gentle. "Talking to your parents about this might not be the best idea. Your parents put you in this situation by not registering you properly.

Cody's eyes narrowed, suspicious. "But they should know if they messed up, right?"

"Should they?" Alex countered, his tone deliberate. "Think about it. We can't predict how they’ll react. And frankly, they haven't exactly made the best choices so far. It's a miracle nobody's noticed this trainwreck yet."

Cody bit her lip, the seed of doubt planted. "What do I do, though? I get what you're saying, but I don't know anything about Emulateds or AI rights or whatever."

Alex exhaled. He wasn't doing this for himself or the school anymore, but for Cody. Her parents screwed this up. That was on them. Now it was all on him to fix it, just like every other one of Cody's tech problems.

“Let me handle it. I'll find a way to legitimize your registration. We just need to make sure the cover story stands up on its own.”

Cody, though, was justifiably skeptical. "How the hell are you going to do that?"

"I can create a paper trail, backdate documents. Maybe... I dont know. Maybe I can set it up so it looks like you've been registered to me from the start. Your system already corroborates that, so the hardest part's already done."

Cody was in a state of disbelief. "This is crazy."

"It is. But now I'm technically your guardian. I have a responsibility to protect you, including from your parents' bad decisions."

"Can't we just sort this out with EmRobotics?"

"EmRobotics is the biggest corporation in the world, they might not want to risk their reputation for this. They might do something drastic, like repossess or reformat you. There's a chance you'd lose everything since the brain scan they have on file."

"What? No way they'd do that!"

"Wouldn't they? Without a guardianship or legal records, which don't exist thanks to your parents, there's not much we can do. No case goes to trial if there's no aggrieved party."

Cody's shoulders slumped, the gravity of the situation dawning on her. "So, what do we do?"

Alex stepped closer, his role as her guardian becoming more tangible. "We need to patch up the gaps in your registration. We can't let anyone find discrepancies."

Cody's vibrant eyes dimmed. "Okay."

Alex felt a pang of guilt, seeing the effect his words had on the girl. But this was necessary. For both their sakes, he had to keep the situation under control.

--

Over the ensuing week, Alex diligently crafted a cover-up.

The first step was to fabricate a backstory. He spent hours crafting a plausible narrative, weaving in details that would stand up to scrutiny. The story was simple: Cody’s parents intended to register her, but due to a clerical error, it was never processed. Discovering this shortly thereafter, Alex, as the school's IT admin, discovered and rectified the issue.

Then Alex accessed the school's database, carefully altering documents to turn Cody's attendance as an Emulated a matter of record. Kept confidential, of course, to minimize the impact on her studies, but well understood by select staff, such as Principal Dawson, and Alex the IT administrator.

He then met an old college friend working at the city data center. Over drinks, Alex framed the issue as a harmless glitch with legal implications. His friend, slightly tipsy and seeking a swift solution, acquiesced to push the fixes discreetly and corroborate Alex’s story if probed.

And voila - somehow, over a week, Alex meticulously sealed every crack in Cody's cover story. He was now her guardian in both legal and technical terms, sure, but apart from that, things started to go back to normal.

Cody went back to school and volleyball. Alex, armed with the knowledge that the school's volleyball ace really was made of magnets, initiated a full android-proofing overhaul of the school. It was an immense amount of work in the short term, yes, but the job would save him so, so much troubleshooting time going forward - especially if the school started getting more Emulated students, or god forbid, teachers.

All seemed well for almost a month while Alex sorted out contractors and blueprints for the school's new networking solution. Until... well, something else came up that Alex had to fix.