Little Mouse

I was scared. I had no idea where I was or what was happening. My name is Nuru Mubarak, it means blessed one born in the day. I am an Egyptian who migrated to America. After we arrived and settled into the country my parents started fighting. At first I was little things like stupid disagreements over little things. It got progressively worse until it was full out verbal wars and things were thrown. Things that broke and hurt people. Once my dad managed to completely miss and threw a knife out the door. It hit me and I now wear a scar straight up and down my left cheek. They never considered what might be happening to their eight year old daughter in all of this.

When I was hit with the knife I took it and ran to a lake nearby. I couldn't take it anymore. I was about to kill myself when I saw a black piece of metal on the ground. Since I was eight I was naturally curious. So I picked up and felt myself get electrified. I blacked out after that. When I woke up I wasn't by the lake anymore. I wasn't even on Earth based on the view I saw in a window that was really high up. And I was surrounded by FIVE. GIANT. ROBOTS. Que freak out.

I'm not sure how long I was in freak out mode but when I came out of it I was in one of the robots hands, and it was holding me close to its chest. There was a strange pulsing coming from it. It was calming and made me feel safe.

'What is your name little one?' His voice was tough but soft at the same time.

"Nuru."

'Ironhide.'

Then the four other beings moved forward to form a circle around me, so they could see me better. 'Greetings Nuru. I am Optimus Prime. We are Autonomus Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron. Also known as Autobots.'

I was silent for a few moments before saying, "This is cool."

The small one snorted. 'I like her. Sup Little Mouse? You wanna chill with Jazz?'

'My First Lieutenant and leader of special ops Jazz. You have already met Ironhide. That leaves my scout Bumblebee and Medic Ratchet.'

'Hello Princess.'

'The youngling has a laceration on the side of her faceplates.'

Jazz reached out to brush one of his giant fingers against the cut. 'What happened Little Mouse?'

I shifted slightly on my feet looking down. "Things haven't been going great at home."

'What would happen that would cause you an injury?'

"My parents have been fighting a lot lately. Recently my dad threw a knife that missed my mom completely and it hit me." Each and every one of them had this murderous look to their metal faces. "Don't worry. I won't have to put up with it much longer."

'Youngling, please don't tell me you are implying you are going to offline yourself.'

I look at this medic and all of my emotions burst. "Yes ok. I'm going to kill myself because I can't take it anymore. I don't want to be with people that don't care about me enough to notice what their fighting is doing to me."

'Nuru.'Optimus knelt down to look me in the eyes with those big blue orbs of his. 'You should not let the actions of your parental units make you end your existence. You are special and I know that I would enjoy learning more about you.'

'You can count on me being there for you Little Mouse.'

"Why do you call me that?"

'Because your smaller than a glitch mouse.'

'Ignore him. I can't speak for them but you can look to me for parental advice if you want. Can't have you grow up without guidance.'My eyes widen at the offer Ironhide extended me.

'I will be your medic.'Ratchet the buzz kill medic.

'Optimus and I can be big brothers!'Bumblebee volunteered with child like excitement.

I stood there shocked before bursting into tears. "T-thank y-y-you. All o-of y-you."

'No problem Little Mouse.'

Then everything started to fade. They all start to freak out and stop me from disappearing, but I inevitably fall into a thick fog. The next thing I know I'm next to the lake. I look down at the knife I had in my hands. I think about what the Autobots said before chucking it into the lake. I get up and head back in the direction of my house.

On the way there I walk by a two story house with three people sitting out front. The oldest male has dark hair, which is kinda thinning out, and he's a little chubby. The woman is tall, thin, and has brown hair. I recognize her. She's the crazy lady the neighbors told us to avoid. The third person is a young boy. He had brown hair, pale skin, and looked to be a year younger than me.

The lady looked up at me and waved me over. "Hi! You look adorable! I'm Judy, this is my husband Ron, and my son Sam!" I wave at her and see Sam covering his face. I go up to him and whisper, "You can find sanctuary at my place whenever you want. I can tell why I've been told to avoid her." I quickly gave them my name and walked away as he gave me a grateful look.

When I got home my parents hadn't even noticed I was gone. My mom was in the kitchen having a heated conversation with her mother on the phone and dad was setting up a bed on the couch in the living room. I went up to my room to get ready for bed since it was late in the evening. What I saw in the mirror had me reeling back. My eyes were cyan blue instead of chestnut brown, my hair was fuller and curly, with a white stripe, instead of flat, ugly, and solid brown. And there on my shoulder was a red face. It was robotic and it made me think of the Autobots.

I shrugged it off, deciding I was too tired to deal with strange things right now. I changed, brushed my teeth and hair, and crawled into my bed. 'That's what I get for being curious about a piece of metal. What happened to it anyway?'

So I'm seventeen now. Over the past nine years I've grown closer to the Autobots and met even more, such as Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Jolt. The twins Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are ridiculous, and seem to get in trouble a lot. There was this one time when I was eleven when they started teaching me really weird words. The next time I saw the first five Jazz scared me to death and the words that came out of my mouth were, "What the slag, Jazz?!" They all froze when I said that. They gently pried for who had taught me that. When they found out there was a lot of angry ranting and threats. It seems the twins find it amusing to teach kids Cybertronian swear words. Other then that hitch in the road everything's gone great with them.

My parents marriage has surprisingly lasted all this time. They don't even see each other any more, and they sleep in different rooms. They just ignore me. It's like I don't exist. I've had to make food for myself, do my laundry, and get my own clothes since I was nine. I can't wait to get out of that house.

I slowly forged a friendship with Sam. Whenever he couldn't take his mom he would hang around my house. My parents never noticed that either. After he found out about the 'family issues' whenever he would take refuge with me he would always try to come up with an excuse to have me come over for dinner. My favorite is, 'I want to teach you Chihuahua CPR. It's important you know.' He's such a spaz. He can't even ask Mikalea Banes out. He's had a crush on her since second grade.

Right now I'm waking up from a visit with Jolt, it's awkward when I'm with him because he doesn't talk. He just sits there and stares at me. The only reason I know his name is because I asked Ratchet. Anyway I wake up to hear shouting. My parents are at it again. I manage to hear 'I want a good daughter! Not one that puts dye in her hair and wears color contacts! She's a little witch and you won't give me another!'

Tears stung at my eyes as my mother says that. How am I a bad daughter. They're the bad parents. But I push that aside. I have to be supportive of Sam today. Today decides if he gets his car or not. Family Geneology sucks. And knowing him he would try to sell the stuff he had and get a lower grade because of it. Then he would pull the whole, 'boy with a dream' thing and, 'what would Jesus do?' He does that to get better grades a lot.

I have to go through athletics, AP-Calculus, AP-Chemistry, and a Leadership class today. It completely confused me my first year with A-days and B-days. I breeze through the two miles in athletics leaving the others in my dust, I finish all of my work for all of my classes, and wait in the Cafeteria waiting for the day to be over. That's how it's always been. I pass up all the other kids and get to do whatever I want for the rest of the day. Of course I had the bots helping me, but Ironhide always insists it's because I'm a superior being.

Eventually a group of boys wander over before last period. It's Trent and his lackeys. "Hey freak. I think I finally understand it."

"First time for everything isn't there Trent?"

"Shut it freak! You hang around Sam because you're birds of a feather. You're a freak and he's a spaz. No one likes you so you're desperate for friends. What I don't get is why you're a freak. I mean you're hot. You could be so much better."

I'm just about to punch him when Mikalea interrupts. "Trent! We have to go to class now."

"Right. We get to see spaz present. Wouldn't miss it."

Trent walks away thinking Kayla is following him. She turns to me, an apologetic look in her eyes.

"You need to dump him."

"I know. I will."

"I don't know why you got together with him anyway."

"Neither do I. You coming to watch your friend present?"

"Yup. If he gets an a on his project, he gets a car, and he gives me rides."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He said he would since I give him a place to hang out when his mom gets really crazy."

"That's cool. Didn't you say his dad is cheap?"

"Yup. It's gonna be a crap car."

"Oh. And I'm sorry I don't hang out with you more."

"Don't worry. Reputation to uphold. I get it."

We get to the classroom just before the bell rang. I look around and see Sam at the back of the room, waving to me. He knows that if he has a big presentation I'm going to be there to watch him flounder. What can I say. I'm his sister from another mister. It's what I'm here for. I head over to stand by him while Kayla goes to Trent.

"Sup Homeskillet?"

"Please stop calling me that. Where do you even get a nickname like that?"

Before I can answer, the teacher walked in. "All right kiddies. All of you that have managed to escape presenting, will suffer now." We went through ten flippin Juniors before we finally got to Sam at the end of class. " . You're up."

(I get lazy at this point so I'm summing this part up.) Sam's presentation consisted of him getting hit by a rubber band, and the teacher preaching responsibility. He explains to everyone how his Great-Great-Grandfather, Captain Archibald Witwicky, explored the arctic circle. How he found an 'Ice-Man', went crazy, drew symbols, and was shipped of to the Asylum. All the while he's trying to sell stuff, and the teacher asked if he was going to offer Captain A.W.'s liver.

The bell rings and Sam continues to try and pawn off scratched up glasses.

"So?"

"It's a solid B-"

I silently start to crack up at Sam's face. And what do you know? He pulled the 'boy with a dream' and, 'what would Jesus do?'

He came out of it with an A-. Lucky little punk.

We head out to his dads car, Sam rushing the door, while I just did a flip into the back. "Well?"

"I got an A-. It's an A though." He states waving the paper around.

"Hang on, hang on. I can't see." He grabs the paper from Sam's hands, and his son looks at him hopefully.

"So, I'm good?"

"Your good."

"YES!"

We drive into the busier part of town so we could find a place for Sam to look at cars. "I got a surprise for ya." He then drives into a Porsche dealership. I'm so confused.

"OH. NO, NO, NO! Dad you've gotta be kidding me!" These were his favorite kind of cars.

"Yeah. I'm kidding you." It all makes SENCE again! "What? You think I'm buying you a Porsche? For your first car?"

They continue to bicker on as we go across the street to a crap dealership and I notice something no one else does. A beat up, black and yell ow Camero, driving itself, and parking itself were it can get bought. Cybertronian.

I check on the two idiots I hear them talking about... Virgins? But I walk away from them anyway as an African American man walks up to them, and I head over to the old car. I poke my head in the window and take a look around. Black and yellow paint job plus bee shaped smelly thingy equals, "Bumblebee?"

The radio crackles to life and plays, 'Yes ma'am!' In a country accent.

"I'm not even going to ask why you're here."

'Fine by me.'

Sam, , and the man come over to inspect Bumblebee. Sam sees the Autobot insignia while the man gives some crap about a custom faded paint job, putting the price at five thousand dollars. , the cheapskate that he is, refuses to go over four.

As Sam gets out and closes the door, the passenger side door pops open and puts a pretty good size dent in the driver side of a car the man had just gotten into. He gets out, claims he's fine, and yells at someone to use a hammer and get the dents out of it. He's going to get sued one of these days and lose everything. He then leads the two off to other cars. And I hear Bee messing with his radio.

"What are you up to Bee?"

He doesn't answer. But a screech comes from him, shattering all the glass in the car park except for his. Real discrete.

The man looks around in shock and disbelief. He looks sick. He then spins around, holding up four fingers and says, "Four thousand!"