Transformers: New Life

Set After "Transformers: Age of Extinction"

Rated K+

Tessa

Tessa removed every article of clothing that was ripped, torn, smudged, dirty, or smelled of rust and metal. Every thought, every crevice in her mind was filled with the violent and traumatic events including the Autobots and the entire battle. Two months. Two months of scrubbing away the dirt and dust of the craziest days of her life; two months of fixing up her newly repaired farm-house.

Two months getting used to the fact that her life was forever changed.

Tessa couldn't help feeling sad. Her life was changed, her dad was changed. . . she was changed. In just a matter of days running from the enemies, fighting deadly battles, Tessa had left her childish teenage ways. She was an adult now; something she didn't know whether O liked or not.

"Tess, time to eat!" Her dad called from downstairs.

Despite the changes both external and internal, Tessa and her dad still moved forward, looking at the good of the future. Tessa took one look around her room - which she was still getting used to - and headed downstairs into the kitchen.

The workers that rebuilt the Yeager house worked nonstop for two months, and they were still fixing some of the house. Tessa and her dad had no family room to watch TV, and the other rooms downstairs were shut off until the workers could work on those. The upstairs was the only fully designed part of the house. Her bedroom, her dad's bedroom, the bathrooms, closets, were the first to be built and repaired.

The kitchen though, was where she and her dad spent most of their days. The average-sized kitchen with its small breakfast nook near a window, which overlooked a shady pine tree. It had also become our living room, and much more.

It was dinner, and the smell of spaghetti and meatballs filled Tessa's nostrils. She wished Shane could be there to eat, it would have been the perfect time to talk and let her dad and Shane talk some more. But Shane wasn't in town now. He was off with his family for the weekend.

"Smells good, Dad." Tessa said as she took a sit in one of the high chairs.

Cade Yeager, her father, angled his head so he could smile at her. "I learn from the best, sweetie."

Tessa raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Who would that be?"

"You, of course." He said and placed a steaming bowl of the hot mess they call spaghetti, sauce, and meatballs.

With her mom gone, Tessa always had to teach her father some household things. Cooking, cleaning, and making sure everything was kept tight around the place. Her dad didn't always have to cook or clean. Most of the time she took over the things that women did. But every once in a while, Tessa's dad just wanted her to actually be young, not that he had completely realized she had grown into a mature adult by now.

"And the student becomes the teacher." She murmured softly. She gave him a small smile and picked up a fork, twirling it until the spaghetti has twisted into an ugly spiral with some of the noodles hanging off the end.

"So," her dad said. "you talk to Shane any lately?"

Tessa knew that her dad was really making an effort to get to know Shane, to give him a chance, without losing his big, protective dad status.

"Nope." Tessa said, shoving a mouthful of noodles into her mouth. She swallowed hard and continued, "I'm sure he's just hanging out with his family."

"You mean the Lucky Charms gang?" Cade Yeager pointed out. Tessa rolled her eyes and with that, her dad started singing the Lucky Charms theme song.

She shook her head. "You're ridiculous, Dad. You know that, right?"

"Actually I do."

Tessa laughed and took another bite of the burning spaghetti. It was good to have the moments when Tessa and her dad could believe that their life could be normal again, to become accustomed to an average life of dad and daughter only.

Then there were the times when they sat in silence, wondering about the Autobots and Optimus Prime, now gone to fight his creators. Tessa recalled a conversation she had had with her dad two weeks after the sound of battle rang in China.

"We're not ordinary, Tessa." Her dad had spoken softly and warmly, not wanting to upset his daughter any more than she already was. "At least not anymore."

She had frowned and said, "We're not ordinary?"

Cade Yeager had sighed and rubbed his scruffy chin for a long time. "We've fought alongside alien robots, defied many things, made enemies. We're anything but ordinary, Tess."

"What makes you think we can't be normal again?" Tessa had asked, her fingers slightly trembling.

"We can make an effort, sweetie." He had told her. "But we'll always be apart of the Autobots. We're changed. . . for good."

Tessa shuddered, back in the time she was in now. She would never completely understand what her father meant by 'changed'. Maybe one day she would understand; not today though.

Tessa finished her dinner faster than her dad, and dropped the bowl and fork into the sink.

"Thanks, Dad." She said. "It was good. I think I'm gonna go take a walk around."

"Be careful, Tessa." Her dad warned me, and with that Tessa shrugged on a Texas Longhorns hoodie.

Outside, the air was humid with the arrival of summer. But even then the nights dropped lower than the sunny Texas days she usually dealt with. She walked a few yards from the house that she had grown up in, and sat down on the cold, hard ground. Tessa leaned back, her fingers twirling around the long stalks of grass. She needed to remember to tell my dad to cut the grass soon.

Her phone beeped in her jeans pocket, and she pulled it out.

Shane 3

Tessa immediately punched the answer button with her index finger and held the phone up to her left ear. She could hear the heavy breathing of her boyfriend.

"Shane?" She asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Hey, baby." Shane's voice said from the other side of the line. Tessa exhaled deeply, glad that it really was her boyfriend and not an illusion. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Tessa bit her bottom lip. Truthfully, she didn't know if she was fine or not.

"How's your dad?" Shane asked.

"Pretty good." She answered. "When are you coming back?"

"Soon, Tess." Shane said. "I promise."

"Well," Tessa said. "how's your family doing?"

"Doing fine." He told her. "Colorado Springs is gorgeous."

She nodded even though Shane couldn't see. "I bet it is."

"You should have come when I asked you."

Tessa made little swirly lines and shapes in the dirt. "I would have intruded on family time. You need to be with your family, Shane."

"You wouldn't be intruding. You-"

"Besides," she quickly interrupt him, "do you really think my dad would allow me to go to Colorado Springs with my twenty year-old boyfriend?"

"I guess you're right."

"That's what I thought." She said. "Have fun, Shane. I'll talk to you later."

"Sure thing."

"I love you."

"Love you too."

Shane hung up, leaving Tessa to listen to the chirping of the crickets and the rustling of the wind through the fields.