The Cost Of Friendship

Chapter 1

The building was large and dull. It was made of huge grey slabs, a grey roof, grey doors, and grey windows. There weren't any trees around it, and the grass around it was completely dead. No matter the weather around the building, it was like there was a force field around it, keeping out the sun and the birds and the animals. It was always dark and dreary.
If you didn't know the area, you would think it was the dungeon, where the Autobot's prisoners were taken to be tortured.
You wouldn't be far off, but…
That wasn't the case.
It was towards this dark and dreary building that Ironhide raced, trying to get there as fast as he could carrying at least twenty giant, heavy bags.
After a minute he finally got through the door and, running at full pelt, crashed headfirst into Optimus.
"Whoa, watch where you're going, Hide!" Optimus smiled, "Where's the fire?"
"I'm late, Prime." Ironhide growled, scooting around his friend.
Optimus glanced at the clock on the wall.
"We've got two minutes before class starts. That's plenty of time."
"Class is across the other side of the building." Ironhide reminded him.
Optimus rolled his optics.
"Well, it's not like we'd get in trouble."
"No." Ironhide agreed, "You won't, because you're you. I'm me. You're teacher's pet. You can get away with anything. I can't."
Optimus sighed.
"All right." He said finally. "We'll do it your way. Just this once."
When they got to class they were late, but Sentinel hadn't arrived yet. Ironhide followed Optimus to the back of the classroom, and watched his friend collapse backwards on the desk, so that he was lying across the whole thing. Ironhide sighed and dragged his feet as he went round the table to collapse in his seat, dropping all his bags on the floor. Optimus' head tilted towards him.
"You haven't unpacked yet?"
"You know the answer to that question bloody well, Prime." He growled at him. Optimus peered at him with amused optics.
"And why is that?"
"Because it's your fault I couldn't unpack."
"How so?"
"Because you're the one who stopped me from getting through the door."
"Ah ha!" Optimus sat bolt upright and swivelled round on the desk so he was facing Ironhide. "But I didn't stop you."
"Oh yeah? How'd you work that one out?"
"I didn't make you late. That was your own fault." Optimus reminded him. "You got to school late. We were talking for all of two seconds before we came here. If you'd just come with me, you would be safely unpacked by now, and still be here on time."
Ironhide blinked, trying to figure out what he'd just said.
"Aack. I give up with you."
Optimus smiled and shrugged and barely glanced up as a couple of femmes walked through the door, caught sight of him and squealed.
Ironhide glanced at them, and turned to Optimus.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Get so popular with both the teachers and the students?" Ironhide asked wistfully. "If I start getting popular with either group I get completely unpopular with the other."
Optimus shrugged again.
"I don't know. Trust me; I'd rather not have fan-femmes."
Ironhide chuckled.
"Maybe not, but you've got them, my friend." He cocked his head. "I wish I had fan-femmes."
"You would regret that if you actually had any." Optimus replied with a shudder.
"It must be awesome to be loved by all the femmes…" Ironhide continued, clearly not listening.
"It's not."
"You can go out with anyone you want, and they won't say no."
"They do that for popularity. Not love. Bragging rights." Optimus pulled his bag onto the table and started looking through it.
"Optimus, could you sit down please?" Sentinel asked as he came in.
Optimus glanced at the old man and sat down in his seat, between Ironhide, who quickly got all his bags off the table at the teacher's entrance, and the wall.
"Right." Sentinel started. "As the more vigilant of you can see, we have a new student starting here today."
Ironhide blinked. He was vigilant. How did he miss that? The new kid was standing right in front of him!
Sentinel looked around the room and his dull blue optics landed on Ironhide.
"Bumblebee, you can take the empty seat there at the back of the room, next to Ironhide. Ironhide, you'll be showing Bumblebee here around."
Ironhide smiled inwardly at the smaller bot's name. Bumblebee? What kind of name was that?
Then he heard the second part of Sentinel's sentence.
"Er … what?"
Optimus snickered quietly next to him.
"If you wanna be popular, don't argue with the teacher." He murmured. As usual, Sentinel turned a blind eye. Ironhide gave him a look.
Optimus didn't even notice, since he was still too busy looking for something in his bag.
"Please don't tell me I didn't pack it."
Ironhide looked anxiously round as Bumblebee came and sat next to him, giving him a nervous smile.
"All right." Sentinel sighed. "Optimus, Ironhide, Bumblebee will be sharing your dorm. Take him up there now so he can unpack, and I'll let your teacher know you'll be late to your first lesson. Go!"
Optimus quickly left, Ironhide grabbed all his bags and hurried after his friend, Bumblebee on his heels. Sentinel rolled his eyes as they got to the front.
"Ironhide, try to get back early enough to unpack next time."
Ironhide quickly nodded as he rushed outside, and crashed into Optimus again.
"Ironhide, you have got to stop with the crashing into me all the time." Optimus scolded mockingly, his light, deep chuckle giving him away.
"So where's your dorm?" Bumblebee asked nervously.
"You can say 'our', you know." Optimus told the younger boy. "It's your dorm now as well."
Bumblebee shifted uncomfortably, but they could tell he felt a little bit better at the older bot's kindness.
Ironhide and Optimus headed up the stairs, Bumblebee right behind them the whole way, somehow managing to drag all his bags up there with him.
Their dorm was a medium-sized room on the top floor of the school building. Bumblebee's arrival had clearly been pre-scheduled, as there was already a third bed shoved in with the other two.
At the moment, the only sign that the room was lived in was the crumpled mattress on Optimus' bed, and his belongings littered on it and on the small cupboard next to it. Bumblebee noticed something on the floor near the door.
"What's this?" he asked, picking it up and dangling it from his hand. It was a small, delicate silver chain with a tiny locket at the end.
"Gah-that's mine." Optimus quickly took the locket off the younger bot. "I must've dropped it on the way out this morning."
Ironhide snickered. Optimus gave him a glare and sat on his bed, putting the locket away safely in one of his drawers.
Bumblebee shrugged and looked questioningly at Ironhide.
"So where do I sleep?" he asked uncertainly.
"Over there." Ironhide replied, pointing at the unoccupied bed.
Bumblebee nodded and shut the door behind him as he came into the room properly.
"Gaah-ah-ah … WHAT is this?"
Optimus and Ironhide looked up at his voice.
"What?" Optimus asked.
"THAT." Bumblebee pointed at the door.
At all the chains and bolts and locks that dangled and jingled as the door shut.
"Oh." Optimus said dismissively.
"'Oh'?" Bumblebee asked him. "What is 'oh'?"
Optimus started looking through his bag again.
"What are you looking for?" Ironhide asked him boredly from where he was lounging on his bed. He looked from Optimus to the door and back again. "Wait, don't tell me-"
"Ah ha!" Optimus exclaimed in triumph, holding up another lock and key. He took it over to the door, gently pushing Bumblebee in the direction of his bed, and started to install it with all the others.
"You're getting paranoid, my old friend." Ironhide said, shaking his head.
"You're one to call me old." Optimus smirked, quickly finishing with the lock and stepping back to admire his handiwork. "And it's not paranoia."
"What is it then?"
"You know as well as I do that those femmes take any chance they get to sneak in here."
Ironhide thought about it for a minute.
"That is true." He admitted. "But I still think you're going way too extreme here. One lock would do the trick."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, my friend."
Bumblebee looked between the two older bots, and was confused.