Hi! I'm Timoria. Most of my friends call me Timi or Mory. This is my first fic, so be nice.

I do not own Transformers or anything affiliated with it.

"But Mom, everybody has one!"

Jamie rolled her eyes at her little brother's whiny tone as she got up and shut the door, then went back to her Algebra II book. She sighed. Algebra II was boring because she learned faster than the other kids in her class, but her school didn't have an accelerated course for it, and she was in that tiny little margin that was really smart but not smart enough to learn advanced courses early.

Jamie started to pick up her English homework, but remembered they were reading The Old Man and the Sea. She'd been bored to tears before the end of the first chapter, so she'd forced herself to read it all in one day so she didn't have to look at it again except when she forgot the answer to a question—which happened about once in a blue moon. Oh, well. She'd already done all the questions that were due that week anyway.

Jamie sighed and flopped down backwards on her bed. That seemed to be the problem with her life. Everything was boring. She didn't agree with much that Christians said, but she agreed with whoever had written that book the Girls' Bible Club had been reading that month. She'd stayed after school on Wednesday to save her mom some gas money going back and forth to color guard practice. Jamie had finished her homework from early in the day in study hall, and for once the Algebra teacher had been absent on sickleave, so she didn't have any homework to keep her from going stir crazy.

Jamie had seen a poster advertising that the Girls' Bible Club was meeting on Wednesdays from three to four. School got out at 2:15, and color guard practice didn't start until 4:30, so in a last ditch effort to preserve her sanity, Jamie decided to check out the Bible club. Who knew, maybe she'd be pleasantly surprised and they'd say something worthwhile.

Turns out they had. Whoever wrote that book (Captivated? Captivating?) had known something about people, or at least girls. They'd said that every girl wants to be a princess of some sort, that every woman longs to be part of an adventure. That made sense to Jamie. She'd always wanted to be someone important or adventurous, like a superhero or a politician (a good one) or a cowgirl in a western. Other girls seemed to think that way, too. Why else did authors and playwrights and movie makers make money hand over fist when they came out with stuff like Hannah Montana and Nancy Drew and the Princess Diaries and Cinderella? Why else were RPGs and websites where you could make yourself whoever you wanted to be so popular?

Maybe that's why people came up with religion in the first place: they wanted to be part of something bigger than plain old everyday life. It would make sense. All the stories about magic and god-kings and parting seas were part of an effort to be part of something outside of themselves. Sometimes Jamie wished to—to—well, wished with all she had that they were true. She, too, joined the ancients in feeling that she was a stranger in a strange land.

Sorry if you wanted action from the start, but I needed to set this one up before I could take it anywhere. There will probably be some more slowness before the action starts, but there will be action. I promise.