Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Only the plot and OCs are mine.

Alright, here we go again. I've rewritten and reposted this story several times and I'm just going to take a leap of faith. So, here is the first chapter of my new story, You Are More. Enjoy the ride!

I was an impractical type of person.

I'd been told that practically my entire life.

Maybe that was why on my seventeenth birthday, when I should have been celebrating with a nice dinner with my mother and brother, or having a night on the town with my best friends, here I was running for my life with the rest of my coworkers and city.

One minute I had been organizing a bunch of junk into different bins in stuffy storage room in the back of the store and the next thing I knew; I was being pulled up by my elbow and told that aliens were attacking us.

Aliens? Seriously?

My first thought was that this was just some ploy for the new Transformers movie that had just been released but as Danny pulled me out into the humid Nevada sun I could hear the shrill screams of terror around us.

Huh. Not a ploy.

We immediately began running for our lives and I was caught up on how the hell I managed to get myself into this situation.

I guess if I'm going to tell this story right, I should probably tell it from the very beginning…

Five Days Earlier

"Nathalia, Nate! If you don't get your lazy culos down these stairs in the next ten minutes, you're going to be late for escuela!" Maria's voice carried up the stairs and into my room where I was laying curled up in a ball underneath my purple duvet contemplating whether or not graduating was really that important to me.

With a groan, I forced my chocolate brown eyes open, and rolled to the left and off of my bed. I landed on the floor in a heap with a loud, "Oofh!", escaping my lips.

As I rubbed at the dark circles underneath my eyes, I faintly heard the sound of feet pounding against the hardwood floor as they sprinted down the hallway.

I grinned and worked on detangling myself from my duvet. Once free, I sprinted over to the door in the far corner of my room that connected to the bathroom. I didn't bother to close it behind me and instead ran to the bathroom's other door, slamming my body weight onto it and hitting the lock just as a body hit the exterior frame of the door and bounced off.

Snickering to myself, I moved back into my room to grab my school uniform. I could hear my brother whimpering and 'scratching' at the door like a dog would outside my bedroom door which I had thankfully locked last night before bed.

"Sorry Nate, but I'm supposed to meet Carly and the twins at our spot before homeroom and you take forever in the bathroom!" I called through the oak door, and hear him slump against it in defeat.

"I only take forever-" He emphasized the word like I had, making me roll my eyes, "-because I have to make my hair look absolutely perfect before I can leave the house!"

"Why?" I questioned as I turned on the shower, and waited for our abnormally slow hot water tank to heat up.

"I need to look good for all of the chicas," He purred through the wood, and I laughed at his typical antics.

Stepping into the hot stream of the shower, I rolled my sore shoulders a few times to loosen up the muscles a little bit. Reaching for my shampoo, I squirted a little onto the palm of my hand.

"What chica con dos dedos de frente would want you?"

"Perra."

Five minutes later, I was out of the shower and towel drying my damp hair as finished buttoning up my white long sleeved shirt. I caught a glimpse in my full length mirror as I made my way to my vanity. My tan complexion stared back at me; my dark, starting to once again naturally curl, hair hanging loosely down my back. I worked on rolling my sleeves and making sure my shirt was tucked neatly into my dark blue skirt.

Sighing, I sat down and quickly brushed a little bit of blush onto my cheeks. I reached for my mascara, and brushed it over my lashes a few times.

That should be good…

I wasn't the pickiest person about my makeup, and didn't really care that much for it. In my opinion, girls my age should use their brains when trying to get a guy rather beauty anyone. Slipping on my dark blue and red plaid shoes, I grabbed my backpack and darted down our stairs two at a time. Upon entering the kitchen, I saw Nate sitting at our island, shoveling as much food into his mouth as possible.

I rolled my eyes and opened the fridge to grab myself the pitcher of orange juice, "I find it incredible that we don't have to give him the heimlich daily."

Maria smacked me on the butt with an oven mitt as I passed her, making me laugh as I swiped the last piece of bacon off of Nate's plate, "Be nice to your brother Nat."

"Nice? Hmm, I'll start being nice when he starts going to bed before two in the morning," I bit into the crispy piece of bacon, "Seriously Nathanial, why were you still Facetiming at two in the morning? What girl could be that senseless?"

Nate just smirked, "I wouldn't call your best friend senseless, she might hurt you for it."

My eyes widened, and I would've lunged across the table but Maria's warm arm wrapped around my waist, and effectively stopped me in my mission to kill my brother, "So Nat,"

My brother took that as his hint to run out to the car and wait for us there, "What do you have planned for your birthday celebration?"

I smiled and leaned my head so that it was resting on her shoulder, "I haven't really thought about it that much. I figured we could just have a small celebration with the twins, Carly, Nate, you, and I."

She smiled, "I think that could be arranged sweetheart."

"Thanks Maria!" I beamed, but degraded a bit as I watched her flinch at 'Maria'.

Maria had adopted me five years ago. Before that, I had been bounced around foster home to foster home. My parents died in a car crash when I was four and I had been placed in the system upon their deaths. I had no living relatives. At least, none that I had ever met and no one came forward to claim the scared little girl who had sat in the waiting room of the hospital on the cold and stormy winter night that claimed her parent's lives.

The little girl who had sat clutching the tatty brown bear who looked a lot worse for wear with his one button eye and stuffing-less right paw, but she had hung onto him like a lifeline. When they told her that her parents were now somewhere called Heaven and that they weren't coming back for her. When she was placed into the system and sent to her first abusive foster home. When the bear was finally taken away from her and sold at a yard sale by her callous caretaker for a quarter to a little dark haired boy who snatched the thing up like a lifeline and crushed it to his chest in what would have been a breathtaking hug as his red-haired mother complained about germs and dug in her purse for some sanitizer.

I tried to shake my head of the memory as Maria ushered me out to the car where Nate was waiting. We only had one car at the current time because Maria worked in the downtown hospital as a nurse to try and pay the income. She had little money from her husband's life insurance from when Antonio, Nate's dad, had passed away after suffering blunt force trauma to the head. He had been a construction contractor of his own firm and that auspicious day on the job he had forgotten his hard helmet at home. That day, had sadly been his last.

I had been through seven foster homes during my nine years in the system.

Everyone called me a problem child, the child they couldn't contain.

It wasn't that they couldn't contain as much as I didn't want to be contained.

I had run away probably four different times.

I had taken prescription medicine and sold it.

I tried to commit suicide once and still had the scars to prove it.

Here's the thing.

I had run to escape Mr. Johnson from cutting me with a knife or in other cases to escape beatings.

I had sold the prescription medicine because they weren't feeding me and I had to steal or starve.

I had tried to commit suicide because the boyfriend of my current caretaker in the home was trying to shoot me with a gun so I figured if I was going to die anyway, it would be by my hand before it would be by his. So, I had locked the bathroom door, hid in the closet, and slit the main arteries on both my wrists.

It wasn't my best idea.

Thank God I had lived through it.

I was sent to the hospital where Maria worked; she had been the nurse that had overseen nursing me back to health. Luck would have it that she already had a foster license and the moment she learned I was a foster kid, she claimed the day I was released from the hospital she would take me home with her.

And she did.

I met her older son Nate (who was only older by two months), and we became almost like siblings immediately in our bickering and playful fights. It wasn't like the other homes where a foster brother meant being scared and having to watch my back. Nate was different; he had only known me for a few days and already was sticking up for me at school. After a month of living with them, she asked me the question that I thought I would never hear being as old as I was in the system for as long as I had been.

"Would you like to make this a more permanent arrangement?"

I had almost dropped the plate I had been drying as Nate was washing and handing them to me every few seconds.

I said yes, and it had been the best decision I had ever made. Now I had a stable home, great friends and a loving family.

I climbed in the backseat of the car, pausing to lovingly smack my big brother on the back of his head, causing Maria to shoot me a glare. I knew she didn't really play favorites even though Nate was her biological son and I was not. I instead grabbed the aux cord, and plugged in my phone so I could listen to my music instead of Nate's poor excuse of music.

The Rosatis, Larsons, Vias, Johnsons, Wrighters, Georges, and Currys the farthest thing from my mind.

"Bye kiddos," Maria blew us both kisses as I closed the door to her Jeep and made my way over to where our friends were waiting for Nate and me.

Carly Jensen: beautiful, blond, thin. Carly had been a gymnast her entire life so she had grown up physically fit. Her 5"4' frame was three inches shorter than me but that never seemed to stop Carly. Instead of wearing flats like most of the girls in our grade, she was instead balanced in a pair of plain black heels. I giggled as I walked over to give her a hug, her blond hair hanging annoyingly naturally straight down her back.

"Hey Thalia," She grinned, as her brother walked forward to scoop me up and spin me around in a circle, "John! Let me down!" I laughed, and he obliged, placing a brotherly kiss onto my cheek before stepping back to let his twin pull me close to him.

"Hey, she's my girlfriend asshat, get your own!" He winked at his brother before swooping down to place a chaste kiss onto my lips, "Hey Nats."

"Hiya." I grinned up at him as he flipped his platinum blond hair out of his eyes, and flipped off his twin who had been indiscreetly telling Nate that he was actually my favorite twin.

Yes, his twin.

Jared and John are identical twins, born two minutes apart. They both swim like me and have a great muscle build. They're almost exactly alike, except their personalities are slightly different. Last year, Jared finally got the confidence to ask me out to Prom. It was really cute the way the way he did it too. I was swimming the 1000 freestyle and was on my last lap. I looked ahead of me to see a giant piece of laminated paper that read 'Prom?' in it in swirly letters with purple Sharpie.

I hit the touchpad on the other end of the pool and looked at the other end of the pool to see my teammates cheering as Jared held the poster over his head, beaming smile on his face. I got out of the water and ran around the pool deck, only to rush towards Jared who scooped me up and spun me around, planting a kiss on my cheek. I was so caught up in that moment that I forgot to check my time on the board which had been a new school record.

Since then we had been inseparable, and he was the sweetest person ever. Carly was actually okay with me dating him because we didn't get all mushy like other couples did. My brother tended to get annoyed though.

"Here's your hot chocolate by the way," Carly commented and handed me the steaming cup.

I grinned and reached for my wallet to pay her back but she just held up a hand, "You paid for me the last time, now we're even."

The class bell rang, and we groaned.

As we made our way up the steps, as I fixed my navy tie, I turned to Carly, and shot her a knowing look as she took a sip of her expresso, "So, what is this I'm hearing about you Facetiming my brother until two this morning?"

As she began snorting and choking, I slipped out of Jared's hold to smack her on the back and help the beverage go down her throat instead of into her lungs. When she finally cleared her throat well enough to speak, she leveled me with a blasé expression, and hoarsely inquired, "What?"

"You heard me. Don't encourage his shenanigans."

"Nats," She started as we reached our side by side lockers and began to twist in our combos, "Why on Earth would I ever want to date your brother? You're already dating one of mine! That would just be weird!"

She shot me a look as she grabbed her government book, and closed her locker, "We were working on our Physics lab, y'know the one that determines whether or not I'm still passing Physics and can dive in the meet on Friday?"

"Oh. Yeah." She giggled and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we made our way to class

"I love you, but you're way too gulliable for your own good!"

First period had flown by and before I knew it I was sitting in my least favorite class, Debate. I hated talking in front of people, and I was to give the opposing argument against my least favorite person today, Hanna Halle. Hanna has made it her goal to make my life a living hell since I'd arrived here. From gum in my hair to filling my locker with itching powder the girl had a way of making my life miserable. She hated me and made it blatantly clear for everyone to see. Everyone except the teachers that is. Somehow the girl got away with being the perfect little angel in their eyes; student body president, captain of the varsity cheer squad. She was the typical popular blonde cheerleader.

"-and that is why I believe we should still have the death penalty in the United States." Hanna finished her argument, and made her way back to her seat, pausing to smirk at me. I sneered back and continued to doodle in my notebook. I was probably the shittiest drawer in the world, so I usually would just draw random lines and shapes but more recently, coupled with some reoccurring dream I had been having, I been seeing symbols. Not like an alphabet or anything like that, but different symbols. Some were softer around the edges opposed to others that were more jagged and rough. Carly thought that maybe the symbols were something I was seeing in the dream but I wasn't sure.

"-wson. Ms. Dawson!" Mr. Morris called, and Carly, who sits behind me in class, kicked the back of my seat, making me jolt upright and smack the edge of my notebook off my desk. It landed nearby but landed unfortunately near Hanna's foot. She picked it up before I could grab it, and began to flip through the pages.

"Aww, look at the little freak's drawings. Looks like she made up her own alien language! How cute!" She scoffed before ripping out the top page and crumpling it into a ball, "Too bad no one else speaks geek!"

I lunged out of my seat only to have Jared reach out and grab my arm gently but forcibly, "Don't," he warned me, shaking his head.

"Ms. Dawson!" Mr. Morris remarked again, and my attention snapped to him, "You are giving the opposing speech remember…?"

"Oh. Yes." I grabbed my notecards clumsily from my binder, and made my way to the podium in the front of the room.

I took a few deep, shaky breaths and began my argument, "U-unlike my opponent, I-I bei-believe…." It trailed off as my vision became blurrier and blurrier. I shut my eyes and tried to concentrate on steading my shaking hands that were still clutching the cards.

"I'm so sorry..." I broke off, "I can't do this."

I dashed for the door, hearing the concerned yells of my best friends and brother behind me.

Two minutes later, I was holed up in the handicap bathroom, trying my best to press the correct buttons on my cell phone with my sweaty fingers. Finally, I hit the right numbers, and sighed in relief.

"Henri? I need you to come and get me. Please."

Half an hour later, I was back in the world I knew and loved. Henri had picked me up from the school and driven me to his house back in Vaziri. If you could call it a house…

Both of Henri's parents were deceased, and the only one still alive was his older brother, Jason, who did what he thought was best to take care of Henri. What he thought was best though...

Henri had learned to take care of himself at the age of seven, when his brother began drug dealing. His brother became an addict to some of the drugs he dealt and would do anything to get his fix. Including falling into even more debt as a street racer. He had taught Henri his ways as well, hoping that teaching him the skills would assist in paying off his own debt.

Not even old enough to shave, and the boy had learned how to race better than many of the guys that had doing it for years.

He was ten years old, and I had been twelve when we had first met. His asshole eighteen-year-old brother had taken a strong liking to me, too strong. I had been a rebel back then though, and had appreciated receiving real attention for the first time since my parents died. I had agreed to be his girlfriend, and he had taught me his ways. Not the drug dealing or anything or that sort but instead he taught me about street racing.

I became good, good enough that I had outran the cops enough times and had won enough races that we were going to get out. To leave the shitty life that Vaziri had given us and run. By we, I mean Henri, my current foster mother, and I. Her name was Shannon Curry and she was one of the kindest and purest people I had ever met.

She was in a messy relationship with her boyfriend, Cameron. He had abused her more times than I could count and threatened her that if she ever tried to leave, he'd slit both of our throats. I'd come home one day to find her curled up crying on the linoleum floor in the bathroom.

Cameron had really done a number on her this time. Her face had slashes all over it from his pocket knife and he had stepped on her left leg hard enough to break it. I had called Henri and we had rushed her to the hospital where the doctors had treated her wounds. That was the moment that I decided that enough was enough. I called Jason and told him to set up an all-in race. An all-in race is virtually what it sounds like: any and all earnings made in the past month must be sacrificed as an entry fee. The racer who wins, wins it all.

I won.

The problem was, by the time I got back to the house to get Shannon, Cameron had put a bullet through her temple. From there I met Maria, and Nate and the rest is history.

"Why don't you just lay the bitch out? You could take her!" Henri grinned as he leaned across the table, mouth full of Chinese food. I pushed the now fifteen-year-old away with a grin, and cackled, "I don't think it's that simple bud."

"Why isn't it? She's a bully, and bullies always get what are coming to them." He affirmed as he leaned back in his chair and tossed his empty box and chopsticks onto the table.

"Well if the universe doesn't deem her worthy enough to be taken care of by them, I'll do it myself." I sipped my Sprite and l looked up in surprise as I heard the front door open and shut.

"Shit." Henri hissed and began to push me towards the back door as I scrambled to grab my phone and backpack. Jason was home. I hadn't talked to him in years and didn't plan to anytime soon. The guy was seriously an asshole

"I thought you said he wouldn't be home until 6," I whispered back and he moaned, "I don't know why he's here but I'll just have to see you later at the race."

"See you bud." I beamed as he closed the door behind me.

Now what…?

I had managed to not get myself knifed or raped which was a feat in itself considering the neighborhood I was in, and was now sitting in the bushes in the driveway of a random house. The household that lodged my car that I frequently "borrowed" and raced with.

A few months ago I had discovered the car and realized after watching the house for a few weeks that the owner was usually away on business. Why some rich guy was living in the ghetto with a really nice car is beyond me but I suspected that it was because he was a well to do drug dealer. I had a buddy of mine, who works at the garage where most of racers keep and repair their cars, make me a key copy to the car.

After a few minutes of traveling, I reached the secluded back road where we made our bets and ultimately started the race. I took a deep breath and tried to steady my heart rate. The music was blasting some foreign sounding sound song with a loud bass and looking around I saw the familiar sights of girls wearing slutty revealing clothes, some barely clad in bathing suits. As for the guys? I was trying not to drool over how attractive they were. I took a deep breath, and sighed. This was home.

I pulled up to the line where all the other cars were lined up and was thankful for the dark windows the Mustang were providing me with. Looking to my left, I could see Henri waving at me knowingly from his own car, and a glance to my right told me that Jason was preoccupied with some girl in a small red bikini. Rolling my eyes, I turned to roll down my window and motioned to Henri to do the same. I grabbed a stack of cash from my bag, and tossed it to Henri, "Put me down for five grand bud."

He whistled and his eyes widened, "Five grand!? Nats, that's all you have! If you loose this race, your car fund is out the window."

"If I lose this race, I can't show my face around here anymore regardless," I quipped as he rolled his almond eyes and grinned reassuringly, "If Jason hasn't figured out how to beat you yet, even with all of the upgrades he has, you honestly are the best!"

"Yeah okay Hen," I looked over to see Jason finishing up his conversation, and hastily rolled up my dark-tinted window.

"God damned half bit mother fuc-"

"You watch that mouth young lady or so help me…!" Maria warned, and I grimaced as the nurse fixing me up, tugging slightly at my stitches in my arm.

"You deserved that," Nate observed from where he was relaxing on the recliner with his feet balanced on my gurney. I smirked before using my right foot to shove both of his away; it resulted in his tumbling forward and nearly onto his face if Maria had not grabbed his arm and steadied him.

"I just cannot believe that you would do something so darn reckless!" She continued ranting, "I thought we were truly past this Nathalia."

As she continued, I paused in my listening to stick my tongue out at Nate as he sneered at me.

"Nathalia Morgan Dawson!"

I froze.

Uh oh.

Full name means deep, deep, shit.

Sheepishly I looked up at Maria only to have her frame collapse on the bed next to me and bury her face into her hands, weeping profusely.

"Aw, shit... Maria please don't... I mean, you know I don't do well when you… Nate, stop smirking and help me!"

"I just," Maria looked up at me with tear-stained eyes, "I can't lose you sweetie. I just can't. After losing Antonio.." Her voice trailed off and tears bubbled up as I leaned down to hug her. Nate was quick to join us, flinging his arms around me, his gangly form reaching well over to Maria.

"We're not going anywhere."

"What the hell do you mean I'm grounded?!"

"I mean, no reading for fun, no computer, no smart phone and no leaving the house without me unless you are going to work or school." Maria was busy grabbing every electronic device I owned and shoving them into a basket.

"Work? You have got to be kidding me!"

"Serves you right," my brother smirked from his perch on my door frame, "Maybe it'll knock some sense into you since wrecking a $30,000 car didn't."

As I was contemplating once again the best way to kill my brother, Maria tossed me something that I caught out of reflex.

"Oh hell no. You've gotta be kidding me." I groaned as I examined the flip phone and flopped back onto my bed as Nate laughed at my current predicament.

"You're lucky I'm giving you a phone at all young lady," Maria scolded, "It's programmed with all the necessary numbers. I want you to use it to call me when you arrive to and from work."

"How in the world do you expect me to work and go to school and swim? It's not possible? And where am I to get a job on such short notice?"

"You're off the team until further notice," Maria retorted and threw a newspaper at me as a gaped in surprise, "Your coach and I agreed it's what's best for you right now. And look in the classifieds, if you don't have something picked by dinnertime tomorrow, I can always pick for you." She walked over to me and kissed my forehead, "I'm still mad at you. But I'm glad you're okay." She cupped my chin with her hand gently and rubbed her thumb soothingly over my cheek, "I love you my beautiful Nathalia."

"Implied," I smiled as she exited the room, only pausing to ruffle my brothers perfectly styled hair. As Nate fixed his hair and turned to leave, I turned my attention to the classifieds.

"Hey Star?" Nate paused and used the nickname that Antonio has given me.

"Hmm?" I glanced up to see Nate now sitting on the edge of my bed. He pulled me into a tight hug for a moment before pulling back to look me in the eyes, "Don't do that again, okay? I can't lose my pest of a little sister."

I grinned, "Of course Naters."

He walked halfway out of my room and paused to look back at me, "I'm really glad you're okay." Then he was gone, disappearing down the hall into his bedroom.

I took a deep breath in and pushed myself off my bed and made my way over to my desk in the corner of the room. Grabbing a sharpie from the cup holding all my writing utensils, I focused my attention on the black and white print in front of me.

How bad could this possibly be?

Uncapping my Sharpie, I leaned down to press the tip of the marker on the paper and —

"This is impossible!" I practically yelled, my hands shaking as I stared at the paper in front of me. It was blank. Well not completely blankbut void of any marks ergo the words and pictures. My purple sharpie was lying besides the paper, still unused. I groaned in frustration and set my head down on my arms.

"You're overthinking this," Carly said as she sat down across from me and pushed the steaming hot cup of hot chocolate towards me. We were downtown in the cozy nook of our favorite coffee shops. At least, it was one of my favorite places. I would always come her after school the days I didn't have practice to sit down and work on homework. It was a quiet little shop on the Main Street of town nestled between the bookstore and post office. That was why this place had become a sort of problem for me.

I would come here with the best intentions of doing my homework but before I could step inside I would always end up buying a book from next door. Our bookstore had this cool idea to wrap every single book in the store in brown paper and write a brief description of the book enclosed on it without giving too much away of the actual story. The owner, Mr. Bradley, wanted us never "judge a book by its cover" whether that be people or actual books. It was a pretty cool idea and for $5 a book, it was a steal. The books could be anything from classics like to Kill a Mockingbird or new books like the Divergent series. I frequented the bookstore almost everyday and was surprised that today my book was Transformers related. I loved the G1 series and was anticipating the new movie that was set to come out next week. They had actually filmed scenes of it in downtown Mission City, about ten minutes away from our sleepy little town.

"Earth the Nathalia, Nathalia ya there?" Carly was literally snapping her fingers in front of my face trying to get my attention.

Shaking my head to clear myself of the thoughts, I reached out to grab the hot chocolate Carly had bought for me. Taking a sip I reveled in the way the beverage did not have the bitter taste coffee did. I hated coffee. Nate had tricked me years ago into drinking black coffee by making me think it was cocoa. Ugh. Never again.

"Just pick something, anything to appease Maria. O-Or make it hard for her. Pick a job somewhere she won't be able to say yes to, somewhere out of the way, somewhere like..." Carly paused to turn the paper towards her and scan the jobs available, "Here." She tapped the paper twice with her red painted nail and leaned back to grab her mocha and take a long sip, cocking an eyebrow at me.

Leaning forward, I glanced at the ad she had suggested and immediately returned her grin, "Perfect."

Help Wanted!

Downtown Mission City

Hourly Wage of $10

Employee needed to organize precious metals and other valuables. Previous work experience not applicable.

Call Rhonda of Rhonda's Pawn Shop at 1-800-2255

Written: October 13, 2016

Published: January 3, 2017