Chapter One

AN: Agh, yet another story! I know, bad me, right? ^.^ However, when inspiration strikes, it can get hard to put it in a storage box, especially for me. Also, one *cough*me*cough* may or may not be avoiding getting some college homework done.

Now, this story goes back to some painful memories for me, and whilst I shall stick to the truth mostly, keep in mind that there will be some fiction to it. This will also be taking place just shortly after DOTM (Dark of the Moon), and seeing as I have no idea what the weather is like in places like Chicago and Washington, D.C., I'm sticking it at around spring/summer of '11, so that means back to grade 11 I go! (Whoopdi-frickin-do)

Also, I apologize in advance for any swearing that is written. Most won't be until later unless Cybertronian, since I'm trying to stick close to reality, aside from, you know, everything.

Now, go read, and maybe review or fave or alert? Don't feel obliged to, it's alright, as I can see people read it anyway from the views. Other people might not, but I *gets mouth covered and effectively shuts up*

Ironhide: I thought the squishy would never shut up.

-:-

A teen of sixteen sighed as she overheard everyone talking in school. From the sounds of it, something major had happened in the States, and something tragic at that. Was she surprised? Not at all; her father and she had frequent discussions about how the 'reign' of the States would eventually end, just like every other empire in history had. If all of the attacks and wars in the past ten years were any indicator, the time would be approaching quicker than some thought.

She didn't know the specifics, as almost no one had the same story. She would have to wait until she had gotten home to check the news channel. She, unlike most, if not all, students, did not have a cell phone. She had a computer, but that was to stay at home and wasn't allowed to connect to the internet. All she had to carry around with her was a cheap MP3 player that had cost her ten dollars and a DSi her mother had given her for graduating grade nine.

Shrugging her shoulders, she headed to her first class of the day, American Sign Language. She enjoyed it enough, though she didn't choose it. When she had transferred over the summer from one school to this one, she had gotten her schedule and saw that she had a free period. It was no surprise that she had one, as her last school had allowed grade eleven and twelve students to have a free period. The new school, however, didn't.

Therefore, she had to choose something, and as her stepmom wouldn't let her take a verbal language course, like German or Japanese, and as she had taken Spanish in the first semester, ASL was the only option.

All around her, the one word that was consistent with what everyone was saying was 'alien'. If what people said was true, which it very well may not be, she had a few 'I told you so's to hand out. However, those would have to wait until after school, and after stage production, as it was a Tuesday.

Most of the time, she hated Tuesdays, as stage production was a pain, but as of late, with the school play of Alice in Wonderland with a Woodstock twist to it was approaching in a few weeks' time, and everyone in that class had to pull weekends in order to get it all done.

The next few classes would be spent painting the set floor, a red and white wavered checkered pattern. That was, of course, after all the cutting of wood with jigsaws. At first, she was scared; being handed a power tool with little to no experience and expected to use it effectively was strange, but fun and dangerous.

However, all that mattered now was ASL, and learning to communicate with the deaf or hearing impaired. The bell rang and she sat down in class the moment after, not caring who sat beside her. Ever since she had started school, she was too shy to make any friends, and the one friend she had was a girl she had slightly known from her previous school.

It didn't matter what class she had, she never hung out with anyone aside from her one friend at lunch. And even then, sometimes her friend had other commitments to attend to.

The teen girl was snapped out of her day dreams when the teacher walked in and addressed the class in sign. After explaining what they would be doing today, she began to take attendance. The teen girl sighed before saying "here" when the teacher said her name, Crystal. Her last name, Charbaneau, sometimes made her the first on the attendance, depending on what class she took.

The class was fun enough, because it was probably the only class they played games on a daily basis, got to go for nature walks as the school was backed up against a dormant volcano, and got to study outside. However, there were times when she did wish she could draw on the side of her paper and just listen, even though this was a very visual course.

After another three hours of sign language, it was lunch. It was nothing special, aside from bumping into a new kid at the school. Going against what her heart was telling her to, Crystal gave the new kid a smile and helped her find her class after lunch. As it turned out, the new student had been placed in her class; Earth Science.

Knowing how the new girl felt, she asked her name and if she wanted to eat lunch with her. The new girl nodded, stating that her name was Noelle. Crystal gave Noelle a nice smile and led the way to a hallway just past the courtyard.

There, Crystal's friend, Elicia, was waiting, sitting on the ground scrolling through her phone for something.

The two friends smiled at one another in greeting and Crystal introduced Noelle to Elicia. After sitting, Crystal noticed that Noelle didn't pull anything from her bag or had something to eat at all.

"Did you need some food? I can share some of mine," Crystal said, digging into a brown paper bag. Ever since she was little, since her family was considered to be in a tight budget, the school district offered the 'brown bag' lunch program. Crystal was grateful, because it was different every day, and it tasted good, aside from the cheese and roast beef sandwich she sometimes got.

Noelle shook her head, black hair falling into her face. "No, I ate already."

Crystal smiled. "Okay," she said then turned to Elicia and started asking questions like if she knew what the entire school was abuzz with that morning.

Elicia looked at Crystal like she was an alien for a minute, then it occurred to her that she had no phone, no way to access information at all. "There was an attack on Chicago over the weekend. The city was basically flattened, and everyone is saying, and there's so many photos of them, that giant metal aliens did it."

Crystal snorted. "Well, I just hope they don't come to Canada. I mean, sure, we're the second largest country in the world, but why attack a place that has like 35 million people. Strategically speaking, if aliens wanted to make a bad statement, I would think eastern Asia would be the more likely place to strike."

Elicia rolled her eyes. "I guess. All the bad aliens are dead, that's what officials are saying. They're also saying that the 'good' aliens won."

"Wait, good aliens?"

Elicia nodded. "Why don't you go look it up in the library? I can take Noelle to her next class."

"We've got the same class; Noelle, have you seen the library? It's nothing impressive, just like a lot of the schools, but it's something." Without waiting, Crystal stood up and grabbed Noelle's hand to lead her down the hall, but not before flashing Elicia a goodbye smile.

Noelle took her hand from Crystal before taking in a deep breath; I can't let her find out too much, she thought to herself while following the teen.

Upon arriving at the library, Crystal scouted out a free computer and logged on with a few keystrokes. Opening up the schools default internet browser and going to the search engine Google, she typed in 'Chicago attack 2011' and hit the enter button vigorously.

The page loaded with the top search results, and Crystal clicked on the images button. Hundreds upon hundreds of images taken from cell phones and uploaded to social media websites showed, some blurry, some quite clear.

Noelle scanned over the images in dread; there was no way the governments of this planet could wipe the internet clean without any suspicion being risen. It was apparent that their secret was out, and that the entire human race would have to live with the truth that there was extraterrestrial beings sharing their planet.

She also thought that most humans would be afraid, but as she monitored Crystal's reactions, they were anything but.

Instead, Crystal looked and leaned into the screen with more interest than before. This was amazing in her mind. Aliens, actual aliens had come to earth, and had apparently had an argument. Giant metal beings appeared to tower over the humans in the photos, making them slightly scary to some.

Unable to quench her thirst for information, Crystal clicked the back button a few times and got back to the page that held web links to online articles about the event. She clicked on a few, learning the details the media were allowed to disclose in a heartbeat.

However, the bell rang soon after, so Crystal logged off and led Noelle out of the library to the science hallway.

Earth Science, along with Social Studies, was her favourite class. It, as well as dealing with the earth, had a few sections on outer space. Although, as much as she loved learning about it, she wasn't ever going to go into space given the chance; too many space movies.

"So, Noelle, why did you want to take this class?" Crystal asked as she sat in her seat up front.

Noelle looked at the wall for a minute; come on, think of something! she thought to herself. "I really like this subject."

Crystal nodded. "Cool, me too. I'll talk to the teacher and see if you can join me for the current project."

Just then, the teacher walked in, and immediately noticed the new face. The class had about twelve students in it, because this was seen as the 'easy' science to take. That always made Crystal laugh. It was easy to get an A in it if you knew what you were doing.

The teen laughed a bit; to think she had almost failed chemistry the first semester. It wasn't that she didn't understand the subject; it was the homework. She didn't want to write a report on how a dead person figured out how to draw a diagram. However, she would have failed that class, as before the exam she was below passing. She must have gotten a high mark on the exam because her grade was bumped up to a passing mark by a few marks.

Noelle looked at Crystal with a weird look before being addressed by the teacher, who was Australian. "Hello," she said to the teacher.

The teacher grinned back. "Hello. I've seen you made a friend already. Crystal?" It took the other teen a moment to come to, but nodded at the teacher. "Would you mind if she joined you for the project?"

The teen grinned. "I was just going to ask."

And so, class went on, and Noelle soon found out that the 'project' was making a paper mache volcano. Before either of them knew it, it was time to go home. Crystal turned to Noelle. "It was nice meeting you today. Maybe you can hang out with Elicia and me tomorrow."

Noelle nodded and packed up her bag to leave. She watched Crystal leave through the door before waiting a few minutes then following suit. She walked to where a purple car was parked and got in it, before something strange happened. She disappeared.

::Nova to Optimus Prime. I have found her. The one you described to me with the unique Energon reading::

-:-

AN: Whew, that was fun, sorta, not really. I hate first chapters for a very good reason. Anyway, my lovely readers, thank you for taking your time, and I hope to post and write the next chapter sometime when I'm not sleep deprived.