It was a slow and boring day in Jasper, Nevada as always. It was Friday and the students of Jasper High School were eager to escape the fluorescent classrooms and the droning teachers for the weekend. Three students in particular were getting impatient. Jack Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Rafael "Raf" Esquivel were all sitting in last hour.

"Come on clock! Tick faster!" the young girl growled in annoyance.

"Calm down Miko. The bell will ring no later than it always does," laughed Jack.

"Yeah well it's not going to any sooner either!"

"Well growling at it won't make it go any faster!"

The ever quiet Raf laughed as he watched his two best friends banter. He was just as eager to get out of the school and back to the Autobot base and to enjoying the weekend. He and his Autobot friend, Bumblebee, had a high score to settle on their favorite racing game.

Miko quickly forgot the bickering with Jack when an idea appeared in her mind. "Hey! You guys wanna see if we can get Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee to race?"

"Ha sure, but be prepared to lose! There's no way your big guy can out run Arcee!"

"Oh you're so on!" The three's racing bets were interrupted by the teachers voice.

"Attention class. Let me introduce our newest student."

They all looked to the front of the classroom where the teacher stood with a girl that looked to be about Jack's age. "Please, will you tell all your new classmates a bit about yourself?"

The girl long blonde hair and eyes that were almost eerily bright green. She wore no makeup. The only jewelry she had was a plain silver pentagram pendant and a chain around her neck. Her clothes were simple yet practical; a long sleeved navy blue blouse and dark washed jeans.

She looked from the teacher, who was smiling at her encouragingly, to the sea of staring eyes of the students and blinked a couple of times.

"Um ok. My name is Nora Jones. I come from Westport, Washington."

"Well Ms. Jones that is quite a ways away. I'm sure you will be given a warm welcome by all of us here in Jasper. I see an empty desk behind Ms. Nakadai. Miko Nakadai is this year's exchange student from Japan. Perhaps her and her friends can show you around."

Nora made her way the rows of desks with her head ducked down with her hair hiding her face from view, the sea of eyes following her every move. Once she reached the desk, she sat down quickly. Miko spun around to face the quiet girl. "Hi! Name's Miko," the Asian smiled brightly.

"Hello."

"Don't worry about all the gawking. They'll get bored with you eventually."

A dark haired boy to Emma's right chuckled lightly. "Yeah we don't exactly see a lot of new faces here. When Miko first got here, people were staring for weeks. New kids are a treat."

Miko laughed in agreement. "You got that right! This is Jack by the way," she jabbed her thumb in the boy's direction.

"Hi."

"And my name is Raf."

"Hello."

With the formalities over with Nora took out a thick sketch book from the black messenger bag she carried. She opened it to the latest drawing and began to work on it. Miko, still turned around backwards, looked down at the drawing. "Oh hey, great sketch! What is it? It looks like a big bird."

"Um it's a falcon," replied the blonde without looking away from said sketch. The falcon's wings were spread wide and its talons outstretched, like it was descending upon prey or attacking an enemy in the air.

Soon the final bell rang and the impatient teenagers filed out of the building. Jack, Miko, and Raf moved towards their Autobot guardians.

Nora made her way down the steps to the sidewalk. She saw the three she had talked to go to their vehicles. She watched as the Asian, Miko, climbed into what looked like a large off-road vehicle of some sort. Jack got onto a sleek motorcycle that looked like it was built for racing. The younger boy climbed into the passenger seat of a black and yellow sports car. They must have some wealthy parents, she thought. She watched them for a moment more then she started to walk to her new house.

The three friends and their Autobot rides had reached the base at last. They moved up to the couch and TV. Raf and Bumblebee started up the video games while Miko and Jack pulled out their homework.

"Ugh, why do we have to do this now?"

"Because," replied Jack, "if we don't do it now it won't get done later because we probably won't have time."

"Well then why doesn't Raf have to?"

"Because while you two were bickering like an old married couple," replied said boy, "I was getting mine done in class."

"Nerd…"

Around ten minutes later, Nora had reached her house. It was a bit of a rundown little house; the plain white paint chipped and faded. The rickety wooden steps creaked as she made her way up to the front door. She stepped in and shut the door as quietly as possible.

The house was eerily quiet and lifeless. Nora tiptoed into the living room. The room was filthy and littered with empty glass bottles and overfilled ashtrays. Lying on the mangy couch was a man passed out; a glass bottle, half full of golden liquid, clenched in his hand. Good. He's already passed out. Nora grabbed an apple to eat and hurried towards her small room. She lied down on her bed stared up at the ceiling. Soon she felt her eyes becoming heavy and she dosed off to sleep filled with dreams of escape.

Back at the Autobot base, things were going about as usual. The kids were either playing video games or watching TV. Ratchet was working on the monitor. Arcee and Bulkhead were out on patrol with Optimus Prime. Bumblebee was currently watching Raf and Miko fight each other on a new video game Miko had recently bought.

"Ha, take that!" shouted the young girl as her player destroyed Raf's. "Looks like I win again!" Miko laughed and grinned proudly as the younger boy sulked. The ground bridge opened to let Optimus, Arcee and Bulkhead in.

"Hey guys, how did patrol go?" greeted Jack.

"Did you guys thrash any Decepticreeps?" asked Miko, excitedly.

Optimus chuckled at the young girl. "No we did not see anything. Things have been quiet lately."

"That's what I'm worried about," replied Arcee. "A quiet Decepticon is never good. I think they're up to something."

"Ah enough of patrol talk!" said Bulkhead. "How was school, Miko?"

"Boring, as always, but we got a new student today!"

"Oh that's interesting."

"Yeah she came all the way from Washington."

The group continued to talk throughout the day. The kids had decided to sleep over at the Autobot base, seeing as it was the beginning of the weekend.

Night had fallen. It was nearly midnight and the 'Bots had long went into recharge. The only ones who were up were Miko and Jack, playing video games. Raf had fallen asleep between them on the couch and was sleeping peacefully, despite the sounds of the two teens.

"I can't believe we haven't woke him up yet," commented Miko, glancing down at the sleeping boy.

"Yeah I guess when you live in a house full of people, you get used to toning out noise," replied Jack.

Miko smiled down at Raf, lightly ruffling his hair. She liked Raf. He was the little brother she'd never had. Miko was an only child and had always wished for a younger sibling.

Miko's musing was interrupted by a sudden beeping on the glowing monitor behind them. Raf, finally woken up by the alarms, jolted up, his glasses askew. "W-What's going on?" he asked, drowsily.

"Uh oh, that can't be good."

"Um, hey Ratchet! I think we might have a problem here!" yelled Jack down the hall towards the medic's private quarters.

By now everyone was awake and in the main room. Bulkhead was the last to stumble in. "What in the Allspark is going on?"

Ratchet was busy typing on the monitor. "It's picking up some kind of reading but I can't tell what exactly it is."

"Is it energon?" asked Arcee.

"It is similar. But I don't think that's what it is."

"Hey that's not far from town either!" exclaimed Miko.

"Looks pretty close to our school to," observed Raf.

"We'd better check it out then," said Optimus. "Bulkhead, stay here with Ratchet. Arcee and Bumblebee, you two are with me."

"Hey! What about us?" asked Miko. "Come on Optimus, there's no sign of Decepticon. Let us go this time!"

"Actually guys," said a very sleepy Raf, "I'm going to sit this one out and catch up on sleep."

Optimus pondered it for a moment. It was probably wise to leave them here, but knowing Miko, they'll probably end up sneaking along anyway and get into trouble. Better to take them along where he could keep an eye on them. "Very well, but stay back and be careful!"

"Yes!" Miko jumped excitedly.

"Autobots, roll out!"


So here it is! My very first fanfic! Since I'm currently busy with The Wolf Guardian, updates will be pretty slow for now.

But anyway, I'm not entirely sure if there are going to be any pairings in this. I'm really looking towards Arcee/Starscream. Maybe Nora/Jack or Nora/OC OR Jack/Miko. Sorry no human/cybertronian pairings. Nothing against them, I just don't like them. But if anyone wants to share their opinions on pairings please let me know!

I will be very glad to receive ANY (constructive) criticism! I know I have a lot to learn and pointers and/or advice would be welcomed! But please NO FLAMES. If you really think this sucks, tell me politely!

Enjoy!

-IXP