Life changing events chapter 2
January 6th, 1984
Her first week of work had gone well; Annie was busy working on cars that were going to be used in future episodes of other Sunbow Productions cartoons; she only had an hour left of work now and earlier, she had eaten lunch with some of her human coworkers and had talked to Optimus again briefly; he had seemed to take it upon himself to check on her and the other humans working behind the scenes just to make sure everything was all right.
The human Toon looked up at Optimus, who had walked in again after the last meeting he had gone to for today, as she finished the vehicle she was working on and put the hood back down. "Hello Optimus. I'm just about done for the day; just got to make a minor repair to the brakes on another one of these and then I can go home."
"That is good hear." Optimus smiled. "I hope you do not have trouble getting home Annie."
"I've driven home in the rain many times; I think I'll be able to handle it well. Just got to be careful." Annie went over to the final vehicle she was working on for today, one of the stunt cars for Bumblebee, and began fixing the brakes. Next week, the stunt vehicles would be tested outside to see that they worked well while the cast of The Transformers was rehearsing inside for the scenes that would not be fights against Autobots and Decepticons.
Optimus soon had to leave but before he asked "Annie, Elita would like to invite you as well as Colin and Mackenzie for lunch on Sunday; would you like to come?"
"I'm honored; I would love to come. I just need directions to get to the Mecha District, that's where you live, correct?" Annie was smiling as she finished repairing the breaks.
"That is correct." The red and blue mech replied.
Annie got a pen and a pad of Post-It notes and wrote down the directions; it would be 15 minutes to drive from her home to the Prime household. "Thank you Optimus."
"You're welcome Annie; I will see you on Sunday. Do you have a phone number by the way?" He asked.
"I do; everyone but two families of the street I live on has a phone. My phone number's 555-6371." She replied as she got her things together.
Optimus quickly wrote that down on a bigger sheet of paper he was carrying with him. The two friends parted ways and soon Annie was driving home in her red car, a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass sedan that had been a gift from her brother Tim, as the rain poured in buckets around her. She drove up to her friend Harold Hound's household; Mackenzie was friends with his youngest daughter Hailey while Colin preferred to play with his son Henry. The Hound family were all Toon hounds, not just having that as last name as was the case with Casey Cat, a human male Toon who lived across the street from them.
When she pulled up to the house, Annie saw the Hounds' oldest daughter Helen run in to tell her mom Hannah that Colin and Mackenzie had to leave. Everyone knew that the two human Toon siblings didn't want to leave though…
(Mackenzie's POV)
Mackenzie got her purple raincoat on and her boots, putting her shoes in her backpack afterwards while Colin got on his green raincoat and boots and took the black umbrella that they had to share as they bid their friends goodbye. They walked out to their mom's car and got into the backseat after Colin put the umbrella down.
"Seatbelts on please." Their mom said.
The kids got their seatbelts on and they drove less than five minutes to get home; they only lived one street away from the Hound family. They had no garage; just a car port with a metal roof to shelter the car but the house's front porch did have a roof and one specific section of the porch was to put rain gear to dry so Colin left the umbrella open and tied to the columns of the porch railing on the left side and he and Mackenzie put their coats on the two hooks by the front door with their boots going underneath it. The three members of the White family then went inside and everyone's bags were hung up on the hooks inside the front door on the right wall near the doorway to the kitchen.
"I am going to go shower and then I'll start making dinner; Colin, set the table, Mackenzie, please take the package of sliders out of the refrigerator and the French fries out of the freezer and put them on the counter." Was what was said to the kids next as their mom went to remove her greasy clothes and go to the upstairs bathroom.
Mackenzie wasn't too miserable, except for not being able to spend more time playing with Hailey and the fact that it was still raining. The weather forecast earlier in the day had called for a clear day on Saturday and on Sunday at least. She did what her mom had asked and then went into the living room and flipped through the TV channels. They got about 9 channels, sometimes 10, over their antenna. Thankfully, one of those channels was a channel that showed all cartoons all day seeing as ToonTown had its own channels in addition to ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS, and other such broadcast networks. Mackenzie stopped on the ToonTown News channel to see what kind of stories about hers and Colin's' favorite TV and movie Toon stars were being talked about.
Colin joined her as soon as he had set the table and their mom, now done with her shower and in clean clothes, began cooking the White Castle sliders and two pans of French fries. She also made a salad and set a pitcher of milk on the table.
"You know 'Kenzie, there's better things on than the news. Give me the remote." Colin said, faking a yawn.
"No, I got here first!" Mackenzie argued. "Besides, there's only 10 minutes left of this news broadcast once the commercials are over."
Colin grabbed the remote and flipped the channel over to the All Cartoons channel but Mackenzie went up to the TV set and pushed the buttons to change it back. They kept doing this shouting arguments over what was the better show on at the moment.
"Mackenzie Elizabeth White, Colin James White, turn the TV off now if you want to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy after you eat!" Their mom called to them.
Mackenzie immediately stopped hitting the buttons on the TV set, Colin turned off the TV with the remote and both went into the kitchen. A minute later, the food items that had been in the oven were set on the table and everyone sat down in their chairs.
"Mom, why can't we have a second TV set?" Colin asked.
"Because you need to save up your allowance for a year before we can get you your own." She replied. "Now I've got an announcement to make; one of my friends from work wants to invite me over for lunch on Sunday as well as both of you and I expect you to be on your best behavior while we are there."
"Do we have to dress up nicely?" Mackenzie wanted to know.
"No you do not; I do expect whatever clothes you wear to be clean though." Her mom said and then continued eating a bit more before speaking again. "We will have to be there by noon and we will return home by 3:00 p.m."
Everyone finished eating, then went into the living room to watch their two favorite game shows. The rain slowly stopped throughout the evening and by the time everyone went to bed, it was clear outside. Mackenzie took that as a sign of good things to come. Hopefully, she would be right…
January 8th, 1984
Elita One awoke early; Optimus still had his hands around her waist as they had been when they had first went to bed. She smiled; finally she would get to meet some of the other Toons that Optimus worked with. She thought Annie sounded like a very interesting person to meet and speaking of the human Toon, she would be here in about 4 hours. She turned herself over a little and began rubbing Optimus to wake him up. "Love, you might want to get up now." She whispered to him.
"I know dear; we have to prepare for our guests' arrival." Optimus replied, slowly waking up and briefly rubbing Elita's back in return. He kissed her and then both got out of bed.
The couple soon had breakfast and Hot Rod, their adopted son, soon joined them; he was reluctant about helping out but did so anyways since he knew better than to argue. About half an hour before the White family was to arrive, Elita found paper cups and plates and then 10 minutes before lunch started, she ordered pizza and rushed out to buy some soda from the grocery store. She returned just in time and saw that the 3 human Toons had parked their car close to the house.
Annie was smiling as she walked with Mackenzie and Colin to the front door. Elita came up to them and knelt down.
"Hello there; you must be Anne." The pink femme smiled. "I am Elita One, Optimus' wife."
"Actually, I prefer Annie. It's nice to meet you Elita." The young woman smiled as Elita opened the door and let her, Colin, and Mackenzie inside.
All 3 humans were amazed at how huge everything was; there was at least one door that led to a set of rooms that were made for smaller Toons that had to stay in the Prime household for a night or longer as well as a guest room for use by Optimus Prime's robot Toon costars for if they ever needed it.
Optimus had set some human sized chairs on top of his kitchen table as well as a card table for the White family to sit around. When they came into the kitchen, he greeted them. "Hello Annie."
"Hello Optimus." She replied. "This is Colin and this is Mackenzie. Her birthday is next Saturday, January 15th. Colin's birthday is about 2 months from now."
"It's nice to meet you Mr. Prime." Colin said politely. True, Optimus was not a star just yet but the young boy was still excited and doing his best to contain it.
Mackenzie on the other hand, couldn't quite contain her excitement. "Hi there!" She was bouncing a little.
"Mackenzie." Annie warned her daughter.
"Sorry Mom." She immediately stopped.
Optimus chuckled a little, amused by the young girl's reaction. "It is all right little one; I am happy to meet you as well. Would you and your brother like a tour while we are waiting for your pizza to arrive?"
"Yes!" This time both kids couldn't contain their excitement and were jumping up on down.
"Calm down children;" Elita said gently. "There's plenty to see."
As soon as Elita had taken the children on the impromptu tour, Annie was lifted up on to the top of Optimus' table and subsequently went to sit at the card table that was on top of it. "Thank you Optimus; I don't have to hurt my neck so much when looking at you."
"You're very welcome Annie; thank you for coming over as well." Optimus smiled at her as her prepared lunch for himself, Elita, and Hot Rod. Robot Toons for the most part could not eat the same kind of things that human Toons could but did have their own specialized fuel that was produced for them from oil, ink, and a few other things.
Soon the pizza had arrived and Elita returned with the human Toon children and Hot Rod. Annie divided up the pizza between herself and her children as well as the soda while the 3 members of the Prime family had their own fuel. Occasionally, they stopped eating long enough to talk about random things.
"Mackenzie, is there anything in particular you would like for your birthday?" Elita One asked the young girl.
The 7 year old brunette girl only had to think a moment. "I'd like a new bike; I had Colin's old bike for a long time but then someone stole it."
"Hmm, we will have to see what we can do." Optimus said thoughtfully.
Mackenzie grinned at the prospect of a new bike; maybe she could get a bike lock as well. She would have to wait and see what happened.
Soon it was time for Annie and the children to go home once they were done eating. They would take the leftover soda home with them and save it for Mackenzie's birthday. After bidding the Prime family goodbye, the human Toons were lifted down from the huge table and went to the car to drive home. Colin was carrying the bottle of soda.
"Hold on a minute." Hot Rod called after them. He gave the family 3 tickets. "These are my birthday present for Mackenzie and you guys; the Sunday after her birthday, my dad's co-stars, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to be specific, are going to race other vehicles owned by Toons as well as sentient Toon vehicles for charity and he wants you to be there since he knows how much you love cars."
Mackenzie hugged Hot Rod's leg. "Thank you, this birthday weekend is going to be realy great for me!"
"I'm pretty excited too." Colin grinned; true, his love of race cars was not as huge as his sister's but it would be a great event to go to. The fact that Toons who were less fortunate would be helped by the proceeds from ticket sales was just as amazing as well.
Annie took the tickets from her children and got into the driver's seat of the family car. Mackenzie and Colin climbed into the backseat and soon they set off for home, looking forward to what would possibly be the most exciting thing that Mackenzie would experience, at least in her opinion.
