I was awakened by the annoyed rumbling of a motorcycle engine outside of my window.
Crap, I thought grudgingly. I forgot. I sat up and quickly got dressed into a t-shirt and pants. For some reason, I grabbed my bag which held my notebook.
I raced downstairs. I could smell eggs, but was in too much of a hurry to be hungry.
"Mom, I'm going to hang out with Marcie today," I said aloud. Naturally, that was a lie. "I've got my phone, kay?"
"All right," Mom replied tiredly from the kitchen.
I raced out the door, hopped down the steps and ran down the walk toward the pink motorcycle that was waiting for me, seemingly impatient.
"You're late," Arcee said annoyed.
"Sorry," I said apologetically. "It's Saturday so I'm normally asleep at this time."
Arcee made an annoyed rumbling sound but said nothing. I slid onto the motorcycle seat and barely got a grip on the handle bars when Arcee took off. I held on for dear life, afraid to move as we raced between Saturday morning traffic which, luckily, wasn't very much. Once again we narrowly missed a police car. I began to think us extremely lucky that he didn't go after us. Arcee seemed to be in a hurry.
We headed to more remote parts of town. The buildings began growing fewer and fewer in number the trees began growing more and more. Soon, all I could see was trees.
Arcee turned onto a dirt road that went into the forest. It was rough and bumpy so I held tightly to Arcee.
We stopped in a clearing. I couldn't even see the road we turned from anymore. The trees around us were thick but I could see large spaces where they had been pushed away.
"They'll be here soon," Arcee told me. "Might be a few minutes."
"That's fine," I said. I slid off the seat of the motorcycle. I heard metal moving behind me as Arcee changed.
Suddenly, I felt something bump into me. I dropped my bag and all my stuff spilled out onto the ground.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Arcee said. She carefully grabbed my arm and pulled me up onto my feet. She began picking up my stuff and carefully putting them into my bag. "I'm so sorry," she kept saying.
Arcee suddenly stopped. I looked to see why. My notebook had fallen open to her picture and she was looking at it.
"Oh, I'm sorry. That…" I reached out for it.
"An incredible likeness," Arcee said smiling.
"Yeah, thanks," I replied quietly, slightly embarrassed. Arcee nodded her head.
She put my notebook into my bag and handed it to me. I took it and sat down on a rock. Arcee came and sat beside me. We sat like that for what seemed like a half an hour.
Pretty soon I was already getting restless from waiting. "When do you think they'll get here?" I asked anxiously, but I immediately regretted it. I didn't want it to seem that I thought this wasn't important. Arcee laughed at the face I was making.
"Won't be long now," she told me. "I was instructed to arrive early." I just stared at her. I still wasn't used to the idea of there being more robots here. "They'll be gathering just outside the clearing," she continued, taking no notice of my expression. "Optimus wanted everyone else to come in at once."
"Optimus?" I asked. Arcee just smiled.
"You'll see soon enough."
I looked down at my feet and started kicking dirt into a pile. A few times I thought I heard engines but when I looked the way Arcee and I had come in but there was nothing.
I began to wonder if they were ever going to come when I suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of vehicles coming up the dirt road.
"Here they come," I heard Arcee say. I looked to where she was looking and almost fell off of my rock.
I watched as eight vehicles came into the clearing kicking up dust behind them. A huge blue and red sixteen-wheeler truck in the lead followed closely by an ambulance, a black and white police car, a red Lamborghini and a yellow Lamborghini, a silver Solstice sports car, a yellow Camero with black racing stripes, and a big black four-door truck. They surrounded Arcee and me. I could feel my heart beating loudly. Arcee stepped back away from me in line between the Camero and the truck.
Suddenly, all at once the vehicles changed shape in the manner that Arcee had. The sixteen-wheeler turned into a bulky thirty-foot robot with a cover over its mouth. I could tell that it was apparently the leader.
It kneeled down to look me in the eye. My heart was beating faster. It was just so big.
"Ellie," it said in a deep, mechanical voice, "my name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."
"H-hi," I said. He just nodded.
"You have met Arcee," he said. He stood up and motioned to the robot who was the police car. "This is Prowl."
"Pleasure to meet you," Prowl said. I just nodded. Prowl's police parts were still visible on him, like Arcee's motorcycle parts were. The words "Highway" and "Patrol" were at the bottom on each of his legs and the red and blue siren lights rested on his shoulders and the police insignia was on his upper arms.
Optimus pointed at the silver sports car robot. "This is Jazz," he said. Jazz waved at me and I waved back. Jazz looked just as cool as his car form did. He was tall and not as bulky as Optimus was and his silver color shown brightly. He had a visor over his eyes rather than a mask like Optimus had.
Optimus pointed at the ambulance robot next to Jazz. "This is Ratchet, our medical officer."
"Hello," Ratchet said. Ratchet was white with red in some places and the medical insignia on one of his shoulders. His lights were also on his shoulders, like Prowl. He was only slightly taller than Prowl and Jazz and not much shorter than Optimus looked.
Optimus pointed at the red and yellow Lamborghini robots. "This is Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, the twins," he said.
"Nice to meet you!" they said at the same time. I just smiled at them. They may have been twins and may have been the same type of vehicle but they were still easy to distinguish. Sunstreaker, who I supposed was the yellow one, had on a black helmet with parts coming out the sides that reminded me of a Viking helmet that were yellow. He had black forearms and yellow legs, unlike his brother who had grey arms and legs. Sideswipe also had a black helmet but it lacked the "horns" that Sunstreaker's had.
Optimus pointed at the black truck robot. "My weapons specialist, Ironhide." I waved at him. He didn't say anything. He just glared. He was a big guy and extremely bulky. I supposed that since he was the weapons specialist that it was for storing ammo or energy or whatever these robots used.
Optimus finally pointed to the yellow and black sports car robot. "And this is Bumblebee."
"The name suits you," I said. I really meant it. The black racing stripes on his car form clashed wonderfully with the yellow and it looked like the doors of his car form had folded up on his back making them look like wings.
"Why thank you, Ellie," he said cheerfully. His voice pitch told me that he might have been even younger than Sideswipe and Sunstreaker but I couldn't tell for sure.
Ironhide turned to Arcee. "Explain again how you managed to screw up and reveal your secret to a human," he said annoyed. Arcee looked at him angrily.
"It was a split second decision!" Arcee snapped at him. "I couldn't let her get hurt!"
"Humans hurt each other every day," Ironhide said. "You didn't need to get involved."
"Stop it you two!" Ratchet said. "What's done is done. She knows. That's the end of it." Arcee and Ironhide just scowled at each other. I held onto my backpack tighter. I felt sort of scared for Arcee because Ironhide was so big, but mostly for myself because he didn't seem to like me at all.
I felt a mechanical hand lightly pat my head. It was Sunstreaker. Sideswipe was kneeling next to him. I was surprised I didn't hear them come up.
"Don't worry about it," Sunstreaker said.
"Yeah," Sideswipe said. "Ironhide's just a hot-head about these things."
"What was that?" Ironhide asked angrily. The boom of his voice made me shudder. I didn't look but I could tell the twins were smiling.
"I said you were a hot-head," Sideswipe said purposely to annoy him.
Oh, gosh. Please don't taunt him.
"Enough," Optimus said before Ironhide could react. "We have some explaining to do for Ellie." Ironhide scowled. The twins just nodded and they took their place among the Autobots. Optimus looked down at me.
"We are here to stop the Decepticons," he said. That was a bit too blunt for me.
"What are the Decepticons?" I asked hoping for more information.
"A group of our kind with evil intentions," Prowl said.
"Not even our kind anymore if you ask me," Ironhide growled.
"They plan to make Earth their new home by eliminating the entire human race," Prowl finished.
"D-destroy the human race?" I asked alarmed. Optimus nodded. I could hardly believe it. How could that be happening without anybody knowing about it? Then a thought came to me. "Well, how come I haven't seen anything happen yet?" I asked.
"They are sending in an advance team to scope out Earth and make a strategy," Ratchet said. "Any way we can slow them down or completely stop them would help greatly."
I just stared. Yesterday, the worst of my problems were that I was worried about Mom if I got home late. But now, the whole Earth was in danger. It was so much I felt my head might explode.
"I...I don't know what to think," I said. "What should I do?"
"Any help you can offer would be accepted," Optimus said. "But we don't want to get you involved in this."
"It's a little too late for that," I said. "Whether you like it or not, I'm aware and I'll help in any way I can." Arcee smiled at me. Optimus was silent. Prowl looked at him.
"Optimus, you can't be serious," he said. "Getting a human, a CHILD, involved in the fate of her world."
"Exactly," Optimus replied quickly. "HER world. And she has a point. She's involved whether anyone likes it or not." Bumblebee nodded. He glanced at Ironhide.
"Well, you know I don't like it," Ironhide said annoyed. Sideswipe nudged him.
"Aw, come on, Ironhide," he said. "Having a human around might be FUN." His twin nodded in agreement.
"It's not that I hate her or anything it's just that-" Ironhide suddenly stopped himself. He looked away from me. Prowl looked at me.
"Any information that you come across would most certainly be helpful," he said. I looked at him.
"That is all there is to discuss," Optimus said. "You may go home now."
"Aw," the twins said. "Can't she stay a little longer, Optimus?"
"Yeah, my Mom's not expecting me back till later," I added. Optimus blinked. Bumblebee smiled. Optimus thought a bit.
"Very well," he said finally. "You may stay with us for a while longer."
"Yes, work on those drawings of yours," Arcee said cheerfully.
"Drawings?" the twins said at the same time. They looked at me, their eyes shining with glee. "We wanna see! We wanna see!" I stared at them. How could these advanced robots act like kids?
"Uh, well, I don't think they're very good," I started to say. But I noticed even Ironhide was peeking at me curiously.
"Nonsense," Arcee said. "That drawing you did of me was extremely accurate." I looked around nervously.
"Uh, okay," I said. I pulled out my notebook. I turned to Arcee's page.
Suddenly, Sunstreaker snatched it out of my hands. He and Sideswipe began looking at it. They flipped through the entire book.
"Wow!" Sideswipe said excitedly. The notebook was passed through the Autobots. All of them coming to the same conclusion. Even Ironhide caught a glimpse of it. The twins looked at me with big eyes.
"Do one of us! Do one of us!" they said. I smiled.
Why not? I thought. Best be friends with the Autobots. And they seem like they would really enjoy it.
Jazz came and sat on the ground next to me. "Why don't you do me first; I'll even put on your favorite music. What'll it be?"
I scratched my head nervously. "Well, I do like Techno…" I started to say. Instantly there was my favorite Techno song coming out of Jazz. I looked up at him and smiled. Then I looked down and started doing his structure sketch.
I spent most of the day sketching with the Autobots watching interested. I showed Ironhide his and he seemed to like it, though he wouldn't admit it. It made me smile.
But I couldn't stay there forever. Arcee had to get me home before dinner. I said good-bye to the Autobots and Arcee and I sped off.
"You seemed to have rather enjoyed that," Arcee said.
"I bet Ironhide would do the same thing," I said.
"Pardon?"
"When you saved me, you risked you cover for me," I said. "I think Ironhide would have done the same thing." Arcee was quiet. "Don't you?"
"I think you may be right," Arcee said. "The big lug may act tough, men are like that, but he's got a soft spot somewhere. I think that may be for you."
"What? Me? Why?"
"He may just be worried about you," Arcee replied. "He didn't want you involved in this anymore than any of us did. He did seem to like his drawing," she added with a slight snicker. I smiled.
"You're probably right," I said.
Arcee stopped in front of my house and I got off. I turned around and looked at her.
"Doesn't it, like, look weird when you're driving around?" I asked. "You're a motorcycle and it's noticeable that you don't have a driver."
"I'm very careful to go on the road less traveled on," Arcee replied. I just smiled.
I said good-bye and went inside. At least today I could actually focus on my homework. I got most of it done well before bed time.
'Today was a pretty good day,' I thought.
"You're smiling pretty big today," Mom said.
"I just had a good day with Emma," I said.
"I thought you went to Marcie's." My heart stopped for half a second.
"Oh! Yeah, I mean Marcie," I said quickly. "Sorry." Mom blinked at me. She shook her head. She set a bowl of stew in front of me.
"Now eat," she said. "You didn't eat anything last night, this morning, and I have no idea if you had lunch." I hadn't notice it, but I was starving. Too much excitement was going on to notice.
I gulped down the whole bowl dry and even had a second bowl.
I went to my room later and I began to think about what the Autobots had said. "We are here to stop the Decepticons." "...eliminate the human race." "...evil intentions." It really began to sink in how much Earth was in danger.
"What could I do to help?" I asked myself quietly. "I'm just a kid." I flipped through my notebook and looked at the new pictures. I stopped at Ironhide. He really was worried about me. I didn't want to worry anyone.
I closed my book and lay down on my pillow. I closed my eyes. I just didn't know what to do.