I do not own Transformers. Jamie, Momo, and any other OCs are mine.

"Konichiwa, Benvenuto-san!" Jamie's Japanese friend, Momo Akasaka (or Akasaka Momo for those technicality sticklers out there), greeted her as she walked in the school Friday morning.

"Konichiwa, Akasaka-san," Jamie replied. Jamie had noticed that Momo was uncomfortable using given names with people she'd just met, so Jamie had started calling her Akasaka-san, and their friendship had grown from there. They were only four weeks into the school year, so it didn't really seem appropriate to either of them to start calling each other by given names just yet, though Momo had randomly called her Benvi-chan the day before.

"What's wrong, Benvenuto-san? You seem sad today."

"I'm okay, Akasaka-san. I just realized that my life is totally boring and pointless, that's all."

"Your life may be boring, but it isn't pointless. Who else took the time to notice I was . . . what's the word? Unconstant?" Momo was a fairly fluent English speaker, but sometimes she just plain forgot the word she wanted.

"Uncomfortable." Jamie chuckled when she saw Momo's chagrined look. "Don't worry about it, Akasaka-san. I do it all the time in French class."

"Hey, Jamie! Hey, there, Akasaka! What's up?"

Momo and Jamie turned around to see Marcie, the captain of the color guard and Jamie's best friend, burst through the doors and into the lobby of the school. With her chin-length blond hair, Marilyn Monroe figure, hot-off-the-fashion-press clothes, and bubbly attitude, Marcie differed greatly from her two friends. Momo was very petite, but very spunky. You knew not to mess with her just by looking at her black-and-red Gothic Lolita clothes and purple spiky hair, not to mention the way she carried herself. (She stayed away from piercing because she bruised easily.) Jamie was a different story entirely: friendly but quiet, with long straight brown hair cut in layers and swept-over bangs. She was well endowed in the hip area, but in the bust line, she barely qualified for a B-cup. Her clothing choices were . . . well, eccentric. Take this particular day's outfit: red-and-green plaid pleated skirt, brown-black thigh-high boots, and a red-and-black cropped jacket over a gold metallic body suit. (What can you expect? If she has to lead an adventure-deprived life, she ought to get to spice things up a bit in the clothing department.)

The bell rang just then, and all three split up, bolting for their lockers (which were in three different places on the second and third floors, and elevators were handicapped and special permission access only).

Jamie felt better as she ran for Chem Lab like she was being chased by a pack of rabid wolves. If she couldn't have an exciting life, at least she had good friends. And hey, she was a senior, so who knew what next year would bring?

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Jamie stood outside the school by the flagpole, tapping her foot impatiently. Momo and Marcie should have met her ten minutes ago. Jamie grinned as she saw them running up, Momo helping Marcie haul the mass amounts of stuff Marcie was madly shoving into her backpack.

"Don't say a word, Jay-bird. Akasaka's been raggin' on me the whole way here."

"Not a thing," Jamie said solemnly, barely fighting the grin off her face. Then she covered her mouth as laughter bubbled up her throat, right through her shaking hand. They'd made quite a spectacle of themselves coming up the sidewalk. Marcie rolled her eyes as she shouldered her bag. Momo smirked.

"What's first, history or chem?" Jamie asked as they walked out into the ditch. Jamie's house was the group's favorite place to study, as it was out in the country with fewer distractions than the others'. (Marcie and her mom and three brothers lived in an apartment in the middle of town, and Momo's Hungarian adoptive mother was very talkative and liked to ask them to taste-test her food or even help cook it. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but constantly eating and talking doesn't leave much time for homework. Neither does dodging barely-teenage boys, for that matter.) You couldn't get to Jamie's house by public transit or school bus, because it was out of the district. It was only about ten minutes' walk from the high school, though. You just had to make sure that you stayed in the ditch.

"Definitely chemistry," Momo said. "Let's get the annoying part out of the way first. Besides, we have lab to—" WhoooSSH—BAM!

The girls covered their heads as they dove face-first into the ditch to avoid the speeding, fiery object.

"What the blazes was THAT?" Marcie shrieked.

"A big flying fire-rock," Jamie said in a dazed voice.

Momo gave her the hairy eyeball. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. You mind if I borrow your cape the rest of the way back?"

"Shut UP, you two," Marcie growled as she got to her feet.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Momo shouted.

"To see what it was," Jamie stated as she got up to join Marcie on her way over to the crater, very much recovered from her slight daze.

"Are you two nuts? What if it's emitting toxic gases? What if it's an alien ship?"

Jamie and Marcie just rolled their eyes and continued to the crater.

"Hey, wait up! Crazy Americans," Momo added in a mutter.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I need to go do my homework. Review, please!