Chapter 2 School Routine

Chapter 2 School Routine

He mentally groaned in disgust. The organic brat Caraden's female creator was leaking a combination of dihydrogen monoxide and other various dissolved salts down her face as Caraden placed a bag of some sort in his passenger seat. The older femme was going on about "her little girl growing up so fast" and it appeared to be annoying Caraden as much as it was annoying him. She walked around the front of his alt mode, patting his hood almost tenderly, before hauling herself up into the driver's seat and buckling up her seat belt. She was grumbling about early morning, "stupid alarm clock that wont turn off", and "third year nightmare", before she turned his engine over. He grinned to himself as she patted his dashboard, her way of praising him for being good since his model was apparently very temperamental.

"I'll be home around 3." She called out the window as she backed them out of the driveway.

"Have fun, sweetheart!" The older femme called out.

Caraden groaned as they drove down the road. "Have fun." She grumbled. "Sure, grade 11, no friends, enemies already, and a giant tank of a car! What could possibly go wrong?"

'I agree.' He grumbled to himself. If things weren't bad enough, he was almost acting like this human's pet! Only, at least he was wagging a tail and nuzzling up against her leg like the "Pomeranian" was. She sighed before patting his dashboard again, something that he had come to accept rather than fume about. The action was a sign of affection, if his research had been correct, and it was something that he could understand; humans and Transformers alike needed something to hold onto, even if they believed it to be inanimate.

"But it's not your fault, eh big guy?" She asked gently, her voice low and tinged with concealed enjoyment. "You didn't choose to be so freakishly huge." She added with a small smile.

'And you didn't choose to be weak, pathetic, and a bane to my existence, did you, flesh-brat?' He grumbled to himself, although he enjoyed being called "big guy"; Rumble and Frenzy had often called him that as opposed to "father" or "boss", and it was nice that she thought of him as a male instead of as a female like so many other of her species.

It was a peaceful drive to wherever they were going and gave him plenty of time to reflect on everything that had occurred in the last few weeks. In the time that he had been with the femme, he had behaved, playing the songs that she popped into his built in CD-player; surprisingly, she had very good taste in music; he didn't break down on purpose in front of the mall so her whole family had to walk home, and not wasting the cheap, primitive gas that she pumped into his fuel tank. She seemed to appreciate his fuel economy as she only filled his tank once since she "got" him; he was conserving his fuel for much more essential things and staying in his alt. mode helped to conserve it better. Also, the carwashes on the weekends were enjoyable; she seemed to like his paintjob to "glow", (how dark colours glowed was beyond him), and she was good at getting all the dirt out of his frame, as well as giving his body a nice, relaxing wax afterwards. Perhaps, after all things considered, she wasn't that bad of a fleshling.

He felt his wheels turning into a parking lot filled with other cars, trucks, and human adolescents and came back to reality with a soft rumbled of his engine, alerting every one of the stupid blobs to get out of his way. She maneuvered him into a parking space and turn off his engine before her hands tightened on the steering wheel. Her fear was being broadcasted loudly into his mind, and he was surprised that all the other humans couldn't sense it as well. He mentally rolled his optics before he gently manipulated her mind to calm down, breath, and relax. He felt her panic slowly subside and she exhaled.

"Well, time to go." She murmured before she grabbed the bag in the other seat, opened the door, locked it, hopped out, and slammed the door quite roughly. "Sorry." She murmured as she touched his hood before walking away.

A loud siren sounded from the building, causing him to jump slightly. All the adolescences walked into the building, forming groups ranging from two to ten individuals, talking loudly and ignoring one lone youngling; Caraden. She released a small breath that he had learned meant that she was unhappy about something, before walking into the building. Flipping on his infrared scanner, he followed her heat signature around the building. She didn't seem to be in a rush, unlike some of the other human younglings who were shoving her aside and racing down the corridors, and she was dragging her feet slightly as she entered one of the rooms that many of the other flesh-brats had gone into. He could almost see a repeat of the incident at the Burger King as she entered the room. He might not have liked her that much, but he would have hated to see her harmed; her creators wouldn't look after him while she was recovering.

He watched her sit down in one of the desks and lean forward over the top. An older mech stood up at the front of the room and appeared to be speaking. Most of the other brats were sitting as well, all facing the mech, although some were giving Caraden some looks. However, since he couldn't truly see their faces with his infrared on, he could only guess at what was on their minds, as they were also out of his range of "hearing". In that moment of though, he realized that this must be what passed as Earth's form of education. He settled down on his tires, decided to grab a few cycles of recharge; Primus only knew how long this day would last. He noticed a small, yellow car with black stripes running across the hood parked a few rows over, but paid it no mind as he slipped into recharge; it wasn't like it was an Autobot.

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He woke several hours later to a feeling of hands touching his hood. He onlined his optics quickly and almost sighed in relief; Caraden had her hand on his hood, stroking it in a slow motion, almost like she was in a trance of some kind. Her head was down and her shoulders were shaking slightly, as well as more of the liquid dihydrogen monoxide leaking down her face and dripping onto his hood.

"That stupid, stupid, girl!" She muttered through her teeth.

He mentally lifted an optic ridge before beginning to search through her mind for the answer. He watched the scene play through her mind and felt his spark twinge in pity for her. Something had been given to them as an assignment, something to do with their male creators. She had gone to the teacher after the class had ended and asked to be exempt because she didn't know anything about her father and that she had only known her "step-dad" for 3 months. One of femmes in the class had heard her and sneered about it not being an excuse, and that she could call her real dad to talk to him.

It had turned into a verbal throw down between the two femmes, Caraden trying to be as polite as she could about the matter and the other femme snarling about her being stupid, in a rather colourful display of vulgar words. It got to the point where the other femme called her father a coward, an idiot, and a pathetic excuse for a man. He watched as her interior disintegrated while she tried to hold face.

"My dad was killed in a car crash when I was two." She had snarled in reply. "A drunk driver cut him off and sent him off the road into a tree!"

The other femme's face brightened in surprise and her mouth opened, but the scene changed as Caraden rushed out of the room. He came back to reality with a soft sigh of his engine as she pressed the key into his ignition and started his engine up. He watched her as the liquid ran down her face and she drove them out of the parking lot, followed by the yellow car with three other younglings.

She took a different route than the one that led to her home. He knew that her mind was in turmoil, but he could sense that she was heading somewhere very particular. He watched as the town slipped away and instead a softly twisting road took its place. She came to a stop on a look-out point next to a large tree before turning him off. She climbed out and walked to the edge before collapsing, leaning against his grill as she sniffled.

"Mom said he use to bring her up here all the time." She whispered. "He…he loved to share the sunset with her." He felt her shudder before her voice broke. "That's why we moved away; Mom hated being here without him. Said it was like having a knife cut through her every time she saw one of the sunsets."

He felt a part of his spark reach out for her; he knew what it was like to be near a place that brought back memories of the ones he loved. It stung to hear her sniffling and leaking over this fact, but what confused him was why she was crying over it. If she never knew her male creator, and the one that had bought him for her was a "step-father" (whatever that was), then why was she so hurt? Shouldn't she not know or have any feelings for the mech she didn't know? It didn't make any sense.

"She…she said that he never stopped talking about how he would be the greatest dad." She murmured as she seemed to inhale at the same time. "He wanted to be there for everything…but…but that drunk…he hit him."

He didn't need to hear anymore; her mind was just about screaming it at him. The police had told her mother that the driver of the other vehicle was intoxicated. They had tried to pass going 40 miles over the speed limit, turned back into the lane too fast, smashed the side into the side of his car, and sent him flying off the road, into the ditch, and into a tree. They were sure that he had been killed upon impact, but, they couldn't be sure. It had been hours before they had gotten to the scene, and by then, he was dead.

"I never even got to know him." She whispered before her fist connected with his grill, causing him to flinch slightly. "What the hell gave that drunk ass the right to take his life?!" She screamed as she turned away. "What gave him the right?!"

He watched as she slumped forward, crying, and her breath coming in painful gasps. He wanted to make her feel better, why, he wasn't sure, but it was something that he felt he had to do. But not now, not while she was so close and could easily be harmed by his body as he transformed. Instead, he let his mind subtly embrace her, calm her down until her gasps were mere sniffles.

She looked up, watching the sky before she stood up. "I…I should head home." She muttered before she climbed back inside him.

He paused before he grinned internally and moved his dial. "I'll Be There For You" started playing gently. She glanced at the radio with a frown but shrugged it off. She pulled into her driveway a half hour later, her mother waiting for her. She came running out, shouting about how worried she was and, when she got close enough, asked why she was crying. Caraden shook her head and told her not to worry about it. The yellow car drove past, seemed to pause momentarily just at the end of the driveway, before continuing on.

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He logged onto the internet and tried to find the chat site that Caraden was on. He smiled as he found it and found her username "Homegirl245" and opened a conversation with her.

'Hello.' He sent.

'Hello.' She replied. 'Any reason you decided to talk to me?'

'Just a feeling.' He replied with a chuckle as he typed. 'You seemed to be lonely, in my opinion.'

'You're good.' She replied. 'But, please tell me you aren't some old man who's stalking me.'

'I won't deny that I'm old, but I'm not stalking you.' He replied, smiling to himself.

'Ok, I'll take your word for it.' She replied. 'So, what made you decide to call yourself, "DJ Soundmaster"?'

'Well, I've always had a love for music.' He replied. 'So, why not take a name that has to do with it?'

'Well, I can see the logic behind it!' She replied, adding an "lol" at the end, which he discovered meant "laugh out loud".

'So, what made you decide to call yourself "Homegirl245"?' He asked in return.

'I'm back in the town that I grew up in.' She replied. 'Not that it's any of your business, no offense.'

'None taken. None taken.' He replied. 'Just curious, that's all.'

'Ok.' She replied, adding the "lol" again.

He didn't know how long they talked for, but slowly, he discovered that there was more to her than he had originally anticipated. She wasn't used to having a male figure in her life since her mother had raised her. Only in the past year had she had any sort of male presence in her house, and most of the time it was only for a few short hours during one of her mother's and boyfriend's dates. She had called him "dad" because it made her mother feel better, and when her mom was happy, she was happy.

'Well, it's getting late.' She stated. 'I've got to get to bed.'

'Yes, you'll need it.' He replied, adding an "lol" just for safe measures.

'Good night.' She typed before her status changed to offline.

He smiled to himself. 'Yes, good night, Caraden.' He murmured to himself before settling down for recharge. It wasn't that bad to offer support to her, even though it was only because he felt pity for her. Yes, pity for her pathetic existence as a weak and squishy human. He was still a Decepticon and would not allow some weak little half-witted pest change him.

Author's note: Hey, sorry for the long wait everyone! Schools been hectic and I've been feeling really lazy. I'll try to update more often! So, is there anything that you'd like to see Soundwave do for Caraden? Since he pities her for losing her father, just like he lost his Cassettes, he's going to be a little nicer. Anything anyone suggests to me will be taken into consideration. So, leave a review please, they're much appreciated.