Life changing events chapter 7
May 19th, 1984
This Saturday, there was no need to worry about anything. Annie's first date with Phil had gone well and last night had been their second date. She was surprised that he was understanding about her wanting to take things slow and next weekend, he wanted to go with her to take Colin and Mackenzie to the Toontown Carnival, partially to have fun together as a family but also to assure the two kids that he was willing to consider what they liked. Optimus would be making an appearance there to answer questions about The Transformers series and toys and to sign autographs, along with Jazz, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave.
Today though was a day when her kids wanted to go off to the arcade on their bikes; Rumble and Frenzy wanted to meet them there to play the games there and they wanted to see how good Mackenzie was since she had played a few of the home versions of those games with Colin after he bragged that there was no way she could get better than him as a way of making her want to play. Needless to say, it worked and Mackenzie was putting on her bike helmet after Colin had done so and Annie gave them 15 dollars in 1 dollar bill increments so that they could easily get change to play at the arcade.
"Be careful about how much you spend early on or you won't have enough to last the whole day; also, I expect you both back here by supper, is that clear?" the human Toon said.
"Yes Mom." Both her kids replied.
"And Colin, keep an eye on your sister. I don't want anything awful to happen to anyone." Annie added.
"I will Mom; don't worry." Colin assured her. "We'll see you when we get home."
"See you later." She told them. Annie hated to say goodbye even if it was temporary. Still, she wanted to prove she wasn't too overprotective of her children.
"Are we going to have enough for lunch?" Mackenzie asked her brother as they got their bikes off the porch and then got on them to start riding.
"We should; I got my allowance to pay for lunch and you got yours; that plus the money Mom gave us for the arcade games should be enough to last us the whole day." Her brother answered her as they rode down the sidewalk, occasionally getting off to walk their bikes across crosswalks at intersections and watching out for four wheeled vehicles…
Rumble and Frenzy had arrived at the arcade first and 5 minutes after they arrived, they saw Colin and Mackenzie. They had assured Soundwave that they would be fine and that they would be home by the time the streetlights came on.
Mackenzie and Colin locked their bikes and put their helmets around the handlebars next to where the twins' bikes were parked and all 4 friends went inside.
"So, what have you two been up to?' Frenzy asked.
"Just school stuff and all of that. At least we'll get to have summer vacation soon." Colin commented.
"We're probably not going to get much vacation. There's plans to make the next season of The Transformers much longer depending on how well the first season does. We still don't know when we're filming again since we were told it might change on us." Rumble whispered so as not to be overheard.
"Being a TV star isn't all it's cracked up to be." Frenzy added. "We still have fun with it though.
Mackenzie got change for some of the dollar bills she had to get tokens while her brother and his friends were talking. "Hey guys, aren't you guys going to play some games?" She asked out loud.
"Oh yeah, we were." Rumble and Frenzy already had quarters and now Colin had gotten himself some.
The 4 kid Toons had a blast playing with each other. Mackenzie did reasonably well with playing Mrs. Pacman in particular and wound up playing it two more times before going on to a different game. After 3 hours though (plus a short lunch break for Colin and Mackenzie when they got Happy Meals from the McDonald's restaurant next door), they got bored and decided they wanted to go to Colin and Mackenzie's home so that they could do something different.
"Better call my mom on the payphone right outside." Colin told Rumble and Frenzy.
Before they could though, something happened that made their day. The Toon human man behind the counter where one turned in tickets to get prizes told them that Frenzy had been the 2,000 customer to the arcade.
"Really?" Frenzy's eye lit up.
"Yes really; you can choose any prize you want for any amount of tickets for yourself and your friends." The employee replied.
Frenzy looked at the big prizes; he knew exactly what each of them would want. He chose a GI Joe figurine of Cobra Commander for himself, a remote controlled airplane for Colin, a package Legos for Rumble, and a home game version of Mrs. Pacman for Mackenzie. Then his friends and brother turned in their tickets for other smaller prizes for themselves and for Frenzy, mainly yo-yos, Silly String, and candy which were all placed in bags so that they could hang the bags form their bike handle bars.
"Gee thanks for that. You really didn't have to get these big things for us." Rumble told his brother as they went outside so that Colin could call home to let Mom know to expect the two robot Toons to come to visit.
"Well, I kind of had to. I didn't want you guys to feel left out." Frenzy admitted shyly. Several other people had congratulated him on being given stuff for being customer number 2,000 and he wanted to get away from all of the attention ASAP.
"Okay guys, Mom said you can come over. She's calling your dad to let him know that you're still with us." Colin said after hanging up the payphone.
All 4 started heading for the White family home, not aware of what would happen next.
(POV switch.)
Optimus had been driving through the streets when he saw it happening. It seemed that Rumble and Frenzy had been out with Mackenzie and Colin and the 4 had stopped so that the latter two siblings could take a bathroom break. Then a teenage human boy Toon came up to them and took a remote controlled airplane form them.
"Hey, that belongs to my friend!' Rumble ran after the redhead boy, who had started laughing and seemed to get a kick out of the whole thing.
Of course, Optimus Prime would not stand for that. He transformed into robot mode and grabbed the teen. "Now what do you think you are doing stealing from a child?" He demanded to know as he lifted the boy up.
The teen thief couldn't answer very well. "I didn't realize anyone would see it."
"If you do not give that back to my friend's child, I will tell your parents." The red and blue Toon star informed him.
Several people had stopped and stared now and Colin and Mackenzie were among them as both had finished washing their hands. The teen thief immediately agreed to give the toy back.
Optimus placed the Toon human down, who subsequently gave the remote control airplane back to Frenzy and ran off.
"That wasn't something I was expecting to happen." Frenzy was now hiding behind Rumble as news reporters were gathering around them.
"Would you 4 like a ride to where you are going so that you can more easily avoid the reporters?" Optimus asked.
"Yeah, I think that would be good." Rumble agreed.
All 4 Toon kids put their bikes into Optimus Prime's trailer and once the latter had transformed back into vehicle mode, said kids climbed into the truck cab with their bags of prizes form the arcade and soon the drive home happened. It wasn't a direct route that they took to Colin and Mackenzie's home since the reporters were following them. Frenzy was relieved that he wasn't having his picture taken at the moment.
"I hate all that attention." The red and black preteen Toon muttered.
"We'll be away from them soon; it seems that they got the message that we wish to be left alone." Optimus Prime assured his younger costar.
Mackenzie dared to look in the rear view mirror; indeed no one was following them now. "That was something I never want to have happen again."
"Agreed." Her brother and his friends replied.
Optimus soon turned onto William Hannah Street and stopped in front of Colin and Mackenzie's home. They got out, Rumble and Frenzy not too far behind them, taking their bags of prizes form the arcade into the house then getting their bikes out of Optimus Prime's trailer; the kids were all still wearing their helmets which they took off upon getting inside.
Annie came out of the house. "Optimus, what exactly happened? I thought the kids were riding their bikes home."
Optimus explained the whole story, his frustration evident. "I believe it would be best for me to go home before the news media finds me here." He finished. "I was simply doing what I felt was the right thing. Perhaps that young Toon will learn his lesson from all of this."
"Thank you for bringing them the rest of the way here." Annie was relieved to know that nothing worse had happened.
"You're very welcome Annie." He replied. "I must be heading home now. I have a feeling this will be in the newspapers tomorrow regardless of my efforts to get away from the media."
"Well, that can't be helped I suppose." The Toon woman admitted. "I'll see you next week at the carnival. Farewell for now."
"Farewell Annie." Optimus drove off, hoping that next week would be better.
May 25th, 1984
The news of the attempted theft of her brother's prize from the arcade had made the news, but was not the main front page article. It was on the third page of The Toontown Times though and had space dedicated to it. If Frenzy and Rumble had not been the ones who had been subject to said attempted theft or if it hadn't been Optimus who stopped it, it wouldn't have made the news at all. Mackenzie wasn't thinking about that though. She was thinking of sleeping over at Hailey's house since she would get to do that tomorrow night after the carnival. Yet she should have been paying attention to her final test for this week.
"Mackenzie White, finish your work if you are not finished yet." Her teacher called over to her.
A few of the other kids giggled as Mackenzie decided to fill in the rest of her answers. At least next Friday, school would be out for the summer and she and Colin would not be going back until the day after Labor Day.
(Colin's POV)
Now that it was the end of the school day, Colin was excited more than anything. While Mackenzie slept over at the Hound family's home, Henry would come over to his house with Rumble and Frenzy and the 4 would have an all-night video game tournament on Saturday. He was even more excited about the carnival tomorrow since it meant that he could have fun with his family and get to know his mom's boyfriend better. He had wanted to talk with Phil and be reassured that he was a nice guy.
Those thoughts occupied his head on the bus ride home and as he got off the bus after Mackenzie did and went into the house. The sky was clear and blue today and that was the forecast for tomorrow as well.
Soon, Colin saw a note from his mom attached to the refrigerator. It said,
Dear Colin and Mackenzie, I will be home a little bit late tonight since I'm getting sunscreen and our tickets for the carnival. Optimus wants to invite us for dinner again on Sunday since we haven't been over for a while so please make sure the laundry is done so that we all have something to wear on that day-Mom.
Colin read the note out loud. "Well, guess we better get that done."
"I hate chores." Mackenzie muttered as she went to the laundry room, her brother following behind her.
"Hey, if we didn't keep the house clean, we wouldn't be able to get out if there was a fire. Did you ever think of that?" the blonde Toon boy asked his sister.
"Good point." She replied. Always the sensible person and trying to be good aren't you, Mackenzie thought to herself. She was jealous that her brother could behave himself better without any effort, at least that's what it seemed like. He has to be perfect or something, the brunette Toon girl thought as she opened the laundry room door and moved her black hair out of her face so that she could see everything better.
They found instructions taped to the side of the machine, also in their mom's handwriting as well as the laundry from this week that had not been washed on Tuesday. Once they put in a load of light colored clothes (and Colin made sure that Mackenzie did not put too much soap in as a joke), the washing machine started running and the two went their separate ways for now. Colin went to his room to play one of his video games and Mackenzie went to the living room to watch some afternoon cartoons after getting herself some pretzels for a snack. At least that job was done.
When her mom came home, Mackenzie helped make a slightly late dinner as did Colin, who wanted to mix up instant pudding for tonight's dessert. Supper was meatloaf and mashed potatoes with cooked carrots and lemonade to drink.
"Now here's a reminder for both of you; if you decide to go off by yourselves to do things at the carnival, please stick together and hold on tightly when you go on the rides. Also, do not waste all of your money or go with strangers. Am I clear?" Their mom inquired.
"Clear as a crystal." Mackenzie and Colin both replied then continued eating. They weren't worried about anything bad happening but hoped to not get unwanted attention for any reason but considering that their family was friends with a few TV stars, avoiding said attention would probably be more difficult than they expected it to be…
