The Autobot base was fully up and running by the time Alana had to go to school. When the morning came for the first day of school, Alana had gotten up earlier than expected and had gotten dressed by herself. She wore a loose pair of sneakers and her t-shirt was a little too big for her small body but her shorts which were cameo style fit her perfectly. Ironhide had proudly called her his little army girl and she had given him a big smile. Alana had also wanted to do something with her hair, it was an important day and she wanted to look pretty for her first day of school so she opted for her brown hair to be put into two little braids at the side of her head. Alana unfortunately did not know how to do braids so she forced the battle hardened Ironhide to show her how. To Ironhide's embarrassment Ratchet had come in the exact moment he had started braiding Alana's hair. The Mech gave out a shout of laughter and doubled over.
But he later paid the price for laughing at Ironhide because Alana forced him to do the other braid on the other side of her head. Then once her physical appearance was deemed acceptable by herself Alana then began lunch preparations. Since this was such a big day she wanted to make lunch herself rather than Ratchet doing it for her. And so under Ratchets guidance she managed to make a respectable lunch consisting of a cheese sandwich, a candy bar and an orange juice.
She then packed her lunch into her school supplies filled backpack and declared herself ready for departure to school, only to find out that she still had an hour to wait for school to begin.
Sam was also up and about at the early hours that Alana was up at, but for an entirely different reason- he was job hunting. Being just out of high school Sam decided to get a job so that he could help the Autobots and also gain a bit of pocket money for himself. So he dressed as nicely as he could and filled himself with a big breakfast. Once done he gathered up a few resumes that he had created the night before and with Bumblebee he walked out, but not before they both wished Alana luck at school. She gave them a smile and assured them that she would be fine.
When the time came for Alana to leave Ironhide volunteered himself to drive her and once all of the Autobots were done wishing her luck they set off towards school. The school yard was filled with children as Ironhide pulled up. Alana's grip tightened on her backpack and she gave the school a nervous look. Ironhide caught onto her mood almost immediately.
"Awww, Alana, it'll be fine, trust me" Ironhide in his holoform mode leaned over the seat and began to rub her back.
Alana turned his head to look at her "You sure?" she asked him.
"Absolutely" Ironhide nodded. "Oh, Alana. Make sure you don't talk about us at school ok?"
"Us?" Alana asked.
"Optimus, myself and everyone else" Ironhide clarified "Remember I have a secret identity" he gave her a wink.
"I remember, Rick?" she said his fake name like a question.
"Yup but at school just call me your daddy" Ironhide told her.
"Ok!" Alana nodded.
Ironhide leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead "Be good" he told her.
"I will" Alana told him. She opened the door and hopped out. After giving him one last wave she walked on inside.
Once inside she was met by a teacher who asked her what her name was and what grade she was in, Alana told her and the teacher directed her down a hallway and told her that her classroom was at the end of the hall. Alana went where the teacher directed her and walked into a brightly decorated classroom. The desks were in little groups of four and there was a white board at the front of the classroom, all around on the walls were posters and works done by former students. The teacher's desk was in the back and she was sitting at it.
Her hair was brown like Alana's but it was all curly and frizzy where as Alana just had wavy hair. The teacher looked up and gave her a smile.
"Ah my first student!" she said standing up and opening her arms as if she were expecting a hug. Alana had no intention of hugging a complete stranger so she just stayed where she was. "What's you name dear?" the teacher asked, she had dropped her arms and had picked up a clipboard which Alana assumed had the names of all the students on it.
"I'm Alana" Alana said.
The teacher looked at the list, it was apparent she had found Alana's name when she had looked up "Autobot? I've never heard of a last name like that before"
"Is that bad?" Alana asked.
"No dear, you have a lovely last name" the teacher said. She walked on over to Alana and knelt down in front of her. "My name is Miss Schulz" when Alana tried to pronounce her last name and failed Miss Schulz laughed, "You can just call me Miss S everyone does."
"Miss S" Alana said her name and nodded "Ok"
"Alright Alana, pick your desk!" Miss S stood up and waved her hands in the direction of the desks.
"Huh?" Alana looked up at her teacher with a questioning look.
"Pick out which desk you want to sit at" Miss S told her.
"Oh" Alana turned to look at the desks. She didn't want a desk in the front so she opted for one in the back. As she sat in her new desk another bunch of students walked in. it was a group of boys and they were laughing.
Miss S introduced her self the same way she had done with Alana to the boys and then after checking off their names she told them to pick out desks. The boys banded together and picked the group of desks in the middle of the classroom. As they sat and chatted another little girl walked into the classroom her hair was styled the same as Alana's though Alana could tell that a lot more time and care had been put into her braids though, they were even unlike hers, but Alana didn't mind, she thought that her braids looked nice all the same. The girl gave her a look and then proceeded to walk towards the teacher, her skirt making soft swishing sounds as she walked. She introduced herself as Mabel.
Miss S smiled at her "That's a lovely name" she told Mabel. Mabel thanked her and she then turned on her heel and walked past Alana and sat at the front of class. She positioned her pink backpack to be right next to her feet and took out a book which she put on top of her desk on the center. Then taking out a newly sharpened pink pencil she began to draw in the cover of her book.
Alana looked down at her own backpack which looked as if it had been thrown on the ground with force. Some of her school supplies were sticking out and she moved quickly to put her backpack to rights. As she did so another student walked in. He was a scrawny looking boy with big glasses that kept slipping down his nose. He wore a shirt that was tucked into his pants; his pants looked a bit high water on him. As he walked in the boys looked at him and sniggered, but Alana saw him as a possible friend.
"Well hello dear!" Miss S said, she introduced herself and asked him for his name.
"Uh… My name is David" he told her. He had a nice voice; it wasn't a nasally nerdy voice which Alana had expected.
"Well David. Take a seat" Miss S gestured in the desks general direction once more.
"Uh… which seat" he looked up at Miss S and pushed up his glasses.
"Pick one" Miss S told him smiling, other students had come in that needed her attention so David was gently pushed away. Alana watched as his eyes landed on a desk that the group of boys had left open. But when they saw him looking they shook their heads at him and his shoulders slumped. Alana tried to catch his eye and when he finally did look at her she gave him a smile and patted the seat of the desk next to her. David took the hint and gratefully took the seat.
As soon as he was seated Alana coughed and said "Hello"
"Hullo" he said, looking at her above his abnormally large glasses.
"I'm Alana" Alana held out her hand for him to shake and he took it.
"I'm David" he smiled at her and she smiled back.
Pretty soon the classroom was filled up with little first graders, two more students had joined Alana and David's desk area, both were boys and they both had a dumb sort of look to them. One was picking his nose where as the other was continually scratching his head. Alana looked at them with curiosity where as David seemed repulsed by them.
"Hello" Alana said.
They looked up at her and then at each other, "Huh?" was all they said.
"Hello" Alana tried again, "Uhm, my name is Alana, and this is David" she gestured towards David who was leaning back in his chair as far as he could.
"Uh well I'm Harry" the boy picking his nose stopped long enough to tell her his name and then resumed picking.
The boy scratching his head did not stop when he introduced himself as Bret"
Alana nodded, she jumped as the bell rang signaling the start of the day.
"Alright children" Miss S held up her hands signaling for the class to quite down. Once they had stopped talking Miss S clapped her hands together and gave everyone a great big smile. "Good morning everyone!" she said. "Welcome to the first grade here at GC Elementary School, I'm sure you'll all have fun here"
Suddenly another bell rang making Alana jump again, the bell was different to the soft ding at her old school, this bell sounded like a fire alarm, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to get used to it.
Miss S waited for the bell to stop and then flashed them another smile, she then began to go over all of the rules and expectations of her class and then asked if there were any questions. When no one had any she turned around and began to write a word on the white board.
Alana sounded out the word and read it as Math. Alana knew what math was, she had learned a little bit of it at school and the Autobots had been displeased with the amount of time it took to teach a simple equation to a student so they had taught her math. Sam had warned the Autobots that if she was to learn too much math she would be too ahead of the class and it would be no fun. So they had stopped teaching her new things but made sure that she still remembered what they had already taught her by leaving little sheets of paper in her room to complete. If she handed them in she was rewarded with a little toy or a candy. Her learning went as far as addition and subtraction, Ratchet was on the verge of teaching her multiplication when Sam had stopped them.
Miss S went to describe math to the children and they seemed to understand what she meant when she had said Addition and subtraction so once done her speech she clapped her hands excitedly again.
"Now Children we cannot start this subject with out a title page in our binders." She clapped her hands once more. "For this class you will make a math title page based on what you know about math. So get your binders out and take out a blank sheet of paper and begin drawing" she left it at that and the rest of the students began to take out their binders and tried to dig out a blank sheet of paper. Alana had put graph paper and lined paper into the binder which she had decided would be her math binder, but she had no blank paper. When she saw that David had some she asked him for a sheet and he gave her one.
Then she took out a newly sharpened pencil. David had a mechanical pencil, Harry and Bret were staring at it enviously, and like Alana they also had normal pencils.
"Get to work everyone!" Miss S yelled from her desk.
Alana stared at the blank sheet of paper before her and then did what she knew to be math. Not being a very imaginative person she began to write out a math problem. She added four three digit numbers together and then moved onto another question which she made to be a subtraction question. After that question she had moved back to an addition problem. David on the other hand was making bubble addition and subtraction signs on his sheet of paper. Harry was drawing a stick man being stabbed by a plus sign. Bret on the other hand seemed to be quite the artist, he was drawing a respectable looking face which was smiling and then above the face he wrote the words math in a fancy style.
Miss S got up a few moments later to check and see how everyone was doing. She started at the front of the class.
She looked at Mabel's first and exclaimed "What lovely flowers Mabel!" she moved on to the next student "Eric, why that plus sign looks fabulous!" and once more she moved on "Lovely Lucy!" Miss S giggled at her own alliteration. It went on like so until she reached the back table. "Oh that's beautiful Bret!" Miss S cried out. She then looked at Harry's and frowned "Harry, she began, this is a respectable school, please don't draw those sorts of pictures" she shook her head at him and Harry grumbled. She then looked at David's and nodded appreciatively, though she said nothing, and David looked disappointed. Then lastly she looked over Alana's shoulder. "What are you doing there dear?"
Alana shrugged "Addition" she told her pointing at the newest equations she was working on.
Miss S inspected Alana's work and found it all to be correct, she ruffled Alana's hair making her braids go askew "Well aren't you a smart cookie" she told Alana.
"Uh thank you" Alana said not sure what to say to Miss S.
Miss S straightened up and walked back to her desk. The rest of the period passed quickly and Alana had moved onto her second page of equations when the bell suddenly rang. The class jumped and one kid let out a shout.
"Alright kids" Miss S stood up "Next is science!" she told them. The class went on and Alana found herself on the same level as the rest of the class regarding science. She drew a bunch of trees for her science title page.
Then came time for recess, the Kids jumped up and rushed for the door, eager to try out the play ground. David and Alana walked out together they were planning to try out the slide but when they saw the line up for the slide they decided that the sand box would be a lot more fun. And so they dug and dug until David let out a little cry, he had found a little army man in the sand and was looking at it proudly. Alana congratulated him but she didn't do it for long, she too wanted to find something in the sand.
When the bell rang for the next class David came in the room loaded with little army men and Alana came in loaded with a little toy car she had found. Alana had found some army men but had given them to David since he showed more interest in them then her. All she wanted was the little car. The next class was art and the kids were once more forced to bring out a pencil and a sheet of paper.
They were given the topic to draw their families and Alana was left once more to stare at the sheet of paper. She knew she wasn't allowed to tell anyone about her family and she was fairly sure that she wasn't allowed to draw them. So Alana decided to draw the Autobots in their holoforms. She drew herself first giving herself messed up braids. Then came Ironhide she made sure that his hair was short and that he was muscled. Ratchet soot on her other side she made sure that his yellowish hair was the right length. Then came Bumblebee and Sam who was sitting on Bumblebee's shoulder. Optimus stood beside Ratchet and he was smiling. Alana made Fireflight hover above the group and once she was done Miss S came over and exclaimed "you have a big family!"
"I do?" Alana wasn't sure what the normal size for a family was so she had to ask.
"Yes you do!" Miss s said giving her a smile. "Why don't you write your name down and then I can hang it up."
"Ok" Alana wrote her name with her black crayon and handed the picture over to Miss S, her pictures joined the rest of her class mate's pictures.
Alana found out that David was an only child and that Harry and Bret were cousins. She didn't know what a cousin was but she figured it had something to do with all of the family stuff that the school seemed to be focusing on.
And so the day passed Alana learned a lot more about school and its expectations and at the end of the day she was ready to go home.
While Alana had been at school the Autobots had been discussing Alana, Ironhide had noticed that they had been calling her an Autobot but not one thing she had, had the Autobot symbol on it. Ironhide had figured that this was a serious problem because Alana had nothing to distinguish herself as an Autobot with. Ratchet had jokingly said that they should give her a tattoo but Optimus had given him a cold look.
"Maybe just a T-shirt or something with the Autobot symbol on it" Ironhide had said.
"Or a hat" Optimus said.
"A hat would work" Ratchet said, "If you give me one I can get the symbol on the hat in less than five minutes." Ironhide wishing to surprise Alana with the hat after her first day of school made a rush to get a hat with nothing on it. He got a black one and speed it back to Ratchet. Ratchet plastered an Autobot symbol to the hat and passed it back to Ironhide. The hat was a ball cap and the symbol was placed on the front just above the rim. Ironhide thanked Ratchet quickly and rushed for the school where he knew the students were preparing to end the day.
The bell rang before Ironhide had gotten there and Alana waited patently for him, David waved goodbye to her and got on his bus, Alana waved back just as Ironhide drove up. Behind him a sleek Corvette drove up, Mabel got in but not before sneering at the Truck Alana was getting into. Alana frowned at the girl and shook her head, what was that girl's problem? She hadn't even talked to her.
Once Alana was seated Ironhide's holoform gave Alana a mischievous grin.
"I got something for you" he told her.
"Ohh! What!?" Alana looked at him excitedly. Ironhide produced from behind him a black ball cap which Alana immediately noticed had the Autobot symbol on it. "Ooooh!" she took it and examined it. Ironhide took it out of her hands and placed it on her head and gave her an approving nod.
"Now your really my little army girl" he told her. Alana giggled and held onto the hat on her head.
"Thank you Ironhide" she told him. Alana was reaching for the little flap above the front window that held a mirror; she wanted to see what she looked like. Ironhide saw her intent and mentally lowered the mirror so that she could see. After examining herself from all angles Alana gave a happy giggled and once more thanked Ironhide.
"Your welcome" Ironhide said smiling "Make sure you thank Ratchet and Optimus too. Ok?"
"Ok" Alana said. She threw her backpack in the back seat "Drive fast ok?" Ironhide laughed and his engines let out a giant roar which scared some students. Alana laughed as the truck shot off.
Ironhide reached the base in record time and skidded to a stop right in front of Optimus who was staring down at him disapprovingly. Ironhide waited for Alana to grab her things and get out, once she was a safe distance away Ironhide transformed.
"Sorry sir" I was just having some fun Ironhide tried to explain himself.
Before Optimus could answer Alana shouted "OOOOoooptimus!"
Optimus looked down at the girl with a kinder look than the one he had been giving Ironhide before, "Yes Alana" he bent down so that he could see her better.
"Thank you for my hat" she said with a great big smile. She took off her hat and waved it at him.
Optimus laughed "your welcome Alana" he told her "Now run along" Alana did as Optimus told her and went off to find Ratchet.
Ironhide was about to make a break for it when Optimus' calm voice stopped him "Ironhide"
Ironhide flinched and looked up at the big bot before him "Y-yes sir"
Optimus transformed and his voice exited the cab "It's apparent you and I need to review driving safety. Lets take a drive down town shall we?"
"Ah crap" Ironhide muttered.
"Excuse me?" Optimus said.
"Ah! I mean Yes sir!" Ironhide transformed and the two bots drove off.
Alana rushed into the med lab shouting Ratchet's name, Ratchet jumped. Alana stopped in the door way and saw on the table a silver body, Ratchet ran in front of the body shielding it from Alana's view.
"Whose that Ratchet?" Alana asked.
"Nobody, run along Alana" Ratchet said.
"But Ironhide told me-"
"Alana I said run along!" Ratchet half shouted at the little girl before him. Alana looked hurt but did as he said and stepped out of the med lab and ran to her room a small tear forming in the corner of her eye. She had never been yelled at before by an Autobot and it hurt.
So she sat in her room quietly playing with her LEGO sitting on her bed. She looked up when the door opened. Ironhide was back and he looked grumpy, but when he saw her face his grumpiness vanished in an instant.
"Alana, what's wrong?" Ironhide scooped up the small child and began to rock her gently cradling her against his chest. Alana's chin quivered and after a moment she broke down. Her tears ran down her chin to land on his hand.
Ironhide had dealt with Alana crying before when she had fallen off a great number of things or when people at school were mean to her, but now he was not sure why she was crying so he could say nothing to comfort her until he knew the situation. So he stayed silent and allowed Alana to cling to his armor and cry, when she had let go of his chest armor his other hand came up and brushed her cheek gently getting rid of some of the tears that were still on her cheek. Alana sniffed and looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy.
"What happened Alana?" Ironhide asked once he figured she was a little over her ordeal.
"R-Ratchet y-yelled-d a-a-t me" she sniffled brushing away her tears.
"What! Why?" Ironhide was already walking out of Alana's room and heading towards the med lab.
"I-I d-dunno-o" Alana said. When Ironhide entered the room she hid in Ironhide's hand to afraid to look at Ratchet in fear he was still mad at her.
"Ratchet!" Ironhide yelled.
"What!" Ratchet yelled back at him. Alana covered her ears not wanting to hear a fight.
Ironhide looked down at the cowering girl in his hand "Why did you yell at Alana?" he asked in a softer tone, not wanting to alarm Alana.
"Ironhide, she saw Jazz" Ratchet said. He was putting Jazz's remains in a cupboard carefully. He had been working on Jazz late at night or when Alana was at school.
"That's no reason to yell at her" Ironhide told him angrily. "She has every right to know about Jazz" he said.
"I don't want her to see what war does to our race!" Ratchet yelled "She shouldn't be given those nightmares!"
"She's gonna see it when the Decepticons attack earth!" Ironhide retaliated with a yell, though he immediately softened his voice when he heard Alana whimper.
Ratchet thought for a moment and then sighed "Give her here Ironhide" Ironhide narrowed his optics at Ratchet silently warning him that if he did anything to make Alana even more sad then she was already then he would blow him to kingdom come. Ratchet got the warning but took Alana all the same.
Ironhide stepped out of the room and leaned his audio receptors against the door, Ratchet was speaking.
"Alana, do you know how we met Sam?" Ratchet asked. Alana had apparently answered with a shake of her head because Ratchet was continuing on "We had come to earth in search of glasses that held a map towards the Allspark-"
"What is Allspark?" Alana interrupted him.
"The Allspark is the object that created the planet where I am from, it created me too" he said.
"Oh" was all that Alana said.
Ratchet held Alana gently in his hand; he gave her a strange look and then moved his hand up so that he could look at her better.
"The Allspark was wanted by the Decepticons-" Ratchet continued but he was interrupted by Alana once more.
"Those are the bad guys, right?" she looked into his optics seeking confirmation that her assumption was right.
"That's right." Ratchet said "We the Autobots had a giant war with them on our planet and the Allspark was lost in space during the fight" Ratchet paused before continuing, "During the fight our planet was destroyed and the Autobots searched space for the Allspark. But unknown to us, the Decepticon Megatron-"
"Whose he?" Alana asked her head tilting to the side.
"The leader of the Decepticons" Ratchet clarified "As I was saying, Megatron had tracked the Allspark to earth but he crash landed"
Ironhide while listening was delighted to hear Alana say "Loser" his stifled his snicker and continued to listen.
Ratchet had also been amused to Alana call the most feared of all Decepticons a loser. The smile was evident in his voice when he said "Yes that was a fairly dumb mistake but fortunately Bumblebee was able to come to earth and find Sam. Sam had the map to which would lead us to the Allspark and once Sam found out about us he gave us the glasses. We were able to read the map and Bumblebee who was captured by the group who had the Allspark was able to bring it to us."
"Bumblebee was captured!" Alana sounded surprised. "He told me he was too cool to be captured" Alana said thoughtfully.
Ratchet laughed "Sounds like someone is in denial" he told her. "But continuing on, the Allspark was brought to a city called Mission City and there we had a massive battle"
"Ooh…" Alana sounded interested in what happened in the battle.
"We had human military help and because of Sam we were able to defeat the Decepticons, he was the one who defeated Megatron."
"Sam" Alana sounded surprised "But… But… Sam- Sam" Alana didn't sound too sure that her friend could have defeated Megatron.
"He shoved the Allspark into Megatron's chest causing him to have an overload of power and go offline, Optimus then pulled a shard of the Allspark which Megatron had failed to absorb out. He holds it with him now" Ratchet said.
"Ok!" Alana said, she was preparing to hop off Ratchet's hand thinking the story was done but Ratchet stopped her.
"Alana, I'm not done yet" Ratchet said.
"Oh… sorry" she grinned sheepishly at him.
"That's ok" Ratchet said. "In the battle we lost a friend, his name was Jazz and he tried to protect the humans, but Megatron got him"
"Oh…" Alana looked up at him sadly.
Ratchet put down Alana, bent down and opened the cupboard holding the remains of Jazz.
"This is Jazz" he said lifting up the broken torso and the legs. Alana stood up and walked to the body, she placed a hand on the dented shoulder plate and looked up at Ratchet.
"Are you trying to bring him back?" she asked.
"Yes" Ratchet said sighing "Yes I am"
