Disclaimer: If you have to sue someone, pick someone with a bigger wallet. If you try to sue me all you're gonna get are moths and candy wrappers.

A/N: Um, wow. I should guilt trip you guys more often! I am astonished and flattered at the number of reviews! Speaking of reviews, drop another would ya? thanks! Anyway, I will reply to those of you with accounts sometime this weekend. Tomorrow promises to be a long day (family reunion/4th of July small group party...) but hopefully I can get back to everyone before Monday.

HAPPY 4th, my fellow Americans!!!!

Chapter Eleven: Of Freshman Blues and Long Lost Companions

Astrid's head hit her pillow with a very definite and very depressed thud that evening. It had taken her a while to unpack and get at least most of her belongs put in their new places, and the experience had been, quite honestly, depressing. As she dragged her bedding, books, clothes, toiletries and every nick-knack she could possibly need during the next few months up to the stairs, she'd been forced to watch all the other girls on her floor come in with their laughing, loving families.

It was salt in the wound.

All it served was to reminder her that her brother was busy hanging out with the coolest beings to ever exist instead of taking a break to help his baby sister move into her new dorm, and her parents, well... suffice it to say they weren't going to be around for much of anything anymore. And so it was with a heavy heart and a headache to beat all that she finally let herself flop onto her newly made bed, muffling her screams of rage and heartbreak in her colorful pillows.

Then, something sat on her.

Her first reaction was to squawk in righteous indignation, but the effect was a bit less mature-sounding than she'd intended due to the absorbing qualities of the fluffy pillows. The new weight on her back bounced up and down gleefully, eliciting another groan from the victim pinned beneath. This seemed to amuse Astrid's tormentor, and the bouncing weight cackled.

"Jhrmmhhm, hmm HRRMM!"

"Sorry?" Astrid heard her unwelcome companion ask. "What was that?"

Astrid dragged her face free of the fluffy sleeping aid with great effort and growled, "Jenna, get OFF!"

"Oh, is that what you said?" the other girl asked cheerily. "Alright, then."

She hopped off immediately, leaving Astrid to roll over and take in deep, exaggerated, gasping breaths.

"Oh, come on," Jenna said, folding her arms. "I'm not that fat."

"Fat enough," Astrid wheezed. A pillow sailed across the room to collide with her face. "Hey! Those are my throw pillows!"

"So?"

"You can only throw your own throw pillows! It's a rule somewhere!"

Jenna laughed as she hoisted one of her own bags onto the squeaky, bare bed beside Astrid's. "I'll believe that when I see it in a book."

"I'm sure they have some sort of publishing facilities on campus..." whack "What did I just say about my pillows?"

"Not to touch them and be a good little girl," Jenna cooed.

"Precisely."

"I never did listen to someone who's better behaved than I am."

Astrid's eyes rolled skyward. "Yeah, right. And who was it exactly who got voted 'most likely to replace Principal Tylerman' in the highschool yearbook?"

The response was a rough zzzzrrp as Jenna unzipped her largest duffle bag. It was all Astrid could do to restrain her giggles. Her friend glowered at every piece of clothing she pulled out of her bag like it was personally responsible for every woe she'd ever suffered and Astrid chewed on her bottom lip to hide her smile.

"Who spilled?" Jenna demanded at last.

"Kelly."

"Hmm. She now has exactly four months to live," said Jenna.

That did it. Astrid fell back flat on her bed, howling at the posters she'd already stuck to the ceiling. Sadly, lying in that position made in impossible to see what emotions were playing over her friend's face, or what items were being removed from her suitcase.

Whack. She sat up abruptly, utterly confused by the fact that all of her own pillows were already surrounding her head... Jenna grinned.

"Not your pillow."

Astrid returned the favor, chucking the soft projectile back at her friend's head and scoring a direct hit on her ear.

"Hey! You just broke your own rule!"

Astrid shrugged. "My rules."

Then the full fury of the teenage pillow fight was unleashed on the new dorm room, and the two friends' freshman year began.

.O.O.O.

It was busy in the cafeteria at lunch time, filled with students coming from and heading back to class. Not a single soul wasn't rushed, but, on the other hand, there wasn't a soul that wasn't smiling either. The beginning kinks of freshman year had been mostly overcome during the first week, and by that Friday afternoon people were beginning to relax. Friends had been made, and the first of the new cliches were just starting to form. The sun was shining, the first round of tests was still weeks away, the teachers hadn't picked favorites yet and all was well with the world. And, if that wasn't enough, they were serving macaroni and cheese on the 'home style' line.

Astrid plopped down in a seat next to Jenna with a broad grin and a full tray. Her companion was already halfway through her salad by that point in time, but it was a well-known fact to anyone who knew Jenna that she ate slower than the most talkative grandma on the planet.

"You got a lot to eat there, Jen," Astrid teased. "Sure you'll be able to finish all of it before your next class starts?"

Jenna stuck out her tongue...with the remains of her bite of salad still in her mouth.

Astrid's nose wrinkled up. "Ew," she said.

"Oh, really," said Jenna. "I'm sure your brother's done worse."

"Yeah," Astrid said as she suddenly became engrossed with her own meal.

Sensing the change in Astrid's mood, Jenna paused, taking a very long time to finish chewing and swallowing carefully. By that time Astrid's eyes had started drifting towards the window... and the parking lot that it overlooked.

"I'm sorry," Jenna said. "I seem to forget details like that a lot. However... I am curious. What happened exactly between you two? I mean, I know you were never close, but..."

"Nothing happened," Astrid said, officially giving up on the rest of her lunch and pushing the tray back. "I'm just frustrated is all." She was quiet for a moment, contemplating her next thought. "I really don't know what I expected. Asking him to leave his job, even for such a short length of time was really too much to ask..."

"So you didn't," Jenna supplied.

"No," Astrid said contemplatively. "I didn't."

Her eyes finished their journey across the parking lot, which was filled with secondhand, student-owned rust buckets... except for one very shiny, very conspicuous Ford GT. Her mental moan must have had a physical counterpart, because Jenna's eyebrows rose and her mouth opened to form the inevitable question.

"What's up, chicka?"

"That," Astrid said, "has a very complicated answer."

Jenna's hands were instantly raised. "You don't even have to start," she said. "I've had more than a few run-ins with 'very complicated' things in my life, and each time I've walked away knowing that said things would have been better if they were just left alone." She shrugged. "I personally feel that those with long noses - who aren't part of such messes - should get plastic surgery to fix the problem."

Astrid just shook her head. "Jenna, what did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?"

"Nothin'," she replied, taking a swig from her glass of pop. "You're just one extremely lucky idiot."

Once again, eyes rolled, and Astrid rose to place her tray on the 'dirty dish conveyor belt' without further comment.

She had another problem besides her brother on her mind. And that problem had blue and silver paint, the world's worst attitude and was named Mirage. She hadn't spoken to him in a week, not since she'd blown up and stormed off to her dorm room. Now she was going to have to talk to him again... face to steering wheel. As she walked out to the all too obvious vehicle, she wondered just how crazy she would be deemed by all of her new friends if she was caught carrying on a conversation with her car.

All the way across the open parking lot, she could feel sharp eyes watching her, gauging her progress. She wondered if Mirage felt the same way about her that she felt about him. It wouldn't surprise her. There had been plenty of people she'd bumped into that didn't like her all that much, and it would be just her luck to have her Autobot guardian fall into that category. In the end, though, it didn't matter all that much. They only had to speak to each other enough to keep in regular contact, keep an eye out for trouble, and put up with each other for four years. Astrid figured that if she'd survived living with her brother for the first sixteen years of her life, she'd be able to survive minimal contact with Mirage for four.

She climbed into the passenger's side and closed the door softly after her. Mirage didn't say a word. For several minutes they both waited, expecting the other to begin the inevitable - if undesired - conversation, but when neither one said anything, the atmosphere started to become strained. At last, Astrid felt the need to say something, anything, and blurted out the first thing on her mind.

"You know your alternate form sticks out like a sore thumb, right?"

Mirage seemed to ponder this, but wound up replying, "Does it matter?"

"Maybe." Astrid sighed, pushing the stray baby hairs that had escaped from her ponytail out of her face. "You are supposed to be 'in hiding' right?"

"Correct," Mirage said, "however I seriously doubt that any member of your race not previously informed of our existence would connect a particularly attractive vehicle with extraterrestrial organisms."

"Well, if they can jump to the conclusion that hot air balloons are UFO's... Just do whatever you want, Mirage, but try to keep a low profile coming and going, would you? I figure I can stretch the truth a bit and say that this is my friend's car, and sometimes he leaves it in the parking lot for me to borrow. That way if you ever have to actually take me somewhere there won't be a big to-do over it. Would that suit you?"

"This story will suffice," the Autobot replied. "And I shall cover my own tracks where needed."

"Don't forget," Astrid said, swinging the door back open and stepping out, "don't transform in the parking lot, ok?"

Mirage made a noise that was probably a grumble of irritation, and Astrid smirked triumphantly. Then she left the robotic alien parked in the student lot and went back to finish out her day of classes.

.O.O.O.

It was very late at night when the knock came on their door, and both Astrid and Jenna glanced at each other in confusion. Jenna, being the braver of the two, went to go investigate, but from her desk Astrid could hear the entire conversation.

"Is this Astrid Fenner's room?" a peculiarly familiar voice inquired.

"It is," Jenna replied. "What do you want? You do know boys aren't supposed to be up here after midnight, right?"

"I understand, but it is a matter of importance," the visitor, obviously male, insisted. "Is she here?"

"Hold on a minute." Jenna closed the door again and looked back at her roomie. "Do you know him?"

"Who is it?" Astrid asked.

"I didn't ask what his name was," Jenna said, looking slightly abashed.

Astrid threw a sharp glance at her laptop's screen, deciding that her essay on the difference between the styles of Charlotte and Emily Bronte would not be progressing much more that night. Without further thought, she rose, tossed on her robe and approached the door. There was a spoken and established rule between herself and Jenna that there were to be no boys in their room for any reason short of an absolute, real emergency. So she went to meet her guest in the hallway, which wasn't so good to avoid eavesdroppers, but would keep to her own stringent code of honor. The man at the door, however, drove all other thoughts out of her head.

He was - quite simply put - gorgeous. Long, impossibly pale and straight blonde hair fell neatly just past his shoulders, and his skin was cast over with a delicately light tan. His clothing was impeccable, made up of what Astrid, with her limited fashion knowledge, was sure were designer brands. Everything he wore was cool in color, from his white shirt and grey sweater to his long blue overcoat. Astrid tried to remember any man she'd ever really seen wearing an overcoat. She'd always been upset that they'd gone out of fashion after the early nineteen hundreds.

Considering the fact that she was just a teenager girl in a dark hallway, though, her first coherent thought was to be alarmed. She opened her mouth to demand to know who he was, but at just that moment he raised his eyes, and the unnatural electric blue silenced her earlier question.

"What are you doing here, Mirage?"

"There is a message from Prime," he answered. "He wanted you to be alerted immediately that there has been a breach in base security." Astrid's face must have shown her alarm, for he plunged on quickly. "The computer systems were hacked, and they were hacked by a Decepticon, one we'd hoped would not come here. He is very dangerous, and it is because of the information that was stolen that Prime felt you should be informed. Records concerning all of the Autobot's allies here on Earth was carefully examined and copied... including your own file."

"I have a file?"

One of Mirage's delicate white eyebrows quirked upwards and for a split second she could almost have sworn that one corner of his mouth quirked up with it. But she must have imagined it, because the next moment his face was as refined and unmoving as ever.

"Naturally," he said simply. "You are very deeply involved for a human, especially a human who is not even a part of your military."

"Well, then would you kindly excuse my naive ignorance of Cybertronian information-keeping protocol?" Astrid simpered.

Someone cleared their throat behind them, and both arguers turned to see Jenna peeking out from behind the door, looking sorry, but insistent. "I wasn't eavesdropping, I swear, but though I hate to interrupt, there is an RA patrol that comes through here every couple of hours or so, and I don't think either of you would like to be caught gossiping in the hall when they arrive."

Mirage nodded, quickly bowed and bid goodnight to the two ladies, and vanished down the dark hallway. For a moment the pair of friends stood looking after him. Gawking, really. Then Jenna finally mustered the breath to ask, "Did he just bow?"

.O.O.O.

The first semester of school was over almost before Astrid realized that it had began. Her first round of finals was over, and for that she was grateful. Juries were also over, which made her even happier. However, she now had to part from Jenna for nearly an entire month while she returned to Tranquility for the winter holidays and Jenna went back to her own family. Astrid was horrified at the prospect of the long drive back in Mirage's finely upholstered interior, but at the same time she was very much looking forward to seeing all the rest of her Autobot buddies... and her brother. She and Jeremy had kept up a steady correspondence via e-mail, but for once they were both truly looking forward to seeing one another face to face.

There was only one problem with all of this, and that was how she would dodge around any questions concerning Mirage. Despite the way guardians and their charges were expected to bond with each other, she had seen very little of the Ford GT. He was there only off and on during the daylight hours, preferring to patrol the area and find secluded places where he could... be himself. Only at night did he stay in the parking lot, keeping a silent vigil over the small town campus. There was very little interaction between guardian and charge. Neither had any doubt that this fact would annoy and possibly infuriate several rather high ranking individuals in the Autobot army.

On their way home they were each extremely preoccupied with coming up with every excuse, both possible and improbable, for not being better acquainted after four months. It would be difficult, very near impossible to explain, so they'd both silently agreed to not even attempt to lie and just stick with the old 'we were really busy' routine. Neither option was likely to be too successful, but they felt that the second choice had the better chance of diverting attention.

Their arrival was greeted with much fanfare, which Astrid found far too loud after so many hours of utter silence. Jazz was blasting them all with his speakers and the twins had discovered the horror known as too-often repeated Christmas music- most of it far too modern for Astrid's tastes. There was also much back-slapping from the military men and kind inquiries from some of the more mature members of the company about her first semester of college. Finally, Jeremy elbowed his way through the crowd, and Astrid was happy to be swept up in his overly enthusiastic squeeze that felt like it would pop her shoulders right out of their sockets and crush her lungs together. But she was happy. After being surrounded by so many unfamiliar things, it was surprising just how happy she was to be back with things and people that were known to her.

Since she'd been unable to come home for Thanksgiving break, it seemed that everyone was obsessed with making this holiday count for both. Surprisingly, it did turn out to be enjoyable for all involved... at least... until the questions started.

A/N: Feed the starving authors! Leave a review!

Replies:

Ali: Thank you, thank you and thank you! I enjoy writing it, and I'm glad you enjoy reading it!

GodisGod!andIamnot: Thanks for the review! I am glad I am forgiven and that you keep reading. There's actually a TON of fics that I sort of played around with that will NEVER see the light of day, so I know that feeling. Thanks again! I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much!