Hot Shot's Childhood

Chapter 13

Sparky Worries

That Taiai had so far been a very uneventful day. ComCom mumbled a bit as he ate his lunch, clearly bored. Hot Shot, on the other hand was very happy about an ordinary day. Though it did feel like something was amiss.

"You're awfully quiet", ComCom said to the bot sitting next to Hot Shot. Sparky only growled. "What's the matter?" Hot Shot asked. "You've barely touched your energon", ComCom added. Hot Shot noticed this fact only just then. ComCom sure was perceptive.

"Sparkly..." Sparky started but clammed up instantly. "What?" Hot Shot pressed. "Did you two have a fight?" "Kinda..." "What happened?" ComCom asked, leaning across the table. "You can tell us", Hot Shot put in.

Sparky shook his head. "It's nothing, really", he said. "Come on Sparky!" ComCom whined. "Don't keep us in the dark." "I don't want to talk about it?"

Hot Shot could hear the irritation in Sparky's voice. It would figure for the dark transformer to be angry, but there had been a rather dangerous undertone to Sparky's voice Hot Shot moved slightly away.

ComCom's temper was also boiling, much to Hot Shot's discomfort. Why could those two not get along? It did not matter what Sparky did, it always annoyed ComCom. And ComCom would never back down, causing Sparky to lose his temper.

"Don't you trust us?" ComCom asked in a low hiss that was a mix of hurt and anger. "Do you think we're going to run off to tell evryone what's happened?" "That has nothing to do with this!" "So you admit you don't trust us?" "NO!"

Sparky slammed his fists down on the table, causing both Hot Shot and ComCom to jump. Then the black bot stood up and stormed off.

Hot Shot coughed nervously, taking a sip of his energon drink. ComCom only stared at Sparky's still half-full plate in complete silence.

"I'm sure he'll be ok", Hot Shot said and placed his mug back on the table. "Sparky is sure to have his energy levels high with all the energon he consumes daily." ComCom's optics narrowed. "At least he eats enough to survive on", the smaller transformer growled.

Hot Shot held back his angry reply. After all, ComCom's words were kind of true... And besides, Hot Shot was certain that ComCom had only said that because he was feeling lousy. He was clearly feeling quilty.

Hot Shot stood up and offered ComCom a weak smile. "Come on", he said. "We should head to class. Fogmist doesn't look kindly at tardiness." ComCom only nodded and stood up. He did not say anything on the way to class.

1.

Sparky was fuming. He was so angry that he thought he might just scream. Why did everything always go wrong? Why were his friends so nosy?

Sparky sighed and leaned against a wall. Who was he trying to fool? His friends had just been worried, that was why they had tried to get him to talk. Sparky had just wanted to take his anger out on somebody so bad that he had snapped at his friends without really intending to.

"I feel like waste oil..." Sparky mumbled to himself. He had not thought anyone would hear. Furthermore, he had not expected anyone to reply.

"You are heavily troubled, Sparkly's brother", a voice said softly, startling Sparky. He looked up into Lunar's yellow optics. "What do you want?" he hissed. "And stop calling me: 'Sparkly's brother'. I have a name. Plus, it's kind of creepy."

"I apologise, Sparky", Lunar said carefully. She looked down the corridor for a moment. "I had a little fight with ComCom and Hot Shot", Sparky admitted, guessing what the girl was looking for. "I know" the black and yellow bot answered. "I was simply making sure your sister isn't around."

Lunar leaned in closer, like she was going to reveal some big secret to Sparky. "It's just a crush you know", she said quietly. "Wha-?" "It's harmless. It will pass. Just accept it as a phase in Sparkly's life."

Sparky huffed, not impressed. "You came here to tell me that?" "We are but young and foolish children", Lunar continued. "Just give Sparkly time and she will forget about her silly fantasies."

Sparky shook his head, giving up. "I promise I won't go ballistic on her, that much I can guarantee", he said. "I still can't say I'm ok with it, though."

Lunar let out a relieved sigh, smiling at Sparky. "It's not like he would answer her feelings anyway", she said. "I know that", Sparky replied. "I just don't want her to make an idiot out of herself." "Mistakes are meant to be learned from." "Yeah, I guess so."

Lunar stepped away from Sparky, signaling that she was about to leave. "Thank you for listening to what I had to say", she said. Sparky nodded his head. "You're welcome", he muttered. "We should leave now. Mechanics class is about to begin." "What? Now?" Lunar nodded. "Damn! We're going to be late!"

2.

Hot Shot and ComCom walked into the mechanics class together. Hot Shot quickly scanned the room with his optics and noticed a free seat next to Forestra. Well, he could end up with a worse class partner.

Just when Hot Shot was about to walk to the green-armored girl ComCom grabbed his arm. Hot Shot turned a questioning gaze to his blue companion.

"Sit next to me, please", ComCom said. "But why?" Hot Shot asked. "You usually sit with Spark-" The way ComCom's lips pressed together caused Hot Shot to stop in mid-sentence. The pink optics of the shorter transformer would not meet Hot Shot's and Hot Shot realized that ComCom was embarrased about having to ask such a thing. And he also remembered the previous fight with Sparky.

"Sorry", Hot Shot muttered, scraching the back of his head. "Of course I'll sit with you." Hot Shot followed ComCom to the seats next to the window on the second last row.

Just as Hot Shot sat down he saw Sparky burst in through the open door. The black and white transformer looked through the room in a similar way Hot Shot had done only moments ago.

For a moment bright blue and orange optics met. Hot Shot felt very self-concious sitting next to ComCom, where Sparky would usually be sitting. Sparky did not get along with others well, that was one of the reasons he always fought with ComCom. But since ComCom was ComCom Sparky always tolerated the blue bot more or less.

Sparky's optics left Hot Shot's as the darker bot marched to sit on the set right ahead of Hot Shot, next to Forestra. Hot Shot would have wanted to say something, anything, but did not know how he could make everything fine again. Their group was broken, perhaps even beyond repair.

To be continued...

Ending Notes: I feel so cruel for doing this. I really hope the star trio can fix their problems or they will become a star duo. Oh, and I just noticed that in chapter 7 Hot Shot says that they have ten upgrades. This is a mistake. It's supposed to say seven upgrades. I've fixed that.