I didn't go talk to Searchlight that off-cycle because at some point I realized I had homework I needed to do, but the next orn, I went to his room as soon as classes were over. They were going to have a meeting here in a few breems.

"Hey, 'Wave," Searchlight was sitting on his berth, playing a game on his datapad. Hey, are you ever going to tell me what Verdict and the others are planning? I kind of need to know.

I sat down and pulled my datapad out of subspace. I typed up a paragraph explaining that they intended to steal something from the headmaster's office and plant it among Searchlight's things.

He took it when I was finished and read it, frowning.

Wow. That's lame. "Hmm… I guess they have to do something like this. That's not too hard to avoid, though. If something weird shows up in my stuff, I can just… I don't know, turn it in to lost and found or something like that."

I held out my hand for the datapad, and he gave it back to me. [Even better. We could just tell Cablereach and he can pass the message on to the headmaster, who can catch Verdict in the act.]

He read it. "Well… yeah, that's probably the best idea." I was kind of hoping for a way to get rid of him that was a little more exciting, but... Actually, this would be really funny. "I like that plan."

It was simple, straightforward, and hopefully effective.

"I mean, it's kind of boring, but if it gets that glitch out of here… honestly, I'm surprised they think this will work."

Breeze came in. "What are we talking about?" she said. I could only hear one half of that conversation.

Searchlight handed her the datapad.

"Oh, wow. How are they even going to do that?"

They had it all worked out. It was actually a pretty solid plan except that I knew about it. They were probably hoping that I didn't know, or that I was too intimidated to do anything.

Other students in Searchlight's fight the bullies group started showing up. I typed a brief message warning Searchlight not to tell them too much about Verdict's plan, because if the bullies even suspected that we knew, they'd back out or change something. He nodded, though he really wanted to tell them.

"So," Searchlight said once everyone was there. "Anything happened while we were gone?"

"Not too much," one of the other students said. "Verdict and his friends haven't really done anything new. It's like they're waiting for something."

"Yeah," Searchlight said. Waiting for me to come back so they can try and get me expelled. Ha. "Definitely up to something. Well, don't worry. We've got a plan."

They looked at him expectantly.

"I can't tell you what it is, though," he said.

"What?" one of the other students demanded. "Why?"

"Because," Searchlight said… I could tell them a little bit, right?

I shook my helm slightly.

Fine, fine… "You know, just wait and see," Searchlight said. "If it works, then I'll tell you about it afterward."

"Why can't you tell us now?" the first student asked. "Can't you trust us?"

"Yeah," Searchlight said. "But if even a little bit of it gets back to Jazz or Verdict, then it won't work, so it's just better if as few mechs as possible know."

"Will you need help, though?" another student asked.

"Nah," Searchlight leaned back in his chair. "It's covered—we aren't even going to be involved. Obviously, Verdict has to get himself expelled…"

"Aw, come on, now you have to tell us."

"After," Searchlight replied. "I'll explain the whole thing afterward."

I wasn't sure how he was going to do that without revealing that I could read minds. But at least he wasn't explaining it to them right now.

"How long will we have to wait?"

"Not long," Searchlight said. "Don't worry." When are they planning this? He looked at me.

I was pretty sure it was going to be this off-cycle. No time to lose.

The other students weren't too happy about being left out, and there wasn't really much else to talk about so after a few more breems, the meeting was over. I went to tell Ravage I'd get him in a few breems, then went to Cablereach's office. He was there, and let me in.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

I nodded and sat down in front of him. He handed me a datapad and I outlined for him what Verdict was planning to do. After he read it he sat back, thoughtful.

"So, this is going to happen this off-cycle?"

I nodded.

"Short notice." He said. "But I should have enough time to put precautions in place and talk to Graycharter about it. I'm sure he'll be just as happy as I am to get some real solid evidence against Verdict—his creators won't be able to get him out of being caught in the act of stealing. I mean maybe they could, but I doubt they'll go to such lengths. They'll unleash him on some other poor school, no doubt, but we might actually be rid of him here if this pans out… thank you, Soundwave."

I shrugged, uncomfortable.

"No, really," Cablereach said. "Have you ever thought about going into detective work? I bet you'd be wonderful at it."

"I'd ha-ave to ta-a-alk," I said.

"Oh, right," Cablereach realized. "You know, if you worked with a good speech pathologist…" You could get rid of that stutter.

I shrugged. It would have to be someone I trusted enough to tell.

"Was there anything else?" Cablereach asked. I shook my helm.

After leaving Cablereach's office, I went to pick Ravage up and take him with me to Searchlight's room. Ratchet had showed up at some point and was in a bad mood because his project he'd done with Shockwave hadn't gone very well. In his absence, Shockwave had caved and let Wheeljack build a 'very small, harmless prototype' of what they had been proposing. It had actually worked as far as I could tell, but they hadn't been able to turn it off, and it had made a mess, then burned itself out.

Personally, I thought it could have gone a lot worse, but Ratchet wasn't satisfied.

Ravage jumped on him as soon as we got into the room, and there was the expected yelling and pushing and throwing things. Poor Ratchet. He probably needed a psychiatrist at least as much as I did. Breeze had actually told me she'd try to help me with my stutter, but she hadn't thought about it for a while.

We filled Ratchet in on what was going on with he bullies. He just grumbled a bit about the bullies being stupid and buried himself in his homework.

After a while, Shockwave showed up. The door was open and he stood outside for a few astroseconds feeling awkward, before Searchlight noticed him and waved him in.

"Hey. Shockwave, right?"

Shockwave nodded, and stepped inside.

"What do you want?" Ratchet didn't look up from the datapad on his desk.

"I'm sorry," Shockwave said. "I tested the prototype earlier and it worked fine. And the teacher gave us extra credit for going beyond what the assignment called for." We got 120% on the whole thing. I'm not sure what Ratchet's so mad about.

At least part of it was that Ratchet was mad they hadn't let him help build it. But he wasn't even admitting that to himself.

"It isn't your fault," Ratchet sad. "Your friend was the one who…"

"Wheeljack wouldn't have done it if I hadn't said it was ok. It's not his fault either. We got a good grade and the teacher even talked to me afterward and asked if you and I wanted to work with her on the research portion a little, to maybe get it published or at least read by some actual scientists."

"Really?" Ratchet said, finally looking up.

"Yes. You stormed off after the report was over, so she couldn't ask you about it, but she told me to pass on the offer. Our device might actually be made into a real tool. They might start using it!"

"I… I mean…"

"I'm really excited too," Shockwave said, optics shining. "I have to go right now because Wheeljack and I are working on another project together, and I'm not technically supposed to leave him alone in the lab, but I'll talk to you about it next orn in class, all right?"

"All right," Ratchet said.

"Thanks!" Shockwave turned to leave, then back again. "Are you still mad?"

"Of course not," Ratchet said. "I was never mad at you."

"Ok," Shockwave said, and left.

Ratchet stared after him. "Can you believe it?" he whispered. "A project, a paper I worked on might get published!"

"Remind me," Searchlight said. "Why you're not a science emphasis?"

"What?"

"Why are you going into politics when you seem to like science so much?"

"I do not."

"Ratchet," Searchlight said. "Every elective you take is a science class. And you complain the loudest about your science tests, but you also talk about the stuff you learned in those classes the most." And I have no idea why he thinks he can succeed in politics. "And I'm in a lot of your government-related classes because that's my emphasis too, so don't try to tell me you like them as much as the science ones, because I know you don't."

"Are you suggesting I change my emphasis?"

"Don't get all defensive," Searchlight said. "I'm just asking."

Ratchet looked down. "I am not changing my emphasis." My creators would be so disappointed. They want me to go into government, so that's what I'm going to do. I can still make them proud.

Searchlight looked at me. Do you know what his deal is, 'Wave?

I wished they would stop asking me things like that. If I could, I would turn off my mind reading and stop learning everyone's secrets. They had no right to use me as a well of information.

As the orn progressed, the tension in Searchlight's room rose a little. Something was going to happen this off-cycle, and at his point we had no control over the outcome.

Eventually, lights out neared, and I got up to leave.

"Well," Searchlight said, as Ravage jumped up onto my shoulders. "Let's hope this works."

I nodded, and walked out the door.

I didn't recharge well that off-cycle. I kept wanting to stretch out my range so I could hear what was happening, but I knew that was a really bad idea. I kept feeling like this was going to go horribly wrong somehow, but there was no way to tell. I had left Searchlight's room shortly after Shockwave had shown up so I could sneak over to Verdict's room and confirm that they were still going to go forward with their plan. They were certain that even if I did know, we wouldn't tell anyone. They figured it would be hard for me to explain exactly how I knew and they could use it as evidence that I could read minds. They didn't know I had a teacher on my side.

If this worked… if this worked, Verdict would be gone. Maybe Jazz and Motormaster too if we were lucky. But at this point, it was completely out of my hands. All I could do was hope that everything went right.

I ran over their plan again and again in my processor as I lay online on my berth. Jazz would hack the camera systems and Verdict would sneak into the headmaster's office and steal something, preferably something with a lot of value. Jazz had found a way to mess with the video feed, and make Verdict look kind of like Searchlight—at least in the darkness. After that, they would meet up in Verdict's room and Jazz would go plant the object in Searchlight's room.

They intended to somehow supply an anonymous tip to the headmaster that Searchlight had stolen something. It would be among Searchlight's things, and Searchlight's word wouldn't mean anything because he was only lower middle class—It was generally accepted that those of lower classes tended to be less trustworthy. I had actually found the opposite to be true in most cases, but who was I to say anything about the matter?

It took a long time, but eventually, fatigue won out and I slipped into recharge and didn't come out of it until the new orn had dawned.

I got up and made my way groggily to my first class. About halfway through, the teacher got a comm. asking me to go to the headmaster's office. Silently hoping this meant good news, I got up and made my way there. Verdict was already there, with Motormaster and Jazz. Ratchet and Searchlight came into my range just as I got there. They'd been called in as well.

The headmaster let us in and we all sat down. "Good orn," he said.

"Good orn, sir," Searchlight replied. No one else said anything.

"So," the headmaster said. "It's come to my attention that you six have been having a sort of rivalry." For which they are all in a lot of trouble. "Is that not correct?"

No one said anything.

"Searchlight?"

"Yes," Searchlight said. "As I'm sure you know, Verdict makes a habit of hurting anyone he doesn't like."

"I didn't call you here to point fingers, Searchlight," the headmaster said. "I want to know if you have participated in recruiting groups of students to fight against each other."

Searchlight hesitated, then nodded. "I did."

The headmaster looked at Verdict, who didn't say anything.

"Do you know how unacceptable and against the rules that is?" The headmaster said. I should expel all of them.

Oh, great.

"But..." Searchlight said.

"In fact, according to reports, several of the students you drafted into your group were hurt."

Searchlight opened his mouth to argue that Verdict had been the one to hurt them, but I cut in before he could talk.

"Wha-at should we-e ha-a-ave done?"

"You should have brought your complaints to me. We cannot have rival gangs on this campus. This school is for learning and growing, not for playing at war. Do you understand, Searchlight?"

Searchlight almost argued, and I almost had to step in again and stop him, but then he deflated. "Yes. I understand."

"Thank you," the headmaster said. "Fortunately for you, I have no evidence that any of the mecha in your following harmed anyone else. So, provided the rest of this conversation goes well, I will refrain from expelling you, but if anything like this happens again, you will not have another chance. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you. Now, Verdict."

"I tell you," Verdict said. "I am not…"

"No," The headmaster replied. "You will listen to me first, and then talk. Or you won't have an opportunity to say anything."

Verdict glared at the ground. It was you, Soundwave, wasn't it? You're the one who told them. You'll pay for this.

"Now, I understand you also built up a group to fight against Searchlight's. Am I wrong, Verdict?"

He wanted to deny it. But it was a little too late for that. "No," he growled.

"And they did physically harm several other students this term."

Verdict didn't answer.

"And when that wasn't enough to frighten everyone into submission, you decided to steal from me in the hopes that you could frame Searchlight and get him expelled. Is that correct?"

"Who told you that?" Verdict demanded.

"The informant in this case would like to remain anonymous." I don't know where Cablereach keeps getting his information. "It does not matter in any case. You were caught on a legal recording device."

It's useless for me to deny it. "How did they know?" Verdict asked. "It's not like I told anyone I was going to do this." It had to have been Soundwave, unless…it couldn't have been Jazz, could it? I'll have to talk to him afterward.

"So you're not going to try to deny it. That's refreshing."

Verdict glared at him. "Well, it would be pointless, wouldn't it?"

"Fairly useless, yes."

"What are you going to do?" Verdict asked.

"Well," the headmaster said, "Searchlight, Soundwave, and Ratchet. You three are going to be given detention for three quartexes. And we will certainly be contacting all of your creators about this."

Searchlight almost said something again, but the headmaster spoke first. "And you three. Verdict, Motormaster, and Jazz… well, Verdict, you will be expelled. The other two might be suspended again…"

"They weren't involved," Verdict said. "Neither of them helped me." I need them to stay here—I'm not done yet. Soundwave has to pay for this.

Oh great.

"You take full responsibility for this?" The headmaster was nothing short of shocked.

"Yes," Verdict said. "It was me. They didn't do anything."

"Well, I know that's not true," he said. "But if you insist they are not guilty of assisting in your theft, then… I suppose I will tentatively take your word for it."

Verdict nodded. "They aren't responsible."

"Very well," the headmaster said. "Jazz, Motormaster, you will join the other three in detention for the same duration, and I will be keeping a close optic on you."

No, he needed to expel them. I did not want whatever revenge Verdict had in mind. It would either involve Motormaster beating the slag out of me, or them somehow exposing my abilities. Maybe both.

"Verdict," the headmaster said, "I will now offer you the chance to apologize to Searchlight for attempting to get him expelled, and after that I would like you to go to your room and start packing your things. I will contact your creators. I want you out by the end of the orn."

Yes! Searchlight could barely contain his grin. We did it!

Verdict glared at Searchlight. "Go to pit, gutter scrap," he said, then got up and stormed out of the headmaster's office.

The headmaster sighed, then turned to Motormaster and Jazz. "You two be warned. I am done with your troublemaking. Any further infractions of the rules will be punished severely. Don't think I won't expel either or both of you the astrosecond you make trouble. Also, Searchlight, I want you to disband your little club. Tell them they risk sharing your detention sentence if they continue to meet with you."

"All right," Searchlight said.

"And the same goes to you about breaking the rules. No fighting of any sort will be allowed on this campus. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." He turned a blind optic to it when it was all Verdict.

"Thank you. All five of you may leave now."

Searchlight, Ratchet, and I went out the door first. Searchlight could barely contain his excitement, and Ratchet was almost cheerful as well. I wasn't so happy, but that was just because I had Jazz and Verdict both directing angry, threatening thoughts at me, and Motormaster wanted to hurt all of us.

But for all Searchlight knew, I was ecstatic. A blessing and a curse, this screen I had for a face. Usually a curse.

We walked down the hallway and around the corner.

"Ratchet, tell everyone in the group who you see in your classes," Searchlight said. "We need to have a meeting…"

"What! The headmaster said…"

"We have to tell them all the news. You know, that Verdict is leaving and that we can't have any more meetings. Honestly, Ratchet, you don't think I'd go directly against what the headmaster said, do you? How am I supposed to 'disband my little club' if we don't call a meeting?"

Ratchet just shook his helm.

"Wow," Searchlight said. "I can't believe that actually happened. Soundwave, you saved the school."

Jazz had heard that. I turned to stare at Searchlight, but he didn't sense my exasperation.

We went back to class.

After all of our classes were done, we had a very brief, celebratory meeting in which Searchlight explained what had happened—claiming that I'd just overheard the bullies talking, of course—and that now Verdict was going to leave by the end of the orn. After that, we went to detention. We were a little late, but the teacher there didn't mind too much. Word had spread somehow that Verdict was getting expelled and the whole of detention was full of whispered conversations about it.

At the end of the orn, Verdict's creators showed up to pick him up and half the school crowded the hallways to see him off.

We watched from a window on the third floor of the classroom wing as Verdict and his creators drove away in the transport they had brought. Several students with us in the crowded hallway cheered.

"Well, mechs," Searchlight said, throwing an arm around my shoulders, and one around Breeze's as well. "…and femme."

Breeze rolled her optics, but smiled.

"Now we don't have anything hanging over us like acid storm clouds. The rest of the term is going to be awesome."

Yes, Breeze's smile deepened Oh, Primus, I can't believe I'm standing this close to him.

I winced. Sappy, lovesick femme.

There were so many around me who were feeling happy that I couldn't help joining them, but when I was back in my room with only Ravage for company, I worried again. It was great that Verdict would be gone. But Verdict knew my secret, and he knew it was me who had gotten him expelled.