After days in the car stuck with her parents Sam finally made it to college. How she managed to get into The University of Pennsylvania still amazed her, especially since she got a nice scholarship to help fund her education.
"Wow… Look at this!" Judy spun around as she took everything in. "I feel smarter already! Oh Ron. Can you smell it?"
"Yeah, smells like $40,000 a year." He retorted.
"Hey! El cheapo!" Judy snapped back in irritation.
Sam just smirked moving to grab a box or two. Her parents shooed her on to her dorm and her room. Checking the slip of paper with her information once more she tried to locate her room. So far she wasn't having the best of luck.
After getting turned around in an attempt to dodge other students she ran right into another person.
"Oh! Sorry, sorry."
"No prob. My bad."
She found herself looking at a young man maybe an inch or two taller than her, with extremely curly black hair and olive skin. He looked quite flabbergasted as he took her in.
"Um… Sam." She held her hand out after shifting her box.
"Can I have you? Uh I mean can I help you…" He shook himself out of his stupor much to her amusement.
"Maybe you can…um?"
"Leo. Right, I'm Leo."
"Leo. As I said I'm Sam. I'm looking for B35 but I seem to be lost…"
"B35? What a coincidence I'm in B34 right across the hall. We're neighbors!" he grinned brightly as he led her down the hallway to her room. "So Sam… You like kittens?"
It didn't take long to settle in, once she managed to get rid of Leo and see her parents off. That had been a wonderful experience given her mother decided to try brownies baked with reefer. She almost felt sorry for her dad.
Her roommate seemed distant and had pretty much told Sam to keep to her side of the room. A wonderful start to an entire year of schooling, unless they could switch after the first semester. She may have to look into that.
Once she had her side of the room set up she made her way to the college bookstore to grab some odds and ends. Most of the professors had sent their book lists before hand so she needed to pick them up. Some she would have to wait until she went to the first class and got the syllabus. Thankfully they had a few days for freshmen to acquaint themselves to the campus. She spent Saturday morning going through the books she did have and walking around the campus finding the buildings for her classes.
She managed to grab a quick lunch from one of the campus meal sites and took the rest of the afternoon to continue going through her books and email Mikaela to let her know she had made it fine. She also dropped a line to Bee so he wouldn't get worried.
Thankfully her roommate apparently had friends elsewhere so she chose to spend her time with them off campus. It left her free to study in peace. She had left the door open to allow people to say hi and so that they knew that unlike her roommate she wouldn't be unsocial. That's how she ended up with Leo popping in sometime after dinner.
"Hey, me and the guys got word of a frat party tonight and I wanted to know if you wanted to tag along?" He asked, fidgeting slightly.
Sam frowned in thought. "I don't know. Won't I cramp your style?"
"Are you kidding?" Leo looked at her like she was nuts. "Coming in with a hot girl will only boost it!"
Sam blinked at the complement. A small voice in the back of her head sounding suspiciously like her mom and Mikaela told her to go and have fun. "Alright, but only as friends." She warned the boy. "This is not a date."
"That's cool. I totally understand! Wouldn't dream of it. Well I would but I'm cool with friends, unless you change your mind…"
Sam chuckled as she grabbed her purse and followed the boy out into the hall where she met his friends Fassbinder and Sharsky. From the way they spoke they were obviously techies, but she didn't have a problem with that. However IF Fassbinder kept staring at her like that she just might have to hurt him.
The walk to the Frat house was fairly quick and from the looks of it several people had heard of the party. The music pounded through the air like a pulse of power. Sam looked unsure at first but decided to go with it as the boys all looked around with vast wonder and excitement, their eyes trailing the various females that walked by.
Snickering she shooed them off to have fun as she made her way inside for a drink. She was just passing one small area where a cake was set out when the visions started. Blinking rapidly she tried to figure out why such strange symbols were floating before her eyes, superimposing the world around her. As one finger came up to trace the symbols she was broken out of her strange trance by a tall male.
"Hey, you ok?"
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts she looked up at the guy with piercing blue eyes and sandy blond hair. "Um…yeah I'm fine. Just uh… little distracted is all…"
"I understand, there's a lot of things going on around here." He inched closer into her space almost too close.
Sam backed off putting some room between them. "Yeah… a lot going on…"
"Wanna dance? I like dancing." He leaned forward again invading her space.
"Uh…"
"HEY!" The loud yell of one of the frat boys demanded everyone's attention over the music. "Who drove the freakin' yellow Camero? Huh? There's a car on my lawn!"
Sam froze for one second before running out of the room and toward the main door. Pulling up short at a window she found Bumblebee out front in the bushes his alarm going full blast. Panicked she rushes out of the house and over to the driver side window.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed at the vehicle as she leaned in the window.
"Houston we have a problem."
She started to ask what that meant when the same Frat guy called out to her.
"Freshman! Is that you're car?"
Startled Sam looked up. "Uh… yeah a friend had it and was supposed to be taking it elsewhere. I'll move it now. Sorry."
The two guys apparently decided that harassing a girl wasn't a good idea. "Yeah well try not to do it again."
"No problem." Sam assures them as she gets into the vehicle.
"Oh man! You have a car?" Leo came out of the party too curious about the situation to let it pass. "That's so hot!"
"I don't have time for this." She muttered and started the engine pulling the car back and moving out.
"Alright Bee." She stated once out of sight of the campus. "What is going on?"
"The boss wants ta have a word with ya." Came over the radio.
"Optimus? Here in Pennsylvania? Why?"
"Debrief in one hour."
"So basically I have to wait to speak to Optimus." She acknowledged dryly. Settling into the seat she let Bee take her to where she would meet the leader of the Autobots. Hopefully she could get back before classes started.
Early in the morning just after dawn Bee pulled into one of the older cemeteries. Sam tried hard not to comment on the location. When Bee finally pulled over and let her out she found Optimus standing near one of the larger monuments in the area, allowing it to hide him.
Moving closer Sam greeted him. "Hey Optimus. What garners this need to see me before I have a chance to even start classes."
"I'm sorry Sam." He seemed genuinely remorse. "But the last fragment of the Allspark was stolen."
"What? Like Decepticons stole it?" She frowned in worry.
Optimus nodded before continuing his explanation. "We placed it under human protection at your government's request. But I am here for your help Sam. Because your leaders believe that we have brought vengeance on your planet. Perhaps they are right." His features did their own parody of a sigh while Sam listened. "That is why they must be reminded by another human of the trust we share."
"Ok… I can see what you mean, but I'm not sure how I can help. Optimus to humans I am a mere child. The leaders of this world would likely not bother listening to me." She tried to explain to the larger creature.
"Something must be done. I fear there will soon be war. Your world must not share the same fate as Cybertron." His words had a sense of finality to them. "Whole generations lost."
"Look Optimus I want to help you. But again, I'm just a kid. The likelihood of them listening to me it quite small. I can try but I can't guarantee it'll do any good."
"All we can ask is that you try."
"Ok, but can it wait till like Saturday? I have to go through the first week of classes, my scholarship sort of requires it." She looked up at him pleadingly. "Besides you guys will need time to get the bigwigs together anyway. Would that be alright?"
Optimus calculated his options. He did not see too much harm in waiting as she asked and it would be good to prepare the leaders of the world to speak to the girl. "Very well. I will have Bumblebee contact you when we have a time set."
"Cool. Thanks Optimus. I'll make sure to work on a speech for them. Lord knows the politicians love a good speech." Smiling happily at the compromise she said her goodbyes and made her way back to Bumblebee to head back to school.
Optimus watched as the two drove off hoping that this would work.