In which Alison lands attends a party, lands a date, and gets arrested.


The next day, a Friday, was pretty boring, compared to the events I knew were to come. Went to school with Miles (which did include a pop quiz in Hosney's but it was easy), heard some people talking about the lake party, and I convinced Miles that we should go. Most people weren't going to show up until after six, so that gave Miles and I time to go home and freshen up.

After taking a quick shower and shaving my legs, I pulled on a white tank top, jean short shorts, a pair of ankle socks, and brown ankle boots. Over top, I threw a blue and green flannel shirt with three-quarters sleeves, which I left hanging open. I also added a silver moon necklace to go with my earrings, and dusted on some blue-green eyeshadow and very light blush with pink lip gloss. Turning around in front of the mirror, I smiled. I looked casually sexy, in an outfit my real mom would probably have a heart attack over. Hopefully, it would be enough to start seducing Mikaela.

Since I was home, I decided to check my Ebay page. Instead of Ladiesman217, I was LadyLover217, which fit very well, though I currently just had eyes for one in particular. Nothing had a bid on it, which I had expected. I did decide to take down the post about the glasses, though. Sure, Barricade and Frenzy probably already had the info and would still find me, but if they didn't have it, it might slow them down a bit.

Mojo had joined me in my room, flopped out on a pile of clothes with his bedazzled collar and little leg in a cast. I rolled my desk chair over to him and scratched his head and chin. "You want your pain pills?" I asked him, and he sat up. I picked up the pill bottle and gave him one. "Who's my little crackhead, huh? You are!" I teased him, giving him another scratch before setting him on the floor. "Just don't pee on the bed, alright?"

He gave me a little bark, then took off down the stairs. I picked up my purse - a nice light brown leather one with adjustable straps to hang over a shoulder or like a backpack - and, after one last check in the mirror, went downstairs, nabbing a couple sodas from the fridge before going outside. At the last second, I remembered about the path and stepped on it instead of the grass.

Ron looked up to me from where he was laying more pavers. "Thank you for remembering the path."

"No problem, Dad," I said, then I looked at Mojo, who was laying in front of his dog house, then at Judy. "Mom, why'd you put jewelry on Mojo again?"

"It's his bling." Judy said.

"He's a boy dog, Mom. He already as self-esteem issues from being a Chihuahua."

"Oh, don't exaggerate." Judy gave my shoulder a light swipe before I walked over to Bumblebee. "I want you home by eleven o clock!"

"Yes, Mom. I'll call if I end up running late," I say, climbing in.

"Eleven o'clock," Ron repeated.

"And please for the love of God, drive safely."

I gave her a smile and a thumbs up before Bee and I pulled out of the driveway. Once a little bit down the road, I asked, "Okay, Bee, you heard me talk about Mikaela with Miles earlier, right?"

-All I wanna do is hold you tight - Take me, make me yours- he played, and I gave a short laugh.

"Yeah, basically. Well, you know you've got to behave around Miles, but if Mikaela shows up, try to be really good, okay? I want to impress her."

The radio clicked on and Wingman came on. -It was my turn tonight and it was your job to make me look good-

I smiled. "Yes, please, but you're my wingman, not me being yours."

We picked up Miles and then made a just-about U-turn from his house into the Tranquil Lake Park, driving down the road to the Tranquil Lake, which sources vary if the town was named for it, or it for the town.

"Dude, you sure we're even invited to this party?" Miles asked me.

"If they didn't want party crashers, they shouldn't have had it on public property," I said. "Besides, half our grade is gonna be here, what's two more people to them?"

"Considering it's the jock half of the grade, probably a lot." But he didn't protest anymore, so maybe the idea grew on him. Or he just knew me well enough that fighting against it more was pointless.

As we pulled up by where Mikaela and Trent were hanging out, I quickly ran a hand through my hair, smoothing it out before I stepped out of the car. "Mikaela's here," I told Miles, grabbing my purse and a soda can. "Don't do anything too out there, please."

Miles rolled his eyes, but agreed. I spotted Mikaela run up to Trent, then she glanced my way and I waved at her. When we got to the tree, Miles started to climb it and I just rolled my eyes at him as Trent and the others came closer.

"Hey," Trent started. "That your car?" He nodded over at Bee.

I smiled and waved my hand back towards him. "Yeah, present for getting three As on the first three projects of the year. Figured I'd take him out for a spin, and it seems the party's here tonight." I gestured at the people hanging around the lake.

"Yeah, the party's here. For the football team, and the basketball team, and the cheerleaders." He gave me a mock questioning look. "Didn't you fail the cheerleader tryouts last year?"

I had a brief flash of memory of falling off a three-person pyramid, kicking a girl in the face and landing on my tailbone on the way down. I couldn't walk straight for a week, and obviously, I didn't make the team.

"Yeah, I did, but I wasn't that into trying to get on the team anyway." I was, actually, since I (my past self? Alternate self?) thought Mikaela might notice me, but no need to admit that. "I mostly wanted the experience so I could use it in a book I've been working on."

"Yeah?" Trent gave a stupid grin. "What's it about? How to fail at dating a football player?" He and a couple of the other guys laughed, but I could see Mikaela rolling her eyes and she gave me a small apologetic smile.

I laughed too. "Haha, no. That one is a three-fold pamphlet, five words: fuck guys, be a lesbian!" I shot a smirk and wink at Mikaela then looked back at Trent. "No, the book's actually a romance. Girl joins the cheerleading squad and falls for the captain, but the quarterback, who's also the captain's ex, tries to split them up cause he's an asshole. Oh, do you mind if the villain's name if Marco DeTrent, or is that too on the nose."

Trent's eyes narrowed and his lips pressed into a line as anger overtook him. "That's funny." He took a step towards me like he was about to beat me up, but Mikaela stepped between us.

"Dude, okay, just stop," she said, pushing Trent back and giving me a small apologetic look. I waved it off, smiling back.

Trent backed off, then turned to the other jocks. "Hey guys, I know of a real party. Let's go, let's head." They started all walking off, and I turned to Miles as he dropped down next to me.

"What was that about, Alison?" he asked me, looking surprised. "I've never seen you go off like that, and against Trent too."

I shrugged. "Honestly, I think I got fed up with just taking it from him. He needs to be reminded not everyone thinks he's hot shit." I handed him his soda and popped open mine to take a drink just as I noticed Mikaela walking away from Trent's car.

Miles looked over as well. "Trouble in lover's land, looks like."

I watched her for a minute. "Is he making her walk home? That sack of shit." I turned and started going back to Bumblebee.

Miles jogged after me. "Whoa, Alison, she's an evil jock concubine. Just leave it, let her hitchhike."

"She lives ten miles away, Miles, and you know the kinda people who would try to pick up a hot chick like her."

"You're acting like this is just cause of that?" Miles grabbed the door as I slid into Bee's driver's seat, the engine turning almost before I even put the key in. "Come on, you aren't gonna just leave me here by myself, are you?"

"I'm sorry, Miles, I gotta do this." I tried to gently pull the door from him, but he held on.

"No, no, I'm calling party foul. Bros before hos!"

"Miles!" I turned to him, a hopefully pleading look on my face. "Please. Let me have this, and if it goes south, I won't try it again, I promise. Please."

He gazed into my face for half a minute, then sighed and stepped away, hands raised in defeat. "Alright, alright, but you owe me, big time."

"Thank you. I promise, I'll make it up to you." With that, Bee and I pulled away, heading down the road to where Mikaela was walking. Bee turned on the radio as I slowed to a cruise by Mikaela.

"Mikaela!" I called out and she turned to look at me. "It's Alison Witwicky. I'm sorry about what happened back there. I hope I didn't get you stranded or anything."

"Oh, no, no, you didn't," she told me, adjusting her purse. "Just Trent being himself."

"I see. Thank you, by the way, for stepping between us. That could have turned ugly. Let me thank you by giving you a ride?"

She stopped and considered it, then stepped over to Bee and we opened the door for her to get in. The first minute or so, we were quiet, until Mikaela said "I can't believe I'm here."

"Here-here, or this-situation-here?" I asked her. "If it's me, it won't hurt my feelings." Liar. Shut up me.

"Oh, no, no," Mikaela turned back to me. "It's, like, definitely this situation. It's just-" she started motioning with her hands "-this same situation I'm always in. 'Cause, I don't know, I guess I just have a weakness for hot guys, for, for tight abs and really big arms."

"I don't know, I never saw the appeal myself," I said. Was that subtle? Oh I hoped so. "I mean, most guys like that I've met didn't have much of brains or personality so…"

Mikaela turned back to me. "So are you… Are you new to school this year? This your first year here?"

Yes, I thought to myself, but outwardly laughed. "No, oh, no. We've - We've actually been in the same school since first grade."

"Really?" Mikaela half-laughed in surprise.

"Yeah, a long time." I had a brief flash of us through the years. Sharing the same first and second grade teachers, then only occasionally having classes together after that, until this year. One memory kinda stuck out to me. "I was the girl who threw an eraser and cussed at Mrs. Morgan's substitute."

I could see the recognition hit her. "Alison!" she said, a hand moving up as she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I just- I didn't recognize you!"

"No, no, it's fine," I said, smiling hopefully reassuringly. "I mean, we've both changed a lot from skinny little eight year olds with pigtails and knobby knees." Like how she became so gorgeous. Calm down, Alison.

Suddenly, Bee stalled his engine. "Ah! No, no, no, Bee, what are you doing!?" I asked, half not expecting him to pull this stunt, since I had thought I was doing better than Sam was. "Sorry, he's a new used car, still working out everything," I told Mikaela as we rolled up to the lookout, Sexual Healing playing on Bee's radio.

"You call your car Bee?" Mikaela asked, already pulling her hair back as we coasted to a stop.

"Yeah, well, stripes and the air freshner, you know," I shrugged. "I'm sorry, I didn't intend for us to get stranded."

"Pop the hood, let me see what I can do," she said, climbing out. Bee did so, and we both went around to see his high powered engine. I don't normally use this for male-coded people, but it was sexy. Though Mikaela holding the hood up was sexier.

"Whoa," she said about the engine. "Nice headers. You've got a high-rise double pump carburetor. That's pretty impressive, Alison."

"Really? What's the double pump do?" I met her eyes as we talked, no need to be creepy about watching her.

"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster."

"That's awesome, I love driving fast." I smiled, then moved to hold up the hood. "Here, let me."

"Thanks," Mikaela smiled back, then turned to the engine again. "And it looks like your distributor cap's a little loose." She reached over and tightened it down.

"Where'd you learn about cars?" I asked, testing the hood to make sure Bee wouldn't drop it on us. "I can detail a car, but I barely know anything about engines."

"Uh, my dad," she said, leaning back to look at me. "He was a real grease monkey. He taught me all about this. I could take it all apart, clean it, put it back together."

"Nice! Must be great to save on a mechanics. Most people never would have guessed."

"Well, you know, I don't really broadcast it. Guys don't like it when you know more about cars than they do. Especially not Trent." Her face twisted a little at his mention. "He hates it."

"Sucks to be him then," I said. "I mean, having your girlfriend know about and being able to fix your car? That's awesome."

"You really think that?" she asked, and I almost thought I saw a hint of a blush but- nah, don't get ahead of yourself.

"Yeah. I frankly prefer women working on my engine." I mentally smacked myself for that comment. Please don't let her have picked it up as easily as she did Sam's.

"Okay," was all she said. "You wanna fire it up for me?"

"Yeah, yeah, no problem." I went around and turned the key. "You know, I was thinking. You know, if Trent's such a jerk, why do you hang out with him?"

I looked up and could hear Mikaela sigh. "You know what? I'm just, uh, I'm gonna walk. Ah..." She came around and got her purse. "Good luck with your car."

"No, no, I didn't mean- Agh!" I went to the hood and slammed it down before hopping back into Bee. He closed his doors and we turned around to catch up to her. "Mikaela, I- I'm sorry." I said, climbing out. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or seem like I'm judging you. It's just, you're amazing. And I just wonder why you'd spend time with a guy who won't let your amazingness shine through."

"You really think that of me?" Mikaela asked.

"Yeah, I do. I mean..." I slightly trailed off, looking down at my shuffling feet. "After middle school, I wanted to become your friend again, like we were as kids, but I didn't know how to approach you. I didn't think you'd like me again, since we'd become so different."

"Oh," Mikaela said. She shifted her bag on her shoulders. "You know, you can still give me that ride, if you want."

I looked up and smiled, gesturing to the passenger door. "After you, Milady."

On the way home, I asked her more about what she knew about cars, and she told me about a couple of different ones she'd worked on at the mechanic near her house as a summer job. When we passed the Dairy Queen, we zipped through the drive-thru for an ice cream, and sat talking while eating them. Because of that, it was nearly ten when I dropped her off.

"There it is," I said as we pulled up to her house.

"This was fun," Mikaela said, turning to me. "Thanks for listening."

In the back of my mind, I noted What I've Done started playing on the radio as I replied. "It's no problem, really. I love to listen, especially when the person talking is happy about the topic."

"You don't think I'm shallow?" she asked. "Cause of Trent, and stuff?"

"No, not at all." That was a very honest truth. "I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with you."

"Okay," she said with a smile. "Alright, I'll see you at school."

"See you in physics," I said, giving her a small wave as she got out of the car. Just as she started walking to the door, she turned around.

"Actually, a few of the girls and I were planning on going to meet up at Burger King tomorrow and hang, maybe hit the mall. You should come along."

"R-really? You're inviting me to girls' day?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Her smiled quirked a bit wider and I was done for.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then. What time?"

"Oh, around one or so."

"One o'clock. I'll be there." I smiled and waved. "See you then, Mikaela."

"See you then." She waved back, and waved once more from the door before heading inside, and I just sat in Bee for a minute grinning like an idiot.

"Yes!" I cheered, smacking my hands lightly on the steering wheel. Bee shot static through his radio at me. "Sorry, it's just- Yes! I'm gonna hang with Mikaela! Step one of seducing her to the lesbian side is started." In my giddiness, I looked up at the sky. "Looks like this is as clear as we're gonna get. You wanna get that signal going?"

- Let's get to it! - Bee played, and I directed him towards the junkyard. I was gonna break curfew, but I'd rather have that than get arrested. Luckily, the place was still as deserted at eleven as it was at three, so we didn't run into anyone as we scouted for a place for Bee to send the signal.

"Bee, drop me here," I said when we reached the approximate area where Sam had spotted Bee in the movie. "You'll probably have a better chance of finding a spot bipedal."

Bee opened his door for me and I hopped out, watching him pull away before slinking down behind some scrap and pulling out my phone. Luckily, the dogs hadn't noticed me yet, so I had time to prepare until Bee got into the spot he was going to signal from. As he stepped into the open moonlight, I had to admit he did cut an impressive figure, especially so for someone who had never seen him before. Once I could see him fully and I felt I looked appropriately disheveled from doing jumping jacks and mussing my hair, I flipped my phone open and started recording.

"Oh my god, oh god, oh god," I started, taking small glances back to where Bee was. "My name is Alison Witwicky. Whoever finds this, my car is alive, okay?" I lifted the phone up and gave them a shaky view of Bumblebee before pulling it back to me. "You see that? If these are to be my last words, I just wanna say, Mom, Dad, you were embarrassing sometimes, but you were the best parents a girl could ask for. Miles, I want to thank you for being my best buddy, and my collection of Busty Beauties is yours. Mikaela, I think I might miss you the most, and what we could have had. And lastly, Mojo, I love you."

I shut off my phone and looked up to see Bee starting to come down from the scrap hill, before I got distracted by the dogs starting to bark. Fuck, not good. I ran like hell away from them, heading for the building with the oil drum and managed to get on top of it with a pipe to smack the dogs away from me.

"Whoa!" I said, sticking my arms out to balance myself. As one dog jumped up, I swung the pipe at him, then had to resteady myself before I could swing again. This only worked three times before the pipe slipped out of my hands, flying across the dome. One dog turned to it, but the other kept barking at me, so it quickly turned back. Luckily, Bee came in at that moment and scared them off, making two circles around the drum before stopping and opening his door for me to get in.

I smiled at him. "Thanks for the save, Bee. Now let's get home before we get into more trouble."

As we left the junkyard, I thought we were in the clear, but a block down the road, a cop pulled us over.

I tried to remain calm as the officer came up. "Hello officer, is there a problem?"

"Miss, you do realize you are out after curfew, don't you?" he asked me. "What are you doing out this late?"

"Would you believe I got lost?" I asked, smiling at him. "I got all turned around after dropping off a friend, and only just now figured out my way home. I assure you, I'm heading home right now."

"Mmhmm," the officer said. "Can you show me your licence and registration?"

Shit. I hadn't had time to get Bee properly registered. Then again, I doubt he was ever registered period. "I don't actually have the registration on me, I'm sorry officer. I do have my id." I reached for my purse and pulled it out to show him. He glanced at it, then at me.

"Alright. I'm going to run this and your plates, but if anything's fishy, I'm gonna have to take you downtown, okay?"

I gulped. "Yes sir." I said, then looked at Bee's radio when the officer went back to his car. "Well, what are we gonna do? I doubt you're in the system, or if you are, it's as a stolen car. What do we do?"

- Don't worry about a thing - Bob Marley played. - Everything's gonna be alright. -

I raised a brow at that, but didn't question him about it. The officer came back and looked at me. "Miss, do you know you're driving a stolen car?"

"I am!?" I tried to appear shocked. "I didn't- I-I had no idea, officer! I bought him at Bobby Bolivia's yesterday!"

"I doubt you have anything to do with it, but I'm going to have to ask you to come with me to the station."

"I- yes, officer." I turned off Bee's engine and stepped out, grabbing my purse. Through the patdown, I was just thinking, can this be better or worse for me?

The officer was just walking me to the backdoor when Bumblebee's engine roared to life and he suddenly took off down the street, turning down an alley and out of sight, leaving nothing up floating paper trash and two stunned humans.

"I did not plan that, officer, I swear."