Out of the Blue: part 1

She practically sprang out of her bed as she shot bolt upright in a shuddering escape from a night mare. She looked around her and once again saw that it was nothing more than a dream. She was safe and in her own apartment, a brand new one to be exact. That once again the thing that had reduced her to a quivering mass had been nothing more than a line of disturbing images that her mind had managed to conger up all on its own.

Frankie swung her feet around out of bed to the floor. She took a few deep breaths to steady her self and then glanced at the clock.

"Perfect, Three AM." She growled and flopped back, "What am I doing up at three AM?"

She flopped back and stared at the ceiling.

"Go to sleep stupid," She told her self, "Tomorrow is the first day of your new teaching job. You need to look like you want to be there, not like a half dead college brat!"

She was right, tomorrow was the first day of her new teaching job. One that she had specifically felt drawn too even though it was completely across the country from her home town. Teach social studies at the research center school out in the high desert of CA. Be around kids and be in a nice change of environment. There had been a lot of protesting from her family. They had hoped she'd take a job at least on their side of the nation. Tough, this was a perfect job and the pay was three times better than anything she had been offered back east. So here she was.

It was supposed to be the start of a new life for the girl. That's Frankie had intended for it to be. Afresh start for her self, wide open spaces, room to make her own choices good or bad. That's what she had planned. So the girl considered it grossly unfair that she was being haunted by one of the oldest nightmares that she had running around in her subconscious.

No, no nice normal stress dreams where she went to work in her underwear for her. She was tormented by those same old images in her mind. A world some where far way, a sky with different stars, and some one with red eyes chasing her and laughing, that was how the dream almost always ended. Some one chasing and her starting awake just before the dark person caught her. To be honest she was glad that she always woke up then because she wasn't sure that she wanted to know what would happen if the dark person ever did catch her. She'd talked to councilors, and shrinks and lots of others. She'd been advised to do every thing from take nerve pills to take up shooting as a hobby. The latter she had done the former she had laughed off. Still despite all of the advice she was still being tormented by this dream. Right then was the worse possible time that she could have been.

Frankie gave the clock one final glare and then rolled over to try and get some more sleep. She tossed and turned for a while and then managed to get back to sleep.

The morning reckoning did eventually come and so she got her self up and got presentable and then took off to go and get the new class room set up. She made it to class on time, the new social studies teacher for the school. She was expecting a class of pretty good kids, what she hadn't been expecting though was that there was only one girl in the class. A few minutes into teaching she found she had all the attention of the boys especially the four on either side of the girl. The two on the right named Bradley "rad", and Carlos, and the two on the left Billy and Fred. All of them stared at her with stars in their eyes and hung on every single word she had to say. It was flattering in a strange way, but she still felt that she was stepping on the girl's, Alexis' toes. So she made a mental note to talk to her once it was over considering this was the last class.

School finally let out and the young teacher spotted the girl standing near an orange scooter, looking miffed as the four guys took off.

"Hey Alexis!" she called to the kid, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Miss Brandenburg?" Alexis looked at her, "I'm sorry I acted so…"

"You don't have to apologize Alexis, to be honest the boys made complete fools of them selves today."

The girl let out one of those long suffering sighs that could only come from the only girl in a group of friends, "You're telling me! I've never seen such babies in all of my life!"

The teacher laughed, "I wanted to apologize for them Alexis, and I wanted to make you an offer."

"What?" The girl chimed in.

"Well you seem pretty good at social studies."

"Yes Mam, I'd actually like to work in the government some day." Alexis smiled.

"Good, well what I wanted to ask you was that I need a class assistant, you seem the best qualified and…"

The teacher suddenly trailed off as she spotted something behind the girl.

"Mam?" Alexis craned her neck to see what her new teacher was gaping at.

"OH look at him! He's absolutely beautiful!" Frankie had suddenly found something that caught her eyes and she headed over to it.

"It" turned out to be a certain bright red tracker trailer parked in the parking lot across from the school waiting for the kids.

"Miss Brandenburg?" Alexis was still baffled.

"Sorry Alexis, its just I love trucks like this. I've always thought they were absolutely wonderful."

Alexis had to do her level best not to snicker as her Social studies teacher mooned over something that she thought was nothing more than an inanimate object.

"So why'd you call it a he?"

The teacher laughed, "Oh I've always called them that, just my own little personal weirdness." Frankie finally dragged her attention away from the vehicle and back to the girl.

"So any how, are you willing to take me up on my offer?"
Alexis nodded at her, "Oh yes mam! I think that would be great!"

"Perfect, I'll show you how I have my classes set up tomorrow after school okay?"

"I'll be there Miss Brandenburg," Alexis waved as the teacher took off. Then the girl headed over to the "Truck".

"Who was that Alexis?" Optimus asked.

"That's the new social studies teacher," The girl grinned, "I think she likes you."

The autobot leader, while still in vehicle mode turned his sensors on the young woman and watched as she got in her car. And he nearly froze.

"Primus…"

"Optimus?" Alexis asked, "Are you okay?"
He mentally shook it off as pure coincidence and then returned his attention to the human girl.

"I'm sorry Alexis. Its just she reminds me of some one I …knew."

"Oh," she blinked, "You mean back on cybertron?"

"Yes," He still seemed distant to her for a moment and then sobered. "Sorry about that. Are you going back to the base with the boys tonight or can I give you a lift?"

"Actually I was supposed to get a lift to the base from some one else but he's not…"

There was a loud whoosh and the back wash from a plane hit her as she stood next to Prime. She looked up to see a red and white plane land near by in a field, not knowing or for that matter caring if any one saw him or not.

Optimus laughed, "You were saying?"

"Shoulda known he'd want to make a big entrance," Alexis shook her head.

"Go on, get over there for he starts yelling," The leader told her, "NO one wants that."

She mock glared at him for a second and then headed over to the field. Optimus on the other hand returned his attention to the young teacher who had just finished packing her belongings into her car. She had just climbed into the driver's seat and was pulling out.

"How could any one resemble…?" The big semi thought to him self.

He watched her pull out of the parking lot for a moment considering weather or not to follow her and see what she was up to. He knew that this young woman was going to be around for a while since she was teaching here now, but some part of him felt almost panicked at the thought of loosing track of her just now. So he waited until she was out of the parking lot and a good half a mile ahead of him until he pulled out.

He got to spend an hour watching her from the windows of the Chinese buffet that she stopped at for dinner, the carefully followed her back home to her apartment building.
Optimus made a point of noting her apartment number and then pulled off. In the apartment, Frankie heard the hiss of semis brakes and got up to her window to see what was out there. She watched the red truck pull of and hope that she hadn't acquired a stalker just because she had commented on his truck.

She had been here for a total of three days and the weirdness that was a part of her life had already appeared. She had been a lil strange most of her life, never really fitting in one way or another. She made a mental note to her self to ignore it and get on with life. She was here to worry about her future not the past. Truth be told she had no idea just how much things of the past would soon be a part of her life.