By Fang Wolfsbane

Three months had flown by since the arrival of the Cybertronian robots known as Autobots.

She had barely felt it. One day she was just a normal girl working towards her next pay check, the next she couldn't wait to clock out and run for one of six vehicles waiting for her. Usually it was one of two cars, a white with orange accents or yellow one with a black pinstripe across the hood and roof.

Currently Tyla stood at the drive-thru ordering window, resting her cheek on her hand as she went over the usual routine of 'welcome to Burger Bot, may I take your order?' Of course she may, why else would people bother driving through a place meant to give them what they ordered off the menu?

Because of multiple incidents of the order-window bot getting orders wrong on a regular basis, the owner of the place had resorted to only relying on his fellow human beings to get the job done right. As annoying as the customers could be, she knew she should be grateful. One less employed robot meant one more employed human. She just wished the pay – and customers – were better.

With her eyes shut, Tyla dreamed of the next few minutes just passing by where she could take her apron and just toss it aside without a care in the world for the next remaining nine hours. As if to ruin her daydream, the tell-tale sound hum of an engine sounded on the other side of her lids.

She sighed to herself. Time to get back to work.

"Welcome to Burger Bot, may I take your order?"

"Yeah. I'd like your butt out of that booth and in here with me already," a young male voice said, nearly causing Tyla's eyebrow to twitch. It wasn't unusual for her or any of the staff – mostly the females – to be harassed by customers who thought that it was perfectly okay for them to just treat them like they weren't worth the time it took telling them what they wanted.

Just as Tyla opened her eyes, the car's window rolled down to reveal Sari's grinning face. Tyla's jaw nearly dropped at the sight.

"It can't be, can it?" Tyla asked, looking to the clock on the wall that showed it was exactly one minute past three. Her shift was finally over. Grinning to herself, Tyla couldn't get her apron off fast enough.

Grabbing her punch card, Tyla jammed it into the clocker before she put her foot on the window's counter and nearly jumped through the two open windows to her freedom with a two-fingered salute to the forehead to her gawking co-workers.

Oh how she loved those expressions. She wanted nothing more than to tell all of them that she, Tyla, a girl no one expected anything of except doing her job, was hanging out with giant alien robots on a daily basis. Save for the days she had double shifts, which usually led to her heading straight home and crashing on her bed for the night. Today wasn't going to be one of those days. Not by a long shot.

"Thanks for the pickup Bee," Tyla said the moment his seatbelt wrapped around her, securing her behind the steering wheel. Being an automated vehicle from another planet meant that Bumblebee didn't need anyone to physically move him around, but she found that she rather enjoyed sitting in that specific seat. It calmed her.

"No problem," the radio beeped with a bright blue light across the panel, "so where are we heading today?"

"Hm, dunno. Sari?"

"The base. I got this wicked new flight drone that I've been waiting all day to try out."

"Well, you heard the girl, Bee. Off to the base we go!"

T he yellow Autobot didn't need any more encouragement than that as he put himself in gear and drove out of the waiting line, letting the car behind him pull up for the next sucker in line to listen to what they wanted. Tapping her fingers against the wheel, Tyla closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Yup, it was official. Any place was better than spending another minute locked up in that small cage behind her.

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