The next week was uneventful, so Starscream spent most of his time in his room.
Where he hides the dark energon shards he secretly collected.
He only got out to get his share of energon or when there's a mission to get more energon.
He doesn't really want anything to do with the autobots or their brats.
He could tell from looking into their optics that even though they were grateful for helping them, they don't trust him.
That's fine, he doesn't trust them too.
He especially didn't want anything to do with their precious prime and his friendly façade.
He was only here cause he had no other choice!
It was either join them or get captured by the decepticons again.
With Megatron gone because of him, the faction probably wants revenge.
But the seeker can't die and if the decepticons find out, they will torture him in every possible way.
Torture him in ways that not even MECH could.
So for now, the autobots are the best option.
Their base is small, but it's safe, quiet and almost peaceful.
Suddenly, a boom could be heard from the main room.
…So much for peace.
Starscream rushed to the source of the sound, only to see… Raf and Bumblebee working on a tiny smoking thing?
He looked around and saw Miko and Bulkhead making a bunch of colorful spheres attacked to strings and then saw Jack and Arcee looking at a chart full of dots.
"Wha-What is this?"
"The children are working on their science projects." Optimus said, walking beside the seeker. "Raf is making a homemade volcano, Miko is creating a replica of their solar system and Jack is working on stars and what their constellations mean."
Starscream looked back at Raf's fake and now melted volcano.
"But… weren't these things already discovered and researched on your planet?" he questioned.
Raf wiped his glasses to get the fog off of them. "Umm, yeah. Why?"
Starscream felt like he was back at the academy, where he and Skyfire forced to repeat the experiments already made by others, instead of doing something new. "So what's the point of doing these projects, if it's stuff that's already been done?!"
Jack looked up from his chart. "So we don't get an F."
Starscream's optic twitched. "This is oppression!"
"Preach it, brother!" Miko cheered, punching a fist in the air.
The seeker continued. "These aren't real science projects!"
"Finally, something we can agree on." Ratchet said as he kept typing on his computer.
"Science is about discovering new things and using these new things to make the world a better place!"
Jack nodded in agreement, drawing lines on the map. "Yeah, too bad so many things on Earth have already been discovered… finding anything new would be almost impossible and us humans are not as advanced as you guys are either."
Starscream paused and sighed, then walked to the smaller energon cubes and grabbed one. "Yes, you are correct… I'll be back in my room. You children may continue with this… not science."
As Starscream left for his room, Ratchet got an idea.
It's true that most things have been discovered on Earth, but what if some experiments from another planet were introduced to this world's version of science?
1010101010
The medic replaced the children's projects with his own.
Starscream was impressed and believes that if Raf, Miko and Jack gave their teachers these projects, they would be awarded the highest honors.
But then the seeker saw the uncertain and somewhat sad looks on their faces…
…
Even though their work was primitive, it was still their work and they put a lot of effort into it.
If someone messed with Starscream's work, he would be upset as well.
Besides, cybertronian technology was too advanced for humans anyway.
When he found and gave the children their original projects, he ignored the warmth his spark felt seeing them smile.
And he made sure to tell them all to lie to Ratchet about which projects they used.
He doesn't want the medic to dislike him more then he already does.
1010101010
Later that day, Ratchet eagerly asked the kids, "Well, how were my- ah, I mean our projects received?"
The 3 humans hesitated. Starscream told them to lie to Ratchet, but should they?
Ratchet smiled a bit bigger. "Well?"
"We all got great grades!" Jack answered with a forced grin. And that wasn't a lie, Jack got an A-, Raf got a A+ and Miko got a B+.
Ratchet laughed. "Wonderful! I knew it they would work!"
Starscream watched this happen from the hall and sighed in relief.
Now, hopefully Ratchet won't found out that the projects he made were hidden somewhere in the seeker's room.