"You know, this is pretty boring." Smokescreen said flatly as he and Jack were taking a tour around the town. "I want excitement, I want-"

"To get in trouble like we did before?" Jack cut in.

Smokescreen quieted for a moment before he snapped right back with, "You know you want to do something better. I think we'd be having more fun playing those video games."

Jack frowned as this wasn't how he wanted this to go. He didn't want to be boring. "Well, what do you want to do then?" he asked warily.

"I take it that racing and pranking are out of the question?" Smokescreen asked and Jack nodded. The mech let out huffing sound. "Well, then let me come on your date."

Jack balked at the out of nowhere declaration. "Why would you want to?"

"Would anyone else want to?" Smokescreen retorted.

Jack leaned back in his seat and thought it over; he didn't want to bother anyone else and his mother had to work late so he couldn't use her car. "Just answer me this then; why?"

"Why not?" Smokescreen retorted. "Seeing human mating rituals up close would be far more interesting than this."

Jack thought of bursting the mech's bubble that nothing past just watching a movie and some idle chit-chat was going to happen, but decided against it. "Am I really that boring?"

"You're not boring, you can be very fun when you're bad." Smokescreen said slyly and Jack flushed. "It's just that this is boring. More of that not being able to do things for myself."

"If you did things yourself then we'd have more giant robot sightings than we already do." Jack said dryly and Smokescreen snorted.

The mech didn't reply as he kept on driving down the road and Jack looked out the window and he got out of the car once the mech had stopped in front of his house. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Jack smiled and nodded. "Yeah, later." He said and walked into the garage to speak with Arcee before going into the house. "See," he said and glanced out to see Smokescreen leave, "all in one piece."

"And no news of you or Smokescreen making a scene?" Arcee questioned.

Jack shook his head. "No, but Smokescreen's taking me out again tomorrow night for my date."

Arcee seemed to be a bit stunned. "You and Smokescreen?" she asked in disbelief.

Jack flushed and shook his head rapidly. "Sierra and I, Smokescreen's just taking us to the drive-in." he said and shrugged. "He thought our tour was boring and offered to take us out; said he wanted to see what human mating rituals were like."

Arcee chuckled. "He does know it doesn't work like he thinks, right?"

Jack shrugged once more. "I don't know whether he realizes it or not, but he's probably going to be disappointed anyway." He said shaking his head and kept walking on into the house and saw his mother putting their tofu dinner on the table. Jack grimaced as he saw it but decided to keep it to himself. "Mom, um, I'm going on a date tomorrow night; are you cool with me staying out late?"

His mother peered up at him in surprise. "You're going on a date? With who?"

Jack flushed. "With Sierra, she asked me out after I got off work and…" he trailed off as he didn't know whether his mother would approve of Smokescreen taking him and Sierra out.

"Just don't have too much fun." June teased and Jack's face turned an even deeper red.

"Mom!"

"Dude, are you really taking Sierra out on a date?" Miko asked in school the next day at lunch.

Jack nearly choked on his sandwich at the out of the blue question. "We're did you hear that?"

"Are you kidding? Sierra was telling her friend about it in our last class and I overheard them." Miko replied and snorted. "And are you really going to take her to a drive-in?"

Jack felt a defensive reflex flare up. "And what's wrong with that? She's okay with it."

"Is Arcee okay with it too?" Miko asked slyly.

Jack sighed as he knew this wasn't going to stay a secret once he and Smokescreen left the base together later on. "Arcee's getting the night off, Smokescreen is taking us, and before you say anything, he volunteered."

Miko's eyes widened comically. "You're seriously fine with letting him be around you after what happened?"

Jack twitched. "That was still my fault too, I did pull a Miko after all." He huffed and Miko pouted at him. "I want us to move past that, so we're comfortable with each other."

"You two seem to be getting real comfortable together." Miko said knowingly.

Jack furrowed his brow but brushed it off as Miko being herself. "Well that's how friends are, Miko."

Miko squinted at him before her expression turned to one of disbelief and shook her head. "You think I don't know that? What I'm talking about is-"

"Darby!" Jack jumped in his seat and twisted around to see Vince stalking over to him.

The dark-haired boy sighed deeply and wondered whether the redhead was going to bag on him about his date or if this was about that prank. "What is it, Vince?"

The other boy scowled down at him. "You got some nerve."

Jack furrowed his brow. "This is school, I have to come here."

Vince's scowl deepened as he reached down and pulled Jack to his feet by his collar. "You messed up my ride, and I expect you to pay for it."

"You mean you haven't cleaned it up yourself?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Not that pay." Vince retorted before he shoved Jack down onto the table and grabbed Jack's sandwich before he smeared it across his shirt and the mustard stained it. The redhead smirked at him. "There, now you look much better." He chuckled darkly before he stepped back and walked away.

Miko sniffed. "What a jerk." She said and looked at Jack's shirt. "You gonna head home?"

Jack shook his head and got up from the table and grimaced at the stain. It wouldn't be too hard to clean off, but it was definitely going to be embarrassing to walk around like this. "Just gonna clean up." He muttered and made his way out of the cafeteria and to the boy's washroom. He grabbed a bunch of paper towels and put it under the running water and used it to wipe the mustard off and when he was done he examined his shirt in the mirror. There was just a big stain on it, but it looked like he got all the mustard, plus it wasn't like the water wouldn't just dry up.

Jack tossed the paper towels and made his way back to the cafeteria to eat the rest of his lunch.

Jack straightened out his shirt as much as he could as the water had crinkled it and checked his pockets to make sure he had enough money as he glanced at Sierra's house. His mother had offered to chip in but he reasoned that they wouldn't be eating much probably.

Though that still didn't keep him from making sure of course.

Ah, there was one more check he had to make sure of though.

"Remember Smokescreen, no talking-"

"Or I'll freak out the human, I get it." Smokescreen sounded annoyed. "I've been told that so many times I could repeat it by spark."

Jack felt some of the tension in him lessen and he smiled. "Have I told you how much I appreciate this?"

There was a pause before Smokescreen spoke. "You haven't." he said dryly.

Jack blushed and tentatively patted the dashboard. "Well, I was thinking it." He chuckled nervously.

If Jack could see it, he was sure that Smokescreen would be rolling his optics. "Sure you were."

Jack got out of the 'car' and made his way to front door. He knocked and soon it was opened by Sierra, who smiled at him, though it faltered as she noticed the wrinkles in Jack's shirt but didn't comment on it. "Are you ready to go?" he asked.

Sierra nodded and looked back into the house. "I'm leaving!" she called and quickly pulled Jack toward the car and closed the car behind her.

"Overprotective dad?" Jack questioned and Sierra's smiled turned bashful.

She looked confused as she saw the car. "Your friend's letting you use his car?"

Jack gazed knowingly down at Smokescreen before he nodded. "Yeah, he's a good friend, though we have to be careful not to get any food on the floor."

"Ah, he's one of those people." Sierra said nodding and got into the passenger's seat while Jack took the driver's side.

"You could say that." He replied and pretended to drive the 'car' to the drive-in movie theatre.

"Are you okay?" Sierra asked and Jack glanced at her. "I heard Vince beat you up at lunch."

"What?" Jack asked before he suddenly felt the car jerk around the lane in surprise. He made a show of tightening his hold on the steering wheel. "No, he didn't beat me up. The worst he did was push me onto the lunch table and smeared my sandwich on my shirt. There's no reason to worry." He said that last part quietly. "He said he just wanted me to pay for my prank."

"Still, it was pretty cool." Sierra conceded and Jack smiled slightly at her.

He didn't know how Smokescreen would react to Vince's retaliation. He admitted that the mech was a bit overconfident to think he couldn't get caught if he did anything, but he didn't want him to get in trouble because of him. Again.

The rest of the drive to the movie lot was in silence and when they arrived he offered to go get their food, but Sierra said she needed to use the facilities and said she would get the food herself. Jack handed the money over to her and when she was gone, Jack looked down at the steering wheel. "What happened back there? You could have crashed into another car."

"You never mentioned anything about getting hurt." Smokescreen said quietly.

Jack furrowed his brow at the tone and wondered why he was talking like that. "It wasn't important, I didn't get beat up and it wasn't like I couldn't was the mustard off my shirt."

"That Vince was a jerk!" Smokescreen said angrily and Jack looked around to make sure no one could hear that. "He had no right to hurt you."

"Whatever you're thinking, it's not worth it." Jack replied.

The response he got was downright ominous. "You don't know what I'm thinking."

Jack tried to get Smokescreen to explain, but the mech remained silent and he had to stop asking when Sierra came back and his mind was in turmoil as he tried to think of what Smokescreen was planning. Hopefully he was just being paranoid and the mech was going to do anything.

Or at least that was what he was telling himself anyway.