I intended to make this chapter a bit longer, but I was so excited to get it posted up and I thought it would be funny to leave it where I do. XDD
AllSpark Princess—I've already answered your question, but I'll do it again here in case other people were wondering. Blue is Hunter's toy stuffed wolf that she's had ever since she was a baby. It was a gift from Greasy (since he was her father's spark-father) and that explains why it's a Hybrid toy and can transform sizes like her weapons can.
ImpossibleImpact—Yes! Hunter is back! For a mini-sequel anyway. Thanks for answering my question.
Alice Gone Madd—I do what I can. XDDD Thanks, sis.
WolfAssassin369—I've said it once, I'll say it again: LOVE your icon. XDD Thanks for answering my question, and I hope you enjoy this story as much as you did Hybrid, even though it's quite a bit shorter.
AramielsHollowMoon—Thank you.
ONTO HUNTER'S FIRST DAY OF HYBRID SCHOOL!
I do not own Transformers or anything in relation. I only own Hunter, the Hybrid race, and any other character that you may not recognize.
"Up in the morning and out to school. The teacher is teaching the golden rule… American history and practical math. Studyin' hard and hoping to pass. Working your fingers right down to the bone, and the guy behind you won't leave you alone…" AC/DC; School Days
2
Ω School Days Ω
Optimus rapped his knuckles on Hunter's door for the fourth time that morning. "Hunter," he called, the slightest hint of tried patience in his smooth, deep voice, "you've been locked in your room for more than an hour."
"Don't you know how long it takes for a girl to get ready?" Hunter's annoyed voice snapped back from beyond the door. "Especially when it's the first day of school?"
Optimus rolled his optics and muttered under his breath in Cybertronian. Teenagers. "No," he answered matter-of-factly, "but I do know that it doesn't take you this long to get ready for anything. Now hurry up or we'll be late." With that last reminder, the Prime turned and walked away down the hall. He couldn't help the smirk that claimed his lipplates when he heard Hunter's voice huff through the door, "That's kinda the whole point." Exiting the hallway and entering the main room of the base, Optimus smiled at the sight of his soldiers. The mech proceeded towards them and nodded. "Good morning, my friends," he greeted.
"Morning, Optimus," they all greeted back.
"Are the children off to school safely?"
"Just got done droppin' 'em," Bulkhead answered as he carried out his morning routine of stretching to work the kinks out or his muscle cables.
Their commander nodded and then turned to Bumblebee. "And how is our youngest human friend this morning, Bumblebee?" he asked of Raf. For the last few days, Rafael Esquivel—Bumblebee's human companion—had been under the weather with a case of the stomach flu.
/Fine, boss,\\ 'Bee answered. /He felt good enough that his mom sent him to school today.\\
Optimus nodded and smiled. "Good," he replied.
"Speaking of the kids," Arcee suddenly interjected, a sly smile crossing her faceplate, "what about yours, Optimus? Isn't today Hunter's first day of Hybrid school?"
The blue and red mech sighed heavily and nodded. "Yes," he lamented, "but she'd rather that it wasn't."
"Not looking forward to it then, I take it," Arcee concluded.
"She's been locked in her room for over an hour getting ready," Ratchet, who was across the way, tinkering on something in the lab over a morning cube of energon, responded.
"It never takes Hunt an hour to get ready for anything," Bulkhead pointed out. "She even beats Miko!"
"Exactly," Ratchet dead-panned.
Optimus shook his head, smiling slightly at the old medic. Ratchet. "Hunter is rather unenthused about the prospect of attending Olympus High," the Prime reported with a nod. "She is having fears and doubts about herself, and doesn't truly believe that she is ready for this, but she is. She only needs to see that."
"Dad?" a voice called from across the way.
Optimus and the team looked in the direction of the hallway that led to the sleeping quarters to see a face with long, fiery red hair and deep sapphire blue eyes peeking out around the corner at them. The Prime smiled. "Ah, Hunter," he called. "We were just discussing you." He made a motion with his hand. "Come here, sweet-spark."
Hunter looked down at the floor, face blushing as red as her hair, and seemed to shrink away behind the wall. "I-I think I'll stay here…." Her voice was small and trailed off.
Optimus gave her a stern look. "Huntress Starstreaker James," he pronounced her full name, a warning in his voice, "you come over here, right now."
Sighing heavily, Hunter hung her head. "Okay," she conceded meekly. Slowly and hesitantly she came out from behind the wall and stood in the entry way, eyes still locked on the floor, hair covering her beet red face.
It was all Team Prime could do to try and not laugh as they stared in shock. Not possible! Was that…? Was Hunter actually wearing…?
/Are you wearing… a skirt?\\ 'Bee questioned.
That was enough to make Bulkhead lose his composure and release a snort which in turn caused Arcee to lose control of the laughter she was trying to hold in. Both the green mech and the blue femme started cracking up.
Hunter's faced flushed even redder, if that was possible. In all honesty, the sixteen-year-old was rarely ever very self-conscious about how she looked, but right now, standing in front of her rough and tough team that knew how rough and tough she was in turn in an ugly, golden-yellow plaid skirt, a silver blouse, black knee socks, golden flats, and a black cardigan, she had never felt more self-conscious in all her life. The teen made a nearly imperceptible nod of her head. "Yes," she whispered. All at once she reached up, grabbed the opening at the neck of her blouse, and began to fan herself. Was it her or was it really hot in the room?
"They call it a 'school uniform', Bumblebee," Optimus came to his spark-daughter's aid. "All of the girls at Olympus High wear that, and the boys wear a variation of it as well."
"It is the ugliest school uniform, ever," Hunter muttered, finally coming across the room and timidly hiding behind her father's foot so that the team couldn't see her hideous ensemble. "And I've had to wear several."
"It's—ahem—it's not that b-bad," Arcee tried to reassure the younger female, though it was obvious that she was still laughing.
Hunter looked up and gave her a 'You've-gotta-be-joking' look.
"D'you have to wear that all day?" Bulk inquired still snickering.
The girl nodded. "Eyup. Until gym class, then I have an ugly gym uniform to wear for that."
"Speaking of which," Optimus cut in, looking down at his little girl, "we had better go."
"Aww, Daddy," Hunter whined hugging his leg and nuzzling her face into the warm metal of it, "please, can't I stay home and be home-schooled? Pleeeeeaaaaase?" Craning her neck up to look into her father's warm, blue optics she gave him her best puppy-dog eyes, trying her darndest to butter him up.
Optimus smiled. "Commendable attempt, my shooting star," he replied, not fazed.
"Ugh!" Hunter pressed her face against his ankle again. "I give up. You're impossible."
Optimus simply chuckled and pulled away from her, going in the direction of the ground-bridge controls. Typing in the coordinates and pulling the lever he turned towards the long hallway as the hard-light vortex powered up within it and transformed to his impressive Peterbilt semi form. Opening his passenger door he called out, "Come along, Hunter."
Letting her head fall back in another groan, Hunter hitched her camouflage backpack up a little higher and stomped towards him. "I'm tellin' you this right now," she snarled as she threw her bag inside her father's cab, hoisted herself up, and flopped down in the passenger seat, angrily crossing her arms and legs. "I don't care if I'm wearin' spandex shorts under this thing or not—a boy tries lookin' up my skirt, he's getting thrown through a wall."
Optimus' engine roared to life as he shut the door and began to drive off through the bridge. "Sweet-spark, if a boy tries to look up your skirt I'll kick his aft to Cybertron and back."
"It is just such an honor to meet you!" Principal Nexus Darkholm gushed. "It's not every day a celebrity gets transferred to Olympus High."
Optimus—in his holoform—and Hunter were in the principal's office at the school (not so surprisingly Olympus High was actually inside Mount Olympus) for her first meeting with the principal. So far, Hunter had spent the first five minutes of the meeting shaking hands with and getting gushed over by Darkholm. Primus, this guy was star-struck! "I'm not really a celebrity," she stated, forcing herself to keep up her friendly demeanor even when her arm was getting tired from being shaken and her hand was actually starting to fall asleep from the man's constrictive grip. "I'm just the Fuser." She tried to take her hand back.
The tall, swarthy, golden-eyed Hybrid only seemed to hold onto her hand tighter and kept vigorously shaking it. "Oh, but that's what makes you so extraordinary," Darkholm insisted. "You're the Fuser—Primus' chosen one—the savior for our race and all Cybertronians alike! If that doesn't make you a celebrity, my dear girl, then something is terribly wrong with the world."
Hunter laughed nervously. "Okay," she conceded. "Okay. I'm a celebrity. I'm a celebrity!" She grimaced as she felt her shoulder pop. "Can you let go of my hand now? Please?"
"Oh, of course," the principal replied. He quickly released her hand, but he didn't look the slightest bit ashamed or embarrassed, just simply kept grinning at her with that pearly white smile of his.
"Thanks," Hunter sighed, grateful to finally have her hand back. She began trying to work circulation back into the appendage, trying her hardest not to shake it too much. "Ow!" she mouthed the word.
Optimus smiled down at her and chuckled.
"Please," Darkholm suddenly said, motioning to the two big plush chairs that faced his desk, "won't you sit down?"
"Thank you, Principal Darkholm," Optimus responded, sitting down in one of the chairs while Hunter, who was still massaging her hand, parked herself in the other.
"Call be 'Nexus', Mr…."
"'Optimus' will do," the Prime supplied.
"Optimus," Nexus repeated, still grinning in that friendly way as he sat down on the edge of his desk. "I can't tell you how excited we all were when it was first announced that Hunter would officially be attending school here at Olympus, even if it is only two days out of the week."
"Well, my daughter is very happy to be here," Optimus stated.
That caught Hunter's attention. Turning away from nursing her hand (which the blood was finally starting to flow through again), she gave her spark-father a wide-eyed, amazed look. "I am?" she questioned, cocking an eyebrow.
Optimus gave her a stern look.
"Uh… I mean, I am! Totally!" the redhead repeated with fake-assured enthusiasm, looking at Principal Darkholm. She clenched her fist and pumped it, swiping it across the front of her body as she grinned. "Yahoo! Go Olympus High!" Looking away from the older Hybrid, she bit her lip and scratched the back of her head. Awkward….
"And we are most happy to have her," Nexus replied, still grinning.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door and a second or two later it opened, revealing Greasy, dressed in a suit and tie. His usually scraggly beard was trimmed, combed, and washed so that it almost seemed as if it would give off a cartoonish twinkle, and his gray hair was slicked back. As it turns out Greasy was actually the history teacher here at the high school. "We're ready, Principal Darkholm," he announced. Then he turned to look at Optimus and Hunter and grinned his classic grin. "Hello, Huntress, Prime," he greeted them both with a nod.
Optimus smiled and nodded back. "Greasy," he greeted.
Hunter only continued to stare at her Hybrid mentor in confusion. "Ready?" she asked, turning from Greasy back to Darkholm. "Ready for what?"
"The assembly," Greasy answered.
Hunter's head whipped back around to look at the small, old Hybrid. "Assembly?"
"For your introduction," Greasy explained further.
The sixteen-year-old immediately froze. They were putting on an entire assembly just to introduce her to the school?! Couldn't they just let her do it gradually in her own time? This felt like they were thrusting her onto her new schoolmates and she hated to thrust period! "Say what?!"
"I'll head to the auditorium then," Nexus announced, standing up and striding out of the room.
"Come on, Huntress," Greasy said, motioning her to follow as he left the room.
"I had better be heading back to base, it seems," Optimus sighed, getting up from the chair.
"Good luck with your checkup today," Hunter teased, smirking up at her spark-father's massive holoform. This week was Ratchet's favorite week out of the whole month: checkup week. Everybody got to be poked and prodded and ultimately harassed at by the medic's various needles and tools and, being the leader of the team, Optimus was first on the list of medical tool harassment.
The Prime smiled down at her. "Thank you," he replied. Then he added under his breath, even though he knew Hunter would hear it, "I will need it." His smile became warmer as his daughter giggled at his remark. "Need a lift?" he questioned, offering her his hand. Once she'd grabbed it, he helped her to her feet. "Now remember," he reminded her, "I won't be here to pick you up after school. Contact Ratchet and have him bridge you back to base."
Hunter nodded, straightening her skirt.
"I will see you later then," Optimus sighed, turning to leave.
All of a sudden, Hunter felt a sudden wave of nervousness wash over her again, as strong as it had been last night. At that moment she felt like she felt like a little girl on her first day at preschool, wanting her daddy to stay with her and make sure everything would be okay. She didn't want to be along in a strange place. Before she could stop herself, the redhead reached out and grabbed the Prime's arm, stopping him in his tracks. "Dad?" she gulped, unable to hide the anxiousness on her face. She could never hide her emotions around Optimus.
Turning back to face her, seeing and sensing her worry, the Prime smiled lovingly and reassuringly. He reached out through their spark-link to comfort her. Pulling his arm from her grip, Optimus put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her closer looking deep into her sapphire eyes, making the girl feel like he was looking straight into her spark, like he always did. "You're going to be fine, Hunter," he assured her, love in his voice.
"Am I?" Hunter asked, voice meek and quivering.
Her father nodded. "You are. I promise. Do you hear me? I promise."
Hunter got the subliminal message: if Optimus promised something it was going to be true. He didn't make false promises. Releasing a shaky sigh, the teen nodded, though she didn't feel much better about the entire situation.
"That's my girl," Optimus praised her. "Come here." The mech wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a deep, warm hug. "I love you, my shooting star."
Arms around her spark-father, head resting on his chest, his steady spark-beat humming strongly in her ear, Hunter closed her eyes and sighed, trying to let her anxiousness slip away. "I love you too, Daddy."
"I hate this," Hunter muttered to herself, face buried in her hand. As she sat in a seat behind the curtain in the auditorium, waiting for Principal Darkholm to get through his speech, that seemed to be taking forever to get over with, and introduce her to the student body. "I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. Why does everything with me have to be turned into a public spectacle? Ugh!"
"… Hunter James."
Hearing her name, Hunter instinctively stood and walked out onto stage towards principal Darkholm, plastering yet another fake smile onto her face. Reaching him she shook his hand and then advanced towards the podium where she was to give a short speech. And it would be a small speech. Very small. All she was going to say was, "Hi, everyone, I'm Hunter," and that was going to be it. She didn't care if anybody liked it or not, she was wanted this over with! Reaching the podium, the redhead cleared her throat and opened her mouth to begin. "Hi, everyone," she announced in as friendly a way as possible, "I'm…" a sudden scream suddenly cut her off. Startled, the teenager slightly jumped, eyes immediately scanning the surrounding area for signs of trouble, just like she'd been trained to do, but there wasn't trouble. At least, not the danger kind of trouble.
The owner of the scream was a girl light brown hair cut into a bob, glasses, and hazel eyes in the very back row of the auditorium. She almost looked to be spazzing as she screamed and jumped up and down, a grin so wide it almost seemed to be a grimace screwing up her otherwise pretty face. "OMP!" she shrieked, still happy-dancing. "It's Hunter James! The Fuser!"
At that announcement, an excited scream rose up from the rest of the student body at an utterly deafening volume. In the blink of an eye a tidal wave of teenager's was swarming the stage, screaming incoherently, though it seemed as though they were asking for autographs, but Hunter couldn't be sure.
Eyes widening to the size of dinner plates, Hunter stood frozen in terror as she watched the oncoming mob rushing her way. "Scrap…."
Okay, you're gonna have to use a little imagination for this one. Pretend that Hybrid Theory is a movie and all of the characters are the cast. Everyone is still who they are (i.e. Hunter is still the Fuser and all that). Ask the any of the cast members a question or several. You can ask anything you want (smutty questions are off limits) of anybody: Hunter, Jack, Starscream, even Bombardier (I dare somebody to ask Bomber a question). You can even direct a question at two characters. For example, if you want to ask something of Hunter and Starscream, you can (Alice, I DARE YOU to do this. XDDD). So ask away! The cast is ready!
Ratchet: We are?
Me: Of course you are!