The Adorable Adventures of Prowl and Sari
Chapter Three: Schooling
"Bored. Bored bored bored. Prowl, I'm BORED." Sari was sprawled on the floor in my room, eyes closed and kicking her legs up while her arms flailed about in the air. It wasn't a temper tantrum, it was merely her being, well, bored.
"If you need something to do, perhaps you should do some homework." I suggest, earning a small gasp from the little girl on the floor.
"Homework? Homework is evil, Prowl! Didn't you know that? It sucks out your brain and makes you into a zombie." I chuckle, because it's so obviously something a human child would say. Then it suddenly hits me that in the few weeks Sari has been living with us, she hasn't received any education, and I am suddenly alarmed.
"Sari, I'll be right back. I have to ask Optimus something."
"Okay!" She continues to lay on the floor, oblivious to what I'm about to go do.
I leave my room and walk towards Prime's and knock on the door.
"Come in," he calls. I enter his room, a well-lit space filled with books and data pads. Optimus himself is sitting at his desk watching yet another history vid about the Great War.
"Prowl. What can I do for you? Sit down."
"Thank you. Optimus, it's about Sari. I just realized a moment ago that she hasn't been keeping up with her education. None of us know what to teach her. I'm thinking it may be time to send her to a school."
Optimus is quiet, listening to the suggestion and mulling it over in his head. At length, he sits up in his chair and answers,
"That's a fantastic idea. Sari does spend all her time doing nothing. How do we go about this education process?"
"I can call one of the local public schools and see if they'll take her. We'll tell her tomorrow. She isn't going to be happy about it, though."
"Regardless," said Optimus, "it'll be safer for her. We do patrol in the morning and afternoon every day. She'll be in school during this time, which means she'll be watched over there. She'll have the opportunity to make new friends too. She needs that kind of interaction."
"Sounds good," I say, "I'm going to go do some research on the local schools here. Perhaps Captain Fanzone can assist me in the matter." I get up and leave to make the call, hoping to Primus that Fanzone will help us in this little but important matter.
"Yo. Fanzone here. How can I help you?"
"Good afternoon, Captain." A slight pause on his end of the line. Then,
"Oh, fer cryin' out loud. Listen, you're a great guy an' all, but—"
"What can you tell me about the elementary education facilities around Detroit? How would I go about contacting one and enrolling Sari into their program?" I decide to get right to the point, since the Captain seems upset about my calling him. He pauses again, then sighs,
"Well, uh, I know there's a fantastic school on Meadow street. East Detroit Elementary school. Intelligent teachers, nice building, playground, decent lesson plans and units. Kids there are nice, too. I've done my share of police lectures over there about drugs an' crime. It's a clean, safe place. I guess I would recommend that one. Their number is—"
I save the number he gives me into my memory, then thank him for his help.
"Don't worry about it," he replies, "You're takin' a real interest in the Sumdac kid, and that's what's important. She needs a family right now. Let me give you one warning, though: kids can be cute, but the minute you make them do somethin' they don't wanna do, it blows up in yer face. She's gonna throw a fit the moment you mention the word 'school'."
"Oh, yes. I've seen these 'fits' before. I refuse her candy."
"Brave man. Yeah. Just stay calm, and do an observation at the school. Maybe tour it with her, meet some teachers and students. She probably won't warm up to it, but don't let her control you, even if she screams bloody murder."
"…What?" Does he mean Sari could scream herself to death? Fanzone laughs and answers,
"It means she'll just scream until she can't scream anymore. Don't let her control you, and help with her homework, but never do it for her."
"Of course."
"All right. You good?"
"I'm good."
"Good. Call me if you need any more help with the kid, okay Prowl?"
"Yes. Thank you, Captain." We cut our connections, and I dial in the number of the facility he has given me. I hear a ring for thirty seconds before a tired, annoyed-sounding older woman answers,
"You've reached East Detroit Elementary School. My name is Mildred, how can I help you." I'm hesitant at first, merely because the woman's bored voice intimidates me. Then I clear my vocals and answer,
"Hi, yes. I'm calling to make an appointment to—"
"What kind of appointment." The rude woman hadn't even allowed me to state my reason. I try again this time being a bit more forceful.
"I want to do an observation at your school for my, um….little girl. She's eight."
"Second grade. All right, let me see what I can do…." She puts me on hold for ten minutes, then comes back on.
"Okay, I talked to Mrs. Holland. She's one the second grade teachers here, and she says she can fit you and your daughter in on Friday at 10 in the morning. Sound good?" Today is Thursday, so I decide to take the appointment.
"Uh…yes. Wonderful. One quick question: how big are your classrooms and hallways?"
"…."
That night is nerve-wracking for me, as the humans say. I helped Sari make something for dinner before we sat down to watch a movie with Bulkhead and Bumblebee. She began to nod off, and I can't decide if it would be better to tell her tomorrow rather than tonight. We run the risk of her running away, or throwing a fit, and we all need recharge tonight. The news will have to wait.
Sari falls asleep halfway through the movie, so I carefully carry her to her room, tuck her in and close the door quietly before making my way over to Optimus' room once more to inform him about the appointment.
"So," he says as I enter once again, "what happened?"
"Well," I start as I sit down, "We have an appointment for Friday at 10 in the morning. I have yet to inform Sari. I'll tell her tomorrow. Also, Captain Fanzone was very helpful." Optimus leans back in his chair and mulls over the information.
"Sounds good. Is it going to be just you and Sari?"
"Yes. I doubt they can fit anyone else in their school. There will be small children everywhere."
"And they know you're one of the Autobots?"
"Yes. The woman I spoke to nearly had a spark-attack when I told her, but I managed to calm her down." Optimus nods, then says,
"Good work, Prowl. You're taking wonderful care of Sari, you know. And she really enjoys being around you." I shake my head and respond,
"I don't think so. I've made her angry on a few occasions. Remember the candy incident?"
"Sari was acting like any other eight year old would. I read it on a website. They're supposed to get angry when they don't get their way, Prowl. It's normal. And she hasn't run away yet. She spends as much time as she can with you, sometimes more than with Bumblebee. You haven't noticed?"
"No." Optimus' surprised face tells me that I should reconsider my own feelings about the matter, because apparently I've been doing a good job.
"Prowl, you're doing fine. Sari looks to you as her…well, a father figure, I suppose. We'll tell her the news tomorrow, and we'll do all we can to make her understand why she needs to go to school." I nod and get up to leave without saying anything, because I don't know what to say. I can hear Optimus getting to his feet behind me, and before I know it, his hand is on my shoulder and says,
"You're doing well, Prowl. Don't start doubting yourself now."
"Thank you. Thank you, Optimus. I won't."
"See that you don't." He lets me leave, and I head back to my own room to ponder the joys of breaking the news to Sari.
The next morning, the base is filled with the sounds of Sari and Bumblebee laughing over some cartoon in the main room. Optimus and I walk in together, and I say,
"Sari, could you come with us to your room for a few minutes? We need to talk with you." Sari turns to face us and her face falls.
"Why?" she asks defensively, "What'd I do?"
"Nothing. I just need to tell you something. Come on. Bumblebee, you stay here."
"What? No way. You can say what you need to say in front of both us."
"No, we can't," steps in Optimus, "this is just between us and Sari. For now, at least. Sari, come on." The little girl groans in annoyance, then walks sluggishly over to us and leads us to her room. Once inside Optimus closes the door, and I ask Sari to sit down.
"What's going on? Did I do something bad?"
"Sari," I begin, "I need to remain calm. No screaming, no running, nothing. All right?"
"Whatever. Now tell me!"
"Sari, it's time you went back to school."
Silence. Her annoyed face scrunches into a shocked one. She shakes her head and says in disbelief,
"No…no! I don't wanna go to school!" She jumps on her bed so she can hit my leg as high as possible, and I simply pick her up by her shirt, hold her up to eye-level and say,
"Sari, don't start with me. You and I are going to visit a school tomorrow morning. You need to start going back to school."
"But...but why? What did I do? Are you guys trying to get rid of me!?"
"Of course not, Sari. We all love you very much. We want you to be happy, and to be safe. I've given you this speech several times now. We're always out, and I hate leaving you home alone. You're extremely capable of taking care of yourself, you've proven yourself many times. But we can't teach you the necessary things you need to know in life, especially since we aren't human, and we aren't always around. That's why it's time to send you to school. And you'll meet new people, make new friends!"
"Yeah, but then I'll have to do homework."
"I will help you with that, don't worry. Will you at least give school a try?" Sari crosses her arms, then says,
"Fine. But I won't like it."
"I know," I answer with a small smile before getting serious, "Promise me you won't run away?"
"I promise I won't run away." She smiles back, surprisingly, as I lower her back onto her bed.
"That's a good girl. Now you can go back to your cartoons. Just don't tell Bumblebee yet, all right?"
"Why?"
"Because he's extremely immature and will be very upset. This can be our little secret, okay?" She giggles and nods before she runs off. Optimus and I are left standing in her room, both surprised. He looks at me, I look at him, and we both say,
"Too easy."
"Do you think she's already planning something to get us to change our minds?" Optimus asks, his paranoia kicking in already. I shake my head and answer,
"Perhaps she…likes the idea of making new friends? Human friends? There are many things she cannot talk to us about, and perhaps having some human female friends is promising."
"What wouldn't she be able to talk about with us?" I look up at him with a serious face and answer,
"Go to afraidtoask dot com. You will see."
The next morning, Sari and I prepare for our visit to the school. I help Sari brush her hair and make sure she has something to eat while I prepare a quick lunch for her. She's a little nervous, and still a little upset that I was making her do this, but at least she wasn't yelling at me or hitting my leg.
Outside, as I toss her helmet to her, she asks me to change my holoform to something that looked more like her. So I play around with scans of people I had recorded from my time at the park, and eventually create a middle-aged human male with Sari's dark skin. She loves it and claps her hands in delight. Then, climbing onto my vehicle mode, we finally go on our way.
On the drive, I ask Sari if she is feeling all right. She squeezes my handlebars and answers,
"Not really. I really don't wanna do this, Prowl. Why can't I be home-schooled?"
"Because we can't afford it. Sari, you'll meet new people here, friends you can talk to! I will even allow you to have two play dates a month and one sleepover a month. I promise. But you need to be open about attending school and doing your homework."
"…Sleepovers? Really?" I can hear the rising excitement in her voice, "That sounds like fun! I haven't had a sleepover since that time the base came to life!"
"I remember." I shudder at the memory…she could have been killed that night.
"I remember 'cause you were havin' a really bad day." She giggles. "Why do you like to hide from us and be alone all the time?"
"Some people simply enjoy their privacy. I like to listen to silence and the sounds of the natural world. The wind, chirping birds, the rustling of leaves, all of it…I find it relaxing."
"Yeah, but isn't it boring?"
"Not really, no. I suppose it depends on the person and their personal preferences. Not everyone is going to like the same things as others. For instance, you and Bumblebee enjoy loud music. I do not. However that does not mean it's bad, it simply means that…well, to each their own."
"What does that mean?" Sari asks while yawning.
"It means that even though I dislike your music, I understand that there is nothing I can do to change that, and that you should be allowed to like what you want, and let others like what they want to like."
"Oh. Okay. Uh oh…is that the school?" I focus my optics and see that yes, the school is coming up on us, and fast. I slow down and we roll into the schoolyard quietly. Apparently children 'go insane' when they see a motorcycle. Sari climbs off and allows me to transform. I would go in using my holoform if I could control it to do other things, but for now, all it does is stand in whatever position to I program it into. So I'm forced to enter the school in my robot mode. Sari jumps up and grabs one of my fingers, grasping it tightly in what I interpret as anxiety.
A human comes running out of the building, having no doubt seen my transformation. He holds up both hands and says in a loud, slow voice,
"GOOD! MORN! ING! ARE! YOU! HERE! FOR THE! OB! SER! VATION?"
"Why are you talkin' like that?" Sari asks, cocking her head to the side in puzzlement. I chuckle, not offended at all and answer,
"Good morning. Yes, we're here for the observation. My name is Prowl, and this is Sari. She's a tad nervous." The man nods and puts his hands down. He's shaking just a bit, so I move very slowly as he beckons us inside the building. Surprisingly, the school has very wide-open hallways and lobby. Several more humans run out to see us, and each gapes at me as though I were a giant ro—oh, right.
"Good morning," says one slightly chubby woman, holding out a chubby little hand. I reach down and offer her one of my fingers for her to shake, "my name is Mrs. St. John. I'll be taking you over to Ms. Holland's room for the observation, and then I'll be giving you a tour of the school." She looks down at Sari and says, "Hi there, young lady! What's your name?"
"I'm Sari."
"Oh, dear. For what?"
"No, I mean my name is Sari. S-A-R-I."
"Oh," says Mrs. St. John with a smile, "isn't that nice? And how old are you, Sari?" Sari looks up at me and says,
"I thought you told them this stuff, Prowl." I chuckle and reply,
"Sari, don't worry. I think they just want to connect with you is all. Go on, tell her your age." Sari looks back at the chubby woman, somewhat suspiciously, then answers,
"I'm eight. Are there a lot of eight year olds here?" Mrs. St. John and I both laugh before the woman answers,
"Of course. In fact, we're going to go meet some of them right now. Come along, both of you; let's go visit Ms. Holland, all right?' Sari looks up at me nervously and gestures for me to lean in closer. She whispers into my audio,
"What if they don't like me?"
"Who?"
"The other kids. What if they make fun of me?" I smile and answer,
"Don't worry, Sari. They won't make fun of you." Mrs. St. John is watching us intently, probably shocked by the interaction between the two of us. Sari is really the only human any of us have such a tight relationship with. She tightens her grip around my finger and says,
"Don't leave me, okay Prowl? Don't walk away from me."
"I won't Sari. I promise. Now, let's get moving—I think Mrs. St. John wants to show us your new classroom." Sari nods and we start to the follow the woman, who is wearing a ridiculous smile now. I can sense her nervousness, but I'm not bothered by it. Part of me is feeling extra protective, and for the first time, I want the humans to fear me. I want them to believe I'll rip their hearts out if anything happens to Sari, even though I would never do such a thing.
We walk down a short hallway for about forty seconds before Mrs. St. John stops in front of a closed door. The door is covered with fake cardboard leaves with names on them, written in large black letters. There are fourteen leaves in all, including one leaf that has 'Ms. Holland' written neatly on it.
"Welcome to Ms. Holland's second grade classroom, Sari," says Mrs. St. John, "why don't we go inside and say hello?" Sari looks back up at me, and I nod. She looks back at the chubby woman and nods as well. Mrs. St. John opens the door, and our audios are assaulted by the noise fo thirteen eight year old children, yelling, laughing, screaming and jumping around. The older person in the room, who I'm assuming is Ms. Holland, walks over and says loudly over the noise,
"Good morning! I'm Ms. Holland. I'm sorry about the kids, they saw you transform outside and went nuts. They're really excited! Is this Sari Sumdac?" She turns around and yells,
"I'm going to count to three, and if I see even one person out of the seat and not reading, the entire class is staying in fro recess!" As soon as she started counting, the room fell silent and children scrambled for their seats, although I doubted they were reading. Their eyes were darting over towards us every few seconds. Ms. Holland continues.
"Welcome. Now that it's a little quieter, I can tell you a bit about this room. We do lots of fun activities, like reading and writing, and we also do one school play at the end of the year. We have two recess periods, and we work on all sorts of fun projects! Sari, would you like to meet our class?" Sari once again looks up at me and I answer,
"That's a wonderful idea. Go on, Sari. Go say hello." I left my hand in an attempt to get Sari to let go, but it only lifts her up a foot high. Some of the students giggle and some gasp in amazement.
"Sari, let go, please. Go ahead, they won't hurt you." Sari at first refuses and tightens her grip, and I can see just how scared she really is. But then a student in the room calls out,
"I like your hair! It's pretty." Sari peers into the room and sees another dark-skinned little girl smiling wide at her and waving. Sari waves back shyly, then slowly releases my finger and drops to the ground, landing on her feet. Then she slowly walks into the room and stands in front of the students. She is instantly thrown question after question:
"How do you know the Autobots?"
"Why are you with one?"
"Do you speak another language?"
"Are you from another country?"
"Do you like to play with dolls and dress-up?"
"What's your name again?"
Sari answers each question with sudden confidence and a smile, and even I learn a few new things about her. Apparently her father was from a country called India, and they occasionally spoke Indian to each other, but mostly English. Sari makes friends easily, and she already seems to like the students in this classroom. Ms. Holland walks back into her room and talks a bit about Sari, and how she might be joining their class very soon. Eventually, she asks Sari if she would like to stay and sit in on the class, which Sari says she would like to do, and I watch the class resume itself outside in the hall.
So far, so good. Sari seems happy enough, and the students in the room like her so far. I observe the interaction of student-student relationships, as well as teacher-student relationships. Students love Ms. Holland, and Ms. Holland loves her students in a platonic manner. I'm not worried. Everyone seems to very happy in this room. Even Sari looks on at the other dark-skinned girl's homework and doesn't seem that frightened by it. She shoots me a thumbs-up, which I've come to understand is a positive gesture. I smile to acknowledge it, and Sari returns to her new friend.
Eventually, a bell rings, and the entire school seems to go wild. I can hear children yelling in all the other rooms, and Mrs. St. John explains that this bell at this time signifies the start of the lunch and recess period. Sari runs over to me and asks if she can go with her new friends to lunch.
"Of course you can. Here's your lunch. Go make some new friends." Sari hugs my leg and grabs her new friend's hand,
"This is Avani. She's Indian too! Avari, this is Prowl! He's one of my Autobot dads! And I have an Autobot grandpa and two big brothers!"
Autobot dad? She sees us as her fathers? My spark tightens in its casing as I smile and say,
"Hello. It's very nice to meet you, Avari." The little girl smiles, and she has a gap in between her front teeth.
"I lost a tooth!" she yells happily, "and now the tooth fairy is gonna come visit me!"
"Tooth fairy? Is someone going to break into your house?" I hear Ms. Holland and Mrs. St. John laugh behind me.
"Don't worry, Mr. Autobot, we'll explain outside. Avari, why don't you take care of Sari and have lunch with her? Introduce her to some new people."
"Okay!" the happy little girl exclaimed and she pulled Sari away along with the other children following. I watch her go and feel a twinge of pride at how adaptable Sari really is. I turn my attention back to the human adults and ask,
"What is a tooth fairy?"
"So Sari, how did you like school?" Sari is sitting on the couch with Bumblebee but talking to Optimus. She smiles and answers,
"It's not as bad as I thought. I thought it was gonna be boring like Tutor-bot's lessons, but it's really fun! I made a bunch of friends too! Even the grown-ups were nice." She jumps to her feet, leaps over Bumblebee and tackles me, and I pretend to fall over from her strength.
"Thank you for bringing me there, Prowl," she says sweetly, "I guess it won't be such a bad thing that I go to school. I've never gone to school with other kids before." She plops down into my lap and leans against my chest as though dozing off.
"I agree," I reply, "the teachers there were very nice. They were just as excited as you were, Sari. After you went to lunch with everyone I stayed and talked with them and asked them questions. We can send you there everyday starting Monday."
"Okay. Oh, my gosh! We need to buy school stuff! I need a notebook and pencils and markers and erasers and a calculator and a ruler and a binder and—"
"Whoa, whoa, easy there, Sari, we'll do that tomorrow. I'm just happy you're so excited by this. I was afraid you were going to be very defiant."
"What's 'defiant' mean?"
"It means I was afraid you were going to fight me on the matter." I look over at the clock and realize it's getting late now. We didn't arrive home right away, Sari asked to stay after for a few hours to play on the playground with Avari, and then she was hungry again. I let her stop for pizza (but only because it was Friday).
"All right, Sari. It's time for bed. Go get ready and I'll read you a bedtime story."
"Aw, man…."
"I'll let you choose which story you want."
"Okay!" Sari kisses the surprisingly quiet Bumblebee goodnight, then ran off to get herself ready for bed. Optimus walks over to me and sits down.
"Nice work, Prowl. I can't believe this worked so well. The school was in good condition? Was it a safe place?"
"Very. Sari will be happy there. And I doubt anyone would want to mess with her, considering her family are the Autobots. Do you know what she called me today?" Optimus leaned forward with a worried look on his face.
"What? Did she use a bad word?"
"She called me one of her 'Autobot dads'. 'Dad' means father, or creator. She's adopted us as her family unit, Optimus! She loves us like a family! She said she had an Autobot grandfather, most likely Ratchet, and two Autobot brothers, probably Bulkhead and Bumblebee. She sees you and me as her fathers! I've never been happy in my function!"
Optimus' jaw is figuratively on the floor, but he looks just as happy as me. Sari sees us as her family, and none of us could be happier.
"Why can't she be homeschooled?" Bumblebee's annoyed voice cuts through the light mood in the room, and we're back in reality. I look over at the young 'bot and answer,
"Because we can't always be there for her. She likes the school, and she needs to be around other human children. We can't always be there to hold her hand."
"Yeah, but—"
"No 'buts', Bumblebee," steps in Optimus, "This discussion is over. NOW." Bumblebee slumps angrily, but he doesn't press the subject anymore. I get up from my seat and walk towards the little bathroom to check on Sari and make sure she's brushing her teeth.
Sari is already done with her bathroom ritual and is wearing her little night shirt when I enter her room. She has a book in her hands and a big smile on her face. I sit down beside her, take the book and start reading. When I'm done, Sari jumps up, throws her little arms around my neck and kisses my cheek.
"Thank you, Prowl. I love you."
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