1) Yup. Officially just gonna keep doing in out of order. These monsters are taking lives of their own

2) This will probably be the last one tonight. I gotta write on Saving Graces tonight after I pick up my mom from work. A bientot!

3) Don't forget to vote on my poll!

5. Memory

1,728 words

"Okay, umm… if you were in an impossible battle, say there were three battalions of Decepticons headed your way, what would you do then?"

"I would call upon the Wreckers and send for a few gesalts."

"Okay… what if Megatron came up and threatened to kill Prowl?"

"I doubt we would have that problem. Prowl is remarkably difficult to kill."

I snorted in amusement, not looking up from my doodle as I listened in to Dylan and Optimus' Q&A session. I was currently drawing an army of stick figures taking on stick-figure dinosaurs as I waited for my physics teacher to show up. He'd take roll, then I would go back to drawing and ignore his lecture. I knew from experience that listening in was unnecessary. Mr. Charlton was a really nice guy, but he was kind of a pushover. I knew from the last exam that the whole test would be made up of word problems and formulas, and I knew he would write the formulas up on the board and identify each one before the test to make sure we knew which one was which. Texas required us to take physics, and we did. Didn't mean we learned physics.

"Wha'chu laughin' about, Liz?" Dylan questioned. At the moment, he was sitting sideways in the desk to my right, and both of us were seated in the second row. I preferred the second row because it communicated to fellow students that I was not a suck-up and told the teachers that I was likewise not a trouble-maker. Besides, football players were required to sit in the front rows. The coach got tired of getting complaints that his players were sleeping in class. Dylan lucked out. There were seven football players in the class, and only six front row seats. The second I had sat down in my seat, Dylan had sauntered up, slid into the desk beside me, and lifted Optimus onto his own desk where he started playing "What if this happened?"

"I'm laughing at my humorous Personal," I responded, glancing up when one of my acquaintances – not close enough to be a friend, but someone I could easily carry a conversation on with – walked past.

"Hey, is that one of those new robots?" A tenor male voice asked. I glanced over just in time to see Brendan sit down in front of me. Brendan – not to be mixed up with red-headed quarterback Brandon – was the varsity wide receiver. He was a short Asian who hid his smarts with humor and was one of the more popular kids in the school, but not for the reasons that you would think. Brendan was remarkably good at making fun of you while making you think that he's laughing with you. It was something that he was rather infamous for. I didn't particularly like him, but I didn't exactly dislike him, either. I could have intelligent conversations with him over documentaries on Netflix, yet I despised seeing him pick on some of the other kids. We just kind of coexisted. He understood that I would be his "friend" as long as he didn't make fun of me, and as long as he kept that mouth shut against me, I had no problems humoring or ignoring him.

Such was this case.

Brendan was sitting sideways in the desk, facing the right in a position that must have been uncomfortable because his legs would be squished by the bar that connected the desk to the seat. He didn't seem to notice though as he stared curiously at my Optimus Prime.

"Yep. Optimus, this is Brendan. Brendan, this is Optimus Prime, my Personal," I introduced. Brendan grinned.

"Cool, man! Is he really as smart as the commercials say he is?" the Asian asked eagerly. I snorted a little.

"Optimus, what's nine hundred and sixty-four times seven hundred and ninety-nine?" Optimus' optics dimmed as he ran the calculation and a second later, they brightened again as he announced, "Seven hundred and seventy thousand, Two hundred and thirty-six."

"Whoa. Does he do all your homework now?" Brendan asked with a sly grin. Optimus Prime vented loudly at that question.

"I would never assist Tex in cheating, nor would I condone such actions," he stated, optics narrowed as he began to figure out just what this boy was about. It proved another one of the traits I assumed Optimus had: he was a good judge of character.

"He sounds boring," Brendan decided. "A real stiff."

"He's better'n you," Dylan chipped in. "This guy right here? He's got 'is own army."

"Hey, that's one of those new personal robots!" a cheerleader named Mallory squealed, and just like that, a crowd grew around us. Not many people asked questions as most people knew about Personals and how they acted and learned. Most people just asked me things that confirmed what they knew: did Optimus act like the fictional character, did he really completely shut down at night, was he overprotective, was he expensive… Things like that. Someone asked the Personal himself a question about the Autobots, and they were treated with a full dialogue about the Autobot war against the evil Decepticons. Then they started asking questions about Cybertron…

"Is your planet really dead?" someone called out. I'm sure it was meant as a joke, asked the non-sentient robot about its fictional home and see what it says. However, Optimus wasn't non-sentient… and his planet had died. Depending on which season he was programmed for, he may still think Elita-One is dead. I understood that my classmates didn't understand this – how would they know? – but the look that washed across Optimus Prime's face made my heart break.

"Okay, guys, that's enough!" I called out, reaching over to lift Optimus out of the spotlight. I lifted him gently under his arms and sat him in my lap, cuddling him close with my left arm while I leaned forward to continue my stick-art doodle, effectively hiding my mech between my body and my desk. The crowd gave groans and words of disappointment, but I ignored them as I continued with my drawing. I was saved in the end by Mr. Charlton walking in and ordering the class to be seated. After he said my name and I responded with a loud "present," I pointedly reached into my bag and pulled out my cellphone, making a show of hiding it in my left fist before raising my hand.

"Mr. Charlton, can I go to the nurse to get a cough drop?" I asked, my eyes wide with innocence. Mr. Charlton gave me a flat look, and I responded with an innocent "cough, cough." This gained an eye roll from him, but he nodded. It was common practice for seniors to ask to go to the bathroom or to see the nurse so that they could skip on class. Most teachers didn't allow the kids to go – they knew the students were just skipping. Who takes fifteen minutes to get a cough drop? – but quite a few, like Mr. Charlton, simply didn't care. I was a favorite student anyways. If there was one thing that me and my brother had in common, it was that we made good grades and stayed out of trouble. I'm fairly certain I took advantage of my good teacher/student relationships far more often than Billy did, but that's all water under the bridge. Teacher's pets for the win!

I rose to my feet and sashayed toward the door, Optimus still curled into my chest. I ignored the questioning look I got from my teacher as I strode out the door and started down the hall as the door shut behind me.

"Are you okay?" I asked the little Transformer. Optimus uncurled so that he was seated in the crook of my elbow, my right arm on his left shoulder, holding him in place. He didn't look at me, only stared ahead as we exited the science section and moved across the gymnasium that connected the science, math, and history section of the school with the rest of it. The nurse's office was actually detached from the main building, located in the building that housed the chapel and the cafeteria.

"I hadn't thought of home… My planet does not exist here. My friends, my Autobots, Elita-One… they do not exist. It… It hadn't occurred to me…" Optimus whispered. I felt my heart break for him. I hadn't thought of it either, hadn't even considered that the creators would have to program memories of Cybertron into him. What he didn't remember, he could simply look up online.

"I'm sorry." It was all I could think to say. Useless, empty words that helped no one, fixed nothing. He sighed as I stepped out of the gym building and into the heat.

"When we left Cybertron… I intended to return. There were no doubts in my processor that no matter how long it took… I would return home. I would go back to Elita, and we would make a family together. The war would be over… We could be happy… I remember the cycle before we left… Elita came to my office and begged me to spend my final moments with her… But I couldn't. I had to ready the ship. Prowl already had enough on his plate, so I hugged her, kissed her, and sent her away with the promise to return. And I never did. Frag," Optimus cursed, and I looked down and frowned at how dim his optics were, how his face scrunched up in internal strife. It wasn't fair; he didn't deserve this. "I apologize-"

"Don't. Something like this shouldn't be bottled up. You said that you have a duty to protect me? I have a duty to you, as well, and I'm going to try and keep you happy until Persobots Inc. comes up with an Elita-One design," I promised. I wasn't really good with the whole "cheering people up" thing, but I could try. Optimus seemed to smile at me.

"And I will strive to keep you happy as well. We shall make new memories together. We shall learn together how to be happy." I smiled down at him, taking joy in determined expression. Mission accomplished. Good work, Private Tex.

"Now, perhaps you can explain to me why you are skipping class to get a cough drop when you are very obviously not unwell."

Nexia Jazilynn Prime: I got very lucky with Dylan showing up. He enrolled just about the time my best friend Megan stabbed me in the back. It was a very hard couple of weeks, but then Dylan showed up and turned my world around. Now he's dating some glitch that doesn't like me because she thinks I'm trying to steal her man because, ya know, girls can't be friends with guys without wanting to date them or have special benefits.

I got nothing against the Acorna series, to be honest. I didn't even mind that she liked to talk about them. What ticked me off and kind of put me off was that she'd get so mad whenever I turned her down whenever she tried to loan me one of the books. I had no free time in between writing, school, and cheerleading. *shrug* It was her personal problem.

Chistarpax: I couldn't do that. My OCD requires I pay attention to what I'm listening to. Recently, my iPad has been mixing up the cover art with wrong songs (Because Selena Gomez does not sing French), and it's driving me insane. And don't get too used to these updates. It's just because I'm off today and felt like slacking. I should have spent at least an hour on my French lesson. Tomorrow, I'll have work so I probably won't update, and if I do, it'll be late.

Autobot Phoenix: :D Glad I could change your mind ;)

Something I hadn't even thought about when i created this: what happened to Cybertron? Obviously, Optimus has memories of it, but on that same note, he knows it doesn't exist, knows that he was created in a factory. Interesting turn of thoughts, no? A weaker mech would lose his mind. I didn't fit as much