Author's Notes: Set during the episode "Crack" after Starscream received a gift from the kids but before he leaves back to Megatron (which sucked). I'm not sure if Crack would have been in a one-day period but in this story takes place in more than one day. I believe Sureshock is Alexis Mini-Con and Carlos has Grindor

Just a little note: any - - it's Mini-cons speaking.

Birthday Surprise

It had been a few days since Alexis stayed at the Autobot base. The Autobots weren't surprised that Alexis didn't visited them. She had warned them a head of time that she probably would have been grounded for disappearing and sure enough she was. But to her surprise, her parents were no longer arguing. They had agreed that she would decide if she wanted to stay or go.

It was now her 14th birthday and she was hoping to have fun. She was going to go up to the Autobot base after school and spend the afternoon there. But her hopes went up in flames when she got to school.

It all started when Rad and Carlos had both called in sick. She knew they were up to something. To top if off, before the school bell rang, some her classmates started picking on her. Ever since Alexis started to hang out with Rad and Carlos, she stopped hanging with her other friends and they didn't like that. At least she had Billy and Fred to hang with. But it wasn't the same. Especially since she knew they were holding something from her. She couldn't wait for the day to end.

When it finally did, she started to walk away from the school meeting up with Billy and Fred. She knew they were heading to the Autobot base. They walked in silence until they got across the street, where they met up with Sureshock.

"Am I glad to see you," Alexis said to Sureshock. Since things were getting a little critical at the base, they had requested that the kids Mini-cons stay at the base until after school. Of course the Mini-cons were always at the kids homes waiting for them in the morning to take them to the park across from the school but when they reached the park, they'd leave for the base.

-I'm surprised that you are- Sureshock said back. To Billy and Fred they could not understand Sureshock. All they could here was a bunch of beeps. Of course Alexis understood the Mini-con, all the mini-cons for that matter.

"Come on let's get out of here before...Grindor? Highwire?" Alexis had heard other beeping noises ahead of her and saw Rad and Carlos's Mini-cons coming. "What are you doing here?"

-Optimus Prime said for us to meet up with so we could take Billy and Fred- Grindor said.

"What did he say?" Fred asked, eating a bag of chips.

"Optimus sent them to pick you guys up," Alexis said.

Both Highwire and Grindor transformed and allowed the boys to get on. Sureshock also transformed and Alexis got on. On the way to the base Alexis was feeling a little blue again, it didn't go unnoticed by Sureshock.

-Is something the matter Alexis?- Sureshock beeped.

"Not really, just that today is my 14th birthday," she said.

-Oh. Happy Birthday- Sureshock said. She gave a faint smile to let Sureshock know that it was appreciated. Though it wasn't the same from hearing it from a human friend, but it did make her feel a little better. -What is a birthday?-

"It is a celebration of the day you were born. Every year when a birthday comes, the person celebrating the birthday is one year older."

The rest of the trip to the base was quiet and when they got the entrance of the base, Alexis noticed something was up even with the Autobots. Normally there was someone waiting for them to arrive but not this time. All three Mini-cons transformed back to bot mode when the kids got off them. Suddenly the Mini-cons took off, surprising the kids.

"Sureshock! Grindor! Highwire!" Alexis called out but they were gone. She turned to look at Fred and Billy.

"I wonder where they were heading?" Billy asked.

"Where else, the command center," Alexis said. "Come on." Alexis turned and started running down the hall to the control room, with Billy and Fred on her heals. When they got to the control room door, they stopped and slowly walked in. As they entered, Alexis noticed it was real dark which wasn't normal.

"What is going on?" she asked to no one. She turned to find Fred and Billy were now gone.

Suddenly the lights went on and she turned back around just in time hear and see everyone say "SURPRISE!!"

Alexis gasped in shock. The control room had balloons and ribbons decorated all over the place. Even some of the Autobots were wearing some of the decorations. The Autobots had planned a birthday party for her. Even Rad and Carlos were there. There was even a cake with Alexis's name on it on a table that the kids used when they were there.

When she got over the shock, Alexis started to laugh; now she knew what was going on. Rad and Carlos called in sick to help decorate the room.

"Sorry for deceiving you Alexis," Optimus apologized. "Rad figured it was a good idea to throw a party for you."

"It was my idea for it to be a surprise," Hotshot said. He was one of the Autobots wearing balloons and streamers. Sideswipe and Red Alert were also decorated.

"Hey Alexis," Rad said coming to her. "Hope today wasn't too bad for you.

"It was the worse," she said smiling. "Terry and Lana wouldn't stop bugging me and NO one even bothered to wish me 'happy birthday' except for Sureshock on our way up here." Alexis turned to Billy and Fred.

"Sorry. We just didn't want to ruin the surprise," Billy came up in defense.

"Hey Alexis," Carlos said. "Remember when I borrowed a few of your cd's?"

"Yes. Why?" she asked.

"Well with the help from Blurr, I brought my portable cd player and your cd's so we can make it an official party."

"You what?!" Alexis said in surprise. Just then the music started.

Everyone turned to see that Grindor had turned on the music and started dancing. Sureshock and Highwire even joined in. Soon other Mini-cons started to dance. Everyone laughed at their display of dance moves.

"We even have gifts for you," Fred pointed out. Over on another table, which must have been transported by one of the Autobots, was full of gifts. Alexis didn't think there would be that many since the only ones who could give her gifts were the kids.

Red Alert bent down to Alexis. "I bet you want to open them, now don't you?"

"You bet I do," Alexis said then laughed. "Rad must have told you I like to open gifts first before the party starts.

"That he did," Smokescreen said.

Alexis walked over to the table and started to open the gifts. She first started with Rad's gift, a cd. From Carlos was also a cd and Billy and Fred chipped in and gave her a digital camera.

There were still more gifts after them and Alexis didn't know what to do until Jolt came up. "This is from me and Jolt," Hotshot said.

Alexis examined the parcel to find it was done up in brown paper with coloring on it. She opened it up and found it was a human sized hand made metal picture frame.

"Though I had help from Fred and Starscream," Hotshot said, placing his hand behind his head.

She then proceeded to open the others, which were also wrapped in brown paper. After she had all the gifts unwrapped she looked over at what she had received from the Autobots with their Mini-cons.

There was a book shelf from Red Alert and Longarm, she was getting too many books stacked in one corner of the lounge; a telescope from Optimus and Sparkplug, another picture frame from Smokescreen and Liftor; a quilt from Scavenger and Rollbar with the help of the boys, so she could curl up in when she was there; a small pool like tub, or that is what it looked like from Alexis's point of view, from Blurr and Incinerator so she could relax her muscles; a pair of candle holders made of metal from Jetfire and Commetor. Finally from Sideswipe a huge birthday card with all the other Mini-cons even the Star Saber, Sky Boom Shield Mini-cons and all the Autobots names on it. Rad and the kids had a card too from them and their Mini-cons with the Autobots Mini-Cons as well.

"Thank you everyone. The gifts are beautiful," Alexis said. She noticed that there was none from Starscream but she disregarded it.

"Now for cake," Fred said. Blurr chuckled at Fred. "Hey what can I say I love cake."

"You love anything that has sugar in it. But I don't want the cake cut yet," Rad said. "I would like to take a picture of all of us using the digital camera. Red Alert can you help by hooking this up to the main screen?"

"Sure," Red Alert said.

While they were doing that, Alexis walked over to Starscream. "May I ask what you did on the gift Hotshot gave me?"

"I know you humans like designs on things," Starscream said. "Back on Cybertron I worked with architecture. I actually helped everyone's gift with designs."

"Well it's nice," she said. "Thank you."

When the camera was hooked up to the main screen, Rad then had Optimus Prime, Jetfire and Blurr stand against the wall with Red Alert, Starscream and Scavenger in front of them, kneeling and finally Hotshot, Sideswipe and Smokescreen sit on the floor. Red Alert had programmed a command into the computer to take the picture when everyone was in place. Another picture was taken of the kids and Mini-Cons.

When the pictures were taken, Red Alert then had them printed out from a printer that the kids had brought to the base. Alexis used the two picture frames from her gifts to place the pictures in.

Finally it was time to cut the cake, which made Fred overjoyed to the point that Sureshock went and grabbed a bucket of water and dunked it on his head. The water wasn't cold but just from the shock of it, made everyone laugh at Fred's reaction. Later on during the party, Alexis noticed Starscream slipped out.

Nightfall came all too soon and it was almost time for the kids to head for home. Before Alexis left, she decided to see if she could find Starscream and sure enough she found him outside looking out over the cliff. For several minutes she watched him.

Starscream had felt he was starting to intrude on Alexis's party and decided that it was time to get some air. He wasn't use to being around human customs much less the humans. As he went out he began to think about Alexis and her breakdown. He couldn't understand why he felt sympathy for her.

Wait! What was he thinking? He had his own problems to deal with. He didn't have time to listen to the problems of someone else so the question remained why? Why did he stay by her side when she was upset? Why did he even care?

One thing was clear he was drawn to her and he didn't know why. Every time he saw her face or heard her name, his spark would light up. It seemed that when she was around, his problems seemed to fade away.

For a couple hours he kept pondering about Alexis. Before he knew it dark was approaching. He lost all track of time. Suddenly a movement behind him caught his attention. He turned quickly expecting to see a Decepticon and to his surprise it was the girl who was invading his thoughts.

"Shouldn't you be at your party?" he asked calming down.

"The party is winding down and the others are getting ready to leave. I thought of coming out. I had seen you leave a little bit ago."

"I wanted some air."

"I figured that is what you wanted. It must be hard to socialize with us humans when you're so use to being around Transformers. Scavenger told me Megatron always yelled at you for the failures."

Starscream turned away from Alexis. "Why do you know so much about me? When I don't know a thing about you."

"Like I already said. I can get people's moods easily."

"I know," he snapped. "Why are you like this? Why do you talk to me?" He was becoming angry.

Alexis took a step back. She was a little surprised that he would get angry with her.

He turned back to her and saw a little bit of fear. Suddenly all anger was gone. "I don't understand," he whispered. He sat down on a huge boulder. "Why are you be so nice to me, when all I'm use to is anger." He bent his head and allowed his hands to support his head.

Alexis slowly walked up to the confused Transformer and placed a hand on his leg. The small touch made him look at her. "You deserve a second chance. I honestly don't know why I keep coming to you. But I do you know how you feel. You think no one cares about you because you are different. You think because you have no friends that you should stay alone. I'm an only child and it's hard to be alone. Before I met Rad, I would always do anything to get attention, even get into trouble."

"You actually did things to get someone to notice you?"

"And I always had to pay the price. When I started school all that changed. I started to have friends and even became popular. Now I don't care if I have any friends at school because I have the Autobots as my friends. And you are my friend."

"I'm your friend?" he questioned. "Why do you want to be my friend?"

"Well for starters you listened to me when I needed someone to talk to. You never did pressure me to talk about my parents. By the way my father decided that it would be better for me to stay."

"Thank you." He straightened up. "You better get home before your mother worries again."

"Yeah you're right." She turned from his foot and began to walk away.

"Alexandra," Starscream called. She turned at her name and looked at him as he smiled at her. "Happy Birthday."

Her smiled brightened and she continued back to the base so she could get home at a decent hour.

When Alexis got home, she showed her gifts that she received from her human friends and she got her gift from her mother. When it was time for Alexis to head to bed, she recapped her party at the base. It was a day that she wasn't going to forget and neither were the Autobots. It was a special day for everyone. She even thought about Starscream and how confused he was. Like Starscream she also had a million questions going through her head. Why did she keep going to Starscream? She was drawn to him for some reason and it sort of scared her.