Independence Day

Bumblebee was enjoying the beautiful day. Sam and Mikaela were at school and the Autobot was waiting for them patiently. He was in the student parking lot, basking in the sunshine. Bumblebee was in vehicle mode but this did not stop him from enjoying the warmth that this solar system's sun provided. He fought hard to remain aware of his surroundings. Past experience had proven that Decepticons were likely to come bursting out of nowhere, but the warmth was affecting his systems.

A loud noise echoed forth from the school. If Bumblebee had in robot form he would have jumped. He realized that he had allowed his spark to wander and cursed his foolishness. He heard voices in the school growing steadily louder, voices that were screaming. Bumblebee felt his spark stop. A Decepticon must have come while he was dreaming. A Decepticon was attacking the school. He had failed to protect his human charges. What would Optimus say?

The doors of the school burst open, spilling hundreds of students onto the school grounds. They scattered in many different directions. They ran waving their arms over their heads, cheering, screaming excitingly, and hugging each other. Bumblebee struggled to make sense of what was unfolding in front of him. Perhaps all of these young humans had gone mad?

Bumblebee soon saw Sam and Mikaela running towards him. Sam was yelling incoherently while Mikaela laughed. Bumblebee's confusion only grew.

"We're free! Free! No more slavery! No more torturous nights! We're free!" Sam was yelling. Bumblebee now remembered. This was the last day of school for Sam and Mikaela. Sam had been talking about it for days.

"Sam," Bumblebee had asked, "Don't you like school? I always liked learning from the old Cybertron databases and from the Elders."

"You went to school on Cybertron? And you liked it?" Sam asked, looking slightly horrified. Bumblebee had then learned that valuable lesson that not all humans enjoyed school.

Sam and Mikaela were now in front of him. Bumblebee chirped in greeting. Several students walking by frowned at the car.

"Pretty cool security system, don't you think?" Mikaela asked them. They shrugged and continued on their way. "I thought you knew you had to be careful," Mikaela told Bumblebee. "Be a 'normal' car. And what are you doing?" she asked Sam, who was dancing.

"No more school! No more school!" Sam chanted.

"School's out forever!" blasted from Bumblebee's radio.

Mikaela rolled her eyes. "So much for normal. If you two are done, let's go. You're making a scene." Sam looked around and saw that about a dozen students had gathered around them. Sam gave them his most charming smile before hopping into Bumblebee.

As they pulled out of the school parking lot Sam muttered, "That was close. Did you see how they were staring at us like we were crazy?"

"Staring at you like you were crazy," Mikaela corrected. "They are probably wondering if this car is alive. Which is not a good thing," she added, tapping the car dashboard.

"Sorry," Bumblebee and Sam said at the same time.

Mikaela sighed and shook her head. "Boys," she muttered.

***

A couple of weeks later Bumblebee went with Sam and his parents to the mountains. Sam's father knew a man who owned a house in the heart of the mountains. He was letting the Witwickys borrow it for the Fourth of July weekend.

Bumblebee could have easily looked up on the worldwide web what was so special about the Fourth of July for Americans, but he was still trying to connect with Ron and Judy Witwicky so he asked them instead.

Bumblebee at once regretted asking. Ron's eyes had gotten huge and Bumblebee feared that he had asked an offensive question.

"My good robot! Let me explain!" Ron then went into an hour long talk about the American Revolutionary War and all the events that led up to it. "See, we celebrate our independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day. Get it?" Yes, Bumblebee now got it.

On the day that they were leaving Sam was gathering his things in the Witwicky garage. He was going to be riding with Bumblebee while his parents were taking another car. Ron and Judy thought it was too "weird" to ride in an alien robot. Ron had approached Sam and Bumblebee with a guilty look on his face.

"Bumblebee, I need a favor from you," Ron said quietly.

"What is it Mr. Witwicky?" Bumblebee asked politely.

"Not so loud! I don't want Judy to hear… I mean, we don't want to disrupt her packing. I need you to take my… my "payload". I can't take it in the other car."

"That's fine," Bumblebee said softly. Ron grinned and hurried off to gather his "payload".

"Oh man. I know exactly what this is about. Mom is going to be pissed," Sam groaned. Bumblebee looked at Sam in alarm. Before he could ask what Sam meant Ron had returned. In his arms he carried several bulky shopping bags. Bumblebee eyed them wearily.

Ron saw Bumblebee's expression and opened the bags to show the Autobot what was inside. There were many different shaped boxes, cylinders, and rockets, all in a wide variety of colors. Bumblebee's sensors picked up high amounts of explosives. There was enough there to blow up a small Decepticon.

"Fireworks!" Ron said his eyes wide with excitement. "All the best of the best! This is how we celebrate Independence Day! Judy doesn't like how much I spend on them, but she does like the light show. We can't let her see them until we get to the mountains. Can I trust you to hide them?" Bumblebee had looked at Sam who just shrugged. Sighing, Bumblebee nodded. A couple of hours later they were on the road with Ron's "payload" in tow.

They arrived at the mountain house after nearly five hours of driving. It truly was in the heart of the mountains. The nearest human settlement was more than five miles away. For the first time in a long time Bumblebee could truly wander around without worrying about being seen by any humans.

Ron and Sam had removed the "payload" from Bumblebee. Judy was not happy to see it. "Men," she had muttered. Ron just smiled guiltily.

"Hey, 'Bee I have a surprise for you," Sam said. "You can come out now!" he yelled.

Out of the woods emerged Optimus Prime, Ironhide, and Ratchet. Happiness welled up inside of Bumblebee's spark. He couldn't speak.

"Bumblebee," Ironhide growled, "I am glad to see that you haven't been worn out by these humans."

"Hey!" Ron and Judy said indignantly.

"It was hard keeping this a secret," Sam said. "I thought it would be a nice surprise." Bumblebee nodded in agreement.

Later Ron showed off his "cooking" skills to the Autobots, all of whom were impressed. Ron had found an old stone quarry where they would set off the fireworks. They all waited for the sun to set. Sam sat with the Autobots but none of them talked but it was not an uncomfortable silence. Merely sitting in each other's presence was more than enough.

"It's time!" Ron called out happily. They all gathered around him watching as he eagerly pulled out the fireworks. "Time to start celebrating!"

"I must admit, I do not understand," Ratchet suddenly said.

"That's a first," Ironhide muttered.

Ratchet glared at him before continuing. "You light these explosives to celebrate your independence."

"Yes," Ron said carefully.

"You celebrate the independence of your country by blowing up a small piece of it?" Ron opened his mouth to respond only to close it. "See? It does not make sense."

"Who doesn't like explosions?" Ironhide interjected, coming to the human's rescue. The cannons on his arms lit up excitedly. "The bigger the better."

"We each celebrate in our own unique ways," Optimus added, smiling. "If this is how you choose to celebrate it is perfectly fine."

"Yeah!" Ron said gratefully. Ratchet merely shrugged.

Ron lit the first firework and it exploded into a shower of green and red sparks. Ron cheered in amazement. "Again, but the next one has to be bigger and brighter!"

"My dad, the pyromaniac," Sam said, shaking his head.

They spent the rest of the night was spent watching multicolored explosions.