Feel free to throw lots of sharp, pointy objects at me (but please try and avoid the face)! I have no excuse for not updating, and I'm sorry. This chapter isn't very long, either, which I also apologise for. I would have made it longer, but I really wanted to post this tonight- I thought it was highly appropriate since I'm started my first day of senior school in year 10 tomorrow. Look at me, mama! I'm a big kid now! Why must the holidays alway fly by? To those who have already started school, because you live in America and England and all those kind of places, how do you cope?

I'm not gonna bother to complain about the US government's stupid bill concerning the internet- I know everyone is extremely pissed about it, including me (because I really do love megaupload and the US government are selfish jerks that don't realise that they're affecting eveyone else around the world). All I'm saying, is they have the potential to take down this site, which, in my opinion, would be very, very bad. So really, I am complaining...

xxx

sm1982: what would be even more shocking to them is coming up in this chapter! *evil grin* thanks for the review :)

MissShelz: 'm planning on making it all into one, big story. I couldn't be bothered with sequals... and I'm glad it cleared some stuff up! But there's gonna be even more mysteries to come soon... Just gonna lull them into a false sense of security, and then... well you get the picture :D thanks

airbender tori b: that pretty much sums it up! Thanks for reviewing :)

WestAero13: I tried giving him a hug, but he held that stupid blade to my neck... I'm seriously regretting giving those to him now. You're welcome to try ;) thanks for the review!

xxx

Thanks to everyone who's stuck with this story and faved and alerted! I've reached almost 2000 hits, which was way better than what I was expecting, so all I can say is thanks

The twins sighed in unison, looking up to face their doom. This, was by far more terrifying than facing the decepticons or Megatron himself (and they were speaking from experience). Really, this decision (that the twins had no say in whatsoever) was one of the worst things the Autobots could force them to do. Of course, it was needless to say that Sunstreaker was still ignoring them after this. The vain twin would never admit his 'silent-treatment' was immature, no matter what Sideswipe said. However, the conclusion was they had to do it, dictated by both the Autobots and the American government. Stupid ultimatums…

Sideswipe, after four weeks of rest, was feeling heaps better and no longer completely relied on his brother. Though that didn't stop Sunstreaker from wrapping his arm around his twin's shoulder, protectively and supportively. The two started up the stone steps heading towards the office. They ignored the looks they were getting. After all, they were used to it by now.

Why oh why did their guardians make them go back to school?

A bell dinged as they entered the office. The woman behind the desk looked up to greet the visitors but her mouth only dropped in shock.

"Hello!" greeted Sideswipe cheerily as he shrugged off his brother's arm. He made his way to the desk and slapped a piece of paper on the surface. "Here's a note explaining our absence. Family issues."

Sunstreaker followed his brother and stood beside him. Was it Sideswipe's imagination, or was Sunny's stance a little protective? "We need new schedules- we lost ours and we can't remember what classes we have," demanded Sunstreaker. The woman picked up the note and scanned through it, her heart sinking when she realised that the two were back. She had hoped that she'd never have to see them in her office again. Nodding, she put the note down and clicked some stuff on her computer. A couple of seconds later, a printer was heard and the woman got off her chair and walked to a little side room where the printer was kept.

A door opened to their left and the headmaster walked out, with a student trailing behind him.

"And I'm sure you'll have a great time at our school!" the headmaster was saying and the student finally came into the twins' view.

He was darker skinned and though he was short, one couldn't call him a wimp. He was quite toned, though not overly so, but it showed. His dark hair was in cornrows, exposing his ears, the right one's shell being lined with silver piercings. He wore blue glasses, like the ones people with dyslexia wore, which lead the twins to believe he must be dyslexic. His clothes were simple, a grey shirt, baggy black jeans and black, white and red skate shoes. His appearance and relaxed posture screamed 'cool' to the twins.

"Ah, Jacquie," the headmaster said as the woman shuffled back into the room, holding a folder. "Can you help José here with his schedule?" The woman nodded and handed the folder to the twins. Sideswipe opened it to find two schedules and some catch-up work. The headmaster blinked, only just realising the two were there. His expression immediately changed into one reminiscent of disgust. "Oh. It's you two. I hope you won't be causing much trouble now that you're back? The school seemed strangely peaceful when you two were gone." The sneer was unmistakeable, and in their minds, the twins vowed to cause enough mayhem to drive a normal person insane. The headmaster clapped a hand on 'José's' shoulder. "Do yourself a favour, son. Don't get mixed up with the likes of these two." Turning the new students on them now? That was low. And the headmaster was supposed to be supportive of his students!

Simply choosing to ignore the headmaster, the two turned and walked straight out the door. With a glance at their schedules they walked down the pathway which was clearing out, the bell having rung while they were in the office. Sunny noted with annoyance that the first lesson of the day happened to be the only one he didn't share with Sides. Together they strode to their homeroom, reaching the door all too quickly.

"Ready, Sunny?" asked Sides with a bit of humour in his voice.

"I was born ready," answered Sunstreaker, teasingly.

Inside the homeroom, conversations about the weekend were flying around, rumours and gossip were being discussed, assignments that had been left to the last moment were being hurriedly finished and the rest were sitting around, some with their feet on the tables. The teacher had given up trying to bring order, and was trying to mark the roll with little to no help from the students. All in all, it was an average Monday. Sam and Mikaela sat at the back, talking with a couple of Mikaela's old friends. The couple had completely astounded the students of Tranquillity High when they showed up on campus together in Sam's brand new, hot off the line Camaro. Though there was mixed feelings about the pair in their cohort, no one had been angrier or more vocal about it than Trent.

At first, the jock thought his little 'bunny' had been doing it to make him jealous, revenge for that day at the lake. However Mikaela had quickly shown him that that was not the case. Trent then, in retaliation, had tried beating up Sam Witwicky. Yet every time the blonde had tried to approach him, the brunette seemed to always be by his car, a car the Jock had taken to calling 'Satan's Camaro' (a name Trent hear Witliky's stupid friend mutter). The car itself didn't seem too threatening, but every time Trent went near that thing, something bad happens. So now, the Jock was ignoring the couple completely, which suited them just fine.

SLAM!

Everyone jumped and turned to the door, which had been pushed open quite loudly. In walked Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, heads held high and grinning like the cat that ate the canary. All chatter stopped and Sideswipe was proud that he caused such a reaction.

"Hey guys," said Sides, waving in general to the whole room. Sunstreaker nodded, not as vocal as his twin. The two quickly migrated towards the back where Sam and Mikaela were sitting. The couple greeted the twins warmly, something else to add onto the student population's pile of mysteries.

Sideswipe struck up a conversation about everyone's weekends, and the talking resumed. Of course, he completely lied about his own weekend (chilling with giant alien robots would not have gone over well), and others enquired about the scars that still marred his and Sunstreaker's skin. The story was 'biking accident' and the majority accepted it. Some, however, saw the bags under the twins' eyes from lack of sleep but they knew better than to question it.

Both the twin's sleep was plagued by nightmares, and sometimes not even the usual ones of distant battles and death. No, some were of Jazz, running up to save the twins and getting caught by Megatron. He was tortured and eventually killed, but his optics spoke volumes to the twins: 'this is YOUR fault'. It was survivor's guilt that caused these nightmares, and did not help them get over the death of Jazz at all. Sunstreaker's nightmares also contained visions of his twin dying, with him unable to save him. It was a horrid feeling and it made him sick to his stomach.

The bell rang again, signalling it was time to start lessons for the day. Reluctantly, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe parted and went their separate ways. Sideswipe distantly followed Sam to his next class, and sat next to the brunette up the back. He saw José enter the room after they had sat down, the dark skinned teen sitting a couple of seats across from him. The teacher appeared shortly after and after taking attendance, started the lesson. Sideswipe drifted off about thirty seconds into the lecture, staring at a map on the wall. In his head, memories replayed of why he was back in this place…

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker sat on the same bed in a room that was to be their temporary bedroom. Sides had vacated the med bay just two days previously, and was enjoying his freedom. Thanks to the energon in his body, his ribs and the rest of his wounds had healed at three times the speed they normally would have. The two were just throwing a tennis ball they had found while they were exploring back and forth. Both were completely bored, having done everything they could have and imagination escaping them.

The door opened and in walked the holoform of Optimus Prime. This was slightly surprising, as they had barely seen the Autobot commander because the mech had been stuck in meetings and trying to negotiate a new treaty.

"Hey, OP," greeted Sideswipe, "Nice of you to finally grace us with your presence."

"Good afternoon, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker." The latter ignored the Autbot, turning to face his brother once again.

"So what do we owe the pleasure of your visit? Not that you need a reason to visit us," hurriedly added the red tipped twin, "But one would think you'd still be stuck in meetings and the like."

Optimus sat down on the bed opposite to them, facing Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. "I am here on the matter of your guardianship." That made the twins pay attention- it was something that they both wanted the answer to. The stupid government had been arguing against the Autobots on this decision, which was something incredibly stupid considering they had lived their whole lives being raised by the Cybertronians. Also adding the fact that Sides and Sunny would be eighteen in a couple of months made the whole argument pointless.

"The government has decided that you two shall remain in our care (the twins visibly relaxed), however," here, Optimus paused making Sideswipe and Sunstreaker nervous once again, "They will not allow you to join NEST."

"WHAT?" This was the first word Sunstreaker had spoken to an Autobot in weeks.

"Let me finish," said Optimus patiently, "They will not allow you to join NEST until you turn eighteen, until which time you must go back to school."

This set off Sideswipe. "That's stupid! It's not like we don't know about the Cybertronians, and we know how to take down Decepticons better than most soldiers! The government are idiots." Sunstreaker nodded in agreement.

Prime sighed. "I know, but you don't really have a choice. The other option is for you to be taken out of our care and go into the foster care system. I have managed to vouch for you thus far, but the government just does not want to listen."

"Alright, thanks OP," sighed Sideswipe. "I think you already know which we prefer."

And that was how Sideswipe got to sitting in a desk next to Sam. He groaned quietly. The lecture had taken a turn and was now giving boring a new meaning.

'So boring,' he thought, scribbling absently on his book.

'I agree…'

Sideswipe jumped, his pen making an ugly mark across his page. "Are you ok there, Mr Autober?" asked the teacher, gazing over his glasses, concerned for his student.

"I'm fine," Sideswipe assured. The teacher studied him for a moment before nodding and going back to his lecture. Sides let out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

'Sunny?' he asked silently, testing out a theory.

'Sides?'a voice answered, seemingly in his head. Sides' eyes widened and covered his mouth with his hand to keep from screaming. Sam saw this action and sent an inquisitive glance his way, which the red tipped twin just shook off.

'What the pit are you doing in my head?'

'Your head? What are you doing in mine?' Sideswipe was close to freaking out now. Of all the strange things they had been through the past few weeks, this was by far one of the oddest. Strangely enough, he also felt foreign emotions, that weren't really foreign at all. Somehow, he could tell that half of the surprise was coming from Sunstreaker, who was in the next block over.

'Let's not fight now, we'll talk later.'

'…Fine. Just so you know, I'm not cool with waiting.'

'Oh I know. I just enjoy making you squirm,' despite the seriousness of the situation, Sideswipe couldn't help but tease his brother. The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and Sides turned to see José staring at him thoughtfully. Sides gave him a look, but the new student didn't turn away. The twin didn't like breaking eye contact first (he assumed it was eye contact, he couldn't really see José's eyes from behind his lenses) but he did so anyway.

After another half hour, the bell rung and Sides was the first out of the room. Despite the crowded hallway, he quickly found Sunny and wound an arm around his shoulders. Sunstreaker nudged him with an elbow but Sideswipe didn't let go. He led him down to Science Lab 3, where there next class, chemistry was. As they were the first there, the two got the seats up at the bench at the very back. Students filed in after them, but the two didn't take much notice. Mr Muller, a middle-aged man with a large beer belly and thinning brown hair sat down at his desk up front, clicking something on his laptop. The projector screen lit up in front of the class, bearing the words 'Chemical Earth: properties'. The class groaned in unison- it was a theory lesson.

Mr Muller took the attendance, pausing at José's name. "New student, huh?" he asked.

"Yup." It was the first time the twins had heard him speak. José's voice was a low tenor and very smooth. The two could tell he had a tongue of silver and could most likely get out of any situation, which was more than they could say for themselves.

"So…" started Muller, "We have recently started a unit on 'Chemical Earth'," he clicked for the next slide and the screen changed to one filled with notes. Satisfied, Muller turned away from the screen to address the class. "One of the most important parts of this unit is understanding the properties of- what are you all laughing at?" The class stopped sniggering and the teacher looked at the screen, which was exactly as he left it. Curious, the twins looked up from drawing crude pictures on their books and tried to find what everyone was laughing at. "So the properties-" Muller stopped again as the class failed to keep a straight face. This time, the twins saw what made everyone giggle.

When Muller's back was turned, the notes were replaced with a moving GIF. The animation was of the headmaster in a sparkly, tight spandex outfit, doing Elvis impersonations. The moving picture's style was slightly reminiscent of stop motion animation, the replaying loop of images not smooth like a normal animation, but slightly jerky.

The process happened multiple times- every time Muller's back was turned, the screen always switched to the GIF animation. On the fifth time this happened, the headmaster's face was replaced with Muller's. No one could stop the sniggers then. And though Muller was a slow man, he was not dumb and he slowly caught onto what was happening. In their heads, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe knew it was time for the culprit to stop, but their mental pleas were ignored. While the prank was not as funny as one the twins themselves would do, they would always look out for a fellow prankster… and they knew they would get blamed for this. Finally, Muller saw what was happening through a reflection in the window and faced the twins angrily.

"Stop it, you two! I will not have you disrupting my class!"

"But it's not us!" protested the twins in unison.

"Yeah right. Get out of my class and down to the headmaster's office! Now!" Muller was starting to look really, really angry so the twins decided not to test his patience, even though they were completely innocent in the matter. They packed up their stuff and left their seats. As they were exiting the classroom, they heard José's voice.

"Sir, can I escort them there? I still need to familiarise myself with the school, and I've already learned this at my old school." There was no hesitation in Muller's consent. The twins were already halfway down the hall when they heard the quick footsteps trying to catch up with them. "Hey guys, wait!"

Sunstreaker whirled around to face their escort, still walking, though backwards. "Why should we wait for you?" sneered Sunny, a little contempt in his voice. "We don't need a goody-two-shoes hanging off us, no matter how cool they may look."

José ran the last few steps so he was even with the twins. The dark skinned teen rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before answering. "I kinda feel guilty, ya know? I mean you got in trouble for my bit of fun." His style of speech had changed from when he was speaking to Muller. Now it was less formal, rougher and more like the average teen's. His words had an immediate effect on the two and their attitude towards him changed slightly.

"Your prank, huh?" questioned Sides, "Well then, I guess we owe you a congratulations on a job well done (even though I know we can do better). Next time though, stop before it's too late. After all, for a prankster, it's not about causing trouble, we do that all the time. The trick is not getting caught." Sunstreaker nodded at his twin's wise words.

José grinned. "I will remember that, oh wise one," said the padawan prankster as Sides so eloquently dubbed him in his head. The dark teen bowed jokingly for emphasis. "Anyways, I don't think we've properly met. I don't think I'd call the headmaster telling me to stay away from you an introduction, either. I'm José."

"S-Xan," said Sides, slipping slightly, thanking his twin mentally for nudging him. "Sour puss here is Zac." It felt weird using the human names after going for a little more than a month using just their true names. Sunstreaker jabbed his twin with an elbow again, this time harder. Sides clutched his ribs, his expression morphing into one of pain as he slipped to his knees. Sunny and José froze, the former horrified and the latter confused.

"Oh, Primus, Sides!" exclaimed Sunny, laying a hand on Sides' shaking shoulder. "Sides! …Sides?" He was startled to see his brother laughing his head off at him.

"G-got you!" Sides said between laughs and Sunny withdrew his hand, as if he'd been stung.

"You slagging jerk!" Sunny punched his twin on the shoulder and stalked off. Sides stopped laughing and stood up next to José.

"What was all that about?" hesitantly asked José as they followed the direction Sideswipe's twin went in.

"I was injured pretty badly not too long ago," started Sides, "and Zac's been super protective of me since. Thinking back on it, I probably shouldn't have done that… C'mon." Bemused, José followed.

They finally caught up to Sunny, who was sulking under a tree on the grounds. His arms were crossed and he was frowning, which made Sides feel even more terrible. "Sunny? I'm sorry," apologised Sideswipe softly. "I promise I won't do it again." He kneeled down next to his brother and wrapped his arms around him. For a moment, Sunny just sat unresponsive, until eventually he returned the hug. José looked away, knowing he was intruding on a private moment between brothers.

The twins sat hugging for only a moment, releasing each other when they remembered they had company. "If you tell anyone about this-" threatened Sunny, but was interrupted.

"I know, I know, you'll do some obscenely horrid things to me and my pride. I won't tell- scouts honour," José said, putting his hands up showing he meant no harm. "Anyway, I better head back, Mooller, or whatever his name is, is probably expecting me back. See you guys around." The dark skinned waved and headed back in the direction they had come from, hands in his pockets and whistling a jazzy tune. The twins waited until he was out of eyesight and earshot before talking.

"So about earlier…" Sunstreaker started, leaning back on the tree, his hands behind his head. There was some noise coming from his pocket, and out scuttled a yellow, spidery looking bot, who happened to be Sunny's iPhone. Nox followed, the now bright red sparkling emerging from Sideswipe's bag. Nox had been upgraded to an iPhone, after much urging from Sideswipe, and had turned bright red so they could tell the difference between him, and Lumos, who was Sunstreaker's phone (the name was a bit of a joke, Nox being the counter to the spell Lumos from the Harry Potter series. Epps had come up with it). The two spidery sparklings each perched themselves on a shoulder of each of the twins, conversing in Cybertronian gibberish. The two had bonded quickly, and it was really convenient for the twins to have matching Cybertronian phones which were virtually un-hackable.

"I think it has something to do with the energon," explained Sides after a pause, gazing over to the car park where they could see their own cars and Bumblebee. "I remember Ratchet telling me that Cybertronian twins have a strong bond, allowing them to communicate and feel each other's emotions. Sort of like a spark-bond, but not really… if you get what I mean?"

Sunstreaker nodded. Even now he could feel his brother's content and his love for him. "What does it mean, though?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm not Primus." Another bell rang, this one for the start of lunch. Within minutes, the grounds were swarming with students and the twins could talk no more on the matter.

So, that's part 1 of familiar strangers! What do you think of José? I'm trying not to make him Gary Stu, 'cause I have a lot planned for him, and I'd hate to get rid of him before I can execute said plans :P

To those who are wondering, I'm just heaping all the movies and arcs into one big story, maybe with the occasional oneshot here and there. It's too tiresome trying to keep up with sequels, and I find some people lose interest if you make too many sequels.

Don't forget to review guys- I haven't boobytrapped the button or anything. Though I can't vouch for the twins... Or José...

Until next time,

Greentree Frog.