Chapter Four: Of Sud Wars and Mechanical Eye Candy
It took all of a month for Astrid to find a suitable community service group to plug into. Jeremy, of course, rolled his eyes and grumbled, not being too big on attending regular meetings when he could take the opportunity to sleep in or go out with his friends, but he did nothing to stop her. If that was what made her happy, she could get up at the crack of dawn and pull weeds from little old ladies' gardens til she was blue in the face. He really didn't care.
And so it was that Jeremy was just coming down the stairs, still bleary eyed and slow as Astrid slipped on her shoes and grabbed her bag from the pile of boxes stacked next to the front door. A car horn blared with perfect timing as the teenager reached for the doorknob.
"See you later!" she shouted.
"Yeah, see ya," Jeremy mumbled as he reached for the cereal.
Paying her sleepy brother's lackluster greeting no mind, Astrid blew out the front door and shouted happily to the crowded van waiting for her on the curb. Borrowing her brother's flashy new car had never been an option, but, luckily, the troop she'd discovered had a van that they sent around for members in need of transportation. It made sense that they would considering the number of car-less teens involved in the program.
The people at in the group were nice to her, although she doubted she'd make many close friends in the temporary setting. She would, after all, be leaving in a year, and most of the other teenagers had been doing this since the start of high school and already knew one another. Still, though, the youth group was fun and active, and it was a welcome relief for Astrid to do something besides keep house.
That weekend promised to be especially fun. She grinned just thinking about it. The senior high group had arranged to commandeer a local business's parking lot for the next Saturday and use it as a make shift car wash. It was a tradition with this particular program to do a yearly 'the youth decide project' where each of the different age groups got to pick and plan the activity, and so the high schoolers had convinced their leader to let them do a free car wash.
Loud, upbeat music, swimsuits, sud-wars, and, with luck, some cars that nearly qualified as eye candy. It was a teenager's paradise.
.O.O.O.
Saturday dawned bright and hot, a perfect day for a carwash.
Duties were quickly assigned, although positions were bound to shift as needed throughout the day, and everyone knew that keeping teenagers where they were actually supposed to be was a bowshot short of impossible. But, still, the starting positions were given, and everyone hopped to their hoses, sponges, towels and posterboard signs with remarkable enthusiasm.
Astrid found herself in one of the two scrubber brigades and chatted animatedly with her cohorts as they waited for the sign-bearers to bring them some business. Said sign-bearers were none other than the infamous blond twins Karey and Kelsie, the service troop's darlings. The troop leader gave them each enough caffeine to charge a small car (if cars ran on caffeine), dropped the signs into their hands and gave them a shove towards the street corner. Until the business started rolling in, there was nothing for the other teams to do but watch the crazed duo screaming and waving the giant posters at the passing traffic. Even with this incredible distraction, however, the two washing lanes wound up getting into a mini feud. Bets were exchanged and anything that might be damaged by moisture was quickly moved to the sidelines.
Just before things started getting ugly with the hoses, there came an unholy shriek from the direction of the blonds, and all eyes turned to see the first car of the day, a measly little sedan, roll into the parking lot.
A wild cheer erupted from the mass of teenagers, and the cries of glee escalated from Astrid's team as the leader waved the car into their lane.
This had the makings of a very good day.
.O.O.O.
The Autobot patrol was making its regular rounds through Tranquillity and the recently established military base when they spotted something unusually... interesting. That day just happened to see the robotic twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stuck on duty along with the ever stoic Prowl. Nothing of interest had crossed their scanners or optics since leaving the base, but suddenly the thrum of loud music and a cranked up bass broke the spell of monotony, and Sides edged just a little bit away from his compatriots and towards the intriguing ruckus.
"Hold formation," Prowl ordered over the internal comlink.
"But... this sounds INTERESTING!" Sideswipe pleaded.
"We will be passing near the source of the pulses," said Prowl. "You will be able to observe the situation then."
Grumbling, Sides slipped back closer to his twin, wishing that they had been assigned to go out on patrol with anyone other than Prowl. Any other mech would've shared his curiosity and happily picked up the pace just a little bit to see what was happening. But nooo, not old Prowler. Stupid, old, glitch-ridden slagger that he was.
But any internal grumblings about his superior officer were immediately squelched when he got a good look at the scene around the corner. It looked like the human's heaven, but for Transformers. There were cars lined up waiting for one of two small hordes of teenage humans to come up and give them a thorough washing. Once the suds were rinsed off, they drove a little farther forward and a second team came up with soft rags to wipe them down. Then, there was one last knot of humans the cars passed through, and... was that car wax they were using? It was! Each vehicle that ran the gauntlet emerged not only cleaner, but shinier than before, practically glowing in the late morning sunlight. Side's eye caught the scintillating rims on one car's hubcaps and it was all over.
Sideswipe wanted in bad, and he could only imagine what thoughts must be going through his twin's head at that moment.
"Hey, Prowler...?"
"No."
"But..."
"Wait until your duties are over. Once they are finished you may come back if the activity is still in progress."
Never before had the twin terrors been so eager to finish a round on patrol.
Privately, Prowl sent a message pack to Prime, informing him of the occasion. It had been a long time since the 'bots had let themselves unwind, and a good wash was always welcome to any functioning mech. Should Prime judge it wise, this might also be the perfect opportunity to help some of the more stubborn soldiers to see the value of the sentient life inhabiting their new home.
.O.O.O.
"Oh, my gosh..."
Confused by the reverent tone of her coworker, Astrid pushed back a damp strand of hair from her face and looked over towards the entrance to the impromptu carwash. And there, lo and behold, was a frickin' armada of really sweet cars. Now, Astrid was no pro on anything mechanical, but she knew how to appreciate a rolling work of art when she saw one. The mass trying to squeeze in were a variety of different styles and brands, ranging from Jeeps to Lamborghinis, but they were all remarkably stylish and unique. Astrid spotted several of her male companions beginning to drool.
Sensing the sudden distraction spreading like wildfire among his workers, the troop leader clapped his hands loudly, jump-starting the wash lines once again. He was still a boy himself, though, and he waved the first two vehicles towards the scrubbers with deep seated awe. If anything, the gaping and gawking seemed to be only making the experience even more enjoyable for the new customers, and if the captain of the gang hadn't known better he would've thought the cars even looked... smug.
Astrid slapped her wet rag against her thigh, grinning over at one of her friends as they approached the first customer. It was a beauty, a white Mustang with thick blue stripes running its length. It was nice and shiny, too.
"Pretty," Astrid giggled. "Hardly even needs to be washed."
Then she and the rest of her team set to work, discovering nearly impossible to see bits of dirt and buggy splotches that they worked off with a cheerful vigor. All that day there had been a horrible lack of hot cars, and now they were being inundated with them. Everyone was throwing in extra elbow grease that they hadn't even known they possessed at the thought of the other fancy automobiles waiting for their attention. Even the rivalry between the two lines was forgotten... for a while.
Someone cranked up the music, and before anyone really knew what got into them, they were practically dancing around the cars to the beat, singing along with lyrics they only half-knew. Even the group leader wasn't immune to the upbeat tunes ringing over the parking lot.
Suddenly, Astrid whirled around, laughing at both her friends and herself, and came face to bumper with a very familiar yellow Hummer. She skidded happily around on the wet pavement until she was next to the driver's side window, which promptly rolled itself down to reveal Mr. Ratchet smiling at her with very evident amusement. Panting and grinning like an idiot, Astrid could only imagine how she looked, but at the moment she was having to much fun to really care.
"Hello again!" she said brightly. "Imagine seeing you here. Of course with the mass influx of awesome cars I really shouldn't be so surprised."
Ratchet laughed. "The word got out that there was a car wash in the area, and I'm afraid I couldn't resist investigating. Apparently, some of my friends felt the same way."
"You know these people?" asked Astrid. Glancing around at the sea of sports car and all-terrain vehicles, she felt her eyebrows shoot towards her hairline. "Dang, I wish I had your friends."
Once again, Mr. Ratchet chuckled, reaching for the button to roll his window back up again. "It has been good speaking with you, Astrid. Please give your brother my regards."
"Will do," Astrid chirped, stepping back and picking up her discarded sponge.
She was especially careful to get all of the grit out of the nooks and crannies of Mr. Ratchet's strange car, and felt deeply satisfied with her work as he drove on to the next stage of the wash. That was hardly the last familiar face she saw throughout the day, though.
At some point, the line feud broke out again, and soon it wasn't only the cars that were getting wet and soapy. Girly shrieks and not-so-manly squeals erupted sporadically around the lot. When the hose users got bored they'd casually take aim at any poor soul, from their team or otherwise, that happened to fall into their line of sight. Then, suddenly, both sides decided it would be fun to bother the troop leader, who was still busily directing cars, and several boys grabbed one of the hoses and got creative with a very sudsy sponge. Before he even realized he was under attack, the poor man was standing in a freezing shower a-la-hose and trying vainly to reach around and get out the wet object that was dripping soapy water down his back.
Needless to say, he wanted revenge, and he barely paused long enough to grab the nearest teen, who happened to be Astrid, to fill his spot before charging off after his unprovoked attackers. Giggling madly herself, Astrid stepped up to the front of the lines, and started directing the traffic, which seemed aggravated by the disturbance in the smooth-running system.
The next person waiting in line turned out to be Captain Lennox, who seemed just as happily amused by seeing her there as Mr. Ratchet.
"Having a good day?" he asked.
"Are you kidding?" said Astrid. "I'm surrounded by mechanical eye candy. Who wouldn't be having a good day right now? What about you? What's so great about our little operation to attract you and your behemoth of a truck to this area of town?"
"There was word going around at work," Lennox grinned, "and my car insisted."
"I'm sure it did," Astrid said, eyeing the brutish piece of work. "No one wants to argue with a tank. Well, your car should be happy. If the others aren't too busy trying to drown each other they should do a real bang up job."
She waved him through once she'd gotten his promise to say hi to Sarah for her, and continued dividing the cars between washing lanes. After another half hour, the original traffic director squelched back into position and Astrid was free to back to doing what she really loved: washing pretty cars.
The day was busy even after most of the really great cars had gone through. All of a sudden it seemed the trend to have your car washed by the same people who had touched the shiny horde earlier that day. It also helped boost business that other nice cars continued to trickle in from time to time up until they called it quits.
By the time she spied a certain silver Pontiac Solstice, Astrid had fallen to reminiscing about some of the cars she'd had a hand in washing that day. Some of those bad boys had been concept cars, she was sure of it, or at least custom. Many were the sort of things one saw on tv shows about flashy cars and by running internet searches. Actually seeing one (or a lot more than one) in person was astonishing and had left every kid in the troop feeling special, like they'd gotten to sneak into a really big, varied show room and touch all the beauties. It wasn't until Jeremy blared his horn at her that she realized whose car she was working on. His window was already down, and there was a stupid grin on his face as he watched her scrub at the side of his Solstice.
"Oh, hey! I didn't know you were coming," she said in a mildly accusatory voice.
"I'm not the sort to pass up a free car wash," her brother joked.
Out of nowhere, the blond twins, who had finally swapped out with another pair of hyperactive girls in order to have some fun with the actual cars, appeared behind Astrid. This spelled trouble. Warily, Astrid peeked over her shoulder to see the twins beaming innocently at her with their hands held almost primly behind their backs.
"Is that your brother?" Karey asked.
"He's cute," said Kelsie.
"Oh my gosh," Astrid moaned. "I'm his sister REMEMBER? Do you think it's physically possible for the two of you to lay off the flirting for, like, five minutes?"
"Maybe," said Karey.
"But only if we do this!" Kelsie squealed.
In perfect synchronization, they produced a very large bucket from behind themselves which sloshed dirty, soapy water which had been to rinse all the dirty rags and sponges used by the scrubbing brigade. Astrid didn't even have a chance to scream as the torrent of water crashed down over her head, and for several moments afterwards she was left standing there, rivulets of water running down her face, as the shock slowly worked its way out of her system.
"It's COLD!"
Jeremy was cackling in his car, and Astrid realized unhappily that he'd already rolled up the window to block any and all soppy reprimands that she might throw at him. The twins, however, were another story. They were also doubled over in laughter at their joke, but all it took was one look from the soggy Astrid to send them running.
It was highly amusing for Jeremy to watch his sister slipping and sliding across the broad, open lot in pursuit of the unknown blondes, and he continued to chuckle long after he'd pulled out of the car wash. What made him different from every other brother in America was that his car was laughing with him.
.O.O.O.
It was dark by the time Astrid tottered into the house, leaving a puddle on the floor with every step she took. Her hair was still mostly wet, hanging in dirty tendrils from her scalp, and her clothes were five shades darker thanks to the buckets of water they'd absorbed.
"You're wetter than I remember," Jeremy commented.
"The line feud exploded," said Astrid. "Water. Everywhere. Steven got his hands on a hose and was trying to blast us all across town. If there'd been walls around that parking lot there would be a swimming pool there now."
"Huh." Jeremy sipped serenely from his mug of coffee. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Cause you know me so well." Astrid stopped suddenly, a Cheshire Cat grin on her face. Swinging her arms wide open, she charged towards the seat her brother occupied in the kitchen, screaming, "Give me a hug, Jeremy!"
Jeremy spewed half the coffee in his mouth across the table but managed to fumble his way clear of the chair before Astrid collided with him. Of course, by that point it was too late in any case, and the chase was on; Jeremy ducked and wove around the house with his wet, hyper active sister in hot pursuit.
From the driveway, Jazz revved his engine happily as he followed his new charge and his sibling with his sensors. Somehow he knew he'd made the right choice by agreeing to be paired with this young airman.
And somehow he knew even more that his life with these two would never be boring.