Unwanted Attention

Summary: Some people just can't take a hint.

When the tension around her finally broke, she regretted it within days.

Suddenly, she was approachable, and she didn't need friends half as bad as her peers seemed to think. She could work just fine in a group when class called for it, she had no problem pulling her own weight, but she didn't need friends. At least, not the kind she had been attracting lately.

Okay, maybe it was just someone specific.

As if on cue, a familiar boy parked himself in the bench across from her, all bright smiles and messy sandy hair. "Hey Jo! We missed you this morning! Were you sick?"

Jodi jabbed her plastic spork in his direction. "Don't call me that," she growled, displeased that her lunch was interrupted. "And as you can see, I'm fine. Just had an appointment to go to."

"Ah! Dentist?"

"Yeah." Sure. We'll go with that.

Truth was, it was an appointment with Ratchet. She had to wake up at an ungodly hour of pre-dawn for the drive out to base, but it was worth it in the long run. Ratchet was working on a possible optical implant that may or may not restore her fucked up vision, and the only reason he even considered it was because the implants in her back took so well. They were developing a contact lense as a test run, and if that went well, they would surgically install one inside the damaged eye.

Not that Matt needed to know all that.

"So . . ." He drummed his hands lightly on the table, biting his bottom lip and giving her a hopeful look.

"So what?" Jodi was super low on patience today. All she wanted to do was eat her lunch and be left alone.

"Did you think about it?"

Oh God, she thought they were past this. "Really Matt? I'm really, really not the 'let's go to a dance' type. We went over this."

"Then forget the dance. How about pizza and a movie? No dancing required."

Jodi just shook her head and began poking at her food. Maybe if she ignored him he would eventually get the hint.

"Does Officer Tanaka have rules against dating or something?"

Jodi nearly choked on a mouthful of corn. "What? No!"

She wished those words never escaped her mouth, and regretted every sylable that tumbled from her lips, realizing she had accidentally given him some false hope.

It wasn't anything personal, really it wasn't, Matt was a nice guy and they worked well together on group projects, but it was just that she had absolutely no interest in dating. Like, Anyone. Ever. And even if she did, she liked to think it wouldn't be with someone so insistent. Peer pressure towards anything always made her want to dig her heels in and refuse on principle.

Unfortunately for Jodi, her words left a glimmer of what looked suspitiously like hope on Matt's face. "Oh, so it's a personal thing then? Because you're still settling into the area, right?"

"Look at you, you have me all figured out." Maybe sarcasm would help get her point across.

"Cool, that just means we should get to know eachother better!"

Or not. She groaned internally and resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands.

Days rolled by and Jodi had managed to steer clear of the whole dating line of conversation by avoiding the source of the problem whenever possible. It helped that she didn't have any other suitors coming out of the woodwork.

One was more than enough.

With Homecoming come and gone she thought she would be safe until Winter Ball at least. Jodi had made it a priority that she and the guys would be doing something the night of the dance. Hell, Jodi would be willing to tolerate a visit from Lydia if it meant she would be busy.

Then again, if Lydia knew that there was a dance coming up she just might take the opportunity to take Jodi dress shopping in a wayward attempt at bonding. That in itself was a special brand of torture. The woman lived for shopping, and was in the mindset that if you were female you should too. She didn't seem to understand that the teen's knowledge of name brands was due to survival in an elitist school and not from a genuine interest.

This was after several trys on Jodi's part to inform her.

Riley had thought their last shopping spree was downright hilarious. That is, until Jodi threw him under the bus by mentioning in passing that his own wardrobe was looking threadbare. Jodi wasn't above dragging someone else into her misery, and hopefully Riley would remember that.

At school, Jodi couldn't even garner sympathy about the whole dating thing from some of her more cordial classmates. While griping about the continual attempts at flirting, all her lab partner had done in response was give a shrug and say "You could do a lot worse than Matt." As if it was that cut and dry.

Because clearly, by teenager logic, a lack of disgust was a valid reason to date someone. Jodi just didn't understand other teens, especially the other tennants of Tranquility High.

It was after the final bell on a Friday when her luck at avoiding Matt finally ran out.

"How about a trip down to the lake? A group of us are going this weekend, so it'll be more of a hangout thing."

Jodi barely reined in a "punch first" reaction when Matt magically popped up on her blind side. She leveled a glare at him.

He offered her a sunny smile, unfazed and unaware. "It's a bit out from the main part of town, but I could pick you up if you need a ride. My parents bought me a car for my birthday. A '92 Supra! Can you believe it?"

From her days living in Palo Alto Jodi could believe a great deal of things. She distinctly remembered one of the upperclassmen getting a Mercedes for their birthday, only to T-bone a truck three weeks later. Two weeks after that Jodi noted he had Porche. Jodi was more impressed by driving skill than what you were driving.

Then again, when your best friend was a sentient Mustang, you tend to be a little underwhelmed by regular vehicles to begin with.

Speaking of 'Cade, their traveling range just got expanded to seventy five miles. Plus, Ratchet had finished the tester lense for her, and that she should come get it either tonight or tomorrow morning so she could adjust over the weekend. The two of them had arranged to take a small road trip to celebrate.

"I have plans already."

"Skip it."

"No." God, why wont he take a hint?

He shrugged. "Aww, come on Jodi. Don't be such a stick in the mud." He walked beside her as she walked past the student parking lot and down the sidewalk. She had hoped that he would veer off but no such luck. "Well, how about a lift home then? I know you can't drive." He made a gesture to his own face in a not-so-subtle reference to her bad eye, which pissed her off. "Save you the walk."

"I have a ride," she snipped, biting back a comment that she would bet money that she could drive just as well as Matt could. Better, once she got her vision up to par.

Half the fun of her and Barricade's little road trips was finding a secluded stretch of pavement and letting her test her driving skills. She was looking forward to being able to drive legally, but until then, this was the only time she could get away with it.

"Oh, Officer Tanaka picks you up?"

"Not usually, he and his partner stay pretty busy. Crazy schedule and all that."

Which was true, especially since they just took over the Missing Persons Unit. Which, Prowl had less-than-kindly stated, was in desperate need of work. And staff.

And it wasn't as if Barricade would let her out of his sight longer than strictly necessary. he insissted on dropping her off and was usually the one to pick her up. Fine by Jodi, she was perfectly content to let the Cybertronian play chauffer.

Even though Jodi had her suspitions that he was never far, due to his dislike of dealing with mass amounts of humans they had agreed on an after school meet-up spot just a bit down the street. She could spot him now at the corner, his Holoform leaning against the passenger side, looking casual in jeans, t-shirt and a black jacket. There was a glint in his hair that said his sunglasses were perched there.

She waved at him, eager to be gone and away from Matt's well-intentioned invites.

He gave a small wave back, those sharp eyes zeroing in on Matt and she just knew he was giving him a suspitious glare.

Said glare was apparently enough to make him balk. "Who's that?"

"My friend."

He gave her an odd look, and it was that that Jodi realized that she never applied that lable to anyone at school. He did a double take, his eyes bugging a bit. "That his car?"

"Yep."

Matt looked like he was at war with himself, as if he was debating the merits of staying versus a hasty retreat. Unfortunately for Jodi, he rallied and kept moving forward.

As they approached Barricade pushed away from his door, eyes flicking between her and Matt. When Jodi responded with a frustrated eyeroll, his posture stiffened and she hastily gave a cancelling hand gesture, telling him to stand down. In an attempt to hasten their exit, Jodi was the first to speak. "Hey 'Cade, ready to go?"

"Of course." He made a point of opening the trunk, and taking her backpack when she offered it to him. When the trunk slammed shut he turned his attention to Matt, voice sharp with annoyance. "Can I help you?"

Jodi wished her sarcasm had the same effect as Barricade's, but clearly Matt had developed an immunitty to Jodi's.

Or maybe that was just Barricade's imposing frame, which Matt was clearly taking in, and visibly swallowed when he noted the dog-tags hanging from his neck. "You, umm . . . you military?"

"Former." Zeroing in on the other teen's discomfort, a smirked crept up on his face. "Dishonerable discharge."

"Uh." Matt paled.

Okay, that's enough of that. Jodi pushed 'Cade towards the driver's side, his form as immovable as steel for all that it budged. "Well, as you can see, I have a ride, and as I said earlier, I have plans."

Barricade finally seemed to catch on. "Did you need anything from the house?"

Jodi scurried to the passenger side. "Nope! Let's hit it." She gave the confused boy standing on the curb a quick wave. "Well, gotta go, see you Monday!"

Matt stared after Jodi as she and her companion dissappeared around the corner in the sleek black Mustang.

He broke from his stupor when his phone beeped, signaling he had a text message. Already knowing who it was from, he sighed and unlocked his phone.

Jeff: How'd it go Romeo? She coming to the BBQ?

Instead of tapping out a reply he hit the call button. His best friend answered on the first ring. "Well? Come on man, spill! I'm dying over here!"

"Someone already swooped in on her. She just left with some older guy."

"Are we talking Coach Chapman older, or Ms. Rivas older?"

"Rivas. Dude, I don't stand a chance."

Jeff scoffed into the microphone. "You're the regional Martial Arts champ two years running and you are one of our best basketball players. How bad can it be?"

"Over six foot, looks like he could turn me into a pretzle, and drove off in a Mustang I would kill to drive. How bad does it sound to you?"

" . . . I'll tell my parents you're coming over for dinner. You can drown out you're rejection with greasy pizza and all the root beer you can stomach."