Slowly opening my eyes, I notice something odd. I wasn't in my hammock; to be honest I don't think I was even in my room.
Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that this room was completely different from mine. This one was much larger and the walls were a light shade of gray with shelves that held many data pads and odd looking object.
Looking down at my arms I noticed that instead of my blanket, I had a large finger wrapped around my body and I was clutching it for what seemed like dear life.
"I see you are awake." Looking up, I saw the familiar face of none other than Optimus Prime. "What am I doing here?" I asked my voice still a little groggy from sleep. "I was planning on placing you in your room to rest but you refused to let go of my servo." Optimus stated as I finally released his hand.
"Oh, sorry." Optimus smiled and shook his head. "It is quite alright Juliana. After what happened the previous day, I cannot blame you." My mind paused for a moment, did he just say the previous day? "I've been asleep since yesterday?" I asked quite shocked.
"Indeed. I had to retire to my room along with you still in my servo." I could feel my face blush a little bit at the thought of me staying in the Autobot leader's room. "Sorry Optimus." I said bashfully but Optimus only shook his head again "No need for apologies Juliana. You caused no harm."
Looking down slowly, I noticed that Optimus had me propped up against his chest between his window chest plates. Listening closely I could hear the soft sound of his spark beating a calm and comforting sound and if I held my hands still enough I could feel the spark giving off its beats.
"I think it might be best if we go see Ratchet. He said today you would be starting school with the others." I nodded with a groan. Great, I get to spend all day stuck in a building built to keep children locked up and forced to learn useless things. I would learn more if I just stayed here with Ratchet and have him teach me.
"Alright I guess." Slowly Optimus stood up from his spot on his bed and I slid down into his waiting hand. Walking over to his door, I noticed on a nearby table a picture on a large data pad of some people but before I could get a good look at it, Optimus and I were already out of his room and walking down the hallway.
OoOoOoOoOo
As we came into the main room, I soon saw Ratchet working like always as at the computer. "Morning Ratchet." I shout for his attention and he quickly turned around to see me with a happy smile. "Morning Juliana. How are you feeling?"
I shrugged as Optimus placed me not to far away from the couch. "Better than yesterday." Ratchet nodded and turned to the computer. "You still have two and a half hours until you are needed to be at school. Are you sure you are well enough to go today, if you want I can call them and tell them you are unwell."
I smiled but shook my head. "If I push it off today, I'll just keep pushing it off. Let's just get this over with and then I can be home by the end of the day." The looks I got from Optimus and Ratchet made me confused. "What?" I asked.
"It's just that… you calling this place your home." Is that the reason they looked so dumbfound, just because I called the base home. "What else would I call it? I live here don't I?" they nodded and Ratchet smiled. "That you do. Why don't you go get ready? I'll be taking you to school shortly." I nodded and walked off down the hallway to my room to get ready.
As I made my way to my room, I began to wonder why it would be ratchet taking me to school. Wouldn't it be better if Bumblebee or Bulkhead take me, since they have to take Miko and Raf to school anyway.
Shrugging it off, I walked into my room and I noticed something on my dresser. There was a small pink note that was under a pile of clothes.
Opening the note, I saw that it was from none other than Miko and on it came an order.
'Hey Julie! Ratchet told me and the guys about how you are joining Jasper High today so I had Bulkhead bring Raf and me over early to do a little something. Since you are reading this, you'll notice the pile of clothes I left for you. This is what you will have to wear for school today, No questions asked.'
I let out a quick laugh at what Miko was telling me to do, there was no way I would wear what she left me. But as I continued on with the letter I noticed something startling.
'And I know what you're thinking, so I had Raf help me take all your clothes away and brought them to school with me. Your dresser is completely empty so you have no choice but to wear what I left you. Can't wait to see you at school today. Miko'
My mind went into a state of panic and I quickly pulled open my dresser. Nothing, every slot was empty and my clothes were gone.
"Miko! You are so going to get it." I shouted to myself as I shut my dresser with a slam. Looking down at the pile of clothes Miko left me I gave a loud groan and picked them up to go change into them.
"At least I still have my spare Jacket with me." I said as I shut my door behind me.
OoOoOoOoOo
Ratchet's P.O.V:
It was getting close to the time to take Juliana to school and I noticed that I hadn't seen Juliana come back ever since Optimus had set her down to leave. "Juliana, are you ready yet!"
I knew human females took a long time to get ready for the day but even this was pushing it. As I waited for a reply, I noticed that something was coming up the hallway.
"about time you got ready. I was wondering what was…" I stopped in my tracks as I took in Juliana's appearance.
"Please Ratchet, just don't say anything. I'm already mad at Miko for taking my clothes, I don't want to be angry at you to." Julian said as she held up her hand to stop me from continuing.
"Very well. Are you ready to leave than?" I asked and Juliana nodded but her gaze never met mine. "Alright, let's head out shall we." Transforming into my Alt mode and held my door open for Juliana.
As she climbed in, I drove off down the tunnel and we were soon out on the road heading to Jasper.
OoOoOoOoOo
Juliana's P.O.V:
Most of the drive was quiet. Nothing but the sound of the wind blowing in through the window. I could tell Ratchet wanted to talk to me but at this point, anything my medic friend would say would most likely end with me yelling or shouting at him.
"I'm sorry Ratchet." I said completely out of the blue and it must have taken Ratchet by surprise by the way the Autobot symbol on his steering wheel blinked rapidly.
"Excuse me?" Ratchet asked as he turned down a road and I could see Jasper high not too far away.
"About the silent treatment. I'm just mad at how Miko took my clothes and forced me to wear this today. I didn't want to yell at you is all." It was silent for a moment before Ratchet finally spoke up.
"That is understandable Juliana. Believe me when I say that Miko can be a hand full a lot of the time. Half the time I am trying my best to hold back my anger." Ratchet finished as he came to a stop in the school's parking lot.
"Well, I guess I'll see you later Ratchet." Just as I was about to open the door Ratchet stopped me by locking the door. "Wait Juliana! I have something for you."
Suddenly the glove compartment popped open and I saw something inside it. "What is this?" I asked as I pulled out the object.
"It's what you humans call a bracelet. But this bracelet is special." Ratchet explained as I took in the small object.
The bracelet was a black strap with small white jewels all the way around it and in the middle of it was a large blue Autobot symbol. "It's lovely Ratchet. Thank you." Wrapping the bracelet around my good wrist, since my other one was still wrapped up, I took in how it pit perfectly.
"That bracelet's Autobot symbol is a built in comm. link and it is also a homing devise as well as a signal scrambler." Ratchet continued as I gave my wrist a turn.
"So I can call you guys with this and you guys can find me anywhere? Neat, but why put in the scrambler?" I asked wondering why it needed a scrambler.
"With the incident that happened with Megatron yesterday I think it might be best if you are put under as much protection as we can. Megatron has many bot's that can track you with just as simple as making a call on a phone. Speaking of human tech, look around in the compartment some more."
Looking back into the compartment, I found a small black flip phone. "Agent Fowler gave that to you to call any him or the others if there is some odd reason as to why the rest of the team or I can't be gotten to." Ratchet said and I smiled, I always wanted a phone.
"Well, tell the Agent that I said thanks. Now I think I'll see you later Ratchet, I don't want to be late on my first day." I said as I was able to finally open the door and step out.
"Have a good day Juliana." Ratchet said as he honked his horn and left off down the road, leaving me alone in the parking lot.
Turning around I saw a few other kids standing around in the lot and a few others standing at the school's front steps. A few of the boys were taking in my appearance and I groaned miserably.
Walking towards the school, the looks only increased as I began to come closer to a large group of boys. One of them gave off a cheeky smile and said something to his friends before he came over to me slowly.
As he stepped in front of me, blocking me from moving, he leaned on a car that stood near us. "Hey there pretty face. I don't think I've seen you around here before, you new here?" he asked as he leaned closer into my face.
"Uh, yes I am. Names Juliana." I said quickly as I tried to walk around him only to have him follow me.
"Name's Vince. How's about I show you around here pretty face, help you get better acquainted with the school." He asked as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
"Sorry but I'm supposed to meet up with my friends. Maybe some other time." Pushing his arm off quickly, I rushed towards the school door leaving Vince with his now laughing friends.
Once I thought I was a good distance away from Vince, I looked around for Miko, Raf, or Jack. And not too far away from where I was I saw all three of them sitting down on the steps talking amongst themselves.
"Hey guys." I shouted as I walked over towards them. they all turned towards me and Raf and Jack nearly choked from laughing.
"H-hey Juliana. What are you wearing?" Jack asked as he pointed to my outfit, while he was holding back his laughs.
"Miko took my clothes this morning and only left this one. I had no choice." I groaned as I finally looked down at my clothes.
I had on a long pink dress, luckily it was a one piece, and it had a line of red hearts at the bottom of it as well as a large one on my left side chest. "but at least I still have my jacket to cover up my hair with. If Miko had taken them both you wouldn't be seeing me here today."
Miko groaned and stood up from the step she was sitting on. "I thought we told you that your hair is fine Julie. Why not let it out just for now, no one's here to see." She pleaded with me but I shook my head.
"Could one of you guys show me to the office. This place is so big that if I was left on my own I would be lost for a week before finding it." I asked and Raf nodded and took my hand. "Sure. Come on, I need to stop by there for a minute anyway."
As Raf lead me away, Miko and Jack followed suit and we all went down the halls together.
OoOoOoOoOo
As I sat down in front of a desk, I waited for the office lady to come back with the list of my classes. The office wasn't big but it had many different things scattered around it. There was a snow-globe with the word 'Hawaii' in it, bookends of the Eifel Tower, and I even saw the seashell sitting on a shelf.
"Okay miss Juliana. Here's your classes." Turning around I saw the short women standing in the doorway with a small slip of paper in her hand. "Just follow Rafael around and you should be alright."
Taking the slip from her hand, I said my thanks and stepped out. Closing the door behind me, I saw Raf sitting down in a chair waiting for me. "Got your classes Julie?" he asked as he took my hand in his and I showed him my classes.
"Okay, looks like you have the same first four hours like I do. So let's head to art, shall we." Following Raf down the halls, I noticed all the many different face that were looking at me and Raf as we went past.
"Don't worry too much about them Julie, I got the same looks when I first came here. It stops after the first week." Raf said but his words didn't really help much.
"here we are Julie. The art room." Raf said as we made it to the small wooden door that held a sign that said 'ART' on it. "Ready to start the day?" he asked.
"sort of. Is it wrong to want to chicken out after being school for less than ten minutes?" I asked giving off a joking chicken squawk.
"you'll be fine Julie. Art is one of the simplest classes here." Raf gave my hand a squeeze and pulled me into the small class room.
OoOoOoOoOo
As the final bell rang, I sighed happily and gathered the new book I gained today. Walking out of the classroom, I saw Miko waiting for me holding a bag out for me.
"You did well for your first day Julie. And I saw a lot of the boys giving you the 'look' in that dress." Miko giggled as I took the bag and we began to walk down the halls to our lockers. Raf's was right next to mine and Jack and Miko's were across from ours.
"how'd history go Juliana? Mr. T didn't bore you to death did he?" Jack asked as he joined up with us. "I guess I should have listened to your warning Jack, Mr. T is as exciting as watching the grass grow." I said as I finally got to my locker, where I saw Raf saw waiting for us.
"How'd it go Julie?" Raf asked and I groaned with my head banging against my locker. "that bad, really?"
"I'll need a lot of catching up to do. Years without school really does effect when you go back." I said as I opened my locker and placed my books in my backpack.
Pulling my bag out, my locker was slammed shut and next to me stood Vince from this morning. "Hey pretty face, we never did get to finish that talk this morning. How about I take you for a drive and we can talk?"
I could feel my face blushing and I stepped back a little surprised. "I don't know." Slowly I felt two different hands being place on my shoulders and one in my hand.
"Leave her alone Vince." Jack said, almost shouting, at Vince. "Yeah, go find someone who looks like they can stomach you. Though I highly think that will never happen." Miko shout as she gave Vince a push back.
"Who gave you three the power to choose for her. Pretty face here can choose for herself if she wants to leave with me or not. How about we leave these dorks and go someplace special?"
I was speechless, I had never been spoken to like this before and I didn't know if I should be terrified and angry or if I should take it as a compliment. "Maybe later Vince. I promised them I would hang out with them today."
Vince looked both angry and annoyed but he put on a smile and shrugged. "Fine by me, see you later Pretty face. Hope we can plan that drive together later." And with that Vince walked off with his hands in his pants.
"You need to stay clear of him Juliana. Vince is nothing but trouble." Jack warned but I only slowly nodded. My mind was still going blank at what just happened.
"Come on Julie, let's head outside." Raf gave my hand a tug and we began to walk out to the parking lot.
Once we were out, I saw three familiar vehicles waiting for us. "So, who am I going with back to base?" I asked and the familiar honk came from across the lot. Turning to the sound, I saw the white and orange ambulance waiting only a few spots away from where bulkhead was.
"When does Ratchet ever come to pick us up?" Miko asked as I went over to ambulance without even thinking. "How's it go today Juliana?" Ratchet asked as he shut the door behind me.
Looking out the windows, I saw the odd and surprised looks from the others and I had to think that the other bots were doing the same.
"Juliana? Did you hear me?" Ratchet asked snapping me away from the looks. "Yeah Ratchet, it was alright. How was your day? Finally not having to watch me all day long."
Ratchet paused a moment, almost like he was gathering his thoughts and then he finally answered. "It was… not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Let's say I have grown accustomed to having you be there with me at the base to help me with things."
I smiled and somehow I could tell Ratchet was to. "Is there anything that needs to be fixed back at base? I need something to do to clear my mind." I asked as we continued to drive down the road.
"Why, Did something happen?" Ratchet asked as he slowed down a little. I shook my head, trying my best not to show that I was hiding what had happened only minutes ago.
"No, just want to get out of this dress and do something constructive." I said, waiting for Ratchet to respond. "Very well, I have to fix another part of the Ground Bridge that needs to be worked on. Would that work?" I nodded and was quiet for the rest of the drive.
OoOoOoOoOo
"Can you hand me the cleaning cloth Ratchet? There's a large glob of gunk clogging one of the pipes." I asked as I pulled my head out from the extremely dirty part.
"It is so much easier to fix and clean these parts now with your help Juliana. Normally it would take me hours to get this done." Ratchet said as he handed me the cleaning cloth and I crawled back into the part.
"Luck you. You're not the one going head first into a grimy pipe to clean up a mess . you're lucky that I have nothing better to do or I wouldn't even think about doing this." I said as I whipped away the ick that was causing the pipe to clog.
"You did volunteer to do this, remember Juliana?" Ratchet said as I climbed out of the pipe, completely dirty.
"Yeah yeah, how about you give it a try now see if that cleared it?" I said as I tossed Ratchet the cloth to only have it reach his hand and not his head which I was aiming for.
As Ratchet flipped a switch on it, the part hummed to life but it only lasted a few seconds before it shut down again. I gave off a groan as did Ratchet; this was the tenth time it had done this.
"Maybe it has to do with something with its wires? Hand me the flashlight would you Ratchet." As Ratchet handed me the flashlight, I crawled back into the part and went to the area where a wire box was.
"Hey Ratchet! Where's Julie?" I listened as Raf asked for me and I could hear Bumblebee beeping for me as well, I think.
"She is assisting me with this Ground Bridge part here." Feeling the part rumble a little, I gave off an angry growl knowing that Ratchet had tapped the part. "You know I'm still in here right?" I teased and I could hear Raf and Bumblebee gasp together.
"Julie's in that thing! Isn't that a little bit Dangerous Ratchet?" Raf asked and Bumblebee beeped quickly after him.
"I assure you she is perfectly safe. The part is down and I have informed her where everything is. The only thing she has to worry about is coming out covered in filth." Again I growled at Ratchet, I didn't want them to know that I was covered in ick.
Suddenly, loud music came blaring into the base and I could only guess who it was. "Hey there Ratchet! Where is Julie, I need to talk to her about someone." Of course, Miko.
"She is busy at the moment Miko, but you can go ahead and speak because she will be able to hear you." Ratchet told Miko and I could only imagine the look Miko had on her right now.
"Okay. Well, where ever Julie is, I have to tell her that she should stay away from Vince. He's nothing but trouble and he isn't the best guy to go all gaga over."
ZAP! "Ouch!" I had accidently crossed two wrong wires and I had burned my finger. Jumping up, I banged my head up on a metal beam above me and I shouted out in pain.
"What does gaga mean?" Ratchet asked and I was so hoping Miko and Raf wouldn't explain to the medic bot what Miko meant by 'Gaga'.
"It means she was giving Vince a lovey dovey look as he was asking her out on a date." The room fell silent for a moment after Miko explained and I saw my chance to object to what she said.
"I was not giving him the 'Gaga' look! He just caught me by surprise is all." I said as I tried to climb out without touching my finger against anything. Which was very difficult and I kept on saying ouch every five seconds.
Once I was finally out, I was met with everyone looking at me. "As I was saying. Vince only caught me by surprise and I didn't know what to do. Just saying that I would talk to him later was the only way I could think of that would make him leave."
From the looks I was getting from Ratchet and Miko, I could tell they didn't believe me very much. "It's true. It's not like I know how to react when a boy asks me out." I said blindly and I wish I hadn't said it from the look I got from Miko.
"You've never dated before?" she asked with a crazy grin. "Well, um,… no." I said as I rubbed my sore wrist; being homeless I never had time to really stay in one place for too long to start a relationship with anyone.
"Well I'll see you guys later! I need to go work on something." Miko shouted as he told Bulkhead to drive her home as fast as possible. As they drove away, I could see that Miko was planning something but I could figure out what.
"Juliana, I would highly appreciate it if you would stay away from this Vince boy at your school. From what Jack and Miko have told me, he isn't one of the best humans to be around." Ratchet asked me with a sad expression and I couldn't help but say, "Alright Ratchet. I will."
Ratchet smiled but it disappeared when he saw my finger and how I was rubbing my wrist. "Are you alright Juliana?"
Looking down at my finger, I saw that it was bleeding and there was a small puddle on the table I was standing on. "I burned my finger on some wires in the part and I banged my wrist trying to get out. I just need a Band-Aid Ratchet."
Ratchet nodded and lifted me over to where Raf was sitting with his laptop. "Rafael, could you give Juliana a Band-Aid for her burn please. I think we have worked enough on the part Juliana." Ratchet said as he turned on the part and it hummed to life and stayed that way.
"Okay Ratchet." I said as Raf handed me a Band-Aid. "You might want to clean yourself off first Julie before you put on that Band-Aid." Raf said as he took my sleeve between his fingers, showing how dirty and grimy I was.
"That does sound good right now. I'll see you guys in a little bit." As I walked off, I noticed that my bracelet was still on but it had somehow managed to stay clean. The Autobot symbol seemed to look at me like it was reading my mind and I couldn't help but think that maybe it was.
As I came to the bathroom, I took off the bracelet and placed it on the sink next to my clean pair of clothes I had.
Maybe a nice hot shower would get my mind off what happened today. And if it didn't, than I could always go bug Ratchet later.
Wow, this has to be the longest CHPTR yet. Count it, a total of 4,513 words. (long whistle)
Review please, I love the happy reviews.