It was a bit difficult keeping hidden after that, while Sam and his dad bought the car. The real scare was when they checked the trunk. By the time Bumblebee and I realized what they were about to do, they were almost there already. Bumblebee re-opened the back seats enough for me to scramble out just before they opened the trunk, and I laid there, hiding as much under the back seat as I could. Then when they shut the trunk again, I had to roll back under in record time before they could notice that the seats had moved. I felt like the guys rolling under that fire-and-knives trap in that one movie…I think it was Indiana Jones.
After that it was better, but I still had to be very quiet and keep hidden while guys finished the examination, finally bought the car, and drove it home. When Sam got out of the car at home, I sighed with relief, but then I groaned when I remembered how long I'd have to be under there.
"Are you alright?" the radio asked once Sam had gone inside.
I'd almost forgotten where I was… No, that's a lie. It was hard for me to forget that I was in an Autobot's alt form, but it still startled me.
"Yeah," I answered. "I just remembered how long I'll have to be in here for."
"How would you know that?" Bumblebee asked.
I pursed my lips for a second. "It's…it's kind of hard to explain-" I was cut off when Sam's dad and his mom, Judy, came out into the front yard. If I knew the Transformers movie, and I did, they wouldn't be leaving either. But thankfully I didn't have to wait long before the plot picked up.
"Ron, this one is uneven." I heard Judy, undoubtable referring to one of the stones in Ron's precious path.
"Yeah, probably." Ron answered, not really paying attention.
"This one is wobbly."
"Yeah, I'll take care of that real soon."
"Oh, couldn't we have hired a professional?"
The jingle of keys and triumphant laughter announced Sam's presence.
"Aw Sam-" "What?" "I do not like foot prints on my grass."
"What footprint- There's no footprints!"
"That's why I built my path, so why don't you go from my grass onto my path, kay?"
"It's family grass Dad."
"Yeah well when you have your own grass you'll understand."
"This, this, I can't deal with it anymore." Sam transitioned to talking about Mojo's bling.
"What?" Judy asked, smiling, I knew.
"You're putting girl jewelry on a boy dog. He's got enough self-esteem issues as a Chihuahua Mom."
"That's his bling!" Judy played up the word comically.
Sam bailed and headed back for Bumblebee, and I held my breath as he opened the door as Judy yelled, "I want you home at eleven o'clock!"
"Yeah alright." Sam answered as he shut the door.
"Eleven o'clock." Ron repeated for emphasis.
"Please for the love of God drive safely!" Judy called over the sound of Bumblebee's engine turning on.
"Seat belt on!"
As Sam drove Bumblebee out of the driveway, I knew and absurd amount of dirty brown exhaust was pouring out from the car and flowing over the Witwicky's yard.
"Wow." I mouthed the lines that I knew were taking place but could no longer hear. "You are so cheap. Ah it's his first car. It's supposed to be like that."
That's when I remembered what would be going on in Qatar at this moment. Lennox, Epps, Fig, Donnelly and all the rest would be out in the desert, with Scorponok trailing them. Fig and Donnelly wouldn't make it. I didn't want them to die. I didn't want anyone to die. They didn't' need to die. They were highly trained soldiers. They should have seen Scorponok coming. It didn't make any sense for them not to see it. It should never have happened.
Maybe that's why I'm here, the thought entered my head. Maybe I'm supposed to keep all those deaths from happening. So many people dying. And Jazz… Jazz didn't need to die. He had been a hugely important character in the original series, and Michael Bay had just cast him aside like he was nothing. No. I wouldn't let that happen. I didn't know how or if it was even possible for me to change anything, but I had to try.
In that moment, I decided that, as long as I was here, I wouldn't let anyone die.
As for the guys in Qatar, there wasn't much I could do for them. So, since I was stuck in Bumblebee's trunk anyway, I prayed for their safety, for their lives, for them to come home in one piece and be able to see their families again. I wanted Fig to taste his momma's gator again. I wanted Donnelly to get his flat beer, cold hot dog and baseball on weekends again. I wanted them all to come home.
After Sam picked up Miles Lancaster, they drove down to the lake. I could see the setting sun shine through the windows as we drove along the cliff side. I knew what was coming up, and it was bound to be interesting.
"Dude are you sure we're invited to this party?" Miles asked.
"Of course Miles," Sam said in an oh-my-gosh-you're-so-stupid tone. "It's a lake. Public property. Omigawd, omigawd dude, Mikaela's here. Just don't do anything weird, alright?" Sam said as he parked Bumblebee and go out.
"Fat chance of that," I giggled softly to myself.
"I'm good right?"
"Yeah, you're good."
"Okay."
I desperately wanted to hear this conversation, so I took the risk of sticking my head a bit further out from beneath the seats to listen.
"Hey bro, dat car, it's nice. Hey." Trent DeMarco yelled at Sam. I knew it was right about now that Miles was climbing up that tree, and I couldn't help but giggle. "So what're you guys doin' here?" Trent asked.
"… We're here to climb this tree."
I giggled again. Poor Sam.
"I-I see that. It looks, looks fun."
"Yeah."
"You know so I-I thought I recognized you. You tried out for the football team last year, right?"
I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud as I remembered Sam's flashback of said event.
"Oh, nonono, that? No. Heheheh that wasn't like a, a real tryout. I was researching a book I was writing."
"Oh yeah."
"Yeah."
"Yeah what's it about? Sucking at sports?"
"Haha, no it's about the link between brain damage and football." I murmured the line along with Sam. "No it's-it's a good book your-your friends will love it. You know, it's got mazes in it, and you know little coloring areas, sections, pop up pictures, it's a lot of fun."
"That's funny." Trent said threateningly.
"Kay okay, you know what stop." I finally heard Mikaela Banes talk as she came between Brent and Sam.
"Hey, guys, I know of a party. Let's go, let's head." Brent said, on the retreat.
"You gotta get outa the tree right now." I just barely heard Sam say to Miles. "Get-, just, get outa the tree right now please. What're you doin'?"
"Didja see that dismount? All the chicks were watchin'!"
I facepalmed from my place in the trunk. Geez Miles.
"You're makin' me look like an idiot. We both look like such idiots right now."
Right now Mikaela and Trent would be having their little disagreement. "I can't even tell you how much I'm not your little bunny." She'd say. "Okay. You'll call me." He'd say. "No she won't." I said.
Miles proceed to, gracefully, I might add, fall through the passenger side window back into the car, while Sam stayed outside and leaned against Bumblebee, looking towards Mikaela, who would be walking away.
"Is he just gonna let her walk?" I wondered a little too out-loud, and Miles turned around and looked at the back seat. I froze in alarm and did not breathe. I felt so thankful when Miles just turned back around and said, "You're car's creepy dude."
At this point Bumblebee decided to help Sam out. So he tuned the radio till it caught the right song. "Who's gonna drive ya hoooooome,"
"Hey man, what's wrong with your radio?" Miles asked.
"Tonight."
"I'm gonna drive her home tonight." Sam mumbled, more like something unimportant rather than if he'd had an idea.
"What? She's an evil jock concubine man, let her hitchhike!"
"She lives ten miles from here it's my only chance okay?" Sam ran to the car door, more excited about this now. "You gotta be understanding here, alright?"
"Alright alright we'll put her in the back, I'll be quiet." Miles said as if that'd be an acceptable answer.
"Didju just say put her in the back?"
"I-I called shotgun!"
"I'm not putting her in the back. You gotta get out of my car."
"That's a party foul!"
"Yeah what rules?"
"Bros before hos!"
"Miles I'm begging you, get out of my car, kay?" Sam put his hands together with a clap.
"You, you can't do this to me!"
"You gotta get out of my car right now."
I'm still not really sure how Sam got Miles out of the car, but the next thing I knew we were driving off after Mikaela, with poor Miles left standing on the curb.
"Who's gonna come around," the radio sang, and I thought about how nice Bumblebee was for doing this.
"Mikaela!" Sam called out as he drove up to her. "It's Sam!"
"When you break?"
"Witwicky?" Sam tried to get her to remember his name, while she didn't even look at him. "I hope I didn't get you stranded or anything." Which made me wonder why he'd say that. He hadn't caused her and Trent's disagreement. Then again, he didn't know that. "You sure? So listen I was wondering if-" I plugged my virgin ears. "I mean, uh, give ya a ride home. In my car, to your house."
When Mikaela hesitated, he leaned over and opened the door for her. "There ya go." He said as she got in, clearing his throat before driving away.
I grinned in anticipation. I didn't care much for the mushy stuff, but these two were cute.
"So, uh," Sam awkwardly tried to strike up a conversation, clearing his throat again.
"I can't believe that I'm here right now." Mikaela said as she looked out the window.
Sam looked at her, back, forward and back at her. "You can duck down if you want, it won't hurt my feelings." He said.
"Oh. No no no, I didn't mean," she gave a small laugh. "I didn't mean here with you, I just meant here, like in this situation."
"Oh."
"Just this same situation that I'm always in because, I don't know, I guess I just have a weakness for hot guys. For, for tight abs, and-nd-nd and big arms." She motioned with her hands, but she wouldn't look at Sam and I thought she might be embarrassed.
"Big arms?" Sam asked, and I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing at what was about to happen. "Well, uh, there's a couple new additions in the car. Like, I just put in that light there," he said, and pointed backwards in a way that he was very obviously flexing. What made it even better was the fact that he was looking at said arm, watching it shake as he tried to flex it bigger than it could physically handle. "And that disco ball." He pointed to the front. "So the light reflects off the disco ball."
I bit my lip harder and attempted to keep silent.
"Uh huh," Mikaela said slowly, the flexing not having gone unnoticed by her.
"Yeah."
After a moment of silence, Mikaela asked, "Are you, are you new to school? This year? It's your first year?"
"Oh, no no, uh, we've been in the same school since first grade." Sam said awkwardly.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"No."
"Yeah a long time."
"Well do, do we have any classes together?"
"Uh yeah, yeah, history, language arts, math, science-"
"Sam!" Mikaela remembered.
"Sam, yeah!"
"Sam Wilkicky."
"Wit. Wicky." Sam said patiently.
"Gawd you know what I'm so sorry, I just-"
"No it's cool."
"I just didn't recognize you."
"Yeah well you know that's understandable."
Seeing that Sam was basically failing, Bumblebee decided to take matters into his own hands. At that moment, the key in the ignition turned all by itself and the engine backfired.
"Oh no, no no no, no, no no, come on!" Sam franticly tried to fix the car. Then I had to bite back laughter again as the radio switched to an all too clicé song as it drove off the road. "Sorry, just workin' out the kinks, you know, new car. Oh!"
"And when I get that feeling," the radio sang.
"This radio is, like, you know, it's an old radio, too, so, look this isn't something that I, you know," Sam protested as Bumblebee stopped at the edge of a cliff, the sun romantically setting in the distance. Sam messed with the radio. "I can't get this radio to stop. Look I wouldn't try this on you-"
"Do I Got You." I giggled quietly from the back.
Whether he heard me or not, the radio did indeed switch to said song, and I had to clamp my hands over my mouth to keep my laughing fit silent.
"'Cause this is like a romantic, romantic thing that I'm not trying to do."
"So good!"
"Uh huh." Mikaela said as she put her hair back. I'm not sure how much she believed him.
"So good!"
"Not that you're not worthy of trying something like this on."
"No of course not."
"I got you!"
"I'm a friend of yours I'm not a romantic friend romantic friends do this. I mean, I'm not that friend, I mean, we... I could be."
"Ow! I feel good!"
"Just pop the hood." Mikaela said as she got out.
"Stupid, shutupshutupshutupshutup!" Sam whisper-yelled as he kicked the radio with his foot until Bumblebee eventually did stop, with somewhat of an indignant noise.
"Whoa," Mikaela said as she looked at the sweet engine under the hood, which I desperately wished I could see. I never knew much about cars; I was eager enough to learn, but no one had ever bothered to teach me. Wait, would wanting to see Bumblebee's engine be wrong? What part of him was that even? Augh! Never mind, I didn't want to know.
"Nice headers." She continued. "You've got a high-rise double-pump carburetor. That's…pretty impressive Sam."
"Double pump?" Sam asked.
"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster." Mikaela explained.
"Oh… I like to go faster." I made a face and grimaced as I knew that Sam was being a pervert.
"And it looks like your uh, your uh, distributor cap's a little loose." She went on, banging on said-thingy, oblivious as Sam gawked.
"Yeah, how'd you know that?"
"Uh my dad. He was a, he was a real grease monkey. He taught me all about this. I could take it all apart clean it put it back together."
"That's weird, I just wouldn't peg you for mechanical." Sam said before hiding his face behind Bumblebee's hood and breathing, "Oh my gawd."
"Well, you know I don't really broadcast it. Guys don't like it when you know more about cars than they do. Especially not Trent. He hates it."
"Yeah I'm cool with, uh, you know, females workin' on my engine. I prefer it acutally."
Prefer it actually? Oh my gosh Sam.
"Okay, you wanna fire it up for me?" Mikaela asked. "Thanks."
"Oh yeah, yeah no problem." Sam said as he quickly scurried around to the driver's seat and tried the ignition, without success. "You know I was, I was thinkin', if Trent's such a jerk, why do you, why do you hang out with him?"
Mikaela was silent for a moment, before she sighed and said, "You know what, I'm just uh, I'm gonna walk." With another sigh, she said, "Good luck with your car." She reached in, grabbed her purse, and started walking away.
"Alright." Sam said lamely as he watched her. "Walking's healthy, right?" he paused before running back into the car. "Oh gawd nononononononononono," he muttered as he tried desperately to get Bumblebee to work. "Come on, please. Please, you gotta work for me now. Don't let her walk away. Come on, come on, come on. Please, please."
'Unexpectedly', the engine roared to life. "Oo!" Sam exclaimed as the radio yelled, "Baby come back!" He leaped out, shut the hood, and yelled "Hey!" at Mikaela.
"Any kind of fool could see. There was something in everything about you,"
"Oh my gosh Bumblebee." I giggled at his song choice as Sam jumped back in, turned the car in a 180 and drove after Mikaela.
"Baby come back!"
"Hey!" Sam screamed again, and I knew that Mikaela was trying to hide a smile.
"You can blame it all on me. I was wrong,"
"Wait a second!" Sam said as he pulled up in front of her.
"And I just can't live without you."
It was dark by the time Sam pulled up the road to Mikaela's house. Bumblebee hadn't given Sam any more problems, much to said boy's relief, but had taken his time in getting the two there.
"Ahem, there it is." Sam stated as he parked in front of her house.
"… I had fun, um, so, you know, thanks for listening." Mikaela said, looking over at Sam.
"Oh yeah, yeah."
"You…you think I'm shallow?" she asked somewhat reluctantly.
"You think you're shallow-nononononono," Sam was quick to comfort her. "I think, um, there's a lot more than meets the eye with you."
"… Okay." Mikaela nodded, giving a little laugh.
"Yeah."
"Alright I'll, I'll see you at school."
"Alright."
I knew Mikaela gave Sam one of her killer smiles before getting out of the car and heading up to her house.
"Stupid, that was a stupid line. There's more than meets the eye with you. Stupid." Sam muttered to himself.
I heard the screen door squeak as Mikaela waved to Sam before going into her house.
"Oh gawd." Sam gave a little laugh as he started up his car again. "Oh my gawd I love my car."
Sam did the typical teenager thing and got home at the last possible minute, which is, to say, eleven. Once he'd parked Bumblebee in driveway and I was sure he'd gone back into the house, I let out a huge breath I didn't know I was holding. Groaning, I proceeded to drag myself out of the trunk into the main cabin of the car.
"You alright?" asked a voice form the radio.
"Yeah," I said, turning over onto my back so I could sit up and rub my legs. "Just stiff is all."
Next to me, the side door popped open quietly. "Wanna get out…stretch your legs?" Bumblebee asked.
I cautiously looked out the door. "What if someone sees me?" I asked.
"I'll keep watch." Bumblebee answered.
A bit hesitantly, I stepped out of the car as quietly as possible. I gasped in both pain and pleasure as I felt the blood returning to my legs. Exhaling, I crouched a bit as my legs began to tingle somewhat painfully. "Dang," I said, stomping my feet as lightly as I could to try and revive circulation. "Autobots are lucky they don't have blood. Well, I suppose Energon counts, but that's different, right?"
"How do you know so much about us?" Bumblebee asked as I walked around a bit, pleased that my legs were beginning to feel better now.
"Well, um," I hesitated. "It's…it's kind of weird… and uh, hard to believe-" I was cut off my a ginormous yawn that I could not contain. "Sorry," I said, my voice pitch changed by the yawn. "I, I was trying to say," I rubbed my eyes, which were beginning to get watery. "I-"
Bumblebee's radio whirred. "It can wait…you look tired… You've had a long day…you can tell us all…when the others get here."
I nodded sleepily. "Okay." I agreed. "Wait, but, don't you still have to go signal them? Like tonight?"
"Gotta wait till…everyone's asleep… Can't go…wakin' folks up."
"Mm," I made a small noise, trying to shake off my sleepiness. "So what do we do until then?"
Bumblebee sank on his axels a bit. "You sleep." He said. "While you can… You can wake up… when it's time to go."
"Are, are you sure you're okay with me sleeping in you?" I asked, a bit embarrassed.
"I don't mind… You get some rest now… Lots to do tomorrow."
He has no idea, I thought groggily, but complied. Crawling into the back seat, I curled up on the old leather cushions as I heard the door shut softly behind me. Despite being inside a living creature, I couldn't help but snuggle down and get comfortable. The seats were surprisingly warm, as if heated from within. "Thanks Bumblebee," I said before being interrupted by another yawn. "You know, you make a pretty good wingman."
"I do not know that word… What does it mean?" Bumblebee asked.
I laughed. "It's a guy who helps another guy get a girl." I explained. "And you played it pretty well tonight."
"Well…thanks…" he responded. "That guy…he needs help."
Laughing again, I answered, "Yeah, he sure does."
"Try to get some sleep… You'll need the energy."
"Okay." I said, my eyelids sinking over m tired, watery eyes. "Goodnight Bumblebee."
"Goodnight kiddo."
And for that first time that day, well, actually, for the first time in a long time, I felt…safe.
I know I know, that was a lot of dialog for a movie you've probably seen lots of times, but I thought it was necessary. Hopefully the stuff at the end that was actually mine made up for it at least a little bit.
Review please! I want to know what you guys think!