Chapter VII

"Mama was right; boys' brains are just mush!" She sat in front of the TV, leaving it off. She stared at her reflection for God knows how long until the doorbell rang. She snapped out of her small trance and got up to answer it. She opened the door and a giant, grey and white husky jumped on her. Isis endured it and rubbed the dog's ears.

"Hey, Tommy!" she said. "They treat you okay over at Ryan's? Good. Otherwise I'd go over there and kill them myself."

"You sound just like your mother," her dad said, walking in the door. Isis laughed, not knowing what to say to that exactly. She petted her dog's head and walked backwards so her dad could get in. "Where are the boys?"

"Uh…That's a good question…" Isis said truthfully. Her dad looked her with raised eyebrows.

"You lost two, rowdy, uncivilized boys?" he said. Isis scratched her head like she had seen Will Smith do on Fresh Prince.

"Maybe," she whimpered. Mr. Blanks sighed.

"Do I need to call the police?"

"I thought you wanted them gone," Isis joked. "Besides, they've been living on the streets since they were crawling; I think they can manage." Her dad shrugged.

"If you say so," he sighed. "I thought I could get him to the--Who in God's name is that?" The doorbell rang and he answered it. This time, instead of just Jazz and Tony standing in front of him, there was also a small, tan, teenage boy dressed in yellow with black stripes across them.

"Mr. Blanks, Austin. Austin, Mr. Blanks," Tony introduced. Austin bowed and walked inside.

"No," Isis' dad groaned. "No, no! No, NO!" he shouted, getting louder. "This ain't the orphanage! I was fixing to take you and him over there and now you bring me another stray!" He turned to Austin. "And what's your story?"

Austin stayed quiet. He looked at Jazz and Tony.

"Oh, Austin doesn't speak much," Tony said. "He doesn't talk to anyone unless he gets to know them a lot better."

"Okay, I'll cope with that," he said. Before he said anything else, Thomas jumped onto Austin and pinned him to the ground. The dog licked his face as Austin laughed.

"Down, Tom!" Isis said, grabbing the dog's collar. She pulled him off the yellow boy and he stood up, brushing the dog hair off his shirt. "I'm sorry about that, Austin." She took the dog outside and walked to Tony and whispered, "Who's he supposed to be?"

"That's Bumblebee," Tony said, smiling. "He sent out a distress signal over near the city, down in the sewers, and Jazz picked it up. We went to go get him."

"And, um, does he…need to…? She pointed to the new boy and then to her lips. Tony nodded with a sorry-charley face. Isis groaned. "Come on! Why don't ya have me date him while yer at it!"

"Isis, I'm gonna go upstairs and use the can," her dad said. "Are you sure you'll be okay down here with them?"

"I'll be fine, Pa," she said. Then mumbled in Tony's direction, "But I don't think you're gonna be!" Her dad gave a final huff and stomped upstairs. They all waited for the sound of the bathroom door closing and Austin spoke to Jazz in Cybertronian. Jazz replied back and Austin smiled at Isis. Isis glared at him and swore she felt herself growling in her throat.

"It's all right, Isis," Prowl whispered to her. "If he does anything, we'll make sure he pays for it."

"Good," Isis said back. "Because I'm not as forgivable as Dina."

She took a step forward and bent down so she was leveled with Austin. The boy moved quickly and kissed her. He held it longer than Prowl had held his kiss with her and let go.

"Whoa!" he said. His voice was a tiny-bit high-pitched. "You weren't kidding, Prowl!" Isis glared at the yellow boy.

"And what exactly did he tell you?" she snarled. Austin's eyes were wide and he gulped.

"Um…That…you…tasted good?" he said with a nervous smile. Isis smiled back in a wicked kind of way.

"Thanks," she said. "I appreciate the compliment. And remember not to talk to my dad. He thinks you're a mute."

Austin nodded his head and sucked his lips in. Jazz walked over to him and turned him around.

"Hey, Bee, ever heard of a video game before?" he said. Isis knew what was coming and decided to watch. Jazz set up the video game for his small buddy and they were out on the virtual track before anyone could say that really long, almost impossibly spelled word off of Mary Poppins. Austin was already speeding up ahead of Jazz and the dark-skinned boy tried to drive by fast by the yellow car that kept getting in front of him. The race ended to fast for Isis and Austin's half of the screen blared in green letters WINNER!

"You didn't even play this game!" Jazz said. "Well, I gotta accept that some are better than others. In this case, me." Isis turned around and stared wide-eyed at him.

"Excuse me?" she said. Austin started laughing. "After the whole scenario this morning when you started getting pissed off at Prowl for beating you thirty-something times?"

"Twenty-three, actually," Tony smirked.

"Hush up!" Jazz shouted back. Austin kept laughing until Jazz shot him a look as well and the boys bit his lip. They looked at each other for three long seconds until Jazz gave up and slumped back in the couch until his head was looking up to the ceiling.

"I'm done," he groaned. "I like battling D-cons more than I race."

"I don't know," Isis said in a child's tone. "You've only done virtual racing. I bet you could beat someone at a foot-race. Heck, by the size of your muscles, you could beat the Bee at wrestling!"

Austin looked at Jazz. "She saw your muscles?"

"My shirt was filled with dirt and I had to wash it!"

Austin turned to Isis. "This guy has made almost every excuse in the book, and that was probably number forty-nine."

"Shut up!" Jazz snapped to him. "We weren't talking to you!"

"But I was talking to her!"

"Boys!" Isis screamed. Both teenagers stopped yelling at each other and looked at her. "I would very much appreciate it if you'd stop fighting right now. Dad's still-"

"What was that noise?"

"-coming down the stairs…"

"I thought I heard someone fighting," her dad said. "Everything okay here?"

"Yes, Pa, they're fine," Isis sighed. "Jazz just got a little upset 'cause Austin beat him at a video game." She saw Jazz stick a tongue out towards the yellow boy.

"Boys be boys, eh?" Blanks laughed. "Well, boys, get in the truck. I'm taking you to a friend of a friend's."

©

"Well, well, well. I didn't know you carried stray, Huss," said Blanks' friend. He dropped the boys off to meet a woman who ran an orphanage with her husband. "Was there a change of heart or something?"

"Actually, I was campin' with my girl and a friend of hers," Blanks explained. "They found two of the boys and both of them brought the third. I was wondering, Jenny, if you had any room to keep 'em."

"Plenty!" Jenny cheered. She looked at the boys and her smile became wider. "And what are your names?"

"I'm Jasper, Miss," said the boy, holding out his hand. "But you can call me Jazz."

"Cute!" Jenny said, shaking his hand. "Really cute." She turned to the other. "And you?"

"Anthony, or Tony," he said. She also shook his hand and looked at the last boy. "And what about you?"

The boy took off his cap and showed his bright yellow hair. "You can call me whatever you like," he said to joke. Jenny giggled. Jazz patted the boy on the back.

"This is Austin," he introduced for him. "Apparently he likes you."

"He didn't say anything to me," Blanks mumbled. "Well, Jenny, I'll leave these boys to you. If you have any trouble with them, you know my number."

"Thanks, Huss," she said.

"Thanks!" the boys said.

"Okay, boys, you want to see the room?" she said. "Every kid sleeps together."

"Dang!" Austin said, making another joke. Jenny laughed.

"You have a good sense of humor," she complimented. "But that wasn't what I meant. Each kid has a separate bed. I'll have the others explain the rules to you. Right now, they're all out on the playground in the backyard. You're welcome to say hi to them."

"Thanks, Jen," said Tony. He whispered to the boys to follow him as Jenny walked back to the orphanage to make some phone calls. The trio walked into the playground. They looked around to see a basketball court, a swing set, a sandbox, and a see-saw. One of the kids on the court noticed the three newbies and stopped dribbling the ball. Other did the same and soon every kid in the playground was staring at them. Austin leaned over to Tony.

"Any more bright ideas, ninja 'bot?" he whispered. Before he could say anything, two kids, about their age, walked up to them and crossed their arms.

"And who are you?" said one. He was obviously the leader of the small band. When Tony didn't answer, he said it louder. "Who are you?!"

"I'm Anthony," the black-dressed boy said. He pointed to both as he introduced them. "That's Jasper and that's Austin."

"And what are you doing here?" the bully asked.

"Like everyone else; to get adopted," Austin spoke up. The large bully glared at him.

"Your mommy don't want you no more?" A wicked smile came across his face and Austin lashed out at him, but was held back by Tony and Jazz.

"Lemme at 'im!" the small boy shouted. The bully stuck his tongue out at him, which made him even angrier. "You wanna go? Bring it, toothpick!"

"Cool it, 'Bee," Jazz said. It took Austin a small amount of five seconds to loosen up and tone down his anger just a bit. Tony turned to the bully and stared at him through his visors.

"I don' know what your problem is," he said, "but you don't need to bring it on us. If you have an issue, take it over to that tree near the sandbox and take your anger out on that." Tony walked around the bully and towards the tree. He climbed up to the top branch, the kids gazing at him in wonder and tried to figure out how he did that. Some of the younger ones tried to do the same thing to climb to the top with him.

"Yo, dude!" said a boy on the court. He was talking to Jazz. "One-on-one?"

Jazz looked at the bully but answered to the kid. "Sure. Beats standing 'round here all day staring at an underdog." He brushed by the large kid and walked over to the court. "I gotta warn ya, I play rough!"

Austin was the last to go. The bully stared at him and Austin stared nervously back. He found the courage to move and waltzed around him. He kept looking at him as he moved. "I'm just…gonna…yeah." He ran over to a bench on the other side of the court to watch Jazz. The game was a shirts vs. skins. Jazz was one of the skins; his shirt was off but he kept his visors on. He dribbled the ball and did a serpentine through the boys to slam dunk the ball. He jumped up high and shot it in the basket. He hung there on the rim.

"How'd you do that!" the boy from before said with excitement. Jazz let go of the rim and landed on the front part of his feet. He stood up and turned around to answer him.

"Practice," he said with a smile. He threw the ball to him. "You wanna try it?"

"I couldn't do it yesterday, I can't do it now."

"Try it again." The boy looked at the ball and then up to the net. He ran forward to the net. Jazz kept his focus on the boy and clasped his hands together, two fingers standing upright. With his help, the boy jumped and was lifted into the air and made a slam dunk.

"I did it!" he whooped. The court cheered and Jazz let go of his focus and let the boy release himself from the rim and fall down to the concrete. "I did it, man!"

"Name's Jasper," he said. "And congrats."

"I'm Daniel. And I'm here because my family is." Jazz raised an eyebrow.

"Your family's looking for someone?"

"Yeah! My mama's over there." She pointed to a white-and-grey-haired black woman looking out at both of them. "My daddy stayed home. Wanna meet Mama?"

"Uh…Sure! Why not?"

Daniel grabbed Jazz's hand and dragged him over to the lady. "Mom, this is Jasper."

"Please, call me Jazz," said the boy, holding out his hand.

"It's very nice to meet you, Jazz. I'm Clover," she said, a smile on her face. "You like playing basketball?"

"I never played."

"Never played?" the woman said, both her eyebrows raised. "Then you must have a talent! My other son is much taller than myself and wasn't able to do that until he was that height."

Jazz shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess." He flashed another smile and ran back to the court. Clover watched the boys play with others and knew just what to do.

In a couple of moments, Jazz heard the familiar voice Dina shout "Jazzy, baby!" He turned around to see her arms wide open for a hug. The boy ran over to her and gave her the best one he could and a kiss on the forehead.

"Did I miss something?" she said.

"Just a basketball game."

"Who won?"

Jazz raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, right. Duh!"

"Jazz!" Tony shouted from the orphan house. He came running down the steps and stopped dead in front of him. "Jenny wants to see you."

"What for?"

Tony only shrugged and ran to a tree to climb in. Jazz said bye to Dina and walked sheepishly inside. The house wasn't too bad; it just needed a few toys and crayons picked up from here and there. He saw Jenny in the middle of what looked like the living room and Clover on the couch, surrounded by three kids.

"Hello, Jasper," Clover said with a wide smile.

"What's the occasion?"

"You're being adopted."

xXx

Dina: Way to go, Snazzy Jazzy!

Isis: *fake crying with a tissue* Our little robot-dude's growing up. *sniff*