Chapter VIII

Isis sat crisscross on top of her bed, making the motion Jazz showed her to contact her mom. There she was again, in that purple garden, her mom standing behind an unseen barrier.

Well, well, what brings you here, little miss? her mama said.

"Just to give you some good news! But first a gotta tell you that Jazz and Prowl brought home another one of their strays." Her mom crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "But we were going by the orphan house anyway. Remember Jenny?"

The red-head who don't know how to shut up?

"Yeah, that's her," Isis laughed. "Anyway, we dropped them all off at the orphanage and I just got a call from her that Jazz has already been adopted!"

That fast?! Amazing! Who's the family?

"Um, I think the lady's name is Clover Green."

Clover Green?! Oh, Lord, do I remember her! She always loved children. One of her kids actually came from her and two others are adopted. I sometimes wonder if that lady's an angel for wanting to take care of four children in one house. I know I couldn't be able to do that!

"She has four kids? Counting Jazz?"

Countin' Jazz, sweetie. So what about Prowl and that uh, new boy?

"His name's Bumblebee."

That's a cute name. Is he small?

"Yep, and please let me finish."

Sorry, dear.

"Prowl seems far away from getting adopted. He spends most of his time up in the tree where hardly anyone can see him. But 'Bee? I wouldn't be surprised if he was adopted just now!"

I wouldn't be surprised if Clover took him in already.

"I think Jazz was the last one. I got to talk to her on the phone and she said four kids is enough."

Good! Her reasonable side is still in there! What'd yer father say about it?

Isis did her mocking impression of her dad by lowering her voice. "'Not even three days an' that boy's taken. Who'd you say it was again? Clover?! God in Heaven, she don't know when to quit!' That's what he said."

Brava! her mom said, clapping at the impression. Isis took a bow and laughed with her. Did you get to talk to Jazz?

"Yeah! He said that he already misses me and hopes to see again and blah, blah, blah. And Clover said we could come by anytime; she said we still have her address. Do we?"

Oh! Yes! Did your father clean under our bed yet?

"No…?"

Look under the bed, there's a little white book with a pink flower on the cover. It's an address book. Look under 'G' and you'll find 'Green, Clover'. Her street and phone number should still be in there. And tell your father to clean up once in a while! I get tired of him procrastinating!

"I keep telling him that myself!"

Men! Once you find one, here are the qualities I want for ya; cooks when you can't, cleans up after himself, has a good paying job, not lazy when he gets home, when you have a kid I want him to spend some time with it as well, and will listen to you when it comes to family night or a date.

Isis laughed, remembering all the times her dad said he had to be somewhere for family night or forgot to get a reservation for a date. Typical…

"Well, that's all I came to tell you! The boys are gone and we got the house back! But I don't think it'll feel the same anymore."

Tell me about it. I had a dog when I was little, found it out on the streets. We decided to keep her until the family came to pick her up. When they did, the house fell silent and the place felt empty.

"Am I the only girl who finds their parents' 'when I was young' stories fun? What was the dog's name?"

Her name was Cherry. She was brown with red eyes and made me think about a chocolate covered strawberry each time I saw her. Okay, I think I held you up enough. Get on back!

"Bye, Mama!"

Isis opened her eyes and stood up from the her bed. She walked over to her parents' room to look under the bed. Sure enough, there was a small white book with a flower on the front. She opened it up and skipped to the section labeled "GHI" and found Green, Clover as the second entry. The address was posted and so was her phone number. Isis heard footsteps behind her and saw her dad standing right there.

"Where'd you find that?" he said. "I've been looking all over!"

"Mama says to clean your room," she said, smiling and handing the book to him.

©

Jazz sat in the car, staring out the window. Daniel, his new little brother, was playing with an airplane next to him. He was moving it around and making all kinds of motor noises. Kendra, the little sister who likes to be called Kenny, tried to tell him to stop and that it was making her angry. Daniel just stuck out his tongue and the girl whined.

"Mommy, Danny won't stop!" she said.

"Ignore him," said the boy in the passenger seat. His name was Derik, a strong, eighteen-year old man. He was the man of the house and sometimes acted more as a father than a brother to his siblings. But when it came to basketball, the boy would be back to his real age.

"But he keeps flying it front of my face!" Kenny whined again.

"Pretend he ain't there," Jazz muttered. "That's what I'm doin'."

"Jazz, honey, where did you say you were from?" Clover interrupted, changing subject.

"Uh, well…" The white Autobot tried to remember the lie that Tony had made for them. "Around here somewhere. A house burned down and my ma and pa died in it."

"You mean you're that Roca boy?"

If anyone could see, behind his visor, Jazz's eyes were wide. He remembered calling himself Jasper Roca when he walked up to Isis' father. Were the actual Roca's burned like he said?

"I heard that no one survived in there, and even their three-year old boy was killed. That was you?"

"Uh, yeah! That--that was me!" he chuckled nervously. Thank Primus that was true! "And what about you? Are these all your kids?"

"No; Kenny and Daniel were adopted like you. Only Derik is my real son. Derik, a year back, said he wanted a brother, so I gave him a brother. With Kendra, it was like how my mother did it. She had two boys, but she wanted a girl. Thinking that the next one would be a boy, she adopted me."

"You mean you don't know who your real parents are?"

"Nope. I don't need to. My mama was fine the way she was and I would never ask for another. Though I have been curious of who it was and why she gave me up…Anyway, you wanna know the reason you were adopted?"

"Shoot."

"There was something about you that made me. I don't know what it was, but it was like something told me to do it. Even Derik admits that he felt it."

"Mom, don't start," Derik grumbled. "You're starting to sound like a whacked out psychic."

"But it's true, ain't it?" Clover snapped back. Derik turned his head around to look at Jazz.

"My mom can be crazy sometimes. I say you better watch it."

"Shut up, Derik," Clover said in a playful manner. "There's the house."

Kendra reached across Jazz's lap to look out the window. "Who are those people, Mommy?"

"No clue. What the hell…? Pardon my speaking." Clover pulled up into the driveway and got out of the car. There was a man with a grey T-shirt standing with a silver-haired boy in a purple shirt. Jazz's body became tense and Derik could easily notice.

"You alright, man?" he said.

Jazz staying quiet for a while to watch Clover walk up to them to talk.

"Get back," Jazz whispered as if he was talking to her. "Move away, they gonna hurt you. Get back!"

"Jazzy?" Kenny muttered. She shook his arm, snapping him out of the trance. He looked at her and she only had a curious look on her face. "Do you know them?"

Jazz looked back out. The silver-haired boy turned his own head to look at him. A glare was clearly shown on his face. Jazz switched his look over to Clover who was talking to the man in the grey shirt.

"This is my house! You can't just dig up my property when you feel like it! My mama gave me this house!" she said.

"There's been records of rich minerals around here," said the man. "We're willing to give you two hundred thousand for the land."

"Dollars?!"

"No, Hershey's kisses!" the silver boy snapped. The man pushed him away.

"Yes, dollars," he said calmly. "That should be enough to buy a new house."

"I am not giving up this house for anything. My son grew up in this and the little ones didn't get a chance to get to know it!"

"Good, than they don't have to get so attached to it as you have."

"I'm going out there," Jazz grumbled. He opened his door, but Derik tried to call him back in. The man stopped talking to Clover and both he and the woman looked at him.

"Honey, go back to the car," she said, pointing to the old Mustang. Jazz stood where he was and looked at the silver boy. From this position he could see how pale he really was and figured he might as well be a vampire, while he was the werewolf, ready for the kill.

"And who might this be?' said the man with a tone in his voice.

"This is Jasper, my new son," Clover answered. "I adopted him just today."

"What's going on here?" Jazz grunted.

"We're taking your house," the boy smirked. Jazz didn't have that affect of glaring, thanks to his visors. But it was still scary to watch someone's face turn towards yours and not know what their expression was.

"Says who?" he snapped.

"Jazz, this is Mr. Hayes. He said that he might take the house--" She looked at the man. "--but I'm not goin' down without a fight."

"That'll be fun," the boy muttered to himself.

Hayes smiled. "We'll come back to you in a week. Make your decision or the mayor will make it for you."

Clover's mouth fell open. Knowing the mayor, she would have the entire ground torn out just to have the money. Hayes smiled and walked back to his black car, the sliver boy following.

"Have a good day, Ms. Green." He drove away and Jazz shouted to him.

"Yeah, dat's right! Drive away in yo little electric car!" he said. He heard a giggle and a laugh come from the smallest siblings. He looked at Clover. "They're not actually going to take the house, right?"

"They have a better chance than we," the woman sighed. She walked towards the house with the keys in her hand. Daniel and Kenny jumped out of the car and raced to be the first one in the house. Derik walked up to Jazz, who was still standing in the middle of the yard.

"Everything okay?"

"They're fixin' to take the house, man."

"They've been at us for a bit," Derik sighed. "But we'll chase 'em off. That little white boy looked like he hadn't eaten in days, and you 'n' me could take him out easy, huh?" Derik gave a laugh and patted Jazz on the back.

"Maybe!" he said. Derik smiled and ran into the house. Jazz looked down at the ground, bent towards it, and put his hand on it. "Rich in minerals. What a cover-up."

Late at night, when Jazz was sure everyone was sleeping, he walked out of the house and back to the front yard, at the exact spot where Hayes was standing. Behind him, though he didn't notice, was a little girl in her purple nightgown, watching him as he clasped his hands together and changed into his true form; a white robot.

"Whoa!" she gasped. Kenny quickly covered her mouth and looked to see if her "brother" had noticed. He didn't.

"Let's see what he thinks when he finds his 'minerals' had went up and gone," he muttered. The white Autobot bent to the ground and held a flat hand and inch above the grass. He started to hum and the ground below his hand started glowing a faint blue. Little pieces of a crystal risen up from the dirt and merged into his hand. After a few minutes, the process was done and he stood up to look at it. To Kendra, it was just a blue crystal that could glow like a firefly.

"Sorry, Megatron, but we're keeping this house," Jazz muttered, a sly smile on his face.

"Oh my God…" Kenny said, louder than she thought. Jazz felt a stiff cold shiver go up his back and turned around to see the still girl.

"Kenny?"

"Jazzy? What happened to you? Do you need a doctor?"

"Kenny, listen to me…" He walked towards her, but the girl kept taking steps back, afraid to get hurt. "You can't tell anyone. You promise? If anyone knows about this, I could be taken away forever."

"What are you?"

"I'm…" Jazz didn't have Prowl to back him up this time. He thought quickly and used one of the oldest excuses in his book. "A government experiment…gone wrong." He gave a smile to see if it would help."

"Is that why you're a robot?"

The white Autobot was glad that Kenny was so young to fall for anything. "Yes! That's why. So you can't tell anyone, promise?"

Kenny nodded her head. Jazz smiled again and changed back to his human holoform. He walked back inside the house and gave the girl a rub on her head.

"Go back to sleep, okay?"

"Mm-hm."

Jazz yawned, stretched out his arms, and found his way back to his room. Kenny looked behind her back to find that she had crossed her fingers during the promise. Usually she wouldn't think of that until later.

xXx

Isis: Damn it, Bri, you haven't uploaded in so long I thought you was dead!

Brianna: Cut the Medea act, Isis. I was on a long writer's block. Plus I was kinda nervous about going to my new school.

Dina: Why? It was just to the guidance.

Isis: And you were gone for three hours, what gives?

Brianna: Tire was flat, because someone left a screwdriver in the middle of the road. We called the tow truck, waited an hour at the school. I got to talk to a senior, though!

Dina: Get to it.

Brianna: Right. So we got the tow truck, went to a Krystal's across from Tire Kingdom, came back and waited in the room. You know what we did?

Isis: What?

Brianna: You gonna laugh; Sittin' in a car repair shop wathing Divorce Court.

Dina & Isis: *laughing hysterically*

[On another note, I wanna say that when Clover said she was adopted because of two brothers, that was a fact about my own mama. O-O And it was also true about the flat tire.]