A Drone Named Jeffrey

Chapter Six

Snow

"Are you sure you're not supposed to be school right now?"

"Of course!" Riley stuck her hand out of the window, letting the wind catch it as we sped down the empty highway. "Me and dad unanimously agreed that today was an official, unofficial snow day."

My engine roared as I let my speed gradually climb above the dreaded city speed limit of forty-five. It felt so good! "What's that?"

"An excuse to not go to school or work."

I swerved to the other side of the road as we came up to an old truck chugging along. It was nothing but a blur when we passed, and we left it in our dust. "I'm not complaining or anything, but why are we taking a snow day? Your dad is usually kicking you out of the house to make sure you go to school."

"It's just not a good day, Jeff." Riley pulled her hand back in and slouched in the seat, dragging her cap forward to cover her eyes. "Wake me up when we get to the Lookout."

"Whatever."

~VI~

The Lookout—as Riley and I had taken to calling it—was for all intents and purposes a very lackluster destination. It had sand like the rest of the desert; and rocks; and tiny, killer organic creatures. It was just a big rock that we could sit on and watch the occasional car pass by on the highway below, but it was still a favorite place to go to just be away from everyone else.

There were also little craters from where I had taken to shooting lizards or anything else that moved, but I had to do something that kept me in practice even if it meant I had to go searching for more Energon crystals earlier than usual.

I rolled up the path we had created from our frequent visits and paused where I had left Riley to scope out the area for unwanted company. I transformed and squatted down beside where she was setting up a circle of cardboard boxes. "So, we're using boring stationary targets today. How fun."

"Yep." Riley dropped some of the smaller rocks into a box to weigh it down. I shifted when she completely ignored my dreaded "snark." "Can you use that fancy blaster to completely incinerate it?"

I bent down to get a closer look at the boxes. "Sure. What's on the boxes?"

"Nothing."

Riley walked towards the edge of the Lookout, but I bent down even further, my chest scrapping against the ground, just to a good look at the pictures taped to the sides of the boxes. "I thought you valued these picture papers."

"Stop gawking at them and shoot!"

I stood up and looked down at Riley. Her brown eyes glared back up at me, but they somehow lacked the usual hardness that her glares possessed. I glanced back at the boxes, examining the similar pictures of a smiling female human on each of them, before I gave Riley a half-shrug.
"Whatever."

Riley didn't smile like she usually did when the "targets" were reduced to a black mark on the sand. And that somehow took the actual fun out of it for me too.