Strange neighbours

Chapter two: Accidents will happen

Four days after the Jerolds had moved in, they had become quick friends with the Witwicky family. It was like they had been living next door to each other for years. Judy was over most days helping Sarah set up the rooms in the house. Samantha had already finished unpacking all her immediate things and did nothing but work on finishing her big project in the crammed space of her half of the garage and go roller-skating. Sarah kept pushing her to find a school she'd be interested in but little did Sarah know Samantha already had a school in mind. She hadn't told Sarah yet because she knew that her mother would enrol her instantly and she would be back at school before she had a chance to finish her project. She desperately wanted to finish it since she started it over a year ago.

"Mother dear, I'm going out roller-skating!" Samantha yelled from the front porch.
"Be careful Thaya!" Sarah called out through a second story window.
"Always do!" Samantha replied smiling at the way her mother said her nickname. It was the only one that had really suited her, and she was happy no one tried to call her Sammy. That nickname felt too childish to her.

…

Samantha felt the wind whip her fringe around her face and enjoyed the feeling before skating around some passing joggers. She zoomed around a corner at a low crouch to keep her speed fast then straightened up and moved to go faster. Managing to get to
her street in record time she whooped and ducked a low branch of the tree that stood in the front yard of an old lady's house with ease and skated on. Samantha had been roller-skating since she turned seven and had unwrapped her first pair of roller-skates.
Wanting to make a good record time she gritted her teeth and sped up zooming across the road to get to the side of the street she lived on. Thankfully no cars were around. Samantha sped along the sidewalk for a few meters until she skated right over a raised cement slab. The small jolt of uneven ground was enough for her to wobble and flail her arms around trying to get her balance back.

Samantha's stomach twisted as she realized she couldn't get her balance back so she shut her eyes and prepared to tumble. Pain erupted in her shins as they smashed straight into something and her eyes flew open as the force of her speed threw her over the bonnet of a car. A scream trailed after her body as she rolled across the metal and fell into the sidewalk. Her head cracked into the cement and white-hot pain erupted through her skull. The rest of her body was flung into the ground and she lay there for a moment before blinking white spots away that were clouding her vision. She lay where her body had been thrown and tried to make sense of what had just happened.
With her lungs heaving for air and her body shaking she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Pain ran down her spine and through her ribs, and she felt stinging across her shins, back and hands. Blood droplets were forming on her pants and
the skin on her hands was torn and bleeding. Instant dizziness hit her but she still ripped off her skates and pulled off her socks to stand. She used the car she had just flipped over as support as the dizziness got worse. Her bleeding hands left blood on the paint in thick red smudges. Anger boiled up as she turned and yelled at the driver,
"WHAT THE HELL! YOU COULD HAVE FUCKING KILLED ME!" Samantha stopped dead when she saw Sam standing white faced and horror struck next to the car. She had just flipped across his Camaro.
"Oh my god, are you okay? You're bleeding" he stared at her rooted to the spot.
"No thanks to you." She jeered, the dizziness making her want vomit. Samantha took a few large breaths trying to calm down and stop the head spins.

"Let me help you." Sam went to move towards her but she picked up her skates and started to limp towards her house.
"I can manage on my own!" She snarled over her shoulder ignoring his call for her to stop.

…

Sam took a few breaths as he watched her limp away then turned to Bumblebee in a stress induced rage.

"Bee what the hell are you doing driving off without telling me?!" Sam knew that Bumblebee sometimes needed some time to go out and "stretch his legs" but he always let Sam know when he was going. This sneaking out was new.

"Message from Starfleet Captain…new tasks ahead" Sam took a moment to figure out what he meant,

"You're going to see Optimus Prime? About what?"

"That's classified son." Sam ran a hand through his hair and look over the blood clinging to the yellow metal. He noticed scratch marks over the bonnet probably from Samantha's roller skates.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going?"

"Contac via…text message." Sam pulled out his phone and saw he had one new message from Bumblebee. It read "New mission Intel. Be back within the next 5 hours." He put the phone back into his pocket and looked the car over once more.

"Okay, let me clean you up before you leave first…I really hope she doesn't tell mom about this, she will strip your paint and ground me for months." Sam walked back up to the house and grabbed a cleaning cloth, drenched it in water then walked back and cleaned up the blood.

"I'll see you later tonight then Bee, please just be more careful next time, this fiasco isn't over yet." Sam said as he finished wiping the blood away with the rag. The engine revved in recognition and the Camaro rolled out the driveway and down the street. Sam walked back up to the house hoping that Samantha hadn't told her parents, he had no idea what to do about what had just happened at all.

…

Bumblebee vented his air systems as he drove away from Sam. He felt horrible for what had happened but thankful he had managed to make a cover story so quickly. If he hadn't hacked Sam's phone placing the text message there he would have no alibi.
Optimus hadn't called him at all. Bumblebee was going out to do a background check on the new residents of next door to see if they were any kind of threat to the Witwicky family, especially since that pretender Alice had attacked Sam a few months ago.

He'd been so preoccupied with checking Dave Jerold's family history while leaving the Witwicky property that he didn't even notice the girl until she had run into him. Bumblebee felt guilty and knew that Sam would be paying the price for his carelessness. He knew the girl was fine after doing multiple scans on her but his spark twisted with guilt. He needed to do something, anything to fix the problem he just caused. Even if it meant apologising to the girl in person so Sam would not pay the price for something he did not do.

Venting once more and settling his processors so he could concentrate on the task at hand, he would figure out what to do about the girl later, Bumblebee scanned a building he had pulled up next to until he found the signature he was looking for. Dave Jerold, Pharmaceutical Researcher. His research was the reason the family had moved. Bumblebee continued his monitoring of Dave and even followed the man home.

Bumblebee slid quietly back into the garage and analysed his results. None of the Jerold family had any kind of suspicious background but Bumblebee would still remain on guard until he was certain that the new family could be trusted and were no threat to the Witwickys.

A/N: I know the chapters are really short but once I get into the flow of this story they will be longer