CHAPTER 16
Friends and Teachers

Mark both loved and hated his new school, for varying reasons. For one, he hated the fact that he was away from the friends he had grown up with. But on the other, the students had all welcomed him with mostly open arms. There were a few exceptions, but for the most part, the students seemed to be friendly, allowing him to cultivate a small group of new friends. Despite the fact that he had skipped a single grade, fifth to be exact, and therefore had started high school at thirteen rather than fourteen, making him one of the youngest around. The closest one he had made so far was a young man around his age named Kenny, who had been the first person to introduce himself, and the closest friend he had. And on the other hand, he had Tess Yeager, who, although in the last month of her senior year, had tried her best to make him feel welcome.

Even if she still found it a little strange that he had spent a few weeks in her barn. "Mark!" Mark's head shot up as Tessa pulled him out of his thoughts, which had been cultivating over lunch "You okay? I've been talking to you for the last five minutes." She cocked an eyebrow "Are you not getting enough sleep over there at NEST?"

Kenny's green eyes turned to meet Mark's as he blew a strand of blond hair away. He waved a hand in front of Mark playfully as the boy gently smacked it away. Kenny rolled his eyes. "Nah, he's just being a space cadet." He added, sipping on his milk carton slightly "Then again, I don't exactly live on a military base with a bunch of giant robots, so..." He began.

"I'm fine." Mark replied "I just was thinking about stuff..." He explained "Things at the base are fine if you just forget that jerk, Coulton." He scoffed as he said the man's name, it had tasted like venom to him "What's up Tess, everything okay?"

Tessa nodded her head, taking another spoonful of spaghetti, or what Mark hoped was spaghetti. She locked eyes with Mark, and stared at him awkwardly for a long moment before speaking. "Dad wants to invite you over for dinner some time this week." Mark's eyebrows lifted a bit "Shane'll be there too, and he figures you could maybe use a homecooked, actual meal for once." Mark chuckled a little "Plus, Bee kind of misses you."

"So he's not annoyed that I was a stowaway in his barn?"

"Nah, he gets it." Tessa replied with a small smile "As best as he can, anyway." She paused a moment "So what do you say? Bee could pick us both up on Friday and drive us over." She looked at Kenny after a moment, a tinge of guilt "You can come too if you want, Kenny. Don't want you to feel left out, and I'm sure dad won't really care, I'm going to be cooking anyway."

Kenny put his hands behind his head, and looked thoughtful a moment. "Do I get to ride in the Autobot too? Because seriously, Tess. I feel a little left out of the giant robot stuff." Tessa rolled her eyes, and nodded her head "Sweet, I'm there, next to getting on-base this could be legit the best day of my life." Mark laughed a little at that "What? Don't act like the Autobots aren't awesome just because you live with them."

"Other than the giant robot thing, they're pretty normal guys." Mark replied "But I get it, the first time I ran into Hound, I practically pissed my pants. It's pretty exciting." Tessa gave a disgusted look at the notion "What? You've seen even bigger ones than I have. Don't act like it isn't awesome." Tessa shook her head "You're too serious all the time."

"I was too busy trying not to die." Tessa replied "Optimus literally had a cannon pulled on my dad and I at the time."

"I'm so jealous you actually got to meet Optimus Prime." Kenny stated for the fifth time since he met Tessa.

Mark rolled his eyes, and stood with his empty tray, starting towards the trash can. As he made his way over, he found himself nearly knocking over a young woman. "I am so sorry!" Mark stuttered "I didn't see you..." His heart nearly stopped as he looked up at the girl "Coming."

The girl was the most beautiful girl Mark had ever seen, and he had seen a lot of girls. She was tall and African American, with startling auburn eyes and wavy brown hair, with a smile that looked like it could have sparkled if the light hit her teeth. Though Mark didn't try to stare too hard, she seemed to look a good year or two older than him. "It's fine." The girl replied "I was just kinda in a rush, I'm meeting some friends." She added politely "If anything I should really apologize to you."

Mark chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Right... Yeah, you're fine." He shook his head "I mean it's fine!" The girl giggled "I'm just going to shut up now." He threw the remainder of his lunch away "I won't keep you any longer, seeyah."

"Bye."

As he rushed back to where Tessa, Kenny, and their friends were sitting, Tessa raised an eyebrow. "Maria Abelli, huh?" Tessa asked, Mark's face flushed a bit "She's cute, but don't press your luck. She's a junior, and trust me, a lot of guys have their eyes on her." Mark turned back to the girl, Maria, for a moment as she walked out the door of the cafeteria "You'd have a better shot with me, and I'm taken."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Mark flicked her arm slightly.

"You know I didn't mean it that way."

As the conversation turned back to other things, Mark looked over his shoulder once again. Maria, he was definitely going to have to remember that name, or at least try to.

...

Hound sighed as Mark pulled back into NEST base later that day with Sideswipe. He stared around, making sure the yet again "visiting" Coulton was not around before giving a warm smile as the boy climbed out. "Afternoon, Mark. Sorry I couldn't pick you up today, I've had a lot of work." Hound noted as Mark gave a "thank you" to Sideswipe before jogging over to stand beside Hound " I actually still have work to do as we speak, so Sideswipe is going to keep you company for a while." He noted, then added "How was school?"

"It was school." Mark shrugged "But seriously, you still have work? It wasn't because of last night, was it? I didn't mean to keep you aw-."

"Don't worry about it." Hound replied "Go have some fun with Sideswipe, Primus knows he enjoys the chance to screw around." He nodded calmly as said mech rolled up beside Mark and he started off "Don't do anything to get him arrested, Sides, that's all I ask."

"No promises."

Mark giggled a little as Sideswipe crossed his arms, and watched Hound leave. Mark knew the frontliner well enough by now, as he had guarded his foster family before he came there. And though they still weren't quite as thick as thieves, he did like the mech quite a bit. "So, since I've got sparksitting duty, y'know we're gonna have fun." He noted "What do ye say, kid? Video games? Pranks? I bet we could even get that one stuck up aft."

Somehow, Mark wasn't surprised that Sideswipe thought of pranking Coulton. Though the idea was tempting, he also didn't want to get arrested either, and thus wrote off the idea almost instantly. "Nah, let's not get Hound mad that we got arrested." Mark crossed his arms too "How about we go driving or something? You know, drifiting out in the boondocks?"

"I heard that." Crosshairs noted as he walked by "If you take him drag racing, Hound will tan your hide."

Mark nearly flipped Crosshairs off, but simply sighed as he took a seat. He stared around the Autobot's main area slightly, thinking through what he could do. "I got an idea." Sideswipe snapped one of his large metal fingers with an "aha" "Why don't we go into town and see a movie or something? I hear that new Planet of the Apes movie is getting good reviews." He added "And that's a pretty fragging awesome series."

"You like Planet of the Apes?" Mark asked.

"Why? Don't you?"

Mark shrugged, he hadn't actually seen the series, though he heard good things. "I got a better idea." Mark replied "Sides, you're a big combat instructor, kinda, right?" He asked, Sideswipe nodded his head in response to that "Can you teach me to fight?" Sideswipe raised an optic ridge "What? If I'm going to live here, I wanna know how to defend myself if things ever go wrong."

Sideswipe gave Mark a look of confusion as he rolled back and forth slightly. "You want me to try and teach a human barely out of sparklinghood to fight?" Sideswipe asked with a hint of amusement "Kid, don't take this the wrong way, but you're a youngling. Any threat, even human, is going to hand you your aft regardless." Mark grimaced at that "It's the truth! You were only barely fourteen when we met you."

"I'm fourteen and five months." Mark tried.

"Exactly." Sideswipe replied "Point being, you're only barely a youngling."

"Stop being a jerk!" Mark shouted "Or are you just scared that I might actually be able to take you?"

Sideswipe looked down at Mark thoughtfully as he stroked his chin. It was clear that the mech didn't want to end up hurting him, and with good reason. To the mechs and most adults, he was still a young child, barely a teenager. Yet, people learned how to fight at younger ages, though probably in no way at Sideswipe's level. Or with weapons as he guessed might be involved. But deep inside, he knew he could do this if he tried. "Fine." Sideswipe finally replied "But don't say I didn't warn you. This isn't kid's stuff, if I'm going to teach you self defense I'm going to teach you serious self-defense."

"Bring it." Mark tried.

Less than thirty an hour later, Mark and Sideswipe had entered one of the training rooms. Mark tried his best to do the forms which Sideswipe had taught him, but only served to make himself look silly. He silently thanked God that Hound couldn't see his attempts at "striking" the air. He was pretty sure that the formidable fighter would have been laughing by now. "Well, that's not terrible." Sideswipe told him as his holoform, a tall, red haired man in his 30s approached him "But you want to hold your arms up more like this." He noted as he positioned his arms correctly "Okay, now release."

The punch Mark shot landed against the holoform's chest. Though it didn't do much, Sideswipe gave a small smirk. "Not bad. That's better form at least." He added "Give me another one-two." Mark swung at the air twice "Again." Mark obliged "Uppercut." Mark swung his fist up in a vertical motion "Thrust!" Sweat dripped down his brow at this point "Getting tired?"

"Is this all you're gonna show me?" Mark asked.

"Baby steps." Sideswipe replied "It's not like I'm gonna make you spar, or give you a weapon in the first hour, or day." He snorted, then noticed Mark's frown "Did you want me to teach you to fight, or did you just want to make more of a fool out of yourself?" Mark grimaced, which was all the answer Sideswipe needed "Thought so..." He then added "We can still catch a movie..."

"No." Sideswipe's optic ridges shot up at Mark's reply "Keep going, I want to learn."

Sideswipe wasn't sure if it was determination, or sheer stubbornness in the boy, but he couldn't help but grin. He looked down at Mark, and nodded his head. "There's the tough guy I want to see." Mark smiled a little at that response "Did I tell you to lower your arms? Get them back into position, or you're already beaten down before you've even started!" Mark put his fists up again "Now, show me that jab."

As Mark continued to follow the orders of Sideswipe, neither noticed as Hound stopped at the window to the training room. He watched the two silently for a long moment, smiling with pride, that was his boy, never giving up. And something told him, as he continued on his way, that it would be that drive that would allow Mark to become a formidable fighter in his own right. "He's looking good." He told Sideswipe over his comm link "Try not to work him up too bad though, he'll get too exhausted."

"No pain, no gain." Sideswipe replied over comm cheekily "You and Ironhide never made me stop when I was exhausted."

"He has school tomorrow, and homework."

"Party pooper." Sideswipe snarked "Fine, I'll run him through a few more drills and call it a day."

"Thank you." Hound smirked "And good luck."

He couldn't wait to hear how the rest of the session went when they saw each other that night.