Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or X-Men.

Chapter One – Antiques for Sale

'Could the clock go any slower?' A young girl with long, wavy, red hair thought as her bright golden eyes watched the second hand of the clock slowly tick along. Her name was Corona Summers and she was currently in the last stretch of her eleventh grade history class. There were only a few minutes left in class but it seemed the teacher wished to continue on with the genealogy presentations that he had assigned to the class over a month ago. If she were being perfectly honest, Corona did not enjoy the project one bit, just like every other teenager in her class. However, she disliked it, not because she had to do it or that it was hard, but because there was no one she found all that interesting in her gene pool except for a few. Of course, of those few that Corona did find interesting, most of them would only reveal things about herself that she needed to keep quiet about. Thankfully, she had at least one "normal" person in her family tree she could talk about without raising any unwanted questions.

"Miss Summers, time is not going to go any faster, no matter how much you stare at that clock," the teacher said, snapping the girl out of her daze. Snickers could be heard from around the room, much to her embarrassment. The whispers she heard did not help either.

A small blush dusted her smooth, pale cheeks as she gave a sheepish smile to the teacher. "Of course, Mr. Hosney," she replied though she disagreed with the man wholeheartedly.

Mr. Hosney shook his head with a sigh before calling up the next person to do their report. "Okay, Mr. Witwicky, you're up." A boy with short brown hair and dark eyes stood up from two seats away from her and made his way to the front of the class with his backpack and papers. Corona couldn't say that she and her cousin Sam Witwicky were the best of friends or anything but in the time since she moved in with her aunt's family over a year prior, the two had grown rather close. Even if it did take him a while to get used to her…uniqueness.

"Sorry," Sam apologized as he stumbled to the front and began to dump everything he was carrying with him onto the table in front of him. "I have a lot of stuff." Once he got his belonging rearranged, he started to talk once more. "For my genealogy report," he began before he was cut off by a yellow rubber band hitting him in the neck. Corona winced slightly as a shred of guilt passed through her. She could have easily stopped the offending piece of material before it hit the poor boy but that could have – would have - put her in a bad position. Especially since there were several in her school who were less than fond of her kind. Thankfully, she and Sam had discussed this before and he understood her position as best he could. Though, it didn't stop the guilt and the slight self-loathing she sometimes felt.

"Who did…Who did that?" the teacher huffed in annoyance at the immaturity of the adolescents gathered in his classroom. "People! Responsibility!" Corona quirked an eyebrow at the teacher's statement. 'Seriously? That's all he has to say? Responsibility?' Corona glanced over at her cousin with a curious and worried gaze. 'Are you alright?'

To his credit, Sam didn't react how most people do when they suddenly hear another voice in their head as rubbed his neck for a few seconds where the rubber band had hit. Sam simply glanced up to meet her gaze and gave a slight smile before once again trying to start his presentation. Corona gave a smile of her own as she casually propped her head into the palm of her hand as she listened to her cousin begin to talk about his paternal great-great-grandfather. "Okay…Um….So for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer," Sam reached out to grab a map that he had brought with him. "In fact, he was one of the first to explore the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took 41 brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So that's the story, right?" Sam folds the map and places it to the side before moving to show some of the items he had previously dumped out onto the table before him. "And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by 19th century seamen." The class laughed at the last word in Sam's sentence. The teacher said nothing though he threw up a small stop sign in an attempt to quiet the students. Sam, however, was not deterred as he continued speaking. 'Don't do it, Sam,' Corona warned the boy, knowing exactly what he was about to do. "This here is a quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way." 'And you did it,' she huffed as Sam held up another item. 'Shut up', came his quick reply while he carried on with attempting to auction off the old navigation equipment. "Like the, uh, sextant here. Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain." Next, Sam held up a pair of glasses that appeared to have the lenses cracked. "These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things."

"Are you going to sell me his liver?" Mr. Hosney interrupted. "Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the 11th grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing."

Sam nodded in understanding though Corona could tell he didn't particularly care at this moment. "I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take . I take cold hard cash too." The teacher threw his head back in exasperation as the class laughed. "And the compass makes a great gift for Columbus Day."

"Sam!"

"Sorry," the brunette quickly apologized before he continued on to finish his report. "Unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in the psycho ward," he held up a few old news articles about Captain Witwicky, "drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some giant ice man that he though he discovered," he finished up as the bell rang to let school out for the day.

"Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear," Mr. Hosney announced as students began to file out of the classroom. Corona grabbed her backpack as she stood up from her desk. Slowly she made her way towards the front where Sam still stood trying to convince passing students to by his grandfather's navigational equipment.

"You know, I don't think many teenagers here are going to be interested in buying antiques," Corona told the boy with a small, playful smile as she glanced over the items on the table. Her eyes landed on the news articles with the strange drawings. Her bright golden eyes narrowed slightly as she studied the images. She had seen them before when Sam had first started researching his project and she had always found the strange symbols to be rather fascinating. Every time she saw them, her brain would start trying to translate them. So far, most of it made little sense to her, but she figured that if perhaps she was given more time to look over them further, she would begin to understand. Corona briefly wondered what the professor would think about the images. Or what her mother would have thought.

"Yeah, well, I got to try, you know," Sam said causing her to move her gaze back up to him. "You wouldn't happen to be interested in helping your dear favorite cousin out, would you Cori?" Sam asked her hopefully.

"I have to hand it to you, Sam," she began with a laugh, "You are one persistent boy." Her eyes fell on his grandfather's glasses. She felt a strange tugging on her mind, as if she were being told in a subtle manner that the object was somehow important. She had felt the sensation before when she had first laid eyes on the pair of broken spectacles so it wasn't entirely unexpected. Though back then she had decided to ignore the feeling and her own curiosity, but now, with the insistent tugging on her mind, she no longer decided to do so. Picking them up so she could get a better look, Corona noticed something strange about them. Surrounding the cracks on the lenses were small, almost transparent symbols that greatly resembled the ones that had been drawn. Corona wasn't really surprised that Sam didn't mention the symbols on the glasses. He, along with most anyone else who had seen the glasses up close, probably couldn't see them to even know that they were there. Corona found herself once again translating the symbols. 'Strange,' she thought, 'They appear to be coordinates. But I could be wrong. I'll have to look into it later on.' Glancing back up, she found Sam talking with Mr. Hosney about his grade. And from the disappointed look on Sam's face, she would have to say it wasn't going well.

"A B-?" Sam repeats as if it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

"You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom," Mr. Hosney tries to justify the grade he's given Sam.

"Kids enjoy…" Sam starts before he realizes what he's saying and goes in another direction to try and convince the teacher to up his grade. "Can you do me a favor? Can you look out that window for a second?" Sam askes as he gestures towards the window and points to something, or someone, outside. "You see my father?" Mr. Hosney and Corona both glance outside to see Sam's father and Corona's uncle sitting in a green convertible. "He's the guy in the green car."

"Yeah," the teacher answers before switching his gaze back to Sam.

"Well, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy," Sam began. Corona closed her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together to keep from laughing out loud. She already knew where the brunette was going with this. The teacher on the other hand sighed in exasperation as he ran a hand down his face. "He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me $2000 and three A's." Okay? I got the two thousand and I got two A's." Sam leaned away from the teacher's desk as he brought his hands up in the air. "Okay? Here's the dream." Sam holds his hands as if he were grasping something invisible between them. "Your B-. Pfft. Dream gone. Kaput." His hands fling apart as if the invisible object in his hands suddenly exploded or vanished. "Sir, just ask yourself…" Sam paused for a brief second, trying to think of what to say that would end in his favor. "What would Jesus do?"

Corona threw a hand over her mouth as she heard the last phrase come out of Sam's mouth. 'Did he really just say that?' She wondered briefly as she watched Mr. Hosney reluctantly raise Sam's grade to an A-. When Sam turned to her, she grinned at the excited boy. "Congrats, Sam."

"Thanks, Cori," Sam returned with an even wider grin on his face. As he walked over to her and started gathering his stuff, he asked her, "So what are you still doing here? I figured you would have left already."

"Well, is that any way to treat a paying costumer?" Corona playfully asked as she waved the pair of glasses in the air.

Sam stared at her for a moment as if he was unsure if he had heard her correctly or not. "Wait…What?"

Corona rolled her eyes at the boy as she placed the glasses down so she could reach into her backpack. Taking out her wallet, she opened it up to see how much she had on her. "Hm…How about sixty?"

"Seriously?" The brunette asked her, still unsure if the red head was just messing with him or she actually wanted to buy his grandfather's cracked glasses.

"Seriously," Corona replied as she pulled out a three twenty dollar bills. "So? Do you accept or not?" She held the money in the air for the boy to take.

"Deal." Sam smiled as he snatched the money out of her hand and handed her the glasses along with its case. "Thanks again Cori. You're the best."

Corona laughed as she said, "Glad you noticed!" The two walked out of the classroom together and made their way down the hall. It was a little less crowded than usual but that was expected since it was after school and most people had already left for their cars or the busses.

"So why do you want to buy them anyways? Got a thing for old stuff?" Sam questioned as they walked.

"Well, I've got to prevent you from getting rid of all of your family heirlooms somehow don't I? When you're older, I'll give them back so you can give them to your kid who will probably try the exact same thing you are now."

Sam glanced over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Really? You bought them so I wouldn't sell them?"

"If you want to put it that way…then yes," Corona answered with a teasing smile. "You can thank me later."

Sam snorted, "Yeah, I doubt that."

Corona rolled her eyes. "We'll see."

Sam simply shook his head. "Anyways….I've been thinking…" he started before trailing off, his dark green eyes briefly flickering towards her then to the floor.

Corona spared him a glance before looking back ahead. "Oh, dear… Now why would you go a do a thing like that for, Sammy?" Sam shot her a look that she supposes was meant to be a scowl but turned into more of a pout.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Funny," Sam sneered at her as he rolled his eyes.

Corona gave a slight chuckle before she asked, "Well, are you going to tell me what you've been thinking about or would you prefer for me to read your mind?"

"Well…I was thinking maybe you would like to come with me and dad to pick out a car instead of going straight home," Sam finally told her.

Corona raised cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why?"

Sam scratched the back of his head as he answered her. "Well you're a girl, right?"

Corona looked down at her breasts before glancing back at the brunette with a bland look. Sure, she wasn't exactly a D-cup, but she was by no means flat chested. "That doesn't even warrant an answer."

Sam at least had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry, that came out wrong."

Corona sighed, "Anyways… you were saying?"

"Right… Well, I could really use the opinion of a girl. And despite you being my cousin, you're also my only real female friend," Sam explained as he rubbed the back of his neck in what Corona could feel was slight embarrassment. "So, I thought maybe…"

"That I could help you pick out something that might give you a chance of impressing a certain brunette bombshell?"

Sam started nodded as his cheeks flushed a slight red at the mention of his crush, "Yeah…Wait! No! I'm not….I'm not trying to impress…"

Corona bit back her laughter as she watched her younger cousin stumble slightly over his words. She gave a slight humming sound, as if she were thinking. "Weelll..." she drawled out before saying, "I don't know Sam."

Sam deflated a little thinking that she had declined his request. "Yeah, okay. I understand."

Corona chuckled as she shook her head slightly, "I didn't say no, Sammy. But what if Uncle Ron wanted this to be some sort of father-son bonding thing?"

"Yeah, right," Sam snorted at the thought. The brunette sent her a smile. "Tell you what? Why don't you go ahead to your car and wait there? I'll ask dad and send you a text. That cool with you?"

The two stopped at the front door of the school and turned to each other. "Sure. That'll be fine."

Sam nodded, "Okay, great! I'll text you in a few, Cori." The boy waved as he rushed out of the building, leaving the red head standing alone.

Corona shook her head with a small laugh before also stepping outside and walking to the parking lot where her own black 2006 Ford Mustang sat waiting for her. Unlocking her car, she slid into the driver's seat with ease, gently tossing her backpack onto the passenger's seat. She grabbed her cell phone as she waited for Sam to send her text. As she sat there waiting, Corona started to feel the same tugging on her mind as before. Biting her lip, she glanced over to where her backpack lay. Poking out of the bag was the eyeglass case that she had just purchased from Sam. Glancing away she closed her eyes and leaned back against the head rest. Letting out a sight, Corona couldn't help but ask out loud, "Just what have I gotten myself into this time?"

A/N: So, that was the first chapter. I've had this story floating around in my head for a very long time now. I hope you've enjoyed it so far. Let me know what you think!

Fun Fact: Corona was not originally Sam's cousin but simply a friend.