Sari Sumdac stepped out of bumblebee hesitantly. She turned around and grabbed her book bag, then looked over her shoulder at the crowd amassing near the entrance to the high school.

"I don't know if I'm ready for this, BB. Maybe we should just call this off. I mean, its not like I can't just be home schooled or anything." She said nervously.

"Nonsense. You'll be fine. Besides, you need to learn how to be a teen-age-er. Your dad sounded pretty serious about that, it must be a big deal for organics." The yellow car-robot assured her.

"Yeah, but, I just got turned into one three weeks ago, all kinds of strange stuff has happened to me, and I still haven't fully gotten control of my transforming," she said with trepidation in her voice, "Besides, I don't even know if they'll like me."

"Whats not to like. Other than the fact that your really a robot in disguise, that its."

Optimus interrupted over Bumblebee's com, "Bumblebee, we need you back to check out a disturbance over by the lake, we think one of the starscreams is trying to get something there."

"On it Optimus," he pulled out and into traffic, leaving Sari standing on the curb.

"Yeah, thanks for the support, BB. Really appreciating it."

With heavy steps, she walked up the stairs and into the large building. She made her way to the office through a veritable human obstacle course.

How on earth do these people get around here anyway.

As she stepped into the office, she saw the secretary sitting at her desk typing at the computer. "Hello, my name is Sari Sumdac. I'm a new...."

"Sit" the secretary interrupted.

Sari sat in the row of chairs. She waited for nearly ten minutes before the lady stopped typing and asked, "OK, now, who are you again."

"I'm Sari Sumdac, I'm new here and I wanted to figure out what my classes were."

"Right, give me a moment, here." she printed off a sheet. "This should tell you your classes, and where they are. If you have any further questions, don't bother me."

Sari took the paper and walked out of the room. "Jeez, what a bitch."

She walked the now empty hallway to her classroom. "Room, 189, *sigh* guess this is it."

Opening the door, she heard the teacher cut herself off mid sentence.

"Oh yes, thats right. Class, we have a new student today. Sari Sumdac. Everyone say hello to Sari." the middle aged woman picked up without missing a beat. The class mumbled its hello, then a boy in the third row raised his hand.

"You can't be Sari Sumdac, I've seen her on TV, and she's a lot younger than you are."

Think fast, Sari. "Heh, heh. That's my little sister, Sora. People are getting our names mixed up all the time."

The kid sat back in his chair and shrugged. "OK, then."

The teacher cleared her throat. "Alright then Sari, why don't you have a seat between Theodore and Patrick."

She walked to the desk and sat down, sliding her bag under her desk. "hi" she said to the kid next to her, Theodore. His skin was dark, as dark as hers, and his hair was cut close to his head. He wore a red sports coat with the name 'Thruster' on it.

He looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze. "Hi," he responded curtly, then turned his attention back to the front of the room.

"Don't mind Ted, there. He just isn't all that sociable like us normies." said the boy on the opposite side of her. He wore a blue hoodie and wore headphones around his neck. "You'll get used to it after a day or two."

If you knew anything about me, you wouldn't be calling me a 'normie', bub.

"Anyway," he continued, "names Patrick, as the teacher so kindly stated. Welcome to Detroit High."

******

Well, I'm not dead, I guess that's something. Sari thought as she waited on the curb for Bumblebee. Though I could have died from embarrassment after spilling my lunch on Ted like that.

Between Ted's hard stare and Patrick's just plain staring, she had felt awkward all day. Bad enough she sat next to both of them in EVERY SINGLE CLASS, but neither one seemed to be able to leave her alone. And she was certain that it wasn't because she was pretty or anything. She had met plenty of girls that day who had wanted to make that abundantly clear.

"Come on, BB. You were supposed to be hear 15 minutes ago." As if her words could summon the bot, her com link started to beep.

"Sari, I'm, uh, Sorry that I won't be able to pick you up *BOOM*. I'm *PEW PEW* a little busy with some decepticons right now. You'll have to walk. I'll take you out for Ice cream *BOOM* afterwards alright. Oh he... *BOOM*." the com link shut off there.

"Right, thanks a lot BB. I hope Ratchet has to use parts from a VW Bug to put you back together after this."

She started off in the direction of Sumdac tower, But soon got lost. She had never had to walk anywhere without following explosions and wreckage before. After wandering for an hour, she noticed that she was being followed.

She picked up her pace, then started to run. Getting desperate, she turned into an alleyway.

And ran into a gang of punk teens.

"Well, well, well. What have we here, boys." said one, the leader. Her eyes drifted immediately to his belt, which had a gun tucked into it. "I don't know about you, but this looks like the famous Sari Sumdac." He said as he took a step towards her.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. My dad's a powerful man." She said, trying to make her voice sound threatening, but the words trembled with fear.

"Oh, I'm a powerful man, to, love. I'm a powerful man to." he reached out and held her chin.

"Let GO OF ME." She screamed, shoving him to the ground and trying to run past him. Another one of the Punks grabbed her arm and held on to her.

"Not smart, love. Not smart at all." The leader said as he got back up.

"Do you like the sound of your own voice, or do you just have to repeat everything you say so you can remember what your talking about."

The Punk slapped her across the face. "No one insults Buzzsaw, You hear me, NO ONE."

"Leave the girl alone." someone said behind the Punks.

"Oh, yeah, Who's gonna make me."

"I am," Ted said as he came around the corner, "Now let her go before this gets physical."

"Oh, to late for that, Boys, Kick his ass."

The Punks let go of Sari, and moved in on Ted. One lunged at him with a Knife, but got kicked to the ground in a heartbeat. Another one tried to lunge at him, but he pushed the vagrant into another attacker. In just a few movements, they were all down and moaning on the ground.

"No one makes a fool out o' me EITHER," Buzzsaw said as he reached for his gun.

"LOOK OUT." Sari Shouted.

There was a flash of light, then a gunshot. Sari turned her head away from the scene, trying to will herself to transform. She couldn't, instead she just turned her head back... to see a red, cybertronian robot, just like her but different, standing just where Ted had been. The bullet had ricocheted of of his metal armor, and into the wall.

"Bad Move," the Robot said, "Now I'm gonna have to Kick your skid-plate like this, and my fists are metal this way."

Buzzsaw ran behind Sari and pointed the gun at her head. "Don't move, FREAK, or the princess gets it."

Sari almost panicked, but she knew that if she did, she was dead or worse. Focus, Sari, focus. Transform. You know you can do it. JUST DO IT.

"TRANSFORM!!!!"

Another flash, another gunshot. Sari's head jerked forward from the impact. After a moment that seemed like an eternity, she reached to the back of her head, and felt only solid metal.

She slowly turned toward the cowering Buzzsaw. Sari put one hand on her hip and waived a finger with the other one.

"Not smart. Y'know, if you don't start running now, your TOTALLY SLAGGED." With that she brought out her laser tonfas. She sliced the ground right in front of Buzzsaw, and he fell to the ground in fear. "What, your audio's not receiving or something, I SAID SCRAM, Buzzbut."

"What the frik is GOING ON IN THIS TOWN," the punk screamed as he ran down the alley way.

"Jeez, I was afraid I was gonna have to put it in binary before you got the point." Sari said.

A flash of light reminded her of the other presence. And she turned around to see normal Ted just standing there in complete awe.

"What? You never seen a teenage robot before." She said, crossing her arms and leaning to the side.

"Only when I look in a SLAGGIN MIRROR. How the hell did you do that. Seriously, what the hell are you." He said, a little bit of panic in his voice.

"Oh, isn't it obvious, I'm the same thing you are. That is of course if you know WHAT you are." She paused as if waiting for him to answer. "And if you don't I guess I'll just have to give you MY story and let you figure it out from there."

******

Three retelling later, Sari was getting annoyed with explaining stuff. It wasn't that Ted was dumb, at least he wasn't as dumb as most guys she'd known. But he certainly had some trouble believing in a liquid metal body, robotic souls called sparks, and he was particularly confused about how she could have gone from a little kid to a robo-teen in 10 seconds flat with just a key.

She had changed back about 3 minutes into the first telling of the story. And at the end of that, Ted had offered to walk her to Sumdac Tower. Now she was explaining to him that she had never been born (for the 4rth time) and had in fact been sort of... discovered.

"But I don't get it," Ted said, "I was born, hell, my mom has baby pictures of me and everything. I even saw my birth video. From what your telling me, I gotta be some kind of robot to begin with."

Sari stopped mid step. "Wait a minute, Precisely when did you start going all robot and stuff."

"Uh, right around the time your dad dissipatedly I would guess. Y'know, when your dad's tower got all messed up and that Megatron dude showed up." He said, puzzled.

Sari reached forward and touched a spot on his chest. "Hey, what are you doing." he said indignantly as his chest opened up to reveal a glowing crystal shard.

"You have an Allspark fragment in you." Sari said, awe in her voice. She reached forward and tried to grab it, but Ted grabbed her hand and shoved her away.

"WHAT THE SLAG DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING. Do you have any IDEA what would have happened if you took that thing out of me. I've tried, it don't work. I nearly died the last time, and the time before that. Its a part of me now." He shut his eyes as his chest closed, sealing the glowing shard within him once again.

"I.....I had no idea. I'm sorry, I was just curious." Sari said apologetically, "It wouldn't be the first time I almost slagged someone I liked." Her gaze fell to the ground and she started to walk on.

"You.... You like me." Ted said opening his eyes.

"Well.....yeah, I mean, aside from you being the ONLY other robo-human in all Detroit, probably the whole planet, you did save my life. How could I NOT like you after that."

Ted scratched the back of his head. "I uh, I guess you have a point there."

The kept on walking, talking as they went. They had just gotten onto the subject of TV shows when they got to Sumdac Tower.

"Well, I uh, I guess this is where I drop you off." Ted said.

"Yeah, about that, listen. Tomorrow, after school, I need to take you somewhere, no excuse for not coming. And I mean it, its important. And not a word of this to anyone at school either. I don't need to tell you how much we'd be the freaks of the year if everyone found out that we were both part robot." Sari said, using the bossy voice she had learned from three two years with the autobots.

"Yeah, my lips are sealed, where do you want me to meet you."

"Why not the alley where you saved me, I got a feeling that if those punks are still there tomorrow, they wont want to stick around after you and me show up again." She said as she walked into the building, leaving there on the side walk.

She rode the elevator up to the penthouse and stepped into her fathers lab, where Professor Sumdac was working on the Space Bridge with Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee.

"Good afternoon, Sari. How was school?" Her father asked as he welded some metal plates in place.

"It was fine, pretty good actually. I made new friends. Really the only thing bad about it was getting left at the curb for twenty minutes." She cast an accusing glare on Bumblebee.

"If its any consolation," the Robot offered, "Ratchet has been spending the whole afternoon putting me back together."

"Oh, its a start." She said as she walked back out the door. She snickered as she heard Ratchet make a comment about BB getting a taste of his own medicine.

"Yep. First day at a new school, get picked on by preps, get into embarrassing situations, almost getting killed by a punk gang, and meeting another teen-robot. Its good that things are finally back to normal."