TFA: Nichole's Story Chp.6

Part VI


I don’t know how long I just sat there and stared at the x-ray of my body. The majority of it was red, but there were parts of me — my right arm, some of my ribs — that were blue. Those spots weren’t muscle and veins, those spots were metal and wires.

Robotic.

And it was spreading.

“If my guess is correct, then this process began right after the Spark Fusion,” Ratchet had said. “When you were electrocuted, your heart stopped all together, I’m guessing, and prompted the AllSpark fragment to give you your own spark. Of course, for a spark to sustain itself it needs a robotic body, so it began creating one.”

All I could do was nod as he went over all this. It was a bit much to take in all at once. I mean, I was still getting over the fact that one of my limbs was robotic. Freaking robotic...! I did manage to catch the bit about my heart stopping though and had a mental panic attack. I had died two weeks ago, and I was just now finding out about it?! How screwed up is that mess?

“It would also explain how the Spark Fusion managed to happen in the first place,” the doc-bot continued. “Because humans don’t have sparks, I was confused as to how that worked, but now it makes sense.”

I waited for a moment, and I think my brain had to restart itself. “How long do I have...? Before I’m completely...?” I wanted to finish the sentence with ‘robotic’, but my voice stopped working. Ratchet got the question though.

“Under the circumstances, it’s too unpredictable. Could be days, weeks... years even. Who knows?”

I gave one last nod before going quiet and just sitting on the table, staring at the x-ray. It seemed the others were surprised as well, since they hadn’t said a thing the entire time, but Optimus broke the silence with a hesitant question.

“Is there any way to... reverse it?”

My head whipped around upon hearing this. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I stared at the two of them, waiting for an answer. “If it can be reversed, then everything’ll be fine, right? No worries...?”

Once again I found myself trailing off, because of the look on Ratchet’s face. My hopes were squashed almost as soon as they’d been lit.

“Even if I did have the right equipment, we couldn’t reverse it,” he finally answered. “That spark is the only thing that’s keeping your heart beating. Without it there’s no question you’ll die.”

After a long quiet moment, Bumblebee said, “Being a robot’s not so bad.”

I gave him a look that was meant to say something along the lines of ‘Thanks for the pep-talk, bolt-bucket.’ I needed to go lay down, but I could only think of one place that would really put me at ease. I dreaded asking, since it seemed like an argument started everytime I spoke to him, but...

“Prowl... you mind if I borrow you tree for a bit?” I queried. “I just need to... think about all this.”

And that’s why, an hour later, I found myself laying on a tree branch watching the clouds go by. The sky was already turning colors from the sunset. A breeze came by and it felt as good as the first time I’d layed there, before I discovered how whacked my life was going to be. I wondered what would have happened if I had ignored that rabbit that stole my hair clip. If I had just said, ‘Screw it, I hated that clippy anyhow’ and stayed at school. I wouldn’t be turning into a robot, I would be able to have sleepovers with Emma again, I wouldn’t be fuzed with Megatron, I could be with my family, I...

...wouldn’t have woken Optimus up, I wouldn’t have met Sari or the Autobots, the Decepticons would have gotten the AllSpark Fragment...

I realized that when I made my decision to intervene that day, it not only affected me, but a lot of others. If Optimus Prime had gotten killed, I could only imagine how his team would have felt. They were like a family. A strange one, but a family regardless...

Somewhere in the middle of that thought I fell asleep. It hadn’t really been a surprise since I’d been yawning nearly every five seconds, so I welcomed a nap. When I first began waking, there was a low humming sound and I was confused. It sounded like when I visited my aunt in Ohio and every morning she would wake up and “meditate”. The sound was calming, and as I finally opened my eyes and became more aware, I realized it wasn’t my aunt, but Prowl. I shifted a little on the limb and looked down. He was sitting at the base of the tree, legs crossed, and his optics weren’t lit up, so I guessed that was the equivalent to having your eyes closed.

I sat up and leaned against the center of the tree to listen. Just as I began to relaxe again, the humming stopped, and I frowned, looking down at him once more.

He tilted his head upwards slightly, but not enough to meet my eyes. “Am I bothering you?” he asked, and my frown disappeared.

“No, it... helps actually. That humming thing you were doing,” I said, a little surprised that I admitted that to him. I mean, he hadn’t exactly been my bestest buddy in the world recently.

Prowl tilted his head a bit more. “Helps with...?”

I leaned back on the trunk and stared at the wall opposite me. What was this? 20 Questions? “Helps with relaxing, I guess...”

It went quiet for a long time, and I wondered if another argument was about to ensue in the near future, but then he spoke up.

“I don’t say this often, but Bumblebee is right.”

A puzzled expression came across my face. “Right about what?”

A branch beside me rustled and I turned to see Prowl crouched on it. How the crap did he manage to do that so quietly?

“About being a robot,” he answered.

It took me a minute to remember exactly was Bumblebee had said, but when I did, I gave an exasperated sigh, remembering the earlier discovery of my robotic predicament as well. I stared at the wall again, kind of blank-faced.

“It’s just going to be so different...” I mumbled, halfway to myself, halfway to Prowl. “I’ll age differently than everyone I know; I’ll still be practically the same when my little brother is having Grandkids. And Mom, and my friends... Everyone is going to grow old and die. Except for little. Ole. Robot. Me.” I finished with distaste in my voice, and Prowl said nothing. He was a very good listener; I was grateful for that. I felt like if I didn’t vent some that I was going to explode.

It was dark outside, but my watch was still dead so I asked, “What time is it?”

“About 11:00 last time I checked. Why?”

“No reason.” Dang. I guess finding out you’re becoming a robot can really make a person tired. I’d napped for about four and a half hours, and it surprised me that I hadn’t rolled off the tree limb in my sleep.

I lowered myself down, branch by branch, until I reached the lowest one and let myself drop. My feet made a quiet ‘thud’ sound as they hit, whereas Prowl’s were more of a soft clank. I briefly wondered how long it would be before my feet made that sound too, but quickly shook the thought away.

As I began walking towards the door, I turned towards him and said, “Thanks for letting me hang out in your tree for a while. And for... ya know. Listening.”

“Of course,” he simply said, and I scuffled out, still a little drowsy, but feeling like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. It was a little weight, but it still felt pretty good.

When I reached Sari’s room, she was already asleep in her nest of blankets, snoozing away. ‘Maybe Prowl isn’t so bad,’ I thought, plopping down on the girl’s makeshift tire-bed. I lay down with a content, unconscious smile on my lips, and drifted to sleep as well.


* * *


That’s when I began noticing... changes in myself over the next few days.

The first was when I woke up that following morning. Er... Afternoon. They had this thing about letting me sleep in — at least until Sari and Bumblebee woke me up to play video games — even though I didn’t mean to. Sleep in, that is. I was really gonna have to invest in an alarm clock...

Anyway, I got up, stretched, and looked around the room a bit. Something felt... different... but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It didn’t really feel like a life or death issue, so I shrugged it off and tightened the drawstring on my pj pants. They felt kinda loose for some reason, but then my stomach growled and demanded food. To the kitchen it was then!

The base didn’t really have a kitchen, so much as a break room for the people to work in the plant. It was good enough, though. Plently of cabinet space for all the junk food that Sari had stocked up on, since she’d been the only human there for a while.

As I opened one of the upper cabinets and began reaching for the cereal, that feeling came back, like I was missing something right in front of me. I grabbed the box and looked at it for a second, wondering what was different. Didn’t I have to reach higher for this yesterday...? I momentarily thought, but was interupted by the gurgling of my tummy. Food first, investigate later.

I made up my cereal (making a mental note that we were going to need more milk soon) and went to the living room. Of course, Bee and Sari were playing Blaster Battles II, so I just stood behind them and watched, crunching on my foods.

“G’morning, Nikki,” they both said, not looking away from the screen for an instant.

“Mornin’,” I said through a half chewed mouth of cereal. From the looks of things, Sari was beating the bot bad.

I’m guessing Sari meant to glance at me to see what I was munching on, but then she did a doulble-take and just stared for a minute. I stopped chewing, swallowed, and asked, “What?”

“You got tal—”

“Woohoo! I win!” Bumbleebee suddenly yelled as Sari’s character blew up. “It’s like you weren’t even playing!” When no one said anything, he turned around and did a double-take, too.

“What?” I demanded, a little more firmly. With the way they were lookin’ at me, you’d think I had grown gills, a tail, and called myself Nessie!

“You got taller,” Sari finished.

“Yeah,” the yellow bot joined in, standing up to compare heights. With a shock, I realized how right they were. I came up a little past his waist now. I had to be at least 5' 10"!

And I had been 5' 2"!

...


You’d think I would have noticed that. People don’t just randomly grow eight inches overnight, and, you know, NOT notice. Teenagers who are turning into robots on the other hand... Extremely unobservant teenagers... AKA, me.

I hunted around the base for a tape-measurer and found one in what looked like a would-be locker room. I came back and made Bumblebee measure me. Except...

“What is this thing?” he asked, pulling it out then releasing it. The thing whiplashed past his face and he yelped, dropping the measurer.

Sari picked it up and sighed, getting up on the couch and standing. “Let me do it.”

I stepped over to where she was as she pulled it out and lowered it to the ground, declaring that I was nearly six feet tall. Six feet! That was like Godzilla compared to what I had been!

I looked down and realized why my pants had been so loose this morning. I guess the growth spurt slimmed me down some — kinda like Laffy Taffy when you pull on it and while it’s getting longer  it gets skinnier in the middle.

On the bright side, I was now an Amazon chick who could reach things I couldn’t before. On the bad side, it meant I was becoming more Cybertronian with each passing day. And that I was most likely going to need more clothes soon. Which meant I was going to have to get a job. (I couldn’t live off my spare wallet money Mom had given me anymore.)

That’s why I decided to surf the web for open jobs in Detroit. Turns out that there was a coffee shop just a couple blocks away from the base that was hiring. I sent in an application, deciding that’s about as lucky as I was gonna get. I had worked at a coffee shop the year before as a summer job and loved it, so it seemed like the best option. (I sure hoped my robotic side wouldn’t choose to do something freaky while I was working. It would be per-itty weird to be buyin’ some coffee and then witness a girl grow five inches taller as she was taking your order.)

Sometime after that I decided to go take a walk. I hadn’t really been out much, but with all these drastic changes in my life, fresh air was a much needed necessity. While I was at it, I thought I would go take a look at the coffee shop as well.

“I’m gonna go take a walk, you guys,” I told Bee and Sari. Since they had already gotten back to their game, all the response I got was a quick “Kay,” from the both of them. Of course.

So, after I got dressed, I headed out the door. I had to use a belt for my pants, so that they wouldn’t fall down. They’d become more kapri-like anyway, which felt odd since I wasn’t really the kapri loving type. Weird ankle breezes...

It was kind of overcast outside, and it looked like it might rain later, but I wasn’t planning on staying out for long. Just long enough to think and experiment with walking speeds. Since my body had gotten longer it meant my legs had, too, and it was new to me how fast I could walk with such ease. It put me in a rather good mood.

The coffee shop, Coffeelusions, was about six or seven blocks away. Not a huge distance — especially with my awesome new walky speed — but when there are morons trying to run you over every time you crossed a street, then it seemed like forever. I was beginning to think I should have asked one of the Autobots to drive me there, but then I realized that would have defeated the purpose of “going for a walk”.

Coffeelusions was nestled between a shoe store and a book store, which wasn’t a bad place. After work I could totally go browse the books. Well, if they hired me, that is.

The door was wooden instead of glass, and had one of those old fashioned door knockers. I wasn’t quite sure why someone would knock before going into any type of shop, so that was odd. The walls on either side of the door were glass though, and I could see people inside, drinking their espressos. I reached for the door handle, and just as I was about to push it open, someone from the other side did so before me.

She wasn’t looking forward when she began to step out and I just stood there like a dumbass. The woman faced the right way just in time to bump into me. We both made little “Oof” sounds and some coffee spilled out of the cup she was carrying onto the sidewalk.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized, brown eyes alight with sincerity. “I didn’t get any coffee on you, did I?”

I looked down at my clothes then shook my head. “Naw, it’s fine,” was all I managed. There was a little on my shoes, but those things were old anyway.

She suddenly whipped around and glared at someone in the café who had been chuckling, and yelled a quick, “Shut it!” I noticed the man she was adressing was behind the counter. He had the weirdest blonde, poofy hair ever. What did he think this was? The 80's? Then I remembered that I might have to end up working with him, and hoped that he didn’t actually make the coffee. I didn’t want somebody complaining to me about having a hair in their drink.

The lady sighed, turning back to me. “You’ll have to excuse my husband,” she said, then turned and walked away, saying, “Nice talking to ya.”

I continued on into Coffeelusions, looking around. The room was dimly lit, and it had a warm feel to it, like what you’d expect from a coffee shop. I sat down at one of the small round tables, getting the mood of the place. Yeah, I’d definitely like working here. Even the background music of soft jazz was okay, and normally the stuff bugged me.

I suddenly realized that a jacket had fallen on the floor when I sat down, the black and white stripes catching my eyes. At first I was like, “Sweet! Free jacket!”, but then I knew that would be wrong, so I took it to the front counter.

“Excuse me, uhm...” I looked at the blonde man’s nametag. “Jareth? Yeah. I found this jacket at one of the tables,” I said, handing it to him.

He was smirking slightly. “Thank you. Ocean will appreciate that.”

“Ocean...?”

“My wife.”

Ah, so the woman I just bumped into, that was her jacket. Well, she had good fashion sense.

“I applied to work here on the computer. Got any... Fun Facts about the place?” if there was something interesting, I wanted to know. And if there wasn’t, that was fine with me.

Jareth seemed to think for a minute, before saying, “The hot chocolate is made by goblins.”

I blinked. “Uh-huh...” Yeah. This guy was definitely sniffin’ something. Or he was just weird on a level that I didn’t quite get. “Could I meet the manager?”

He pointed to his nametag and I realized that this was the manager. Then I felt stupid for not seeing the big bold letters on it, just nodding my head.

Jareth looked up as the little bell above the door rang, and I turned to see Ocean walking in, eyeballing the table I had just been at. We both knew what she was looking for. Jareth held up the striped jacket with an expression of “Forget something?”, just as she looked in our direction. Her face lit up and she bounded right over to us.

“I knew this is where I left it!” she said, snagging the jacket and slipping it on. “Where was it at?”

I pointed. “Found it at that table over there after you’d left.”

“Thanks,” she said, smiling. “You’re that girl I bumped into earlier, aren’t you? How ‘bout some coffee? My treat.”

It was probably a ‘Thanks for finding-and-not-stealing my jacket’ gesture, but I could tell from the way it was darkening outside that it was definitely going to rain soon. As nice as this place and its inhabitants were, I didn’t feel like getting soaked for their sake.

“Thank you, really, but I kinda need to get going,” I told her as nicely as possible. “But I mean, maybe another time, if I get the job.”

She grinned once more. “That’d be cool.”

I left the coffee shop in an okay mood, thinking that maybe I could beat the rain. But as soon as I got two blocks away from Coffeelusions it was like someone up there said, “Oh, I think I’ll just dump a lake on Detroit.” Not cool, guys. Not cool. And it wasn’t like I was smart enough to bring my hoodie, so within five seconds, my hair was a moppy mess, plastering itself to my face.

I had to stop at an intersection and wait for cars, which just succeeded in pissing me off. Longest. Green light. EVER. As soon as it changed and the signal said “Walk”, I took a quick glance around before doing just that...

And my aggrivation turned to fright.

Squealing tires were the first thing to alert me that something was wrong. The hairs on my neck went up, and then it was all... slow motion-like. To me, at least. Everything became more detailed in those few moments, like the sudden breeze that made the rain change its angle, ever so slightly. My heart suddenly picking up pace as I realized what was going to happen. Turning my head to see that bus careening towards me through a sheet of rain. Closing my eyes and...

Darkness. It was almost relaxing. I didn’t feel anything, but then...

I realized I was floating in and out of consciousness. Someone, a familiar voice was talking to me. Something about Sari’s key and getting me to the base. Something about... dying? Was I going to die?


...hurt all over, when I could feel. Still raining, too. A crack of thunder, and I woke again. Difficult to keep my eyes open. Someone carrying me. They were bigger than a human, not as soft as one, but still gentle...


Something behind the metal chest. Was that what a sparkbeat sounded like? Pulsating just like a human heart... Sort of comforting...



“...ost there. Stay awake,” they said. My vision was blurry, with little black shadows creeping up on the sides. I fought my eyelids, seeing colors, recognizing gold and black metal.

I tried to ask Prowl what was going on, but I tasted something salty and metallic. Blood...?



The rain suddenly ceased pelting my skin. More voices, also familiar.

“...urry. She doesn’t have much...”

“...key, quick.”

Another, smaller pain in my arm, like a needle, and...


* * *


I shot up, eyes wide open. I was in the base’s living room, and for a long moment, nothing made any sense. Hadn’t I died? And what happen to all the pain if I had lived?

“Nikki!” a girl practically screamed in my ear, tackling me to the ground once again. I looked down and recognized Sari, bawling her eyes out. Wait... What was she doing here? Was she dead, too?

I became aware of more than just me and Sari in the room when I heard sighs of relief. Looking around me, I realized it was the Autobots. The expressions on their faces made me wonder what was going on, so I tried to find my voice. It was kind of scratchy at first, but smoothed back to normal almost instantly.

“What happened?” I asked. Sari’s crying was just a bit of hiccuping now, so the question seemed loud to me.

“You were hit by a bus!” Bumblebee cried, waving his arms above his head to emphasize the point.

“A bu...? Oh!” It all came flooding back suddenly, and I remembered little tidbits of everything. Seeing the headlights of the bus and only being able to think, “Well, I’m fucked.” Yeah. Yeah, I remembered that much. It was the trip home that was fuzzy.

“Well... then... shouldn’t I be, ya know, just a teency bit dead?” I asked, still confused about that, too.

“You would be if it weren’t for Prowl,” Ratchet stated. “That, and Sari’s key.”

I began remembering a little of being carried quickly through the rain by Prowl, but not much. Only enough to know it was him. I looked over at the bot, realizing he was being even more quiet than normal. And it wasn’t the usual “Oh, I’m a ninja” quiet, it was more like a “There’s something nagging at the back of my processor” quiet. What it was could have been anyone’s guess.

Then I turned my attention to Sari, who had finally let go of me, and her key. The thing was already back in its non-needle mode and seeing it reminded me to check something else.

I quickly tore the bandage from my bitten hand and found no wound. I took a couple deep breaths and realized my ribs were no longer sore. I pinched my nose and it didn’t hurt! The key had not only saved my life, but healed all my previous injuries, too! It was like Christmas in July!

“I’m completely better!” I exclaimed. “Nothing hurts anymore!”

The gloomy mood seemed to disperse itself from the room. I couldn’t help but be happy. Before, it was like everytime I turned around I was bumping into one of my injuries on a doorframe, or accidentally touching it and making it sore again.

And, you know, the fact that I was still alive. Just a little, minor thing to be happy about there.

“I’m hungry,” Sari suddenly said, hopping to her feet. I stood up as well. My stomach was trying to agree with its own little gargles, and I nodded. Near-death experiences can really give you an appetite.

“I think I remember seeing a pizza in the freezer,” I said. “Won’t take too long to cook. Sound good?”

Sari nodded eagerly, smiling, and after the others were sure that I could walk around and not have a bus fly out of nowhere at me, they went on about what needed to be done. Which, in Bumblebee’s case, meant going back to picking a scary movie to watch. I went and stuck the pizza in the oven then came back and he was still listing off titles.

“...The Thing that ate Everything, Zombie High: Revenge of the Teenage Zombies, My Vampire Wedding...”

“How about this one?” I suggested, holding up The Day the Earth Stood Still.

“That’s not a scary one,” Sari said. She then snatched it away and held up Alien. “Now this is a scary movie.”

I looked at the 2046 remake with little interest. The thing used to give me nightmares as a kid and even though I’d gotten over it (mostly), I didn’t really feel like watching people get impregnated, ripped to shreds, and eaten by aliens.

“I think I’ll pass on that,” I told her, and her and Bee gave me the most ridiculous “PLEASE?” faces you could imagine. Of course, they won me over in the end by saying we could watch my suggestion afterwards, so I said, “Fine.”

We watched a little of the beginning before I had to go check the pizza. They wanted to pause it for me, but I said don’t, so they reluctantly let it continue. I could hear the bloody massacre all the way down the hall practically. I checked the timer in the kitchen then looked at the pizza. Man, the smell was makin’ my mouth water, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite done yet.

On the way back to the living room, I noticed Prowl’s door was open slightly, so, being the curious soul I was, I peeked in. He’d really been Mr. Grumpy-gears when he left the living room earlier and naturally it made me wonder what was going on in his ninja brain. Er... processor.

So, when I saw him sitting cross-legged with his back to the door, I decided to be a ninja of my own. I tip-toed across the room as quietly as possible, and I thought I was being completely silent. That is until Prowl suddenly whipped aroud and something went whirring past my face. I slowly turned to see a shuriken imbedded in the wall.

“What was that for?” I asked, a little shaken.

Prowl put his other shuriken away with an apologetic face. “I thought you were Bumblebee.”

I frowned, asking, “So I wasn’t being sneaky?”

He looked at me like I’d said something he didn’t quite get, or I’d just told a joke. “You were trying to sneak? Sounded more like you were stomping...”

He lowered his gaze and turned back around. He seemed to be staring at something, but I couldn’t tell what it was from my viewpoint, so I waltzed up beside him. Since he was sitting I was the same height as him. Prowl had his optics faced upwards a little to the opening in his ceiling where rain was getting in. It wasn’t as bad as it was earlier, and plus the tree blocked most of it, but that half of the room was pretty soaked, regardless.

I glanced back over to Prowl and he had a look on his face like he was staring at the tree, but thinking about something else entirely. So I asked, “What’s on your mind?” I sat down, cross-legged too, to show that I was willing to listen like he had listened to me.

Prowl glimpsed down at me, then back to the rain, almost as if he were looking for the right words. I could understand this, since he wasn’t exactly the type to go and blurt out all of his thoughts at once. It surprised me, though, when he suddenly said, “I’m sorry.”

Did I miss something? “What about?” I asked, completely puzzled by this.

He became hesitant once again. “About... earlier.” I opened my mouth to ask “What about ‘earlier’?” but he continued on his own, not needing anymore prompting from me.

“Earlier... when the bus hit you. I was there. I saw what happened, but I couldn’t... do anything. It was as if my servos all froze at once, not allowing me to save you. I’m known for my skill and speed, but... I just don’t understand what happened...”

I stared. “So that’s what’s been bugging you? You feel guilty about the bus thing?” I turned to face him and he looked down at me. “Dude, that was no one’s fault. People get hit by cars all the time, and everyone freezes up at one point or another.” I held up my once bandaged hand and said, “Plus, it turned out good in the end. You still saved me from dying, even if you couldn’t prevent the accident.” I finished with reassuring smile on my face, hoping he’d get out of his gloomy mood, and it worked. His lips (or whatever robots called them) turned upward slightly and I figured my job was done.

That is, until I smelled smoke...

“Oh shit! The pizza!” I cried, scrambling to my feet and rushing out of the room. By the time I reached the kitchen, Optimus was already there, putting out the fire in the oven with his arm extinguisher thing. Bumblebee and Sari ran in right after me with incredulous looks on their faces.

“You burned the pizza?!” Sari asked. “Now what are we going to do for dinner?”

I shrugged sheepishly. “Sandwiches...?”

Optimus put away the extinguisher and turned to face us saying, “I can tell you what we’re not going to do: Let Nichole cook again.”

Bumblebee laughed and I threw a nearby spoon at the bot, hitting him square between the optics. “Ow!” he complained, rubbing it. Big baby. I didn’t even throw it that hard.

“Don’t get mad at me,” he said. “You’re the one that took forever.” Then he paused for a minute before asking, “What were you doing anyway? We thought you were just gonna check the pizza then come right back.”

“I was talking to Prowl,” I said, huffing and crossing my arms, kind of pissed that I burned our food. My stomach growled and I said, “Since the rain’s letting up, why don’t we just go get some pizza that’s already cooked?”

They agreed, since they didn’t want me to burn down the base, and Sari, Bumblebee, and I went and picked some up. We got back and finished watching Alien while me and Sari chowed down like little pirana. Best. Pizza. Ever.

“Hey, Bee, you wanna go play Monster Mazes?” Sari asked, hopping off the couch when credits began rolling.

I frowned. “I thought we were going to watch The Day The Earth Stood Still?”

They both hunched their shoulders like they’d forgotten and just remembered, which turned my frown into a scowl. Somehow I just knew that this would happen...

Sighing, I said, “Whatever. Go play your games.” And they ran off to the other room with a different game system and a tv, leaving me staring at the credits for Alien. Man, did they have a lot of stunt doubles or what?

Eventually, after even the credits were over, I decided to go throw away the pizza boxes. There was a little hunk of cheese left in one, so I just shoved that in my mouth before tossing the box in the bin. On my way back, though, an idea popped into my head as I was passing Prowl’s room.

“Hey, you wanna watch a movie with me?” I asked, peeking in. He was sitting in the same spot, but this time he actually turned to face me when I opened the door. “Bee and Sari ditched me after saying they’d watch it,” I explained.

He waited a moment then nodded, and I couldn’t help but be a little happy for some reason.


End Part VI