"Vince!"

"Yo, V!"

"Hey, bro!"

Vince raised his hand in greeting when he saw his friends, Ryan, Kaleb, and Jordan, gathered at his locker.

"Hey, guys. What's up?"

"We already caught the nerd walking to his locker. Sorry, but it was a golden opportunity and you were running late," Jordan replied,

"It's cool," Vince replied, giving them a smile. Glad you got 'em." He turned to his locker, reaching for the combination lock. "So, what'd you do?"

"His nose was in a book. He wasn't paying attention, so we tripped him. He probably slid about four feet on the ground," Ryan replied indifferently. "We'll let you make up for it later," he reassured.

"Uh huh. Thanks," Vince replied distractedly, shoving his bag in his locker after taking out the materials he needed for English. He wasn't in the mood today, not after knowing Rafael Esquivel associated with five robots all over 20 feet tall (scratch that-the motorcycle wasn't). He was sure harming humans wasn't something they wanted to do, but protecting them was. He didn't want to learn what lengths they would go to do so from him.

The first bell rang, and Vince left his friends for the period as he headed over. For once he was happy he didn't share english with his friends, and even more so that the other three weren't in his class either.

He took his normal seat next to Sierra, who was sitting next to her best friend, as usual. She gave him a smile and a wave, and he politely smiled back. Any other day he might have attempted some sort of flirty comment, but this wasn't like any other day. He had a lot on his mind. He sighed and twirled his pencil in-between his fingers as he zoned out. He already understood the book they were discussing anyway, CliffsNotes really came in handy for most of that.

English ended quicker than Vince thought to be normal. He headed back out to his locker, meeting his friends along the way. He knew they would run into Rafael, their paths always crossed here. Vince always did something to him as they passed, the halls and the people in them usually prevented Raf from avoiding Vince, though it wasn't necessarily intentional. But today Vince didn't even look at him and just kept walking.

"Hey, Vince, you missed him," Ryan pointed out once they were a good few feet away.

"Yeah, I know," he replied indifferently.

"Then why didn't you mess with him?"

"Didn't feel like it today," he shrugged, stopping at his locker and putting his heavy textbook on the top shelf and grabbing his calculus textbook.

"Didn't feel like it?" Jordan asked in confusion.

"Don't tell me you've grown a conscience, V," Kaleb replied. "He's been your target practically the day he showed up here."

"It's starting to get old."

"Just last week you were thinking of other ways to mess with him."

"They weren't good ideas," Vince defended. "Why are we obsessing over this? We'll just pick a new target and their friend group."

"What about the exchange student?"

"You go ahead and get punched in the face if you'd like," Vince replied casually.

"What, you pick on her," Jordan pointed out.

"I pick my battles. She never knows it's me throwing bits of paper, but she wouldn't hesitate otherwise."

"I knew it, Vinny's gone soft," Ryan joked.

"Being punched just isn't in my best interest," Vince replied. "And if it isn't in your best interest either, I suggest you cut it out," he threatened, glaring at him briefly.

"Alright, alright, alright," he replied, raising his hands in surrender and grinning. Vince rolled his eyes and closed his locker.

"Catch you guys later," he muttered, walking away. "Gotta go."

*
Lunch wasn't much better. He hung out with his normal crowd but he could feel Jack, Miko, and Raf watching him from their table in the cafeteria. He never turned to look, knowing if he did it would just be worse. It got worse anyway when Jordan, who was sitting across from him, became annoyed at the staring and headed over. Vince still didn't turn around, there was no stopping Jordan when he made up his mind about something.

*
The rest of the day was a blur. He had classes with a few of his friends and the other three, but didn't bother doing anything. He didn't need to work with his dad today, and, from what he knew about Optimus, that would probably mean he would spend the day at the base. He wasn't looking forward to it. The last bell rang, and he walked out, looking less than enthused. Optimus was there and waiting, and so were the others.

"Woah, what's a semi doing here?" Ryan asked as he appeared next to him.

"It's for me. My car got wrecked, so I'm getting it repaired. My, uh, uncle is a truck driver. He's in town for a bit, so he offered to pick me up."

"Sweet," Kaleb replied. He looked like he was going to say something else before Vince interrupted.

"I also need to get somewhere, family stuff. Kind of important. So I'll see you guys later," he replied, quickly walking away. He set his bag on the floor of the car before climbing in and shutting the door after him.

"We really need to talk about this picking up and dropping off arrangement. I don't even have an uncle," he muttered at the dashboard.

"I'm sorry, what?" Optimus replied, carefully backing out.

"Nothing," Vince replied, rolling his eyes. They headed toward the base, Vince practically scowling all the way. Optimus discreetly adjusted his side mirror to look at him. He wasn't sure what he was feeling and decided it was best not to ask.

*
Raf quickly got in the car while Vince's friends were distracted with Optimus. Bumblebee warbled in greeting, asking him how his day was.

"It was okay," Raf replied, giving him a small smile. Bumblebee buzzed in content before pulling out before Optimus, and then asking if he had been bullied at all, knowing Raf dealt with it. Raf also knew he had to give the scout a direct truthful answer, Bee seemed to know when the boy was lying and wouldn't let up until he drug the truth out of him.

"I got pushed around, that's all," he replied with a sigh. He glanced at the rearview mirror, seeing a familiar red and blue color scheme behind them. He couldn't see inside the tinted windows. He completely forgot to mention that it wasn't Vince who had done it, and the scout was already planning on how he'd give the redhead a piece of his processor.

~~~
Rip Vince

Also I don't really go around and bully people so I'm sure this point of view isn't entirely correct, but whatever, you get the idea