Chapter 5

"Cassidy, where have you been? We've been trying to text you for the past two hours!"

"And what's with the ambulance?"

"What happened to your arm?"

My parents were fussing over me, and I shifted uncomfortably, not liking it. Ratchet was still parked on the street. I started signing.

Sorry, we lost track of time. And I fell and scraped myself.

"For four hours?" My dad asked at the same time my mom asked if I was okay.

I was spared from answering their questions when I felt a tug on my sleeve. I saw Lillian pointing at the ambulance, and I figured whatever she was going to ask wasn't a good question concerning the identity of the Autobots.

"Why is there no driver?" she whispered so my parents wouldn't hear.

Ever so slightly, Ratchet's front wheels turned to my direction. If I wasn't looking at him I wouldn't have noticed. I guess he heard.

You're imagining things.

I turned back to my parents

Come on, it's getting cold, can we go inside?

I was lying. It was over 90 degrees outside, but luckily my family followed me into the house without saying anything about it. I didn't want to answer anything knowing that there was a live robot nearby.

'Who dropped you off' was the first question I was asked once we were all in the house. I signed back, having remembered Jack telling me about his mom briefly at the base.

Jack's mom. She's a nurse.

"And Jack is...?" my mom asked, gesturing for me to explain better.

One of the friends that showed me around the city. Jack Darby.

I was hammered with a few more questions before I was able to escape to my room. Lillian followed me.

"I was not imagining things. There really was no driver," she said as she grabbed my arm. I ignored her.

"You think I am imagining, aren't you? I wasn't. You were in a phantom car or something!" she said, eyes wide. "Are you even listening to me?" she yelled loudly in my ear. I cringed as I furiously signed;

I'm mute, not deaf. And stop yelling in my ear, it's almost like you want me to be deaf.

"I don't care! You were in a phantom car!"

I rolled my eyes as I exhaled softly.

Nurse Darby was just in the back of the ambulance getting something.

I shoved her out of the room, closing my door and locking it to end the conversation. I looked out my window, and saw that Ratchet was gone. I smiled slightly, before changing into an oversized T-shirt and sweatpants, and snuggling into the comfy sheets of my bed.

***

I woke up to something honking outside, and I groggily looked at my alarm clock. It was four in the morning. I rolled my eyes, wondering why anyone would be up and honking at this hour as I looked out my window.

A familiar ambulance was parked in front of my house. I grabbed my notebook and stormed out, where Ratchet immediately stopped honking. I showed him my notebook, though I had no idea how he would read it.

What are you doing?

"Waking you up. You have school today."

My eyes widened.

"Dude! Not cool!" I yelled in my head as I started writing.

It's 4 in the morning! School doesn't start for another three hours! Are you deliberately trying to wake up my family?

"Does it look like I care? I couldn't pick you up at seven, anyway. This was the best I could do," Ratchet replied, before turning on his headlights. I covered my eyes from the sudden light and turned away, before they turned off again.

"Sorry, I forgot your eyes don't adjust to light as fast as ours do," he apologized sarcastically. "Well, at least you're awake enough to not go back to sleep."

I rolled my eyes, and gestured for him to wait for a minute as I disappeared back inside the house, changing into jeans and a T-shirt before grabbing my bag and coming back out. I surprisingly wasn't afraid of him anymore, or maybe it was because he was just aggravating me because he woke me up so early for no reason I knew of.

I slid into the passenger seat and looked out the window before he drove, and he was silent for most of the ride. He seemed to be taking me back to the base, but I didn't know why.

I kept looking out the window before I noticed a shadow following us, and I couldn't tell what it was. Ratchet pulled to the side of the road and opened the door to let me out, and I did, before the owner of the shadow started shooting at us, and I dropped to the ground and covered my head.

"Ratchet, is that a Decepti-whatever-you-call-it?" I yelled, not expecting an answer, until I froze.

Wait...I just said something. I really just said something. I'm not imagining things, that was me, right?

Ratchet transformed as I silently marveled at my ability to speak, staring at the ground.

"Cassidy, run! Don't just sit there! Get up! Move! Cassidy! Up!" a voice called, I guessed it was Ratchet, but it sounded feminine for some reason.

I was unresponsive to whoever was speaking before a shot fired and landed next to me, causing me to fly back from the blast. I landed hard on the ground, where a knocking sound pounded in my head.

"Cassidy!"

I knew that was Ratchet calling to me, and I knew Ratchet did not sound feminine. It sounded a lot like my mom for some reason. I closed my eyes to attempt to hide from the chaos and perhaps stop the knocking before opening them again, seeing I was in my room. Someone was knocking on my door.

"Get up, Cassidy! You overslept!"

I got up slowly, realizing that my mom was the one calling and knocking, and I unlocked the door and opened it.

"Good, you're up. School starts in thirty minutes, hurry up. And don't lock your door," she muttered, looking at me. "What are you standing there for? Chop chop."

I looked back at my alarm clock.

6:30 AM

That was a very realistic dream.

Except for the part where I could talk, anyway.

***

After I was ready to leave, I walked out to see Ratchet waiting. What surprised me was the fact June Darby was sitting in the driver's seat, with Jack in the passenger's. I pretended that I knew what was going on and hid the look of shock from my face as my mom walked up to me.

"That must be Jack and his mother, right?"

I nodded, though I wondered why there were here. Nurse Darby got out, walking over to my mom, and they started conversing. Jack gestured for me to come to him, and Ratchet rolled down the window as I searched for my notebook.

What's going on?

"Optimus," Ratchet said simply, having adjusted a side mirror to look at my question.

"Since Ratchet came up with his top five excuses, Optimus has been trying to get rid of them. One of them was that it would be weird to have you picked up by an ambulance every day and be brought home by one, so Optimus called my mom and asked her if she could make up a cover story," Jack explained. I looked for a pencil.

Optimus doesn't seem like the type to help out in a lie or anything like that.

Jack shrugged as Ratchet scoffed. I wrote another thing into my notebook.

And Ratchet, don't wake me up at four in the morning. Ever.

"Should I be laughing or glaring at Ratchet for doing so?" Jack asked, making Ratchet sigh.

"I don't know what she's talking about, but I'll take the advice," Ratchet replied as he opened to door for me.

"Get in, you guys are already late," he sighed as he started his siren, making it wail to get Nurse Darby's attention. She waved to Jack, who had pretended to do it himself as she ended the conversation, and got in the car. Ratchet started the engine and drove down the street, heading towards the school.

"So...what'd you say as your 'cover story' for Cassidy?" Jack asked his mother, curious.

"Charge," Ratchet interrupted.

"What?" Nurse Darby asked.

"Her name is 'Charge'." he said, and my lips formed a thin line that slowly turned into a frown.

So my dream really wasn't realistic if he won't call me by my real name. Why won't he? I mean, my name isn't hard to say or anything.

My thoughts were interrupted by Nurse Darby.

"So the cover story is that I would pick Cassidy-"

"-Charge," Ratchet interrupted.

"Cassidy up on my way to work from her home and pick her up from school on my lunch break, since you guys get out at two, and my break starts at two. Then you hang out with Jack or do whatever teens do these days until my shift is done. Half the time I won't even be there, I'll actually be working, and I'm taking Ratchet to a mechanic today to get tinted windows," she said as she parked in front of the school. Ratchet turned on his sirens, in protest of the mechanic I guess, since he couldn't exactly voice his complaint to the entire school.

"Yes, Ratchet. Sorry," Nurse Darby apologized as she turned off his siren. They immediately started back up again. She sighed.

"See you two later, I've got to get this thing fixed," she mumbled, hitting Ratchet's dashboard. The sirens stopped, and I smiled, wishing again that I could laugh.

"See you later," Jack laughed, getting out. Miko and Raf greeted us as soon as we entered the school, and got a kick out of why Ratchet was wailing his siren.

"I'll be sure to blackmail him with that later," Miko said, an evil grin forming on her face.

"Do you think all the Autobots are afraid of going to the mechanic?" Raf asked, looking off in space in thought.

"Probably because they run on energon, and if humans poke around under their hood, they'd eventually find out. I mean, I haven't seen them go to the mechanic to get their oil changed or anything," Jack replied.

"That could be something you could ask Ratchet," Miko offered to me, and I shrugged, flipping to an empty page in my trusty notebook and writing yet another thing down.

I'm still trying to get on his good side right now, so I won't be asking much. And I'm a little annoyed at him, too.

"Why are you annoyed? Yesterday you were scared," Raf asked, and I wrote again.

I had a dream about Ratchet. He woke me up at four in the morning to take me to school and then we were attacked by someone or something.

"You dreamed about him?" Miko asked, wiggling her eyebrows. I frowned.

Not like that.

"Of course...You have feelings for him, don't you?" she smirked playfully as I vigorously shook my head, wondering why she was getting into this.

"Miko!" Jack said, giving her a look that clearly meant 'what is wrong with you?'

The feeling I have for him right now is aggravation. And that's only in the A's.

"Oh, okay, so if we're going in ABC order, let's skip all the letters and go to L. What about then?" she smirked, and Raf rolled his eyes, something I could tell he didn't do a lot.

You mean loathe? Come on. He won't even call me by my first name. He just calls me 'Charge'. Maybe I should just start calling him 'Guardian'.

"No...that would just be weird," Jack replied. I looked at what I wrote and nodded in agreement, before following Raf to my first class. Hopefully Miko would drop the idea before lunch. I don't need her to try and make anything more awkward than it is now.

~~~

Welp. The Autobots don't like Mechanics. And Cassidy likes her sleep. And Miko thinks there's something between them. And Ratchet acts like he doesn't care. And Lillian is getting suspicious. And Cassidy has very vivid dreams. And...Knockout likes trains. And...yeah, I've run out of things to say.

So...how's the weather over where you live? :P

*disappears*