Chapter Text
Chapter 3: Of Creeper & Gossip
Jack’s brain space felt like mush, a sloppy stew of startling truth and hard reality. The more he ruminated on it, the more it mixed around with the down-to-earth advice Arcee just gave him, the comfort of it somehow getting lost in translation. The bounce that had once been in his steps now felt like lead weights slowing down his progress. Shoving his hands in his pockets, the boy tried his hardest to let it all fade into the background without much success. He kept picturing Sierra’s embarrassed expression and hearing Vince’s smug words as they danced between ear canals. The tension of it all made Jack’s stomach turn positively frenetic, churning remorselessly until he was on the verge of puking.
Extracting his phone, he flipped it open for the umpteenth time that day to check his messages. Perhaps this could move him out of his mental stupor. His eyes bounced around the small screen, seeing nothing from Miko, but landed on an unread text from Raf which he clicked on straight away.
From Raf: {Sorry, Jack! I’m stuck with the family as we go around the Car Show. Mom said it’s because I haven’t been hanging out with them very much lately. :( I really don’t want to make her any more frustrated than she already is either. Ttyl!}
The young genius’s parents were both very much invested in their children, something entirely foreign to Jack. Having come from a broken home, he often pretended to know what it would be like if his mother got married again. To have a father figure who could tie the family unit together, sewing up the rift that had been torn long ago. However, no matter how hard he tried, it only became more of an unknown variable—a blurry algebraic picture.
On the other hand, Miko was just as strange to him sometimes.
She was a wild child foreign exchange student with artsy expression and angsty musical talent. Despite all of the flashy dramatics, he realized there was a deep layer of emotional baggage that she was used to concealing with sarcastic humor. She hardly ever talked about her parents—host parents included—and he wasn’t sure he could recall their names. To be honest, he never had the guts to ask about them in general. From any limited descriptions he got from her, they never sounded pleasant. It didn’t take a genius to put two-and-two together and recognize that the Nakadai family unit wasn’t on good speaking terms with each other.
Jack frowned, this line of thinking was downright depressing.
Going to his speed dial contacts, Jack scrolled down to Miko’s number, and hesitated. Thumb hovering over the enter button, he grew concerned of angering her, having called several times already. He didn’t want to come off needy, least of all to her. For all he knew, it would constitute the terms of an unspoken marriage arrangement and he’d find himself in a new and unfamiliar country. That thought all by itself made his spine tingle with uncertainty. No thanks!
Laying these musings aside, he looked around and took in the sights. For the next block, he saw nothing but food stalls, each having its own long line of potential customers. The medley of aromas, both savory and sweet, sent his stomach into a growling frenzy. Freshly brewed coffee. Breakfast tacos. Chorizo and hash. Bacon. Pigs in a blanket. Syrup. Getting to smell these things and more was enough to get his mouth watering.
Looking back down to his phone, Jack opted to send a text this time.
{Arcee told me you were on your way. Let’s meet up near the food trucks. Saw some things you might like around here…}
Typing out all that he wanted to say, the boy went to hit send just as a shoulder slammed into him, knocking the device out of hand.
“Hey, watch it!”
Paying them no heed, Jack crouched down to retrieve his phone, brushing past the blossoming pain in his shoulder. Inches away from collecting it, he watched in slow motion as a perfectly manicured hand snatched it out from before him. Confused, he looked up to see a girl hunkered down before him. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes, and a scary resting face that would have sent even Megatron running for the hills. Instead of her usual collegiate-style pink sweater with rolled up sleeves and blue jeans, she went less formal today. Decked out in sporty-casual attire, she wore a mint-green racerback tank, ripped jean shorts, and a beaten up pair of sneakers.
Jack hung his head. “Oh great, what are you doing here Darcy?”
“It’s a town-wide event Darby, why do you think I’m here?”
Unbelievable, he just had to run into Sierra’s best friend. Rolling his eyes, he held out his hand. “Can I have my phone back now?”
The blonde scowled, clutching the device to her chest. “Say please.”
“Please?” he sighed, a thousand percent done.
“You know what, no. Not with that attitude.”
Jack had to do a double take as his mouth hung wide open in disbelief. “N-no? It’s not even yours, now give it back!” Leaning forward, he darted a hand forward, earning him a quick slug to the shoulder from Darcy as she sprung to her feet. Falling back onto the seat of his pants, the boy recoiled with a wince. “Ow, what was that for?!”
The towering blonde crossed an arm across her stomach, cocking her hip to the side, as she absentmindedly fiddled with an earring. “I heard all about what happened this morning on the mesa, you know.” Her expression twisted into a sneer. “Soooo not cool by the way.”
What happened on the mesa?!
Nothing happened other than him storming off.
A tremor of concern froze Jack in place, a thousand and one responses racing through his forethought. It was a matter of seconds before this conversation would go downhill and he apparently had a front row seat to disaster. Knowing that, he decided not to answer her. What could he possibly say or do to change her mind? He was grasping for straws at this point.
“You had me fooled, Darby. I thought you were just a geek, but it turns out you’re a twisted freak.” Darcy clicked her tongue chidingly as she opened his phone with a flick of the wrist.
Dawning horror glued Jack in place, a nagging pit forming in his stomach. He wanted to wretch as the blonde zoned in on the small screen, reviewing its contents without regard for consent. This wasn’t good! He had pictures of the Autobots on his phone. Including the ones he took together with Arcee. If Darcy found them by accident…there’s no covering that up. Agent Fowler would chew him alive. This wasn’t good. Not. At. All!
“It’s a shame that you didn’t get the hint that day outside of the burger joint. What did you think hotdogging on a motorcycle was gonna get you?” she questioned, frustration building in her words. “It was a cheap five-minutes and for what?! To get Sierra’s attention?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t go out of my way to find you and Sierra. I just clocked off shift when you both happened to catch me getting on my…my…motorcycle.”
Oh boy, was that awkward to say!
If Arcee heard him right now, she’d rip him a new one.
Jack knew better than anyone else that nobody owned Arcee.
No one.
Without another word, Jack sprang to his feet, making another attempt to acquire his phone. This time, however, he felt someone shove him from the side ramming him completely off balance into a nearby light post. Faceplanting into unforgiving steel, the teen saw stars falling across his vision. Holding his nose, Jack turned back with a pained squint, noticing that the school’s football team surrounded him and Darcy in a shoulder-to-shoulder ring.
Oh no, this was getting worse!
Darcy glared at him. “Oh, no you don’t, Darby. You’re not getting this back…not until I delete everything you have on Sierra. Pictures. Phone calls. Text messages. Contact info. Forget about her, you creep!”
Jack grimaced as tears formed in his eyes, the smell of tangy copper filling his nostrils. “Look, I don’t know what it is that you’ve heard exactly, but Sierra’s the one who gave me her number. We’ve only talked a handful of times and out of all our—very limited—conversational history, she’s the one who contacted me every time. Whatever it is you think I have, I don’t.”
The blonde faltered at this confession, taking a step back as she squinted at the implications. Scoffing, she yelled, “You’re not getting out of this. Somebody’s lying because the facts aren’t adding up. Either it’s you or it’s Sierra—my bets are on you!”
“Look, if you hand me my phone, I can prove it to you.”
Darcy scowled. “Nice try, Darby! Take a look around you. Everyone here knows you’re guilty of being obsessed with my friend.”
Jack’s eyes darted back and forth, taking in the presence of his peers and their accusatory expressions as they cemented in place. How in the world did it come to this? All he wanted from today was to enjoy his time with his friends and his Autobot-guardian—Arcee. Yet, here he stood, totally embarrassed and harassed under an unexpected turn of the metaphorical spotlight.
It was complete nonsense!
“N-no, it’s never been like that,” Jack croaked, “I would never!”
He could hardly breathe in light of these hideous claims which caused his stomach to churn like an angry Tasmanian devil. Suddenly, the world around him had begun to pitch, warbling in a strange kaleidoscope of stress. Just as it was getting too unbearable to stand all alone, a girl with ebony and pink lemonade ombre hair peeled through the wall of bona fide testosterone.
“Get away from my boyfriend!”
Maybe he was a little delirious from the pain.
Perhaps he was even imagining things.
But the last time Jack had checked, he didn’t have a girl—
Oh, no!
XoXoXo
Turning the corner on Main Street, Miko dialed Raf’s number and waited for him to pick up. While the line buzzed, she fiddled with the hem of her tank top, running a thumb across the stitching. Kicking her feet forward, she enjoyed the feeling and sound of her Chucks scraping along the pavement.
“Come on, come on, come on!” she groused impatiently.
Click.
“H-hello?” a small voice whispered tentatively.
“Yo, genius, where ya at?”
“Hi, Miko, we’re at the dunk tanks right now.”
Miko gawked at her phone for a second. “Wait, there’s dunk tanks at a car show?”
Raf chuckled nervously, his voice suddenly sounding far away. “Y-yes, Mom, I’ll get off the phone in a second. It’s just one of the Computer Science club members calling. They’re trying to remember how to access the BIOS settings on their desktop to re-enable some of its functionalities.”
“Smooth move, straight lace,” she said, skipping around several people, “but I have no clue what you just said. Something, something, geek speak!”
“You’ll need to access the protocol quickly, or else the system is gonna fry. Gotta go, bye!”
“Wai—!"
Click.
“Scrap!” Miko grumbled.
Taking a good look around the booths lining either side of the road, she took quick notice of a large tarp tent with red, blue, and yellow flag streamers draped across its front. The cardboard sign duct taped to the foldout table read: INFO & REGISTRATION. No time to waste, she booked it to the stand, coming to a stop before an old grandma with purple hair and ruby framed, cat-eye glasses. Miko quirked her head to the side to read the crooked name tag pin just beneath her lapel, it was handwritten in some form of carpal tunnel induced cursive.
“Morning, uh, Gl-ade-ys.”
“It’s Gladys, dear,” Grandma corrected with all friendliness. “Good morning. Here for the show?”
“Yeah, I’m totally raring to see some hot car bod!” Miko said, rolling her eyes.
Grandma Gladys chuckled as she leaned in. “Me too, dear! Me too!”
Miko’s lip quirked in unexpected amusement. “Sick!”
The elderly woman pushed a map forward across the table. “Model cars are on the other end and voting is at noon. Just between you and me, I’ve got my eyes on a sports car with lustrous, candy-apple finish.” Giddy as a school girl, Grandma Gladys squealed shortly before pulling out her weekly pill box organizer. “I haven’t been this excited since my late fifties.”
“Cool, thanks!” Miko held out a fist. “Keep rockin’, Grandma!”
“You got it, dudette!” she said, obliging a fist bump.
Bolting into the crowded street, the teen ran while holding the map out in front of her. The info booth, which was denoted by a yellow star, showed a water droplet about a block and a half away. Assuming that’s where the dunk tanks were located, it was smackdab in the middle of both the game booths and food trucks. It was bound to be packed with families and their kids. Even more so, it made sense that the Esquivel’s would be there. Wait—the Esquivel’s! Raf’s mom was sooooo gonna flip if things went south with the plastics and meatheads. There’s no way she would let Ratchet jr. play with them again!
What was she gonna do?
Scrunching the paper in her fist, Miko dodged and weaved through the crowd, a feeling of uncertainty spurring her onward. She surmised that it didn’t matter what anyone thought. Come what may, she’d storm the gates of hell to defend her hodge podge family unit. Even if it meant she looked crazed out of her mind like a drowning sailor about to rest in Davy Jones’ locker. In this case it would be a Jock’s locker and that sounded ten-times worse.
Oof, can’t OxiClean the stank out of that!
Miko cringed, Jack might suffer a worse fate if she didn’t find him quickly.
Coming up on the dunk tanks, she skittered to a stop, nearly tripping over the back of her own foot. Narrowly catching herself on a light post, she peered around, looking desperately for her friends. It was then that Miko’s cell phone chimed causing her to fish the device out of her back pocket. She saw Raf’s name flash across the small notification screen, but she didn’t bother to check the message. Craning her head this way and that, vying for a break in the crowd, a sliver of opening thinned for just a moment.
She spotted the young boy genius over by the ring tossing stall, partaking in the same song and dance as her. Their eyes finally connected in recognition, a thin frown spreading across his lips. His brows furrowed quickly before he made a motion pointing to his head. Miko leaned sideways like a confused puppy—he had an earache??? Extracting his phone, the young boy quickly made out another text, and this time she read them both.
From Raf: {Jack’s at the corner of Desperado & Main. I can see the group from here.}
From Raf: {Miko, what’s up with your hair???}
Self-consciously feeling around that crazy mane of hers, the girl realized for the first time today that it wasn’t done up in her signature style of pigtails and a small braid. It hung down just past her shoulders, slightly wavy as a result of her bedhead and unconventional wake-up call this morning. She shrugged, holding up her hands exasperatedly. At least she combed it before leaving the house, right?
From Miko: {Idk!!!!! Who’s with Jack?!}
From Raf: {Not sure, but I think I saw Darcy...}
Miko rolled her eyes, greatly peeved to know that Sierra’s righthand henchwoman was doing her bidding in broad daylight. How she wished the blonde would just roast into a pile of slag under the sun. Figures! Tucking her phone away, she headed toward Desperado boulevard where the flow of foot traffic seemed to be most congested. Wriggling her way through the warm bodies, she cozied up to the wall of muscle-heads standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
Giving it the old college try, Miko attempted to jump-shove her way through only for someone to block her with a sweaty palm to the face. Propelled backward like a repelled magnet, the girl fell hard, landing on the seat of her pants. Short of knocking the breath out of her, she staggered back up onto her feet, just as she heard someone—no doubt Darcy—yell. “You’re not getting out of this. Somebody’s lying because the facts aren’t adding up. Either it’s you or it’s Sierra—my bets are on you!”
Jack’s voice wavered. “Look, if you hand me my phone, I can prove it to you.”
“Nice try, Darby! Take a look around you. Everyone here knows you’re guilty of being obsessed with my friend.”
Miko grimaced. He might have liked Sierra—until today—but mah boi ain’t no stalker you dumb twig! Again, she tried breaking the wall, desperation to spare Jack from further agony fueling her mettle. This time as a grubby hand reached for her face, she blocked it with the flick of her wrist. As her hand slid down the length of their forearm, she grabbed on tight, giving it a yank.
She felt her opponent turn precariously, taking this opportunity to sink down low toward their chest. Thrusting a shoulder up into their solar plexus, she stepped into their center, hooking a leg behind their knee. Giving them a quick shove against the chest, Miko popped her hip, and let the meathead tumble to the ground ingloriously like a ragdoll. Twirling them by bended wrist, she sidestepped them, and shouldered through the next set of jocks trying to seal the gap. Luckily enough for them, she passed through before they could redouble their efforts.
“N-no, it’s never been like that,” Jack croaked, “I would never!”
No plan in place, Miko did the next best thing, she—improvised.
“Get away from my boyfriend!” she yelled.
Darcy flinched at the commotion, her eyes widening with disbelief. “Nakadai?!”
The girl in question placed herself in front of Jack who looked like he could pass out from sheer exhaustion alone. He wasn’t the most social creature at times, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume he was at his limits in this situation. Turning toward her companion, she took his hand into her own and gave it a yank. Jack panic-stumbled into her open arms, which Miko dutifully snaked around his middle. Giving him an iron squeeze, she convincingly nuzzled her face into his chest, something she’d completely regret doing later.
“M-Miko!” he screeched in unbridled surprise. She couldn’t help but giggle, the feeling intensifying as she knew he couldn’t just shove her away, even if he wanted to. Hashtag: WORTH! She inhaled, taking a sharp breath, the smell of old spice and smokey musk filling her nostrils. Ugh—I hate that I know that now! If Miko could have squealed with disgust at this very moment, she would have! This was downright revolting, even Jack knew it as he squirmed beneath her.
“Where have you been Jack?” she feigned questioningly as she leaned back. Affecting a trembling lip, she continued, “I haven’t heard back from you in half an hour.”
“W-wait!” Darcy shrieked in disbelief. Jack and Miko, practically tied at the hip, both stared at the blonde having a very sudden conniption. “You got with the grunge freak? Since when?!”
Said freak flinched, a sudden agitation forming in her jutting jaw. Jack, taking quick notice of her stiffening posture, responded by hugging her to him. As he did, Miko could feel his grip tightening like a vice, inadvertently expelling the air—and deeply rooted rage—from her lungs. His clammy hands unconsciously curled together, tickling the small of her back as they took up fistfuls of fabric. She shivered involuntarily, the electric tingle ziplining up-and-down her spine, causing her knees to turn into jelly.
Whoa, what was that?
Too much, too much!
“We—uh—we’ve been together since—”
Oh no! He’s floundering!
“Since Spring Break!” Miko blurted.
Darcy, recovering from her apparent shock, folded her arms unconvinced. “Prove it!”
Miko felt her jaw drop. She just had to go there!
Jack blanched. “I’m sorry, do—what—now?
“Kiss! If you’re really together,” Darcy explained, pursing her lips, “then it won’t be a big deal.”
While every alarm sounded off in Miko’s mind, it was all she could do while she looked up at her friend in abject horror. Jack’s stormy blue eyes were round as saucers and full of panic as he searched her gaze for an exit strategy. They all but begged for one! Closing her eyes, she planned for the worst as she rose up on tiptoes. Oh, scrap! I shouldn’t have had coffee and pizza this morning! Eyes fluttering, she caught a glimpse of Jack gulping as if he were about to smooch a pucker fish. Something about the notion filled Miko with a belly-rage, a part of her singed from the prospect of being repulsive. Unattractive, even.
Remembering the crinkled map that made it to her back pocket at some point or other, Miko dropped to the flats of her feet as she extracted it. Handing it over to Darcy, she said, “Can you hold this for me?” The blonde obliged absentmindedly, her OCD nature taking over as she unwrinkled the paper. Shoving away from Jack, Miko skipped forward, jabbed through the map and into Darcy’s nose. Just as Sierra’s henchwoman stooped into a fetal position, cradling her face, Miko turned toward her friend. Yanking him along by the wrist, she led them through the throng of event goers. As they raced toward the model cars, she dared to look back only to snap her head forward.
Darcy was coming for them.
“Run!”