Like Father Like Daughter (TFP)

Two

"Can you turn that scrap down?" Ratchet snapped at Maggie.

"Sorry." She mumbled, turning down the volume on her phone.

She was listening to a recording of the school band playing a song they would use for the football game on Friday. She needed to come up with the second half of the color guard's routine for the song, so the other girls could learn it before the game. It was Tuesday night.

"Why don't you just spin the flag a bunch of times?" Miko yawed.

"Because that's boring, Miko," Maggie yawned too, "and it just spinning wouldn't go well with the song. The other girls wouldn't be able to spin their flags for so long anyway."

"Oh..." Miko trailed off.

"Here, record me," Maggie told her friend.

Miko got out her phone and started to record her.

Maggie restarted the song from the beginning. As the song played, she did the part of the routine she had down. Once she got to the part she was stuck on she made up a move and went along with it, continuously adding more moves and improvising until she finished the song in an elegant pose.

"...and done!" She smiled.

Miko stopped recording.

"Looked great, Mags!" She smiled, pressing buttons on her phone, "I'll send that to you."

"Thanks, M." Maggie put her flag back in its case and plopped down on the couch.

"Shouldn't you two be heading home?" Ratchet grumbled from his computer.

Miko checked the time and popped up out of her seat. It was 11:25 at night.

"Right, Ratch!" She said.

"Bulkhead, can you take us home?" Miko asked her guardian.

"Sure thing," the green bot transformed into his alt mode, "hop in."

Miko and Maggie grabbed their book bags. Miko grabbed her guitar, and Maggie her flag.

Ratchet was Maggie's guardian, but he couldn't leave the base very often, so she carpooled with one of the others. Usually, she went with Miko, because both of them were night owls and stayed at the base the longest. Jack had to leave to get home before his mom, and Raf had a strict mother who still believed in bedtimes.

Maggie's mom worked long shifts at an auto repair shop. Rebecca was very good with vehicles, and her job meant that she wouldn't have to be in a large confined space for very long. The workshop was like her second home. At their real home, however, Maggie was the one to cook the meals. Rebecca wasn't a good cook, and besides, when she got home late at night after her shift, she was too tired to want to do anything. Anything apart from asking her daughter how her day was, eating dinner, and heading to her room for bed.

Miko, on the way to Maggie's house, blasted her favorite heavy metal rock music. Maggie used to be allowed to play her music sometimes, but Miko quickly decided that her friend's music taste was "lame" and "old fashioned". Maggie got her music taste the same way she did her hair color and persistence: her father. Besides, Maggie agreed with Miko that her music taste was definitely much more exciting to listen to, and it kept her awake after a late night. It did leave her ears ringing, though.

Bulkhead pulled onto Maggie's street and stopped beside her mailbox. Maggie grabbed her book bag and hopped out of his cabin effort turning back to Miko.

"See ya!" She called to her friend as she began walking to her front door.

"BYE MAGS!!" Miko yelled.

"BYE MIKO!" Maggie yelled back.

The two drove off. Maggie went home.