Transformers - Book 1

Chapter 1: A New Car

Aaron Witwicky sat in the back of his classroom waiting for the person before him to be done with their presentation. Since his last name was in the W's, he usually went last in these types of things. Which he was grateful for while also not so grateful for at the same time. He liked being last because it gave him more time to prepare, but it also meant that if he did anything embarrassing it would last longer in people's heads. He would at least prefer to be one of the kids in the middle. More time to prep while also not dead last. Sometimes he hated having to go by his uncle's last name.

Aaron heard his name and looked over to see his crush talking with one of the banes of his existence. Jason Banes was one of the hottest guys in school, and unfortunately Aaron had a huge crush on him. He didn't even know if he was gay or not, not many people were, seeing as it wasn't totally acceptable. Nonetheless, he still harbored feelings for the guy who was a year ahead of him. His history class held seniors and juniors in it.

Trent, Jason's asshole friend, looked like he was planning something, which Aaron figured it was probably some plan to mess with him when he finally went up to present his project. He saw Jason roll his eyes and shake his head lightly, obviously not impressed with whatever his friend was planning. That was another reason Aaron had taken a liking to the curly haired boy, he never really participated in Trent's antics towards Aaron, or any other kid Trent felt like bothering. Sometimes he would even step in and tell Trent to stop. He admired the boy for that.

"Okay, Mr. Witwicky, you're up," Aaron heard the teacher call him.

Aaron quickly looked away from Jason and grabbed his backpack before he made his way to the front. There was a small table with a podium next to it that he quickly stood behind. He flipped his backpack and started dumping all of the stuff he brought onto the table next to him. Notebooks, maps, and some other things fell out of his bag and onto the table.

"Sorry, I got a lot of stuff," Aaron said as he dumped the rest of it and went to stand behind the podium.

While he was occupied with that, Trent leaned over to Jason and told him to watch. Jason rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the dark-skinned boy. He watched with interest as he finally began his report.

"Okay, for my family-" Aaron was cut off by Trent launching a rubber band at the side of Aaron's head.

Jason smacked Trent on the shoulder and gave him a look, one that Trent shrugged off with a laugh.

"Who did... Who did that? People! Responsibility," the history teacher said as he stood up to address the class.

When no one fessed up he sat back down and motioned for Aaron to continue when he looked back at him, "Okay, um. So, for my family genealogy report I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky."

Aaron glanced at his classmates and noticed how Jason was staring at him with interest, making him more nervous than he already was.

"Uh, he was a very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first to explore the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal," Aaron explained as he grabbed the map from the table and held it up for the class to look at. "In 1897, he took 41 brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So, anyway, that's the story, right?"

Aaron put down the map and gestured to the other things on the table, "So here we have some basic instruments and tools used by 19th century seamen." The word caused the class to erupt in laughter which then prompted the teacher to hold up a sign that said quiet.