Transformers Prime: Merely a Whisper

Chapter Tweleve

Danielle always hated the first day of school. In public schools, was always loud, crazy, and filled with people renewing their friendships with each other. Danielle didn't have that. She had been homeschooled ever since the day she was beaten up by a boy named Drake Thomas. That name was burned in her mind forever. The boy who beat Mark Collins with such an intensity that the boy later died, succumbing to his wounds. Danielle remembered Mark. He had always been kind to her, sharing his stuff when she didn't have any, and they were partners for projects. She had felt as if she could talk to him more than anyone else, even if everyone else said he was a little weird.

She guessed that made them friends.

But now, she was sitting at her kitchen table while her mother made a special breakfast for their first day of homeschooling for the second year in a row. Her chin was propped up on a hand, supported by the elbow she had resting on the table. She was bored, exhausted, and dreading having her mother as a teacher, again. She didn't mind not having friends, but sometimes she wondered if real school would be better, even if she was a loner amongst people who didn't particularly like her.

Suddenly, the smell of whole-wheat pancakes and fruit salad grew increasingly strong, and she looked down at the plate of food before her, drizzled with agave syrup, before glancing up at her mum, and smiling in thanks.

Clad in her pyjamas, at 10:15 am, Danielle began slowly eating her freshly prepared meal, whilst her mother began introducing the poetry unit for Language Arts.

A couple bonuses came with being homeschooled.

------

TWO YEARS LATER....

The girl was stone-faced, heading down the hall, away from their final lesson Starscream was assigned to teach. Despite the fact that they had been accepted into the Decepticon ranks, the weaselly second-in-command had felt his teaching sessions weren't quite complete. The mech agitated her, to say the least, but she couldn't deny the fact that she appreciated the information he was passing on to them. The progress her team had made was impressive, and they functioned like proper soldiers thanks to the Seeker. He had some useful pointers, and some unnecessary insults.

Her thoughts, however hard she attempted, were continuously drifting back to the harshly given advice Starscream had told Hope and Drake after a rather negative it emotional ordeal.

"You cannot let your emotions rule your actions!" had had snapped at the pair, his temper and surprised hatred starting to show as he interrupted their argument, "if you let emotions guide you, you are doomed to fail. You cannot act on your...humanitarian impulses," he had addressed them with an arrogance that could barely be matched, "you must act like a Decepticon. Think like a Decepticon. Cold. Unforgiving. You cannot appear weak. You have to know that you are superior over your enemies..." She had stopped listening then. He was rambling on, and it was all indirectly building himself up.

Danielle had taken those words to heart. She had been attempting to be less emotional when it came to training. She knew soldiers remained stoic, but it never had really dawned on her that her emotions could affect her leadership abilities and duties.

It could affect her image of authority she held over her fellow techno-organics. She had always thought that a balance between guarding ones emotions and using them as an advantage was best, but obviously, to successfully be a Decepticon, she had to abandon all aspects that separated them from robots, but if it meant acceptance and success,

She had to be willing.

She arrived at her dorm without even realizing she had completed her journey through the Nemesis halls, and stepped through the dorm door casually, feeling a small wave of exhaustion wash over her. Climbing into her bed with ease, Danielle sat on her bed, cross-legged, reading the adventure book Lee had given to her to pass the time. She didn't know how much time had passed, only that she had read 246 pages, her COM link sounded, dragging her from the depths of the surprisingly interesting story.