DeceptiKids

Sent Home

Knockout was half-way through removing dents from some poor vehicons leg when he received a comm'. The ID was labeled 'Unknown, Earth'. The doctor considered not picking up but on the chance it might be one of the human children he answered, gesturing for Breakdown to help the vehicon in his place.

"Uh, hey Knockout." Tala said, her words static-y due to the distance and slightly muffled, "I need you to come pick me up from school."

Knockout checked his chronometer, "You usually don't finish for another few hours."

Tala laughed nervously, "Yeah, well..."

Earlier that day...

Daisy had called in sick - she hadn't been feeling well the past few days and it had gotten to the point that Luci told her she needed to take the day off. Tala didn't mind, sure, lunch was lonely without her but it was better than Daisy getting really sick or worse giving it to her.

Tala sat outside on the steps in front of the school, it was a nice enough day and the mess hall was crowded and loud. She was almost done with her lunch - having already eaten her sandwich and moving onto her packet of doritios. She tipped the remainder of the packet into her mouth and cleaned the dust off her fingers. As she was moving closer to the trash she noticed something was off.

Across from her was Vince and a few of his friends. The two of them hadn't gotten along from the moment they'd met - which was, coincidentally, the day she met Daisy. Vince had been bullying a younger Daisy for a few months and Tala decided to stick up for her. A couple kicks and bruises later, and Vince never messed with Daisy ever again.

Tala walked towards him, "Hey!" She shouted.

Vince's head snapped towards her, revealing a young, dark haired boy with glasses. Really young. Tala's eyes widened as one thought kept running through her head, 'he's probably the same age as Max'.

Tala caught her composure quickly, "What do you think you're doing?" Tala asked, hand on her hip.

Vince snorted, "None of your business, dyke."

Tala twitched, "You just made it my business." She looked at the kid, "Why don't you bully someone your own size? Too afraid you'll get your ass kicked by a girl again?"

"You're barely a girl." Vince hissed, "And I'm not afraid of anyone. Especially you." He dropped the child, who gave a nervous look around to Vince's friends before running off.

"Do you really think I care about what you think about me?" Vince said, "You're a dumb, blonde dyke because no boy is ever gonna love your ugly face and body so you cut your hair short and wear boy's clothes so other people think it's your choice to not date anybody. When it's really because you're a gross skanky pervert that nobody wants to be near except for that obedient little-"

Tala punched Vince.

Immediately Vince flinched back, holding his jaw. When he looked up he saw Tala seething.

"Finish that and I'll kill you." She hissed through gritted teeth.

Vince smirked, "Did I hit a nerve?"

Tala growled and tried to punch him again, but this time Vince was ready and caught it. So Tala swung with her other fist and hit him in the stomach. Vince winced and kicked her in the shin. By this point a small crowd had gathered around, pushing them both and chanting 'Fight!'. Tala couldn't take the noise, lashing out at Vince who used her confused state to his advantage - punching her right in the nose. She could feel the blood dripping and her ears ringing and just when she made a move to retaliate someone grabbed her arm.

Two of Vince's friends grabbed him by the arms and tried to pull him back - Tala just now noticed the blood dripping from his forehead and a nasty looking black-eye, he was shouting all kinds off gross slurs at her. Tala looked around to see who grabbed her and saw the familiar, disappointed face of Miss Madsen. Tala would've given her a smile if her face didn't hurt.

Miss Madsen turned to Vince's friends, "Take him to the nurse, and make sure he stays there." She looked down at Tala, "You are coming with me."

It wasn't Tala's proudest moment; sat outside the principles office, tissue stuffed up her nose and a couple band-aids all over her hands, elbows, knees and right cheek, and an ice pack on the side of her face as she begged the principle not to call her mother.

"Tala. This is the third time you've gotten into a fight this year! If that young boy hadn't told me you had been sticking up for him, you would've been expelled!" Principle Galloway said, "I need to do something to get you under control."

"If I may interrupt, Principle Galloway," Miss Madsen said softly, "This is the first time Tala threw the first punch in a fight, meaning the other two times she was simply defending herself. I don't think calling Tala's mother would be best in this situation. Maybe a few days suspension and two weeks detention is a more reasonable punishment."

Galloway sighed, "Whatever. Just get her home and out of my sight."

The second the office door closed, Tala gave Miss Madsen a hug, "Thank you."

Miss Masden smiled, "It's my job." She said, "Do you have a way of getting home? I could take you if not."

"It's fine," Tala replied, "I've got a friend with a car."

"And that was technically true," Tala said, now in the backseat of Knockout's alt, "If you replace 'with' with 'is'."

"Very interesting." Knockout said, clearly not interested.

"I'm not fully done yet!" Tala shouted, "That kid who I stuck up for, one of his friends - maybe his cousin? - he found me in the hallway and thanked me for looking out for his little buddy."

"Mm-hm." Knockout replied, "I take it you told him his friend owed you a life debt?"

Tala laughed, "Nah, nah. I told him not to worry about it. I only really stood up for the kid because he reminded me of Max."

The doctor chuckled, "That's surprisingly sweet, coming from you."

Tala flushed, pulling her hat down to cover her face, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."