Mother of the Transformers

First Day of School

*Here's a cute picture of Tanya without her glasses! She will be in this chapter as a classmate of the bots! As for who she is, stay tuned to her debut chapter!*

A few days had past since the incident, but it affected the bots a lot. Megatron stayed true to his word as he caused little trouble for his caretaker and had resorted to helping her out with many task. Penny herself had a sudden revelation of learning all their names via the vision she had received from her sudden illness. They were happy that she had learned their names, but preferred to stick to their nicknames around her. So it was a nice weekend of fun and merriment for them all.

Although some things changed, some remained the same. She made them all read and play outside to prepare for the school she'd gotten them enrolled into. A few tweaks and she had managed to get them enrolled at the same Elementary school she worked in. She had to inform Principal Danvers that her kids were a "special" case. The principal didn't mind at all! He told her that the children were always welcomed to come and learn like everyone else. Penny was ecstatic that her kids would be treated like equals, but worried about how they would handle bullying and the playground tier.

Maybe she was overthinking things as usual.

"Is it really true that we are going to a human school today?"

"That's what Penny told us."

"I don't wanna go! Why can't we stay at home with her?"

"We don't even look like humans!"

Penny hummed in delight as she made breakfast and lunch for all of them at the counter. Earlier in the weekend, she took Optimus and Megatron out for back to school shopping for all of them. They had gotten supplies, backpacks, lunch boxes, and other essential items for school. Megatron insisted that he would get a gray and purple backpack to keep his "battle gear" in. Penny wasn't sure what he meant by that, but got him the bag anyways. Optimus picked out the other backpacks for the rest of the group.

Her train of thought was ruined when she felt a small tug on her pants. Looking down, she saw Bee giving her a cute look before lifting up his cup.

"More please." He asked, his blue optics shining with innocence.

One more thing happened the night Penny made a carrier bond with the bots. Now they could speak in her native tongue more fluently. The books helped as well.

"No time Bee! School starts in fifteen minutes and not one of you is fully dressed." Penny picked him up and ushered the bots from the table. "Hoodies on, faces cleaned, and backpacks at the ready! Anyone who is late gets left, and we all know how serious I mean by that."

Starscream set an involuntary shiver down his spine at the memory. She left him in a parking lot before coming back for him.

They all scampered upstairs to their room while Soundwave stayed with Penny. His black and purple hoodie was already on while his black backpack slung lazily over his shoulder. His faceplate had a five minute timer displayed. Penny patted his helm before planting a quick kiss in it.

"Always on time as usual. Why can't the others act like you when it comes to this kind of stuff?" She asked him, wiping his faceplate with a towel. "It's such a hassle to get them up in the morning...from my bed no less!"

"Carrier: Has nice bed. Bots: Love to cuddle her." Soundwave answered, adjusting the straps on his backpack.

"Then I guess I'll have to get a bigger bed for all of us then or make your bed more comfortable."

"Penny: Does not need to worry. Money: Big problem."

It had come to a point in her life that Penny really needed help with keeping the bills payed so that she and her kids could at least have a more suitable life. Soundwave and Lazerbeak had taken the liberty into helping her in the wee hours at night with her finances. He had surprisingly good math skills when it came to accounting. Lazerbeak was also great for keeping them both up.

"I know, but this is why I have to get back to work. You guys deserve so much better than the life you have now. I feel as if I didn't give you enough, you all would be suffering."

"What are you talking about?" It was Megatron, walking down with his backpack on. "You provide enough for us Penny! You are the most hardworking, caring carrier that I have ever come to know!" He ran against her and gave her a tight hug. "Don't think we won't love you if you ran out of money. We will find a way to get back to normal."

"Our lives are anything but normal." Penny said, but patted his helm. She turned her direction upwards. "COME ON GUYS! YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE!"

The sound of scuffling and her hairdryer being turned on made her groan. Knockout needed to stay out of her beauty bin.

The ride to LakeWood Elementary was an excited one. For once, Penny wasn't driving to work alone. The bots were all excited to be starting a school year with children their ages and human! Bee was coloring in his bug coloring book that Penny bought him one day. Bulkhead was fiddling with his backpack strap. Knockout was having Breakdown polish him one last time. Arcee was reading a book along with Optimus. Smokescreen was playing with his new toy car, making zooming noises. Dreadwing was fixing his pencil box. Starscream was singing with the radio. Megatron was containing his groans at his horrible screeching. Ratchet was trying to stuff a medical kit inside his bag. Soundwave was quietly playing on her phone, changing the apps and updating her software.

What? It paid to have a kid gifted with technology.

She pulled up in the giant circle that hugged the school property and parked the car. It would have to move in a few due to the buses, but Penny had to get into her classroom to start the day and to drop her kids off. One by one the cybertronian children hopped out the car and walked behind her, in awe at the school building. It was pretty old given the red bricks and greying sidewalk. The windows were washed and had colorful pictures on them ranging from smiley suns and rainbows. The door even had a bunch of flowers on them. They walked down a long corridor where different teachers were resided in different classrooms. Each classroom had a number on it from 1 to 5. They saw a few doors with Pre-K and K on them too. Penny walked them down the hallways before stopping in front of the rooms with a 2 on the front. One room was decorated with orange glitter and streamres while the other room had pictures of various animals.

"Optimus, Starscream, Bulkhead, Dreadwing, and Ratchet are in this room." She gestured towards the animal room. "While Bee, Arcee, Smokescreen, Megatron, Knockout, and Breakdown are in the the other one." She pointed at the orange room.

"What about Soundwave? Where is he going?" Smokescreen asked, giving the bot a strange look.

"Soundwave got placed in the TAG group! His test scores were off the charts!"

"What's TAG? Isn't that the game we play in the yard?" Bee questioned.

"No and yes. Tag is the game we play that Smokey always wins at. TAG is for the Gifted and Talented students."

"I'm gifted and talented, so why am I not in the group?" Starscream whined, crossing his arms.

"Sorry Screamy, school rules are school rules. Which brings up my next point..." Penny leaned down to face them all. "If I hear that one of you is being a bullying or causing trouble, there will be consequences. Both of these teachers are good friends of mine so they will tell me if you are being naughty."

They all nodded. Penny placed one last kiss on their helms before heading down the fifth grade hallway with Soundwave. The bots all gave each other one last look before heading into their new classes. Their new adventure had just begun!

And that's the first part of the Back to School arc! What will happen now that our bots are in different classes?

Until then: What would be their favorite subjects?