A New Dawn - Transformers Prime (4)

Chapter Three

  [Amanda]

  "And that is time," Mr. Carlyle said. "Pencils down, and pass your papers up. Congrats on finishing your last high school exams, folks."

  I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding as I passed my exam booklet up to the front. From the desk across the aisle from me, Finn shot me a small, triumphant smile, making me shake my head. Of course he was smiling, he was acing calculus without an effort, while I had slaved over the formulas all of last night. I grabbed my supplies, shoving them into my satchel before grabbing my water bottle and standing to meet him.

  "Well?" He asked as we walked out of the classroom.

  "I saw the first question and wanted to cry," I admitted, and he gave me a surprised look, which made me laugh. "But the rest of it was fine. I'm so glad we went over the review last night though, or else I would have absolutely failed."

  He smiled, lacing his fingers idly through mine. "The exam was pretty much the review, just different numbers. Besides, it wasn't too bad. I thought Carlyle was going to throw some curveballs, since we pissed him off last week."

  "Wasn't too bad?" I gawked. "Easy for you to say, Einstein."

  That got me a laugh and we walked out into the sunny midday, the heat at its finest. I groaned, shielding my eyes from the sun.

  "I think this calls for a pool day," I declared. "Summer rest and relaxation officially starts today."

  Finn smirked. "Is your pool even prepped for the season?"

  "My pool is always prepped," I grinned and we made our way to the parking lot, where my Audi R8 was parked. I pulled out the keys and tossed them to Finn, who barely caught them as shock covered his expression, making me laugh. "What? You love Audis, so here's my graduation present for you; You get to drive."

  His jaw dropped. "You're letting me drive your R8?"

  "If you keep gaping, a fly will land in your mouth." I laughed.

  The shock on his face passed, replaced by pure glee, and he scooped me into a quick kiss before climbing into the driver's seat. Shaking my head with a smile on my face, I got into the passenger side, tossing my satchel into the back. I leaned over and poked his cheek as he started the car.

  "You're like a kid, you know that right?" I said, and he shrugged, still smiling.

  "Hey, if it means I get to drive the Audi..."

  I laughed again, thankful for moments like this that made me forget all my troubles. If only they could last forever...

~~~

  Later that night, I sat on the couch in my living room, the fireplace on and a book from Cleona's atheneum in my hands. I'd been going through the books down there whenever I had the time, knowing that there were centuries of wisdom hiding in those pages. I'd read about Cybertron's mythology, which was mostly about the gods and goddesses, about how Cybertronian life worked, and I'd now begun to read about the old Champions of Cleona. There were hundreds of them, and they were documented in two different ways. First through the eyes of their scribe (which was something I was still learning about), and second through a general description that was collected in a single book. I was trying to power through the general book, since I didn't know exactly which champions I needed to focus on to learn the most.

  The book was pretty massive, since each champion had a two page spread and there were hundreds of champions in total. Many of them had very brief descriptions, and I could see it was because they were killed shortly after becoming Cleona's champion, so they didn't exactly get a chance to do much. Others had extensive descriptions that barely fit on their pages.