Full summary: Nicole was spending her boring life at home during summer vacation, doing nothing but waiting for someone to call and make plans with her. A small ball of light captures her and sends her to Cybertron. There she is kept under lock and key, the Autobots being afraid of what an organic might do to them. A fun-loving, daring, feisty mech meets up with along the way. But there's something about him that he doesn't want anyone to know about, especially Nicole. How is he to tell her?

Chapter I

Nicole sat there, staring at the black screen of the television. She already checked to see what was on, and there was nothing of interest, not even on SyFy. The girl didn't want to watch any of the movies they had, spend any sort of time on the Internet, and didn't feel like reading a book or playing a video game. She would've gone outside, but she was already sunburned--or more like sun-fried--from last week on the boat ride to the beach. Her mom was sleeping in her room--a nighttime nurse, or, as Nicole's nickname for her, a human owl--and the dog laid sluggishly on the wooden floor in front of her. Shadow, the black lab, was half asleep and would only reopen his eyes to the motion of Nicole getting up to grab a snack.

Whenever she did try to eat, she would open the refrigerator to nothing that fitted her taste and the cabinet doors to canned food she was sure she would burn and a popcorn box. She had swore to herself that she wouldn't live off of popcorn the way her dad used to. Frustrated, she slammed the cabinet door, making the dog get up and walk to the kitchen just to see what the noise was. Nicole moved to the refrigerator one more time and grabbed a hot dog out of a plastic wrapper. She stuck in the microwave for twenty seconds, hearing it sizzle a bit. The dirty blonde looked to see if there were any hot dog holders, but she would have to stick to Mom's whole wheat bread. Once she took the meat out and wrapped it in the bread slice, she looked at the dog, his ears looking like triangles on the side of his head and gold-orange eyes asking for a piece.

"This is mine, Rufus Doofus," she said. "I'm-a eat this." Nicole took a large bite, making the dog slump and walk away, sad that he didn't get what he wanted. Nicole tried to teach the dog that it was wrong to beg. But it didn't help when her dad always gave him a slice of turkey each time Shadow flashed a puppy-dog look. That black dog was spoiled rotten and everyone knew it, too.

Nicole walked back to the living room and sat on the couch. Everything was boring now; her mom slept all day and dad was kicked out of the house for having a secret girlfriend--who even knew he was married in the first place. She looked at Shadow to see him stare straight at the hot dog, ears in position.

"No way, stoop." She took a large bite out of her lunch. "We can't have you going fat and lazy on us." Shadow seemed to raise an eyebrow, if he ever had one. "Fine, I'm lazy, too. But just because there's nothing to do! And, no, I won't throw a chew toy down the hall. That'll just wake her up."

Shadow laid down and brought his head over one of his front legs as if to say "Pretty please?".

"I told you, no!" Another bite. With her mouth full she muttered "Stupid dog. Doesn't listen to half of what we say." It was true. They would leave the dog outside for only a few minutes and he would have already escaped from a hole they couldn't find and run off to some other house that had dogs he could play with. The longest the lab's ever gone away from home was three full days. Nicole would pop him on the nose once to see if it would do anything, but he would never get the big picture and run away next time he got the chance. That's why they had a chain wrapped around a tree and the other end connect to Shadow's collar. Let's see him pull the tree from it's roots and run down the street with that! It would definitely be a YouTube scene, right? Skinny black chocolate dog dragging a five-feet diameter tree behind him. Picture it.

Nicole flipped open the laptop next to her on the arm of the couch and clicked on her email address. Her heart stopped for a split second until she realized she just held her breath for nothing.

"No messages," she sighed. "That's it. It's official; I'm boring as mud." She slapped the laptop shut and crossed her arms angrily in front of her chest. "This totally sucks. The summer before the first day of high school and I don't even have a good story to tell. Does anything happen in the middle of summer, besides my birthday which no one came to?" Some friends, eh? Everyone had something to do on July fifteen except for Nicole and her mom. Was there anything exciting to do before the four hellish years of high school started?

xXx

Brianna: Sorry that it's so short.

Nicole: *mutters* I'll say...

Brianna: But first chapters for stories like these always have to be more like an introductory. Nicole is my middle name, so she's more like me than you know. And, yeah, the half-boring summer and Shadow are real as well. the only thing different is that I didn't bother to put my sister in this time.

Brittany: Hey! Not fair!

Brianna: But it's my story!

Brittany: I'm still your sister!

Brianna: Heck, this is all fiction and you know it!

Nicole: Here we go...*turns on MP3 while Brianna and Brittany keep bickering; singing softly* No apologies. I'd never thought you'd be so easily decieved...

Song: Noots
Originally performed: Sum 41

And usually we call our dog by many names; Rufus Doofus, Rufus Doofus Goofus, Shadow-man, Shadow-dog, Stoop Dog (almost like Snoop Dogg XD), Shadow Stoop, and Puppy-man as well as Puppy-dog. Any questions?

You don't have to review, since there's not much to comment on. ;)