Author's Notes: I need to thank Talking Hawk. She helped me with the details of the basketball game and a couple other things. Thank you for your help.

There wasn't going to be a continuation but after seeing some reviewers requesting me to continue (I couldn't refuse to continue) and I unintentionally (sorry) made a bit of a cliffhanger. So here is the continuation, which will evolve into a sequenced novel as a different title, (I hope). Alexis is short for Alexandra. Smokescreen isn't called Hoist yet.

/

Starscream arrived in the command center of the Autobot base at the appointed time that Optimus gave him. When he entered, he could hear Hotshot and Smokescreen having a discussion about the game over in one corner off to the side of the main viewer. He ignored them and proceeded to where Optimus and Jetfire were, which was at the main viewer. Over in the other corner, the Autobots Mini-cons including Swindle, the shield and sword Mini-cons were also waiting, as were Scavenger, Red Alert, Sideswipe and Blurr.

"Starscream," Optimus said. "You're just in time. Make yourself comfortable. The game will start very shortly."

"Who has Lazerbeak?" Hotshot asked.

"Rad, Carolos and Alexis didn't get there in time so they are on the other side further away," Jetfire said. "They gave Lazerbeak to Billy and Fred since they managed to be closer to the game."

"And the best part is," Red Alert added, "this time it's Liberty high school versus the local team."

"From what Carlos says," Scavenger said, "it's a charity game. Not sure for which charity though."

Sparkplug beeped. Earlier, he had overheard Rad and Carlos talking about the basketball game and the local orphanage.

The Autobots had heard of the orphanage a few months prior and felt bad for all the children that were there. It was an organization that only helped the homeless children but also helped abused children. It was a small chain off of YMCA

"Too bad there isn't anything we could do for the orphanage," Hotshot said.

"Gentlemen, the game is starting," Optimus announced.

"All right!" Hotshot cheered. "Let the games begin."

The Autobots watched the view screen as two teams sent a player from each into the middle of the court. A referee dressed in black and white held a basketball out in between the two, and they each patted the ball once. Then, the referee blew his whistle, throwing the ball up in the air, and one of the players had hit it to another member on his team. The high school had a blue shirt while the local team had red shirt.

"Hey, that's no fair! The red one touched it first; it was his!" Starscream said.

Hotshot turned and looked at Starscream. "Uh, Starscream, just because someone touches it doesn't mean it's theirs. You have to have the ball in order for it to be yours."

Starscream folded his arms, "Oh. Whatever."

During the course of the game, Starscream found that Hotshot and Smokescreen were making a bet to see which team was going to win. The bet was whenever the next time they played tagged with the kids whoever lost was going to be 'it' first. Hotshot had betted for the high school and Smokescreen for the local team.

Every once in a while, whoever was holding Lazerbeak; the Autobots were able to get a quick look at Rad and the others and in those quick seconds Starscream would think back to his small conversation with Alexis. She was one human he couldn't understand.

At one point, the two teams had been going back and forth across the court for quite some time and finally, a shorter basketball player on the blue team got a hold of the ball and dribbled it down to the red team's side of the court. Two taller red team players then confronted the blue player, waving their arms, blocking him from getting a clear shot of the basket.

Sideswipe seemed very distressed by this.

"Hey, why are they picking on that shorter kid?" Sideswipe asked

Scavenger chuckled, "It's the object of the game, kid."

"But they're not being very nice," Sideswipe said.

Meanwhile, on the screen, a red team player knocks the ball from the blue player's hands and began running across the court.

Hotshot shouted, "Thief! THIEF!"

Smokescreen turned and looked at his comrade. "What do you mean 'thief'? That was perfectly le."

Hotshot turned and punched Smokescreen and they got into a fistfight. Scavenger and Sideswipe tried to stop them.

Optimus turned, annoyed at the little brawl, "Knock it off or no more basketball!" Everyone froze at Optimus's outburst and slipped away back to their area of the room.

By the end of the last quarter, the two teams were tied 50-50. No one team seemed to have control of the ball, as it kept on switching to both sides across the half-court line. All of the Autobots, even Starscream, were on edge, and wondered what the final outcome would be. A member on the blue team had stolen the ball, and rushed toward the net at the last 15 seconds.

When it was down to the final few seconds of the game, Hotshot and Smokescreen seemed to hold their breaths. The boy, who had the ball, stopped at the three-point line, aimed, and released the ball. Then, the camera was filled with a huge hot dog as buzzer sounded, and all of the Autobots began speaking in a panic. Questions like, "Who won?" filled the room. Optimus, who was closest to the screen, punched a button and began to speak.

"Fred, move your hotdog! Or rather, tell us who won!" The Autobots were silent, leaning forward to hear the results of the charity game.

"Uuuh, sorry, Optimus," an unsure voice could be heard over the intercom. "I didn't realize my hotdog got in the way."

Blurr in the meantime felt like punching something. Fred had always annoyed Blurr especially when he would complain about wanting to eat. And now his food was getting in the way. Jetfire placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

Suddenly a male announcer, before Fred could say anything more, was heard through the intercom, "Ladies and Gentlemen and children of all ages. The winner of the game by just a split second is Liberty High School."

Hotshot whistled out in victory.

"Well, I guess you win the bet, bro," Sideswipe said.

"You betcha I did," Hotshot said bringing his arms to rest on his head. "So that means Smokescreen."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm 'it' the next time we play tag with the kids," Smokescreen said with a disappointed face.

Everyone in the room laughed, even Starscream gave a little chuckle. He had learned through Sideways that the Autobots did things with the kids in their spare time but had no idea they would play games with the kids. He didn't even know what tag was.

"So that is how basketball is played?" Sideswipe said.

"Yup," Blurr said as he walked out of the room with Scavenger close at his heals. Hotshot, Sideswipe and Smokescreen had also left the room talking about the game, which left Starscream, Optimus, Jetfire and the Mini-cons.

"So what did you think of the game?" Optimus asked Starscream as he turned of the monitor.

"Different," Starscream said. "I had wondered what that game was. In the past few weeks, Thrust would stumble upon a live game and we would watch, that would be until Megatron caught us." Starscream balled his fists at the Decepticon leader's name.

The mention of his ex-leader's name soared his mood and he left the room with not so much more than a sideways glance on his way out, he stopped long enough to pick up Swindle and continued on his way. He could hear Jetfire speaking to Optimus about the game.

As he walked down the hall, he stopped, as something caught his optic. He turned to see a room that was clearly used as a lounge. Just to amuse himself and get Megatron off his mind he entered the room. He couldn't quite understand why there would be a lounge in a space ship that crashed four million years ago. But of course the Autobots had done a lot of work to the old ship to make it livable.

It wasn't as big as the control room but was big enough to fit all the Autobots. In one corner, Starscream noticed a human sized fridge with two tables and chairs with a sofa for the kids. Beside the corner was a transformer size table with pictures on it. To Starscream's surprise the pictures were of the kids.

He walked over to the table and picked up the picture of the human Alexis. He stood there gazing at it. *I don't understand her* he thought. *There's something about her I just can't quite figure out. She has every reason to hate me, only she doesn't*. Starscream sighed and placed the picture back down. "It seems she has put a lot of trust in me."

"She has." Starscream turned to see Hotshot approach him. "I didn't think anyone was in here. I thought it was funny the day the kids gave us a picture of each of them. Red Alert used the computer to enlarge the pictures and had frames made for them too."

"So what brings you here?" Starscream asked in his usual tone.

"To get some peace and quiet. I don't know why but I feel closer to the kids when I'm in here. Maybe it's because of the pictures and the belongings the kids brought in," Hotshot said. "Though I'm wondering why you're in here."

"For your information, I just stumbled upon the room." Starscream turned and left the room to head outside the base. He sat on a small ledge . well to a human it would have been a good size ledge but since he was a transformer . it proved to be a good seat, and stared out over the town the kids lived in.

When dark approached, he continued to stare off over the mountains. He knew Optimus was behind him against the rocks. Optimus had showed up shortly before sunset but was silent allowing Starscream to have time to himself.

"What brings you out here Optimus Prime?" Starscream asked without turning.

"I came out here to watch the sunset. I didn't know you would be out here until I arrived," Optimus said moving from leaning against the rocks and approached the ex-Decepticon.

"What's so special about the sunset?"

"It's a beautiful sight. I've never been on a planet that shows such a sight until now. By the way before coming out here, I heard the kids were coming up tonight."

Starscream turned to the Autobot leader, "Why would they be coming back here after dark?" he asked curiously.

"The kids don't have school tomorrow and quite often they stay here when there's no school the next day."

"Don't they realize you are in the middle of a war? They could be hurt or killed."

"They know the dangers but they have become our good friends and have helped us many times and I do fear for their safety."

Starscream turned away and allowed the silence to roam between the two of them and after several minutes of silence, he found it was too awkward. "Alexandra," he said. The name ended the silence.

"What about Alexis?" Optimus asked remembering when Alexis had told him and the other Autobots that Alexandra was her full name. They had heard her full name not long after they arrived on Earth.

"She has put a lot of trust in me," Starscream said. "More than what I put in myself. Out of all those human kids, she is one that I can't figure out."

"Yeah it takes a bit to understand Alexis. She is one of a kind. She is quite, how the humans put it, the computer whiz."

"I don't know why she wants to be my friend. I tried to kill her and the others a few times."

"She has looked passed that. Humans can be hard to figure out but some of the humans actually will give people second chances. And Alexis is one of those people. You risked your life to join us and she seen that. I've never seen a Transformer able to leave Megatron's services and live to tell the tale."

"Optimus!" a female voice called.

Optimus and Starscream turned and saw Alexis and the boys arrive with Hotshot. The kids had their backpacks stuffed as they usually did when they stayed at the base.

"Welcome back kids," Optimus said.

"Optimus sorry for getting my hotdog in the way earlier. I was just too excited," Fred said.

"Forgotten, Fred," he said. "Well let's get you guys in and set up."

"Alright!" Carlos shouted. "A campout at the Autobot base."

Hotshot laughed not missing the enthusiasm in Carlos's voice. Hotshot always had enjoyed the kids campout since Alexis would tell stories. They would always campout in the lounge.

As the boys, Optimus and Hotshot left, Alexis stayed behind with Starscream. For a few moments he stared at her. The evening air blew at her hair, which barely went to her shoulders. He noted to himself that she looked pretty as she stood in front of him. He broke the silence as he noticed that she had a slight chill.

"You could get sick if you stand here any longer since the air is cooler up here."

"I know," she said. "I was just wondering why you were staring at me."

"Oh," he said. He went speechless that she knew he was staring at her. He bent down putting his hand on the ground for her climb up. She took the invitation and sat down, placing her backpack beside her as he lifted his hand to eye level. "I'm puzzled by your kindness. I have tried to kill you and yet you're talking to me as if I never was with the Decepticons."

"I may never forget that you tried to kill me or the others but when you asked for our help, I just thought that you deserve a second chance. I've noticed in previous battles you seemed reluctant to battle almost as if you are questioning yourself."

"How do you know these things?" He was getting confused now. She was figuring him out and she really knew nothing about him. In a way he was getting angry with her but on the other hand, he liked the idea of her figuring him out without him saying so.

"My parents are divorced and through the years I've been able to see why my mother would get upset or be depressed. Then when I met you Transformers I've been able to know the Autobots moods just by looking at them. Mind you, with Optimus's faceplate, it's hard to tell when something's on his mind so I've gotten to know when something is wrong; Optimus will seem quiet or distant."

Starscream was silent for a few moments watching the young girl shiver more. He stood and walked into the base getting quite comfortable with her presence. When they were out of the chilled air he broke the silence.

"What is divorced?"

"Huh?" She looked at him. "Divorce . " She didn't know where to begin. "It's when a husband and wife decide to stop being married. Usually a divorce happens when one of them is either abusing the other or having an affair."

He cocked his head getting more confused.

"Ok ... Affair is when someone is sleeping around on his or her partner . or in a Transformer's case, mate. Another word for affair is cheating on someone." She was told that there were female Transformers or Cybertron and when two Transformers hooked up together they were classified as 'mate'.

"So why are your parents divorced?" he asked finally understanding. Humans were a complicated race.

"It's not like my dad was cheating on my mother or abusing her or anything. It's just my mom didn't want to relocate when my dad had been transferred to another state and they were getting into a lot of arguments because they couldn't agree to disagree."

They continued the rest of the way in silence to the lounge and when they got there, the kids already had the sleeping bags set up and Hotshot and Scavenger were laughing at Rad as he was covered in head to toe in whip cream but was laughing.

Alexis started to laugh. "What happened?"

Hotshot turned and tried to stifle his laugh with no success so Scavenger explained. "Just a minute ago Jolt, Longarm and Sparkplug grad the whip cream pies from your fridge and threw them at Rad. So what took you two so long?"

Starscream was about to make a snappy comment when he actually looked at Rad and he laughed himself. It wasn't his usual maniacal laugh but a different one that everyone in the room noticed but didn't say anything.

Starscream set Alexis down as she went to assist her friend with the whip cream. When he was cleaned off, Optimus came in the room and dimmed the lights. Soon all the Autobots were in the room listening to Alexis telling campfire stories. Some of the stories were spooky and some made everyone laugh.

At one point when Alexis was telling a scary story, Billy decided to try something and when Alexis wasn't looking he indicated to the Autobots what he was about to do. He stood up and went behind Alexis and scared her. Alexis jumped out of her sleeping bag. Starscream who was the closest to her, caught before she fell too hard. Everyone laughed.

"Billy!" Alexis said after her heart went back to normal. She peered over Starscream's fingers. "One of these days I will get you for that."

When Optimus controlled his laughter, he stood. "Well kids it's getting late, you should get some sleep as well as the rest of us."

As the Autobots started to leave, Starscream placed Alexis down and watched her get back into her sleeping bag.

"If you kids don't mind, I'd like to stay for a bit." Starscream surprised himself at what he said. Even the kids were surprised until Alexis said sure. When the kids were asleep Starscream placed a finger on Alexis, which covered her whole body and watched her. He knew that if anyone was going to change him for the better it was going to be her. She knew what to say to him and he was getting to like her. In fact he secretly liked her but now liked her even more.