The concrete freeway stretching out in front of me seems endless as we cruise through the desert at eighty miles per hour. It's getting late and we've been driving since the crack of dawn. I was getting tired and hoping we would be able to make Los Angeles by nightfall.

We drive for another hour before I see a road sign. Only forty-two miles until we cross the L.A. city limits. I can't here it at first over the music, but my Nextel beeps. I reach out and pick it up from the passengers seat. "Yeah?"

"Hey, Danielle lets pull over and take a break for a minute."

I peer through the rear view mirror at the RX-8 riding my tail. "I hear you. There's a rest stop in a few miles. We'll pull off there."

I lie down on the hood of my car parked at the rest stop and examine the red and black Gibson les Paul tattooed on my forearm. Nick is on the cell phone telling his mom he's okay. I laugh and yell, "Are you done talking on the phone?" Nick holds up his finger, "like one minute." We only have about twenty miles left until we hit L.A. I step back into my car and turn on my stereo a few minutes later as Nick finally hangs up the phone. "What took you so long, Nick?"

"Danielle, my mom is crazy. She won't let five minutes pass without her callin me."

"Whatever, dude." I say.

I peer over the dashboard and watch as five suped up cars pull into the rest stop. Must be coming back from Race Wars, I thought to myself. I got some nice cash there; Nick got a whole lot though, that lucky bastard.

I see a group of four people walking towards Nick and I. This one lady walking with them yells, "V. shut up already! God you just ate an hour ago!" The scruffy guy looks down at the ground and replied with a grunt. I tilt my sunglasses up and look at them. A younger looking guy with a beanie breaks off from his friends and walks over to me. "Hey, the names Jesse. That's a pretty hot car, mind if I look at it?" I raise my eyebrow and shrug. "Help yourself." And I pop the hood. The kid named Jesse pops his head in and starts naming all of the parts left and right. I feel kind of impressed. Then I see a taller man with a rather large build approach Nick and me.

"These your cars?" I look up at him and curse my shortness. "Yeah," I say, "The Skyline's mine, and the RX-8 is Nicks." I point over to RX-8. The big guy shakes Nick's hand. "Dominic Toretto." He takes a quick look around our cars. His facial gestures tell us that he approves. "Not bad, I guess I'll be seeing you two around L.A. sooner or later." He nods his head and walks away with his team. They hop in their cars, one carrying an armful of food from vending machines, and take off onto the freeway. I watch as the group of cars gets smaller and smaller as they drive away.

Nick slowly tilts his head to face me "Dude, you just shook hands with the king of the streets," I stare at him wide eyed. Nick just laughs and replies, "Yeah. I guess I did. But you know what? I'm gonna have to race him soon, and I'll win." I turn around and walk back over to my Skyline. "Whatever." I take a seat and flip on some tunes.

I couldn't hear it over the music at first, but I soon realize that my phone is ringing. I arch my back and dig my cell phone out of my back pocket. "Hello?" A guys voice fills the other end. "It's me, Onel. What's up?" he replies. I snap out of my train of thought. "Uh, nothing. Just sitting at some rest stop in California, that's all. You gotta come visit us at L.A. and race, you'll love it." There is a silence on the other end. I hear nicks voice, "Danielle who are you talking to?" I look back at nick "It's Onel." Nick shakes his head and laughs "Oh, your boyfriend," making and messed up face. I start to turn red. "Shut up Nick, or I'll key your car!" He jumps back and walks away muttering "Crazy bitch." Without even turning around I lower the phone and shout, "I heard that!"

I finish up my conversation with Onel and click the phone off. Nick is over sitting in his car sleeping. I yank his beanie down over his face. He jumps up and hits his head on the roof. "Ouch! What was that for?" He looks at me and rubs his head. "Man, it's getting dark. We need to get moving because we still have a little bit more driving 'till we hit L.A. We gotta make a big entrance, but we can't do that if we get there after everyone has left." Nick turns over the engine, "Okay then, lets go," he says. "But did you really have to do that?" I laugh and walk over to my car, "Yeah." I turn on my car and follow Nick out onto the freeway. After only a few minutes of driving, we turn off the freeway and watch the Los Angeles skyline creep around the corner.

We pull into the downtown area and find nothing. At a stoplight, I just see a few imports out of the side of my eyes as they make a turn. They might be our only chance. No time for us to chill at a bar, we need to move. I beep Nick on my Nextel, "Follow me." I shift into first and pull into the turn lane ignoring the red light, and Nick follows suit.

"Where are we going?" Nick radios me.

"Just follow me." I shout back. I keep the cars just inside my field of vision and follow them behind some old market. The sound of cars and music grows louder and louder until we round the corner to see cars lined up along the alley. We find a couple of spots and pull in. We kill the engines and take a seat on our hoods, waiting for Toretto and his team.