Life in the Fast Lane
Prologue: Wait, What?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the One Tree Hill Characters or anything form The Fast and the Furious. All I own is my idea to merge the two and my unique new twist to the story.
A/N: Hello everyone. This is the re-vamped prologue of Life in the fast Lane, formally known as Ten Second Heart. Even if you have read Ten Second Heart, all the chapters will have more details now, and are a bit longer each. Please let me know what you guys think of the new prologue, either through PM or review. Thanks and enjoy the story. Also check out my profile for more details.
This is loosely based on Fast and the Furious, and if anyone and anytime has any questions on why I choose the characters I will answer that. All reviews are welcomed. I will follow some of the events that went on in the movie but I have a lot of extra stuff. I do not promise a happy ending though.
Summary: In the fast paced life of Los Angeles and street racing, will Nathan find time to hold on to love or will he let it slip through his fingers? Will Haley find her proper place and achieve her dreams? Or are they forever doomed to live a half-life in the fast lane?
Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind, mm
Are you with me so far?
- The Eagles
August 1992
Los Angeles, California
Sweat clung to the side of Nathan's face as he stood under the hood of his car, trying to figure out what the problem was. His jet black hair fell in front of his eyes, the long strands clumping together with the building moisture, irritating his dark, blue eyes. Taking the dirty rag that lay on the edge of the car and wiping his forehead for the millionth time that day, he felt the dirt that clung on to the towel mix with the sweat on his forehead and decided that he would need to use something else to fix his problem. The 14-year-old teenager grew frustrated as he continued to look into the car, his eyes straining as he overlooked the parts carefully. He had fixed everything that could possibly be wrong with the car and it still would not start without releasing a huge puff of black smoke out of the exhaust. He slammed the monkey wrench down, causing the metal tool to bounce loudly off of the hot paved surface and threw his hands up in defeat. The knowledge that his father would not let him work in the garage if he did not fix this car certainly did not help the look of defeat that had now fallen upon his face or make the task at hand any simpler.
"Have you checked the muffler?"
Turning around quickly he saw someone standing at the open entrance of the garage, wearing baggy cargo pants and a black hoodie, shadows from the hood covering their face. Taking in his appearance, and what Nathan assumed to be his physical stature, the person at the door looked to be a boy of ten. Having spent the past few moments trying to figure out whom exactly this boy was, Nathan startled when the stranger spoke again.
"So have you?"
Nathan looked at him questioningly, having already forgotten what the boy had asked him.
"What?" Nathan asked, hoping the boy would repeat himself.
Instead of answering him, the hooded boy surprised Nathan when, after letting out an exasperated sigh, walked over to him, grabbed some tools from the box that sat by Nathan's feet and slid under the car. The boy came out a while later, dropping the tools at Nathan's feet, and walked out not saying a word.
Surprised at the kid's audacity, Nathan decided to test the car, just to prove the strange boy wrong. His mouth fell open in surprise as the car finally came to life with a great big roar from the engine. Nathan banged his head on the wheel in frustration; the loud horn of the car joined his own voice in a sound of defeat.
Brooke whipped around as she turned up the dial of the fan behind her, in an effort to relieve her body of the blistering summer heat. The sun shone brightly down on her, and, even though the other parts of her room were encompassed by shadows, and definitely cooler than her current position, she just couldn't seem to move. As the brunette knelt on her wooden desk chair, she put her face outside the open window. Excitement filled her body as she continued to watch the yellow moving van parked in front of the house next door.
Her eyes strained, looking out for any signs of dolls, dresses - anything that would indicate that there was a girl moving in next door, someone who she could hang out with. She was tired of her brother and his friends bossing her around and refusing to pay attention to her. Sure, she loved her brother to death, but sometimes she could not take him and his over-inflated ego.
As Brooke continued to look at the contents being taken out of the moving van, she could not help but notice that not only was there no girly stuff being moved in, but instead it seemed she would be getting another car-obsessed boy as a neighbor. Sighing, her hope flooding down the drain as she began to move away from the window, something caught her eye forcing her to stay and continue watching. The woman, who previously had been directing the movers, was now screaming to a boy who seemed to come from the direction of her garage. The roar of a car followed by the wailing of a horn drowned out the voice of the woman, but from what Brooke could see the woman appeared to be worried, and perhaps angry at the boy. The boy went up to the women pointing, pointing towards Brooke's house, and Brooke took notice as a look of relief washed over the woman's face. From the woman's actions, Brooke assumed that she might be the boy's mother or, at the very least, some type of relative.
Then the women reached behind the boys head and pulled down the hood, and Brooke gasped at what this action had just revealed. A full mane of golden brown hair was now blowing in the wind. Jumping off of her chair she ran downstairs, the possibility of a new friend was her only fuel and motivation.
As an exasperated Brooke fought to catch her breath, she managed to excitedly spit out an introduction. "Hi, I'm Brooke! Are you moving in next door?"
Haley scowled as she re-adjusted the box in her hand. She had been caught off-guard by the girl's sudden presence and in turn, had almost dropped the box in the process. As she contemplated whether to acknowledge the girl or not, she felt the material of her hoodie start to stick to her skin, and realized that this was perhaps not most appropriate thing to be wearing at the moment. Haley, remembering the promise she had made to her teacher back at New York, and the promise her parents had made to her, decided that it wouldn't hurt at all to be polite to the girl. Carefully putting down the box that in her hands she took off her hoodie, before offering her hand to the girl.
"You're sooo pretty!"
"Thank you." Haley replied shyly, slightly thrown by the brazen attitude of the girl standing in front of her. The golden haired girl stood their quietly not knowing what else to say.
"So what's your name, and where'd you come from?"
Chuckling a little at the girl's excitement, Haley thought back to the girls at her old school that always degraded her because of the way she acted, and, while Brooke reminded her of those girls in they way she dressed, her personality showed Haley how different she was. Girls only showed slight interest in being her friend before they deemed her a tomboy, but to Haley, Brooke seemed to genuinely be interested in befriending her.
"Names Haley. I'm from the great city that never sleeps!" Haley said, imitating the overly confident New Yorkers that were always presented on the television shows.
"New York?"
"Mmhmm."
Haley watched as Brooke's eyes lit up in her confirmation that she was indeed from New York, and even though the young Californian soon came to find out that Haley in fact new nothing about the fashion scene in New York, Brooke still questioned her about life there. Even though Haley knew she should continue helping her mother unpack the rest of the boxes, she chose to instead sit on the hot cement driveway, laughing as an animated Brooke explained to her the highs and lows of living in California.
Nathan wiped his worn sneakers on the faded "Welcome Home" mat, and opened first the wooden door, then followed by the screen door before stepping into the brightly lit kitchen. As soon as he walked into the kitchen, he noticed that his sister was rummaging through the refrigerator. Looking to have a little fun, Nathan quietly snuck up behind her.
"BOO!" the raven haired boy screamed, while simultaneously poking Brooke on the sides. Nathan started laughing hysterically as a surprised Brooke jumped up shrieking, in the process dropping the plastic bag of sliced bread and the bag of tomatoes. The tomatoes rolled around the dull white tiles, while all the pieces of sliced bread stayed in the bag. Nathan was so busy laughing that he didn't notice Brooke recovering from shock and hitting him on the shoulder.
"What was that for?" Nathan asked as he rubbed the spot where his sister had just hit him. He watched as Brooke moved around the kitchen, picking up the ripe red tomatoes from the kitchen floor and closed the door to the pale green refrigerator. Nathan knew that from the way Brooke was loudly chopping the lettuce that she was mad, and nothing was worse than his angry sister.
"Look, Brooke, I'm sorry. How about I make it up to you by going over with you to meet the new neighbors? Heard they've got a kid your age."
Nathan watched as Brooke put down the chopping knife and turned towards him. Nathan noted the smile on his sister's face and immediately thought that he was forgiven.
"Already met them. Gonna have to come up with something better than that, big brother."
Nathan then made the connection as Brooke turned her back to him and went back to preparing her sandwich. His sister would only be smiling that brightly when she was really happy. Nathan took the smile to mean that she had a crush on the neighbors' son. With that in mind, he decided to have a little more fun his little sister.
"Should I book the church, Brookie?"
"Huh?" She turned slowly and looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Nathan laughed to himself, knowing the fact that Brooke hated it when her crushes were obvious and would do anything possible to hide them.
"Lil' sis, hate to break it to ya, but it is so obvious."
He watched as she stopped preparing her sandwiches and turned around once more to face him, confusion etched on her face.
"Nate, I don't know what you're talking about!"
"The neighbors' son. Don't worry, I approve, kid knows his cars. Helped me out with dad's car this morning." Nathan elaborated, hoping that his sister would just admit it. What happened next was not what Nathan had been expecting at all. It was his turn to bare a look of confusion as Brooke started laughing. When she had finally settled down a bit, she looked at Nathan.
"Nate, I don't have a crush on her! That would be gross." Brooke said to him, laughing a little bit more after she finished. Nathan was about to ask her what exactly would be gross about liking the neighbor's son, who he would prefer over one of his older friends whom she seemed to always have a crush on, as her words hit him, she had she 'her'. He suddenly did not feel to well.
"Wait, did you just say HER?" He must of heard wrong.
"Yep. Her as in a girl."
Nathan watched as his sister continued to laugh, quite likely at the expression on his face.
'The impossible has happened,' Nathan thought to himself, 'a girl beat me mechanics!'
August 1992
Brooklyn, New York
The blood poured through his finger as he held his father in his arms. He screamed, his wails heard over the sirens of the police cars and he looked over at his mother who looked like a ghost, her face void of all colors and emotions as she looked on to him. He heard the cops say that it was a couple of teenage bandits who were looking for a quick getaway and had stolen his father's car. He swore revenge on his father's name as he let go of his father and the rain-washed away the blood from his hands.