Hello, my dudes. This is probably the longest chapter I've published, but it should give a decent background of Alexia, and why she's in Los Santos to begin with. It should also resolve who won this got-dang race (which, I'll admit, is based on an experience I had when I first joined GTA Online). The, uh, gentleman I faced in my first race, the introductory Mall or Nothing, was a character very much like this angry little girl, in that his very first action was to ram poor old Lamar into the nearest brick wall, which he then did to me later on, as we neared the final checkpoint.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter, it did take me quite a while to type up in between homework assignments.
A flurry of hushed, anxious voices pushed and shoved their way into Alexia's consciousness and slowly snapped the girl back to the current state of reality. She noticed that the crowd of Black Skulls had dragged her out of her now-smoking vehicle and onto the opposite end of the road, where she was currently lying on her back.
"Hold on, y'all," sounded a familiar ghetto accent, above all of the nervous voices. "I think she needs some mouth-to-mouth reser...uh...rescertation!"
Unbeknownst to Lamar, Alexia was very much awake at that point, and was fully able to react to his lips pressing upon hers, his breath quickly spilling into her lungs. In a state of panic, her limbs immediately went flailing as she attempted to push the tall and lanky man off of her. Eventually, she succeeded, and hastily attempted to vomit onto the sidewalk. She didn't think it was possible, but Lamar's breath tasted worse than his car had smelled, with the rather distinctive tang of marijuana oil and really God-knows-what-else laying waste to her taste buds.
"See, y'all? It works!" Lamar gloated, wearing that same stupid grin that he usually had.
Several of the gathered Black Skulls let out a loud gasp as Alexia's fist connected with the side of Lamar's face; he went down, groaning in pain, with his hand covering his cheek.
Lamar's attacker, however, also went down, screaming in obvious agony due to an intense shot of pain that blasted down the nerves in her arm. Alexia, reluctantly looking down to assess the damage, was greeted by the unpleasant sight of a red and purple mess of a hand; several shards of thick, shiny glass were visibly sticking out from the many welts and sores that covered the swollen extremity, most likely the result of her foregoing protecting her hands from the glass to try and control the car. Made worse was the fact that, when she had suckerpunched Lamar, the particularly-large glass pieces that were lodged in her knuckles were now shoved deeper. The other hand, which she had used to shield her face and eyes from the miniature knives flying at her, was relatively unscathed, save for a few glass pieces that were scattered near her wrist.
A couple of Black Skulls hurried to help the injured woman to her feet, while a few others tended to Lamar, who now sported a bloody gash across his face.
"Man, what the hell was that for?!" he barked. "I was fuckin' savin' yo' life!"
"Then why did you use your tongue?!" Alexia snapped back.
"I...thought that was whatchu supposed to do! Shit, girl, you gotta have a lot mo' respect for us emergency responders, we work hard to-"
"Hi, everybody!" the little girl suddenly interjected, appearing in between the two fighting friends. "I-I'm okay, too, in case anyone was wondering."
Save for a very noticeable scratch on her forehead, the younger girl was otherwise uninjured. Several crew members simultaneously greeted her, expressing their half-hearted gratitude towards her well-being.
"Man, you know what?" said Lamar, much calmer now. "I'm just...I'm glad that errybody's okay...I love both of y'all."
He then took each girl under his arms and held them close to his body in a pseudo-bear hug. The little girl, inches from her former competitor, took the opportunity to blow a wet, sloppy raspberry into Alexia's face. She recoiled in shock and disgust as the girl giggled.
The same two Black Skulls that helped her up a few seconds ago had to hold her back before she could lay her mangled and bloody hands on the girl.
"Anyway..." Lamar interjected, obviously trying to deter focus away from all of the tension. "Who y'all think won that? I mean, it was kinda close, an'...nobody was really lookin'-"
"WHAT?!" Alexia interrupted, in possibly the loudest voice that she had used all night. She actively fought against her human restraints. "Lamar, how can you even say that?! I'm obviously the winner! Y-you saw what she did, she cheated!"
"Cheated?" Lamar replied, obviously confused. "Girl, there ain't no cheatin in these races, it's street rules, dawg. Pretty much anythang goes. Sure, she destroyed my ol' ride, but I ain't mad. Insurance works wonders homie, I'll be back out doin the same thang tomorrow night."
Hearing that caused the little girl to smile as she sucked on a bright green Popsicle that had been provided by a courteous Black Skull.
"Waah waah, you whine way too much, goth girl. You should probably go cut yourself some more." It was at this point that the girl first caught a glimpse of Alexia's injuries. "Heeeyyy, from the looks of it, ya' already did!"
"WHYYYY YOU LITTLE-!"
Alexia, with impressive strength, broke away from the tight grasp of the two Black Skulls and charged at the girl. She wasted no time in wrapping her still-bleeding hands around the girl's throat and squeezing.
In true Bart Simpson style, the girl flailed her arms and made a few high-pitched noises until a few crew members managed to pull the two apart. The girl was left with a few splotches of Alexia's blood on her neck, but was otherwise unharmed.
"Y'all...calm the fuck down," said Lamar, who was apprehensive to lose his cool around his fellow crew members. "My God, if I wanted to see girls fightin I'd go to the Blaine County Mud Wrestlin' Tournament!...which, actually, I'm about to do! But for now, let's just y'all, again, calm the fuck down...then we can go ahead an' watch the replay."
"Replay?" inquired both Alexia and the girl simultaneously.
"Yeah, mang. Lemme show y'all, c'mon."
That being said, the two girls, as well as most of the Black Skulls, followed Lamar into a dark and dingy alleyway that was situated adjacent to the finish line. In the alley sat a lone video camera, which was being operated by a heavyset black man with light facial hair and oversized clothing. A small Laptop sat beside him, which he was currently using to edit the raw footage.
"My boi, G! Wassup, homie?" The two proceeded to perform an overly-complicated handshake, then come together for a tight bro-hug.
"Wow...who is he, your husband?" questioned the little girl.
This mocking statement almost instantaneously made the two pull away from each other. For the second time that day, Lamar's face turned dark red.
"Naw, lil homie. He just a bidness partner. We been hustlin together since...since when, G?"
Gerald simply shrugged his shoulders, as he couldn't really remember either.
"Yeah, see that's how long we go back, we can't even remember," said Lamar, struggling to fake a bout of laughter. "But, uh, seriously man, I gotta introduce you to this girl, homie."
That being said, Lamar grabbed hold of Alexia's sleeve and dragged her over to a spot in between the two hustlers.
"Alexia, Gerald. And in reverse...You, uh, prolly wouldn't wanna shake her hand right now, but you can seal that pact later," Lamar attempted at joking about Alexia's injuries.
Alexia smiled and blushed slightly, attempting to hide the unpleasant sight of her bruised and bloodied hands. Gerald, meanwhile, shifted uncomfortably, rocking on the heels of his expensive-looking shoes.
"Man, you gon' introduce yo'self to the lady or what, homie?! Goddamn!"
"...Hey." Gerald finally spoke up in a soft, deep voice.
"H-hi," replied Alexia, just as softly. Her demeanor had seemed to return to its nice, shy repertoire ever since she had choked the little girl, which had actually played a large part in releasing the tension and anger she had felt ever since waking from unconsciousness.
"A'ight, we all introduced? Cool. G's got yo' digits from the boss, he gon' call you when a opportunity come up, like, for a job...That is, if he can even pick up the fuckin' phone to call a girl."
Lamar bent over in laughter at his apparently hilarious joke while Alexia and Gerald continued to smile slightly, occasionally letting out a false chuckle.
"Aight, aight, enough with the foolishness. You gon' do yo' thang, G?"
"Uh, yeah, fo' sho'."
That being said, Gerald got back to work, typing some keys on his Laptop to edit the footage he had captured of the grisly end of the rage.
"Now, Alexia, just so you know, he's a bit of a computer nerd..."
Gerald immediaely looked up from his work and slowly shook his head in disapproval at his tall and lanky friend, all the while maintaining a neutral, bored facial expression.
"I mean, well, not really...But he real good at capturin' footage an', like, doin' some technical magic to slow it down an' shit. Really, we use him at all our races, whenever it's just too close to call. But, uh, just on a personal note...I really do think you won."
Alexia grinned brightly. "Really?"
"Yeah homie. I mean, I'm not sure or nothin', but as I was runnin' from the sidewalk, I...I think I saw you spin out an', I dunno...cros the finish line first...Well, then again, my vision never been good, but-"
"Ay, it's live, homie," Gerald informed. He turned the Laptop toward the numerous spectators in the narrow alley; Alexia, the little girl, and Lamar all headed to the front of the crowd as Gerald played the video.
The somewhat-grainy footage depicted the two sedans in a perpetual battle to the death; each car was spinning wildly out of control until finally, both crossed the finish line at roughly the exact same time.
"Ay, play that again, slower."
Gerald replayed every frame of vehicular carnage until finally, Gerald paused to the exact moment in time that both cars crossed the line.
"A TIE?!" both girls responded, obviously shocked by this revelation.
"Aight then!" Lamar reacted, rather excited at the news. "Ice cream sundaes for both of y'all! Let's go!"
"Ay, hold up, L.D. I'm seein' somethin' else...I'll have to enhance graphics a bit."
Leaning in closer did reveal a pixelated image of a peach-colored object sticking out of the Cheval Fugitive's window. As the vehicle was facing sideways, with the drivers' side window facing the finish line, the little girl would be the definitive winner if it was revealed that this object belonged to her. Sure enough, enhancing the still picture to 1080p resolution served to do just that, depicting a very rude gesture coming out of the little girl's car.
The little girl jumped up and down in a merry celebration, while Alexia stood in her spot with her mouth agape, dumbfounded by this unlikely turn of events.
Lamar, meanwhile, chuckled uncontrollably, as in his long racing career, he had never seen anything quite as humorous as this. Lamar took hold of the victor's tiny wrist and held her high up in the air for all of the Black Skulls to see.
"And the winner, by a MIDDLE FINGER! This...random little girl we found a couple days ago!"
Every Black Skull in the crowd let out a raucous cheer and gathered around the girl, who was now vigorously attempting to squirm out of Lamar's grasp.
The burly Black Skull from earlier hoisted the girl onto his shoulders and led her back across the street to the parking lot where they had started. Alexia, meanwhile, sat hugging her knees next to Gerald, who was by now packing up his Laptop and dismounting the old video camera from its trifold.
"Are you sure that's not just...a glitch, or something?" asked Alexia.
The pronounced sadness in her eyes was enough to poke through Gerald's hard emotional shell, and irk him enough to respond in actual words.
"Naw, it ain't...This a good camera."
As he walked away, his two duffel bags in hand, he turned back to look at Alexia, who was now going misty-eyed.
"You, uh, did a good job, though. I ain't never seen a chick race as good as you. I'm impressed, girl, I'll definitely call you up soon, give you some work."
"Okay...thank you," Alexia said quietly, smiling at him.
Gerald nodded and headed quickly and quietly out of the alleyway.
Meanwhile, across the street, it seemed like a mini-Mardi Gras was going on; Black Skulls were popping bottles of champagne and gathering around the victor. Eventually, she found herself able to step onto the top of a nearby embankment that served as a sort of impromptu podium; several Black Skulls urged the little girl to make a victory speech.
"Alright, alright you guys..." said the little girl when the party had calmed somewhat. "Um...I really haven't told you my name, haven't I?"
The Black Skulls shook their heads and eagerly awaited the reveal of the mysterious little girl's name.
"Um...my name's Noël. It's nice to meet all of you."
The crew members cheered yet again, some embracing the mysterious little girl whose name was revealed to be Noël.
"And also..."
The horde of Black Skulls quickly shushed each other, so that the next part of Noël's speech could be heard.
"...Ice cream's on me, everyone! Let's go!" she exclaimed, holding up a rather large wad of cash that she had received for winning.
Immediately, everyone donned their jet black skull masks and hopped into their vehicles, which ranged from mototbikes and compact cars, to large SUVs and Insurgents. The large group of 50-or-so Black Skulls floored it down the small road, with the little girl, in her new Cheval Fugitive, leading the pack.
Alexia, in the meantime, was stuck with the rather grim duty of plucking out the multiple glass shards that had lodged under the skin of her hands. Starting with the ones nearest her wrist and working her way down to the fingers, each glass piece hurt more than the last, especially as she neared the spot where the glass was lodged deep in her knuckles.
"You, uh, look like you need this."
A small First Aid kit was plopped down on the ground close to Alexia. She looked up to see the smiling African-American man that she had punched, causing the worst of her injuries.
"Hey, Lamar...Aren't you going out for ice cream?"
"Naw, homie," he replied, shaking his head. "Ya boi LD's lactose-intolerant. An' besides, you lookin' kinda miserable right now, I thought I'd keep you company."
Lamar shooed away some nearby rats, then took a seat on the dirty concrete next to Alexia.
"But anyway, here go yo' paper," said Lamar as he handed Alexia a sizable wad of cash. "I know it's not much, but it should be enough to-"
"Wait..." Alexia interrupted, obviously taken aback by this. "I get money...for losing?!"
"Uh...yeah," Lamar confirmed, snickering at her. "I mean, if you don't want it, then-"
"No-no-no-no-no, I-I'll take it!" Alexia desperately took the money and attempted to squeeze it all into her front pocket.
Lamar, meanwhile, enjoyed another good bout of laughter at Alexia's ignorance of this well-known custom.
"Yeah-yeah-yeah, I'm an idiot. A...real fucking idiot for not knowing that," Alexia grumbled as she continued to pull out each tiny glass blade.
"Aw, come on, girl, don't be like that," Lamar attempted at comforting, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Alexia was quick to scoot away from his romantic advances, attempting to concentrate all of her focus on the task at hand.
Lamar, however, was undeterred, and looked at her with a sense of understanding that something was irking her.
"Alexia," said Lamar, in one of the few occasions he addressed her by name. "There ain't no point in bein bitter bout losin'. Errybody loses occasionally, it ain't no big deal. In fact, a couple days ago, I-"
"NO!"
Lamar was taken aback at Alexia's sudden outburst, and decided to lay off for a bit.
Sensing that she was in the wrong, Alexia softened her gaze and let out a heavy, exhausted sigh.
"I'm not bitter because I lost, I...I'm sad, because I let my uncle down," said Alexia as she successfully grabbed hold of a large glass piece near her fingernail and pulled it out. A fresh stream of blood rolled down her hand as the clotted blood was disturbed and the wound opened.
"He put down 10 grand on me, for God's sakes, because he...thought that I would win. Instead, I disappointed him, and I'm...not quite sure how he's gonna react."
"Oh..."
Lamar nodded slightly and put his face in his hands, now fully understanding the source of Alexia's stress and contemplating on how best to comfort her.
"Well...shit, girl, I know that yo' uncle has a short temper and all, but...man, you really think he'd disown his future successor and only close family member, just because she lost a fuckin' race? Now, the boss might be a angry mo'fuckah...but he ain't dumb, Alexia. He knows that you all he got...You see what I'm sayin'?"
Alexia nodded, faint traces of a smile creeping onto her lips. It was soon interrupted, however, as she sruggled with pulling out possibly the biggest glass piece, which was roughly half-an-inch in diameter and lodged in the knuckle of her ring finger.
"You, uh, mind helping me pull out this last piece?"
"Oh, oh yeah, fo' sho."
Lamar didn't hesitate to lean over slightly and grab hold of the smooth side of the glass.
"Aight, one, two...THREE!"
Alexia howled in pain as the glass piece was violently ripped out of her flesh, creating a jagged, gaping hole in her finger that quickly started to bleed.
The fiery sensation in her hand left her with tainted memories of the humble place she formerly called home, a small trailer in the outskirts of Billingsdale, South Yankton, which she had shared with her mother and two rambunctious teenage brothers. The painful memories of burning herself on the household's open electric stove and suffering a broken wrist during an ill-advised game of indoor football served to remind Alexia of the reason she had left this perpetual homestead on the Great Plains; she had wanted room to grow individually, free from the stagnated market of the Recession-stricken town and the incessant nagging of her mother to procure work and help the family, even though there was no work to be found anywhere nearby. Even if there was some kind of job opportunity, however, Alexia probably wouldn't be having it, due to her very poor social skills and her not-so-spotless permanent record.
She was expelled from the local high school at age 16 and sent to juvenile detention on charges of violently assaulting another girl, a well-known school bully that had picked on Alexia for many years, with a pair of large metal scissors. The incident had come about after the girl had shoved Alexia into the teacher's desk, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to fall onto the hard tile floor. This, of course, caused the whole classroom to erupt in laughter, jeers, and insults directed towards her. Embarrassed and in severe pain, Alexia's instincts soon turned to violent rage; she promptly stood up, grabbed a pair of 10-inch scissors from the teacher's top drawer, then lunged at the girl, inflicting several deep, painful stab wounds.
This 'particularly-disturbing incident', as the principal called it, left the girl with a mild level of disfigurement and a slight speech impediment, as well as several noticeable scars on her chest, face, and arms. Eventually, a few large boys were able to knock the weapon out of Alexia's hand and tie her to a desk until police could arrive. Soon afterward, a courtroom psychologist diagnosed Alexia with Intermittent Explosive Disorder, a mental illness characterized by outbursts of violent, angry behavior when she was pushed to a certain limit.
The rest of Alexia's teenage years were spent in a tiny cell in juvenile hall's psych ward, where she soon regretted her violent, impulsive actions and became a model prisoner; she read at least 3 books daily (including the entire King James Bible) and worked on several community service projects. She rarely interacted with her hardened fellow prisoners, instead opting to spend the time in between her tiring shifts of physical labor in the air-conditioned library, where she soon worked her way up to head librarian, the lone prisoner in charge of the 5,000-or-so state-owned books that the prison possessed.
Probably Alexia's most lasting impact at the juvenile facility was a small prisoner-run book club that had started one day, after a particularly-exhausting shift of highway litter clean-up, when a few prisoners decided to follow Alexia into her self-proclaimed "Eden" and predictably fell in love with the large, air-cooled environment. Sensing an opportunity, Alexia used her influence as head librarian to convince the warden to allow the book club, which humbly started out with the 4 inmates that had followed her that day. However, as word spread around the facility and the summer days grew hotter, several more inmates decided to invade this oasis within the prison walls. At its peak, the prison book club had 53 members, who were each required to write a detailed report on their book in order to have time tacked off of their required laboring time. The club lasted for a little less than a year and a half, unofficially disbanding when Alexia was released from juvy at age 18, although letters from some of her still-incarcerated friends indicated that it has made a recent comeback, now boasting some 12 full-time members.
Upon her release, Alexia's parole officer gave her an assortment of G.E.D. programs and halfway houses to choose from, all of which she promptly declined. Instead, she chose to move back into her mother's trailer for an unspecified amount of time and search for a minimum-wage job somewhere, which would hopefully pay enough to help her earn a decent living.
It was also around this time that a distant relative started contacting her, an uncle who showed quite an interest in her violent outbursts and promised her steady pay and security if she was willing to move to the city of Los Santos, which was some 2,000 miles away, to perform work that was far beyond the bounds of what was considered 'legal'. In his many e-mails, he would often describe fantastic scenes of explosive car chases and drug deals gone wrong that would saturate Alexia's dreams. These dreams, however, were limited by the fact that it was a violation of her parole to leave South Yankton, so she decided to remain and hope for more law-abiding work.
However, 2 years and no job later, the tiny corrugated metal trailer was made even more cramped as her brothers grew into men and her mother continued to relentlessly deride her, based solely on the fact that she was a lazy, unemployed ex-con living with her family. Low on cash and especially self-esteem, Alexia many times set out to prove her mother wrong (in some respects). On the advice of her uncle, she would sometimes borrow her father's old Winston rifle and don a cheap Halloween mask, then walk into the nearest liquor store along State Highway 69, demanding large amounts of money. As the local PD caught onto her gig and were closer to finding out who the mysterious robber was, Alexia, out of desperation, urged her uncle to make her a fake ID and pay for a flight to Los Santos. He, of course, immediately obliged.
"Ay, homie, don't be goin' catatonic on me now, you bleedin out kinda fast!"
Alexia was snapped out of her pain-induced trance and brought back to the situation at hand. Lamar, the emergency responder, quickly dug through the first aid kit and handed Alexia a few gauze pads, which she used to apply pressure on the most serious of her wounds. When a minute or two had passed and the bleeding stopped, Alexia grimaced as she realized what had to be done next.
She opened the medium-sized bottle of ethyl alcohol, but simply couldn't scavenge the intestinal fortitude to apply it herself.
"Ay, I'll do it," said Lamar, readily grabbing the bottle. "I mean, if you want me to."
"Y-yeah, yeah, just do it..." Alexia held out her most-injured hand in anticipation. "Don't even tell me when, just-AAAAAAHHH!"
Yet another blistering dose of stinging pain irradiated throughout her hand. The blinding agony was enough for a single small tear to form in the corner of her eye and drop to the concrete.
"Ohh, SHIT!" exclaimed Lamar, as a thick froth of thousands of tiny bubbles formed on the surface of her hand, presumably carrying cleansing her wounds of the infection that had obviously set in.
"You, uh, sure you don't wanna go to a hospital or nothin'?"
"That...probably wouldn't be a good idea," Alexia struggled through the intense pain. "Seeing as I'm...kind of a wanted fugitive right now."
"Oh yeah, your uncle told me about that. That, uh, sounded like a pretty good hustle, dawg."
"Yeah, well...you gotta make money somehow...y'know?"
"Yeah, I know, girl. Believe me," Lamar said, smiling at the fact that he had gotten her to see things his way.
