Chapter Eight

Two weeks later Mercedes headed down to dinner like usual. Dom looked pretty pissed tonight. Maybe it had been a bad day at the garage. Taking her seat next to him, she avoided eye contact with anyone. She hadn't been in the best of moods the past few days due to still feeling neglected and overlooked by the new surf crew. Once everyone had been seated, Mercedes said grace, everyone dug in, and the mindless racing chatter began.

"Ceds, that chic finally came into the garage today to pick up her car!" Leon began to explain, obviously very excited from the smile on his face. "It needed a ton of work done. New alternator, oil change, tires rotated."

"Leon." Mercedes interrupted a bit harshly as she wanted him to get on with the story. She didn't care about what car parts needed to be fixed.

"Oh right, sorry," he apologized and continued. "Anyways, I asked her out and she said yes! So she gave me her number. I figured I would call her tomorrow and see if she wanted to go to the race with me," he beamed.

"Don't you think you should take her somewhere nicer, Leon? Like to dinner and a movie or something? I mean racing might not be her thing and it's not a very romantic first date. Take her to Cha Cha Cha," Mercedes firmly advised.

Leon pondered her advice for a second or two, then shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and nodded in agreement with the suggestion.

Mercedes noticed that Dom was very quiet at dinner. She looked to her left at Letty and caught her eye. Letty just gave a slight shoulder shrug and continued to eat.

"I got a call from your chemistry teacher today, Ceds" Dom spoke somewhat quietly.

Mercedes stopped pushing her food around on her plate and slowly lifted her head to look at Dom. Locking eyes with him for a second, she turned quickly to focus on playing with her food again. She knew what was coming next.

"She said that you haven't been doing your homework, participating in class, or doing well on your tests. And she has heard from other teachers that it's the same in their classes as well," Dom started to raise his voice a bit.

"Do we have to discuss this now?" Mercedes asked a bit pissed that Dom would bring this up in front of everyone. But then again, Dom was probably trying to embarrass her.

"Yes we have to discuss this now!" he boomed. "This is serious, Mercedes!"

"No, it's not Dom!" she interrupted quickly with a bit of snicker in her voice.

"Not serious? Well, I think surfing after school in place of studying and completing your homework is serious."

"But if I was working in the garage every day after school and not doing my homework then that would be ok, right?" she yelled back at him. How dare he blame this on surfing!

"No! Your sister used to work every day after school at the store or the garage. And look at her! She got A's in high school and now she's going to medical school!! Medical school, Mercedes!" Dom yelled back. Mia put her head down at the other end of the table. She knew comparing Mercedes to herself wasn't fair on Dom's part. But she couldn't say anything.

Mercedes stood up and stepped back from the table. "I'm not like Mia, Dom! I'm not like any of you! When are you going to realize that?" she screamed as she fought back the tears welding up in her eyes. She wasn't going to cry in front of Dom. She wouldn't allow him to see that he was getting to her.

Dom spoke coldly and stared hard into her hazel eyes, "Maybe you should learn to be."

With that last comment, Mercedes shook her head and started off down the driveway. Being compared to Mia was one of the things Mercedes hated most in the world. Just because they were sisters didn't mean they had to act and behave in similar manners. Yet people, mostly Dom, seemed to believe that was supposed to be true.

Dom turned back to his meal at hand. Everyone was starring at him in disbelief.

"What are you all looking at? Show's over," he growled as he concentrated on his plate before him.

Mercedes continued down the street towards the Matheson's house, fighting against the tears that threatened to fall. Quickly jogging up the back steps, she reached for the screen door.

Erin Matheson, Brady's mom, was sitting at her kitchen table reading a book as she heard the footsteps. Looking up, she saw Mercedes at the back door. She stood up and opened her arms as she greeted the obviously upset girl.

"Aw sweetheart," she said sincerely as Mercedes walked into her arms and the two embraced.

The tears began to fall from Mercedes' eyes. Erin could feel the girl's shoulders fall up and down as she sobbed. Knowing Mercedes, the tears would stop in a few minutes. She just needed to get them all out. Erin was the only one who had seen Mercedes cry since her father's death 9 years ago. She never cried in front of her family, friends, or even Brady. But in front of Erin, the tears could flow freely.

Brady quietly walked down the steps and peered into the kitchen. He saw Mercedes and his mom and turned to go back upstairs. Mercedes visited Erin a couple of times a week for their "girl talk" sessions. Sometimes they were filled with laugher and sometimes with tears. They each liked to think of the other as filling in the missing piece in their life, mother and daughter.

Once Mercedes stopped crying, she let go of Erin and took a seat at the kitchen table. Getting out glasses and the pitcher of fresh made lemonade, Erin poured them each a glass. Sitting down next to Mercedes, she began to listen as Mercedes vented about the fight with her brother, troubles at school, and her frustrations with the new surf crew.