AN: I'm sorry this is so damn long. I couldn't decide where to stop putting
it up and someone asked for Drama. It just so happened that this has been
written for like 6 months already but drama was on the horizon so I put
part of it up. I hope you all enjoy. Leave a review either way. I need
reviews to live.J/K but I love everyone who takes the time to write one. :)
Peace out.
Chapter 26 - Winning Races and Losing everything.
They dragged themselves upstairs awhile later. Vince wanted to go over her car once more and go over strategy for that night. Nyssa agreed that it had to be done. She was just as excited about the race as she had been about her night out the night before. She hoped races went better.
They got some lunch then took the car to DT, were Jesse, Leon, and Vince all went over it with a fine tooth comb.
"Needs a new front strut Dawg." Leon said, rolling out from under the car.
"No way Brotha, it handles fine, no noise, no leak." Vince didn't believe him, how could the car need such a major repair without showing any symptoms first.
"Dawg, if I know anything it's Skylines ok? And this one needs a left front strut. The handling would be fine on straight aways, but if it comes to any corners it is not going to be evenly balanced at all."
"God Damn It. I hope Harry has one in stock."
"Better call him. And don't tell him how important it, you know how that fucker jacks up the price if he knows he has you by the balls." Leon looked at Nyssa and blushed for using a phrase like that in front of her. Nyssa just laughed at him.
They called Harry and he had a strut for the car. It was lucky several other models of Nissan took the same part. Nyssa and Vince ran down to "The Racers Edge" in Vince's car. Nyssa asked questions about how tonight would work. She wanted to know if Vince was riding with her down to the meet and with her in races. He told her that he was taking his own car and she didn't need him in the car with her. She was doing ok on her own and she didn't need his 200+ pounds slowing her down. She was going to be racing in her own league so she would do fine. She took that to heart because Vince knew what he was talking about.
They picked up her struts and headed back. Vince told her it was always better to replace struts in pairs. The boys got that done while Dom and Brian finished the supra. It was all ready to go now. Brian fired it up for the first time and it roared to life. Jesse stroked the hood like the cat the car was purring like and Dom and Brain took off with Brian driving like a bat out of hell.
Nyssa didn't want to race against Brian. Vince reassured her that Dom would never do that. He would organize two races instead of having them race each other. Besides Brian had raced before so he wasn't technically a rookie. But he had never won. Vince assured her again Dom would not have her race Brian. She was glad.
They went to have dinner as a team. Dom looked at both Nyssa and Brian and told them both he was expecting great things because he knew that both of them could race. If they won or lost he just wanted to know that they both gave it 110. But he told them there should not be much in the way of competition for either of them. Nyssa was glad to hear that. She had butterflies in her tummy, she had never raced anyone but Letty and Vince. Vince didn't know but she had Letty had street raced at night on the freeway. Letty swore her to silence because she said Dom was lible to spank both of them if he found out. It was fine for him and his guy friends to do crazy shit but not for the girls.
He almost never let Letty race anywhere but race wars. He said it was too dangerous. Letty had told Nyssa to expect the same treatment. Once she had proven she could race and win Dom wouldn't want to let her and she would have to fight for every opportunity. Nyssa was all like but it is my car and my life and he is not even my man, you have that 'honour', but Letty told her that Dom ran the team and if he said she didn't race then even Vince would likely back Dom in that decision.
They all finished eating, listened to the rest of Dom's 'pep' talk and then they got ready for the big night. Nyssa had no idea what to wear. She had to be able to drive which meant comfortable but she still wanted to look good. She didn't want the skanks to get any ideas about Vince. She would fight any of them that messed with her man. She put on the stereo while she thought. Maybe some up beat music would make her decide. She put on a very brief black thong and black bra and kind of danced in front of the closet.
She decided to wear her new low riders from the other night. The black leather pants fit like a glove and just covered the essentials. She smiled devious smile when she realized no one but Letty knew how low they were because it had been cold on the way home from Janet's and she had pulled on a big sweater. Well she had worked damn hard for these flat abs and she was going to show 'em off. The pants had some dragons embroidered up the sides and across the back so they would even match her car. She now needed a shirt.
She picked out a tight baby tee in a semi sheer fabric with a silver dragon on it. It came to about three inches above her navel. She put on her flat boots that still had a three inch sole. She did her makeup simple. Black eyeliner and a touch of silver eye shadow and berry lip gloss. She headed upstairs.
Vince was still in the shower, but Letty, Leon, Mia, Jesse, and Brian were all waiting in the living room. Letty told her she looked good. Letty was dressed similar but her pants weren't quite so low cut and her top was a sheer baby tee over a black bra. Letty's favourite race outfit. Mia wore a tank top and a cute skirt, she was more of a girly girl then Letty and Nyssa. Brian made it a point not to look too long so Mia wouldn't get mad and Vince wouldn't kill him. Letty had to reach over and close Jesse's mouth. Leon wished he had been the one to stop for Nyssa all those weeks ago. Dom came down into the room just then and stopped dead in the doorway.
He seemed to think about what ever he had been going to say and walked into the room. As soon as Vince showed up they were ready. Nyssa sat on the couch between Letty and Mia and the girls all started to chat about tonight. Letty was giving Nyssa some last minute coaching and pointers. She said she would try to give her a few more once she saw what kind of cars Nyssa would have to race. Vince came into the room wearing his stereotypical mesh tank over solid tank and jeans. He looked around and didn't really recognize Nyssa at first. When he realized the foot of exposed tummy belonged to Nyssa he was floored. She thought she was going to races dressed like that.
Well she looked Damn good but man, every guy there would be staring at her if she wore that. He said hi then told her he wanted to talk to her for a sec alone. She figured it was about the race tonight, since he had taught her to drive she figured he would want to give her his own version of the pep talk. She followed him to the kitchen. First he did give her the pep talk. Do your best, listen to the car, remember not to get scared and use NOS too early. Run like hell if the cops came and don't lead them back to the fort, which was code for the house. Then he asked her if she was sure that was what she wanted to wear.
She told him she was sure because she was comfortable. Then with a little of her old insecurities she asked him if she didn't look good. He figured he would have to accept the fact that he would be fighting guys off her all night and not push the issue with her. He told her she looked good. Which coming from Vince was high praise. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. He grabbed her waist.
"Nervous?"
"Some."
"You'll do fine, just remember what you've learned."
"I will. Well, the others'll be waiting on us, I guess we should go."
"I guess. You better win. I know you have it in you."
"What do I get if I do win?"
"Other then half your winnings?"
"Yes other then that."
"Whatever you want." He winked at her.
"I'll remember that." She laughed and they headed back to the living room and told the others they were ready to go. They drove down to the industrial park. In a parking lot right before they all pulled up and made plans for how they would look on arrival. It would go Dom out front, then Leon and Nyssa, then Brian and Letty, then Jesse and Vince. They pulled in and Dom did his little rev it in neutral trick that he did every night and Nyssa and Leon both stopped with a little squeal behind him. They all climbed out. Dom was as usual surrounded by skanks. Letty chased them all off and Dom gave her a dirty look. Leon and Vince had their own little gatherings of racer chasers. Nyssa wasn't going to be so obvious as Letty but she was going to chase them off in her own way.
She pushed her way through to where Vince was sitting on the hood of his car talking to that same blond bitch from the party the last time. The blond smiled cattily at Nyssa at an angle that made sure Vince could not see. Nyssa made sure that Vince and everyone could see her smile and smiled sweetly. She sat down beside him on the hood of the car. She said hey babe and smiled. Vince smiled back even though he knew damn well what she was doing. He was just as glad to have her close dressed like that anyway. He kept talking to the other girls but their hearts weren't in it now that they saw him smile at the other girl. And Nyssa participated in the talking, making comments and laughing. Some of the girls simply hadn't known Vince was taken and those girls liked Nyssa. She was funny and nice. The other girls who had either wanted Vince because he was their type of guy or wanted him because he could get them closer to Dom, hated Nyssa. There were more of the latter then the former.
Dom announced that tonight there would be two races for rookies so with Brian and Nyssa racing for his team, one in each race, he needed between 4 and 6 people who had never raced or at least never won before who had the 500 bucks to buy in. He got 6 people in record time. He put Brian, Hector's little cousin, some chick, and this other guy that was new in the first race.
The lined up the cars and waited for the scanners to clear. Leon announced they were good to roll and Hector started the race. These guys were no competition for the Supra, it was a whole nother league of car compared to the Civic, Integra, and Celica it raced against.
So Brian won easily and was handed the 1500 bucks that he won. He gave it to Dom, since he was racing for Dom, in what was essentially Dom's car. Then Dom told Nyssa to get in her car and get ready to roll. Nyssa ran to the Nissan and got in. She fired it up and just as she was about to pull it out and go follow the other people to the next race site Vince leaned in her window. He told her to be careful but race like a banshee. She laughed and told him she would kick ass. Her car was just as good as Brian's. Brian had more experience but she thought she could take any of the competition if it was going to be more like Brian had.
She pulled out and followed the other cars to the next spot and lined it up. She was in the middle with one car to her left and two to her right. She saw another Civic with a very young looking Asian kid driving on her left. She looked to her right and saw a red Eclipse Spyder then, none other then Mr Green Evo, Chad. She guessed he had found someone willing to tell him where races were. She turned on her NOS and checked the gages. Everything looked good. Most racers had their engines running so rich there was more then a normal amount of blow by gas in the exhaust. One of the first things Vince and they guys had done was put a small device in the tailpipe that sparked when a button was pushed. If you revved your car up then pushed the button the waste gas in the exhaust would ignite and a jet of flame would come out of the tail pipe. She did it now and the crowd cheered.
Chat saw the jet of flame out of the back of the purple Skyline. He never would have dreamed that the receptionist at the D+T garage would drive a skyline and race it too. But of course if she was in this race then she was a rookie. He was worried about pitting his Evo against a Skyline but he figured based on the fact that she was a chick and a rookie he could take her. He was glad he hadn't had to race in the other race. The guy in the orange Supra had been fast and racing for D+T too. Chat would be willing to bet that Dominic Torreto had more then 20 grand under the hood of that car alone and was probably into it for 40 all together.
If he had to guess just based on the driver of the Skyline he would bet it was pretty well stock which didn't make it that great. Then he did a double take. Oh hell, it was the GT-R V-Spec. Well, if it was stock or mostly stock he could still take her. That only gave her about 380 horse. He was close to that with all his modds. If she had modds herself and could drive like the other DT rookie he was likely screwed. He had raced before, and won too but he wasn't telling them that. He wanted his shot at Dom just like all the other wannabes from other states. He could be screwed if she could drive like the other D+T driver had been able to.
Leon was still waiting to get a clear scan to tell Hector to start the race. Leon got a 187 at a liquor store and told Hector they were ready to race again. Hector said ok then looked at the line of 4 revving, high performance, high octane machines growling in a row in front of him. He got ready to drop his hands.
Nyssa looked over to the sideline where Mia and Letty were standing. Mia blew her a kiss and Letty gave her a big thumbs up. So did Jesse. Vince was waiting with Dom at the finish line. Nyssa waved quickly and looked back at Hector. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
Hector dropped his arms and they were off.
Nyssa blew by the other two cars like they were standing still and she was driving a rocket ship, but Chad was pacing her.
Two seconds in.
She knew Evos were nice but man, not like her car. She checked the gages and everything was going well. Her car was making a deep throaty purr, unlike Chad's car which had an exhaust profile like some sort of expensive Japanese lawnmower. But he was neck and neck with her.
She hit 7500 rpm in third and slammed in into 4th. She gained on Chad half a car length.
5 seconds in and running at 110 mph. She hit 5th at 7200 rpm, going 120.
He was now half a car in front of her. *How the fuck did that happen*, she thought.
7 seconds in, 120 mph , hit the nitrous.
She was thrown back into her seat and her tires squealed but stuck. The car was showing it's race bred pedigree like the champ it was. Nyssa was in heaven, she was hooked now, win or lose. Dom couldn't keep her out of races after this unless he left her at home. Even then she would find a way to sneak down. She got two lengths on Chad with the NOS but he used his and caught up to her. How the hell was he doing this? She wondered he shouldn't have been able to do this. She had to pick up the pace.
Neck and neck again.
She got nervous for a nanosecond then remembered Vince's one main piece of advice.
Don't panic.
She could see the finish. They were neck and neck.
140 mph 8 seconds in, hit 6th gear at 7600 rpm, hit the nitrous second charge.
The car leaped like a thoroughbred and got a car length on Chad and went over the line a car ahead of him when all was said in done. Her car was more like a 9.3 second car then a 10 second car.
She got it slowed down and pulled a u-turn. She drove back to where the guys were and got out of her car on shaky legs. She had hit 160 to win and what a rush. Her face was flushed and her eyes were sparkling. She was so happy she won. She collected her money and they all drove back to the warehouse alley. The girls grabbed her and congratulated her on her win. Letty was so proud, she was the one who really taught Nyssa to race after all. Vince just taught her to drive. But no one would ever dare tell Vince that. Dom even gave Nyssa quick hug. It had been a pretty win. Not just a win but a text book, pretty win. Well if there was such a thing a textbook for street racing.
Dom figured that Chad dude had lied about being a rookie though. No one should have been able to bring an Evo that close to a Skyline unless they had more then a fair idea what they were doing. But it really didn't matter since Nyssa had beaten him in the end. He decided to tell Nyssa that he thought she had beaten a pro. It would build her confidence if she thought she had beaten someone good on her first time out. He told her he figured that Chad had underestimated his amount of street time with his car and Nyssa agreed but her eyes did light up even more at the though of having beaten someone who was not a rookie.
Vince picked her up and swung her around and told her he never had any doubts that his start pupil could beat anyone. Nyssa and Letty shared a laughing look. Vince gave her a quick hard kiss then the team wandered off into different groups to chat. After a while of catching up with old friends and making new ones they headed home. Nyssa realized she hadn't seen Vince since he kissed her after her race. He hadn't come to tell her he would meet her at home. Oh well, she followed Letty's 240sx home. She put the car in the driveway and Letty parked out front of the house by the curb. They walked into the house arm in arm, they were such good friends now. All the other cars were home already.
"Yo, Yo, Yo. The winner has returned, you may all par-tay down now." Nyssa laughed and Letty laughed with her. She accepted congratulations from the team. First Leon and Jesse and then Mia and Brian. She told Brian he did good too, even though not one person he was against was worthy. Dom was the last to congratulate her. He let her keep a full half of her winnings since she had a car when she got there, the other half went to the team. She looked around for Vince. He was the only one who hadn't talked to her since she got back from the race, and he was the one she most wanted to see. But she couldn't get away from the team and friends to go look for him. Everyone wanted to talk about the 'big race'. It was the big hit of the evening.
Vince was in the kitchen, a friend of his walked up to him.
"Hey isn't Dom's new girl your girlfriend?"
"Ya, why?"
"I saw her out last night with a group of girls, Manda Williams and that crew. They were all down at that new club, Redline." The guy stopped talking for a second while he opened a beer. Vince thought she had been at a house party. "Well anyway she was dancing with that Chad guy she raced tonight for awhile before that Spilner guy that races for Dom came and took her and her cousin out of the club. Then like three minutes later cops busted the joint up looking for underage drinking. She left just in time to avoid getting re IDed by the cops."
"Ya, she was out with her cousin last night so it was her. I knew Spilner drove her home because she doesn't know when to stop drinking and she couldn't drive herself home."
"Well that's cool Dawg, just wanted to let you know."
"Well thanks for looking out for her man." Vince took his beer and walked into the living room. Nyssa was in the middle of a group of admirers talking about her win. She was looking at Letty to save her from the attention. She just wanted to find Vince and talk to him about it. She had told enough strangers how it had felt to keep her for a life time. She looked up from Letty and the rest of the crowd. She saw him standing in the door and smiled at him, like come save me please. He frowned and turned to walk back to the kitchen.
Why had she lied about where she was and what was she doing dancing with that punk that had been in the shop? Not only that but she had joked about how cute she and Letty had found the other guy. He knew that she and Letty had been eyeing the guy up. Then he finds out that she was out drunk and dancing with that punk.He didn't know what to make of it. But he knew he was angry about it. She lied. Someone had come up to him at races and told him the same thing, that Nyssa had been out dancing with other guys, but he had thought the other guy had been mistaken. He wouldn't have stopped her from going to the bar if she wanted to. And why had the buster been there? How did he know to get the girls out just in time to avoid the cops? There were too many questions that he couldn't get the answer to.
Nyssa couldn't believe he had walked away like that. What could have happened? She won, she was home safe, she hadn't fought with Dom, she hadn't done anything wrong. She fought through the crowd over to Dom. She asked him if he knew what was up with Vince. Dom had no idea. Neither did Mia. She went looking for him.
He wasn't in the kitchen, or in the living room. He wasn't downstairs or upstairs. She found him in the backyard. He was sitting on the picnic table, bottle of corona on the table beside him and his elbows on his knees, head hanging down between his legs. She walked over to him and ran her hand over his head like she had so many times before. He sat up abruptly. She backed off at the look in his eyes.
"What's wrong V.?"
"Nothin."
"If it's nothing then why weren't you the first one in there to congratulate me on winning? You taught me after all but you didn't even come see me after I won my first race. You left me with all those people. What happened to put you in such a bad mood? I thought we could go listen to some music and watch the people party like we always do."
"I'm not in the mood to be around anyone and that includes you so why don't you go party with Letty or somethin."
"I'm not going anywhere till you tell me what the hell this is about."
"This is about you going to a club last night, not your cousin's. This is about you dancing with that asshole from the garage. This is about you coming home with the punk. And mostly about you lying about it all."
"That's what this is over? Yea I kept that little fact that we hit a club from you. I though you would get pissed off or insist on coming with me. It was girl's night out. All the people I went with were family, cousins. It had nothing to do with sneaking. And no one told me that our relationship took away my freedom to go out without you. And Brian was nice enough to drive me home. He was concerned that I make it home safe and wouldn't hear of not driving me home."
"You were dancing with other guys."
"This just keeps getting better and better, now it's guys? It was one guy, for crist sakes, for like 3 minutes and that was just the moment. It didn't mean anything. I was going to tell you about it later in the week anyway."
Nyssa could not believe how he was acting over this. So what, she had gone out to a club and he hadn't known in advance. He took off all the time and she didn't know where he went or with who. This was ruining her night. She didn't know what to do though. She didn't feel she should have to explain herself any more then she already had.
"Well you lied about where you went and who with, what else have you been lying about to me."
"Jesus Christ Vince. Nothing. What did I do to deserve this? I went out once without telling you exactly where I went. Big deal. You do it all the time. I don't treat you like this when I find out."
"I guess the big dumb scruffy guy got tiring and you went looking to see if you could do better."
She couldn't believe him. She couldn't deal with this right now. It wasn't fair and it had ruined her night. She couldn't see him for awhile. She had to cool down and think. She could tell he was drunk. "Think what you want to V, you will anyways." She walked calmly away from him and into the house. She didn't want him to know anything was up. She managed not to cry till she got downstairs. She pulled out her bag and started stuffing clothes in it.
Chapter 26 - Winning Races and Losing everything.
They dragged themselves upstairs awhile later. Vince wanted to go over her car once more and go over strategy for that night. Nyssa agreed that it had to be done. She was just as excited about the race as she had been about her night out the night before. She hoped races went better.
They got some lunch then took the car to DT, were Jesse, Leon, and Vince all went over it with a fine tooth comb.
"Needs a new front strut Dawg." Leon said, rolling out from under the car.
"No way Brotha, it handles fine, no noise, no leak." Vince didn't believe him, how could the car need such a major repair without showing any symptoms first.
"Dawg, if I know anything it's Skylines ok? And this one needs a left front strut. The handling would be fine on straight aways, but if it comes to any corners it is not going to be evenly balanced at all."
"God Damn It. I hope Harry has one in stock."
"Better call him. And don't tell him how important it, you know how that fucker jacks up the price if he knows he has you by the balls." Leon looked at Nyssa and blushed for using a phrase like that in front of her. Nyssa just laughed at him.
They called Harry and he had a strut for the car. It was lucky several other models of Nissan took the same part. Nyssa and Vince ran down to "The Racers Edge" in Vince's car. Nyssa asked questions about how tonight would work. She wanted to know if Vince was riding with her down to the meet and with her in races. He told her that he was taking his own car and she didn't need him in the car with her. She was doing ok on her own and she didn't need his 200+ pounds slowing her down. She was going to be racing in her own league so she would do fine. She took that to heart because Vince knew what he was talking about.
They picked up her struts and headed back. Vince told her it was always better to replace struts in pairs. The boys got that done while Dom and Brian finished the supra. It was all ready to go now. Brian fired it up for the first time and it roared to life. Jesse stroked the hood like the cat the car was purring like and Dom and Brain took off with Brian driving like a bat out of hell.
Nyssa didn't want to race against Brian. Vince reassured her that Dom would never do that. He would organize two races instead of having them race each other. Besides Brian had raced before so he wasn't technically a rookie. But he had never won. Vince assured her again Dom would not have her race Brian. She was glad.
They went to have dinner as a team. Dom looked at both Nyssa and Brian and told them both he was expecting great things because he knew that both of them could race. If they won or lost he just wanted to know that they both gave it 110. But he told them there should not be much in the way of competition for either of them. Nyssa was glad to hear that. She had butterflies in her tummy, she had never raced anyone but Letty and Vince. Vince didn't know but she had Letty had street raced at night on the freeway. Letty swore her to silence because she said Dom was lible to spank both of them if he found out. It was fine for him and his guy friends to do crazy shit but not for the girls.
He almost never let Letty race anywhere but race wars. He said it was too dangerous. Letty had told Nyssa to expect the same treatment. Once she had proven she could race and win Dom wouldn't want to let her and she would have to fight for every opportunity. Nyssa was all like but it is my car and my life and he is not even my man, you have that 'honour', but Letty told her that Dom ran the team and if he said she didn't race then even Vince would likely back Dom in that decision.
They all finished eating, listened to the rest of Dom's 'pep' talk and then they got ready for the big night. Nyssa had no idea what to wear. She had to be able to drive which meant comfortable but she still wanted to look good. She didn't want the skanks to get any ideas about Vince. She would fight any of them that messed with her man. She put on the stereo while she thought. Maybe some up beat music would make her decide. She put on a very brief black thong and black bra and kind of danced in front of the closet.
She decided to wear her new low riders from the other night. The black leather pants fit like a glove and just covered the essentials. She smiled devious smile when she realized no one but Letty knew how low they were because it had been cold on the way home from Janet's and she had pulled on a big sweater. Well she had worked damn hard for these flat abs and she was going to show 'em off. The pants had some dragons embroidered up the sides and across the back so they would even match her car. She now needed a shirt.
She picked out a tight baby tee in a semi sheer fabric with a silver dragon on it. It came to about three inches above her navel. She put on her flat boots that still had a three inch sole. She did her makeup simple. Black eyeliner and a touch of silver eye shadow and berry lip gloss. She headed upstairs.
Vince was still in the shower, but Letty, Leon, Mia, Jesse, and Brian were all waiting in the living room. Letty told her she looked good. Letty was dressed similar but her pants weren't quite so low cut and her top was a sheer baby tee over a black bra. Letty's favourite race outfit. Mia wore a tank top and a cute skirt, she was more of a girly girl then Letty and Nyssa. Brian made it a point not to look too long so Mia wouldn't get mad and Vince wouldn't kill him. Letty had to reach over and close Jesse's mouth. Leon wished he had been the one to stop for Nyssa all those weeks ago. Dom came down into the room just then and stopped dead in the doorway.
He seemed to think about what ever he had been going to say and walked into the room. As soon as Vince showed up they were ready. Nyssa sat on the couch between Letty and Mia and the girls all started to chat about tonight. Letty was giving Nyssa some last minute coaching and pointers. She said she would try to give her a few more once she saw what kind of cars Nyssa would have to race. Vince came into the room wearing his stereotypical mesh tank over solid tank and jeans. He looked around and didn't really recognize Nyssa at first. When he realized the foot of exposed tummy belonged to Nyssa he was floored. She thought she was going to races dressed like that.
Well she looked Damn good but man, every guy there would be staring at her if she wore that. He said hi then told her he wanted to talk to her for a sec alone. She figured it was about the race tonight, since he had taught her to drive she figured he would want to give her his own version of the pep talk. She followed him to the kitchen. First he did give her the pep talk. Do your best, listen to the car, remember not to get scared and use NOS too early. Run like hell if the cops came and don't lead them back to the fort, which was code for the house. Then he asked her if she was sure that was what she wanted to wear.
She told him she was sure because she was comfortable. Then with a little of her old insecurities she asked him if she didn't look good. He figured he would have to accept the fact that he would be fighting guys off her all night and not push the issue with her. He told her she looked good. Which coming from Vince was high praise. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. He grabbed her waist.
"Nervous?"
"Some."
"You'll do fine, just remember what you've learned."
"I will. Well, the others'll be waiting on us, I guess we should go."
"I guess. You better win. I know you have it in you."
"What do I get if I do win?"
"Other then half your winnings?"
"Yes other then that."
"Whatever you want." He winked at her.
"I'll remember that." She laughed and they headed back to the living room and told the others they were ready to go. They drove down to the industrial park. In a parking lot right before they all pulled up and made plans for how they would look on arrival. It would go Dom out front, then Leon and Nyssa, then Brian and Letty, then Jesse and Vince. They pulled in and Dom did his little rev it in neutral trick that he did every night and Nyssa and Leon both stopped with a little squeal behind him. They all climbed out. Dom was as usual surrounded by skanks. Letty chased them all off and Dom gave her a dirty look. Leon and Vince had their own little gatherings of racer chasers. Nyssa wasn't going to be so obvious as Letty but she was going to chase them off in her own way.
She pushed her way through to where Vince was sitting on the hood of his car talking to that same blond bitch from the party the last time. The blond smiled cattily at Nyssa at an angle that made sure Vince could not see. Nyssa made sure that Vince and everyone could see her smile and smiled sweetly. She sat down beside him on the hood of the car. She said hey babe and smiled. Vince smiled back even though he knew damn well what she was doing. He was just as glad to have her close dressed like that anyway. He kept talking to the other girls but their hearts weren't in it now that they saw him smile at the other girl. And Nyssa participated in the talking, making comments and laughing. Some of the girls simply hadn't known Vince was taken and those girls liked Nyssa. She was funny and nice. The other girls who had either wanted Vince because he was their type of guy or wanted him because he could get them closer to Dom, hated Nyssa. There were more of the latter then the former.
Dom announced that tonight there would be two races for rookies so with Brian and Nyssa racing for his team, one in each race, he needed between 4 and 6 people who had never raced or at least never won before who had the 500 bucks to buy in. He got 6 people in record time. He put Brian, Hector's little cousin, some chick, and this other guy that was new in the first race.
The lined up the cars and waited for the scanners to clear. Leon announced they were good to roll and Hector started the race. These guys were no competition for the Supra, it was a whole nother league of car compared to the Civic, Integra, and Celica it raced against.
So Brian won easily and was handed the 1500 bucks that he won. He gave it to Dom, since he was racing for Dom, in what was essentially Dom's car. Then Dom told Nyssa to get in her car and get ready to roll. Nyssa ran to the Nissan and got in. She fired it up and just as she was about to pull it out and go follow the other people to the next race site Vince leaned in her window. He told her to be careful but race like a banshee. She laughed and told him she would kick ass. Her car was just as good as Brian's. Brian had more experience but she thought she could take any of the competition if it was going to be more like Brian had.
She pulled out and followed the other cars to the next spot and lined it up. She was in the middle with one car to her left and two to her right. She saw another Civic with a very young looking Asian kid driving on her left. She looked to her right and saw a red Eclipse Spyder then, none other then Mr Green Evo, Chad. She guessed he had found someone willing to tell him where races were. She turned on her NOS and checked the gages. Everything looked good. Most racers had their engines running so rich there was more then a normal amount of blow by gas in the exhaust. One of the first things Vince and they guys had done was put a small device in the tailpipe that sparked when a button was pushed. If you revved your car up then pushed the button the waste gas in the exhaust would ignite and a jet of flame would come out of the tail pipe. She did it now and the crowd cheered.
Chat saw the jet of flame out of the back of the purple Skyline. He never would have dreamed that the receptionist at the D+T garage would drive a skyline and race it too. But of course if she was in this race then she was a rookie. He was worried about pitting his Evo against a Skyline but he figured based on the fact that she was a chick and a rookie he could take her. He was glad he hadn't had to race in the other race. The guy in the orange Supra had been fast and racing for D+T too. Chat would be willing to bet that Dominic Torreto had more then 20 grand under the hood of that car alone and was probably into it for 40 all together.
If he had to guess just based on the driver of the Skyline he would bet it was pretty well stock which didn't make it that great. Then he did a double take. Oh hell, it was the GT-R V-Spec. Well, if it was stock or mostly stock he could still take her. That only gave her about 380 horse. He was close to that with all his modds. If she had modds herself and could drive like the other DT rookie he was likely screwed. He had raced before, and won too but he wasn't telling them that. He wanted his shot at Dom just like all the other wannabes from other states. He could be screwed if she could drive like the other D+T driver had been able to.
Leon was still waiting to get a clear scan to tell Hector to start the race. Leon got a 187 at a liquor store and told Hector they were ready to race again. Hector said ok then looked at the line of 4 revving, high performance, high octane machines growling in a row in front of him. He got ready to drop his hands.
Nyssa looked over to the sideline where Mia and Letty were standing. Mia blew her a kiss and Letty gave her a big thumbs up. So did Jesse. Vince was waiting with Dom at the finish line. Nyssa waved quickly and looked back at Hector. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
Hector dropped his arms and they were off.
Nyssa blew by the other two cars like they were standing still and she was driving a rocket ship, but Chad was pacing her.
Two seconds in.
She knew Evos were nice but man, not like her car. She checked the gages and everything was going well. Her car was making a deep throaty purr, unlike Chad's car which had an exhaust profile like some sort of expensive Japanese lawnmower. But he was neck and neck with her.
She hit 7500 rpm in third and slammed in into 4th. She gained on Chad half a car length.
5 seconds in and running at 110 mph. She hit 5th at 7200 rpm, going 120.
He was now half a car in front of her. *How the fuck did that happen*, she thought.
7 seconds in, 120 mph , hit the nitrous.
She was thrown back into her seat and her tires squealed but stuck. The car was showing it's race bred pedigree like the champ it was. Nyssa was in heaven, she was hooked now, win or lose. Dom couldn't keep her out of races after this unless he left her at home. Even then she would find a way to sneak down. She got two lengths on Chad with the NOS but he used his and caught up to her. How the hell was he doing this? She wondered he shouldn't have been able to do this. She had to pick up the pace.
Neck and neck again.
She got nervous for a nanosecond then remembered Vince's one main piece of advice.
Don't panic.
She could see the finish. They were neck and neck.
140 mph 8 seconds in, hit 6th gear at 7600 rpm, hit the nitrous second charge.
The car leaped like a thoroughbred and got a car length on Chad and went over the line a car ahead of him when all was said in done. Her car was more like a 9.3 second car then a 10 second car.
She got it slowed down and pulled a u-turn. She drove back to where the guys were and got out of her car on shaky legs. She had hit 160 to win and what a rush. Her face was flushed and her eyes were sparkling. She was so happy she won. She collected her money and they all drove back to the warehouse alley. The girls grabbed her and congratulated her on her win. Letty was so proud, she was the one who really taught Nyssa to race after all. Vince just taught her to drive. But no one would ever dare tell Vince that. Dom even gave Nyssa quick hug. It had been a pretty win. Not just a win but a text book, pretty win. Well if there was such a thing a textbook for street racing.
Dom figured that Chad dude had lied about being a rookie though. No one should have been able to bring an Evo that close to a Skyline unless they had more then a fair idea what they were doing. But it really didn't matter since Nyssa had beaten him in the end. He decided to tell Nyssa that he thought she had beaten a pro. It would build her confidence if she thought she had beaten someone good on her first time out. He told her he figured that Chad had underestimated his amount of street time with his car and Nyssa agreed but her eyes did light up even more at the though of having beaten someone who was not a rookie.
Vince picked her up and swung her around and told her he never had any doubts that his start pupil could beat anyone. Nyssa and Letty shared a laughing look. Vince gave her a quick hard kiss then the team wandered off into different groups to chat. After a while of catching up with old friends and making new ones they headed home. Nyssa realized she hadn't seen Vince since he kissed her after her race. He hadn't come to tell her he would meet her at home. Oh well, she followed Letty's 240sx home. She put the car in the driveway and Letty parked out front of the house by the curb. They walked into the house arm in arm, they were such good friends now. All the other cars were home already.
"Yo, Yo, Yo. The winner has returned, you may all par-tay down now." Nyssa laughed and Letty laughed with her. She accepted congratulations from the team. First Leon and Jesse and then Mia and Brian. She told Brian he did good too, even though not one person he was against was worthy. Dom was the last to congratulate her. He let her keep a full half of her winnings since she had a car when she got there, the other half went to the team. She looked around for Vince. He was the only one who hadn't talked to her since she got back from the race, and he was the one she most wanted to see. But she couldn't get away from the team and friends to go look for him. Everyone wanted to talk about the 'big race'. It was the big hit of the evening.
Vince was in the kitchen, a friend of his walked up to him.
"Hey isn't Dom's new girl your girlfriend?"
"Ya, why?"
"I saw her out last night with a group of girls, Manda Williams and that crew. They were all down at that new club, Redline." The guy stopped talking for a second while he opened a beer. Vince thought she had been at a house party. "Well anyway she was dancing with that Chad guy she raced tonight for awhile before that Spilner guy that races for Dom came and took her and her cousin out of the club. Then like three minutes later cops busted the joint up looking for underage drinking. She left just in time to avoid getting re IDed by the cops."
"Ya, she was out with her cousin last night so it was her. I knew Spilner drove her home because she doesn't know when to stop drinking and she couldn't drive herself home."
"Well that's cool Dawg, just wanted to let you know."
"Well thanks for looking out for her man." Vince took his beer and walked into the living room. Nyssa was in the middle of a group of admirers talking about her win. She was looking at Letty to save her from the attention. She just wanted to find Vince and talk to him about it. She had told enough strangers how it had felt to keep her for a life time. She looked up from Letty and the rest of the crowd. She saw him standing in the door and smiled at him, like come save me please. He frowned and turned to walk back to the kitchen.
Why had she lied about where she was and what was she doing dancing with that punk that had been in the shop? Not only that but she had joked about how cute she and Letty had found the other guy. He knew that she and Letty had been eyeing the guy up. Then he finds out that she was out drunk and dancing with that punk.He didn't know what to make of it. But he knew he was angry about it. She lied. Someone had come up to him at races and told him the same thing, that Nyssa had been out dancing with other guys, but he had thought the other guy had been mistaken. He wouldn't have stopped her from going to the bar if she wanted to. And why had the buster been there? How did he know to get the girls out just in time to avoid the cops? There were too many questions that he couldn't get the answer to.
Nyssa couldn't believe he had walked away like that. What could have happened? She won, she was home safe, she hadn't fought with Dom, she hadn't done anything wrong. She fought through the crowd over to Dom. She asked him if he knew what was up with Vince. Dom had no idea. Neither did Mia. She went looking for him.
He wasn't in the kitchen, or in the living room. He wasn't downstairs or upstairs. She found him in the backyard. He was sitting on the picnic table, bottle of corona on the table beside him and his elbows on his knees, head hanging down between his legs. She walked over to him and ran her hand over his head like she had so many times before. He sat up abruptly. She backed off at the look in his eyes.
"What's wrong V.?"
"Nothin."
"If it's nothing then why weren't you the first one in there to congratulate me on winning? You taught me after all but you didn't even come see me after I won my first race. You left me with all those people. What happened to put you in such a bad mood? I thought we could go listen to some music and watch the people party like we always do."
"I'm not in the mood to be around anyone and that includes you so why don't you go party with Letty or somethin."
"I'm not going anywhere till you tell me what the hell this is about."
"This is about you going to a club last night, not your cousin's. This is about you dancing with that asshole from the garage. This is about you coming home with the punk. And mostly about you lying about it all."
"That's what this is over? Yea I kept that little fact that we hit a club from you. I though you would get pissed off or insist on coming with me. It was girl's night out. All the people I went with were family, cousins. It had nothing to do with sneaking. And no one told me that our relationship took away my freedom to go out without you. And Brian was nice enough to drive me home. He was concerned that I make it home safe and wouldn't hear of not driving me home."
"You were dancing with other guys."
"This just keeps getting better and better, now it's guys? It was one guy, for crist sakes, for like 3 minutes and that was just the moment. It didn't mean anything. I was going to tell you about it later in the week anyway."
Nyssa could not believe how he was acting over this. So what, she had gone out to a club and he hadn't known in advance. He took off all the time and she didn't know where he went or with who. This was ruining her night. She didn't know what to do though. She didn't feel she should have to explain herself any more then she already had.
"Well you lied about where you went and who with, what else have you been lying about to me."
"Jesus Christ Vince. Nothing. What did I do to deserve this? I went out once without telling you exactly where I went. Big deal. You do it all the time. I don't treat you like this when I find out."
"I guess the big dumb scruffy guy got tiring and you went looking to see if you could do better."
She couldn't believe him. She couldn't deal with this right now. It wasn't fair and it had ruined her night. She couldn't see him for awhile. She had to cool down and think. She could tell he was drunk. "Think what you want to V, you will anyways." She walked calmly away from him and into the house. She didn't want him to know anything was up. She managed not to cry till she got downstairs. She pulled out her bag and started stuffing clothes in it.