A/N- Due to popular demand, here's are two new chapters. I had planned to hold off on posting till I got the characters to where I wanted, but I'm a sucker for those reviews. Please forgive the lack of editing, hopefully I'll have time to clean up everything I've posted so far and to write some more soon.

Chapter 8: New Year, New Start

Over the next few months Dom and I were really careful about keeping our relationship a secret. We'd snuggle a little on the couch when Tony was at the shop or track, but tried to make sure someone was around just so we wouldn't be tempted to go upstairs. Every third Wednesday we'd go on a date- nothing fancy but that way we managed to get in some quality time together. I'm not really sure how "our day" ended up with the middle of the week, but I used to tease Dom by referring to it as "dry hump-days."

When school started again, things were a little surreal for me at first. Though we hadn't talked at all over the summer, Adrian seemed genuinely happy to see me on the first day of school. Spotting Mia and I, he came up to us all smiles, dragging this scrawny boy with him. I'll admit that I was a little tense at first, I mean Mia still didn't know and the last conversation I'd had with Age had basically been the closest thing to a public confession that I'd had.

Thankfully Age was really cool about the whole thing. "Hey Mia, Letty, que tal? Como estas?"

"Asi asi. You know how it goes. First day always sucks." I shrug and glance over at the boy next to him. "So who's the shadow?"

"This is my cousin Jesse. He's staying with me and the parentals for a while. Jesse, this is Letty and Mia, the ones I was telling you about. You know, with the garage."

Jesse gives a shy grin and stutters a little. "Wha what's up? What kinda work do you do? At the garage I mean?"

"Well Tony does a little bit of everything, but lately we've been customizing a lot of imports," I say as I dump some books in my locker. "You into cars?"

Jesse nods. "There's just something about an engine that soothes me, you know?"

"Oh God, another one. Adrian, do you ever feel out numbered by these grease monkeys?" Mia asked, rolling her eyes.

Grinning like a fool, Adrian nodded. "But hell, if you can't beat em, join em."

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of nine months of torture. Turned out that Jesse was in almost all of my classes, while Adrian and I were only in drama together. (I know, I know, ironic right?) Thankfully the day went by pretty quickly. Even though he was a spaz, Jesse and I got a long really well. We both had trouble with our reading intensive classes but did okay in our math and science ones. Well, that's not exactly true. I did okay and Jesse breezed through them. The kid was a fricking wizard.

When the day ended Jesse and I walked out of class and headed toward the front parking lot where Dom was supposed to pick Mia and me up and Adrian was supposed to meet Jesse. We talked a little about the import show coming up the next weekend and about the Torretto's garage, but we didn't get into any personal stuff. There was something about Jess that made worry about him though. For one it's not really a good sign when you end up living with your relatives. I decided to let it be for now, but to try to look out for him as best I could- even if that meant spending a little more time with Adrian than Dom would like.

Jesse and I had spent about ten minutes in the sun waiting for Mia and Adrian when they finally showed up. "What the hell Mi, you're lucky you got here before Dom did. You know he hates to wait. What took the two of you so long?"

"Chill out, Brit Lit just ran over," Mia laughed as she dug thru her purse looking for something. "What are you, Dom's bitch now? I was like two minutes late and you're flipping out."

"Whatever," I said crossly, trying to play off her comment. The last thing I needed was Adrian to tell Mia just exactly what I'd said that night. "He's doing us a favor Mi, that's all I'm saying."

Thankfully Adrian didn't even bat an eye when Dom's name came up. "Speaking of favors, do you think Dom'll mind taking Jesse home for me? Coach wanted to talk to me about the season. I thought we were supposed to meet tomorrow but I got the day wrong."

"I can wait Age, it's no big deal." Jesse rubbed his neck absently, looking like he didn't want to make waves.

I put my hand on Jesse's arm and smiled, trying to put him at ease. "I have a better idea Jess. Why don't you come back to the garage with us and you can meet the Dom and Vince. They're assholes, but they're pretty good with cars. Age can pick you up after he's done."

Mia's face lit up at my suggestion. "That's a great idea Letty. If things work out today maybe you could work at the garage after school Jesse. That way Letty could work the store while I'm at-"

I'd been looking at Jesse, but whipped my head around to glare at Mia. My nostrils flaring, I interrupted her. "What was that? Why exactly do you want me to take over your job when I have one I actually like?"

"I'm trying out for the cross country team." Mia smiled weakly. "Come on Let, it'll only be for like a couple of months."

"If you want to run Mia, get your ass up in the morning and come running with me." I shook my head. "Why do you need a coach to tell you how to run?"

"It's for college. I wanted to have a sport on my transcript and you know I'm too uncoordinated for anything that involves hitting, kicking, spiking or doing the splits." Mia pleaded. "Please Letty… you could get a lot of your homework done while you're there and the pay's the same."

Luckily for her Dom drove up before I could tell her what to do with her idea. I rolled my eyes and told her we'd talk about it later. Waving good bye to Adrian, I grabbed the somewhat reluctant Jesse and headed down toward the car. "Remember Jesse, Dom can be… difficult when you first meet him, but he's really a sweet guy. Just don't tell him I told you that." Jesse smiled and nodded as I opened the passenger side door.

"Who's this?" Dom asked, tipping his head down so he could see over his Dragons and get a clear look at Jesse. "You find a new boyfriend on the first day of school Leticia?"

"Shut up Dominick. This is Jesse, he's Adrian's cousin." I wince inwardly realizing that wasn't the best way to introduce Jesse.

"Adrian? You mean Suarez?" Dom's voice got a little steely when I nodded.

Out of nowhere Jesse spoke up. "That's right. The guy Letty broke up with so she could be with you. We're family."

Dom looked visibly startled by the comment. "I'm not with Letty," Dom said slowly. "She's too young for me boy." Dom glanced passed Jesse toward the fast approaching Mia.

Jesse just looked from me to Dom and shrugged as he got into the back seat of the car. I slid in next to him so that Mia could sit in the front. Turning to me, Jesse said slyly, "People actually believe the two of you when you lie about being together like that?"

For some reason I just grinned and nodded. "Even Mia, so if you could not say anything about it again, I bet Dom'll appreciate it. Won't you Dom?" Watching Dom glare at Jesse in the rear view mirror just as he had glared at me a few months ago, I kicked his seat. "Dom."

"I wouldn't have to be grateful if you'd just kept your mouth shut Let," Dom hissed as Mia put her stuff in the trunk.

"He's hyper Dom, not stupid. Now shut up, Mia's getting into the car."

"Why do I feel like you're always telling me to shut up?" Dom muttered under his breath as Mia opened the door.

"Did I miss something?" Mia asked, taking note of the weird vibes coming from the three of us.

"Naw, Dom was just offering me a job is all," Jess grinned wickedly.

"Great! That way Letty can work at the store after all," Mia said excitedly as she changed the station.

Dom shook his head in defeat, rubbed his eyes and started the engine. "I don't even know how this happened."

"Don't complain Dom, you're not the one who'll be stuck in the store all by yourself while the newbie gets to work on cars and your sister is off running for some idiot coach just so she can boost her chances of getting into Dartmouth or Middlebury or wherever the hell random east coast school she wants to go to this week." I sighed dramatically, trying to lighten the mood a little. "I'm the victim here. Remind me never to defy expectations and actually try to be nice again, will you?"

"You're right, that does suck. Have fun," Dom laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. "So what, should I drop the two of you off at the store so Mia can teach you the ropes before she becomes super jock Barbie?"

I kicked Dom's seat again, not willing to put up with his attitude. "Oh hell no. I'll be stuck in that hell hole for way too long as it is, I'd prefer not to set foot in it till absolutely necessary. Don't worry, I've been there before, I know what to do." Leaning forward between the front seats I flicked Mia's arm. "You do realize you owe me your soul for this, don't you Mia?"

Brushing my hand aside, Mia planted a big fake kiss on my cheek. "How about I do your English papers for the semester and we call it even?"

"Have you been smoking Dom's weed? Do you know what my mom would do to me if she found out you were doing my work? Thanks but no thanks chica. I'd rather suffer thru on my own. Let's just say you owe me one till I can think of a suitable punishment." Returning to my seat, I buckled up. Given Dom's penchant for speed, I always wear my seat belt when he's driving. Sure I love him, but I'm not stupid.

For the rest of the drive Dom quizzed Jesse to figure out if the kid actually knew about cars. I can't blame him, given that Adrian needs help changing his own oil, things weren't stacking up in Jesse's favor. Luckily Jesse held his own and asking a few of the right ones in response to Dom's probing.

We dropped Mia off at the store and I jumped into the front seat. When Dom was sure Mia was safely inside and out of sight, he leaned over and kissed me, using just enough tongue to make me wish Jesse wasn't in the car. Shit, scratch that. Dom used enough tongue to make Jesse wish himself out of the car.

Hearing Jesse cough and squirm in the back seat, Dom broke the kiss and chuckled. I must have looked startled under my bright red cheeks, because Dom laughed again. "What, if he already knows then if I want to kiss you I'm going to kiss you."

From the back seat Jesse made another unexpected comment. "Adrian's right, you really do have game playa."

"Boy, I don't need to play no more, I got all the trophy I ever needed right here," Dom said suavely before kissing me again lightly, then laughing when I had to jack the A.C. onto high and fan my shirt a little. "You know the drill right, you tell anyone and I'll kick your ass. Since Letty seems to like and trust you, I'd hate to put the hurt on you, but I will if I have to."

Jesse shrugs and nods. "Why you gotta keep it a secret anyway? Didn't you just graduate? It's not like you're that old, right?"

Putting my hand on Dom's thigh, I stroked his leg slow and innocent like. "He's nineteen and I'm fifteen. Tony doesn't approve, and neither would my mother. So for now, we're trying to keep this on the down low."

"Well so far you're doing a pretty shitty job since Adrian figured it out back in June. Even if he hadn't told me, all I had to do is look at the two of you together and I woulda figured it out that you're doing the nasty." Jesse's let his leg bounced up and down absentmindedly as he stared out the window and cracked his knuckles.

Changing the station back to Dom's favorite, I laughed. "We're pretty good at making a mess of thing."

When we got to the garage things were a mess and Vince was running around trying to find an adaptor for some wiper blades. "Dom man, we gotta get some more help down here. We could handle things without Tony while Letty was here full time, but four people brought their cars in since you left dawg. Letty, thank god you're back. Can you do the oil change and tire rotation on the Toyota today and help me out with the Dodge after? I think it's going to be a two day job since the idiot did a pretty good job smashing it to pieces."

Walking in, I headed toward my locker. "Well I got your back on the Toyota Vince, but starting tomorrow I gotta work at the store. Mia's joining the cross country team so I get bitch duty at the store for the next- God I don't even want to think about how long it'll be. Jesse can probably help you out."

"You Jesse?" Vince asked as he snapped the old blades off of the Dodge.

"Yeah." Jesse replied.

Looking him up and down quickly, Vince didn't skip a beat as he replaced the old blades with the new ones. "Grab some coveralls and jump in. We got shit to do."