Puzzling Pieces Ch 10 By TempestRaces
Speed is a Dangerous Drug.
"If you think you're wearing that out of this house think again!" It was all Brian could think to say when he saw his sister in her mini and tank top. She looked like the skanks always on Dominic in his mind and he wasn't having his own sister mistaken for one of those girls.
"If you think you're keeping me home or I'm changing then you have another thought coming yourself!" Stacy talked back to her brother. She still wasn't his biggest fan. She'd hardly known him till her mother died and now here it was like two weeks or less since she'd really met him and he was acting like he had some right to be in her business and in her face.
She didn't care what Dominic had told her about Brian giving up things from his life to try and make things good for her. The way she saw it was Brian had messed up his life with these people and he'd simply used her as a reason to come back and not have them kill him.
So in short, if Brian thought he was going to become some father figure to her now, he was in for a cold dose of harsh reality.
"Well, if I don't take you you don't go." Brian crossed his arms over his chest and tried to stare Stacey down.
Stacy dismounted the stairs with a glance at Tess and turned to walk to the kitchen of the house. Tess followed her.
"You change your mind about picking a new outfit you give me a call!" Brian called and the team headed out the door. It was clear to Stacey he figured he'd won that one.
"You change your mind about your outfit you give me a call!" Stacey said in a snotty parody of Brian.
"So we hangin here then for the night?" Tess asked, disappointed.
"Nope, we're taking your car after we give them all a few minutes to be away from the house.
"Girl, I hope you know what you're doing." Tess said, but in was said in a tone of voice that revelled that Tess hadn't expected anything less, and agreed totally.
"Oh, I know just what I'm doing. Let's go." Stacey said with a smile, evil in its intent.
Just then the front door slammed open loudly. Both girls turned toward the sound with their mouths open in startled O's of surprise.
"Let's make a run for it!" Tess said in a stage whisper and they both darted for the back door.
"Not so fast!" A masculine voice said from the door of the kitchen.
"Fuck!" Stacey called and Tess echoed the sentiment.
"Is that any way for a young lady to talk?"
Stacey and Tess turned toward the intruder. They were both surprised to see none other then Vince leaning insolently on the frame of the door between the kitchen and dining room.
"Yeah. It's just how all young ladies should talk." Stacey shot back, pissed off to have her escape plan thwarted.
"Ok then. Not like I'd really know how nice young ladies should talk." Vince admitted with a little chuckle. Then he frowned and shot the two girls a dirty look.
"What's the dirty look for?" Tess asked, wondering what they'd done to deserve the surly presence of Vince.
"I wanted to go to races and instead they picked me to come back here and baby sit." Vince spit out the word baby sit like it had a very bad taste.
"Fuck you!" Stacey exclaimed. "Let me flip the script on that one for you! Tess and I are going whether you like it or not, so you may as well go yourself. Fucken baby sit! Now I'm a baby and a few days ago you were macken on me." Stacey mumbled as she headed for the back door, hair swinging with her agitated gate at having been called a baby. "Come on Tess!"
"Now you're talking girl. Let's go!" Tess called out in a happy voice and followed her friend out the door and into the driveway, only to find Vince's car parked behind Tess' RX-7.
"Aw hell no!" Stacey moaned.
"Those fuckers!" Tess shouted, pissed off. She didn't see how they thought they could stop her from going to races in whatever she wanted. After all, her own brother was there and he didn't care how she dressed when she went.
"Know what?" Stacey had a grin so evil on her face Tess was momentarily scared of the consequences of what was about to come.
"What?"
"Occurs to me that since they blocked you in, and you really had to leave, you just drove into the backyard and then down the front lawn...If it hurts the grass they shouldn't have blocked you in..."
"You are evil girl!" But Tess laughed as she said it.
"Alright cowgirl, mount up!" Stacey laughed and got into the passenger seat of the RX-7.
Vince came out of the house and walked up to the open driver's side window. "Where you girls think you're going?" He asked them, smug in the knowledge that he had them blocked in and they weren't going anywhere.
"Oh, we thought we'd just sit here in the car and pretend we were at races!" Stacey said in a bubbly, dumb blonde, fake voice, designed to play on what everyone thought about cheerleaders. Tess bit back her laughter.
Vince seemed to know something was up, but he didn't see what it could be, and he figured that if the girl did something foolish it would just piss Brian off more and Vince didn't think that they could blame him if she snuck off. After all, she was 16, it wasn't like he could sit her in front of the TV and know she'd sit there and watch Teletubbies for hours. Plus if she went missing he could go to races on the pretence of looking for her.
As soon as Vince had turned his back on them to go back into the house they started the car and drove it into Dom's back yard, around his picnic table and then down his front lawn, around Vince's car and onto the street. Then with a squeal they were off on their way to the warehouse, a mere 15 minutes behind the rest of the team.
And the way Tess drove on the way there made the 15 minute head start the team had gotten almost non-existent.
"And you know what really pisses me off?" Stacey asked, irate as they drove.
"No, what?" Tess asked, shifting up a gear and checking her mirrors.
"That girl Mia wasn't wearing so much more then me, but she was wearing girlie colours and her skirt was a bit longer but Brian had no problem with how she was dressed, he was even checking her out."
"They have history." Tess admitted and switched lanes.
"I know. I wish they'd make it a current event so that Brian would have something to do with his life other then make my life harder then it has to be."
"Why don't you two get along anyway?"
"Well, I hardly knew I had a brother till he showed up in Miami about a year ago. And it's not like I saw that much of him even then. I know he was on the run from the cops. Then he got called in by the cops to do some job for them and he got his record cleared. I saw more of his friend Rome then I saw of him while my mom was alive. I was happy in Miami. I had lots of friends and I was up for captain of my school's squad next year. Then my mom was killed. My best friend's mom in Miami wanted to keep me with their family. I'd known this woman since I was 6, but Brian decided it was better for me to live with him and that we'd all be better off in L.A."
"Wow." Tess hadn't known the whole story till that point.
"And don't get me wrong. I really like all you guys and the squad is like 100 times better then what I was told was here in California, but the fact remains that Brian wasn't in my life much, and now he wants to be all goodie goodie the father figure to impress Mia and Dom. Give me a break. I'm not some toy for him to show off with, I'm a person, but he doesn't act like he sees that."
Tess wasn't sure what to say. Brian was way overprotective of his sister. Tess had assumed it was because he cared about her and had likely had a big hand in raising her or something. When she found out that Brian had hardly known his sister up till he got custody of her, she didn't understand why he was intent on acting like Stacey's father and not her brother.
"Why's he so overprotective?" Tess asked, trying to understand.
"Well, like I said, I think some of it is to show Dom that he's reformed, and to show Mia that he's the family man now, that he'd make a good father. And some of it I brought on myself."
"What did you do?"
"I sort of told him that mom's boyfriends use to try stuff with me."
"Did they?"
"One of them really did. A few gave me looks like they'd like to. When she found out about the last one, the one that really did, she broke up with him, and he killed her."
"I thought she died in a car wreck?" Tess was shocked.
"Yeah, it was ruled a drunk driver, but I knew it was him. He crossed into her car on purpose. My mom was always there for me, she never missed my meets, always helped me with my uniforms and helped organize our fundraising, and now she's gone and I got Brian. I like Brian, but I'd like him a whole lot more if he wasn't always trying too hard you know? I mean, girls wear only slightly more then I got on to school and he tells me I can't wear it to a race night just because he wants to put on a good show for 'the team'."
"Well, if he thinks that older guys have tried stuff with you he might be over protective of guys seeing you in sexy clothes." Tess tried to moderate the situation.
"Yeah, he might, but I'm not a child. He can't run my life. And a girl wearing sexy clothes is not an invite to be a fucking perve."
"Yeah...I know where you're coming from, but you sure are showing him what's what with coming out even when he told you not to."
"I hope so. Something's gotta give."
"Long as it doesn't blow up in your face." Tess cautioned.
"Well, I mean, if we stay away from his team and leave a few minutes before they do they'll never even see us."
"Yeah, but Vince knows we took off."
"He does, but he doesn't know to where. I could easily say it was insulting for them to leave Vince as my keeper for the night so we went to your house."
"I wonder why they'd send Vince." Tess mused.
"I sorta know." Stacey admitted and blushed.
"Why? You gotta spill it girlie!" Tess giggled.
"Well, when I was gonna run away I got to the end of the driveway and Vince offered me a drive to where ever I was going. I told him that was as far from Brian as possible and he agreed and told me to get in. I got in his car, we went for a drive, had dinner and then went back to the house. We sorta kissed in the driveway, it was a total freak accident and didn't mean anything, but Brian and Dom musta heard his car pull up and they got onto the front step in time to see the whole thing. They were as mad at him as they were are me. Likely more so."
"You kissed Vince?!" Tess asked in shock.
"Yeah, well, sorta. He kissed me I think. Or maybe I kissed him. I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"He's a tad old for you. I know we're mature for our age, but he's gotta be what? 25?"
"Something like that. My brother's age I think. I don't want to date him or anything. It was one of those things."
"Wonder why they'd send him back then? You'd think they'd be worried about him jumping your bones!" Tess cracked up laughing and Stacey joined her.
"Naw, I don't kid myself. Vince was just looking to get at Brian. He hates him. And I think he was even a bit mad at Dom for taking Brian back into their lives."
"So that's why you don't like Vince much now then? Because he was just using you for a way to get back at Dom and Brian when he kissed you?"
"That and he's such a jerk." Stacey laughed. "And he can't even dress his own self." Tess joined Stacey having a laugh at Vince's expense as they pulled up on the warehouse and parked the car next to Tess' brother's ride.
The atmosphere of organized chaos washed over Stacey the moment her sandal clad foot hit the tarmac. There were lights flashing all over the place from the neon underglows, head light strobes, lights in the open trunks, and lights in the cabins of the highly tuned imports.
The place smelled like high octane gas, highly tuned exhaust, and about 100 different colognes and perfumes. Stacey was almost overwhelmed and was glad for the presence of Tess by her side.
"Hey Baby!" Tess called to a man with sandy blonde hair and aquamarine eyes.
"If it isn't my baby sis!" The man called back and held open his arms to his sister. "I'd about given up on you showen up tonight girlie girl."
"We had some drama at Stacey's but its all water under the bridge now Bro. But if you see any Toretto's on the way over here let us know."
"Tess..." Her brother started warningly. "You're not pissing off Toretto are you?"
"Nope, but Stacey is." Tess took Stacey's hand and pulled her closer to her brother and his team.
"Stacey this is my brother Blade. Blade, this is Stacey, the new girl I was telling you about."
Stacey and Blade shook hands.
"Nice to meet you." Stacey told the handsome man in front of her.
"Likewise sweet thing. So my sister says you don't race?"
"Hell, I don't even drive. Brian doesn't think I should. He thinks that I'm too young, and that I don't know L.A. well enough yet."
"Well, you ever wanna learn to race, you let me know. I'll hook you up." Blade winked at Stacey, who blushed. Tess shook her head at her brother's ways and took Stacey by the hand.
"We're gonna go mingle. Remember, you didn't see us!" Tess reminded her brother and took off.
"You know, your brother is totally hot right?" Stacey giggled as she told Tess once they were out of ear shot.
"I know, I know. And he knows he is too. But he can race. And he's only 20, so at least he's not totally out of your league like Vince." Tess teased.
"Shut up!" Stacey said and made a face. "And I'll have you know that Vince was an ok kisser."
"Oh hells no!" Tess shouted. "I don't wanna know!"
"Ok. So, what do we do now that we're here?"
"We mingle, we check out cars and guys, we watch races."
"Are you gonna race?"
"I don't know. I shoulda asked Blade if anything in my league opened up. But then again, Toretto knows about every race that hits these streets and he'd know I raced."
"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" Stacey retorted. "I wanna have a good time, it's why we came. I don't care about Brian, or Dom, or any of his crew right now. Consider me part of your crew, and I don't want to know you missed a chance to race because of me, not to mention I'd love to see you race."
"Ok, let's go back and talk to Blade then." The girls headed back to where Blade and his team had parked their cars.
"Back so soon ladies?" Tess' brother asked with a sly grin.
"Yeah. I wanna race tonight Bro, hook me up."
"Ok, I heard Hector talking about needing a fourth, hang tight." Blade went off to find the Latin man to see if he could hook his sister up. Blade came back a few minutes later. "You're all set. You got about 10 minutes. Go hit the line."
"Thanks Bro." Tess turned to Stacey. "You wanna come with me or wait with Blade?"
"I wanna go along. I mean, if that's ok?"
"Sure, let's go." Tess and Stacey got into Tess' car and headed to the line.
At the line Tess turned on her NOS and pulled on her 4 point harness. She advised Stacey to do the same. After they were buckled in they turned up the tunes and watched as Hector conversed with Leon on their two ways.
"So, what's going on now?" Stacey asked, curious about the whole subculture as she watched two girls who looked to be about their own age, wearing even less, paint the line on the road.
"We wait for a clear scan so we know there's no cops local then we race." Tess answered and sat back, gripping the wheel in one hand and the shift in the other. "Then we race." She repeated with a smile in Stacey's direction.
"Isn't that your sister's friends 7?" Leon asked Brian from the sidelines.
"Looks like it but it couldn't be it. Vince was gonna block them in the driveway." Brian answered and looked around the scene.
"If you know of another RX-7 with the personalized licence plate spooldu I'd be very surprised." Letty said, secretly impressed with Stacey's spunk, but worried about where it was going to end the girl up with Dom and Brian.
"That girl is in so much shit if she's in that car." Brian growled and started toward the jet black idling beast.
"Yeah, so's Vince." Dom added.
Just as Brian would have reached the side of the black RX-7 Hector dropped his arms and the cars left the line with a squeal. Brian couldn't even see inside the cockpit because of the tinted windows. He figured he just wait for the cars to return at the end of the brief 10 second race.
Stacey figured she would do her friend the most service by staying quiet during the race. She didn't have much to say anyway. The whole process only took about 11 seconds but it felt like an eternity as the car roared, the lights blurred and adrenaline rushed through both girls bodies like wildfire.
When they squealed to a stop after crossing the finish line first in the pack Stacey felt like she'd been in the car racing for a life time. It had changed her more in 10 seconds then anything had up to that point. She knew one thing with total certainty.
She wanted to race.
She wanted a car of her own.
And Brian was going to hate it.
Both girls got out of the car and jumped up and down as they hugged.
"Congrats girl. That was the bomb!" Stacey said, out of breath from the rush.
"Thanks." Tess was also slightly breathless.
Blade came up and gave his sister a big hug before handing her her winnings; 4000 bucks.
"What'd ya think?" Blade asked Stacey.
"What a rush. I wanna do it too!" Stacey answered.
"Well, you have Tess bring you by my shop and I'll start to hook you up." Blade grinned at having helped convert another girl to the street racing scene.
"I got no car, remember me? Poor little girl who's overprotective brother won't even let her learn to drive a Volvo let alone one of these cars."
"I got you covered girl. I'll build your car with you and you'll pay me back when you start racing. I did the same for Tess and for half my crew."
"He's telling the truth Stace." Tess added. "If you wanna race, and you wanna drive, Blade's the one to learn from, and he will build your car for you."
"Ok, I'll see you at your garage soon then." Stacey agreed with a laugh.
Tess cheered and raced. Surely Stacey could do both too. And a chance to spend more time with Tess sounded fun, and Stacey figured that anything that helped her get to know Blade more couldn't hurt either.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Stacey heard a very irate voice ask from behind her. She cringed as she turned around.
AN: Dun Dun Dun! Who's behind her? What will happen to Stacey and Vince for the events of the evening? Will Stacey get her car? Does she like Vince or Blade, or neither? Tune into the next episode of Puzzling Pieces for some of the answers.