Chapter 15
"You know," Stacey started talking to Tess on their ride to school the next morning, "I think I want to start racing soon. I really gotta get my own car and get it ready."
"Yeah. Good plan. We'll swing by Blade's shop after school and start that ball rolling." Tess answered and negotiated a turn in the road.
"I'm doing ok. Brian says I'm a natural."
"Well, have you ever seen Brian race? It would be hard for you to suck at it. It would be like finding out that Beethoven had a tone deaf kid."
Tess and Stacey both laughed.
"No I never saw Brian race, but I've heard he's good."
"Oh he's good. But not unbeatable. Blade's beaten him more times then he's lost to him. And of course Dom doesn't lose to anyone. But Brian's pretty good."
"Cool. You know what would be funny?"
"No, what?"
"If it went the other way and Brian ended up a fantastic cheerleader."
"I'd love to see that." Tess started to laugh uncontrollably.
With that they pulled up at school and parked the car. "I guess I better watch my back today huh?" Stacey said, feeling a bit of apprehension even though she knew she'd have friends at her back.
"You let me worry about watching your back. You worry about learning the routine for homecoming."
"Thanks Tess, you're a good friend."
"I know." Tess giggled. "Shit! We better get to class. We're gonna be late."
"Oh shit." With that both girls took off running for their first class.
The morning went by without incident. Stacey felt safe and it allowed her to forget about the threat Sukura Tran still represented. Because she forgot about the Asian girl, Stacey went to the bathroom alone during her first class after lunch.
She'd just finished up and was washing her hands when her reflection in the mirror was suddenly flanked by Sukura and two of her friends.
"I told you it wasn't over." Sukura snarled.
"Listen bitch, I don't have any control over what my brother did to your brother. And besides that from all accounts Johnny Tran had that shit coming." Stacey often reacted with mouthyness to her fear. And since Sukura had pulled a gun on her before Stacey was scared of the other girl. But she wasn't letting it show.
"You stupid little tramp! No one talks about my brother like that. He was just the best racer so your worthless brother and his big dumb bald friend knew they had to take him out before he took Dominic Toretto down a peg or two."
"Keep telling yourself those fucken lies if it makes you feel better, but the fact is your brother was a thug, a petty crook who only raced scared little boys he was sure he could beat. Your brother wouldn't have had the balls to race my brother or Dominic in a car. Your brother only had the balls to mess with Brian or Dom if he had his whole gang with him and they were riding their stupid crotch rockets."
"I'm gonna mess up that pretty white face bitch!" Sukura screamed. "I think you'd look good as a redhead." Sukura snarled and lunged for Stacey.
Sukura got the first punch in and her friends cheered her on. Stacey put a hand to her minorly cut cheek. Stacey got her wits back about her and threw the second punch. It connected with Sukura's nose. The other girl shrieked her outrage. She came at Stacey again with her claws bared.
Stacey faked left and Sukura missed her cheek, but scratched her shoulder instead.
"It's on bitch!" Stacey hissed. "You fight like a sissy." Stacey threw another punch toward Sukura and it connected with the other girl's mouth, splitting her lip.
When the blood started to pour Sukura's friends took that as their cue to jump into the fray. They didn't want to see their leader pulverised. The two other girls grabbed Stacey's arms as she valiantly tried to fight them off.
"Let's see you run your mouth now Bitch. Let's see how your brother likes it when you come home beaten to a pulp. If you go home at all. You might just end up in the hospital after the beating I'm sending your way." Sukura snarled.
"Is that so?" Tess asked from the bathroom door where she was flanked by Jade. "Let's see you keep that confidence now that the fight is fair again bitch. Just like Johnny, you only wanna fight with an unfair advantage." Tess bared her teeth.
"Bring it on ho!" One of Sukura's friends tossed out.
With that the two new girls jumped into the fray. There was nothing but a big tangle of blonde, black and brown hair and white and brown arms in the middle of the bathroom floor. Punches were being thrown and blood was being spilled left and right.
Another girl came to use the bathroom, took one look at the chaos in the middle of the room and fled to get a teacher. She returned with the gym teacher, Mr. Smith, who was big, build, and had a bad attitude for fighting.
Mr. Smith strode right into the ladies and started pulling the girls off each other. Sukura and Stacey went for each other once again after Mr. Smith pulled them apart but he stopped them with one nasty look from his angry navy blue eyes.
"Enough!" He bellowed.
"She started it." Sukura sulked in her faint Asian accent.
"I don't care who started it! I ended it."
Sukura had a split lip and black eye, not to mention the bruises to her body where no one could see. Her two friends were less a few hanks of hair and one had a cut on her chin. Stacey had a cut on her cheek and a black eye to match Sukura's. She also had the other girls cat like scratches on her shoulder. Tess and Jade had various cuts and scrapes as well.
"To the principal's office." No one moved. "NOW! March!"
With mutinous looks on all their faces the girls filed out in cliques and down to the principal's waiting room.
Mr. Smith left them under the watchful eye of the secretary and headed back to his class.
"This is so not over bitch!" Sukura threatened from her seat across the room.
"I sure hope it isn't you whore." Stacey answered. "My brother sent yours to hell and it's only fair if I send you to meet your brother. I mean, you miss him after all so I'll just send you to meet him there."
"Sukura! Stacey! Enough!" The secretary looked up from her papers in shock. "Wait till Mr. Gardner finds out about this all!"
The girls took the hint and settled for just shooting each other death glances for the rest of the wait. Finally Mr. Gardner emerged from his office and called in first one of Sukura's girls then the other.
Then he moved on to Jade and Tess. Everyone was emerging looking subdued.
"He called my folks but they weren't home so he called Blade. I gotta go home for the rest of today and then I got in school detention for the rest of the week." Tess whispered to Stacey on her way out.
"Oh shit! He's gonna call Brian then."
"Yep." Tess looked glum.
"Ah fuck, we just reached a truce now I got the principal calling him telling him I got in a fight."
"Well, if you'd told him bout what she pulled at the restaurant then he'd know why." Tess answered with her usual pragmatic outlook on things.
"Thanks for the info." Stacey sighed. But she'd made her bed so now she had to sleep in it.
"No sweat girlie, now I gotta go get home and erase that message before my folks get home and read it and I'm grounded for the rest of my life."
"Good luck!" Stacey called, and at just that moment Mr. Gardner came out of his office and called Stacey in. Stacey got up reluctantly and followed her principal into his office, he let her preceed him and shut the door.
"So, Miss O'Connor, we meet again."
"Yes sir." Stacey had no desire to be polite but she didn't want to push her luck.
"So, what happened to set off the incident in the washroom?"
"I went in there because I had to pee. So I went and when I came out I was washing up and I look up and there's that bit...girl...staring at me in the mirror with her two friends. She threatened me and she threw the first punch. She tried to attack me last night when I was in the bathroom of the restaurant my brother and I ate at."
"Why do you suppose Miss Tran is doing this to you in particular?" Mr Gardener was obviously clueless of the whole situation.
"Because my brother Brian was the cop who shot her brother Johnny last year." Stacey sighed. "She says she's going to get me to make Brian pay for what he did to Johnny."
"I see." Mr. Gardener didn't look totally convinced. "Well, even still, I'm going to have to call your brother and have him come take you home. You'll be on the same detention as Tess for the rest of the week. Fighting is not acceptable in this school. Miss Tran will get the same talking too."
With that Mr. Gardener picked up his phone and, looking at the file on his desk he dialled the Toretto house. It rang 8 times before the answering machine picked up and Letty's voice said "We ain't home, you know what to do, if we wanna talk to yo ass we'll call it!" Beep.
"Yes, hello...This is Stacey O'Connor's principal Mr. Gardener. Stacey's gotten into some trouble here at school and someone needs to come sign her out and take her home. I'll try the number we have for her brothers work next but if someone receives this they should call the school at..." He rhymed off the number.
Next he dialled DT automotive. After several more rings the phone was answered.
"DT."
"Hello, is Mr Brian O'Connor there?"
"No, thank god, who's this?" A male voice snarled.
"It's Miss Stacey O'Connor's principal. She's been in a fight and needs to go home. Do you know where I could reach her brother?"
"Hell no I don't know. And I don't really give a f...care either." The voice thought better of saying the F word to Stacey's principal, even if he normally wouldn't have given a fuck.
"Is there someone there who could come and get the young lady till her brother can collect her?"
"Oh sure, I got nothin better to do." The person sighed and hung up.
"Well, Miss O'Connor, someone is coming to retrieve you. Go wait in the outer office till they arrive."
"Who was it?"
"I don't know but your file says that anyone at DT can act in your brother's place if he's not avalible and I can't let you stay here." Mr. Gardener waved toward his door, dismissing her.
He took Sukura into his office next and whatever he said to her must have been really harsh because the other girl was in the office for over 20 minutes. Stacey spent the whole time worrying about who was coming for her and if she'd get home to delete the voicemail before Brian or Dom got it.
Sukura left the principals office with tear tracks on her cheeks and red rimmed eyes.
"This isn't over bitch." Sukura whispered so that the principal wouldn't hear. "He called my dad and made me loose honour. You'll pay." Sukura left the office to await her dad in the hall.
Minutes after she left the office the door opened again and it was filled by a tall, menacing figure.
"I'm here to sign out Stacey O'Connor." The bored voice drawled in the owner's typical deep baritone.
Stacey looked up from her lap. "You!" She snarled.
Vince laughed a bit. "Wait till your brother finds out!"
AN: No Tempest didn't fall off the earth, she got soooooo busy, LOL. Ok, there it is, on to Cheer!
"You know," Stacey started talking to Tess on their ride to school the next morning, "I think I want to start racing soon. I really gotta get my own car and get it ready."
"Yeah. Good plan. We'll swing by Blade's shop after school and start that ball rolling." Tess answered and negotiated a turn in the road.
"I'm doing ok. Brian says I'm a natural."
"Well, have you ever seen Brian race? It would be hard for you to suck at it. It would be like finding out that Beethoven had a tone deaf kid."
Tess and Stacey both laughed.
"No I never saw Brian race, but I've heard he's good."
"Oh he's good. But not unbeatable. Blade's beaten him more times then he's lost to him. And of course Dom doesn't lose to anyone. But Brian's pretty good."
"Cool. You know what would be funny?"
"No, what?"
"If it went the other way and Brian ended up a fantastic cheerleader."
"I'd love to see that." Tess started to laugh uncontrollably.
With that they pulled up at school and parked the car. "I guess I better watch my back today huh?" Stacey said, feeling a bit of apprehension even though she knew she'd have friends at her back.
"You let me worry about watching your back. You worry about learning the routine for homecoming."
"Thanks Tess, you're a good friend."
"I know." Tess giggled. "Shit! We better get to class. We're gonna be late."
"Oh shit." With that both girls took off running for their first class.
The morning went by without incident. Stacey felt safe and it allowed her to forget about the threat Sukura Tran still represented. Because she forgot about the Asian girl, Stacey went to the bathroom alone during her first class after lunch.
She'd just finished up and was washing her hands when her reflection in the mirror was suddenly flanked by Sukura and two of her friends.
"I told you it wasn't over." Sukura snarled.
"Listen bitch, I don't have any control over what my brother did to your brother. And besides that from all accounts Johnny Tran had that shit coming." Stacey often reacted with mouthyness to her fear. And since Sukura had pulled a gun on her before Stacey was scared of the other girl. But she wasn't letting it show.
"You stupid little tramp! No one talks about my brother like that. He was just the best racer so your worthless brother and his big dumb bald friend knew they had to take him out before he took Dominic Toretto down a peg or two."
"Keep telling yourself those fucken lies if it makes you feel better, but the fact is your brother was a thug, a petty crook who only raced scared little boys he was sure he could beat. Your brother wouldn't have had the balls to race my brother or Dominic in a car. Your brother only had the balls to mess with Brian or Dom if he had his whole gang with him and they were riding their stupid crotch rockets."
"I'm gonna mess up that pretty white face bitch!" Sukura screamed. "I think you'd look good as a redhead." Sukura snarled and lunged for Stacey.
Sukura got the first punch in and her friends cheered her on. Stacey put a hand to her minorly cut cheek. Stacey got her wits back about her and threw the second punch. It connected with Sukura's nose. The other girl shrieked her outrage. She came at Stacey again with her claws bared.
Stacey faked left and Sukura missed her cheek, but scratched her shoulder instead.
"It's on bitch!" Stacey hissed. "You fight like a sissy." Stacey threw another punch toward Sukura and it connected with the other girl's mouth, splitting her lip.
When the blood started to pour Sukura's friends took that as their cue to jump into the fray. They didn't want to see their leader pulverised. The two other girls grabbed Stacey's arms as she valiantly tried to fight them off.
"Let's see you run your mouth now Bitch. Let's see how your brother likes it when you come home beaten to a pulp. If you go home at all. You might just end up in the hospital after the beating I'm sending your way." Sukura snarled.
"Is that so?" Tess asked from the bathroom door where she was flanked by Jade. "Let's see you keep that confidence now that the fight is fair again bitch. Just like Johnny, you only wanna fight with an unfair advantage." Tess bared her teeth.
"Bring it on ho!" One of Sukura's friends tossed out.
With that the two new girls jumped into the fray. There was nothing but a big tangle of blonde, black and brown hair and white and brown arms in the middle of the bathroom floor. Punches were being thrown and blood was being spilled left and right.
Another girl came to use the bathroom, took one look at the chaos in the middle of the room and fled to get a teacher. She returned with the gym teacher, Mr. Smith, who was big, build, and had a bad attitude for fighting.
Mr. Smith strode right into the ladies and started pulling the girls off each other. Sukura and Stacey went for each other once again after Mr. Smith pulled them apart but he stopped them with one nasty look from his angry navy blue eyes.
"Enough!" He bellowed.
"She started it." Sukura sulked in her faint Asian accent.
"I don't care who started it! I ended it."
Sukura had a split lip and black eye, not to mention the bruises to her body where no one could see. Her two friends were less a few hanks of hair and one had a cut on her chin. Stacey had a cut on her cheek and a black eye to match Sukura's. She also had the other girls cat like scratches on her shoulder. Tess and Jade had various cuts and scrapes as well.
"To the principal's office." No one moved. "NOW! March!"
With mutinous looks on all their faces the girls filed out in cliques and down to the principal's waiting room.
Mr. Smith left them under the watchful eye of the secretary and headed back to his class.
"This is so not over bitch!" Sukura threatened from her seat across the room.
"I sure hope it isn't you whore." Stacey answered. "My brother sent yours to hell and it's only fair if I send you to meet your brother. I mean, you miss him after all so I'll just send you to meet him there."
"Sukura! Stacey! Enough!" The secretary looked up from her papers in shock. "Wait till Mr. Gardner finds out about this all!"
The girls took the hint and settled for just shooting each other death glances for the rest of the wait. Finally Mr. Gardner emerged from his office and called in first one of Sukura's girls then the other.
Then he moved on to Jade and Tess. Everyone was emerging looking subdued.
"He called my folks but they weren't home so he called Blade. I gotta go home for the rest of today and then I got in school detention for the rest of the week." Tess whispered to Stacey on her way out.
"Oh shit! He's gonna call Brian then."
"Yep." Tess looked glum.
"Ah fuck, we just reached a truce now I got the principal calling him telling him I got in a fight."
"Well, if you'd told him bout what she pulled at the restaurant then he'd know why." Tess answered with her usual pragmatic outlook on things.
"Thanks for the info." Stacey sighed. But she'd made her bed so now she had to sleep in it.
"No sweat girlie, now I gotta go get home and erase that message before my folks get home and read it and I'm grounded for the rest of my life."
"Good luck!" Stacey called, and at just that moment Mr. Gardner came out of his office and called Stacey in. Stacey got up reluctantly and followed her principal into his office, he let her preceed him and shut the door.
"So, Miss O'Connor, we meet again."
"Yes sir." Stacey had no desire to be polite but she didn't want to push her luck.
"So, what happened to set off the incident in the washroom?"
"I went in there because I had to pee. So I went and when I came out I was washing up and I look up and there's that bit...girl...staring at me in the mirror with her two friends. She threatened me and she threw the first punch. She tried to attack me last night when I was in the bathroom of the restaurant my brother and I ate at."
"Why do you suppose Miss Tran is doing this to you in particular?" Mr Gardener was obviously clueless of the whole situation.
"Because my brother Brian was the cop who shot her brother Johnny last year." Stacey sighed. "She says she's going to get me to make Brian pay for what he did to Johnny."
"I see." Mr. Gardener didn't look totally convinced. "Well, even still, I'm going to have to call your brother and have him come take you home. You'll be on the same detention as Tess for the rest of the week. Fighting is not acceptable in this school. Miss Tran will get the same talking too."
With that Mr. Gardener picked up his phone and, looking at the file on his desk he dialled the Toretto house. It rang 8 times before the answering machine picked up and Letty's voice said "We ain't home, you know what to do, if we wanna talk to yo ass we'll call it!" Beep.
"Yes, hello...This is Stacey O'Connor's principal Mr. Gardener. Stacey's gotten into some trouble here at school and someone needs to come sign her out and take her home. I'll try the number we have for her brothers work next but if someone receives this they should call the school at..." He rhymed off the number.
Next he dialled DT automotive. After several more rings the phone was answered.
"DT."
"Hello, is Mr Brian O'Connor there?"
"No, thank god, who's this?" A male voice snarled.
"It's Miss Stacey O'Connor's principal. She's been in a fight and needs to go home. Do you know where I could reach her brother?"
"Hell no I don't know. And I don't really give a f...care either." The voice thought better of saying the F word to Stacey's principal, even if he normally wouldn't have given a fuck.
"Is there someone there who could come and get the young lady till her brother can collect her?"
"Oh sure, I got nothin better to do." The person sighed and hung up.
"Well, Miss O'Connor, someone is coming to retrieve you. Go wait in the outer office till they arrive."
"Who was it?"
"I don't know but your file says that anyone at DT can act in your brother's place if he's not avalible and I can't let you stay here." Mr. Gardener waved toward his door, dismissing her.
He took Sukura into his office next and whatever he said to her must have been really harsh because the other girl was in the office for over 20 minutes. Stacey spent the whole time worrying about who was coming for her and if she'd get home to delete the voicemail before Brian or Dom got it.
Sukura left the principals office with tear tracks on her cheeks and red rimmed eyes.
"This isn't over bitch." Sukura whispered so that the principal wouldn't hear. "He called my dad and made me loose honour. You'll pay." Sukura left the office to await her dad in the hall.
Minutes after she left the office the door opened again and it was filled by a tall, menacing figure.
"I'm here to sign out Stacey O'Connor." The bored voice drawled in the owner's typical deep baritone.
Stacey looked up from her lap. "You!" She snarled.
Vince laughed a bit. "Wait till your brother finds out!"
AN: No Tempest didn't fall off the earth, she got soooooo busy, LOL. Ok, there it is, on to Cheer!