Chapter 7 - Meeting the Team
As I said on chapter 6's intro, the paint job I have given her car would take up to 6 weeks of very intensive labor to do, but I didn't want to bore you all with 6 weeks of kat goes to work for Brian in the day and paints a car at night. I just don't wanna get flamed over not knowing the work that goes into painting a car like this. I think that about covers it all, enjoy the chapter and if you read it please leave a review, I would love to have any and all comments on this story, unless they're flames with no point.
She got started on the hood and slipped into her own world.
"Yes she sho is here, little thing has been in that garage all night again. Painting this time she says." Mama was talking to Stacy.
"Well Sean got a car himself today so I'm gonna borrow it and come get her." Stacy knew she would stay there doing her car all night if he didn't come collect her.
"I think that's a good idea son." Mama had come to the same conclusion. She said bye and hung up the phone. Stacy told the guys he was taking the car to go pick up Kitten and they agreed to that. They figured he wanted to say hi to his mama too.
Kitten had worked feverishly. She wanted it done that night. It was so close. She put the finishing touch on it just as she heard the door open. She looked up and saw Stacy. She smiled and stretched.
"Whatdoya think?" she asked.
"Wow." Was all Stacy could say. She had picked some sort of black paint, but with silver, red, blue, and purple fleck in it. It was some crazy color, it looked so good. Then she had airbrushed a white tiger on the hood, but not in the center. The tiger wasn't done in white paint, but rather a pale silver, it looked like solid sterling that color. The cat was diagonally across the hood, it's tail was down the left fender and it's front leg was painted down the right fender of the car. The face was sort of looking at the front of the car over the cat's shoulder, it's mouth open, teeth bared and it was so lifelike he could swear he heard it hissing. It sorta looked like the cat was crouched on the hood of the car, ready to pounce. She had painted the side like the cat had clawed it and left huge gouges in the medal. And through the claw marks you could see a scene of a white tiger running full out in the jungle. It was the most intricate paint job he had ever seen. And she had done the same thing on the other side of the car, it was identical. It said Kitten in script on the driver's door right under the handle. "I wish the guys had come with me to see this."
"Me too. But they'll see it tomorrow. I'm taking the bus here in the morning and taking my car to work. I promised Brian he would be the second to see it."
"Well let's go Kitten. I'm ready for bed now." She followed him out of the garage and into Sean's new ride. They headed home and went to bed.
She got up early the next day and went to get her car. She let herself in the garage and she was very proud of her handiwork. The car looked like a piece of art. It looked even better in the daylight. All shiny and sparkling in the light. She headed to the store and ran in, after parking out front.
Brian was talking to a group of people when she came in. She ran up to him with a huge smile and since he wasn't talking to anyone at the time she grabbed his hand and smiled at him as she pulled him out the front door. One of the females in the group gave her a dirty look but she was too happy to notice.
"Brian, come 'ere, come see what I brought today." She giggled and dragged him to the door. He followed her with a laugh at her exuberance. She took him outside and pointed at her car.
Brian knew he was in for it with Mia, but when he saw the car it was all worth it. "Skyline." He hissed out and looked at the paint job. "This is your car? This is the car you wouldn't tell me about. Where'd you get this? I know how rare they are."
"The guys bought it for me when I turned 16. You like?"
"I really like. Who the hell painted it? That's unreal, I've never seen a car like that."
"I did."
"You did the airbrushing too?"
"Ya. I did the whole paint job." She smiled at him and leaned on the driver's door. "You wanna make us into a calendar? Something like 'cutest kitten and the hottest car on earth'." Brian laughed. Neither of them noticed the team trail out of the store. Kat didn't think twice about how it looked, she was just being playful.
"Brian, who's this?" Mia asked in a very catty tone of voice. Of course Kat knew he had a girl so she wasn't crushing on him or anything. She had always had this easy way with guys and it wouldn't be the first time some chick thought Kat was after her man. She did tend to flirt even if she didn't mean it but she wasn't after Brian. She just had this easy way with him that made her forget that he had a girl that might not appreciate the way she acted around him. Apparently Mia didn't get the playfulness.
"Oh yeah, damn, I used to have manners." Brian flashed that big, killer white smile. "Mia, this is Kat, Kat, this is my girl Mia." Kat stood up and held her hand out to Mia.
"Nice to meet you Mia, I'm Kat." Mia shook her hand with reluctance and put an arm around Brian. Kat laughed. "Brian talks about you so much I feel like I know you already. You must be very nice cause he never has anything but grossly sweet things to say." Kat laughed to show she was kidden' and smiled at the other girl. Mia started to relax because it seemed obvious that the other girl had no designs on Brian. Mia smiled and said hello back.
Brian then turned to the tall man on his left. "This is Dom Torreto, sorta our team leader and fastest racer in LA. Bro, this is Kat."
"Sorta your team leader?" Dom laughed. "I am the team leader, but he got the fastest racer in LA part right." Dom winked at her and held out his hand. Kat shook Dom's hand then said, "Well I beg to differ, I'm the fastest racer in LA. But still nice to meet you Dom." Dom laughed. The girl had spunk. Then he realized she was serious. Wow, she was full of herself wasn't she? Guys still raced him to try and prove their worth, he was the king of the LA streets. He overheard strangers saying that all the time. He mostly thought it was silly, but for this girl to claim to be something he'd spent his whole life earning burned him. But she was a friend of Brian's so he continued to smile.
Kat didn't like Dom at all. But she hid it. She knew the guy was important to Brian. But Dom was gorgeous and he very well knew it. That type didn't sit well with Kat. She bet he had been with lots and lots of girls. She could be wrong but something about Dom Torreto rubbed her the wrong way. He also obviously believed all that king of LA crap people tossed around. A dark girl walked up beside Dom. Brian continued. "That's Dom's girl Letty. She might just give you a challenge on the fastest racer in LA thing herself." Kat smiled at Letty but Letty didn't smile back. She looked at Dom then at Kat.
*So that's how it is,* Kat thought. *He's strayed and she thinks that I'm the next partner in crime. Fat chance.* "Hey Letty. Nice to meet you."
"Hi." Letty answered without much enthusiasm. Then she saw the car. "Wow. That your car?"
"He's my baby. I just restored it from a bad wreck."
A tall guy looking very shaggy stepped out around Dom for a look at the car. "Who helped you Baby? I hope someone did. I would've hated to see you break a nail or get grease in that pretty hair." He asked.
*Down boy* she thought. He was taking the wrong attitude with her. "No one sweetie." She came back with. "I did it all by my little lonesome." He didn't need to know that Sean had helped her with a lot of the heavy mechanical stuff. She held up her hand to show him her very practical short nails. She walked up to this new man and ran a hand suggestively up his chest and into his hair. She uses the handful of his hair she had to pull him down from his 6 foot plus height to her level and said into his face, "Who helped you pick that haircut? You should definitely have it out with them." She asked with a smile that said poor pathetic man can't even shave. She released his hair and backed away from him.
"Whoooo." The team all said. This could get interesting. Old Cyote would have a hard time just taking that.
Scruffy nodded and seemed to take the hint from the sweetie comment, and the hair comment, that this Kat had claws. But he wasn't going to just take that shit. He almost had a comeback ready when another guy, shorter then the rest and younger looking too came around Brian. "Can I look under the hood, please?" This guy was so sweet looking she couldn't say no. He was sorta not a boy but not a man either. Brian had already made the parallel between Kat and Jesse. Both were seemingly innocent but yet not. But Kat was hiding something and Brian knew there was no artifice in Jesse. Kat couldn't say no, even though she would rather not share what she had under the hood.
Kat popped the hood and Jesse looked. Kat wondered how many people were on this fricken team. There were way more of them then there was people on her team. Then she heard another voice, it didn't belong to anyone she had met yet. It was a voice that her hot and bothered dreams were made of. So it seemed there was at least one more. Brian introduced Jesse "The Mad Scientist" Ames while the kid was still under the hood of her car. He finished and she closed the hood. "That is one sweet car you got there. Leon should see this. He has a Skyline too and he's really proud of it. He's always a little pissed when someone else has one." Vince and Dom laughed. Leon would be pissed. This kid's Skyline was newer.
Just then the man who owned 'the voice' stepped out around the others. Kat lost it for a second but recovered before any of them noticed she was panicked. It was sexy pizza boy. Oh shit. "And this is Leon." Brian said, and mistook the look on her face for being overwhelmed by them all. "And that's all of us I promise. Leon you need to see this car man."
"No shit Dawg." Leon said to Brian. He turned to Kat. "Nice Skyline. Yours?" He looked at the girl.
"Yeah, I'm standing next to it." She smirked.
"Oh don't go there." Brian laughingly told her and the rest of the team all laughed too.
She couldn't believe that it was the pizza boy she checked out. Small world. Well he hadn't seen her face and her clothes had been baggie that night. Leon walked around the car. He noted it was a GT-R. Shit. This was one rare vehicle in the USA. V-Spec too. He got to her door. "Kitten?" He questioned, reading the monogram.
"That's me." She answered.
"Well this is a nice car." Too nice. Didn't she know that he was the only one who should have a skyline? And what year was it? With the body kit it was hard to tell. His was a 94 and if hers was a 99 or newer he was screwed. The GT-R had been majorly revamped in 99 and he would have a hard time beating her if hers was that new. "What year is it? And where did you get the body kit?"
"Thanks. It's a '99 R34 GT-R V-spec, and the body is Veilside." Internally he groaned but he just nodded at her.
"Sweet, but I gotta ask. How did you get the name Kitten?"
"It's really Katherine, but I go by Kat and my guys started to call me Kitten and it stuck." She laughed and Brian filled them in about how she had been living with her three big 'brothers' for the last 4 years. Dom heard the name Sean and Kale used in the same sentence. Then Kat turned around and bent over to pick up something off the ground and he saw the small tiger cub that was tattooed on her back. Oh shit was all Dom could think. Brian had hired a Tiger. And not just any Tiger, this girl lived with the three most notorious leaders of that gang. Dom gave Brian a look, like 'what were you thinking'. Brian didn't get it.
Leon couldn't shake the feeling he knew the girl, and every time her back was turned to him the feeling intensified. He wanted to get to know her better.Dom saw Leon looking at the girl in that way they all knew too well with Leon. He was intrigued by the girl. *Wrong girl Leon*, Dom thought. *You don't want to mess with this one.* Dom decided to throw the fact she was a tiger out into the open.
"So you're the girl that Sean Black and Kale Adams took into the Tigers Huh? First girl to ever become a member of that gang." Dom asked her point blank. She laughed. She was so used to this. So many people were scared of her boys and then her by proxy because they hadn't made a big deal of the fact they left the gang. Brian gave Dom a look.
"S'ok Brian. Yes Dom. I was a Tiger, or rather I was like a pet to the Tigers. They took care of me from the time I moved here alone at 15 till, well, now. And you forgot about Stacy Kelly. But the guys and I aren't in the gang anymore. The leader is Sean's older Bro, so when they wanted out for my sake, Conner let them out. So it's not like we're still gang members. The guys all have real jobs now. Sean's a mechanic. Kale and Stacy do something, I don't know what, and here I am working for Harry. But you wouldn't want to live where we live and not have ties to someone that's scary to other people. The only reason I'm safe in our 'hood is because of that tattoo and the fact that most people know that I'm under Conner's protection." Dom nodded. He still didn't want her around. He knew that Brian had planned on trying to get her closer to them.
Leon broke in and asked her where she lived. Oh shit, she thought. He now knows I live with three guys and now he's gonna know where I live. Well he doesn't need to know exactly where I live. I'll just tell him in south central and hope he lets me get away with being that vague. "I live in South Central, in a very rough part of it for right now. We're gonna move soon though."
"You all must make quite the picture when you're together huh?" Leon asked her. She was so proud of her guys she acted without thinking.
"You wanna see a picture of us all together?" God damn it what was she thinking. At least the guys had bandana's over their faces when they held Leon up and it had been dark. Leon nodded that yes he would like to see the picture. She had an 8X10 of her and the guys in front of the car the way it had been. She was 16 in the picture which meant the guys were about 3 years younger then too so maybe it would be ok. She leaned into the car and opened up the glove box and took the picture out. She handed it over.
As I said on chapter 6's intro, the paint job I have given her car would take up to 6 weeks of very intensive labor to do, but I didn't want to bore you all with 6 weeks of kat goes to work for Brian in the day and paints a car at night. I just don't wanna get flamed over not knowing the work that goes into painting a car like this. I think that about covers it all, enjoy the chapter and if you read it please leave a review, I would love to have any and all comments on this story, unless they're flames with no point.
She got started on the hood and slipped into her own world.
"Yes she sho is here, little thing has been in that garage all night again. Painting this time she says." Mama was talking to Stacy.
"Well Sean got a car himself today so I'm gonna borrow it and come get her." Stacy knew she would stay there doing her car all night if he didn't come collect her.
"I think that's a good idea son." Mama had come to the same conclusion. She said bye and hung up the phone. Stacy told the guys he was taking the car to go pick up Kitten and they agreed to that. They figured he wanted to say hi to his mama too.
Kitten had worked feverishly. She wanted it done that night. It was so close. She put the finishing touch on it just as she heard the door open. She looked up and saw Stacy. She smiled and stretched.
"Whatdoya think?" she asked.
"Wow." Was all Stacy could say. She had picked some sort of black paint, but with silver, red, blue, and purple fleck in it. It was some crazy color, it looked so good. Then she had airbrushed a white tiger on the hood, but not in the center. The tiger wasn't done in white paint, but rather a pale silver, it looked like solid sterling that color. The cat was diagonally across the hood, it's tail was down the left fender and it's front leg was painted down the right fender of the car. The face was sort of looking at the front of the car over the cat's shoulder, it's mouth open, teeth bared and it was so lifelike he could swear he heard it hissing. It sorta looked like the cat was crouched on the hood of the car, ready to pounce. She had painted the side like the cat had clawed it and left huge gouges in the medal. And through the claw marks you could see a scene of a white tiger running full out in the jungle. It was the most intricate paint job he had ever seen. And she had done the same thing on the other side of the car, it was identical. It said Kitten in script on the driver's door right under the handle. "I wish the guys had come with me to see this."
"Me too. But they'll see it tomorrow. I'm taking the bus here in the morning and taking my car to work. I promised Brian he would be the second to see it."
"Well let's go Kitten. I'm ready for bed now." She followed him out of the garage and into Sean's new ride. They headed home and went to bed.
She got up early the next day and went to get her car. She let herself in the garage and she was very proud of her handiwork. The car looked like a piece of art. It looked even better in the daylight. All shiny and sparkling in the light. She headed to the store and ran in, after parking out front.
Brian was talking to a group of people when she came in. She ran up to him with a huge smile and since he wasn't talking to anyone at the time she grabbed his hand and smiled at him as she pulled him out the front door. One of the females in the group gave her a dirty look but she was too happy to notice.
"Brian, come 'ere, come see what I brought today." She giggled and dragged him to the door. He followed her with a laugh at her exuberance. She took him outside and pointed at her car.
Brian knew he was in for it with Mia, but when he saw the car it was all worth it. "Skyline." He hissed out and looked at the paint job. "This is your car? This is the car you wouldn't tell me about. Where'd you get this? I know how rare they are."
"The guys bought it for me when I turned 16. You like?"
"I really like. Who the hell painted it? That's unreal, I've never seen a car like that."
"I did."
"You did the airbrushing too?"
"Ya. I did the whole paint job." She smiled at him and leaned on the driver's door. "You wanna make us into a calendar? Something like 'cutest kitten and the hottest car on earth'." Brian laughed. Neither of them noticed the team trail out of the store. Kat didn't think twice about how it looked, she was just being playful.
"Brian, who's this?" Mia asked in a very catty tone of voice. Of course Kat knew he had a girl so she wasn't crushing on him or anything. She had always had this easy way with guys and it wouldn't be the first time some chick thought Kat was after her man. She did tend to flirt even if she didn't mean it but she wasn't after Brian. She just had this easy way with him that made her forget that he had a girl that might not appreciate the way she acted around him. Apparently Mia didn't get the playfulness.
"Oh yeah, damn, I used to have manners." Brian flashed that big, killer white smile. "Mia, this is Kat, Kat, this is my girl Mia." Kat stood up and held her hand out to Mia.
"Nice to meet you Mia, I'm Kat." Mia shook her hand with reluctance and put an arm around Brian. Kat laughed. "Brian talks about you so much I feel like I know you already. You must be very nice cause he never has anything but grossly sweet things to say." Kat laughed to show she was kidden' and smiled at the other girl. Mia started to relax because it seemed obvious that the other girl had no designs on Brian. Mia smiled and said hello back.
Brian then turned to the tall man on his left. "This is Dom Torreto, sorta our team leader and fastest racer in LA. Bro, this is Kat."
"Sorta your team leader?" Dom laughed. "I am the team leader, but he got the fastest racer in LA part right." Dom winked at her and held out his hand. Kat shook Dom's hand then said, "Well I beg to differ, I'm the fastest racer in LA. But still nice to meet you Dom." Dom laughed. The girl had spunk. Then he realized she was serious. Wow, she was full of herself wasn't she? Guys still raced him to try and prove their worth, he was the king of the LA streets. He overheard strangers saying that all the time. He mostly thought it was silly, but for this girl to claim to be something he'd spent his whole life earning burned him. But she was a friend of Brian's so he continued to smile.
Kat didn't like Dom at all. But she hid it. She knew the guy was important to Brian. But Dom was gorgeous and he very well knew it. That type didn't sit well with Kat. She bet he had been with lots and lots of girls. She could be wrong but something about Dom Torreto rubbed her the wrong way. He also obviously believed all that king of LA crap people tossed around. A dark girl walked up beside Dom. Brian continued. "That's Dom's girl Letty. She might just give you a challenge on the fastest racer in LA thing herself." Kat smiled at Letty but Letty didn't smile back. She looked at Dom then at Kat.
*So that's how it is,* Kat thought. *He's strayed and she thinks that I'm the next partner in crime. Fat chance.* "Hey Letty. Nice to meet you."
"Hi." Letty answered without much enthusiasm. Then she saw the car. "Wow. That your car?"
"He's my baby. I just restored it from a bad wreck."
A tall guy looking very shaggy stepped out around Dom for a look at the car. "Who helped you Baby? I hope someone did. I would've hated to see you break a nail or get grease in that pretty hair." He asked.
*Down boy* she thought. He was taking the wrong attitude with her. "No one sweetie." She came back with. "I did it all by my little lonesome." He didn't need to know that Sean had helped her with a lot of the heavy mechanical stuff. She held up her hand to show him her very practical short nails. She walked up to this new man and ran a hand suggestively up his chest and into his hair. She uses the handful of his hair she had to pull him down from his 6 foot plus height to her level and said into his face, "Who helped you pick that haircut? You should definitely have it out with them." She asked with a smile that said poor pathetic man can't even shave. She released his hair and backed away from him.
"Whoooo." The team all said. This could get interesting. Old Cyote would have a hard time just taking that.
Scruffy nodded and seemed to take the hint from the sweetie comment, and the hair comment, that this Kat had claws. But he wasn't going to just take that shit. He almost had a comeback ready when another guy, shorter then the rest and younger looking too came around Brian. "Can I look under the hood, please?" This guy was so sweet looking she couldn't say no. He was sorta not a boy but not a man either. Brian had already made the parallel between Kat and Jesse. Both were seemingly innocent but yet not. But Kat was hiding something and Brian knew there was no artifice in Jesse. Kat couldn't say no, even though she would rather not share what she had under the hood.
Kat popped the hood and Jesse looked. Kat wondered how many people were on this fricken team. There were way more of them then there was people on her team. Then she heard another voice, it didn't belong to anyone she had met yet. It was a voice that her hot and bothered dreams were made of. So it seemed there was at least one more. Brian introduced Jesse "The Mad Scientist" Ames while the kid was still under the hood of her car. He finished and she closed the hood. "That is one sweet car you got there. Leon should see this. He has a Skyline too and he's really proud of it. He's always a little pissed when someone else has one." Vince and Dom laughed. Leon would be pissed. This kid's Skyline was newer.
Just then the man who owned 'the voice' stepped out around the others. Kat lost it for a second but recovered before any of them noticed she was panicked. It was sexy pizza boy. Oh shit. "And this is Leon." Brian said, and mistook the look on her face for being overwhelmed by them all. "And that's all of us I promise. Leon you need to see this car man."
"No shit Dawg." Leon said to Brian. He turned to Kat. "Nice Skyline. Yours?" He looked at the girl.
"Yeah, I'm standing next to it." She smirked.
"Oh don't go there." Brian laughingly told her and the rest of the team all laughed too.
She couldn't believe that it was the pizza boy she checked out. Small world. Well he hadn't seen her face and her clothes had been baggie that night. Leon walked around the car. He noted it was a GT-R. Shit. This was one rare vehicle in the USA. V-Spec too. He got to her door. "Kitten?" He questioned, reading the monogram.
"That's me." She answered.
"Well this is a nice car." Too nice. Didn't she know that he was the only one who should have a skyline? And what year was it? With the body kit it was hard to tell. His was a 94 and if hers was a 99 or newer he was screwed. The GT-R had been majorly revamped in 99 and he would have a hard time beating her if hers was that new. "What year is it? And where did you get the body kit?"
"Thanks. It's a '99 R34 GT-R V-spec, and the body is Veilside." Internally he groaned but he just nodded at her.
"Sweet, but I gotta ask. How did you get the name Kitten?"
"It's really Katherine, but I go by Kat and my guys started to call me Kitten and it stuck." She laughed and Brian filled them in about how she had been living with her three big 'brothers' for the last 4 years. Dom heard the name Sean and Kale used in the same sentence. Then Kat turned around and bent over to pick up something off the ground and he saw the small tiger cub that was tattooed on her back. Oh shit was all Dom could think. Brian had hired a Tiger. And not just any Tiger, this girl lived with the three most notorious leaders of that gang. Dom gave Brian a look, like 'what were you thinking'. Brian didn't get it.
Leon couldn't shake the feeling he knew the girl, and every time her back was turned to him the feeling intensified. He wanted to get to know her better.Dom saw Leon looking at the girl in that way they all knew too well with Leon. He was intrigued by the girl. *Wrong girl Leon*, Dom thought. *You don't want to mess with this one.* Dom decided to throw the fact she was a tiger out into the open.
"So you're the girl that Sean Black and Kale Adams took into the Tigers Huh? First girl to ever become a member of that gang." Dom asked her point blank. She laughed. She was so used to this. So many people were scared of her boys and then her by proxy because they hadn't made a big deal of the fact they left the gang. Brian gave Dom a look.
"S'ok Brian. Yes Dom. I was a Tiger, or rather I was like a pet to the Tigers. They took care of me from the time I moved here alone at 15 till, well, now. And you forgot about Stacy Kelly. But the guys and I aren't in the gang anymore. The leader is Sean's older Bro, so when they wanted out for my sake, Conner let them out. So it's not like we're still gang members. The guys all have real jobs now. Sean's a mechanic. Kale and Stacy do something, I don't know what, and here I am working for Harry. But you wouldn't want to live where we live and not have ties to someone that's scary to other people. The only reason I'm safe in our 'hood is because of that tattoo and the fact that most people know that I'm under Conner's protection." Dom nodded. He still didn't want her around. He knew that Brian had planned on trying to get her closer to them.
Leon broke in and asked her where she lived. Oh shit, she thought. He now knows I live with three guys and now he's gonna know where I live. Well he doesn't need to know exactly where I live. I'll just tell him in south central and hope he lets me get away with being that vague. "I live in South Central, in a very rough part of it for right now. We're gonna move soon though."
"You all must make quite the picture when you're together huh?" Leon asked her. She was so proud of her guys she acted without thinking.
"You wanna see a picture of us all together?" God damn it what was she thinking. At least the guys had bandana's over their faces when they held Leon up and it had been dark. Leon nodded that yes he would like to see the picture. She had an 8X10 of her and the guys in front of the car the way it had been. She was 16 in the picture which meant the guys were about 3 years younger then too so maybe it would be ok. She leaned into the car and opened up the glove box and took the picture out. She handed it over.