AN: Well, 10 chapters and only 19 reviews? I hope you all can do better'n
that! J/K. But does it suck? Is that why no one is reviewing it? Even if
you think it does suck I wanna know and I wanna know why you think it sucks
too. Or if its good just tell me that too.
Chapter 10 - Welcoming Kat home
Where you racin tonight? I never heard of races tonight." He asked her.
"I'm racing in my neck of the woods tonight. Just small time but I haven't raced since my wreck." She looked down at her indiglow gages rather then look up at this man, that made her feel so odd.
"You're nervous?" Leon asked incredulously. Leon couldn't believe the girl who owned the attitude was nervous about anything. "You don't seem like the type to be nervous to me; you seem like a fly by the seat of your pants, never say never kinda girl."
*You don't know the half of it* she thought and then said, "You got me, but, well, I should be dead. This is what the car looked like after my wreck." She pulled a picture of the car out of the glove box. The hood was crumpled, the roof was collapsed. The windshield was shattered out, as was the driver's window. It was bad. Most cars woulda been a write off but not a car worth as much as a GT-R Skyline. "I walked away and the guys called me miracle Kitten for weeks after."
"I can see why. This is bad." That sounded too mild for what the picture was of. You saw them talk about fatalities on the news and the cars didn't look as smashed. Leon was in shock that she had walked away from this wreck. Less had killed people before. "So you haven't raced since?"
"Haven't had a car to race since. This is it, my only race car. I wish I had two but I don't." She gave him a cheesy smile, like she knew he knew she only had one car, and knew it was a stupid question.
"Ok smarty, how do you know you're ready? You could be out of practice if you haven't raced in months." He regretted saying it as soon as it left his mouth and he saw her face fall. Brian kicked him in the shin where Kat couldn't see for the stupid statement. Leon looked at Brian like he got the point. "Of course, you'll do fine. I can tell you're too stubborn to lose."
"Well I hope so. Hitting a telephone pole at 120 wasn't fun." She looked at her TV screen, watched the graph move as the mix changed. "I don't feel ready." She said in a small voice. She glanced at him then and Leon was sorry he brought it up.
"Well, I could go somewhere with you and race you for," What could they race for? He wanted to say a date, or a kiss, but he held that back and said, "say, the loser washes and waxes the winners car for a month, once a week. You know, just to see if your gonna be aight." He didn't know why he wanted to help this girl. It could have something to do with the fact she reminded him of Jesse, and that she was so tough and icy, but with vulnerability and fire under the surface. He wondered why she put on the act.
"Ok cowboy, you're on. I hope you like washing cars in August, cause that's went mine can be waxed." She winked at him. She'd never been able to back down from a challenge. Even as a little kid any time anyone had challenged her to anything she'd obliged them. Even stupid stuff, stuff that wasn't even a contest. In school she'd always had to be the first one done of tests and stuff. That attitude had adapted to racing very easily. She continued. "Where can we do this?" She was going to ask Brian to race her anyway and Leon's car was a better match for hers. She would feel better if she had driven at high speeds before the race that night.
"There's a little track not far from here, Brian knows the way. I'll meet you guys there." Leon walked over to his car and watched them pull away, Brian giving Kat directions. Dom had listened to the whole exchange.
"Don't tell me you really are falling for her Leon. Please. I don't want her around." Dom groaned out.
"I'm not falling for her man, did you hear her? She was scared. That girl ain't scared a'nothin', but she's terrified of racing her car. I heard 'bout her before her accident and she was hot, she was on her way up. Now she's scared of her car. You two don't get along cause your too damn much alike." Leon shook his head. Plus he was intrigued by her. He still knew he knew her from somewhere. "Member how hard it was for you to race that stretch a'road after you rolled the charger?"
Dom grunted non-committaly. But he did remember. "Ok, so maybe she needs the confidence booster of racing someone without having a bad wreck, but you sure that's all this is about? You can't just screw this one and walk away Leon. Her friends'll be around here and that'll be the end of ya. We couldn't even defend you or the whole Tiger gang would be down here shooting the place up."
"I know she ain't a race skank Dawg."
"Ok, then go ahead and go play race cars with the little chick."
"She doesn't play at anything Dawg, I'd say that's half her problem. She sure as hell doesn't play at racing in that car. I'd say she takes racing pretty seriously. But see ya." Leon got into his car and headed for the little track.
He knew that with the help of Jesse his car was super fast, he hoped that that, coupled with the fact that he had way more experience would give him the edge. He hated to lose and he didn't care for washing cars either. The he realized he had made a fatal error in this bet. He had to let her win. It wasn't very confidence inspiring to have your ass handed to you. Damn it. He didn't even really like her and now he was gonna be washing and waxing her car once a week for the whole month of August.
Kat pulled into the track and stopped the car. "It was nice of Leon to offer to do this wasn't it Brian?"
"Yeah, it was, but he's a nice guy. You want me to ride with you or wait on the side?"
"Better wait on the side, after all, I gotta do it alone tonight, plus the car doesn't need to haul your extra weight around."
"Ok. There he is, let's do this." Brian got out of the car and walked over to the benches. Leon lined up beside Kat and rolled down his window. She did the same.
"You ready?" Leon asked. He was so not looking forward to waxing her car. He hoped she wouldn't be able to tell he let her win.
"I'm ready. Let's do this. Who's gonna call the start?" Leon shrugged. She looked at Brian. "Hey Brian, come start us off."
Brian walked over and stood just in front of them and in the middle. He got both their attention and they revved their cars. Brian dropped his arms and they both took off.
Leon got an early lead, he did better off the line then Kat. But she caught him quickly. He got ahead of her again and she caught him. This went on up and up and before she knew it the finish line was looming. She realized that she was going 110. She panicked for a second, but she realized that she had to do this, get past this feeling if she was going to win ever again, she took a deep breathe then floored it and shifted up. She zoomed past Leon and over the line a hair ahead of him.
"Whoooo." She screamed. She won. But she coulda gone faster. She hadn't pushed it. But she could've. Right? Sure she could've. She just hadn't needed to. And the fact that she was never this shaky after a race didn't mean anything. She had herself almost convinced she was fine, that she wasn't kidding herself. She knew in her heart that she had been too terrified to go faster. She had only hit 120 and that didn't win races, well it might in her 'hood, but not where the big boys raced. She knew if Leon was really racing her he would have walked away with this one because she didn't really push it, but she didn't really get the feeling he'd let her win either.
Leon was impressed, he had seen her panic and had figured she was gonna lose it and spin out, but she floored it and won. He almost hadn't thrown the race. She had caught him unaware with that sudden burst of speed. He'd been sort of pacing her and then she'd shot forward out of no where. He stopped the car right beside hers and got out. He walked up to her car and opened the door. She got out and walked over to him.
She was laughing out "I did it. I did it." He laughed at her happiness.
"I guess you did. See that wasn't so bad was it?" Leon grinned down at her. When she was happy it was hard not to be happy with her.
"Not bad at all, and you owe me a month of car washes." She smirked up and him. And he did the stupidest thing of his adult life. He gave into the urge and kissed her, hard. And she responded to his kiss like he only could have hoped. She was at least physically into him too. They both broke apart and looked at each other. Man, and they said he was the level headed one on the team. Vince was supposed to be the impulsive one.
"Um, that shouldn't have happened." They both said at the same time and laughed at each other.
"Well, now that we got that out of the way, I guess you should get back to Dom, and Brian and I should have been back at the store half an hour ago." She was sure she was beet red, but hey, Leon wasn't doing too much better.
"Ok, you did good. You'll do fine." Leon climbed back into his car and shook his head at his foolishness. After he promised Dom he wasn't going to get involved with her he kisses her. What was he thinking? Well he was thinking with the wrong part of his anatomy.
Kat drove back to the waiting Brian and they headed back to work. Leon went back to the garage and took some good natured ribbing that the girl had beaten him and he owed her one month of washes for her car. Letty looked at him like she knew the score but Dom just laughed his ass off at Leon's misfortune, till he realized that this meant that Kat would be around once a week for a month, then he stalked off to his office.
"So her car worked ok?" Jesse asked. He loved to know when his tuning helped.
"She beat me didn't she?" Leon said with a sigh. He hated washing cars. He normally got his hand washed somewhere when it needed to be done. Jesse figured the sigh was over the fact that Leon got beaten by a girl and grinned at his brother. Guys hated it when chicks beat them. Jesse included.
"I wanna go watch her race." Letty wanted to see what the girl was really made of. Whenever a new girl was introduced to the group Letty got paranoid about her being around only to go after Dom. And while Mia had assured her that Kat didn't even seem to like Dom that much Letty didn't trust either of them. Dom tended to forget himself in the thrill of the conquest and girls normally fell over themselves to get to him. But if the girl really was a good racer then that would sort of make it better because then Letty would know the girl was around the scene cause she really had to be to race.
"No way girl. Dream on. She's not racing with our crowd and there's no way we're going down around her place just to watch races. That's where I was robbed, at gunpoint, remember? The yet unsolved crime." No way was Leon going back down there ever again, not even to see Kat race.
"I guess." Letty said, she was one tough bitch and nothing scared her. But she didn't know what it was like in Kat's neighbourhood. They had no call to be down there and if Letty tried to go Leon was telling Dom. She'd have to wait till Kat started to race in their crowd if she wanted to see the girl race. Leon had no doubt that Kat would be on their scene soon. After all their races were where the best raced and that's the scene she wanted to conquer.
"Letty, if I even think you're goin down there I'm tellen' Dom. Got it?"
"Ok Leon, damn it, I'll stay home." She went back to the civic she was working on and Leon finished the Acura. He couldn't get Kat out of his head. She was so intriguing to him. She was so innocent but not, and there was still the matter of where he knew her from. He was going to figure that mystery out if it killed him. There was the little matter of Dom not wanting her around, but Leon could start to get to know her without Dom knowing if he was careful about how he did it. This was all assuming that the girl would even allow him close enough to get to know her better. She was so touchy and Leon had this feeling she didn't want him around any more then Dom wanted her around. The whole situation was very suspicious.
Brian and Kat took themselves back to the store and made her display. Both Brian and Harry were impressed with her artistic vision for the Evo display, some people that didn't even own Evos where likely going to see what she had done and go buy one. That took the rest of the afternoon though and when it was done she went home. Brian and Harry wished her luck on her way out the door and she gave them a tight smile.
She tried to eat with the guys but she was too nervous to eat. She left the guys to finish up and went pick an outfit to wear. She knew that if she looked anything less then fabulous people wouldn't take her return seriously. She wanted the three grand this was worth more then anything. She picked out a pair of denim low rise flair pants that didn't have a waistband and a shirt that was like a halter top on the top half but had a V on the bottom, leaving her tummy and navel ring to show. Then she picked out her boots with the three inch flat sole for driving and decided that'd be fine. If she won tonight they had enough for a down payment on a house and they could start looking for a new place. That was very important to Kat.
It was only about 9pm and races weren't till 12. What was she going to do till then? She was going out of her mind thinking about all the whatifs that were running through her mind. What if she crashed, what if she choked, what if she just plain lost? What if she was never as good as she thought? Well she knew she had been good, but that was months ago and it felt like it had been another time. Things had changed. She'd changed. What if she'd grown up and lost her edge? Back then she'd never had a worry in her head, never had any responsibility. All she did was party and race. And blow the money on whatever she wanted. Now she needed it and she felt every one of her 19 years and then some. Well lots of people way older then her raced and were good at it. She'd just have to try to race for the fun of it even though they needed the money, then she'd be fine.
She decided to take a nice long bath and read. Then she'd do her hair. That'd take her an hour and a half or so. She filled the tub with hot water and bubbles. Her secret girly addiction. She loved bubble bath. She sat back in the bath and started to read. She figured there was no use worrying about it, she'd have to go, and try her best. If she failed, for whatever reason, at least she'd know she did her best. She beat Leon after all. She knew he'd gone easy on her, after all they hadn't even used NOS, but with her, that element of surprise was often what helped her take the lead in races. She got into her book.
The guys were all sitting around in the living room, worrying almost as much as Kat. She had looked scared earlier and they hoped she wasn't going to flip out and not be able to race. But it was surely normal for her to be a little nervous about racing for the first time in months. But it just wasn't like her to be scared of racing. She use to live for it. None of them had ever had a bad wreck so they didn't really know what she was feeling now that she had to start all over again. They could hear her splashing around in the bathroom as she washed her hair. Hopefully she'd be more relaxed and ready to go when she was done.
She got out of the bathtub and dried off. Then she did her hair. It took forever to blow dry because of how long and thick it was. When she had it dry it was straight and smooth. It was also now down to her butt. She figured it was time to get it cut. It was a pain in the ass. It never looked this long when it was all crimpy. She started to do her makeup. She put on silver eye shadow then black eyeliner. She added berry lip gloss and she was ready. She didn't require any more makeup then that. She looked at herself in the mirror. It was the same face staring back at her. The same girl she'd always been. She looked outwardly just as cocky, just as assertive. But inside she was that 15 year old girl who ran from the terrible fate that had been planned for her with tears in her eyes.
She put her hands on her hips and started to talk to herself, she figured she could use the pep talk.
"Now, suck it up girl. You ran across the country in a stolen car. You lived in this neighbourhood for 4 years and thrived. You kicked all the ass there was to kick when you raced before. And that was only 6 months ago not years ago. You went to public schools in south central LA and lived to tell about it. You take care of three guys. You don't take shit from anyone. You can do this. You beat someone driving another skyline. You are good. You are the best. And you will do this and you will be just fine. You will get this money and you will all get to move to a better place. It will all work out." She nodded at herself. It worked. Reminding herself of her roots and what she was capable of had calmed her down and she was ready. She walked into the living room. The guys could sense the change in her demeanor.
"I'm ready. Let's go." She said.
"Aight girl, lets go." Sean answered.
"But I was thinking, the Skyline seats 4 now and I think we should all take it. I don't think your car could get away from the cops on the off chance any show up. We know we can get away in the Skyline." She didn't want the guys to get caught by the cops in Sean's slow ass car.
"Good idea." Stacy added, he didn't want to get caught.
They all piled into Sean's car for the ride to Stacy's to pick up the car. They got it out and climbed in and headed back their way to meet the other racers. They pulled in and got a parking spot. The windows were all tinted out black as sin and the car was quickly surrounded while all the regulars tried to figure out who the fresh meat was. The engine was cut and everyone looked at the picture the car made. In addition to her custom paint job she had a purple neon underbody glow kit, purple headlight glows, black lights in the back window and on the front dash as well as in the truck with the stereo. She had custom Altec tail lights with purple LED's lighting them up as well. She had purple neon under the front seats and it was rigged to spit fire out the tailpipe when she was ready to race. She had a system that almost snorted steam out the front tire wells. She knew that no one would recognize the car now from what it had looked like before.
They opened up the doors and stepped out of the car. Gasps were heard as people realized who this was. The murmuring was a steady hum as people gossiped about what it meant that Kat and crew were back on the scene. There was one guy that rolled with many different groups of racers. His name was Edwin, and he remembered Kat from before. He was the guy that organized the races around here. He normally didn't race down here. But someone else might have to hold the money tonight cause if Kat was racing he'd be tempted. He walked up to Kat and her team as she stood up out of the drivers seat of her car and put her hands on her hips, her mouth open a little in thought and her little pink tongue running over the top right of her lips in thought.
The familiar sights had assaulted her senses right away. The throbbing bass of 50 different songs. It was mostly rap in this 'hood. The scantily clad women and the bling on the necks and hands of the guys. The brightly colored cars, so shiny. Many of the paint jobs on these cars were worth more then the average car on the road. And all the different colors of aftermarket lighting, blinking and flashing. The smell of exhaust, race cars had this distinctive exhaust, still so full of gas that it smelled like exhaust and high octane, burnt rubber, NOS, and people. Being here to Kat was like being at a carnival to a child, all the sights and sounds and lights. Then she noticed Edwin.
"Edwin, my man, what's up?" She asked him and they hit their closed fists like old times.
"Was shaping up to be an ordinary night till you all rolled up. Now things are looken up. You racen'?"
"Of course, you see this car?" She answered. In the middle of this crowd, of this scene, her old attitude returned. She was in her element, and this was her life. She ate, slept and lived racing. Nothing else mattered. Not now, not here. Racing was life, it was oxygen. The streets home, this whole crowd family for tonight, her car merely an extension of her own body, her blood like gasoline and NOS. Her nail polish and makeup like her car's paint, it wasn't part of who she really was, it was all part of the show.
Chapter 10 - Welcoming Kat home
Where you racin tonight? I never heard of races tonight." He asked her.
"I'm racing in my neck of the woods tonight. Just small time but I haven't raced since my wreck." She looked down at her indiglow gages rather then look up at this man, that made her feel so odd.
"You're nervous?" Leon asked incredulously. Leon couldn't believe the girl who owned the attitude was nervous about anything. "You don't seem like the type to be nervous to me; you seem like a fly by the seat of your pants, never say never kinda girl."
*You don't know the half of it* she thought and then said, "You got me, but, well, I should be dead. This is what the car looked like after my wreck." She pulled a picture of the car out of the glove box. The hood was crumpled, the roof was collapsed. The windshield was shattered out, as was the driver's window. It was bad. Most cars woulda been a write off but not a car worth as much as a GT-R Skyline. "I walked away and the guys called me miracle Kitten for weeks after."
"I can see why. This is bad." That sounded too mild for what the picture was of. You saw them talk about fatalities on the news and the cars didn't look as smashed. Leon was in shock that she had walked away from this wreck. Less had killed people before. "So you haven't raced since?"
"Haven't had a car to race since. This is it, my only race car. I wish I had two but I don't." She gave him a cheesy smile, like she knew he knew she only had one car, and knew it was a stupid question.
"Ok smarty, how do you know you're ready? You could be out of practice if you haven't raced in months." He regretted saying it as soon as it left his mouth and he saw her face fall. Brian kicked him in the shin where Kat couldn't see for the stupid statement. Leon looked at Brian like he got the point. "Of course, you'll do fine. I can tell you're too stubborn to lose."
"Well I hope so. Hitting a telephone pole at 120 wasn't fun." She looked at her TV screen, watched the graph move as the mix changed. "I don't feel ready." She said in a small voice. She glanced at him then and Leon was sorry he brought it up.
"Well, I could go somewhere with you and race you for," What could they race for? He wanted to say a date, or a kiss, but he held that back and said, "say, the loser washes and waxes the winners car for a month, once a week. You know, just to see if your gonna be aight." He didn't know why he wanted to help this girl. It could have something to do with the fact she reminded him of Jesse, and that she was so tough and icy, but with vulnerability and fire under the surface. He wondered why she put on the act.
"Ok cowboy, you're on. I hope you like washing cars in August, cause that's went mine can be waxed." She winked at him. She'd never been able to back down from a challenge. Even as a little kid any time anyone had challenged her to anything she'd obliged them. Even stupid stuff, stuff that wasn't even a contest. In school she'd always had to be the first one done of tests and stuff. That attitude had adapted to racing very easily. She continued. "Where can we do this?" She was going to ask Brian to race her anyway and Leon's car was a better match for hers. She would feel better if she had driven at high speeds before the race that night.
"There's a little track not far from here, Brian knows the way. I'll meet you guys there." Leon walked over to his car and watched them pull away, Brian giving Kat directions. Dom had listened to the whole exchange.
"Don't tell me you really are falling for her Leon. Please. I don't want her around." Dom groaned out.
"I'm not falling for her man, did you hear her? She was scared. That girl ain't scared a'nothin', but she's terrified of racing her car. I heard 'bout her before her accident and she was hot, she was on her way up. Now she's scared of her car. You two don't get along cause your too damn much alike." Leon shook his head. Plus he was intrigued by her. He still knew he knew her from somewhere. "Member how hard it was for you to race that stretch a'road after you rolled the charger?"
Dom grunted non-committaly. But he did remember. "Ok, so maybe she needs the confidence booster of racing someone without having a bad wreck, but you sure that's all this is about? You can't just screw this one and walk away Leon. Her friends'll be around here and that'll be the end of ya. We couldn't even defend you or the whole Tiger gang would be down here shooting the place up."
"I know she ain't a race skank Dawg."
"Ok, then go ahead and go play race cars with the little chick."
"She doesn't play at anything Dawg, I'd say that's half her problem. She sure as hell doesn't play at racing in that car. I'd say she takes racing pretty seriously. But see ya." Leon got into his car and headed for the little track.
He knew that with the help of Jesse his car was super fast, he hoped that that, coupled with the fact that he had way more experience would give him the edge. He hated to lose and he didn't care for washing cars either. The he realized he had made a fatal error in this bet. He had to let her win. It wasn't very confidence inspiring to have your ass handed to you. Damn it. He didn't even really like her and now he was gonna be washing and waxing her car once a week for the whole month of August.
Kat pulled into the track and stopped the car. "It was nice of Leon to offer to do this wasn't it Brian?"
"Yeah, it was, but he's a nice guy. You want me to ride with you or wait on the side?"
"Better wait on the side, after all, I gotta do it alone tonight, plus the car doesn't need to haul your extra weight around."
"Ok. There he is, let's do this." Brian got out of the car and walked over to the benches. Leon lined up beside Kat and rolled down his window. She did the same.
"You ready?" Leon asked. He was so not looking forward to waxing her car. He hoped she wouldn't be able to tell he let her win.
"I'm ready. Let's do this. Who's gonna call the start?" Leon shrugged. She looked at Brian. "Hey Brian, come start us off."
Brian walked over and stood just in front of them and in the middle. He got both their attention and they revved their cars. Brian dropped his arms and they both took off.
Leon got an early lead, he did better off the line then Kat. But she caught him quickly. He got ahead of her again and she caught him. This went on up and up and before she knew it the finish line was looming. She realized that she was going 110. She panicked for a second, but she realized that she had to do this, get past this feeling if she was going to win ever again, she took a deep breathe then floored it and shifted up. She zoomed past Leon and over the line a hair ahead of him.
"Whoooo." She screamed. She won. But she coulda gone faster. She hadn't pushed it. But she could've. Right? Sure she could've. She just hadn't needed to. And the fact that she was never this shaky after a race didn't mean anything. She had herself almost convinced she was fine, that she wasn't kidding herself. She knew in her heart that she had been too terrified to go faster. She had only hit 120 and that didn't win races, well it might in her 'hood, but not where the big boys raced. She knew if Leon was really racing her he would have walked away with this one because she didn't really push it, but she didn't really get the feeling he'd let her win either.
Leon was impressed, he had seen her panic and had figured she was gonna lose it and spin out, but she floored it and won. He almost hadn't thrown the race. She had caught him unaware with that sudden burst of speed. He'd been sort of pacing her and then she'd shot forward out of no where. He stopped the car right beside hers and got out. He walked up to her car and opened the door. She got out and walked over to him.
She was laughing out "I did it. I did it." He laughed at her happiness.
"I guess you did. See that wasn't so bad was it?" Leon grinned down at her. When she was happy it was hard not to be happy with her.
"Not bad at all, and you owe me a month of car washes." She smirked up and him. And he did the stupidest thing of his adult life. He gave into the urge and kissed her, hard. And she responded to his kiss like he only could have hoped. She was at least physically into him too. They both broke apart and looked at each other. Man, and they said he was the level headed one on the team. Vince was supposed to be the impulsive one.
"Um, that shouldn't have happened." They both said at the same time and laughed at each other.
"Well, now that we got that out of the way, I guess you should get back to Dom, and Brian and I should have been back at the store half an hour ago." She was sure she was beet red, but hey, Leon wasn't doing too much better.
"Ok, you did good. You'll do fine." Leon climbed back into his car and shook his head at his foolishness. After he promised Dom he wasn't going to get involved with her he kisses her. What was he thinking? Well he was thinking with the wrong part of his anatomy.
Kat drove back to the waiting Brian and they headed back to work. Leon went back to the garage and took some good natured ribbing that the girl had beaten him and he owed her one month of washes for her car. Letty looked at him like she knew the score but Dom just laughed his ass off at Leon's misfortune, till he realized that this meant that Kat would be around once a week for a month, then he stalked off to his office.
"So her car worked ok?" Jesse asked. He loved to know when his tuning helped.
"She beat me didn't she?" Leon said with a sigh. He hated washing cars. He normally got his hand washed somewhere when it needed to be done. Jesse figured the sigh was over the fact that Leon got beaten by a girl and grinned at his brother. Guys hated it when chicks beat them. Jesse included.
"I wanna go watch her race." Letty wanted to see what the girl was really made of. Whenever a new girl was introduced to the group Letty got paranoid about her being around only to go after Dom. And while Mia had assured her that Kat didn't even seem to like Dom that much Letty didn't trust either of them. Dom tended to forget himself in the thrill of the conquest and girls normally fell over themselves to get to him. But if the girl really was a good racer then that would sort of make it better because then Letty would know the girl was around the scene cause she really had to be to race.
"No way girl. Dream on. She's not racing with our crowd and there's no way we're going down around her place just to watch races. That's where I was robbed, at gunpoint, remember? The yet unsolved crime." No way was Leon going back down there ever again, not even to see Kat race.
"I guess." Letty said, she was one tough bitch and nothing scared her. But she didn't know what it was like in Kat's neighbourhood. They had no call to be down there and if Letty tried to go Leon was telling Dom. She'd have to wait till Kat started to race in their crowd if she wanted to see the girl race. Leon had no doubt that Kat would be on their scene soon. After all their races were where the best raced and that's the scene she wanted to conquer.
"Letty, if I even think you're goin down there I'm tellen' Dom. Got it?"
"Ok Leon, damn it, I'll stay home." She went back to the civic she was working on and Leon finished the Acura. He couldn't get Kat out of his head. She was so intriguing to him. She was so innocent but not, and there was still the matter of where he knew her from. He was going to figure that mystery out if it killed him. There was the little matter of Dom not wanting her around, but Leon could start to get to know her without Dom knowing if he was careful about how he did it. This was all assuming that the girl would even allow him close enough to get to know her better. She was so touchy and Leon had this feeling she didn't want him around any more then Dom wanted her around. The whole situation was very suspicious.
Brian and Kat took themselves back to the store and made her display. Both Brian and Harry were impressed with her artistic vision for the Evo display, some people that didn't even own Evos where likely going to see what she had done and go buy one. That took the rest of the afternoon though and when it was done she went home. Brian and Harry wished her luck on her way out the door and she gave them a tight smile.
She tried to eat with the guys but she was too nervous to eat. She left the guys to finish up and went pick an outfit to wear. She knew that if she looked anything less then fabulous people wouldn't take her return seriously. She wanted the three grand this was worth more then anything. She picked out a pair of denim low rise flair pants that didn't have a waistband and a shirt that was like a halter top on the top half but had a V on the bottom, leaving her tummy and navel ring to show. Then she picked out her boots with the three inch flat sole for driving and decided that'd be fine. If she won tonight they had enough for a down payment on a house and they could start looking for a new place. That was very important to Kat.
It was only about 9pm and races weren't till 12. What was she going to do till then? She was going out of her mind thinking about all the whatifs that were running through her mind. What if she crashed, what if she choked, what if she just plain lost? What if she was never as good as she thought? Well she knew she had been good, but that was months ago and it felt like it had been another time. Things had changed. She'd changed. What if she'd grown up and lost her edge? Back then she'd never had a worry in her head, never had any responsibility. All she did was party and race. And blow the money on whatever she wanted. Now she needed it and she felt every one of her 19 years and then some. Well lots of people way older then her raced and were good at it. She'd just have to try to race for the fun of it even though they needed the money, then she'd be fine.
She decided to take a nice long bath and read. Then she'd do her hair. That'd take her an hour and a half or so. She filled the tub with hot water and bubbles. Her secret girly addiction. She loved bubble bath. She sat back in the bath and started to read. She figured there was no use worrying about it, she'd have to go, and try her best. If she failed, for whatever reason, at least she'd know she did her best. She beat Leon after all. She knew he'd gone easy on her, after all they hadn't even used NOS, but with her, that element of surprise was often what helped her take the lead in races. She got into her book.
The guys were all sitting around in the living room, worrying almost as much as Kat. She had looked scared earlier and they hoped she wasn't going to flip out and not be able to race. But it was surely normal for her to be a little nervous about racing for the first time in months. But it just wasn't like her to be scared of racing. She use to live for it. None of them had ever had a bad wreck so they didn't really know what she was feeling now that she had to start all over again. They could hear her splashing around in the bathroom as she washed her hair. Hopefully she'd be more relaxed and ready to go when she was done.
She got out of the bathtub and dried off. Then she did her hair. It took forever to blow dry because of how long and thick it was. When she had it dry it was straight and smooth. It was also now down to her butt. She figured it was time to get it cut. It was a pain in the ass. It never looked this long when it was all crimpy. She started to do her makeup. She put on silver eye shadow then black eyeliner. She added berry lip gloss and she was ready. She didn't require any more makeup then that. She looked at herself in the mirror. It was the same face staring back at her. The same girl she'd always been. She looked outwardly just as cocky, just as assertive. But inside she was that 15 year old girl who ran from the terrible fate that had been planned for her with tears in her eyes.
She put her hands on her hips and started to talk to herself, she figured she could use the pep talk.
"Now, suck it up girl. You ran across the country in a stolen car. You lived in this neighbourhood for 4 years and thrived. You kicked all the ass there was to kick when you raced before. And that was only 6 months ago not years ago. You went to public schools in south central LA and lived to tell about it. You take care of three guys. You don't take shit from anyone. You can do this. You beat someone driving another skyline. You are good. You are the best. And you will do this and you will be just fine. You will get this money and you will all get to move to a better place. It will all work out." She nodded at herself. It worked. Reminding herself of her roots and what she was capable of had calmed her down and she was ready. She walked into the living room. The guys could sense the change in her demeanor.
"I'm ready. Let's go." She said.
"Aight girl, lets go." Sean answered.
"But I was thinking, the Skyline seats 4 now and I think we should all take it. I don't think your car could get away from the cops on the off chance any show up. We know we can get away in the Skyline." She didn't want the guys to get caught by the cops in Sean's slow ass car.
"Good idea." Stacy added, he didn't want to get caught.
They all piled into Sean's car for the ride to Stacy's to pick up the car. They got it out and climbed in and headed back their way to meet the other racers. They pulled in and got a parking spot. The windows were all tinted out black as sin and the car was quickly surrounded while all the regulars tried to figure out who the fresh meat was. The engine was cut and everyone looked at the picture the car made. In addition to her custom paint job she had a purple neon underbody glow kit, purple headlight glows, black lights in the back window and on the front dash as well as in the truck with the stereo. She had custom Altec tail lights with purple LED's lighting them up as well. She had purple neon under the front seats and it was rigged to spit fire out the tailpipe when she was ready to race. She had a system that almost snorted steam out the front tire wells. She knew that no one would recognize the car now from what it had looked like before.
They opened up the doors and stepped out of the car. Gasps were heard as people realized who this was. The murmuring was a steady hum as people gossiped about what it meant that Kat and crew were back on the scene. There was one guy that rolled with many different groups of racers. His name was Edwin, and he remembered Kat from before. He was the guy that organized the races around here. He normally didn't race down here. But someone else might have to hold the money tonight cause if Kat was racing he'd be tempted. He walked up to Kat and her team as she stood up out of the drivers seat of her car and put her hands on her hips, her mouth open a little in thought and her little pink tongue running over the top right of her lips in thought.
The familiar sights had assaulted her senses right away. The throbbing bass of 50 different songs. It was mostly rap in this 'hood. The scantily clad women and the bling on the necks and hands of the guys. The brightly colored cars, so shiny. Many of the paint jobs on these cars were worth more then the average car on the road. And all the different colors of aftermarket lighting, blinking and flashing. The smell of exhaust, race cars had this distinctive exhaust, still so full of gas that it smelled like exhaust and high octane, burnt rubber, NOS, and people. Being here to Kat was like being at a carnival to a child, all the sights and sounds and lights. Then she noticed Edwin.
"Edwin, my man, what's up?" She asked him and they hit their closed fists like old times.
"Was shaping up to be an ordinary night till you all rolled up. Now things are looken up. You racen'?"
"Of course, you see this car?" She answered. In the middle of this crowd, of this scene, her old attitude returned. She was in her element, and this was her life. She ate, slept and lived racing. Nothing else mattered. Not now, not here. Racing was life, it was oxygen. The streets home, this whole crowd family for tonight, her car merely an extension of her own body, her blood like gasoline and NOS. Her nail polish and makeup like her car's paint, it wasn't part of who she really was, it was all part of the show.