AN: I'm sorry that this is increadably long. I wanted to start to get to
the real story and away from the set up stuff. This has lots of action and
even a fight! Read it and let me know what you think. I mean lots of new
story is a good thing right? Right! Enjoy.
Chapter 12 - Running her Mouth
Kat threw the wheel and the car sort of floated to a position 45 degrees different then that she had going forward. Her car made a terrible squeal and the rear tires smoked like they were on fire but did just what she had hoped. It drifted around the corner in a wide arc. It was pure beauty to a car enthusiast. Like automobile ballet. Her arc went too wide at the last second and she hit the curb.
It was a jarring jolt to her sense and she was momentarily thrown. She cut the wheel and righted herself, but in doing so she had to slow down a little. It didn't matter because the arrogant ass that had been so sure of himself had slowed down and taken the corner in the normal fashion, he likely hadn't expected her to do it like she had and that had cost him almost a whole second plus all the time he was going to have to spend to reaccelerate.
Tran was in shock. How had she managed to do that at 130 with the controls her car had governing the stability? It shouldn't have been possible. He would have a great deal of trouble catching her now, she was two full car lengths ahead of him and gaining. He downshifted and the engine growled. He floored it again and gave it the second shot of NOS. He was gaining on her, but he doubted it would be enough to catch her. However he wasn't giving up yet.
Kat looked in her rearview and saw the silver car flying at her like a bullet, but she didn't figure he could catch her now. Even still she kept accelerating. She hit her 6th gear. She could see the finish line.
Tran was almost to her bumper but his car was paying the price. He'd had to run 4th gear to past the redline and 5th was almost to the upper limit of what he could ask it to do. But he was moving up on her.
This guy was a worthy competitor she thought. He was almost in her blind spot again and she'd had a big lead on him. The finish line was right there. She checked quickly and hit her second NOS. She flew away from him. She figured that was that, so she was quite surprised to see him still coming up on her.
Tran wasn't giving up. He had an idea but it could cook his engine. He figured if he didn't do something he was giving his car away so why be cautious. He pressed and held both NOS buttons on his wheel down and this caused the NOS to continuously dump into the engine, not just in a quick burst but in a steady flow, the car growled in protest, the engine was set up for a NOS shot, not a steady burn, but it continued to close on the girl. He couldn't see the small tail of flame shooting out of his muffler. The crowd along the route cheered.
Kat didn't know how the hell he was doing this, he should be falling back. He was well into the upper limits of his 5th gear and had used both shots of his NOS. Unless his car had some sort of way to use more then two shots of NOS. Well she was still a few thousand rpm away from hitting her redline so she floored it. The Skyline gave a battle roar as the powerful engine stepped it up and gave her 100%. She felt the front tires lift off the ground a bit due to the sheer amount of torque.
She flew over the finish line half a car ahead of the man in the Eclipse. She got slowed down some and then she locked up the breaks in such way that the car spun a 360 and she drove back to the finish line where everyone was waiting. She got out of the car and the guys had her in a three way bear hug in seconds. She laughed and accepted congratulations.
The Tran in the Eclipse was busy berating himself over underestimating his opponent. He really should have known better then to bet his car. It was no big loss to him, not like he had told them. He had many cars and this was one of his least favorites. He headed back to the finish. The girl was in the center of a big crowd but when they saw him the parted as if by magic to make a walkway for him.
"Hey, great race Man. You really made me work for it." Kat told the stranger in a voice that was still breathy from the rush of the race.
"Well, I seriously underestimated your racing skill, and now I am paying for it. You are one crazy girl to take that corner the way you did." Kat just smiled. "How did you do that? With the Skyline R34 it should have been impossible to cause the car to do that."
"It should have been but not when the person who builds the car builds in an off switch for the traction controls and is also a big fan of drifting."
"Ah, you disabled the traction system to allow this move to happen. I did underestimate you and your car. You were most worthy and the better racer won." He handed her his keys.
Kat felt bad for the man. He'd lost his car, but he had so much dignity and he wasn't trying to make up excuses for why he lost. He'd underestimated her and the better racer had won. This man wasn't trying to hide that fact. She told him she appreciated that but that unless he could come up with 10,000 bucks to make it up to her she was still taking his car. She thought considering what the car would sell for that was more then fair.
"Let me ask you, what is your name?" The guy asked her.
"Kat." She held out her hand. "And you are?"
"Ricky. Ricky Tran."
Edwin overheard this and inwardly groaned. Johnny's little brother.
"Well Ricky, do you wanna come up wit the money, or am I taken your car?"
"You may have the car, not to sound stuck up but this is not even my best or favorite car so while it will be missed it is not the end of my world. You deserve to have the wind in your hair for that deserving performance."
"Well thank you Ricky." She shook hands with him and tossed the keys of the new car to Stacy. "You can drive that to your mom's. We'll leave it there for tonight." Stacy nodded.
The whole crew drove back to the parking lot and hung out till 3am. Then they went home. Kat was glad she didn't work till one. She never did pick up those other hours from Brian, but she figured that this café was the one that his friend Dom owned and she really didn't want to work for Dom anyway. She'd had a little too much to drink and so had all the guys but Stacy, who had to drive. One thing they wouldn't do was drive drunk, ever. She hadn't partied in a long time.
She got up to the alarm the next day and all the guys were still asleep. She was the only one who had to work on Saturday. She threw on a tee shirt and a leather skirt. She put on the bare essential makeup and then her knee high boots. Ug her head hurt, she shoulda known better. But she always said that when she was hung over. It never stopped her next time. She grabbed a sweater and headed to the bus. She took the bus to the stop closest to mama's and then decided to take the spyder to work. She'd show Brian and Harry and ask them if they knew of anyone looking for a car like it. She'd have to sell it before she got attached to it. She didn't need two race cars and the skyline was the better car. But that didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy having the top down on a bright sunny day while she owned it.
She walked into the store and grinned at the two guys. They grinned back at her. She was wearing a black skirt and a baby tee. Brian looked closer and saw her tee shirt said 'Co-ed naked racing, turn 'em on, ride 'em hard, leave 'em hot.'. He laughed at that, seemed so, well, Kat. "'Mornin' Guys. How ya doin'?"
"Wow, someone's in a better mood now then when she left here last night." Harry was glad, this was the Kitten he had come to know.
"Yeah, come see why." She said and motioned them over to the door. They walked over and looked into the front line of parking spots.
"Where's your car?" Brian asked. "I know nothing happened to it. You're in too good of a mood."
"No nothing happened to it. That's my car too now." She pointed at the Eclipse.
"No shit? You won a car last night?" Harry was in shock.
"Yeah. I had planned on entering this little 1 g race, but then I pulled up and it was just like old times. Edwin started callen' me kid again and I knew if I didn't give him a main event that everyone would just go around sayin' I was scared and washed up. I couldn't have that so I let him set up a 4 g race. Then this guy said he didn't have the money but he wanted in so he would put up the slip to his car. We raced, he almost had me but I won in the end. It was quite a race, he was the biggest challenge I ever had down there."
"Oh yeah? What was his name, do you know?" Brian asked.
"Ya, his name was Ricky Tran."
"Great. Just super." Brian was visibly upset.
"What's wrong with that?" Kat wanted to know.
"Well there was some shit that went down with Dom and the team about a year ago and Johnny Tran tried to kill Jesse. I had to pursue him and he wouldn't give himself up, he and his cousin Lance led me on a high speed chase and I shot Johnny Tran dead because he wouldn't stop running. So our team and the remaining Trans have a feud. But you're not part of Dom's team so that shouldn't effect you." Brian finished with a sigh, one more reason Dom wouldn't want her around.
"That does suck, but I'm not gonna marry the guy, I just took his car when he lost. And you're right anyway, I just work with you, our teams don't have anything in common." She nodded to show she considered the conversation closed. She was very stubborn about stuff like this, so once she had the situation pigeonholed that was that in her mind.
"Well, this is gonna be a busy day so we should get back inside." Harry stated and then held the door open for them both to proceed him into the store.
The day was busy and seemed to fly by. 6 came it seemed before she knew it. She went to head out and Brian stopped her.
"Hey, Leon and Jesse wanted to know how you did. Why don't you drive me home so I don't have to take the truck home and show them how you did?"
"I don't know Brian. I get this feeling that your buddy Dom would rather I didn't come around your place, and to tell you the truth the less I see of Dom the better as far as I'm concerned." She grimaced.
"Well, you don't have to talk to Dom, just Leon and maybe Jesse. He wanted to know how the car worked for you too, and obviously it worked good." Brian couldn't explain why he wanted her to come by the store, other then he knew Leon was wanting to see more of her.
Kat was wanting to see Leon too but she didn't want to get attached to a guy she couldn't have in her life. But she figured she owed it to both Leon for helping her get over her fear and Jesse for tuning her car to go show them what she won. Maybe Jesse would look it over for her and see if that NOS burn screwed anything up. She agreed to drive Brian to his friend's garage.
It was another bright and sunny hot California day so they left the top down and drove to DT Performance Automotive. Brian felt like Dom must have all those times they went out together in the Supra with Brian driving. Kat was driving him nuts, doing stuff that he didn't think she should do, like cutting people off, driving double the posted limit in some cases, and doing trick driving stunts the whole way there. When they got there she pulled a brody into a parking spot. She was dead on and ended up in just the right spot but Brian nearly freaked.
"I'm never asken' you for a drive again dude, you're nuts." Brian was kinda pale.
"I'm not nuts. What're ya talken' about? I can show you nuts but that wasn't it." Kat laughed.
"No thanks. That was nuts enough for me anyway. You drive crazy."
"Sissy." She hissed through her teeth and then laughed at him. They started for the garage door engrossed in their conversation about where in the Hell Kat learned to drive like that.
"What the hell was that?" A deep voice asked from the doorway. Dom had a fierce scowl on his face. "You trying to kill my sister's boyfriend or wreck my store?"
"No, just trying to park my car." She gave Brian a look like he was a traitor for telling her Dom shouldn't be around but yet here he was. Brain shrugged. Dom caught the exchange and for some reason it pissed him off she didn't like him. What had he ever done?
"Can't you parallel park like normal people? You coulda spun out into one of these other cars or right into the building."
"Yeah, but I didn't. I know what I'm doing. 'Bout the only thing I do really well is drive, and I know what I'm doing."
"There was no need of that stunt. You're a show off." Dom couldn't believe the girl would take crazy risks like that with someone else in her car and around other people's property.
"Maybe I am. What's it to you? It's my car, my life, and I was in total control at all times. Get over it. What are you, jealous you can't move a car like that? King of the streets but he can only move his car fast in a strait line? I also drifted my Skyline around a corner at 130 with no traction control on it and won that car. And know what? If I'da been racing you that night I woulda taken your car too, cause I'm the whole package and you can drive too fast in a straight line." Kat hated Dominic Torreto for his arrogance of presuming to tell her how to drive her own car. She figured he wanted to strangle her for that remark. She wasn't far off. He was starting toward her with menace in his steps. Brian pulled her back when she would have gone toe to toe with him and Dom musta took the hint that he was looking murderous. He stopped and asked,
"Whatever, is there some reason why you came down here?" Dom could run his car faster then anyone in a straight line, he never learned trick driving. So she was right. He wasn't really jealous, he just wished he could do that sort of thing all of a sudden and it pissed him off. It wasn't like he couldn't learn if he wanted to, he had just never seen the point. Kat was about to start talking game to Dom for his remarks when Brian broke in.
"Dom, Dude, do you have manners? She drove me down because Harry needs his truck and I had no other way. I wanted her to show Jesse her new ride. Bro you need to chill out. Both of you." Brain was appalled at Dom's lack of manners. Dom just gave Brian one of those looks and walked back into the garage. "Never mind him Kat, he takes bad moods sometimes and he's not fit to be around."
"Well Brian, I told you he didn't want me around and personally, the feelings mutual. I don't care for him much either. But I did want to show Jesse the new car so lets do that. Man, that guy thinks he's god's gift to both racin' and women doesn't he?" Brian nodded yes then realized what he just said about his friend. He shook his head no at his own stupidity and then they walked up to the garage while Kat laughed at Brian for confirming what she had already figured out about Dom.
"So you like Jesse don't you?" Brian asked her on the way up the walk.
"What's not to like? He's a good kid."
"So you don't like him like him? Not if you think he's a kid."
"No, not like that. I don't like anyone like that at this point in my life. I just have so much goin' on you know?" She looked a little too concerned that he buy that line of bull she'd just tossed him.
"There's no one? Not even perhaps a certain owner of a yellow Skyline?"
"BRRRIIIIIIAAAAANNNN." She drawled out. "Stop it. Why are you teasing me?" She was a very pretty shade of pink.
"I think I do it cause it's fun to make you turn red. That and I think there's more then you're letting on to how you feel about this green eyed friend of mine."
"Brian stop, please." She looked at him earnestly and Brian doubted for a minute if she was into Leon. But then he saw that she was an ever increasing shade of red.
"Ok, but you'll have to do better then this to convince me you don't like him."
"Like who?" She looked like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"You know who." Brian turned to Jesse. "Look who I brought to say hello." Jesse turned around.
"Kat! Good to see you. How'd your race go?" Jesse asked her. He was so exuberant. Like a puppy, all cute and into everything with about a 3 minute attention span for anything but his favorite thing, cars.
"The car worked great Jesse." She answered, reading that he cared more about the car's performance then if she won or lost. "Wanna see what I won?"
"You mean you won more then huge amounts of cash?" Jesse asked her. Leon heard the strange female voice and slid out from under the ford he'd been working on. They worked on all sorts of cars but Leon hated working on anything domestic. He realized it was Kat. That was why Dom had stormed back into the garage and slammed the office door. Leon wondered how her race had gone.
Kat hadn't seen him under there and now he was walking up behind her. "So, Kat, how'd the race go?"
Oh man, she loved his voice, he must be right behind her. She closed her eyes for a minute to compose herself then answered him. "Well I was just about to show Jesse how it went actually. You can come see too if you want."
"You need to show us?" Leon thought that could either be a good thing or a bad thing. Either she wrecked her car again, or she won something she had to show them. She nodded yes to his question.
"Let's go, the suspense is fucken' killen' me." Jesse said and headed for the door. He got out front of the building before any of them. "No shit." They heard him exclaim. Now Leon was even more curious. They rounded the corner of the garage.
"He's not kidden'. No shit. You won a car." Leon couldn't believe that. He'd expected her to lose honestly. She'd panicked racing him but she somehow managed to win a car. That didn't quite add up.
She must have been able to read that in his expression cause she answered him, "Yeah, I think I owe most of that to you. I have this feeling you let me win, but even so, that's what gave me the confidence to get out there. That and when the scene hit me again I was right back to it." "Naw Dawg, I didn't let you win. I planned on it but you caught me with that burst of speed and won all on your own. So how'd you win a car?"
"Well, I was gonna enter this small time race to get back into the life, ya know? But then, soon as we roll up Edwin's all over us, wantin' to set me up in some sort of main event. So I ended up racing for a 4 g buy in. Some guy wanted in but he didn't have the cash so he put up his keys and I won. I had to disable the traction system in the Skyline mid race. It was wild. I almost crashed into a warehouse." She laughed, remembering that run. It had been wild.
"Wow, that sounds like quite a rush." Jesse had listened to the story with rapt attention.
"It was. Hey Jesse, wanna take this car for a spin? The last owner did some crazy thing with his NOS and I wanna know if you think it's runnin' ok. Seems ok to me but you know better then I do." She held out the keys with a smile and they were snatched from her hand as Jesse hopped in the car. "Do you wanna go with him?" She turned to Leon and asked.
"Naw, I'll wait for him to get back here with you. It could be awhile. You just gave him keys to a convertible and told him it might need work. We may never see him again." Leon laughed and she joined him. "Say, Dom's café is just down the street, wanna go get a drink?"
"Sure." What was she thinking? It was just a drink but still.
"Well, let's take my car down since you gave yours away for the next oh, hour or so."
"You think he'll be gone that long?" Leon nodded. "Well, sure thing, lets take your car."
Leon told Dom and Brian what he was doing and they got into his car and headed to Torreto's.
Kat felt like such a moron. Now she was going on dates with the guy? Even if it was just for a lousy soft drink at a café. God damn it she didn't even like him. Something in her mind told her to keep repeating that and it might come true someday. She was very attracted to him, sure, but that didn't mean she liked him, liked him right?
Leon was having similar feelings about asking Kat out, even if it was just to run to the store for a drink. He knew he didn't like her as much as he was attracted to her physically. He wondered what she thought of his car.
"So what do you think of my car? It's only a 94, but still, what do you think?"
"It's cool. I really like the graphics you have on it. Doesn't sound like there's much stock left under the hood either. By the way it sounds you tore the whole car apart and not much under the hood is still Nissan."
"You caught me, but yours is the same way."
She laughed. "You got that right." They got into a very deep discussion about R32 and 33 skylines vs. the R34. They were talking in very animated tones. Leon loved the way Kat talked with her hands, her whole body really. She couldn't sit still while she talked about Skylines.
They pulled up to the café and climbed out. They walked in the open storefront and sat down at the counter, still talking cars the whole way. Leon looked over and saw Vince sitting there talking to Mia. 'Just great.' He though, like he hadn't already taken enough ribbing about Kat, this wasn't gonna help.
"Hey guys!" Mia exclaimed. She was always in a good mood, Kat thought. Mia had to be the most cheerful person ever.
"Hey Mia." Leon said and smiled. It was hard to stay upset around Mia.
"What can I get you?" Mia said with a smile. She was both glad to see Leon and Kat together and glad to have a buffer against Vince, who was bothering her again. He'd gotten a lot better since Brian had saved the team but he was still a pain. It was too bad the big idiot screwed up what he had with his girlfriend. For a while there he was so into her Mia had figured there would be little Vinces running around the place in no time. Then he had to go and cheat on her, and get caught no less, and the girl had up and left. She'd left Vince a couple times during their relationship but she'd always come back once she'd cooled down and he'd always told her he was sorry. But this time she'd left and never came back. And Vince wouldn't talk about it. He just wouldn't talk about it. They all imagined what had happened but Vince wouldn't confirm it or deny it. He wouldn't even go after her and find her. But it wasn't Mia's business. But she wished Vince would meet someone and leave her alone.
"I'd like a Pepsi please." Kat asked, and Mia got it for her and Leon had the same, even though he wanted a Corona. He didn't want to drink in front of her while she had a Pepsi for some reason. "So, what brings you guys down here?" Vince asked with a smirk. He knew his friend liked the blonde chick, and this was like vindication for all the times they laughed at him for being hung up on Mia. For mooning over.he wasn't goin' there. Except that her being here meant she liked Leon too which dumped him right back into the only one pining after a girl who didn't like him back club.
"Well, Kat won a car last night and she let Jesse take it for a drive, so I figured we had time to kill." Leon said with a grin.
"No kidden'. You let him take someone else's car for a drive? What kinda car is it?"
"An Eclipse Spyder." Kat answered.
"You let him take someone else's convertible for a drive. We may never see him again." Vince stated.
"That's exactly what Leon said. I'm beginning to get really worried." Kat giggled.
"He'll be back, sometime." Mia said with a laugh, "Just not any time soon." Mia sat down at the counter with them. Mia read Kat's shirt out loud "Co-ed Naked Racing, turn 'em on, ride 'em hard, leave 'em hot." It took a second for the double meaning to set it then Mia blushed. "That's an interesting slogan."
Vince had to come read it for himself, he didn't believe the girl would really have a shirt that said that on it. He came over and read the shirt and laughed. "That is quite the slogan. I wouldn't mind showing you how to act it out."
"In your dreams cowboy." They all laughed, Kat figured he might be serious but Leon and Mia knew that Vince was still pretending to be into Mia, who was a stand in for his Ex, too much to be serious about other girls.
"You're breaken' my heart." Vince played along.
"It's too fragile then. It was too easy to break." Kat laughed and then took a big swig of Pepsi. "Plus, I'm a heart breaker by nature, so you're better off to find out now not later." She smiled.
"So our Leon needs to watch his back and his heart around you then does he?" Mia asked coyly.
"Naw, he's safe from me." Kat said, serious for a minute, "I'm not out to make the kind of friends that would put anyone's heart in danger, I'm just out to race my car and improve my life. So his heart's safe." She smiled at the group in general.
They finished their drinks and headed out to the car. Leon was relieved to hear that she wasn't after his heart. He wasn't sure if he was ready to give it, least of all to this girl, with her cocky attitude and car that might, and he stressed might, even to himself, be better then his.
He could never date a girl seriously if she could drive faster then he could. His manliness couldn't take it.
"I hope your friends didn't creep you out. I'm not after you like they all seem to imply." She grinned impishly. "And if I was you wouldn't have a chance."
Leon grinned back, he couldn't help it. "Naw, they didn't creep me out. Vince just wishes I would fall for you, but you wouldn't fall for me so that he wouldn't have to be the only one in love with a girl who's not in love with him."
"He's in love with Brian's girl Mia?"
"How'd ya guess?" Leon asked with a grimace. "She's been with Brian a long time now and they been through a lot, but Vince has been after her since she was 16, and they were all still in high school."
"That sucks. And she was never into him? I mean, he's not ugly."
"Is that a compliment? He's not ugly! I don't think that's very complimentary. Most guys aren't ugly. Besides Dom would never have let 'em hook up. Him and V have been best friends since third grade. Dom would never have allowed it to happen, but Mia was never into V like that."
"Well, like I said, he's not ugly, would it be better if I said he's not hard on the eyes? I don't imagine he goes around saying I'm the next Miss America either. I don't see him winnin' any Mr. Universe contests but she could do worse you know?"
"I get it, it was just the way you said that, he's not ugly, like he's not cute either, but he's not ugly. I know she could do worse, but she did just as good. Brian's a great guy. Vince had a girl for a while, they were in love, I think, we all liked her. She was with us during some hard times. But he cheated on her and that was the last we saw of her."
"Aw, what an evil man. And he went back to being after Mia just like that? Even though he and this chick were so in love?"
"Naw, he's not back after Mia, I guess he's just pretending so we all think he's over N.well that other girl. But Mia's familiar and he still misses the familiar ness of having this other girl in his life. That's all."
"Well, I guess in a way I feel for poor old Vince then. Two girls he's loved and now he doesn't have either, and he has to see Mia in bliss with Brian every day."
"It must suck. I prefer to keep my options open." Leon laughed.
"Well when you were trying to figure how you knew me I speculated that you might have known someone like me at races before and Brian said you had," she cleared her throat, "known enough blonde girls that it might be possible you were mistaking me for one of 'em."
"Oh he said that did he?" Leon asked with a growl, Brian was telling people he was easy?
"Yeah, but he had no idea how it came out till I made fun of him for it then he was mortified." Kat laughed. "Why, is the opposite true? Do you have a hard time picking up?"
Leon growled again, this time right at Kat for the slight on his record. How did he answer that, either he was a male slut or he couldn't get a date. He couldn't win. "I don't have trouble finding dates but I'm don't date every girl that looks my way."
"You're so fun to tease. You should see how embarrassed you are." She laughed. Leon loved the way she laughed, when she really laughed it was like sun, and it lit up the whole area. She just laughed, no thought, rhyme or reason. She felt the need and did it with her whole heart and soul. It was hard to remember why he should be annoyed with both she and Brian.
"Well, you're mean. And I still know I know you from somewhere. I'm gonna figure it out."
"No you're not because there's nothing to figure." She frowned at him, suddenly serious. "Ok, ok, just stop frowning. You're beautiful when you smile." Leon watched the road with too much concentration. Kat blushed.
"Oh stop." She giggled. She didn't get many compliments from people who were thinking of her as a girl. It was always, way to move Kat, you're an awesome racer Kat, Kat can drive like the wind, Kat can paint a car better then anyone. It was never Kat's pretty, or Kat's a female for that matter. She was like one of the guys. She guessed that was hard to help when you drove a race car and talked trash just like the guys, always had grease under your nails no matter what you did and couldn't care less about your looks three quarters of the time. "False flattery will get you no where with me. I've heard it all."
"It's not false." Leon was giving her a very serious look. She wanted to change the subject. She sat back in her seat.
"Why does your friend Dom have such a hate on for me?" She asked. She was curious.
"Whoa, where did that come from?" Leon didn't know where the abrupt topic change had come from. He figured his complimenting her on her looks made her uncomfortable. Could she really have no idea guys found her pretty? She wasn't self conscious, she was confident as hell, but maybe she'd never been made to see she could be a tough racer chick and a pretty feminine girl at the same time. It's too bad her and Letty couldn't be friends. Letty had how to be in the best of both worlds nailed down. She continued,
"Well he does, and since you gave me so much incite into Vince, I thought you might let me in on what makes Dom dislike someone he doesn't know."
Leon figured she had a right to know, but he didn't know if he had a right to tell her. What the hell, she could know the abridged version. "He wants to lie low because of the shit we went through and he sees your past as a possibility of getting thrown back into the center of attention if it becomes know that we associate with you. And he thinks you're too cocky for your own good."
"Translation into normal speak, he's scared of the guys, and he's scared I race better'n he does." Kat said with a frown. Typical.
"Kat, he's not scared you race better'n he does, or scared of your friends. He just doesn't see you and your team as people that like to lay low. And all we do is work and race now. So he doesn't want trouble." Leon didn't want her to end up with an even worse opinion of Dom then she already had for some reason.
"Well, he'll find out how I race soon, cause I'm not spending too much time racing in South Central, my buddy Edwin is gonna take us to this place he calls 'the warehouse' in a couple weeks and I'm racin' there. I assume that's where ya'll race?"
"Ya, how do you know Edwin?"
"He runs the show in the hood."
"Really? Edwin? But he can't even win a race at the warehouse." Leon laughed at the thought of Edwin running races anywhere.
"Well, he can't win in the hood either, but he still holds the money and calls the starts. At least we don't worry about cops in the 'hood." She looked at all his scanning equipment.
"We worry about cops at races and the way I drive every day I worry about them on the road too." They shared a smile, she worried about cops on the city streets the way she drove too.
They arrived back at the garage and Jesse still wasn't back yet.
"Well Leon, thanks for the drink and the conversation. I had a nice time." She smiled at him and went to sit on the curb out front.
"Come in and wait out of the sun. You can hand me tools while I work on this stupid ford if you want. I wanna get it done."
"You haveta work on domestic cars?"
"Don't remind me." Leon grimaced. She stood up.
"Ok, but I'm no good with Domestic cars unless they're corvettes." She followed him into the dimness of the garage and over to the ford focus he was working on. "So what are you doing to the little beast?"
"You fucken' name it and I have to do it. Headers, manifold, exhaust, air intake, the kid wants it tricked out." Leon sat on the creeper. "He shoulda bought a fucken civic before this but hey, who am I to tell the kid how to spend his money."
"People need to stop trying to pollute the import scene with posser domestics." She handed him the wrench he asked for.
"True that!" Leon agreed vehemently. People were polluting the import scene with domestic cars. They had no place. No matter how many ricey accessories you put on a cavalier it was still domestic. People had to learn that. Most people just took a live and let live attitude to it though. Like it didn't matter cause the real imports still kicked ass.
They talked about cars while Leon worked on the focus. Dom frowned at them from the Integra he was working on with Brian and snapped at Brian over every little thing. Dom was sure Leon was falling for Kat and it was all Brian's fault. Jesse returned exactly an hour later.
"Hey Kat, sorry to take so long but I, uh, wanted to make sure I did a thoughal check." Jesse smiled his big, open, little boy smile and Kat just grinned at him. She couldn't help it with Jesse. She'd met him three times or less and she trusted him almost implicitly already. She couldn't help herself. She just sensed Jesse was just what he appeared. He was a good kid. She knew he must be 20 or so but she felt so much older then him. She fleetingly wished she could fall for a happy easygoing guy like Jesse, but she knew she was not the girl for Jesse. He needed a sweet little girl, not a bitch like her.
"They all told me you'd be gone an hour and you were gone one hour to the minute. So what's the damage?"
"Nothin. Works great." Jesse said. It really was fine. "What did you say the guy did to it?"
"He was in 5th and way past the redline, I was in 6th and only at 6000rpm. He wanted to catch me so he held down both his NOS buttons and let what was left in the tanks just continually dump into the engine. I never heard of doin' that before. It can't be good for the car."
"Well, no it's not good for the car, but it didn't hurt this one. People do that sometimes, you should try it, it's quite a rush." Jesse reassured her. She nodded, but the Skyline was enough of a rush on it's natural own.
"Well, Miss perfect racer girl didn't know something. Who hasn't heard of doing that with NOS." Dom interjected. He didn't like the easy way she had with Jesse any more then he liked the thoughts of her getting with Leon. He started her way.
"Well, Mr. I'm the king of LA, I know everything, there may be some things I don't know. I don't need to 'cause my car can chew up any other tuner car in LA and spit it out. And that includes that fucken rotary engine pussy car, piece of crap you drive." She advanced on Dom.
"Dream on. I'm gonna enjoy showing you a thing or two on the streets some day." Dom growled. The two were almost nose to nose by now. The tension around them was thick.
"You dream on. I'ma wipe the road with ya and if the course has any corners you'll be crying for your mama. I drive so much better'n you I'm gonna enjoy mopping the street with your sorry, washed up, has been ass." Kat shrieked at him. Dom looked like he was going to haul off and hit her, he really did. Leon had gotten up when the voices got raised and now he grabbed Kat around the waist just as she lunged for Dom. Brian pulled Dom back over to the car he had been working on and Leon took Kat outside forcefully by the waist. She spit and clawed at him the whole way, struggling like a wild cat to get away.
Chapter 12 - Running her Mouth
Kat threw the wheel and the car sort of floated to a position 45 degrees different then that she had going forward. Her car made a terrible squeal and the rear tires smoked like they were on fire but did just what she had hoped. It drifted around the corner in a wide arc. It was pure beauty to a car enthusiast. Like automobile ballet. Her arc went too wide at the last second and she hit the curb.
It was a jarring jolt to her sense and she was momentarily thrown. She cut the wheel and righted herself, but in doing so she had to slow down a little. It didn't matter because the arrogant ass that had been so sure of himself had slowed down and taken the corner in the normal fashion, he likely hadn't expected her to do it like she had and that had cost him almost a whole second plus all the time he was going to have to spend to reaccelerate.
Tran was in shock. How had she managed to do that at 130 with the controls her car had governing the stability? It shouldn't have been possible. He would have a great deal of trouble catching her now, she was two full car lengths ahead of him and gaining. He downshifted and the engine growled. He floored it again and gave it the second shot of NOS. He was gaining on her, but he doubted it would be enough to catch her. However he wasn't giving up yet.
Kat looked in her rearview and saw the silver car flying at her like a bullet, but she didn't figure he could catch her now. Even still she kept accelerating. She hit her 6th gear. She could see the finish line.
Tran was almost to her bumper but his car was paying the price. He'd had to run 4th gear to past the redline and 5th was almost to the upper limit of what he could ask it to do. But he was moving up on her.
This guy was a worthy competitor she thought. He was almost in her blind spot again and she'd had a big lead on him. The finish line was right there. She checked quickly and hit her second NOS. She flew away from him. She figured that was that, so she was quite surprised to see him still coming up on her.
Tran wasn't giving up. He had an idea but it could cook his engine. He figured if he didn't do something he was giving his car away so why be cautious. He pressed and held both NOS buttons on his wheel down and this caused the NOS to continuously dump into the engine, not just in a quick burst but in a steady flow, the car growled in protest, the engine was set up for a NOS shot, not a steady burn, but it continued to close on the girl. He couldn't see the small tail of flame shooting out of his muffler. The crowd along the route cheered.
Kat didn't know how the hell he was doing this, he should be falling back. He was well into the upper limits of his 5th gear and had used both shots of his NOS. Unless his car had some sort of way to use more then two shots of NOS. Well she was still a few thousand rpm away from hitting her redline so she floored it. The Skyline gave a battle roar as the powerful engine stepped it up and gave her 100%. She felt the front tires lift off the ground a bit due to the sheer amount of torque.
She flew over the finish line half a car ahead of the man in the Eclipse. She got slowed down some and then she locked up the breaks in such way that the car spun a 360 and she drove back to the finish line where everyone was waiting. She got out of the car and the guys had her in a three way bear hug in seconds. She laughed and accepted congratulations.
The Tran in the Eclipse was busy berating himself over underestimating his opponent. He really should have known better then to bet his car. It was no big loss to him, not like he had told them. He had many cars and this was one of his least favorites. He headed back to the finish. The girl was in the center of a big crowd but when they saw him the parted as if by magic to make a walkway for him.
"Hey, great race Man. You really made me work for it." Kat told the stranger in a voice that was still breathy from the rush of the race.
"Well, I seriously underestimated your racing skill, and now I am paying for it. You are one crazy girl to take that corner the way you did." Kat just smiled. "How did you do that? With the Skyline R34 it should have been impossible to cause the car to do that."
"It should have been but not when the person who builds the car builds in an off switch for the traction controls and is also a big fan of drifting."
"Ah, you disabled the traction system to allow this move to happen. I did underestimate you and your car. You were most worthy and the better racer won." He handed her his keys.
Kat felt bad for the man. He'd lost his car, but he had so much dignity and he wasn't trying to make up excuses for why he lost. He'd underestimated her and the better racer had won. This man wasn't trying to hide that fact. She told him she appreciated that but that unless he could come up with 10,000 bucks to make it up to her she was still taking his car. She thought considering what the car would sell for that was more then fair.
"Let me ask you, what is your name?" The guy asked her.
"Kat." She held out her hand. "And you are?"
"Ricky. Ricky Tran."
Edwin overheard this and inwardly groaned. Johnny's little brother.
"Well Ricky, do you wanna come up wit the money, or am I taken your car?"
"You may have the car, not to sound stuck up but this is not even my best or favorite car so while it will be missed it is not the end of my world. You deserve to have the wind in your hair for that deserving performance."
"Well thank you Ricky." She shook hands with him and tossed the keys of the new car to Stacy. "You can drive that to your mom's. We'll leave it there for tonight." Stacy nodded.
The whole crew drove back to the parking lot and hung out till 3am. Then they went home. Kat was glad she didn't work till one. She never did pick up those other hours from Brian, but she figured that this café was the one that his friend Dom owned and she really didn't want to work for Dom anyway. She'd had a little too much to drink and so had all the guys but Stacy, who had to drive. One thing they wouldn't do was drive drunk, ever. She hadn't partied in a long time.
She got up to the alarm the next day and all the guys were still asleep. She was the only one who had to work on Saturday. She threw on a tee shirt and a leather skirt. She put on the bare essential makeup and then her knee high boots. Ug her head hurt, she shoulda known better. But she always said that when she was hung over. It never stopped her next time. She grabbed a sweater and headed to the bus. She took the bus to the stop closest to mama's and then decided to take the spyder to work. She'd show Brian and Harry and ask them if they knew of anyone looking for a car like it. She'd have to sell it before she got attached to it. She didn't need two race cars and the skyline was the better car. But that didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy having the top down on a bright sunny day while she owned it.
She walked into the store and grinned at the two guys. They grinned back at her. She was wearing a black skirt and a baby tee. Brian looked closer and saw her tee shirt said 'Co-ed naked racing, turn 'em on, ride 'em hard, leave 'em hot.'. He laughed at that, seemed so, well, Kat. "'Mornin' Guys. How ya doin'?"
"Wow, someone's in a better mood now then when she left here last night." Harry was glad, this was the Kitten he had come to know.
"Yeah, come see why." She said and motioned them over to the door. They walked over and looked into the front line of parking spots.
"Where's your car?" Brian asked. "I know nothing happened to it. You're in too good of a mood."
"No nothing happened to it. That's my car too now." She pointed at the Eclipse.
"No shit? You won a car last night?" Harry was in shock.
"Yeah. I had planned on entering this little 1 g race, but then I pulled up and it was just like old times. Edwin started callen' me kid again and I knew if I didn't give him a main event that everyone would just go around sayin' I was scared and washed up. I couldn't have that so I let him set up a 4 g race. Then this guy said he didn't have the money but he wanted in so he would put up the slip to his car. We raced, he almost had me but I won in the end. It was quite a race, he was the biggest challenge I ever had down there."
"Oh yeah? What was his name, do you know?" Brian asked.
"Ya, his name was Ricky Tran."
"Great. Just super." Brian was visibly upset.
"What's wrong with that?" Kat wanted to know.
"Well there was some shit that went down with Dom and the team about a year ago and Johnny Tran tried to kill Jesse. I had to pursue him and he wouldn't give himself up, he and his cousin Lance led me on a high speed chase and I shot Johnny Tran dead because he wouldn't stop running. So our team and the remaining Trans have a feud. But you're not part of Dom's team so that shouldn't effect you." Brian finished with a sigh, one more reason Dom wouldn't want her around.
"That does suck, but I'm not gonna marry the guy, I just took his car when he lost. And you're right anyway, I just work with you, our teams don't have anything in common." She nodded to show she considered the conversation closed. She was very stubborn about stuff like this, so once she had the situation pigeonholed that was that in her mind.
"Well, this is gonna be a busy day so we should get back inside." Harry stated and then held the door open for them both to proceed him into the store.
The day was busy and seemed to fly by. 6 came it seemed before she knew it. She went to head out and Brian stopped her.
"Hey, Leon and Jesse wanted to know how you did. Why don't you drive me home so I don't have to take the truck home and show them how you did?"
"I don't know Brian. I get this feeling that your buddy Dom would rather I didn't come around your place, and to tell you the truth the less I see of Dom the better as far as I'm concerned." She grimaced.
"Well, you don't have to talk to Dom, just Leon and maybe Jesse. He wanted to know how the car worked for you too, and obviously it worked good." Brian couldn't explain why he wanted her to come by the store, other then he knew Leon was wanting to see more of her.
Kat was wanting to see Leon too but she didn't want to get attached to a guy she couldn't have in her life. But she figured she owed it to both Leon for helping her get over her fear and Jesse for tuning her car to go show them what she won. Maybe Jesse would look it over for her and see if that NOS burn screwed anything up. She agreed to drive Brian to his friend's garage.
It was another bright and sunny hot California day so they left the top down and drove to DT Performance Automotive. Brian felt like Dom must have all those times they went out together in the Supra with Brian driving. Kat was driving him nuts, doing stuff that he didn't think she should do, like cutting people off, driving double the posted limit in some cases, and doing trick driving stunts the whole way there. When they got there she pulled a brody into a parking spot. She was dead on and ended up in just the right spot but Brian nearly freaked.
"I'm never asken' you for a drive again dude, you're nuts." Brian was kinda pale.
"I'm not nuts. What're ya talken' about? I can show you nuts but that wasn't it." Kat laughed.
"No thanks. That was nuts enough for me anyway. You drive crazy."
"Sissy." She hissed through her teeth and then laughed at him. They started for the garage door engrossed in their conversation about where in the Hell Kat learned to drive like that.
"What the hell was that?" A deep voice asked from the doorway. Dom had a fierce scowl on his face. "You trying to kill my sister's boyfriend or wreck my store?"
"No, just trying to park my car." She gave Brian a look like he was a traitor for telling her Dom shouldn't be around but yet here he was. Brain shrugged. Dom caught the exchange and for some reason it pissed him off she didn't like him. What had he ever done?
"Can't you parallel park like normal people? You coulda spun out into one of these other cars or right into the building."
"Yeah, but I didn't. I know what I'm doing. 'Bout the only thing I do really well is drive, and I know what I'm doing."
"There was no need of that stunt. You're a show off." Dom couldn't believe the girl would take crazy risks like that with someone else in her car and around other people's property.
"Maybe I am. What's it to you? It's my car, my life, and I was in total control at all times. Get over it. What are you, jealous you can't move a car like that? King of the streets but he can only move his car fast in a strait line? I also drifted my Skyline around a corner at 130 with no traction control on it and won that car. And know what? If I'da been racing you that night I woulda taken your car too, cause I'm the whole package and you can drive too fast in a straight line." Kat hated Dominic Torreto for his arrogance of presuming to tell her how to drive her own car. She figured he wanted to strangle her for that remark. She wasn't far off. He was starting toward her with menace in his steps. Brian pulled her back when she would have gone toe to toe with him and Dom musta took the hint that he was looking murderous. He stopped and asked,
"Whatever, is there some reason why you came down here?" Dom could run his car faster then anyone in a straight line, he never learned trick driving. So she was right. He wasn't really jealous, he just wished he could do that sort of thing all of a sudden and it pissed him off. It wasn't like he couldn't learn if he wanted to, he had just never seen the point. Kat was about to start talking game to Dom for his remarks when Brian broke in.
"Dom, Dude, do you have manners? She drove me down because Harry needs his truck and I had no other way. I wanted her to show Jesse her new ride. Bro you need to chill out. Both of you." Brain was appalled at Dom's lack of manners. Dom just gave Brian one of those looks and walked back into the garage. "Never mind him Kat, he takes bad moods sometimes and he's not fit to be around."
"Well Brian, I told you he didn't want me around and personally, the feelings mutual. I don't care for him much either. But I did want to show Jesse the new car so lets do that. Man, that guy thinks he's god's gift to both racin' and women doesn't he?" Brian nodded yes then realized what he just said about his friend. He shook his head no at his own stupidity and then they walked up to the garage while Kat laughed at Brian for confirming what she had already figured out about Dom.
"So you like Jesse don't you?" Brian asked her on the way up the walk.
"What's not to like? He's a good kid."
"So you don't like him like him? Not if you think he's a kid."
"No, not like that. I don't like anyone like that at this point in my life. I just have so much goin' on you know?" She looked a little too concerned that he buy that line of bull she'd just tossed him.
"There's no one? Not even perhaps a certain owner of a yellow Skyline?"
"BRRRIIIIIIAAAAANNNN." She drawled out. "Stop it. Why are you teasing me?" She was a very pretty shade of pink.
"I think I do it cause it's fun to make you turn red. That and I think there's more then you're letting on to how you feel about this green eyed friend of mine."
"Brian stop, please." She looked at him earnestly and Brian doubted for a minute if she was into Leon. But then he saw that she was an ever increasing shade of red.
"Ok, but you'll have to do better then this to convince me you don't like him."
"Like who?" She looked like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"You know who." Brian turned to Jesse. "Look who I brought to say hello." Jesse turned around.
"Kat! Good to see you. How'd your race go?" Jesse asked her. He was so exuberant. Like a puppy, all cute and into everything with about a 3 minute attention span for anything but his favorite thing, cars.
"The car worked great Jesse." She answered, reading that he cared more about the car's performance then if she won or lost. "Wanna see what I won?"
"You mean you won more then huge amounts of cash?" Jesse asked her. Leon heard the strange female voice and slid out from under the ford he'd been working on. They worked on all sorts of cars but Leon hated working on anything domestic. He realized it was Kat. That was why Dom had stormed back into the garage and slammed the office door. Leon wondered how her race had gone.
Kat hadn't seen him under there and now he was walking up behind her. "So, Kat, how'd the race go?"
Oh man, she loved his voice, he must be right behind her. She closed her eyes for a minute to compose herself then answered him. "Well I was just about to show Jesse how it went actually. You can come see too if you want."
"You need to show us?" Leon thought that could either be a good thing or a bad thing. Either she wrecked her car again, or she won something she had to show them. She nodded yes to his question.
"Let's go, the suspense is fucken' killen' me." Jesse said and headed for the door. He got out front of the building before any of them. "No shit." They heard him exclaim. Now Leon was even more curious. They rounded the corner of the garage.
"He's not kidden'. No shit. You won a car." Leon couldn't believe that. He'd expected her to lose honestly. She'd panicked racing him but she somehow managed to win a car. That didn't quite add up.
She must have been able to read that in his expression cause she answered him, "Yeah, I think I owe most of that to you. I have this feeling you let me win, but even so, that's what gave me the confidence to get out there. That and when the scene hit me again I was right back to it." "Naw Dawg, I didn't let you win. I planned on it but you caught me with that burst of speed and won all on your own. So how'd you win a car?"
"Well, I was gonna enter this small time race to get back into the life, ya know? But then, soon as we roll up Edwin's all over us, wantin' to set me up in some sort of main event. So I ended up racing for a 4 g buy in. Some guy wanted in but he didn't have the cash so he put up his keys and I won. I had to disable the traction system in the Skyline mid race. It was wild. I almost crashed into a warehouse." She laughed, remembering that run. It had been wild.
"Wow, that sounds like quite a rush." Jesse had listened to the story with rapt attention.
"It was. Hey Jesse, wanna take this car for a spin? The last owner did some crazy thing with his NOS and I wanna know if you think it's runnin' ok. Seems ok to me but you know better then I do." She held out the keys with a smile and they were snatched from her hand as Jesse hopped in the car. "Do you wanna go with him?" She turned to Leon and asked.
"Naw, I'll wait for him to get back here with you. It could be awhile. You just gave him keys to a convertible and told him it might need work. We may never see him again." Leon laughed and she joined him. "Say, Dom's café is just down the street, wanna go get a drink?"
"Sure." What was she thinking? It was just a drink but still.
"Well, let's take my car down since you gave yours away for the next oh, hour or so."
"You think he'll be gone that long?" Leon nodded. "Well, sure thing, lets take your car."
Leon told Dom and Brian what he was doing and they got into his car and headed to Torreto's.
Kat felt like such a moron. Now she was going on dates with the guy? Even if it was just for a lousy soft drink at a café. God damn it she didn't even like him. Something in her mind told her to keep repeating that and it might come true someday. She was very attracted to him, sure, but that didn't mean she liked him, liked him right?
Leon was having similar feelings about asking Kat out, even if it was just to run to the store for a drink. He knew he didn't like her as much as he was attracted to her physically. He wondered what she thought of his car.
"So what do you think of my car? It's only a 94, but still, what do you think?"
"It's cool. I really like the graphics you have on it. Doesn't sound like there's much stock left under the hood either. By the way it sounds you tore the whole car apart and not much under the hood is still Nissan."
"You caught me, but yours is the same way."
She laughed. "You got that right." They got into a very deep discussion about R32 and 33 skylines vs. the R34. They were talking in very animated tones. Leon loved the way Kat talked with her hands, her whole body really. She couldn't sit still while she talked about Skylines.
They pulled up to the café and climbed out. They walked in the open storefront and sat down at the counter, still talking cars the whole way. Leon looked over and saw Vince sitting there talking to Mia. 'Just great.' He though, like he hadn't already taken enough ribbing about Kat, this wasn't gonna help.
"Hey guys!" Mia exclaimed. She was always in a good mood, Kat thought. Mia had to be the most cheerful person ever.
"Hey Mia." Leon said and smiled. It was hard to stay upset around Mia.
"What can I get you?" Mia said with a smile. She was both glad to see Leon and Kat together and glad to have a buffer against Vince, who was bothering her again. He'd gotten a lot better since Brian had saved the team but he was still a pain. It was too bad the big idiot screwed up what he had with his girlfriend. For a while there he was so into her Mia had figured there would be little Vinces running around the place in no time. Then he had to go and cheat on her, and get caught no less, and the girl had up and left. She'd left Vince a couple times during their relationship but she'd always come back once she'd cooled down and he'd always told her he was sorry. But this time she'd left and never came back. And Vince wouldn't talk about it. He just wouldn't talk about it. They all imagined what had happened but Vince wouldn't confirm it or deny it. He wouldn't even go after her and find her. But it wasn't Mia's business. But she wished Vince would meet someone and leave her alone.
"I'd like a Pepsi please." Kat asked, and Mia got it for her and Leon had the same, even though he wanted a Corona. He didn't want to drink in front of her while she had a Pepsi for some reason. "So, what brings you guys down here?" Vince asked with a smirk. He knew his friend liked the blonde chick, and this was like vindication for all the times they laughed at him for being hung up on Mia. For mooning over.he wasn't goin' there. Except that her being here meant she liked Leon too which dumped him right back into the only one pining after a girl who didn't like him back club.
"Well, Kat won a car last night and she let Jesse take it for a drive, so I figured we had time to kill." Leon said with a grin.
"No kidden'. You let him take someone else's car for a drive? What kinda car is it?"
"An Eclipse Spyder." Kat answered.
"You let him take someone else's convertible for a drive. We may never see him again." Vince stated.
"That's exactly what Leon said. I'm beginning to get really worried." Kat giggled.
"He'll be back, sometime." Mia said with a laugh, "Just not any time soon." Mia sat down at the counter with them. Mia read Kat's shirt out loud "Co-ed Naked Racing, turn 'em on, ride 'em hard, leave 'em hot." It took a second for the double meaning to set it then Mia blushed. "That's an interesting slogan."
Vince had to come read it for himself, he didn't believe the girl would really have a shirt that said that on it. He came over and read the shirt and laughed. "That is quite the slogan. I wouldn't mind showing you how to act it out."
"In your dreams cowboy." They all laughed, Kat figured he might be serious but Leon and Mia knew that Vince was still pretending to be into Mia, who was a stand in for his Ex, too much to be serious about other girls.
"You're breaken' my heart." Vince played along.
"It's too fragile then. It was too easy to break." Kat laughed and then took a big swig of Pepsi. "Plus, I'm a heart breaker by nature, so you're better off to find out now not later." She smiled.
"So our Leon needs to watch his back and his heart around you then does he?" Mia asked coyly.
"Naw, he's safe from me." Kat said, serious for a minute, "I'm not out to make the kind of friends that would put anyone's heart in danger, I'm just out to race my car and improve my life. So his heart's safe." She smiled at the group in general.
They finished their drinks and headed out to the car. Leon was relieved to hear that she wasn't after his heart. He wasn't sure if he was ready to give it, least of all to this girl, with her cocky attitude and car that might, and he stressed might, even to himself, be better then his.
He could never date a girl seriously if she could drive faster then he could. His manliness couldn't take it.
"I hope your friends didn't creep you out. I'm not after you like they all seem to imply." She grinned impishly. "And if I was you wouldn't have a chance."
Leon grinned back, he couldn't help it. "Naw, they didn't creep me out. Vince just wishes I would fall for you, but you wouldn't fall for me so that he wouldn't have to be the only one in love with a girl who's not in love with him."
"He's in love with Brian's girl Mia?"
"How'd ya guess?" Leon asked with a grimace. "She's been with Brian a long time now and they been through a lot, but Vince has been after her since she was 16, and they were all still in high school."
"That sucks. And she was never into him? I mean, he's not ugly."
"Is that a compliment? He's not ugly! I don't think that's very complimentary. Most guys aren't ugly. Besides Dom would never have let 'em hook up. Him and V have been best friends since third grade. Dom would never have allowed it to happen, but Mia was never into V like that."
"Well, like I said, he's not ugly, would it be better if I said he's not hard on the eyes? I don't imagine he goes around saying I'm the next Miss America either. I don't see him winnin' any Mr. Universe contests but she could do worse you know?"
"I get it, it was just the way you said that, he's not ugly, like he's not cute either, but he's not ugly. I know she could do worse, but she did just as good. Brian's a great guy. Vince had a girl for a while, they were in love, I think, we all liked her. She was with us during some hard times. But he cheated on her and that was the last we saw of her."
"Aw, what an evil man. And he went back to being after Mia just like that? Even though he and this chick were so in love?"
"Naw, he's not back after Mia, I guess he's just pretending so we all think he's over N.well that other girl. But Mia's familiar and he still misses the familiar ness of having this other girl in his life. That's all."
"Well, I guess in a way I feel for poor old Vince then. Two girls he's loved and now he doesn't have either, and he has to see Mia in bliss with Brian every day."
"It must suck. I prefer to keep my options open." Leon laughed.
"Well when you were trying to figure how you knew me I speculated that you might have known someone like me at races before and Brian said you had," she cleared her throat, "known enough blonde girls that it might be possible you were mistaking me for one of 'em."
"Oh he said that did he?" Leon asked with a growl, Brian was telling people he was easy?
"Yeah, but he had no idea how it came out till I made fun of him for it then he was mortified." Kat laughed. "Why, is the opposite true? Do you have a hard time picking up?"
Leon growled again, this time right at Kat for the slight on his record. How did he answer that, either he was a male slut or he couldn't get a date. He couldn't win. "I don't have trouble finding dates but I'm don't date every girl that looks my way."
"You're so fun to tease. You should see how embarrassed you are." She laughed. Leon loved the way she laughed, when she really laughed it was like sun, and it lit up the whole area. She just laughed, no thought, rhyme or reason. She felt the need and did it with her whole heart and soul. It was hard to remember why he should be annoyed with both she and Brian.
"Well, you're mean. And I still know I know you from somewhere. I'm gonna figure it out."
"No you're not because there's nothing to figure." She frowned at him, suddenly serious. "Ok, ok, just stop frowning. You're beautiful when you smile." Leon watched the road with too much concentration. Kat blushed.
"Oh stop." She giggled. She didn't get many compliments from people who were thinking of her as a girl. It was always, way to move Kat, you're an awesome racer Kat, Kat can drive like the wind, Kat can paint a car better then anyone. It was never Kat's pretty, or Kat's a female for that matter. She was like one of the guys. She guessed that was hard to help when you drove a race car and talked trash just like the guys, always had grease under your nails no matter what you did and couldn't care less about your looks three quarters of the time. "False flattery will get you no where with me. I've heard it all."
"It's not false." Leon was giving her a very serious look. She wanted to change the subject. She sat back in her seat.
"Why does your friend Dom have such a hate on for me?" She asked. She was curious.
"Whoa, where did that come from?" Leon didn't know where the abrupt topic change had come from. He figured his complimenting her on her looks made her uncomfortable. Could she really have no idea guys found her pretty? She wasn't self conscious, she was confident as hell, but maybe she'd never been made to see she could be a tough racer chick and a pretty feminine girl at the same time. It's too bad her and Letty couldn't be friends. Letty had how to be in the best of both worlds nailed down. She continued,
"Well he does, and since you gave me so much incite into Vince, I thought you might let me in on what makes Dom dislike someone he doesn't know."
Leon figured she had a right to know, but he didn't know if he had a right to tell her. What the hell, she could know the abridged version. "He wants to lie low because of the shit we went through and he sees your past as a possibility of getting thrown back into the center of attention if it becomes know that we associate with you. And he thinks you're too cocky for your own good."
"Translation into normal speak, he's scared of the guys, and he's scared I race better'n he does." Kat said with a frown. Typical.
"Kat, he's not scared you race better'n he does, or scared of your friends. He just doesn't see you and your team as people that like to lay low. And all we do is work and race now. So he doesn't want trouble." Leon didn't want her to end up with an even worse opinion of Dom then she already had for some reason.
"Well, he'll find out how I race soon, cause I'm not spending too much time racing in South Central, my buddy Edwin is gonna take us to this place he calls 'the warehouse' in a couple weeks and I'm racin' there. I assume that's where ya'll race?"
"Ya, how do you know Edwin?"
"He runs the show in the hood."
"Really? Edwin? But he can't even win a race at the warehouse." Leon laughed at the thought of Edwin running races anywhere.
"Well, he can't win in the hood either, but he still holds the money and calls the starts. At least we don't worry about cops in the 'hood." She looked at all his scanning equipment.
"We worry about cops at races and the way I drive every day I worry about them on the road too." They shared a smile, she worried about cops on the city streets the way she drove too.
They arrived back at the garage and Jesse still wasn't back yet.
"Well Leon, thanks for the drink and the conversation. I had a nice time." She smiled at him and went to sit on the curb out front.
"Come in and wait out of the sun. You can hand me tools while I work on this stupid ford if you want. I wanna get it done."
"You haveta work on domestic cars?"
"Don't remind me." Leon grimaced. She stood up.
"Ok, but I'm no good with Domestic cars unless they're corvettes." She followed him into the dimness of the garage and over to the ford focus he was working on. "So what are you doing to the little beast?"
"You fucken' name it and I have to do it. Headers, manifold, exhaust, air intake, the kid wants it tricked out." Leon sat on the creeper. "He shoulda bought a fucken civic before this but hey, who am I to tell the kid how to spend his money."
"People need to stop trying to pollute the import scene with posser domestics." She handed him the wrench he asked for.
"True that!" Leon agreed vehemently. People were polluting the import scene with domestic cars. They had no place. No matter how many ricey accessories you put on a cavalier it was still domestic. People had to learn that. Most people just took a live and let live attitude to it though. Like it didn't matter cause the real imports still kicked ass.
They talked about cars while Leon worked on the focus. Dom frowned at them from the Integra he was working on with Brian and snapped at Brian over every little thing. Dom was sure Leon was falling for Kat and it was all Brian's fault. Jesse returned exactly an hour later.
"Hey Kat, sorry to take so long but I, uh, wanted to make sure I did a thoughal check." Jesse smiled his big, open, little boy smile and Kat just grinned at him. She couldn't help it with Jesse. She'd met him three times or less and she trusted him almost implicitly already. She couldn't help herself. She just sensed Jesse was just what he appeared. He was a good kid. She knew he must be 20 or so but she felt so much older then him. She fleetingly wished she could fall for a happy easygoing guy like Jesse, but she knew she was not the girl for Jesse. He needed a sweet little girl, not a bitch like her.
"They all told me you'd be gone an hour and you were gone one hour to the minute. So what's the damage?"
"Nothin. Works great." Jesse said. It really was fine. "What did you say the guy did to it?"
"He was in 5th and way past the redline, I was in 6th and only at 6000rpm. He wanted to catch me so he held down both his NOS buttons and let what was left in the tanks just continually dump into the engine. I never heard of doin' that before. It can't be good for the car."
"Well, no it's not good for the car, but it didn't hurt this one. People do that sometimes, you should try it, it's quite a rush." Jesse reassured her. She nodded, but the Skyline was enough of a rush on it's natural own.
"Well, Miss perfect racer girl didn't know something. Who hasn't heard of doing that with NOS." Dom interjected. He didn't like the easy way she had with Jesse any more then he liked the thoughts of her getting with Leon. He started her way.
"Well, Mr. I'm the king of LA, I know everything, there may be some things I don't know. I don't need to 'cause my car can chew up any other tuner car in LA and spit it out. And that includes that fucken rotary engine pussy car, piece of crap you drive." She advanced on Dom.
"Dream on. I'm gonna enjoy showing you a thing or two on the streets some day." Dom growled. The two were almost nose to nose by now. The tension around them was thick.
"You dream on. I'ma wipe the road with ya and if the course has any corners you'll be crying for your mama. I drive so much better'n you I'm gonna enjoy mopping the street with your sorry, washed up, has been ass." Kat shrieked at him. Dom looked like he was going to haul off and hit her, he really did. Leon had gotten up when the voices got raised and now he grabbed Kat around the waist just as she lunged for Dom. Brian pulled Dom back over to the car he had been working on and Leon took Kat outside forcefully by the waist. She spit and clawed at him the whole way, struggling like a wild cat to get away.