Chapter 2 Meet the Team.

The Toretto team all ran for their cars as soon as Leon called cops and took off. As Vince was speeding away he saw some red headed chick walking away from the alley. Walking! He squealed to a stop and yelled at her,

"Hey baby, you should run to your car and take off. This isn't gonna to be pretty when the cops get here. It sure ain't no time to walk anywhere."

"I have no car to run to, my ride took off on me. And I am not your baby." Nyssa was having a completely horrid time and did not want to be picked up by some chauvinistic jerk.

"This is not the time to argue about this, get in the car." He squealed to a stop just in front of her, blocking her path and waited for her to get in the car impatiently.

"Come on. Come on. Come on." He muttered. What made him care if she got caught he had no idea. He told himself he was just looking out for another racer, they were like a big group of friends when it came to being united against the cops. Every one of them that got taken in was another blow against the whole scene, against their whole life.

Nyssa looked at the blue car in front of her. The man inside the car was more then a little intimidating. But she heard the sirens coming and while she had thought she was ready to be caught she found she was scared of what would happen to her at home.

She decided to take the way out this person offered her. She knew it was crazy to get in a car with a stranger but was it better then getting picked up by the cops right? She decided to take her chance on this guy with the shaggy hair and scruffy beard. She jumped in his Nissan and they took off. They outran the cops easily, zigging and zagging through downtown L.A.

Vince looked over at the girl in his passenger seat. "Where do you want me to drop you off?" He asked. She didn't answer right away and he looked over at her again. She looked pensive and upset.

"Forget where you live or you just don't want me to know?" Vince knew he looked like a thug, he wouldn't be surprised if she was wondering what the hell she had been thinking getting in his car and sure as hell didn't want him to know where her house was.

"Nothing like that!" Nyssa stammered, embarrassed to find there was some truth to his guess. He'd stopped for her, even though she was a stranger, and she figured she should be a little more grateful for it then she was acting. "I just don't know where to tell you. I was staying with my cousin but she took off and left me behind to get picked up by the cops. I mean one second she's right there telling me about people then that guy in the skyline says cops and she abandons me just like that. She threw me to the wolves and she knew that was my first race night. Hell, I didn't even want to go! It was her idea. So I really don't want to go there. But if I go home to my stepfather I am going to catch real hell."

"Why?" Vince again didn't know why he cared, but found he really did want to know.

"Cause I was supposed stay with Manda at her house for the night and he'll want to know why I'm not with her. We weren't supposed to go out of her house. And then he'll want to know where the clothes came from. And why I'm wearing them. And if he should find out I went to a street race, and ran from the cops with a strange guy I don't want to know what he'll do. And if he's been drinking I really don't want to think about what will happen. Maybe you could take me to the garage where I have my car stashed. Then I could stay in my garage with my car then pretend I just got home from Manda's tomorrow."

"Well you could come hang with us at our party for awhile if you don't know what you want to do. I can take you somewhere later if you decide." Vince couldn't have told anyone why he made the offer. He was not the one who picked up girls. He sometimes let them pick him up, but rarely the other way around.

"Ok, why not." Now she was going to a party at a strange house where there would be even more strange people? She felt the urge to put a hand to her forehead to see if she was feverish. But the plan did have merit. "Let Manda worry about me for awhile. Serves her right."

"Is this Manda Williams?" Vince internalized his groan.

"The one and only." Nyssa grimaced.

"If you want revenge on your cousin coming with me is the best thing to do." Vince smirked at the thought of getting one over on Manda Williams.

"Why is that?"

"Cause when you tell her you partied at Dom Toretto's she's going to be flippin. She's never been invited to our place but she wants to get on Dom worse then anything." Vince, and the rest of the team for that matter, had not missed Manda's thinly veiled looks of wanting sent Dom's way.

"You run with that Toretto guy she showed me?"

"Since third grade." They pulled up to the curb at Dom's house. "Here we are. This is our place."

There were cars everywhere. All imports, all slammed. She wished in that moment she knew what she was doing enough to take her car and race it.

The adrenalin, the atmosphere, the chance to finally not be a good girl for a change. But who was she kidding? She had only ever driven to school and around her block, and even then she knew that the car had no business being on the street. It was designed to drive on the other side of the road. Her brother had raced on the NIRA circuit with it, not the streets.

Then she wondered what the hell she was doing going to a strange house with a strange guy. Oh well, she guessed it was just one of those stupid things you were supposed to do when you were young. She just hoped she lived to learn from it.

She and Vince climbed out of his car and headed for the house. She adjusted her pants and shirt nervously as she walked up the walk, one step behind Vince. She stopped him just before they climbed the porch.

"Um, hey buddy." She moaned internally. How stupid did that sound? "What's your name? You're the only person I'm likely to know in there so I'd kinda like to be able to tell people who brought me more then," Nyssa did her best valley accent, "you know that guy, you know, the tall one with like the hair." She cracked her gum convincingly.

"Good point. I'm Vince. If anyone asks who brought you say Vince. Or better yet just don't get too far from me ok?"

"Um, ok. Is this a mean crowd?" Nyssa played with a errant curl as she was often found doing when nervous.

"No, we just don't take well to strangers. But if you're with me no one will say anything to you so don't worry 'bout it, K?"

"Sure thing Vince." Nyssa used his name to try and make sure she remembered it in her nervousness.

"Ok, now what's your name? Being introduced as Manda Williams' cousin will not go over well in there. Does everyone around races know you're her cousin?"

"My name's Nyssa and no one should know because I've never been around street racing."

"Ok, good. But you say that like you have been around other kinds of racing."

"Well I have been. My brother raced on the NIRA circuit."

"Oh ok." Vince filed that information away so he could look into it further later if he found the need. "Let's head in Nyssa." He finished climbing the stairs and pushed the door open.

Nyssa was assaulted by the noise right in the door. The music was a throbbing base line and trance highs. There were no words to it but it made her want to grab Vince and just move. She resisted the impulse and followed Vince into the kitchen.

Vince grabbed a Corona and popped the top. He remembered Nyssa after he took the first wonderful, cold swig.

"You want one?" He asked. Nyssa considered his question. She was only 19 and had never drank liquor before. She was the stereotypical good girl and had not planned on drinking till she turned 21.

She thought about it and figured in for a dime, in for a dollar and took the beer. It was good. Cold, crisp and smooth, it went down like water and she'd been lost in the desert for a week. What was one beer likely to do? It was not like she was doing body shots of tequila or anything crazy. It was just a beer, she reassured herself. One drink would not turn her into an alcoholic like Ed.

They headed out to the living room once they both had their drinks. Vince asked the man whom Nyssa had nicknamed Skyline guy, who was also at the party, and named Leon, where Dom was.

"He never got back from races Dawg. If he doesn't' get back in the next five minutes though someone's gonna have to go lookin for him." Leon took a drink of his beer.

Everyone groaned, no one wanted to leave the house after escaping the cops, and they all seemed scared of what Dom would do to them for not going sooner. Nyssa knew how it felt to be abandoned so she figured they should go looking right away. She didn't know any of the people around her so she kept her opinion to herself.

Vince sat down in a chair by the front window of the house and grabbed his guitar.

"You got any favourites you wanna hear?" Vince asked Nyssa with a slight smile.

"Not really but I'd love to hear you play." Nyssa answered shyly, never having had anyone offer to play a song for her before. She sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of him. She found out that Vince was an awesome guitar player. If the music blaring from the stereo and Vince playing had not been so loud they would have heard the car pull up to the front of the house and let off it's two occupants.