Prologue Final
{Four Years…}
Four years went by in the blink of an eye, and I loved every second of it.
The day after arriving in Los Angeles and meeting up with Dominic and Mia, I went into the shop to work for a couple of hours. Dominic was the one who showed me the ropes, and after a few weeks I was running the shop on my own for the most part. Dominic and I split shifts between the two of us so that Mia could focus on her studying; Dominic opening in the morning and me closing the shop down in the evenings after school.
School was another subject.
After my first day of work, my mother threw me into her Corolla and drove me to "Belmont High School" a few minutes away. While I didn't much care for the place, through some miracle I ended up scoring enough points on my final exams to move onto the twelfth grade and graduate the following year with a 2.75 G.P.A.
Not too bad for someone who was never too bright or even cared about school before, huh? It was also enough of a G.P.A to get me into the "East Los Angeles College" to get my degree in automotive technologies.
I didn't have myself to thank though. If it wasn't for two people especially, I never would've passed at all.
The first person who helped me was Mia. I always found myself studying with her at her house and she always helped to make sure that I understood each and every subject. The second person was another boy my age; Jesse Sinclair. The two of us met in our first-period algebra class on my first day and we connected instantly while talking about cars and engines. He didn't last long in school, however. Not too long after I started school again he decided to drop out, blaming it on his attention-deficit disorder. He and I stayed in contact though and always hung out at the market while I worked.
On one of these occasions, Dominic, his girlfriend Letty, and their friend Vince walked into the shop while Jesse was hanging out and looking over car magazines. The three of them took a liking to Jesse and invited him to join our little "family" as Dominic called it.
Jesse, coming from a rather bad home life, couldn't be happier.
When it came time for my graduation, my mother, my Abuela, Jesse, Mia, Dominic, and the rest of the crew all attended. They all threw me an amazing party at the Toretto home, at the end of which Dominic revealed to me he had gotten me a present.
"You didn't have to, man." I said, showing hints of tears from enjoyment. Dominic wrapped me into a huge hug, holding me tightly against his built chest.
"Of course I did, hermanito. You deserve it."
With his arm wrapped around my shoulder, Dominic walked me over to stand in front of his garage. There stood something wrapped by a loose cloth cover. It was clearly a car, but the cloth was so loose and baggy that I couldn't tell what kind. With one of the biggest smiles I had ever seen from Dominic, he patted me on the back.
"Go on." He chuckled.
I obliged, walking up to the cloth tarp shakily. As I took the tarp in hand, I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath before ripping the cloth off of the present and into the air. A clamor of gasps and cheers followed suit behind me.
'What the hell did you get me, Dom?' I asked myself as I exhaled softly.
I opened my eyes slowly, and it was then I saw it; an all-black 1993 Honda Civic EJ1 Coupe. It looked a little beat up, but that would be something I could work out.
"You really shouldn't have, Dom." I said, tears of joy welling up in my eyes.
"Anything for you, J.P." He said, patting me on the back again as he dangled a set of keys in his other hand. "You wanna take her for a spin?" I nodded my head and took the keys in hand. Dominic, my mother, my abuela, and myself all clamored into the small car and drove around the block a few times to get the hang of it. The car drove like a dream, and I knew that this would be the ticket to getting me and Jesse into the street racing scene with Dominic's crew after so many years. I had saved up quite a bit of money from working at the market for the past two years, so I had more than enough to do some modifications.
Dominic didn't let me join his team at first, which upset me a little bit at first, but I understood his reasoning. He wanted me to finish with college first, which would be a breeze as it was only a twelve-month degree. During this time, I had moved on from the market to working in Dominic's garage instead. I made a hell of a lot more money and was able to work on my Civic in my free time.
'Welcome to the rest of your life, J.P…' I would often think to myself.
