Author's Note: This one got long on me. Letty spends the summer in the DR and goes through some changes. We're getting closer to Dom and Letty getting together, I promise! Next update.

Chapter 8

This was the first summer since they moved to LA that Letty would not spend all of her free time with Mia or working on the Chevelle in her garage. Because this summer she was going to the DR to stay with her abuela while her mother went off to an intensive three-month program for suffering alcoholics. Abuela and Tia Yolanda had been the ones that arranged the whole thing.

Letty wasn't exactly thrilled about it, even though Mia had been jealous when she told her where she was going.

"You'll get to go swimming every day!" Mia had enthused. "It will be like a vacation."

Letty wasn't so sure it would be, but she didn't have much of a choice. She'd packed her shit and boarded the plane at LAX after being dropped off by taxi. One stop and a layover made the whole thing take hours longer than it would have, but her grandmother and aunt and her cousin Maria (who was only a year older than her) were waiting at the airport when she landed.

When she got to Abuela's house there was a home-cooked meal waiting for her, and Letty couldn't remember the last time she had something that tasted like that. Her mother rarely ever cooked anymore.

After dinner Maria invited her next door to hang out. She asked her about living in the states, what her school was like, what she did for fun, and if there were any cute boys.

Letty shrugged and tried to look disinterested. "I guess."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Letty rolled her eyes. "No."

"Do you want a boyfriend?" Maria asked.

"Maybe…. I don't know." Letty couldn't admit she felt foolish. She was never self-conscious about anything, but this was something she didn't have experience in. She could talk to boys easily. She shared a lot of the same interests, after all. But that was a lot different from trying to 'interest' them.

"Let's go out," Maria said. "Tomorrow night." She looked at Letty's clothes, then pursed her lips. "I'll take you shopping first. Trust me."

Letty wasn't so sure that she did, but she didn't have anything else to do around here. There was no car to work on and she didn't know anyone else here. She couldn't even call Mia because of the cost of long-distance. It was worth at least giving it a try. If she hated it then at least she learned something.

The next day they spent hours doing Letty's least favorite thing - shopping. Maria picked out things without asking if Letty liked them, then shoved her cousin into the changing room with a pile of clothes and orders to "show me the outfits".

Letty put the couple of sundresses in the pile aside without trying those on. First she selected a pair of distressed denim shorts (that upon putting on were a lot shorter than expected) and a basic black tank top. She looked at herself in the mirror without any real thoughts of whether it looked good. It felt comfortable enough, so she supposed she would wear it.

When Maria peeked into the changing room she sighed, since Letty had picked the most basic options. "Well… I can work with this," she said. "Do you have your ears pierced?"

Letty nodded. Of course she did. When she was a baby her mother had them done. It was basically a requirement in their culture. But Letty rarely wore anything other than simple studs. She had a necklace her father had given her on her 10th birthday. That was the only other piece of jewelry she ever wore.

She tried on some more of the things her cousin gave her, vetoing the shorts that made her feel like she had a permanent wedgie and some very tight looking mini skirt.

"You can still wear jeans and stuff just try and get ones that are a bit more fitted," Maria told her, scanning through the racks of clothes. "And if you wear an oversized t-shirt why not cinch it in at the waist, or make it a crop top?" She paused then, looking over at her cousin. "Did you bring a swimsuit?"

"Yeah…" Letty said. "I don't need one."

"Yes you do," Maria decided, then dragged her over to a wall of bikinis. "Trust me girl, put this on, hit the beach while you're here, you'll come home all tan and glowing and sexy and whatever boy you're interested in won't be able to keep his tongue in his head."

Letty couldn't help but laugh at that. She could not really imagine that happening, but it was a funny image. She let Maria talk her into the swimsuit, and lots of new clothes. Abuela had given her money to spend and she felt a little guilty about it until she remembered that she hadn't actually gotten new clothes in years. Maybe she was overdue.

That night she put on one of the new outfits Maria had helped her pick out, let the other girl straighten her hair and put hoops in her ears. They walked down the road to a house party and Maria introduced her to some of her friends, and some (definitely older) guys she knew. She accepted a beer and started talking with this guy Manuel who mentioned that he liked to mod cars.

He seemed impressed with her knowledge. "That's kind of hot you know," he told her. "A girl who knows about cars and stuff. So many of the chicks on the scene are just like… there to be eye candy, you know?"

She was familiar enough, even though she hadn't been to many street races yet. It was a lot harder when you didn't have a car of your own, after all. But maybe she'd sweet-talk Hector into taking her along next time he went, when she got home.

Maria talked her into ditching the party to go for a ride with some of the older guys. One of them drove a Nissan that he'd heavily modified and Letty peppered him with questions about what was under the hood on the way to wherever the hell they were going. He laughed and told Maria how come she wasn't 'smart' like her cousin.

They pulled out along the coastline of the beach and the guys gathered driftwood to make a bonfire. Someone had stocked the ice box with tequila and limes. They passed them around and spent the next two hours getting wasted by the fire and talking shit about who had done the craziest, coolest or best thing. Letty privately rolled her eyes at the posturing and leaned over to whisper to Maria.

"Are boys always like this?"

Maria giggled, more than a bit buzzed herself. "Girl, you have way more power over them than you realize. Trust me, you lead, and they'll follow." She paused then, and a serious look came over her. "And I don't mean like… sex. I mean, do it if you want, when you want, for you. Not for him. But guys can get sex anywhere. You need to have something else that they want, that they can't get anywhere else."

Letty furrowed her brows. "What's that?"

"I mean, it should be unique to you." She shrugged her shoulders. "You should be yourself."

"That seems to go against some of your other advice," Letty muttered, specifically thinking about her afternoon shopping.

"The clothes are just like…" She waved a hand. "Like a way to get a guy's attention. The rest of you is how you keep it."

"Huh…" Letty considered. "So, just be myself?"

"Right." Maria agreed, then looked at Letty in confusion when she stood up, walking over to the guy with the Nissan.

"Can I drive your car?" she asked, then flashed him a grin. "I'm sober, promise."

He seemed to consider, then shrugged. "Sure," he stood. "Hey, anyone wanna race this chick?"

Letty rolled her eyes, but bit back a smirk when a few people jumped at the chance, sure she would be easy to beat. "How about for money?" she asked, pulling out the rest of the allowance Abuela had given her for the month.

A few of the drivers threw down their own bills. Maria ran over to be the flag girl and they set up a short race along the quiet coastal road. Letty would never have admitted it but she was nervous. She'd only ever driven in the abandoned lot her dad, and then Mr. Toretto had taken her to in order to practice. She couldn't technically get her permit even for another year, but she knew how to handle a manual no problem. She'd even started to sneak in quick drives in the Chevelle when no one was around, now that she was running.

She slid into the driver's seat of the Nissan. She needed to adjust it and the mirror and she buckled herself in as the people around her chatted. The guy whose car it was… was his name Rafael…. Leaned against the window and grinned at her. "If you win I'll give you a kiss," he told her, fluttering his lashes.

She bit back the response she wanted to give, after all, he was letting her use his car, but she couldn't stop from rolling her eyes. Luckily he just laughed and wished her good luck before stepping back.

She wasn't sure if all the other boys underestimated her, or if they were drunk (and thus had bad reaction time) or just sucked at driving, because she was off the starting line when the flag went down before all of them. She could hear her cousin cheering her on, screaming her name. There was something about the rush of the wind whipping through her hair, the buzz of the engine, the stick shifting smoothly beneath her hand as she put her foot down on the clutch. There was something freeing about driving, about racing. Maybe it had been why her father had always loved engines. Maybe it was why Mr. Toretto went back to the race track time and again. There was just something in them that needed this feeling.

She blew past the light posts that served as the finish line with Manuel in his green Mazda just a few seconds behind her. When she got out Maria was running towards her whooping excitedly. Manuel got out of his car and gave her a grin.

"That was impressive," he said.

"You sure showed us," another guy said, handing over the cash.

"Hell yeah!" Rafael whooped. "This chick knows how to drive!"

Letty spent the rest of her summer in the DR learning about the local racing scene. She went to parties and maybe even got a little drunk a time or two. She ended up getting thrown in jail one night for racing and driving without a license. Her Abuela had despaired about how she was just like her father but Letty relished in the knowledge. She got more than a little thrill out of doing what she wasn't supposed to.

That, she thought, was part of who she was.

And maybe that was the Letty she needed to let Dominic Toretto see