Chapter 13


Friends and Enemies

Morning came too early for some of the party goers last night. Many didn't have to get up quite as early as some. Mostly the one's who were still in college. Most not to include Regina, who had morning classes so that she could still work part time to make her own way. She hated to ask Will for money, he was paying her way through school after all. She knows he really doesn't care to give her any, but she sure didn't want to ask him right now. She was pondering whether to even speak to him this morning, much less ask him for some money until she got paid this week. She could hear him stirring around in the Kitchen, probably making breakfast. He always did get up at 5 am every day. Even on the weekends. She thought about how much like their Dad he was turning out to be.

Will: (knocked on the door to her room) "Hey? You in there?"

Regina didn't answer the first time.

Will: "I know you can hear me. Please come and eat before you leave."

Regina didn't sense that he was still upset about last night. So she answered quietly.

Regina: "I'll be down in 5 minutes, ok?"

Will: "Ok.." Will stood there for a moment, trying to insert an apology about last night. But the words didn't come. He was always bad at trying to mend things by talking, he always stumbled with his emotions too much to know exactly what to say.

He walked quietly back to the kitchen and grabbed his toast and ate it quickly as he swallowed the orange juice right behind it. He grabbed a napkin and a pen and jotted down something barely legible. He reached into his pocket and left something underneath the napkin as he grabbed his hat and headed for the building to start working. He had A LOT of things to get squared away before he started testing and critiquing the parts from RPT.

Regina heard the door at the back slam shut, she assumed it was ok to come down to the kitchen now, so she grabbed her things and went to the table to sit down and eat.

As she sat down and started chewing on her breakfast, she noticed the napkin and picked it up and read the note to herself. "I'm sorry if I upset you. I'm not angry anymore, I was only upset. Forgive me? I love you sis. " Regina was in tears as she read the note. She always knew he wasn't good at talking things out but this was the first time since Donna passed that he told her he loved her. She knew he did, she is his sister for crying out loud. But even though he hasn't spoken it yet, it still made her feel better. Actually this is the first time he ever told her he was sorry like note said, period. So that says something, anyway. She then noticed the two hundred dollar bills under the note. On it was written. "I know you needed it, her heard you say you did" ---Will.

It was right then, that I knew he could somehow "read" my mind. She could only smile, and the thoughts of what happened last night were much less painful to her now.

She finished breakfast, gathered her books and her purse and went out to the car in back, stopping in the shop out back first. She came in and noticed he was already working in the spray booth. She sat her books and things on the table waiting for him to come out.

Soon after he came out and into the office area, she snuck up behind him and grabbed him around the waist from behind and hugged him.

Will: "Wow what was that for?" he smiled.

Regina: "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. I'm going to school. If you need me call my cell number okay?"

Will: "I will, I should be fine today though."

Will: "I'm sorry about.."
Regina cut him short.

Regina: "I know, it's ok. Really. Let's just put it behind us and move on."

Will: "Ok, take care. Have a good day."

Regina: "Okay. See you later this afternoon." She kissed him on the check as she scrambled for the door with her things.

Will sat down thinking about last night. And promised to himself he'd work on his temper. He didn't want to have an explosive temper like his dad. That was his dad's biggest flaw. He was very quick to fly of the handle.

Will grabbed his cup of coffee and walked back into the machine area of his building to start setting up his test lab and equipment before the RPT engineers come by in the afternoon to see his process and test procedures.

Keiichi woke as Bell softly called his name a few times, lying next to him. Kei could do nothing but open his eyes and smile at the beautiful face that gets to greet him every morning.

Bell: "Kei, you should get up and awake. Aren't you going to the storage and get your bike today?"

Kei: "Yeah. Thank you for reminding me Bell. I'm just tired. Actually overwhelmed is more like it, haha."

Bell: "Yes I know. I am too. I wonder if Urd and Skuld are awake yet?"

Kei: "I dunno. I'm sure they're tired too. Why don't you go to their room and find out?"

Bell: "Hmm, ok. I think I will. (kissed Kei on the lips) I'll be back in a few minutes ok?"

Kei: "Ok Bell. I think I'll get a shower while you're gone"

Bell: "oooooh. You don't need me for anything do you? "Bell had a fake pout on her face.

Kei: "No I'm fine Bell." Kei spoke without realizing what she meant at first, then he blushed thinking of something to retract what he said.

Bell: "OH, I see. Then I'll go then..be back in a few minutes."

Kei: "ahh, Bell.I mean. Um. When you get back."

Bell: "Get back what Kei?"

Kei: "Ah, um. Nothing really just um. Maybe you could "help" me?"
Bell: "oh. OH! Umm. Sure sweetie." Bell's face was raging red so she quickly turned and left out the door. She couldn't believe what she'd started. "Well, at least this might be fun." she thought to herself.

Greg Kirklin and Emilio Tavez sat at the office of their custom auto and sound shop, along with other club members of the Cruzin Streetz Car Club. Greg And Emilio and his brother in law, Terrence were all joint owners of the shop and the main members of the club. When the club started out it was just a means for people to get together and have fun. But in the past year with the street racing and import scene growing like wildfire, members started dropping like flies. Greg was extremely pissed off about Will, Shane and some of the other friends of theirs as the reason for them loosing members. So ever since then, the club and Will and his friends have always rubbed the wrong way so to speak. The Cruzin Streetz club was still about 25 members strong but before Will came around, the membership was triple that or more. It mostly started the night when Will and Regina were still fairly new to town about two years ago. Will and Regina had just gotten settled in the house they bought outside of town. So being friendly like they are, they noticed the Sonic was a big hangout for a lot of the town folk, young and old alike. So they started hanging around and soon started making friends. Before too long they started hanging around at the street races. Will didn't have his Chevelle complete at the time, so they often went in Regina's "Thunder chicken". Even had the matching tag on the front.

Eventually, he started running the T'bird in some of the street racing events. Before they knew what hit them, many of them learned the hard way about how well the car ran. Most of the club members were beat pretty badly by the 'Bird. A lot of them were so impressed that they simply started hanging around wherever Will was. That was what started the friction between the Cruzin Streetz and Will and the gang.

Greg: "So what is it I hear about Will starting some club of his own?"

Terrence: "That's all I heard man. Don't know if it's true or not. I heard it was some thing with his company and the RPT parts company. I dunno if it's his doing or not."

Greg: "I don't give a shit if it's his doins' or not dude. We can't sit by and let this shit happen is all I'm sayin."

Emilio: "So what the hell are we supposed to do huh? Beatin his ass ain't gonna solve shit."

Greg: " I know that Emilio. Maybe we could do something, that will hit him were it hurts. Like his reputation. Talk about messin somebody up. If it was done right we'd have him moving away in no time..heheheh."

Brad and Rachel sat nervously in the office of their supervisor, expecting to be chewed out about something. What else could it be about? They never got called in the office unless something serious was going on.

Brad: "man I wonder what we did wrong now?"

Rachel: "I don't know. But it was probably all your fault." She smiled..

Brad: "Come on Rach! That ain't funny you know."

Rachel: "I know I was just kidding, if you call me Rach again, I'm cropping your lips off."

Brad: "Sorry, I forgot. Say? I wonder how Kei and the others are feeling this morning?"
Rachel: "I don't know, I haven't called them this morning yet."

Brad: "Man I know Regina was upset last nite. What do you think happened?"

Rachel: "I don't have any idea. Hope it wasn't too serious."
Brad: "Uh oh..here he comes.."

Mr. Ulrich walked in with a bit of a smirk on his face. Brad and Rachel didn't know what to make of it, so they only smiled back.

Mr. Ulrich: "Ok you two can knock it off, you aren't in any trouble ok."

Brad: "Umm. Yessir."

Rachel: "Thank you sir."
Mr. Ulrich: "I asked you in here today to see how much you like the new R&D engineer, that Morisa..Morrisa"

Rachel: "Keiichi Morrisato, sir?"

Mr. Ulrich: "Yes. That's right. Thank you, I'm awful with names, especially foreign ones."

Brad: "You were saying sir?"

Mr. Ulrich: "Oh, yes. Well it seems the V.P. wants to expose this fellow to as much of our company as he can handle to get a feel so to speak, of how we do things and operate as a company. Furthermore, he feels that since you two hit it off with this fellow Kei and his family, that you would serve well as liaisons, and his underlings for a while. We need to have him focus on our drag racing and the import performance market development above all else, since this is where we are lacking in the market for products at this point. So take him, and his family as necessary to shows, and races, get him exposed to the drivers and mechanics that we sponsor. They won't mind, if they do? Well we'll find drivers and teams that want to cooperate."

Brad and Rachel looked at each other puzzled for the moment.

Brad: " Um. Sir. What about our duties we have already?"

Mr. Ulrich: "Well that's been taken care of for the moment. Don't worry this isn't permanent. Do you mind this assignment?"

Rachel: "Oh no Sir! It sounds like fun, actually."

Mr. Ulrich: "Ok then. When you have time this afternoon, please bring him and his family in to tour the plant and offices. Get him a little acquainted with the place. Then take them to dinner and talk about a plan of attack. What you need to do is get a focus of what is expected of him, and yourselves. This is important ok?"

Brad: "Yessir."

Rachel: "Yes Mr. Ulrich."

Mr. Ulrich: "Alright you're dismissed for now. Send me an inter office memo of anything you may need. "

Brad and Rachel left the office sort of stunned at what Mr. Ulrich said. They've never done all of this before with someone else, this Keiichi Morrisato fellow, really must be worth his weight in gold to RPT. They both assumed they'd find out once he started working on development.

Brad got back to the office, or his cubicle, as he called it, and called Kei at the hotel.

The phone rang for quite while before he hung up, shaking his head.

Brad: "Hey Rachel? There's no answer there. You think they're asleep still?"

Rachel: "I doubt it. Maybe they're out sight seeing. I dunno."

Brad: "Well I wanted to take him to Will's shop so they could get acquainted today."

Rachel picked up her phone and dialed the hotel for Skuld and Urd's room.

Rachel: " Oh hello! Hi. This is Rachel. How are you this morning? That's good. Say is Kei and Bell in their room? OH! So Bell is there? Can I speak with her? Thank you."

Bell: "Ohayo! OH! I'm sorry I mean, hello?"

Rachel laughed telling her not to apologize.

Rachel: "Haha..that's alright Bell. Is Kei with you?"
Bell: "Um. No he's in the room taking a shower right now."

Rachel: "Oh ok. Brad wants to take you all to Will's shop so you can get to know him better. Kind of get acquainted and familiar with what he does, then after lunch we want to give you the grand tour of the plant and offices ok? Could take up most of your day, but we're covering lunch and dinner."

Bell: "Oh sure it sounds exciting. When will you be here?"

Rachel: "Brad said it would be an hour. So 10 o'clock ok?"

Bell: "Sure. We'll be waiting. Bye-bye!"

Rachel: "Bye Belldandy."

Regina sat quietly at the fountain in front of the student center, when Shane snuck up next to her and threw his arm around her.

Shane: "Hey there adopted sis! Whatcha doin?"

Regina: "AH! Dammit Shane don't do that..i hate that."

Shane: "Sorry, baby sis. So you feeling better today? What was up last night?"

Regina: "Nothing. Will just jumped my case last night ok. He was being an ass cause I called and woke him up I guess. We're over it so don't worry about it."

Shane: "Oh. Ok. I just wanted to know what was wrong is all. Wasn't being nosey ok."

Regina: "When are you NOT nosey Shane?"

Shane: "umm, Never?"

Regina: "Ha! Yeah right."

Shane: "So uh, you think Will is gonna do the club thing you talked about two weeks ago?"

Regina: "I dunno. I haven't talked to him about it since then. You know if I push it, he'll say no anyway."

Shane: "Yeah. He's like that. But I think he might change his mind. Just to piss off Greg and Emilio. Those two dudes have got it in for him anyway. I'm surprised they haven't tried to start any shit lately you know?"

Regina: "I know. I have Terrance in my Physics class. He's a total jerk to me most of the time. You figure they'd have grown up after high school."

Shane: "Yeah, I know I have."

Regina: "What? Yeah, sure you have. You're actually your shoe size now."

Shane: "Aww..that ain't nice now."

Regina: "At least I didn't embarrass you like I did Terrance the other day. I told him he reflects the old wives' tale "A small mind means a small Penis" He was fuming hot after that, especially since I said it and my Instructor even laughed."

Shane: " Damn girl. I'm gonna have to watch your back now. You know he's liable to try something to get you back for that. When you least expect it too."

Regina: "I can take care of myself."

Shane: "Yeah but not if it's more than him. Did you tell Will? "

Regina: "Are you nuts? If I told him that, he'd probably kill them or beat the shit out of them. I don't need my brother in jail again."

Shane: "Yeah, that was pretty bad the last time. Don't care to see that again."

Regina: "If you had not pulled him off of him, he would be dead right now. I'd be all by myself."

Shane: "Yeah. I better go. You gotta get to class. So split. I'll see you later this afternoon. Can I get a ride to the house with you later?"

Regina: "Sure just be here at 3:45, no later you hear?"

Shane: "Ok, baby sis. See ya!"

Regina: "Bye Shane.."

Next Chapter

Speed Shifts