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Present day. Miami Florida.
It was early in the morning, not even daybreak yet and the sky was a deep shade of blue. Street lights were still on and provided most of the illumination on the streets which were mostly empty. The sight of people, much less cars, were a rare sight at the moment as most of them were still in bed, not yet ready to face the new day.
The otherwise quiet morning atmosphere was disturbed by the loud noise of tires squealing on asphalt. In an empty parking lot of somewhere on top of the hills a sole pink Honda S2000 did power slides all over the place trailing smoke and melted rubber. On the sidelines two girls, one armed with a laptop, standing by a tricked-out Dodge Ram pick-up truck, watched the S2000 slide around the lot as if it was wet.
The S2000 went to one end of the parking lot and face the other end. It revved its engine a few times; a spooling of a supercharger can be heard. The driver gunned the engine and the car took off like a rocket. When the engine hit the redline she shifted into second gear to gain a bit more speed.
Halfway down the lot, she was redlining at second gear but did not shift up. She wanted to test the cornering. She let of the gas and slammed the breaks and turned the wheel to the right. The car sharply changed direction and went in a curved arc. With a little too much oversteer than the driver wanted. Coming out of the turn, she gunned the engine again and was disappointed at the time it took the car to accelerate.
She did this drill a few times, throwing in a power slide or a drift every now and then but her complaint was the same all throughout. At one point the S2000 came to a halt in the middle of the lot. The two girls on the side quickly went over to the car. The driver of the S2000, a girl named Suki, wore a mildly frustrated expression on her face.
"How was it?" asked the girl with the laptop.
"It's not right for the way I drive," replied Suki almost immediately. "There's too much boost in the higher RPMs. I need a bit more low-end torque for better cornering."
"We thought this might be better, you know, for those long sprints."
"I have the new headers and pistons for that. Besides, even If I get high top speed the way the car is set up now, the other guy will be at the finish line by the time I go full on the speedo."
The girls scratched the backs of their heads. "Well we thought you might like it, though," said the other one.
"When will you guys learn it's not always about power?" Suki replied with a slight smirk. "Let's go already. Tej owes me a tune up anyway."
The two girls walked back to the Ram while Suki quickly did a donut for the heck of it and drove of out of the parking lot and onto the main road. Soon the Ram was already on its way as well. Both cars were on the main roads with a few other cars. Not much traffic yet at this hour.
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The two cars reached the highway some minutes later.
Suki and her two friends cruised along at a modest 70 mph though of course she could do more but it was too early in the day to expect any action. There were starting to see a few more cars on the highway now. Mainly large delivery trucks that were most likely headed to the docks populated the highway and Suki weaved passed them with ease with her friends in the Ram close behind.
As they drove along, Suki eventually noticed something out of the ordinary.
As she was driving past a couple of big rigs she noticed a car between them. Her first thought was that it was there to take advantage of the truck's slipstream (and truth be told, it was) to save on a little gas. But she soon noticed it was actually a tuner car.
"An S15 Silvia? Never seen one of those around here," she said to herself.
She drove alongside the bright, metallic orange Silvia. She admired the nicely flowing black tribal decals on the side that complemented the bright orange metallic body paint and the carbon fiber hood and spoiler. She read some of the after-market stickers that were on the car's door. She got a bit too lost into checking out the car to notice that she was now being watched too. The windows were tinted so she couldn't see clearly inside the car, but she eventually noticed that whoever the driver was he was looking back at her.
She wondered if he was admiring her car. How could he not be? Where else can you find anything like Suki's tricked-out S2000? Suki flashed the driver a smile but couldn't see his reaction to it. She then decided to show-off her car a bit by revving the engine into the redline and shooting off like a rocket at over a 130 mph.
She laughed to herself as she passed the first truck and left it behind in her dust along with the S15. Her two friends in the Ram caught up a few seconds later.
"Still flirting around, Suki?" blared the CB radio she had on the dash. Every now and then, they used these CB radios to coordinate with each other during races.
"You know me, girl," she said with a slight giggle to herself.
"Was that for the Silvia back there?"
"Yeah. Hey, have any of you two seen him before?"
"Naw, we were actually about to ask if you know him."
"No, I've never seen him before."
Suki then noticed something in her mirror. A small orange speck started to get progressively bigger right behind the Ram. She recognized it instantly as the S15 she passed a minute ago.
"Looks like somebody wants to play," Suki said with a smirk.
"Huh? What do you mean by—Whoa! He's coming up fast!"
Suki tightened the four-point harness that strapped her to her seat. She grabbed the CB radio she had and said "See you guys at the garage," and turned it off without even waiting for a response. She shifted into fifth and gunned the engine of her S2000 and blasted down the road. For once she was actually thankful for that new supercharger.
Suki's two friends in the Dodge Ram watched as the bright pink car disappeared into the distance and the new, bright orange car suddenly pass by them and give chase to their friend.
Traffic was building up a bit now as more and more cars began to appear on the expressway but it wasn't too crowded that Suki couldn't go all out. She easily weave in and out of traffic between cars and big trucks. She checked her rearview mirror. The S15 was still there behind her easily keeping up, almost effortlessly. The traffic around them actually proved to be very interesting obstacle where Suki was able to show-off her S2000's maneuverability.
Suki came up to a row of five cars idly driving down the road on the same lane of traffic. She got an idea and accelerated ahead. Using the three rolling cars as obstacles, she performed a slalom through all three at high speed. As she passed each car, her front bumper nearly grazed the rear fender of the car in front of her.
As she passed them all, one or two of the drivers honked their horn in protest of that stunt. She checked her rearview to see of her pursuer. The S15 charged and performed a slalom on the three cars as well, matching Suki's run turn per turn. This driver had skill, Suki thought to herself. But that was only the tip of the iceberg.
"Ok, boy, let's see if you can keep up," she said to herself.
She shifted up to sixth gear and brought the car near its top speed. The S15 replied by also shifting up and going all out. The two cars weaved in and around traffic like the other cars were standing still. Cars were easy enough to go around but the trucks proved problematic at times. Suki charged down the road and went to the right to pass a slow-moving Camry with a surprised old lady in the driver's seat. The S15 sped past that same Camry on the left.
Suki checked her rear-view again. He was still there. She grinned. She looked up ahead and saw an obstacle. Two large trucks were occupying the middle of the road while the rest of the lanes on either side were occupied by cars blocking the way. There was a gap between the trucks as one truck was behind the other and the one behind was speeding up to overtake.
Suki wore an excited smile on her face as they came up to the two large trailer trucks. The truck that was a little behind was moving to pass the slower-moving truck ahead of it and that's when Suki saw an opportunity there and gunned her engine. She passed the first truck, squeezed through the gap just in time and went on ahead, convinced the S15 couldn't follow her anymore.
She was wrong.
Behind the two trucks the driver of the S15 gunned his own engines and drove right along side the speeding rig. Before he lost his chance, the S15 slipped right under the large trailer of the truck and drove under it; the car's roof less than an inch from the bottom of the trailer. When the truck and its trailer were past the truck that was ahead of it, the S15 maneuvered out from under the trailer and back into the light of day.
Suki was surprised at the apparent brazenness of the driver for pulling that kind of stunt. She couldn't react in time when the S15 came up to her and drove along side her S2000. The two cars was now side-by-side driving down the highway at over 150 mph. Suki looked into the side windows of the S15 and though she couldn't identify the driver though the tint of the windows, she could see him smile at her.
The S15 revved up and exceeded the S2000's speed. The fact of the matter is that the S15 had a much higher top speed than the S2000 and Suki knew this now. She let off the gas and watched in amazement as the S15 disappeared into the distance.
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A few hours later, Tej's Garage.
Suki pulled into the front area of the garage where a bunch of other tuner cars were already parked. She spotted Orange Julius' RX-7 and Slap Jack's Supra up front. She also saw the Dodge Ram her two friends a while ago. Suki parked in a spot ahead of those three cars and hopped out. She stretched her limbs as she walked towards the back where the water's edge was located.
When she got there, there were tons of people kicking in the morning. Somewhere in the background some light hip-hop was playing in a relatively low volume so as not to annoy the neighbors. The mood was already pretty hype as some people were in the water taking their equivalent of a daily bath. Suki browsed around to check the faces of the people present.
She saw her crew on one side of the, some of whom were in two piece swimsuits. She saw Slap Jack on a barbeque grill frying up some bacon for breakfast with his girlfriend standing by his side preparing the drinks; lemonade, because it was too early to get wasted. Tej and Jimmy were on another side talking with a bunch of people, no doubt they were talking about the events tonight.
It wasn't even 9 in the morning and already we have a party happenin', thought Suki who ultimately decided to simply head for Slap Jack and get herself some meat to eat.
"Well, well, well," she heard someone say from behind her. "I was wondering when you would show that sweet skirt in here."
Suki didn't need to turn around to know Julius' hands were moving towards her with a life of their own.
"Touch my ass, Julius," she said with a stern voice, "and you'll find out how hard it is to drive with a couple of broken thumbs."
Orange Julius retreated his hand. He smirked and said something in Spanish which Suki didn't get. Julius walked past her and stood in front of Slap Jack's barbeque.
"Hey, man," said Jack. "It's too early in the morning to be doing that."
"Aww, C'mon esse, Just tryin' to say hola." He said as he grabbed a couple of plates with bacon eggs and a plastic spork and passed one to Suki who took it with a slight 'hmph'
"Tray and say hola to me and I swear I'll make you eat your own exhaust," said Suki.
"Hey, if that's the only way I can get you to talk to me," said Julius as he took a slice of bacon with his hand and bit a chunk off. Slap Jack just rolled his eyes and continued on cooking. Suki treated herself to some of that food on her plate and made to turn away. She stopped and turned back when a thought came to her head.
"Actually, there is something I wanna talk to you about," she said. "You too Slap."
They all paid attention to her now. "What's up, then, Suki?" asked Slap Jack.
"You guys know anybody around here who drives a Silvia?"
Slap Jack and Julius looked towards each other for a moment then back at Suki.
"I think there's this cat, Carl, up in Richmond who owns one."
"What's the model and color?"
"'97 model. Blue."
Suki sighed in slight frustration. That was not who she was looking for. "How about a '99 model, orange with black graphics on the side. Know anyone with that?"
Both Slap Jack and Julius shook their heads.
"Fie, I'll just go talk to Tej."
Suki walked away and left the three at the barbeque a little confused. She wanted to go over where Tej was but she saw that he was too busy and didn't wanna talk to him just then. She decided to head inside the garage.
Inside the garage was an array of exotic looking tuner cars and a few muscle cars here and there. There was even an Aston Martin on one of the lifts getting a tune up. The music from outside was dampened by the sound of power tools. Most of Tej's staff were actually outside enjoying the morning and there was only one other person other than Suki in the garage.
"Jimmy? Is that you?" she asked.
Jimmy popped his oil stained face from under the hood of his car. He looked up and saw Suki there holding a plate of food and chewing on a piece of bacon.
"Yo, Suki, what's happening?" he greeted her.
"Whatever it is, you're missing it," she said. "First thing in the morning and your working on your car?"
"Waddaya mean first thing? I never crashed last night."
Suki was a bit surprised but not all that much. It was as if she was expecting this a bit o some level. Jimmy was a bit different from before now that he got through some new experiences and she was just trying to catch up to him.
Ever since about a three weeks ago, Jimmy got his first car of his own: A VW Golf Mk V R32. He was more than eager to take it out on a spin. Suki remembers that night well. She was riding along with him while testing out her friend's 350Z. They came to a stoplight then somehow, by complete coincidence, ended up side-by-side with some punk rich boy and his prissy girlfriend in a Ferrari F355 F1 Spyder.
A sleazy remark must've been said somewhere as suddenly Jimmy was revving the heck out of his engine. Suki saw what was coming up next. As soon as the light turned green the Golf R32 and the F355 went flying off the line leaving Suki in the dust. She quickly launched after them but didn't make an attempt to overtake either one. She was just thankful there was no traffic at that road.
For the most part, the F355 was steadily gaining a lead. Suki wasn't surprised but Jimmy was getting frustrated behind the wheel. Suddenly, the guy in the F355 got too cocky and made the mistake of miss-shifting. The F355 lost precious speed and allowed Jimmy's Golf to blaze into the lead and level the guy in the dust.
Ever since then, Jimmy caught the racing bug. Every opportunity he got, he entered into a race or started one himself. He got lucky in all of them and built a small reputation for himself. Tej, his mentor, was none too excited about the idea but didn't disagree to it. He helped Jimmy along watched the kid's back.
He spent almost all his free time (including most of his sleep time) tuning his car and in the span of three weeks since his first race the Golf received a Rieger body kit complete with front and rear fenders, side skirts, and a low spoiler, black finished 18" Ace rims wrapped in Yokohama racing tires, a short shift package, spark plugs, cold air intake, a sports camshaft, and a tuned engine management system from Neuspeed, coil over suspension and roll bars from Intrax, Brembo breaks, a stage 1 supercharger kit from VF-Engineering, custom gauge packages on the dash, Sparco seats, a MOMO steering wheel, and the ever popular nitrous kit provided by NOS. Jimmy also had his car painted in a metallic black coat and spiced it up with digital-style graphics on the sides and on the hood.
Overall the car was a beast of a hot hatch pulling about 350 horses under the hood. Building the car was one thing. Driving it was another venture. Jimmy had some talent, they all could see that. But in truth the kid was far from being a professional. And that worried them all.
"With this baby," continued Jimmy, "I'm gonna dominate tonight's races."
"You're participating tonight?"
"Yeah. Ain't nobody gonna beat me in this thing."
"You shouldn't be so confident, Jimmy. It pays to be a little nervous every now and then."
"What for?"
"That way you're more open to mistakes, more adaptable. You can't just assume everything will go your way, Jimmy, even if you had the best car out there."
Jimmy simply grinned back at that remark. "C'mon, Suki. Who's out there that you think can beat me?"
Suki smirked. She could think of one guy.
Just then Julius and Slap Jack came into the garage. Suki and Jimmy turned their heads towards them as they came in.
"What's up?" asked Jimmy.
"This vato ran out of bacon," said Julius pointing towards Jack.
"Hey man, it ain't my fail Moses can't keep his fat ass in check," said Jack, "Anyway we need more food."
"Well you're not gonna find any here," said Jimmy. "I didin't get any groceries yet. Too busy working on my car."
"Yeah about that. You really thinkin' of racing tonight with that? I mean it's a swee ride and all, Jimmy, but you're no Rhys Millen."
"I can handle myself, Slap."
Jimmy said that with a serious tone and Suki noticed. He really wanted this but there was the possibility he might regret it. But she knew she couldn't stop him now. She decided to change the subject of the conversation.
"Well, anyway, if it's food you want, let's just call for some pizza again like we usually do," said Suki as she walked to a phone on the wall. She dialed a number without thinking much about it. It was a number she's been getting used to for the past couple weeks.
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Somewhere on the other side of the city.
At a little establishment that read Leguizamo's Pizzas the morning was kicking off as it usually did. The few tables that were in the small restaurant were quickly being filled with hungry breakfast goers who were looking for cheap Italian cuisine. In the kitchen, the small labor force of three chefs, including the owner of the restaurant (a Mr. Enrique Leguizamo) were all cooking up a storm.
Mr. Leguizamo came out of the kitchen just as the front door opened to let in a young man. "You're late!" Mr. Leguizamo said almost automatically with a heavy Columbian accent.
The young man in question looked to be in his early twenties. He was about five-and-a-half feet tall with an average build. His light skin complexion didn't specify any nationality but something in it said that he was half American. The other half was up for debate. He had short, straight, black hair under his red cap which bore the name of the restaurant. He wore a red polo shirt that also bore the name of the restaurant along with a phone number written in the back. Below that was a plain old pair of blue jeans and sneakers.
Pinned to his shirt was a nametag that read: Alex.
"You say that every time, sir," he said right back to his boss.
"That's because every time it's true!"
"Hey I always deliver the pies you give me on time, don't I? 30 minutes or less right? Otherwise it's free."
"Yes, sure, you haven't been late yet but your last delivery was almost late by one minute. The guy himself called me back and told me so."
"Ok, who the hell complains that their pizza was almost late by one minute?"
"People who want it for free…which is everybody in this country," said Mr. Leguizamo as he picked up half-a-dozen large pizza boxes on and placed them on the counter top. "Here, your next delivery."
"Already? I just got back here!"
"Don't complain. You should count yourself lucky that the people in this country are too lazy and too fat to make their own food. That's why you still have a job and I have a business." He wrote an address on a notepad on the counter, ripped of the paper and put it on top of the stack of pizza boxes then pointed out the door. "Twenty-eight minutes left, boy. You better move."
With a frustrated sigh, Alex grabbed the stack. "Who ever heard of a Columbian guy running a pizza place anyway?"
Mr. Leguizamo gave him a stern look and Alex simply smirked in response then headed out of the restaurant with the stack of pizza in hand.
Outside, Alex made a beeline for the scooter parking area. He walked over to his scooter, a Honda Metropolitan painted in the restaurant's colors, stuffed the stack of pizza boxes into the large, insulated box for pizzas stuck to the back, grabbed that little piece of paper with the address on it, hopped on, and started the vehicle, all in less than seven seconds. He read the address on the paper. The name of the place was "Tej's Garage."
It was then that he hesitated a bit as he read the name of the place again. He couldn't help but smile. He was going to that place again.
He propped up the kick stand and turned the throttle hitting the road at a modest 30 mph.
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Author's Note: My first shot at an FnF fic. Always been a fan of the movies and a bit of an addict to racing video games. So here's what I've got so far. I have a big story planned for this so this is gonna take a while.
In the meantime, I'd love to hear some feedback. Pls. R&R