I just wanted to give a quick shout out to all of you wonderful people who have been favorite-ing, following, reviewing, and reading.

So, to all of you people, I just wanted to say: Thank you so much. It means the world to me and it helps motivate me to write knowing that there are people who are enjoying my fanfic.

Enjoy!


I felt two strong hands grab both of my ankles, and I mentally cursed.

Not again…

My eyes flew open as I was roughly dragged off my bed, narrowly avoiding hitting my head on the metal bed frame. "Dad!" I yelped, "what the hell?!" I kicked my legs, trying to get him to let go.

He let go and took a step back to avoid my flailing legs, mostly because I was in prime position to kick him where the sun didn't shine. "It's time to get up," he grunted before stalking out of the room.

"The fuck?" I muttered, clambering to my feet. "Most people get a normal wake-up call, but what do I get? A 'lemme drag you out of bed and then tell you it's time to get up'." I grumbled, grabbing a pair of shorts that would stop at mid-thigh as well as a grey camisole from my drawers. I scurried to my bathroom in order to snatch a quick shower.

After I had gotten my shower, I hurried downstairs to make my dad and I breakfast. I settled for something simple that wouldn't take long and would get me out of his sight faster: cinnamon toast. The choice was met with only mild complaining from my dad, and I noted that he looked pretty exhausted.

As I pretended to be completely enamored by cleaning the dishes, I pondered over the change in my dad's attitude. It was one of his better days - probably his best day thus far.

It wasn't natural.

Panic seized me suddenly as a new thought occurred.

Had he found the lambo?

If he did, then it's probably gone by now.

I hastily finished the dishes, gave an excuse. "I'm going to clean up the shed," and scurried out the back door towards the shed. I cracked the door enough to slip through. I didn't know for sure if he had found it, and I wasn't about to give it away in my hurry to ensure that my hypothesis wasn't right.

I heaved a sigh of relief, my hysteria washing away immediately.

The tarp covered lamborghini was still where I had left it last night. My barefeet padded softly towards it, and I threw back the tarp, taking a step back once I had done so. I had been so stressed out last night that I had forgotten to make a mental checklist of what supplies I was going to need to fix up the appearance.

"No time like the present," I mused aloud.

I was going to need to figure out a way to replace the window.

I'm sure James would be more than happy to assist.

Check.

I needed to obtain a buffer to buff out the dings.

I'll get that from James as well.

Check.

Last of all: I would need red paint to fix the awful looking paintjob.

All supplies I could get from James.

Perfect.

My hand immediately went to my pocket, and I cursed.

Of course, the one time I actually need it.

I groaned loudly, kicking a workbench, and of course, promptly recoiled. "Bad idea, bad idea." I whined, hopping around on one leg like some sort of demented bird, grasping my foot.

I needed some sort of plan to get the supplies without using my phone to contact them, but I was screwed over because I had no valid excuse to go into town.

I couldn't call him, and I couldn't go visit him.

Great.

"Why does this have to be so damn complicated?" I grumbled, stalking around the workshop. I ruffled through toolboxes as if by doing so, the needed materials would appear.

BANG! BANG!

I let out a screech as I whirled around to see the door shake as someone on the outside hit it again.

"Angelica!"

"Comin'!" I yelped, scrambling over to the lamborghini to toss the tarp back over it. I grimaced as I realized how conspicuous it looked. Another blow to the door shook me out of my thoughts as I dashed to the door, fumbling to undo the lock and yank it open. "Hey!" I said, brushing my hair out of my face.

My father narrowed his eyes at me as he took in my appearance, and his nose wrinkled in disgust. "I need you to go into town to get more gas." I opened my mouth to respond, an expression of annoyance on my face. "I went through it last night because of drag racing." He continued evenly, almost daring me to protest.

Instead, I clamped my mouth shut and nodded silently. He had participated in drag racing in the past, but my arms ached as a reminder of the heavy lifting I did yesterday.

On the bright side, that meant I had the perfect excuse to go into town and talk to James about the materials I needed. "Fine," I said, sounding less than pleased. He lumbered away back towards the house, and I followed him after I had closed and locked the shed once again.


Twenty minutes later, due to another day with lack of traffic, I was back at the dingy little gas station, tramping through the doorway.

It's so weird, and kinda sketchy that no one is out and about.

Shaking that oh-so-pleasant thought off, I called out. "James!" As I entered the shop, my nose assaulted instantly by the stench of gas station foods. I fought off the urge to vomit.

He looked up from where he was standing, arranging merchandise on a shelf. "Hey Angie, long time no see." He winked, but frowned as he noticed the gas can in my hand. "He needs more already?"

"Drag racing," I supplied, handing it to him.

"Ah," he took it, heading towards the back. I followed.

"Listen," I began, "I need a favor - a couple actually."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I need a buffer, some paint, and I need help replacing the window."

He paused and I nearly bumped into him. He turned around to look at me, seeming to be considering it for a couple moments before he nodded slowly. "Alright," he said. "I'll drop by tonight after your pops is outta the house. How's that sound?"

"Great," I beamed at him as he continued to the back of the store to refill the gas can.


At 6:30 P.M., James showed up with a large container that contained a package wrapped in bubble wrap, a buffer, and some new, shiny red paint. "Ready to get started?"

"Hell yes," I grinned widely, directing him to follow me back to the shed.

Once we had entered the shed, he set down the container on the workbench nearest to the lamborghini. He dug the bubble wrapped package out and laid it out on the table, carefully unwrapping it.

"I'm gonna need your help in holding it while I reinstall it back into the lambo," he directed, opening the driver's door and delicately placing the glass in the window spot. I walked over and held it for him as he went about fixing it.

Moments later, he was giving me a crash course on how to use the buffer as well as how to apply the paint.

"That should cover it," he stated as he finished, picking up his now empty container.

"Thanks," I said. "I'll get these back to ya as soon as I can."

He waved it off, "don't bother. Those are the spares from the gas station, we won't need 'em back."

I nodded slightly before leaning in and giving him an awkward hug. "See ya."

"Bye," he waved with a friendly grin before exiting the shed.

I sighed and looked back at the lamborghini. I would have to vacuum it out and wash it before I could do anything else.

I bit my lip, glancing from the lamborghini to the door, and back again. It was probably at least 7:20 by now, and I didn't want to get caught up vacuuming out the car and getting caught by my dad because I didn't hear him enter the shed.

It was highly unlikely that he would be home this early, but I wasn't willing to take that chance. I walked up to the lamborghini and ran my hand over its hood with a soft sigh. I didn't know what I was going to do with it yet.

Maybe use it as some sort of bargaining chip to get into college?

It was a possibility, but it wasn't a guarantee.

Sometimes you have to gamble to get results.

I started towards the door to outside, pausing to give the red lamborghini one last longing look. "Tomorrow," I promised as I turned and walked out, locking the door behind me.


"Angelica fucking Hollis."

The name was slurred and my blue eyes flew open in alarm.

I couldn't see, blinking rapidly, trying to adjust to the darkness of my room.

The air reeked of alcohol and I slowly became aware of heavy breathing, and it wasn't my own.

"Oh no," my voice a ghost of a whisper.

I could feel a strong hand on my right ankle.

This isn't happening.

I tried to deny it by screwing my eyes tightly shut, but I was still dragged roughly off my bed nonetheless.

Not again.

I had gotten off easy this morning. I had a feeling this time I wouldn't be so so lucky.

So much for this being one of his good days.

My suspicions were confirmed after the thought had formed as the air was knocked from my lungs by several swift kicks to the gut. Gasping for breath, I barely heard the clinking of a buckle before I was struck in the arm with his belt.

I cried out in pain as I was whipped repeatedly with the offending leather, trying to squirm away whilst simultaneously attempting to protect my face, my arms crossed at the wrist.

That was a mistake.

He grasped my right wrist in an extremely tight grip, pain shooting up my arm.

"Leave me alone!" I yelled, trying to yank my wrist from his grasp, clawing at his arm with my other hand. My vision cleared for a moment and I noticed that he had, at some point, turned on the lights in my room. Everything was blurred out again as my sight was once again blocked by dancing stars as I was kicked in the stomach again.

"Shut the fuck up," he hissed. The leather let out a crack as he doubled his efforts to whip me with it, moving back and forth between my arms, legs, and torso.

I was honestly sick of this. I mean, who wouldn't? Sometimes, he would come home drunk and beat the shit out of me. Other times? He would just beat the shit out of me 'cuz he felt like it. Normally, I would just take it with minimal resistance, focusing more on defense, but this time…

I lashed out, kicking my legs as I had done this morning. I felt my left leg connect with something and my father cried out, releasing my wrist and stumbling backwards. There was a low snarl. Gauging from his reaction, I had just kicked him in the balls. I felt a small wave of satisfaction that I had inflicted some of the pain on him that he had been dealing to me.

"I'll deal with you later." Venom dripped from his voice as he turned and thumped out the room. Several moments later, I heard the front door being slammed shut and the tell tale noise of the car starting. I lay on the floor listening for several moments, trying to catch my breath, as I heard the engine rumble away.

There were going to be very serious consequences later, but I didn't want to stick around to find out.

I rolled onto my right side, attempting to push myself up onto my hands and knees, crying out as my right wrist spasmed as soon as the tiniest bit of pressure was put upon it. I rolled back onto my back, clutching it with my other hand, trying to dispel the wave of nausea. I wasn't sure what was wrong, it didn't feel broken, but it was more than likely badly bruised.

I felt faint because the only signals that were shooting to my brain were those saying "Hey, stupid, your whole body is in agonizing pain because your dumbass got beat again".

I felt like I was spinning, even though I was laying on the floor. My view blinked with spots, and I could feel the darkness seeping in as everything slowly turned blurry.

The last thing I saw was a figure, a man, with blonde hair looming over me. He seemed to be concerned, but I couldn't make out much more about his features as it was blurred by my rapidly failing eyesight.

That's weird. He had two glowing, crystal-like blue eyes. Human eyes don't glow.

With that final thought, my vision finally turned pitch blank, and I knew no more.


Osht, is that Sideswipe? What's gonna happen next? *Dramatic music*

Anyways, *record scratch noise and music cuts off*

I know I indirectly promised that Sideswipe was going to play a bigger part in the next chapter - and he was...Originally.

The chapter kinda sorta got a mind of its own.

It didn't go how I had planned it, but I have an idea for the next chapter where Sideswipe's gonna play a more important role. I haven't decided how exactly, or if he's going to have any dialogue, but just know the lil' crazy's gonna be a bigger part of the story now.

*Hides behind table* I also have no idea when I'll be able to update next 'cuz I got something coming up and more than likely won't have access to my computer to write. So if I can update soon, great, if not, uh, yeah. :P

Thanks for reading and for your patience with me! xD ;)

~TheQueenofBlades343