A/N: Thanks to 2furious4u for the review of the last chapter, and thank you to everyone who put me and/or this story on their alert list. Part of this story takes place before the movie, part after. It's going to go between the two, hopefully it will be clear. Let me know if it's not. Think of it as two story lines, intertwined. Other than that, they'll be linear, i.e. the parts from before will be told in order, as will the parts from after. This starts when Rae is 14, Mia is 13, Letty, Leon and Han are 15, and Vince and Dom are 17. ish.
Happy birthday to Jordana Brewster!
Review and Enjoy!
At the young age of fourteen, Raeka had discovered something very important.
Life Sucked.
She was standing next to her Grandmother and her older cousin Letty, neither of whom she'd met before, and was waving good-bye to her big brother Alejandro.
Yep, life sucked.
Her grandmother turned to her, a look on her face like she smelled something bad. "I don't want no trouble from you, you hear me girl? Dinner's at seven. Letty, keep her outta trouble." With that, the old women stomped back inside the rickety two-storey that Rae was now supposed to call home. Yeah, right.
Letty turned to her, looking her from head-to-toe. "You like cars, right?" she asked.
"Sorta," Rae answered evasively.
"Fine. You can come with me. But you better be cool and not embarrass me," she added, giving Rae warning look.
"Where are we going?" Rae asked, following her older cousin as they walked briskly down the street.
"Toretto's Garage. Mr. Toretto is pretty cool, he lets us hang around, as long as we don't get in the way. He races on the pro-stock circuit, he's got a whole crew that work outta the garage in the season, but the rest of the time he fixes up cars. He lets us help out sometimes," she rushed, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"We?" Rae asked, frowning.
"Yeah, there's a couple of us that hang there. Leon and Han are pretty cool, they're foster brothers, at least for the moment. Dom and Mia are Mr. Toretto's kids, and there's Vince, Dom's best friend, he practically lives with them," she said, counting them off on her fingers.
The walked a couple blocks until they reach a square building with the sign 'Toretto's Racing and Auto Repair'.
They walked in through the open garage door and we immediately confronted with the loud guitar tones of Led Zeppelin, and the roar of engines.
"Yo, Mr. T! I brought a friend who likes cars 'round. Is that okay?" Letty yelled into the busy garage.
A large, barrel-chested man of about forty raised his head from under the hood of a nearby car, grumbling, "How many times do I gotta tell you Letty? Don't call me Mr. T. It makes me sound like the guy from the A-Team," at the girl's blank looks, he shook his head. "It's fine Letty, but you gotta stay out back, we're real busy today, okay?"
Letty nodded, grabbing Rae's had and pulling her through the hot garage and out the back door. The scene that greeted them out there wasn't much different from the one they had just left.
Two guys were leaning over the engine of a lime green car, and from their position; Rae couldn't see what they looked like. A pretty dark-haired girl a little younger than Rae herself was sitting on a stack of old tyres, her nose in a book. That must be Mia.
Two boys about Letty's age, fifteen, were arguing over an engine part, waving screwdrivers around as they gestured wildly. One was tall, but gawky looking, with light brown hair and blue eyes. The other one was Asian, also tall, with shaggy black hair falling into his face. I'm guessing that's Han.
"Hey, Dom!" Letty called, "I brought my cousin Rae around. Is that okay?"
"Whatever," a low voice answered from the car. Letty frowned at his casual dismissal.
Another voice added, "Yeah it'll be nice to have another guy around here, maybe your cousin can stop you from buggin' us all the time."
"Shut the fuck up, Vince!" Letty glowered at one of the backs. The two younger guys, Leon and Han, took one look at Rae and started laughing. Wondering what all the fuss was about, Dom and Vince raised their heads and looked over at where Letty was standing with her hands on her hips. The person standing next to her was obviously not a guy, even though she was as flat chested as one, wearing baggy jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. The long black hair kinda gave her away, though.
"That's your cousin?" Vince asked, obviously unimpressed. He was tall, with broad shoulders that he hadn't quite grown into yet. "What kinda name is Ray for a girl?"
Letty opened her mouth, but Rae answered first. "R-A-E. As in Raeka." Vince just stared, surprised that the tiny girl in front of him had answered back so angrily.
Dom raised an eyebrow, then asked, "Do you know about cars?"
She shrugged, repeating the same answer she gave Letty, "Sorta,"
"What does sorta mean?" Dom asked.
"It means she knows which side supposed to go forward, man. She doesn't know squat, she's a chick." Vince sneered, pissing Rae off enough that she spoke before she could think.
"I don't know jack-shit 'bout engines, but I drive pretty good, and I know which cars are worth stealing," They all stopped what they were doing and Mia even closed her book, finding that real life, for the moment, was more interesting.
"You steal cars?" Dom asked, his tone showing that he obviously didn't believe it.
She shrugged, "Used to. My brother made me promise I'd stop, or else he'd kick my ass."
"You steal any of my dad's cars, he'll kill ya," Dom warned, still not believing that the dark haired kid in front of him could pull it off.
"Don't worry," she shrugged, "I ain't got a hook-up in town anyway."
Leon let out a gravelly laugh at that. "You're not from here, then?" Han asked softly.
"Nah, she's from Chicago, but she's livin' with me and Abuela now. I gotta share a room," Letty grumbled.
"What, you parents didn't want you anymore? They just dumped there like Letty's ma did, I bet," Vince laughed.
Letty's face went pale. There were two 'clicks' as Leon and Han set down their tools and stood up. Rae remembered that they were foster kids, and were obviously angry at what Vince had said. It was Mia that surprised them all though, jumping off of her makeshift seat, shouting, "Just because you're having a shitty time at home doesn't mean you have to take it out on everyone else!"
Vince just shrugged and turned back to the engine.
"It was my choice," Rae said, causing their heads to swivel towards her from Mia. "My brother got a scholarship to university, and we decided that it would be best if he went, then he could get a decent job. But he can't work, and study, and look after me at the same time, so he asked Abuela to look after me 'till he can. He's gonna send money and everything. He didn't want to leave me, but I told him to go," her tone was proud, of both her brother and herself.
"What about your folks?" Mia asked quietly.
Letty shot her a shut-up! look. Rae just shrugged.
At that moment, Mr. Toretto came out holding a can of soda.
"Hey Mr.T.," Letty said, ignoring what he said earlier, and jumping on the distraction, "This is my cousin, Rae. She used to steal cars in Chicago, but she doesn't any more. It's still okay if she hangs out here, right?"
Mr. Toretto looked at her in surprise, "Why'd you steal cars, kid? Money?"
She shook her head. "I liked driving, but my parents only had a crapped-out Toyota. This kid in my class showed me how to boost cars, and his Tio Olivero would give me money for them. I like fast cars," she added.
"You know anything 'bout fixin' them up?" he asked.
"Oli tried to teach me once, but he decided I'm jinxed." At the horrified looks, the added, "I'm not a jinx, I don't cause accidents, it's just that if I try to fix anything myself, I just make it worse. I don't mind that much, I just like to drive."
Mr. Toretto nodded. "How old are you?"
"Fourteen," she said, lifting her chin a little.
He chuckled, "Well, you've still got a couple years 'till you can get your license, and I won't have you driving any of my cars 'till you can do it legal, understand?" She nodded. "You can stay. No more kids, though. I ain't runnin' a day care here, got it?" She nodded again. "Good. Dominic, how's it goin'?" he asked his son, moving to stand over the engine as he listened intently to his son.
Letty went over to work with Leon and Han, although every few minutes she would shoot Dom a longing look. Someone's got a cruuuuush!
Mia came over to Rae and asked, "Do you wanna paint with me? My dad said I could paint what ever I wanted on the wall over there, but I can't think of anything," she frowned.
Rae looked around, and realising she didn't have anything better to do, she shrugged, saying, "Well, what kind of things do you like?"
Her face brightened, "I like dolphins. And cats. And dogs. I like all animals, I guess!" she laughed. "I want to study to be a vet at college," she confided.
They started by drawing to animals on the wall first with pencil, and as they were doing it, they talked. It turned out Mia was almost a year younger than Rae, but that they would be in the same year at school because Mia had recently been moved forwards a grade. It also seemed that Mia knew everything that went on with her friends, like how Vince was having trouble at home, about home Letty was so into Dom (which Mia found disgusting, because he was a moron), and about how Han was freaking out because his six-month placement was nearly up and he didn't want to leave.
Rae was surprised to find that she was actually enjoying herself. Her cousin seemed okay, if a little temperamental (not that she could talk), and Letty's friends seemed okay, for the most part. Even though all the guys were big, they seemed real nice and laid-back, except Vince. He was the only one that scared her. Mia insisted that he was usually okay, but Rae wasn't sure.
As Mia was laying out the paints, Rae unthinkingly removed her hooded sweatshirt, leaving her in an old t-shirt she didn't mind getting paint on. Mia turned around and gasped, dropping the paint can she was holding, sending it clattering across the ground.
Rae quickly pulled the sweatshirt back on, but not before everyone got a good look at the big, angry pink scars criss-crossing her forearms.
"What was that? Did you try to kill yourself or somethin'?" Vince asked, no malice in his tone this time, just unthinking curiosity.
"Vincent!" Mr. Toretto bellowed, but it was too late, Rae had run off round the corner, quickly followed by Letty and Mia.
"What?" Vince asked, confused. Dom, Han and Leon just shook their heads, and Mr. T. took Vince round the building to have a little chat about the nature of the word 'tact'.
Somehow, Rae managed to get far enough ahead of Letty and Mia that she would have gotten home before them, if she hadn't gotten lost. Mia and Letty, slightly concerned and out of breath, found her sitting on the kerb one block over from her grandmother's house.
Not saying anything at first, they sat down on either side of her. "I can kick his ass if you want," Letty offered. At Rae at Mia's sceptical look, she amended, "Well, I could at least try. I don't think he'd hit a girl, so that'd give me the advantage."
Rae just smiled softly. After a moment, Mia asked, "Do they hurt?"
"Not anymore," meaning, of course, that they had at one point. A lot.
There was another quiet moment. "How did it happen?" Mia asked again, ignoring the warning look Letty was sending her. Letty's Abuela had told her what happened, and although she didn't think it had happened quiet as her grandmother told it, she got the general gist, and it was definitely not something Mia wanted to know about.
Rae's answer was simple though. "Glass."
"Yeah, but that's not what I meant," Mia said, believing the older girl had misunderstood the question. "I meant how…"
"I don't want to talk about it!" Rae suddenly yelled, leaping up from the kerb. "Just leave me alone okay! I don't need some little girl bugging me okay? So fuck off!" she screamed, running off, luckily in the right direction.
Mia sat in shock for a second, sniffled once then ran off in the opposite direction. Letty sat for a moment, then took off after her cousin, seriously doubting the girl's ability to find her way home.
After Letty had found her and led her back to the house without a word, Rae went up to their room and unpacked her stuff. Not that she had much, just enough clothes to last her a while and a box full of her photos and stuff. She took out a dog-eared picture and stroked the faces in longing.
It showed her, a couple years younger, smiling a toothy grin at the camera, standing next to a tall hansom teenage boy, her brother Alejandro. Behind them was a tall, good looking man with kind eyes and a shorter Asian woman with a beautiful face and a loving smile.
"Is that your folks?" Letty asked from behind her. Rae nodded. "Your mom's real pretty." She had, of course, seen the photo of her father's graduation on the wall downstairs. "Look, I won't tell anyone, but I want to know what happened. Abuela told me…something, but it didn't sound quite right. Please? I won't bug you again after this."
Rae looked at her for a moment, then nodded, realising she needed a friend who would understand her weird mood swings.
So she told her.
"Damn," Letty said, sounding sick. "I…shit. I don't know what to say." Rae just nodded glumly. "Look, about Mia…She's nosey as hell, but she's a good kid. She didn't mean nothin' by it, she was just trying to be a friend, okay?" Rae nodded again. "If I make sure the others don't bother you about it, will you come back again?" Rae paused, thinking, then nodded a third time. "Okay, I'm goin' back over. Will you be okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," Rae asked, looking again at the photo. Letty stood in the doorway again looking at her little cousin, then left.
Letty was right. She didn't have to tell Mia what happened, but she shouldn't have snapped at her like she did. She needed to say sorry, but the thing was, she'd never been any good at actually saying the words. So she needed to think of someway to show she was sorry.
To say Vince was having a bad day would be putting it mildly. After a morning of snapped orders and awkward silences, he'd come to the shop to relax. Only the fuckin' car wouldn't stay fixed, and then that fuckin' kid had shown up, giving him lip, then Mr. T. had taken him aside and given him a fuckin' earful about what he'd said, then Mia had turned up, red-eyed, and when he politely asked her what was wrong, she fuckin' screamed at him and run off.
Then Letty had come back and gave him another earful along with telling the rest of them to leave off askin' her cousin anything. Then he'd gone home and his dad had been drunk again, and his ma was nowhere to be found. Again. Now he had a black eye, and nowhere to go 'till his dad passed out. He couldn't go to Dom's, cause his dad would ask about the bruise.
He walked around for a while, and found himself outside Toretto's, deciding he could find something to do 'round back, he made his way to the rear of the garage, only to be stopped dead in his tracks.
The outside storage locker was open, and one of the lights was propped awkwardly to illuminate one of the painted brick walls. Rae was crouched on the ground, painting in what appeared to be a Labrador, muttering under her breath about 'damn fuckin' dogs'.
She wasn't wearing her sweatshirt again, and he could see the half-healed scars on her skinny arms, the shiny skin catching the light. As he was watching, her hands froze, and he looked back at her face to find her looking at his black eye. They looked at each other for a moment, and then she turned back to her would-be-mural.
The next day when he went over to the garage, he lied about the bruise, saying he got into a fight with some random punks. He found Rae and Mia finishing up the mural, laughing together.
Neither of them mentioned the night before, coming to an unspoken agreement. Don't ask, don't tell. Just like the fuckin' army.
