| Chapter 4 The cops showed up. The damn fucking pigs. Leon bummed a ride home with Hector. A bumpy and quite scary one at that, seeing as Hector spent half an hour trying to get two persistent cops off their ass. No matter how many twists or turns or ANYTHINGS he tried, they just couldn't shake them. Hector was a good driver. Leon couldn't imagine himself being able to pull half the moves Hector did while running from the cops. Jesse didn't seem at all impressed. He just sat in the back of the 300ZX and held on. "Thanks for the ride" Leon said as he got out of the car. Hector got out, looked at him over the roof of the car and shrugged, "It's cool. I'll see you at school 'en, eh esae?". Leon nodded with a half smile, and he and Jesse headed over the road. The same angry female voice spouted liquid spanish as soon as Hector got in the front door, and he replied with his own angry words. "Hector always in shit with his family?" Leon asked Jesse as they reached the other side of the road. Jesse shrugged, and seemed a little uneasy with talking about it, "Yeah, well, his ol' man used to hit his Moms. They got counsellin' an' shit though. He doesn't touch 'em no more". Leon was about to ask him why he said 'doesn't touch THEM' instead of 'doesn't touch HER', but yelling sounded from Jesse's house, and he looked over there sharply. "Aw, shit" he sighed, then looked at Leon, "I gotta go, man. I'll see you at school, a'ight?". Leon nodded, and watched Jesse jog up his driveway to his house. He thought about Hector's parents as he walked up his own driveway. Sounded like his old man and his Moms, before she left. That, the abusive drunk she called a husband, was why she'd left. Leon didn't feel sorry for her though. Not even a little. She'd handed over full custody of him and Daron to his old man. Jason, he was his Dad and Skye's 'love-child'. He was only four. He was stuck with them either way. So, with no wife left to lay into, to vent his anger and frustratin on, his old man had to find a new target. Skye had a massive biker brother, so he din't touch her. Daron was almost as tall and almost as strong as his father was, so he didn't touch him. Jason was too little, and his old man actually liked him quite a bit, so he left Jason alone. And that left Leon. The perfect target. Leon went inside and shut the door with a soft click. Jason came running down the hall in his pyjama bottoms, and flung himself at his older brother. Leon heaved him up and carried him down the hall. "You had your bath, lil' man?" he asked, glancing at his watch. It was almost midnight. He had no idea while Jason was still awake at all. "Nope" he grinned. He was missing one of his front teeth. It fell out about a week ago. "Well, c'mon then. Lets get you washed an' I'll putchoo to bed" Leon suggested, carrying his little brother to the bathroom at the back of his house. Jason insisted on a bubble bath, so Leon dug around in the cardboard box marked 'bathroom' until he found the bottle of Matey. He squirted some into the bath water and Jason giggled as he watched the bubbles begin to heap up on the surface. "A'ight. Hop in. I'll be back in ten minutes, OK?" Leon said, standing and stretching his stiff legs, "Wash behind your ears". "Nooo" Jason moaned, surrounded by mounds of bubbles, "Stay with me". Leon groaned, "Where's Dad and Skye?". "They went out" Jason replied, picking up a handful of bubbles, which he then placed on top of his head. "Where?" Leon querried. He hadn't seen Daron around either. His older brother usually would have been lazing around in front of the TV with a few Coronas. But he hadn't seen him when he'd come inside. "Lookin' for you" Jason replied, clapping his bubble-covered hands so that the froth went all over the place. Leon paled and rubbed a hand back over his hair. Shit. As if on cue, the door slammed and his father's angry voice echoed through the house. "When that little faggot gets home I'm gonna wring his fucking neck!!". Well, there was no where to run now. And the longer he evaded his father, the more angered he would become. He was about to make announce himself and bare his father's wrath, when Jason saved him the trouble by calling, "Daddy!! Leon's home!!". It was mere seconds before his father was in the bathroom and shoving him against the wall with a painful thud. "Where the fuck were you!?!" he bellowed. Leon glanced at Jason, who gaped wide eyed at the two of them. "I jus' went out for a little while. With the neighbours" Leon answered, turning his gaze back towards his Dad. "A little while?" he screamed, infuriated, "You were gone for HOURS!!!". Leon lowered his eyes, knowing nothing he could say in his defence would be good enough. This only served to anger his father further. It never ceased to amaze Leon how fast his Dad could go from the calm and quiet front he put on, to the agressive, violent guy he knew all too well. And he didn't disappoint. His fist was flying at Leon before he knew what was happening. Wham. Right in the face. Leon smacked the back of his head on the wall then slid to the floor and huddled his legs close. "You hopeless shit!" he screamed, kicking Leon's shins " Leave you alone for two seconds and you go runnin' all over the fuckin' town with them stupid shits down the street!". Leon tried to sheild his face with his arms as he kicked him in the shoulder with his steel capped boots . "At the rate you're goin', you'll never amount to anything!" his father shouted, "Nothing! You're a waste of space, Leon. A waste of time. A waste of air. I don't know why I don't jus' chuck you out!". Leon had heard those same words so many times, he was beginning to belive what his father said was true. He was a hopeless shit. A waste of space, time and air. He didn't know why his father hadn't chucked him out either. Leon looked up, because his father had stopped kicking him. He was kneeling down, face right up in Leon's. He grabbed a tight handful of his sandy blonde curls and held roughly. "And if you ever, EVER, do that again, I will break your fucking legs, you got that?" he whispered menacingly. Leon nodded numbly. His father wasn't prone to dishing out empty promises. He stared at Leon for a long moment, then let go, and changed back into normal mode, quietly walking from the room, as though nothing had happened. Leon's shoulder throbbed and his leg was stinging. He touched his lip gingerly. It was bleeding. He ran a hand over his hair. Stared at his hands. They were shaking. "Leon?". Leon snapped his head up, realising Jason had been sitting in the bath the entire time. He cursed under his breath and wiped his lip on the back of his hand. "Uh, you ready to get out, lil' man?" he asked, crawling over to the bath and sitting on his knees when he reached it. Jason stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. Leon wished he hadn't seen that. Wished he'd gotten out of the bathroom before his old man had found him. Gotten out of Jason's line of sight. So he didn't have to see his Dad for the violent drunk he really was. Leon helped his brother out of the bath, then wrapped him up in a big towel. "There we go" he forced a smile, "Go get your PJs on". Jason waited a moment before running off to his room. Little kids. They had to run everywhere. Leon stood slowly, let the water out of the bath, then turned and looked in the mirror. His lip was swelling, and he could just about feel the bruises rising. Looked like starting school tomorrow was no longer an option. Chapter 5 "Yo, Leon!" Hector called across the road, "How come you wasn't at school, homes? You get lost on yer way there or some shit?". Leon looked up from where he was staring at the porch steps, and across the road at the latino. He was with Jesse and Vince. Looked like they were walking home from school. They looked hot and bothered, and had their rucksack's over their shoulders. "Something like that" Leon replied, gingerly touching his still slightly swollen lip. It had been bleeding last night, and it still hurt today. No one said anything though. Not Daron, not Skye, not his old man, and not Jason. Leon supposed his little brother was too damn scared to say anything, and the others, well, they just didn't give a shit. "Aw, Leon woz scared" Vince teased, putting on a mocking voice. He had another lollypop. Against his three-day stubble, oil-stained jeans matched with a black Etnies hoodie, and his scruffy hair, it looked like a polar bear would if you stuck one in the middle of the desert. Leon didn't know why he always had one, but he supposed it didn't really matter. He was new. Things would reveal themselves as he progressed. "Yo, yer in our auto shop class" Hector informed him, crossing the quiet road over to Leon's weed-infested lawn. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder to indicate 'we' meant-him and Vince. "An' you got english with V too, which means you suck at it" Jesse added, grinning cookedly and flashing Vince a teasing smile when he began to protest. Leon smiled faintly, staying under the shade of the porch. He was surprised the three of them weren't melting, right there on the front lawn, let alone on their walk home from school. He couldn't believe Vince was wearing jeans and a jumper. "Where's the rest of the gang?" Leon asked, sitting down on the porch steps and indicating that the three of them could join him in the shade if they wanted to. They graciously accepted, arranging themselves on the dusty floorboards. "Mia and Letty got a ride home with Dom" Vince answered, wiping the back of his hand against his forehead, "Coz they're too lazy to walk". "They reckon it's too hot to walk" Jesse put in, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. Hector snorted, "Damn, Let shouldn't be complainin' at all. Gets a whole lot hotter'en this in ole' Meh-ki-koh". Leon realised that he hadn't cottoned on when he'd first met Hector. He'd known he was Mexican, but he hadn't worked out that he might've actually come from Mexico. Leon had never been to Mexico. He was intrigued. "You come from Mexico, Hector?" he asked, and Vince laughed as soon as the words had left his mouth. "Nah, he comes from Germany. Wot do you reckon?" he teased lightheartedly. The others smiled, so Leon took it as being friendly taunting. It was nice to be around friends again. They'd been moving around alot lately, and he hadn't been able to really make friends between houses. It got kinda lonely, but no one asked what he thought, so he just kept to himself. "Yeh, man. I'm from Mexico. My Moms is from Acapulco, an' ma old man is from Tijuana" Hector told him, looking as serious as Hector would ever get. He was only explaining it because Leon looked interested. Otherwise, he would've left him to find out for himself, "We lived in El Salvador till I woz four, Hermosillo till I woz five and Baja till I woz six, then Chihuahua for a year, and we came up here to L.A about... nine, ten years ago". "Wot about you, Leon. You said yer from Queens" Jesse interjected, taking his school bag off his shoulders, instead placing it on the floor next to him. Leon rubbed a hand over his curls and sighed, dragging out the mental timeline he had going. "Uh, yeah, I lived in Queens for four years, the Bronx for one, Boston for another one, then Brooklyn for two, Detroit for one, Chicago for another year, then Santa Fe in New Mexico for two years, then Santa Barbara for a year, and then we went to San Luis Obispo for six months, and Santa Cruz for another six, then San Fransisco for two, then we went back to Santa Barbara, and now we're here" Leon tried not to pause so he wouldn't lose his place in the list. He'd lived in seven different place in seventeen years. It wasn't a good environment for making good friends. But his old man hadn't complained about this place yet, so Leon hoped that meant they would be staying here a while longer. "Shit. You get around" Vince remarked, scratching at his hair, "I've lived in the same house for nearly seventeen years". "Fourteen" Jesse echoed, talking about himself, not correcting Vince. Leon raised an eyebrow, "How old ARE you, Jesse?". "Fourteen" he repeated, looking up at Leon for any reactions to the number, but he found none. Leon had expected he was younger. He looked it, and everyone treated him like he was the baby. The one they had to protect. Leon wished he had someone like that. Someone who actually gave a shit. Besides Jason. Jason wasn't going to be much help, seeing as he was about as tall as Leon's leg. "You got maths with Dom an' me" Vince informed him after a long moment, "Wot other classes do you take?". "Uh, auto shop, techinal graphics, digital media and business information technology" he answered. They already knew he was in maths and english. The classes he'd chosen were ones he could use in the workforce. Leon wasn't exactly college material, and even in primary school, he'd never really wanted to study for another four or five years after high school just to get a stupid office job which was no fun at all. His interests lay in cars, ever since, well, forever, and he couldn't imagine not being able to work around them. Hell, even if he had to be a sneaky snivelling little car salesman, he wouldn't care, as long as there were cars. "Not exactly planning on going to M.I.T there, are you?" Hector remarked, glancing over the road at his house as he spoke. His parents were none too happy with his grades at the moment, but Hector wasn't overly concerned. He'd never been a grade A student, was never GOING to be a grade A student, and he hated school anyway. His parents knew that. They KNEW it, but they didn't understand. They went to school in Mexico. With Mexicans. With Mexican teachers. Who spoke Mexican, or Spanish, to be completely correct. Here, at the school they went to, sure, it was multi-cultural. Sure, he wasn't the only Mexican there by far. Sure, there were a few hispanic teachers. But that didn't eliminate racism. And the teachers who preached for hours about it were the worst racists of them all. "Nah. I don't wanna go to college. Not smart enough" Leon shrugged, leaning his head back against the porch railing. No one in his family, not on his Dad's side, not on Skye's side, had gone to college. His mother's parents had, but they were the only ones. His family was working class, and had been for some time. Leon had no driving ambition to change that. He was happy to just cruise through high school then get a job where he had to work his ass off all day. He liked to know he'd earned what he had. It meant alot to him, knowing he'd worked for it. "Join the club" Vince groaned. He wasn't anywhere near smart enough for college, but his parents weren't too shitty about it. They didn't go to college either, so who were they to tell him he had to? "Hector!!". The four of them looked across the road at the short, thin, hispanic woman who was standing at the front door of Hector's place. She yelled across the road to him in Spanish. Leon didn't know what she was saying, but he liked the way her words flowed together like liquid because of her strong accent. He watched Hector listening to her. If it was possible, he almost looked like he'd paled. "Uh, I gotta go" he muttered, grabbing his bag and standing up, "My ole' man'll be home soon. I'll see y'all at school". He stepped over Leon's outstretched legs and hurried across the road. Leon watched him walk up the driveway to the front door where the lady -he supposed it was Hector's Moms- was waiting. She smacked his shoulder lightly as he went inside, but Hector didn't seem to register it. "We better get goin' too" Vince sighed, standing and stretching, "I gotta go round Dom's in fifteen". Jesse stood also, and the two of them said goodbye, and that they'd see him tomorrow at school. Leon sat for a moment, watched them walk down the street. Listened to Jesse saying 'see ya' to Vince as he headed up his driveway. Then he turned his gaze back towards Hector's. He couldn't hear any voices, save for the TV. That was on blaringly loud. Leon didn't understand why Hector acted the way he did. One second he'd be loud and in-your-face and then next, he'd be pale and quiet. A few words from his mother had him withdrawn. Leon scratched at his curls, as though it would help him think. It didn't. Chapter 6 "HURRY UP LEON!!!". That was Vince. Jesse was calling to him too. Not quite as loudly though, seeing as it was eight o'clock in the morning. Leon grabbed his rucksack and hurried quietly past the bedroom his father and Skye were sleeping in. They would not be happy if they were woken, and Leon didn't want to deal with two angry 'parents'. "LEON!!" Vince bellowed, cupping his hands around his mouth. Hector jogged across the road to stand with him and Jesse. Jesse turned to look at him, then raised his eyebrows. Hector just nodded with a quick smile, then turned his attention towards the house Vince was bellowing at. "Shit. I'm comin'. You don't gotta keep yellin'" Leon protested, considerably quieter, as he hurried down the porch steps and along the path to where they were waiting on the side of the road. "Wot took you so long?" Vince groaned. He wasn't in any hurry to get to school, but he didn't like standing around doing nothing. He got bored easily. And waiting was not one of his favourite passtimes. "Sorry. I didn't realise yous left so early" Leon replied as they started down the road. He walked beside Hector, the other two in front, talking about something Leon couldn't quite make out. It was something to do with cars, he could tell that much. "How come you had to go in yesterday?" Leon asked, turning his head to the left, referring to when Hector's mother had called across the road to him, and he'd gone home, pale and quiet. "Uh... nothin'. Nothin'. Jus' wanted me home coz ma papi woz gonna be back from work soon. Wanted me to help her with dinner" Hector replied, avoiding Leon's gaze by staring at the footpath as he walked. "How come Pedro or Elias couldn't do it?" Leon asked, curious. He wanted to know why Hector always seemed to be in shit with his family. Why his moods changed so abruptly from loud and happy to quiet and withdrawn. He just wanted to know EVERYTHING. "Coz they lazy" Hector forced a smile, and glanced up at Leon. In the split second that their eyes met, Leon could tell the smile was fake, because it wasn't reflected in his eyes. Leon frowned, watching Hector, but he kept his eyes down and didn't say anything more. "Hurry up yous!" Vince called from a substantial distance away where he and Jesse had stopped so that they could catch up. Leon looked up and furrowed his brows, "Wot's the big rush?". "He wants to see Mia a'fore class" Hector informed him, then flashed a familiar grin, "V's got a thing for Mia". Leon raised his brows, his mind ticking over time as it worked to identify the name, "That's Toretto's sister, right?". Hector nodded, the smile still plastered on his face. Vince had been head over heels for Mia for, hell, for-ever. She just turned down his advances gently, and tried to keep up a friendship with him. Not what Vince wanted though, and he complained about it alright. "Damn. So, V's got a thing for Mia... anyone else I should know about?" Leon asked, looking across at Hector. He wanted to know everything there was to know about these people, this neighbourhood, and everything that happened in it. He wanted to be in with everyone else. He wanted to be one of them. "Letty an' Dom. Let's been into him since she was, like, six. But then again, every girl with half assed vision and a heartbeat is into Dom" Hector shrugged once this was said, "Otherwise, nothin' really. Y'know, no one's really close to anyone, but they're all close to each other, if that makes any sense at all". Leon nodded, understanding. Just because they weren't going with someone didn't mean they weren't close. They finally reached Vince and Jesse. Jesse seemed happy enough, nervously happy, but Vince was agitated, fidgety and annoyed. "She ain't goin' no wheres, V" Hector reminded him, "She'll still be there at lunch, even if you don't see her a'fore school. She ain't gonna keel over and die while you're in maths, y'know". He was refering to Mia, whom Vince was so eager to see, it was visibally obvious. "Keep yer dick in yer pants" Hector added as the two of them began walking again. Vince shoved his arm and Hector stumbled sideways, but took it with a smile and kept walking. Vince really was just a love-sick fool. A love-sick fool who's temper ignited quicker than a concord could take off, but a love-sick fool, all the same. "How comes you don't ride wit Dom, Vince?" Leon asked as the question came to him, "I thought yous were best friends?". Vince shrugged, scratchy absently at his mussed dark hair, "We are. I jus'... it's closer to walk from my house and meet up with this lot than havin' to be at Dom's early, jus' to sit in his car for the fifteen seconds it takes to get to school. Plus, Dom's car is so fucking cramped when we're all squished in there. Mia and Letty and him and me, sometimes one'a his skanks too. It's easier to just... walk, y'know?" Vince explained, ending it with a shrug. Leon nodded. Just because they were friends, didn't mean they had to spend every waking minute of the day together. "Ah, and there she is" Hector grinned, looking sidelong at Leon, "Ain't that a miraculous sight to behold?". He was talking about the school, which comprised of a two storey building, dotted with grafitti, and surrouned by transportable classrooms. The grounds inside the confines of the barbed-wire-lined fences was crawling with people Leon's age and younger. He was in his final year, and even though that meant he was at the top of the food chain, he didn't feel that way. Even with three new friends by his sides. "Looks like a heap of fucking shit to me" Jesse sighed, shifting the weight of his bag on his shoulders, then smiling in the nervous way he always did, "But that's just me". They waited for a few cars, then crossed right in front of one Leon recognised. Toretto's MX-6. He blared his horn and Vince grinned, giving him the one finger salute. He banged a fist on the hood of the car, feining anger, pretending he'd been hit by Dom's car. Hector grinned and shook his head. Jesse offered a little wave. Leon smiled vaguely, knowing it was just harmless teasing. He looked up through the windscreen to note Dominic's reaction. Trisha Tran was in the front seat. "What's that all about?" Leon asked when they reached the other side of the road, "You said no one was goin' with each other". Hector looked over his shoulder at the retreating MX-6, and worked out what Leon was talking about. "Uh, yeah" he drawled, then shrugged, "He shouldn't be gettin' wit Tran's sister. Trans are bad news, homes. Remember that". He spoke fairly quietly, only loud enough for the three of them to hear him, and Vince and Jesse nodded solemnly in agreement. Leon nodded quickly to show he understood. Trans = bad news. As they moved across the paved interior of the confines of the fences, Leon quickly noted how people interacted here. They kept mostly to racial groups. The black kids. The Asians. The Italians. The latinos, who had a few Puerto Rican's thrown in there to make it a little more interesting. He could pick out who the popular ones were. The girls with the fake hair and the mobile phones glued to their ears who talked loudly and hugged everyone. The outcasts, who sat on their own with a book or a Gameboy. The brainy ones, who had a dress sense that Steve Urkle would envy. The stoners, who had a dazed look on their face and a spaciness in their eyes. He could tell the sporto's and the teacher's pets and the churchies and the 'in-betweeners' who didn't really have a group or a rating on the charts, they were just... there. Dom's group didn't really make sense any more. Of all the groups he could see, Leon could tell why they banded together. He could pick out their similarities. He could tell what differenciated them from the others. But with Dom's group, it was more...well, nothing. They were just a bunch of 'who-ever's who happened to live near each other, so they banded together and formed their own group. You could probably say that the love of cars was what they had in common, but from the outside, you couldn't tell who was a street racer and who wasn't. Half of the skanks standing with the popular group, he recognised from the races a few nights ago. Leon didn't really mind the rag-tagness of the group he'd been welcomed into though. As long as he had a group, as long as he was happy in the group he had, he was fine. Hector, Vince and Jesse led him across the pavement, past the buildings, to a "circle" of people, mostly male, who talked and jostled each other playfully. They shoved their way into the circle and Leon let the conversation wash over him. Engines. Piston rings. Sports headers. Body kits. Front mounts. Cold air intakes. Hose clamps. Blow-off valves. Coil covers. Fuel injections. Strutbars. Veilside. Pirelli. Moshimodo. MOMO. Greddy. ABS. JBL. Infinity. The talk was of cars. And it suited him fine. When Dominic walked up to the group with Mia, Letty, and Trisha in tow, he was welcomed eargerly, but he wasn't worshipped like he was at the races. Here, he was just another gangly teenager who had alot of growing up to do before they could face the real world. Leon stepped sideways to let Letty in between him and Hector. She didn't look very happy, and he decided it was because Trisha Tran was hanging off of Dom's arm. "Whassup, mi chica?" Hector asked, smiling at her. Letty folded her arms over her chest and rested her head on his shoulder. Hector was her fall-back man. He was a great listener, even though you wouldn't be able to tell it from the substantial amount of time he spent talking. He listened to her gripes about Dom and his skanks and the way he acted like she was a little brat from down the street, even though she was fifteen years old. He didn't interrupt and he offered reassuring advice when she was finished. He didn't brush her off when she clung to his arm so that she felt like part of the group, and she'd caught him telling Dom not to be such an asshole to her a few times when he'd told her to get lost when they were working on a car. He was her sweetie. Dom had her heart, but Hector was like her brother and her keeper. "Hey, how you like this place?" Letty asked, elbowing Leon's arm. Leon glanced across at her and shrugged, "Dunno. Seems alright so far. Jus' like all the other schools I've been to". Letty nodded with a quick smile, "I heard you've been around. Queens an' Brooklyn an' shit. Must be a heaps hard ass. You'll fit in here". Leon smiled appreciatively and only looked away when Dom's voice washed over them all. "Jesse, I got a hairline fracture I need you to look at" he said from the other side of the circle, where Trisha was skanking all over him. Leon glanced around for Mia, trying not to be too obvious about it, and found her next to Vince and Jesse. In his observing, he noticed Edwin, Lance, Nestor and a few skanks he'd seen at the races. His observing was only broken when Dom added. "Bring the new guy". |