| Chapter 7 "Mr Sandburg!" Vince aknowledged his English teacher's appeal for his attention, but didn't answer. She'd called to him so many times during that single class, that it would have been like replying to someone breathing. "Would you please pay attention?" she begged for what seemed to be the thousandth time. Vince nodded and shrugged, as if to tell her he'd try. If she wasn't so boring, the task wouldn't prove to be so impossible. Satisfied that she had captivated Vince's attention, Ms Camporelli continued to talk to the senior class. The English teacher, against the girls in the classroom that she was teaching, was a large, frumpy woman, which Leon supposed most of the female teachers at the school were anyway. Her bad dress sense and flat, mousy-brown hair didn't help. Today it was an olive green shirt that Leon wouldn't even see in his grandmother's closet, and cream slacks that looked like a canvas tent. "This class always so boring?" Leon asked, slouching further in his blue plastic chair, and folding his hands on his stomach. Vince glanced at his watch and shrugged, "We got auto shop next wit Dom an' Hector an' Edwin, so we'll jus' have to grin and bear it". Great. Edwin. Leon's best buddy... "Mr Sandburg!" Ms Camporelli groaned loudly. A few people snickered at her vain attempts to teach without Vince interrupting. "Uh, I woz jus' tellin' Leon...uh, how to... get to the men's room, Miss" Vince glanced at Leon, then looked back to the teacher, "He, ah, needs to take a piss". Leon felt his cheeks flush and looked up at the teacher, wide-eyed. "Sorry" Vince hissed, but Leon only nodded, and stood up slowly and nervously. "Uh, can I go please, Miss?" he asked, fidgeting with the hem of his loose, short sleeved shirt. She sighed, feining annoyance, then nodded and picked up a pass from her desk. She held it out to him and Leon grabbed the laminated card on a cord-string from her hand as he left. Leon escaped quickly, actually thankful to Vince for getting him some time out of that hell-hole of an English class. He walked along the quiet hall, pulling cord of the hall-pass over his head, watching as it flapped against his shirt. The halls were so silent, Leon was sure that a footfall would echo for miles. Yellow mid-day sunlight filtered through the windows, casting golden rays through classrooms. The sun did little to brighten moods, however. While the classrooms were full with more students to each teacher than was really legal, the hallways were filled with nothing but cool, clean air, save for a two meter radius around the toilet doors, where the ones destined to be janiters, bus drivers and garbage collectors sat on the sinks and smoked, while their fellow classmates took the wrath of their teachers. Leon reached the end of the hallway and looked either way down the T-Junction. There was a teacher to the left, and the hall was empty to the right. He didn't know where the toilets were, but he hadn't been planning on going there anyway. He turned to the right, and walked casually, not in any big hurry, looking into classrooms as he walked. Leon spotted Jesse in one room, and smiled when the scrawny kid looked up and spotted him, then waved. He kept walking, actually stumbling across the toilets in his travels, and headed in there. It smelt strongly of cigarettes and mull smoke. There was a black kid standing against the sink, butting out a joint. He was perhaps almost as massively set as Toretto. He had his hair braided into intricate patterns, and his eyes were dark and cold. "You the new guy?" he asked, looking across at Leon, who was just about to leave again in a big hurry. His voice was low, not as rumbling and gravelly as Toretto's, but not far off. "Uh, yeh" Leon replied, feeling uncomfortable and wanting to leave as soon as possible. He should've just gone back to class instead of wandering around. Especially on his first day. "Edwin tol' me bout you" the black guy continued, turning to face Leon full on. His shoulder's were alot broader than Leon's and he was atleast four inches taller. Edwin told him, hey? Was that a good or bad thing? Leon could make an educated guess as to which... "Uh, I gotta go" Leon said quickly, moving to leave. The massive black guy grabbed his shoulder in an iron grip and Leon all but panicked. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, SHIT. "Look, I don't know wot Edwin tol' you, but, I ain't lookin' for any trouble!" Leon protested, pulling away, only to be shoved against the toilet door. He had no idea why this guy disliked him enough to want to... do whatever it was that he wanted to do to him. But he didn't suppose this guy was in the mood to explain it to him. "Shutup" the big guy snapped, and grabbed the front of his shirt, jerking him away from the door, and snapping the cord on the hall-pass in the process. It fluttered to the floor, but Leon was a little preoccupied with other things right now. He was like a rag doll compared to this guy, and he really didn't feel like getting beat up today. The guy slammed him into the wall in a way that reminded Leon of his old man, and he was just about to protest when the toilet door swung open and the teacher he'd seen in the hallway glared at them both. The black guy let him go as though he'd been burned as soon as the door opened, and the teacher didn't seem to notice. "Tove" the wirey male teacher with salt and pepper hair frowned angrily, "Where's your hall-pass?". The black guy looked around for an escape, not having one, because he hadn't actually GONE to class in the first place, then spotted Leon's hall-pass on the floor. He snatched it up and showed the teacher, "Right 'ere, Sir". He raised an eyebrow warily, but let him pass. Tove glared over his shoulder at Leon as he left the room. "And where's your pass, young man?" the teacher repeated the inquiry. Leon sighed, then scratched at his sandy blonde curls and shrugged. He couldn't very well nark out that mound of muscle who wanted to pound his head in for one reason or another, could he? And so, he followed Mr. Salt-and-Pepper to the headmaster's office. * * * Hector raised his arms to stretch them over his head, then lowered them to rest his hands on the back of his neck. He'd been kicked out of class almost half an hour ago. He knew this was Ashton's game. Making him sit out here in this damn plastic chair while his ass went numb, his mouth went dry and his legs went stiff. Wasn't a damn thing he could do about it though. Hell, he could always get up. Walk off. Run around the school to stretch his legs and find some more trouble to get into. But if he did, he knew Ashton would make him pay for it. Hector looked up as Mr. Nicklaus with the salt and pepper hair walked in, followed by Leon, who was staring at his shoes and had his hands shoved in his pockets. Well, well, well. "In trouble all ready, homes?" he called from where he was waiting for his turn at being scolded by the headmaster. Leon looked up, and couldn't help but smile because of Hector's contaigous grin, that barely ever faded. Mr. Nicklaus motioned towards the seats, and Leon went and sat beside Hector, while he spoke to the receptionist about finding Leon without a hall-pass. The old lady behind the desk looked disdainfully at the two of them, but Leon ignored it, because Hector didn't seem to notice. "How come you're here?" Leon asked, slouching in the hard plastic chair. Hector smiled, then stared across the room at the cork-board that was chock-a-block with notices. "I asked my maths teacher if he was allowed in casinos" he replied, "And he kicked me out". Leon frowned. That sounded unfair. It was actually a pretty smart question. WERE mathmeticians allowed in casinos? They would know how to work out probabilities and things like that. They would have an advantage over everyone else. Why should Hector be kicked out for asking a clever question like that? "He kicked you out for askin' a question?" Leon asked, raising his brows. The old woman with silver hair and cat-like glasses 'sushed' him angrily and Leon glanced over at her. Hector either didn't think that she was talking to them, or didn't care, because he answered anyway. "He said he *woz* allowed in casinos, so I asked why he still drove that shitty old Ford when he woz makin' all these mountains of money playin' blackjack. He's real touchy bout that car for some reason. He started screaming bout how his car's a 'classic' an' shit. I tol' him it woz a heap'a shit an' he kicked me out" Hector replied. Well, it was the truth. That car WAS a heap of shit. Hector didn't really see what he'd done wrong, but then again, he rarely did. Leon nodded slowly, then looked at his watch. "Shit. We're gonna miss auto shop" he said, obviously irritated. It was the only class he'd been looking forward to. "Nah. If Ashton's not turned up by the time shop starts, we'll jus' leave" Hector shrugged, having done this a million and one times, "How comes yer up 'ere?". Leon sighed, "Uh, I got caught without a hall pass". Hector cocked an eyebrow, knowing that wasn't the whole story, "Why?". It wasn't like he could just sneak out of class without one. Not under the hawk-eyes of Ms. Camporelli. He'd had her for English last year. Even Hector, the Houdini of class-evading, couldn't escape under her watchful eye. "Um, I jus' ran into this guy, Tove... you know him?" Leon asked, looking up. He wanted to know what this guy's deal was and why he seemed to hate Leon so much when they'd never even met before. Hector laughed, then calmed enough to speak and smiled, "Ooh, you betta start prayin' boy, if you got Tove on yer ass" he winked, and his smile stayed in check, "He's Edwin's brother. Been kept down a year. That's why he's so huge. Coz he's, like, eighteen or nineteen or some shit. Wot'd he say?". "He said Edwin told him about me" Leon answered, his guts knotting. Why did Edwin hate him so much? Why was he trying to sick his brother onto him and make him feel like shit at the races? What'd Leon ever do to him? "Heh. Edwin doesn't like you a whole lot, homes" Hector said, then looked sidelong at Leon, "In case you haven't noticed". Leon swallowed hard and folded his arms over his chest, not wanting to make enemies but not seeming to be able to help it. "Doan worry, esae" Hector grinned, not letting anything get him down, "I'll put in a good word for ya, hey? Edwin's jus' got a big head, is all. I'll talk to 'im. Get 'im to get Tove off yer ass". Leon nodded and managed a small smile. "Thanks, Hector". Chapter 8 Leon scratched absently at his curls, an action that had seemed to have become a habit, and followed Hector and Vince across the pavement towards the opposite side of the school, where the juniors had their classes. They had to pick up Jesse from his last class, then it was a hot and tiresome walk home for the four of them. Leon had asked Vince why he didn't just drive his 220SX to school instead of walking. It was a nice car. If it had been Leon's, he would've driven it every chance he got. Vince's explination was simple. He didn't want to pay for the petrol. Why be a lazy ass and waste your money on gas when you could just walk the short distance a few times a day? "Ay Jesse". Jesse looked up and groaned silently. Oh no. It was Jak and Wade. His *best* friends in an extremely sarcastic way. "Uh, hi" he muttered, heading away from them as quickly as possible. Where was Hector and V? Right when he needed them too... "What's the rush, man?" Wade grabbed his rucksack and pulled him back to stand between him and Jak. Jesse dropped back into line with them, scared and knowing that his scrawny little self was no match for these two, who were in his year, but they were also a head and shoulders over his head. "Um, I.. gotta get home" Jesse replied, staring at the ground. The school had placed him, against his want and will, into Special Ed because of his A.D.D. He'd been failing every class except for auto shop and maths, and so his parents had not disagreed with the decision. They thought he had problems. Jesse knew he didn't belong there though. The kids in his classes, now THEY had problems. They were the drooling, babbling, world-domination-planning, tantrum-throwing, snot-nosed type that you expected to see in a Special Ed class. Jesse, he just needed a little push every now and then. A little extra motivation to keep him on task. "What'd you do today, Jesse? Learn a new letter in the alphabet?". That was an attempt at a joke from Jak. It still hurt though. Still got to him the way he didn't want it to. "Something like that" he muttered in a vain effort to save face. Jak took it as a threat or a shot at fighting back, and shoved him into the wall they'd been walking along. "Wot'd you say to me?" he barked, and Jesse shook his head, wide blue eyes full of fear and shock at the accusation. He opened his mouth to tell him he hadn't said anything, when a louder voice, louder than he had to be but he really didn't care, cut him off. "Sup, motherfuckers?" Hector asked in his un-neccessarily loud voice from where he, Vince and Leon had just rounded the corner a few feet away. Jak and Wade looked over at them, wide-eyed. Of all the things they'd wanted to happen, Jesse's senior-year friends turning up was not one of them. "Problem, fellas?" Vince asked in his intimidatingly gruff lone-coyote voice. The two bullies now looked like nothing more than snivelling little brats against the three seniors, who were all tall for their age and not exactly scrawny. Leon glared at the pair down his nose. Fuckin' forteen year olds. On a massive power trip because they were no longer at the bottom of the food-chain at school, and eager to put their new found power into practice. "Uh, we woz just talkin' to Jesse here" Wade pointed a finger as though they didn't know who he meant. Hector smirked and lowered his head to meet the dark-haired kid's gaze. "You two give one'a our friends shit again, we'll kick the livin' fuck outta yous" he promised, raising his brows and motioning back towards Vince and Leon, "And you KNOW who our mates are". Leon raised his chin and squared his shoulders instinctively. He knew Hector was speaking of Toretto and his posse, and it seemed these two knew who he was speaking of too. "Got it?" Vince barked out, and they nodded, then turned and ran. Leon couldn't help a triumphant smile. A good ego stroking never hurt anyone. And this had been a good old stroke and a half. "You right, Jesse?" Vince asked, and Jesse nodded, managing a small, nervous smile. Leon kinda liked the way he seemed nervous all the time, no matter what he did. He couldn't imagine Jesse, the scrawny, lovable little white kid from next door, being any more confident or firm when he moved about his life than he was now. "Let's go home then, eh?" Hector turned, not waiting for the others, and started off, smiling to himself over the way he'd defused the recent situation. Vince smiled aswell, and started off after Hector. Leon aimed a reassuring smile at Jesse, and the pair of them followed. * * * "I'm home" Leon called, somewhere between soft and loud, as he walked through the front door and put his bag down. He didn't expect anyone to ask how his first day at his new school was. What did they care? "LLLLEEEEOOOONNNNN!!!!" Jason came bellowing down the hall and latched onto him, his little arms holding tight. Leon hefted him up over his shoulder, grinning, happy to see his brother. Jason was the only one who cared if he lived and died in this house. That meant something to Leon. "Whassup Boo?" Leon spun in circles until Jason was laughing and screaming, then jutted his little arms out to the sides, making 'airplane' noises. "Leon! Stop makin' such a fuckin' racket!" Skye bellowed, her words slurred together. Leon put Jason down and pressed a finger to his lips, "Go watch telly, Boo". Jason nodded and ran into the lounge. Skye was sitting at the kitchen table in a short purple satin robe and nothing else, her legs spread crassly, and cigarette held limply in her left hand. Leon supposed he was lucky she was wearing anything at all. There was a half empty bottle of tequila on the table in front of her, and empty take away boxes were already beginning to clutter the benchtops. "You been drinkin'?" Leon asked, searching through the cupboard that held various plastic bottles of pills. Panadol, sleeping tablets, headache pills, anit-depressants. They had an entire chemist shop stashed under their kitchen sink. "Wot's it to ya?" Skye sneered, scratching at her dirty blonde hair and taking another drag on her cigarette, held with a shakey hand. Leon found the bottle he was looking for, and grabbed a glass from the windowsill. He filled it with water and sat down at the table. Leon nudged her legs closed with his knee against the side of her thigh, and put the glass down on the table, tipping two pills onto his hand. "Here. Take these. You'll feel better" he said, offering them. "You tryin'a get me high so you can steal my shit, you lil' fucker?" Skye asked, glaring sidelong at him with glazed eyes. Leon just watched her for a long moment, and sure enough, she grabbed the two Vitamin B tablets out of his hand and swallowed them down dry. Leon was about to take the water, to tip it out, when she grabbed that too and drained the glass. He shrugged and picked up the glass after she'd put it down, taking it over to the sink. It smelt like cigars and cigarette smoke and weed and tequila in here. It stank, to say the least, and they'd only been around a few days. That was the thing about smoke. It saturated everything and clung there stubbornly. "Where's Luis?" Leon asked, putting the rinsed glass back on the window sill. Skye snorted, "Wot, yous on a first-name basis now?". Leon looked at her over his shoulder, knowing that tone, "He at the bar?". Skye stared at him for a moment, then nodded, "Yeh. He's at the bar. Y'know why? Coz he knew YOU were comin' home, you fuckin' shithead". Leon ignored the insult, knowing she was just bitter, thinking about all the whores at the bar Luis must've been chatting up while she was stuck here with Jason. "I'll look after Jason, if you wanna go find him" Leon offered, and Skye sneered at him, "Fuck orf. Why'd I wanna go find that fucker?". He only had to wait a moment before she announced that she was going to get dressed, then go find her boyfriend. Leon had expected she would, and wandered into the loungeroom where Jason was sitting on the floor, face inches from the TV screen, watching cartoons. Leon walked up behind him, grabbed him around the waist and dragged him backwards, away from the TV screen, until he could sit down with his back against the couch and Jason between his legs. Skye hurried out, not even bothering to say where she was going, when she'd be back, or a simple 'goodbye'. "Aw, I can't see from here!" Jason whined, digging with boney little fingers against Leon's hands. "You'll get square eyes" Leon replied, holding his little brother tight. "I like square eyes" Jason wriggled some more, and Leon only laughed. Chapter 9 Leon had barely been scruffing on the lounge room floor with Jason for five minutes when someone knocked on the front door. He guessed it was Skye. Changed her mind or forgot her keys or something like that. Any excuse to not go crawling after her boyfriend like the desperate tramp she was. "I'll be back in a sec, Boo" Leon said, ruffling Jason's hair as he got up, "Don't sit too close to the telly". Jason gave him a toothy grin, then crawled up to his original position, a few inches from the TV screen. Leon smiled and shook his head, decided to leave him be for the time being, then walked over to the door. It wasn't Skye asking after her keys, though. It was Jesse. "Uh, hey" Jesse smiled, nervous as ever, "You comin' to Dom's or wot?". Oh, yeah. Damn. He'd totally forgotten about that. "Uh, yeah. Sure" Leon nodded, then groaned inwardly, "Shit. I can't. I gotta look after my little brother". Jesse looked past him, but couldn't see who he was talking about. He dismissed it quickly, and turned his wide eyed blue gaze back to Leon. "So? Jus' bring him wit you. Mia'll look after him" Jesse shrugged. Leon raised his brows, still not convinced, "You sure?". Jesse just nodded, then waved for him to hurry up, "C'mon. Let's go". He knew how angry Toretto could get in an extremely short period of time, and he did not want to keep him waiting. Leon turned back inside, calling to Jason while hurrying into the kitchen. He scrawled a note to his Dad, Skye, Daron, whoever read it first, then ushered Jason outside and locked the door. Jason turned a grin up towards Jesse. "Uh, Jase, that's Jesse. Jesse, Jason" Leon made quick work of the introductions while locking the front door and shoving the keys into his pocket. He followed Jesse and Jason down the front path, out the rickety gate and across to the white Jetta parked outside Jesse's place. "You can drive, right? You got your license?" Jesse asked, looking back over his shoulder at Leon. He nodded, "I got my P plates". Jesse mirrored his nod, and opened the passenger side door, "OK then. You're driving". Leon was awe-stricken for a moment. He was allowed to drive this street racer? For real? Woah! Jesse pushed his seat forwards for Jason to climb in the back of the car. "How old's yer brother?" Jesse asked as he pushed the seat back again after Jason had scrambled into the backseat. Leon shook himself out of his daze, realising this *wasn't* a dream, and processed Jesse's question. "Um, four. He's four" he said, moving around to the drivers side of the car. He pulled open the door, and Jesse tossed him the keys over the roof with a genuine look of nervousness, "My life's in your hands now. You so much as scratch this car, my Dad'll kill me". Leon swallowed hard, but nodded to show he understood, and climbed in. How hard could it be? It wasn't like he was going to be racing or driving on a Nos injection, was it? And if Hector could drive his brother's 300ZX, then Leon sure as shit could drive this Jetta. "How much'd this car cost?" Leon asked as he started it up. The engine throbbed powerfully, and he half expected Jesse's old man to come running out of the house, screaming at them for trying to use his car. If this Jetta had been Leon's, he wouldn't be letting *anyone* touch it. "Alot" Jesse answered with a nervous laugh, pulling on his seatbelt, "So don't wreck it". Leon nodded, and pulled carefully away from the curb. He surprised even himself when he didn't rabbit-hop or go shooting uncontrollably down the street. "Toretto's far from here?" Leon asked, keeping his eyes glued on the road. He would not so much as scratch this car. He would NOT. He was a good driver. He could do this. "Nope. 'bout five minutes away" Jesse answered, glancing over at him, "Less time for you to crash in". * * * "Took yer time" was the first thing Dom said when they emerged from the car. Jason had been dropped off at Toretto's Market and Cafe to spend the time with Mia, Letty, and Mia's mother, Maria, whom Leon wished was his own mother. She was so happy and warm and pure. Why couldn't his mother have been like that? Why couldn't Skye be like that? Why did he get stuck with the dropkick parents? "Leave them be, Dominic" an older Italian man come out of the garage behind Dom. By older, Leon meant- older than Dom. He wasn't really old. Late thirties, perhaps. Maybe early forties. He had a warm and welcoming smile, just like Maria's, so Leon instantly picked him as 'Mr Toretto'. "Sorry about that" Jesse said, rubbing the back of his neck and taking the keys to the Jetta as Leon held them out to him. "How are you, Jesse?" the man asked. Above the breastpocket of his navy worksuit, his name was embroided in white. 'Marc'. Leon was instantly jealous of Dom's stable homelife. Of the great relationship he must've had with his father. Of everything that Dom had, which Leon didn't. "I'm good, Mr Toretto. You?" Jesse answered. Leon took note of the way Jesse addressed him as 'Mr Toretto'. He wasn't sure if it was because that was how he was taught to address adults, or if that was the way 'Mr Toretto' expected to be addressed, but he decided it would be safest to call him by the same name, either way. "And you must be Leon" Mr Toretto smiled at him, "I've heard quite a bit about you". Leon smiled and nodded, unsure what to say. He did feel flattered, though, that someone had been talking about him. Must've been Mia, he supposed. Either way, it was nice to be acknowledged. "Anyways, I'm sure you boys want to get to work on the Toyota" Mr Toretto waved his hands towards the garage, "And I've got some exhausts I need to find, so, knock yourselves out. I'll be in my office if you need me". With that, he left them be. "C'mon" Dom waved them into the garage, and Leon trailed after Jesse, who was asking Dom about some exhausts from Japan that were stuck in customs somewhere. That was the pain about overnight parts and imports. You had to get them through customs before you could get your own grubby little hands on them. Dom led them over to a pop-your-cherry red Toyota MR-2. It had two silver racing stripes that ran along the hood, over the roof to the back bumper. Leon was absolutely enchanted by it. "Look at this" Dom said to Jesse, waving him over to a laptop set up on the workbench. Jesse went over to look, so Leon stayed by the car. He crouched next to the scooter, which was halfway under, and half sticking out. Leon loved the smell of grease and oil and Nos and sweat and everything else that combined into the smell of an overworked little garage. He turned to cast his gaze over the relatively small space. There were tools everywhere. On shelves, on the floor, in containers, in jars, on workbenches. Everywhere. The walls were covered in posters and signs and license plates. An old radio crackled through a static-ridden version of a song Leon didn't recognise. "There's a hairline fracture in the fuel pipe, right?" he asked suddenly, remembering something his uncle had shown him. Dom and Jesse looked over at Leon from the computer as he stood slowly, and glanced at them over the roof of the MR-2. "Yeah. But I can't find it" Dom answered, then squared his shoulders, "So you certainly won't be able to see it". Leon looked down at his feet, and spotted a can of sealant. He picked it up, got down on the scooter, and pushed himself under the car. "You'll get oil on yer shirt" Jesse warned, getting up and looking at him under the car, from the opposite side. Leon yanked off the jersey he'd worn to school that day, and threw it at Jesse. Jesse stood and put it on the bench, not able to stop the smile at Dom's horrified look. How dare someone presume they knew more about his car than he did? Leon emerged from under the car, slightly splattered with oil and sealant. It didn't bother him though. Cars were his life now. Burning rubber. Oil. It was all perfume to him. Seductive. Nothing smelt better. "Try it now" Leon said, walking around the car to where the two of them stood, before picking up his Ruff Ryders jersey and tucking one end into the back of his jeans so it dangled out like a make believe animal tail. Dom turned back to the lap top, typed in a few more things, and frowned. He got up silently, slid into the driver's seat of the Toyota, and started her up. She roared then softened to a satisfied purr. Dom sat, dumb-founded for a long moment that someone could fix a problem that *he* couldn't. Then he smiled, and shook his head, before cutting the engine and getting out. "Not bad" he said, shutting the drivers door and looking over at Leon, "We might be able to use you around here". Leon raised his brows, trying not to appear too excited. Really?" he asked, wanting to be absolutely sure that he wasn't just dreaming. Dom smiled, then shrugged, as though it was no big deal, "Sure. Let me talk to my Dad about it, a'ight?" |