A Taste of Everyday -- Chapter 11

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Zane, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Rena/X5-120, etc.).

“Janie, I’m going to be going to bed now,” Brianne said, poking her head into my bedroom. “Good night.”

I looked up from the magazine that I was reading and smiled. “Good night, Brianne.” Brianne left my room and I picked up my magazine again. Brianne was doing a lot better now. It’s been ten months since Vincent died and we were both doing much better. Brianne was even dating again. Nothing serious, but dinner out with somebody that a friend from work had set her up with once in awhile. It was great to see her doing better.

I read my magazine for another few minutes before I looked at the clock and I put it down. I crept out of my room and walked down the hall and peeked into Brianne’s room. She was sound asleep. I silently walked back into my room, opened my closet, pulled out a black leather jacket, and pulled it on. I grabbed my purse, the one that looks like a small backpack, slung the straps over my shoulders, walked over to the window, opened it, and climbed outside and easily jumped to the ground. I looked around to make sure that nobody had seen me and then I ran at a reasonable ordinary pace, grinning like a lunatic. Oh, I was going to have some fun tonight!

I approached a street corner and a moment later, a car pulled up and I got in. I grinned at Nancy, who was driving. “I can never thank you enough for turning sixteen last month and getting your license and I can never thank your parents enough for giving you your own car, especially in today’s society, even though this part of the country is doing pretty well.”

“Oh behalf of my parents, you’re welcome,” Nancy said. “We’ve still got to pick up Vanessa and Gillian.”

“Lee Anne isn’t coming with us tonight?” I asked.

“No,” Nancy said. “She and her parents and brother had to go visit her grandmother and they’re not getting back until a little later from now.” We drove around town until Nancy pulled up near Vanessa’s and Gillian’s houses and the two of them got into the backseat of Nancy’s car. “That’s everybody for tonight. Let’s go. Janie, you remember the street in Dallas where it’s going down tonight?”

“Of course,” I assured her. “It’s the intersection of Brighton and 10th streets, so park a few blocks down.”

“Gotcha,” Nancy said.

We were quiet as we drove towards and then into Dallas, but we were all excited. We’d been going to and watching these underground motorcycle races and they were exciting as hell. You watched the guys and even girls just tear up around the streets and scream and cheer and have a beer or two. They let you watch and drink as long as you looked close enough to eighteen. They don’t care that the legal drinking age is still twenty-one. People made bets with each other and the winners made cash. I don’t know where the money came from and I didn’t give a rat’s ass. It was an absolutely blast, at least for me.

Nancy finally pulled into a free all-night parking lot a few blocks from where the racing was going to take place tonight and we got out and walked over to the bouncer/guard-type person who was standing near the large crowd of people. “Hey, how about letting us watch the racing?”

The bouncer looked us over. He knew us pretty well by now. “Yeah…you look close enough.” He smiled. “Have a good night, girls. You think you might finally race tonight, Jane?”

“If somebody’s kind enough to let me borrow a bike, tonight might finally be the night,” I agreed.

“Good luck,” he said and he waved us past him.

“Are you serious?” Vanessa wondered. “Are you really going to race tonight if somebody lets you borrow their bike?”

“Of course I’m serious,” I said.

“You’re—you’re young,” Gillian said, not wanting to give away my ‘real’ age.

“Hey, Mike taught me everything I had to know and I have practiced on his bike,” I reminded her. “You know that I can ride.”

“Ride? Yes. Race? I don’t have a damn clue,” Gillian said.

“Just relax,” I assured her. “We’ll see what happens.”

“Okay, everybody!” one of the guys in charge shouted. “Everybody knows the rules! Five grand to the winner for every race won. If you borrow a bike to ride from somebody that’s here, winner and the bike owner split the cash with seventy-five percent going to the winner and twenty-five percent going to the owner.” He listed out the other rules as well as the course that they were going to be racing on tonight. “…and then the left back to here. Okay, there are the rules and now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get some racing done!” Everybody cheered. “Who’s going to have the honor of going first?”

Let’s get this started! I raised my hand. “I will if somebody will loan me a bike.”

“We’ve got our first racer,” the guy announced. “Who will be kind enough to loan the lovely lady a motorcycle and a chance to win twenty-five percent of the five grand that she’ll earn if she wins?”

“I will,” somebody said from in the crowd. He wheeled his bike forward to me and handed me his helmet. I accepted the helmet and put it on and stepped onto the bike and looked it over while I waited for somebody to step up to race me. Not bad. Maybe a little lighter in power than Mike’s bike, but not bad at all.

“Are the racers ready?” I nodded and turned the bike on and revved the engine. I was so ready. I was born ready.

“Go!”

I took off and blasted around the first turn. I was grinning like mad beneath the helmet. This has to be the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I laughed as I whipped around a blind turn, already a pretty good distance ahead of my opponent. As much fun as I was having, I was careful not to show my reflexes off as I could have. I’m not stupid, you know. It was still an absolutely amazing experience and I flew around the final corner and to the finish line, slowing the bike to a stop and looking behind me as my challenger pulled in seven-and-a-half seconds behind me.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!” the guy announced. Everybody cheered again as I got off of the bike and took off the helmet. I accepted my prize money and handed the owner of the bike his share and walked back over to my friends, still grinning.

“I can’t believe it, Janie! You won your first race!” Vanessa squealed.

“Was there ever any doubt?” I said.

“Dude, what are you gonna do with your prize money?” Nancy asked.

“Beats the hell out of me,” I said. “But don’t worry about it, I’ll put it to good use.”

“No doubt about that,” Nancy agreed. “Have fun drinking, you guys, since I can’t tonight.”

“We will,” Gillian teased.

Vanessa and Gillian and I accepted a beer from the person who was handing them out tonight and we watched the other people race. I was on an emotional high from winning and it didn’t go away all night. We watched and cheered and laughed and just plain had a good time until I heard faint police sirens in the distance. Nobody else heard them, so I nudged the other four.

“I think we’ve had enough for the night. Let’s head back before our parents or foster mom in my case has a major cow,” I said. I started to lead them back towards Nancy’s car. After we’d turned the corner, the other three could barely hear the sirens and apparently, so could the other people because everybody started to rush away, either on foot or on motorcycle. We ran towards the car and got in and got away in plenty of time.

“That was such a rush,” Vanessa said, giggling.

“And you are very drunk,” I teased.

“I am not drunk,” Vanessa insisted. “I only had three beers. I remember perfectly well that you had the same amount as me and you’re not as tipsy. What gives?”

“Lucky genes,” I said. And I didn’t even have to lie! “My dad told me once that he had an amazing tolerance for alcohol back when he was in college.”

“Who cares? I had a blast tonight,” Nancy said.

“So did I,” Gillian agreed, laughing. She was as inebriated as Vanessa was.

“I definitely did,” I said. I took out my prize money and counted it and grinned. Did I ever have a blast tonight!

TBC