Chapter Nine

When school started, my life fell apart again. Instead of being at the garage, doing what I loved, hanging out with Dom and Leon all the time, I was back in the middle of hell. Somehow everyone at school had heard about Sly, so the latest rumor going around was that my boyfriend had gotten out of jail, and killed Sly for harassing me. Which yeah, would have been nice, if it were true. But it wasn’t, so hearing all this speculation about my ‘life of sin’ with Dom just completely sucked.

High school rumors can be very complicated, you know? There were a million rumors about me out there, all of them different. Some people insisted I was fucking Leon. Most likely they came up with that because it was just the two of us living together at the house. And we don’t really look anything alike…I guess most people would be surprised to find out we’re cousins. Other people thought I was a dyke, since I hung out with boys and cars all the time. Or they said I’d been working for Sly since I was twelve, that he beat me and I got off on it, begged him to hurt me, that I’d do anything he told me to. Some of the guys at school, thinking they were all tough and shit, started really harassing me after that rumor started, trying to get me to fuck them ‘cause they thought I was easy and submissive. How anyone ever got the idea I was submissive, I have no clue. But that stopped soon enough, after I beat the shit out of a few of them. That, plus the newest rumor that my boyfriend, Dom, was out of jail and possessive as hell and would kill anyone who touched me - okay, this is like the one rumor I ever actually encouraged - meant that no one ever really came close to me.

Mia had started taking business classes at the community college, and pretty soon Leon and Dom talked her into getting some practical experience by helping out with the accounting and stuff for the garage. I’d never really spent a lot of time with her before, but it was nice having her around. As busy as we were at the garage, though, we never really had much time to talk. Not until I fucked up my knee.

One day at school, towards the middle of October, we were doing track and field in gym. We were learning how to do the hurdles, and we were just to the point where we were supposed to know how to do it. Everyone had to take turns running the hurdles. And well, when I was jumping over the second to last hurdle, my body decided to stop cooperating. Somehow, my foot got caught in the top part of the hurdle, and I fell, twisting to the side before I hit the ground. So, my foot stopped moving, because it was stuck in the hurdle, but the rest of me didn’t stop until I was turned halfway around and my knee was in complete agony.

The school nurse checked me over, said my knee had probably just gotten twisted and it should be fine as long as I rested it for a while. She said I shouldn’t be walking around, so I should call home and have someone come get me. My knee didn’t really hurt all that much, but I wasn’t about to turn down a chance to get out of school.

I called the garage and Dom answered the phone. He sounded surprised to hear from me in the middle of the day, immediately asked what was wrong.

“Oh, uhm, I kind of hurt my knee, and they don’t want me walking around on it so they’re sending me home,” I explained. “Is Leon around? I need him to come get me.”

“Nah, Leon ain’t here. Remember, he had to go make that delivery down to San Diego today. He probably won’t be back till seven or eight. And he mentioned something about going to see Amber tonight, so he might not come home at all…if they finally decide to accept the inevitable and move past being ‘just friends’.”

“Oh,” I said, disappointed. Being hurt and getting out of classes wasn’t going to be half as much fun if I had to spend all day in the office until my aunt got off work and could come pick me up. They’d probably make me do homework or help them out in the library or some shit like that.

Then, I got an idea. “Hey, you think Mia could come get me? She won’t have to be away from the garage for too long. I’m sure you can deal with anyone who calls or drops by. You can handle the place alone for an hour or so, right?”

“Well yeah, I could,” Dom laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, by the way. It’s touching, really. But there’s a problem.”

“What?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

“Mia has classes today, all day. Remember, she rearranged her class schedule last week so she could work at the garage more?”

“Oh, yeah,” I replied, disappointed again. “Well, okay then. I guess I’ll just call my aunt and have her come get me when she gets off work. Maybe she can leave early or take a long lunch break or something, so I won’t have to hang around here too long.”

“Oh, that hurts, Letty. You really know how to wound a guy, you know that?”

“What?” I asked, wondering what the hell Dom was talking about.

“I’m not good enough to come get you? It would ruin your rep to be picked up from school by a hardened criminal like me?”

All I could say at first was, “Huh?” Then, I finally managed to get my mouth working again. Well, kind of. “But…you’re…the garage? Close it? Really? You’d do that?” I remember thinking I sounded like a complete idiot, but I just couldn’t stop myself.

“Yes, really. No, wait, on second thought, maybe I’ll just leave you to rot there for the rest of eternity, since you have so much faith in me. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Be ready.” And with that, he hung up.

I couldn’t even move, just sat there with the phone in my hand, staring at the wall until the nurse came in to ask if I’d gotten a hold of anyone. Even then, I could only nod my head. I’d never even thought to ask Dom to come get me. I just couldn’t imagine him willingly leaving the garage in the middle of the day.

Ever since Dom started talking about getting into racing again, he’d been constantly complaining about how much money it took. He already a car, the RX-7. Personally, I always wondered why Dom didn’t race the Charger, but I never found a good time to ask him. Besides, I figured it probably reminded him of his dad, and that’s why he didn’t want to race her. Or, maybe he didn’t want to risk something happening to the car. It was just about the only thing left from his dad, besides the house and the garage. Everything else had been sold. Anyways, even though Dom had a car he still wasn’t ready to race. He needed to rebuild the engine; add a supercharger, intercooler and new exhaust system; replace the clutch… The list was practically endless, and all of those things took money. Dom needed to put at least ten thousand dollars into that car to make sure he wouldn’t go out and look like a complete fool when he started racing again. And most of the money left from Mr. Toretto was gone, used to pay for the funeral, to make payments on the house and garage, to buy stuff for Mia. So Dom needed money, quick. That’s why we took in so many jobs at the garage, why Dom worked there almost eighty hours a week. And nearly all the money he made went into that RX-7. An investment, he called it. So I was amazed that he was willing to take a break to come get me from school. He’d practically insisted, even seemed insulted that I hadn’t thought of asking him to come. “Hell, maybe he cares about me a little after all,” I said quietly to myself.

Even though he’d said twenty minutes, Dom was at the school in fifteen. Didn’t really surprise me. First, the garage wasn’t all that far away. I usually walked there every day after I got out of hell. Er…I mean out of school. And secondly, Dom always did drive fast. Not crazy, but fast.

I saw him walk up towards the secretary’s desk and tried getting up to go meet him, but my knee just wasn’t cooperating. My whole leg had somehow stiffened up, and I could barely move.

“Hi, I’m here to pick up Letty. I mean Leticia. Gonzalez. She got hurt today?” I heard him say, talking to the secretary. I was kind of shocked; I hadn’t realized Dom even knew my full name.

“Oh yes, Leticia,” she replied. “And you are?”

“Dominic Toretto. I should be on her emergency card, her aunt added me to it at the beginning of school.”

Hmm. I hadn’t known that, either. Smart thing to do though, I guess, once Dom started spending so much time at the garage. He and Leon were practically partners by then, practically family even though they’d only known each other a few weeks. They probably wouldn’t have let Dom take me out of school without his name being on some official form. Schools are like that, full of rules and shit. Weird that no one had told me about it, though. And I didn’t think my aunt had ever even met Dom. I wondered for a second if she actually knew, or if Leon had somehow managed to scam the school. Then I realized I didn’t really care, as long as they let me leave with Dom.

“Right. Here you are, Mr. Toretto. I just need you to fill out this permit to leave campus. Does Leticia need to stop by her locker for anything, do you know?”

“I’m not sure,” Dom replied, and I could almost see the confused look on his face, the same one he wore on the rare occasions when he didn’t quite know what was wrong with a car.

“Well, let me know if she does. She’s probably feeling pretty stiff by now. You need to have her lie down somewhere and elevate her leg when you get home, put a heating pad on it for about twenty minutes or so. If she’s up to it, you can help her go and get her things from her locker, but you’ll need a visitor’s badge. Or, I can send one of the administrators over to get Leticia’s things for her.”

Dom was quiet for a few seconds, apparently thinking over his options. “Well,” he finally replied, “I don’t think she’d want anyone looking through her stuff. Why don’t you give me the visitor’s badge now, just in case.”

“Holy shit,” I thought to myself, “is Dom actually going to wear one of those dorky badges?”

Sure enough, when he came into the nurse’s office a minute later, the badge was plastered to his shirt. He looked pretty dumb, with the huge sticker with the word ‘visitor’ in bold against a red apple on the strap of his tank top. The shirt itself was yet another surprise. It actually looked clean, not a smudge of oil or grease anywhere on it. Either he hadn’t been working on any cars yet today, which didn’t seem likely with the way he smelled, or he’d taken the time to change before coming over to the school. Dom just wasn’t stopping with the surprises that day.

“So, are you ready to go, Leticia?” he asked, enunciating my name with a smirk on his face, one eyebrow raised. He was so going to pay for that later. I hate my full name. Way too girly. Joy and fucking gladness. Doesn’t fit me at all. Still, it’s the only thing that ever made me think that once upon a time my mom might have given a damn about me.

“But of course, Mister Toretto,” I shot right back at him.

I tried to stand up again, but it hurt to put any weight at all on my knee, and I had to sit down again on the cot, grimacing.

“Uhm…Dom…” I started, feeling completely embarrassed and like a total sissy. “I don’t think I can walk.”

“Damn, Letty, what the hell happened?” he asked, his brows furrowing. “Did someone do this to you?”

“Hmm?” I asked, startled. “Oh, no, Dom, it was just an accident. No one’s fault. The nurse said I’ll be fine, I just need to relax and elevate my leg. It’ll be good as new in a couple of weeks, if not sooner.”

“I don’t know, Letty…you can’t even walk… Maybe we should stop by the clinic on the way home, have you checked out by a doctor, get some x-rays taken. You could’ve done something serious…torn a ligament or some shit like that…”

“Dom, that will take hours!” I protested. “You know how busy the clinic gets. I’d be completely healed by the time I finally saw a doctor. I’m fine, really. My knee must have just stiffened up while I was sitting here waiting. Can we just go home, please?”

His concern was touching, really. But I just wanted to get out of the hellhole before the lunch bell rang. I didn’t want the whole school to see me all weak.

“Fine, we’ll go home,” he finally gave in. And before I could even congratulate myself on convincing him, Dom had picked me up and was carrying me out of the nurse’s office.

As much as I wanted to leave right away, I did need to go by my locker. I had a history test coming up, and I had to get a decent grade on it or I’d be failing the class when progress reports were sent out, and my aunt would probably insist on me going back to live with her. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, my aunt was great to live with. But Leon’s place was home for me by then.

Dom carried me through that entire school to my locker, and then back out to the parking lot in front. I could feel everyone’s eyes on us, staring through open classroom doorways. I wanted to disappear, but I settled for just hiding my face in Dom’s shoulder. I couldn’t even imagine the rumors I’d hear when I got back.