by
DevilChild
Fandom: The Fast and The Furious
Rating: For Mature Readers
Pairing: Dom/Bri; Bri/Mia
Author's Note: A TF&TF High School AU inspired by an onlist challange. Thanks to Dawn and Bone for the beta. Thanks to Khal for additional helpful commentary.
Copyright and Disclaimer: The Fast and The Furious and the characters from it are creations of Gary Scott Thompson, Eric Bergquist, and David Ayer. I make no claims their ownership or creation. This bit of not for profit modern folklore (thank you Prof. Jenkins) is mine.
With a heavy sigh Brian O'Connor flopped on to his bed, picked up the remote, and turned on the TV, hoping for something good on. Click. Click. Click. Nope. Nothing. Antenna sucked.
Fuck. He missed Rome.
Mom had just closed the mortgage on the house Friday and they had spent all weekend hauling their stuff out of storage and the extended stay suite where they had lived the past two weeks. School began in one week and he didn't know a single fucking person. Talk about a crappy way to begin a Junior year. But Blue Sun had made Mom the offer of a lifetime, which explained just how he had ended up in Echo shitsucking Park.
God, he missed Rome.
Shit. He even missed Barstow and that was saying something.
Cursing under his breath he leapt off the bed. He still had a lot of boxes to unpack, and he might as well get his iMac up and running so that when the phone company came to turn on the phones and (hopefully) get the DSL going, he could e-mail Rome .
He really ached for Rome at slack times like this. And Mom had made it pretty damn clear that she did not approve of Rome , at least not any more. First off, he came from a family where "they work with their hands" and second off, she thought Brian was "too attached" to Rome . He even played the wrong kind of sport -- baseball. Arrrgh. She just didn't get it. Everything, even the boring things, was better with Rome . They bailed each other out of trouble. They got each other into trouble. Rome was like his brother ... only of a different color and from a different mother.
Brian suspected his mother thought they had fooled around. Which, okay, they had. Hell, she had almost caught them once. But that was just two guys blowing off steam. He liked girls. Liked them fine.
It was perfectly natural for guys to want a little ease. Especially between girlfriends.
(So what if he'd come harder from Rome 's hand on his dick than he'd ever come when fooling around with a girl. And sometimes, beating off, he thought about Rome or other guys at school. He didn't mean to -- they just popped into his head.)
Just guys being guys. That's all it was. But try explaining that to a mom.
Perfectly natural.
Period.
~oo(0)oo~
Brian had gotten the really important things like the iMac, stereo, and the PS2 unpacked and going when he heard the sound of car in the driveway. It didn't sound like Mom's Acura, and he really didn't feel like dealing with anybody right now so he decided to take the "nobody's home" approach to whoever it was at the door, so he started in surprise when it opened.
"Brian ..." his mom yelled up the stairs.
"Yeah?" he shouted back.
"Come downstairs, please."
"Gimme a minute." God, what could she want now? He set the hammer aside only after driving the last nail in his favorite David Beckham poster, and clomped down the stairs.
His mom was trying to keep a poker face. She sucked completely. Her face might appear completely wooden, but she couldn't keep the smile from sparkling in her eyes.
What was she so happy about? Oh yeah, her great new job. What did he have to smile about? Jack and shit.
"Sweetie, you need to put some shoes on."
"What for?"
She couldn't keep her secret any longer. "You'll need to give me a ride back to the dealership -- in your new car!" she gushed.
"What?! Mom! OhMyGod!" Brian sprinted out the door.
In the driveway sat a little red Toyota MR2 T-Top. Brian loved it. It looked like a baby Ferrari.
"God, Mom!" Brian's voice jumped several octaves. "You didn't!"
"Oh yes I did, baby," she said proudly. "1994 MR2 turbo. And only 75,000 miles on it."
This could not be happening. Mom had gotten him a car.
A car he had lusted after for years.
A cool car.
He ... he could drive to Barstow and hang with Rome . Like, even this weekend.
His mother's laughing voice cut in. "Earth to Brian. Put your shoes on so you can drive me back to the dealer so I can pick up my car."
~oo(0)oo~
The car came with about three million strings attached.
No speeding. As soon as he got a ticket, he had to start paying his own insurance.
If his grades dropped below a B average, it would be taken away.
No road trips. At least not until the first semester was over. And if Brian thought he would just sneak over, she would sell the car if she found out.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
~oo(0)oo~
Brian felt weirdly calm and excited as he pulled into Ridgemont High. He already knew were everything was, mostly because he had gone to an orientation session on Friday. However, that meant that the only people he had met so far were mostly Freshmen. He had happened to bump into the soccer coach, though, so that was cool.
He had just locked the door and set the alarm when three cars pulled in and parked bam, bam, bam, in a row in the reserved spaces. A red Civic coupe with a serious wing on the back, lowered, but not ghetto. A late 1980s Camaro, blue, with louvers over the rear window and a seriously oxidized paint job. And a classic Mustang, orange mostly, but with areas of primer. The license plate said 67STANG. It had "project car" written all over it.
Three guys with "jock" stamped all over them climbed out of the cars. Two of them were built like pit bulls; one of them even shaved his head. Their friend in the Mustang had a leaner frame, but still had some serious muscle. Brian pegged them for football players or wrestlers.
But then this girl, this goddess, climbed out of the passenger side of the Civic. She was tall and willowy, but not a stork, and long shiny brown hair curled around her shoulders. And she smiled, and ...
... and with a brother as big as that, Brian was not going to go over and say hi, even though he knew he was in her league.
The "Camaro dood" jogged over to her side and even from a split second glance Brian could see that he wanted to be her boyfriend in the worst way, but that she was so not into him.
He glanced down at his watch. Shit. He needed to find D-47. Algebra. Not exactly his favorite subject.
~oo(0)oo~
Her name was Mia. Mia Toretto. They had biology together. She seemed nice.
~oo(0)oo~
After classes had finished for the day, Brian headed down to the field. CIF rules stated that soccer practice couldn't start until next quarter, but, as Coach Prince pointed out, the CIF couldn't do anything about soccer enthusiasts getting in a quick pick-up game on the field an hour before football practice started.
Brian also figured that it couldn't hurt to get to know a few of the players before tryouts for the team began. Back in Barstow , he had been a big fish in a little pond -- okay, a whale in a bathtub -- but there were a lot more students at Ridgemont, and some of the Hispanic guys had probably started kicking a soccer ball as soon as they could run.
The minute he stepped on the field, Brian noticed that he was the white guy. Ridgemont was roughly 1/3 white, 1/3 Hispanic, and then the rest Asian and black, but almost everybody on this field was Latino. He stopped uncertainly.
"Hey, Beto, check out the snowman!" one the Latinos called out good-naturedly. He jogged over to Brian and held out his hand. "Name's Hector. I got a last name but I can't pronounce it."
Brian liked the stocky fellow immediately. "I'm Brian O'Connor."
Hector froze for a spit second. "You from Barstow , man?"
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
Hector shook his head in mock sorrow. "Oh man, we were almost blood enemies, y'know. My Uncle Armando, he holds the division III record for most goals scored in a season. You finished only one goal below him last season and you were a sophomore. Mondo is real proud of that record. It's over 10 years old and nobody has come close -- until you. But hey," Hector clapped Brian on the back and began walking towards the rest of the players, "You're division I now, so Mondo's got nothing to worry about."
Brian laughed. Yeah. Maybe Ridgemont wouldn't be so bad after all.
The short pick-up session broke up as soon as the football players began drifting onto the field. Brian quickly got Hector's phone number, and also an invite to the regular Saturday morning game down in the park as they made their way up into the gym enroute to the locker room.
Cheerleading tryouts were going on. Brian spotted Mia chatting with a few other girls.
"Man, you better be careful with Mia," Hector said, smiling.
"Dude, I know. I've seen her brother."
"No, it's not Dominic you have to worry about. He's a good guy and of course he looks out for his sister, but the guy you gotta look out for is Vince. He's a linebacker on the football team. Bad temper."
Brian thought for a moment. "He drive an older blue Camaro?"
"Yep."
Groan. "I saw him talking to her this morning. She's not interested."
Hector snickered. "Yeah. Now go tell him that."
~oo(0)oo~
After they had cleaned up, Brian noticed Mia's brother, Dominic, sitting in the bleachers.
If his sister was a goddess, then he was a god. Striking face, but not classically so, like his sister's. Powerful muscles rippled across his body. The wife beater he had on concealed very little. Brian dragged his eyes up from the guy's pecs only to meet an intense pair of night black eyes.
Hector slung his arm over Brian's shoulder and walked him over. "Brian O'Connor, I'd like you to meet Dominic Toretto."
Dominic nodded a hello. Aloof. He watched the cheerleading tryouts with an intense look of concentration on his face -- not like most guys, who would've had seriously glazed eyes.
"Brian here is going to lead us to glory on the soccer field," Hector said.
Brian rolled his eyes and snorted at that. You were only as good as your team, especially the goalie. And Hector looked to be a damn good goalie.
"Dom here went to the state wrestling championships -- finished fourth."
Dominic glared at Hector, not really angry, just a bit annoyed.
"Anyhow," Hector continued, "Brian here is interested in Mia."
Dominic, to Brian's surprise, laughed at that. "Izzat right?" he asked, his voice a deep rumble, gravely, making Brian shiver (not unpleasantly) for some reason. "Soccer. That's a good thing. Means you probably got the stamina to outrun Vince."
Brian shrugged.
"Well, it looks like tryouts are over for the day," Dom said, and stood up. In a single powerful bound, he jumped over three rows of seats and landed on the gym floor. He sauntered, slightly pigeon toed, seemingly oblivious to all the girls around him, over to his sister and the two of them walked out the opposite side of the gym.
"Dude," Brian hissed, "are you trying to get me killed?"
Hector snorted, "Just letting Dom know to expect fireworks. He and I go way back. He's what you call good people."
~oo(0)oo~
Brian got a better idea of what Dominic Toretto was like four days later at lunch.
When Mia had walked out of the bio lab, her wallet fell out of the back pocket of her backpack. As Brian picked it up, he called out to her, but she didn't hear him. He found her about 15 minutes later eating lunch with some friends at a picnic table.
"Uh, hey Mia, " (ohgod that sounded lame) "You dropped your wallet." She had looked at him and smiled when he called her name so the last bit came out in a bit of a rush.
Reflexively she patted her backpack, her magnificent hazel eyes growing large when she confirmed that it was, indeed, missing. "Ohmygod. Thank you. Thank you so much," she gasped in relief as she tucked it back in.
Half a second later, Brian found himself sitting with them. He had been hanging out with Hector and his homies for lunch the past few days, but given the choice between Hector and Mia ... dood, that wasn't a choice.
"Tuna on white, no crust." Mia laughed when she saw his lunch.
"What can I say," he shrugged, "I'm just a whiteboy representing."
She laughed. Brian had no idea what they talked about for the next minute or so. Back in Barstow he had been a star jock, and that, plus his looks, had guaranteed him any girl he wanted. There had been some fine girls, but none of them held a candle to Mia.
A shadow fell between them. A voice, deceptively mild, said, "Mia. Who is this?"
Brian looked up to see Vince, the Camaro dood. The jealous glow in Vince's blue eyes and the menacing set of his brow belied the mild tone of his words. And this close to his body, Brian could see that he was very, very strong. Shit.
Mia huffed and replied, "Vince, this is Brian. He just moved here from Barstow ."
"That's nice," Vince drawled, crossing his arms and flexing his biceps before his voice turned really ugly. "Why don't you get up and go back to Barstow ?"
Right.
Brian shot to his feet and discovered that he had at least three inches on Vince. Staring down at him, Brian said, "I'll do that when you stop being a fucktard."
As soon as he said the words Brian wished he could take them back. Not because Vince didn't deserve it, or because he was afraid of Vince, but because he had overlooked the fact that he did not have Rome at his side, covering his back.
Bam! Pain exploded along his jaw line, and Brian found himself staggering back, the world gone curiously grey.
A split second later, something in him snapped.
Vince may have had 25 pounds of pure muscle on him, but Brian had weeks of pent up rage in him, plus, he hated bullies on principle.
The next thing Brian knew, he had Vince on the ground before him, and was about to deliver a richly deserved shitkicking, when Brian found himself slammed back into the table top, with a pissed off Dominic Toretto staring down at him.
The words froze in Brian's mouth as those black eyes bored into him.
"Vince started it, Dom!" Mia said.
"Blondie was sniffing around Mia!" Vince shouted back, picking himself up off the ground.
Dom rolled his eyes. Using one hand to keep Brian pinned to the table he whipped around, jabbed his finger under Vince's nose, and snapped, "Shut up! You embarrass me!"
Vince backed up, looking strangely shocked and hurt. He started to say something, but by that time several teachers had arrived and both Brian and Vince were hauled to the administration building.
~oo(0)oo~
What a fucking way to start the school year.
A week of detention.
And it was all that ass Vince's fault, but did the vice-principal listen? Hell no. Not even when everybody said that Vince started it. Brian didn't see why he should be punished at all.
Oh, and Mom handled it equally well -- not! Brian tried again to explain that the other guy started it, but just like the vice principal, she wasn't hearing it. "Should have walked away" his ass. If he had tried that, Vince would have tackled him and beat the shit out of him, or equally bad, word would have gone around school that Brian was a wimpy faggot.
So, on top of detention, he was grounded until next Friday. No car. No going out on weekends. No staying out after dark. She didn't care that his birthday was just around the corner either, no going out with friends on the 12th. (As if Brian had made any yet). And worst of all, no phone, so no calling Rome to bitch about it. Shit, he was damn lucky to still have his computer and his bike. Brian suspected that the only reason that he still had his bike was because his mom didn't want to drive him to school.
With a groan, he fired off an email to Rome . Like that would do any good. Rome hadn't answered him in over a week.
Frustrated, Brian grabbed a spiral bound notebook and poured out everything onto a sheet of paper. Better, but not enough. He thought about just going ahead and calling Rome anyway, but then Brian realized he had at least another hour until his mom came home. Grabbing a handful of change, Brian stuffed it in his pocket and hopped on his bike in search of a pay phone.
~oo(0)oo~
The sign above the market said Toretto's.
No. Fucking. Way. Brian thought as he duck walked the bike over to phone and plunked several coins in.
Rome 's little sister Tyreesha answered.
"Hey Reesha, is Rome there?"
Her nine-year-old giggly bubblyness vanished in an instant. "No, Bri. He's been sent up to Chino ."
Shock made Brian forget himself. "What the fuck did he do?"
"He and Benahe drank some 40s and then went joyriding."
"And?"
"Benahe didn't take his mom's car. He stole one."
"And Rome was stupid enough to climb in with him," Brian sighed, disgusted.
"Uh-huh."
Pause.
"Um. When you talk to Rome tell him I said, hi." He hung up and listened dejectedly as the coins plunked into place.
Benahe. What the fuck was Rome doing with that motherfucker? And because Brian wasn't there, he hadn't been able to stop Rome from tagging along with that stupid gang-banger wannabe buckethead. With a leaden heart Brian locked his bike to the rack and ventured in.
Mia was behind the counter by the soda fountain. Her face lit up when she saw him, which lifted Brian's spirits a little.
They plummeted a half second later when a blue Camaro and orange-grey Mustang pulled up.
"Hey, Mia, is Dom --" Vince's words cut off as soon as he saw Brian. "You!" he roared and darted forward, but the other guy, the one with the Mustang, lunged and grabbed him. "Let me go, Leon !"
"Nah, V, you need to chill." Leon had a low and raspy voice.
From the edge of the counter, Brian could see that Vince had a fading black eye. Funny. He didn't remember kicking Vince in the head. But suddenly he didn't feel quite so bad about the knot in his jaw.
Mia yelled, her voice cutting through the din of Vince and Leon scuffling, "Goddamnit, Vince, let it go! Just fucking let it go." Her bottom lip quivered and she looked upset enough to cry.
After a few minutes Vince relaxed and Leon let him go. Vince gave him a dirty look as he sat at the far end of the counter and Brian returned it.
Leon sat down between them, not saying anything, simply shooting both of them a warning look as he reseated his baseball cap and moved the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other.
Vince broke the silence. "Mia ..."
She pointedly refused to look at him.
"Ahhh, come on, Mia, look at me, " Vince pleaded. When she sighed and relented, he continued, "I've known you since you were five years old. You're like a sister to me --" Leon gave an amused snort at that, but Vince ignored him and continued, "And I just don't want to see you get hurt is all."
Cold silence hung over the store for several moments. Finally Mia said, "Homecoming's in three weeks. Is there going to be an after game get together at PT's?"
Vince brightened. "Yeah!"
"Thought so." She turned to Brian and gave him a huge smile. "I want you to take me, Brian. Here's my number." Mia jotted it down on a napkin and pushed it across the counter to him. "Call me."
"I'm looking forward to it," Brian said and turned to leave.
"I love this part," Leon muttered under his breath. In a move so fast it left Brian's jaw gaping, Leon somehow slammed Vince face first into floor, got both of Vince's arms in some sort of an armlock, and then spun. The result was that Vince turned with him and ended up on his shoulders with his heels flipped over his head. He squeaked in impotent, purple faced rage.
"Hey, thanks, man," Brian said as he pushed the door open.
"Nah, dude, I'm not doing this for you. I'm just trying to keep old Wyle E. Coyote here from doing something really stupid," Leon rasped.
Yeah. Brian knew all about that -- trying to keep a friend from being stupid. He gave Leon a short, sharp nod, smiled and waived goodbye to Mia, unlocked his bike, and pedaled like the wind.
Last Updated: 5/14/09