++ Let the race begin ++

[Mr.Malory]

As the car skidded to a halt, the wheels grip seeming to keep well to the pavement. The car jolted forward, and the engine was off, though the music was still booming from inside the vehicle, it was the type of music, many people have on when roaming through the streets, windows down and a load of Chav’s inside. But no, this was different, this time at least, the drivers window rolled down instantly, the driver now being shown through it “Hi John, I’m here to watch the race?” he looked back out of the front window of which there were crowds gathering all around now, as Zack’s dark eyes glided back towards John again, waiting for a reply “Hi, Zack, go on through, just try not to crash on the way there!” This was just a joke. In fact many jokes were made up around this subject, thanks to Zack’s past. Oh he had a way with people, yes he did. Putting back on the engine he drove forward, the rear of his car being ‘patted’ by John as he drove towards the crowds, Just wanting to go back and run over the asshole.

As he pulled his car to a halt on the edge of a crowd Zack sighed, first thing exiting the car would be his boots, closely followed by the rest of him, taking a few steps forwards only to lean on the bonnet, the police had better not come tonight, if they did and Zack just so happened to get another mark on his record he would get to go to the scenic ‘big house’. What a pleasant thought. Ah, he would be okay, there were many others around with criminal offenses and records.
Pressing a small button on the end of the key, the car was instantly locked as he took a few steps through the crowd wondering if he would notice anybody of who was racing this particular night. Zack had quite a reason, at this point, the turbo that was meant to be in his car wasn’t well not until the next day anyway. That was when the crowds stepped away, obviously the racers were now driving in, retiring to his normal position, near his car Zack looked up and down the road waiting for the cars to appear. After all, he had a front view place.

[Miss F. Atigue]

Zabra was having a well-deserved night off. She’d finished at the garage early and had decided to catch a race that she didn’t need to be in. Wandering through the crowds she spotted a lot of people that she knew, either from outside the races or from in them. Wow, she had never guessed how many drivers like her would take a day off once in a while. This was the first time for her in about a month, apart from her usual Sundays that she would use to go see her parents, where they would complain about how she wasn’t living the right lifestyle, how she should settle down and find a nice man… How about no? She was perfectly happy just wandering around for now, she didn’t want to be tied down to some guy who preferred to stay in at nights, some one who frowned down upon her racing or even snitched about it. She liked the other racers, but in general they weren’t the type to settle down. This she didn’t mind, at least she knew that at the end of the day she’d be able to watch him race, vice versa or even race against him. Having paused to say hello to another driver she had known for a while- a skin-head, olive skinned guy who looked just about as ripped as her pair of jeans (A lot) – she had heard the thumping notes of Zack’s music over the idle chatter around the area. Leaving after greeting the man- who turned back to the blonde bimbo who’d been trying to eat his face off- she wound her way through the crowd in between her and the cars in time to spot the one with the good stereo system. Hey, she recognised the owner of that car. Hadn’t he completely totalled another one in a race she had won a few months ago? She couldn’t remember the details- she might have got drunk shortly after parking up her car in the garage- but she knew he’d crashed a lot before.

Winding the last couple of feet she stretched out with a slender handing to grab threateningly at his shoulder, aiming to make him jump. There was a gang going around just lately who enjoyed to beat racers up in favour of the person they had bet upon, but they also liked to beat up random people as well. Tugging with her hand to get him to wheel round she grinned, her hands going to her hips in a very child-like manner to show she wasn’t going to hit the crap out of him. “Nice sound system.” Yay! Compliments! They were like the, well the, John Travolta of talking? She didn’t know, but compliments were always nice.

[Mr.Malory]

Oh this was going to be fun, very fun. Though, he didn’t actually know any of the drivers, shame really. He knew a few people, a few who you really wouldn’t want to get on the bad side of, most of which were gangsters, or who raced like Zack himself. Running his hand through his hair Zack turned to see who else had possibly came in the time he was daydreaming, “Oh nice car…” he said pretty much to himself, though it was aimed at the others around him, as if he wanted them to look. The car itself was black with tints in the paintwork, so when the light caught the bonnet it would revert to a rather stunning bottle green colour. Zack, however would always seem to complement others on their cars, oh but he had a decent one now. Now that it was Tuned up and all that Jazz. John had now waltzed over to lean against Zack’s car, “Hey Zack, I hear he is back tonight!” the emphasis on the word ‘he’ was probably quite amusing when it came from John. Of course when referring to ‘he’ John actually meant Dominic, the leader from the whole racing thing, Zack had talked to him once or twice, Apparently he hadn’t been beaten when it came to racing, oh but there was a first for everyone.

John had seemed to scuttle away when Zack went to talk to him, having no luck, only to turn towards his car’s bonnet. John had a way of doing that, anyone who knew him would have gotten used to it now. Then with the sudden grabbing of his shoulder he looked back, jumping just before he did so, “Hi?” he said simply in the manner that anyone would have done, “Thankyou!” he continued quickly after realizing that it wasn’t actually any of that gang. He went back to leaning on his bonnet again before looking back towards Zabra, expecting that she would have gone already, most people around the parts had a way of doing that. “Oh, I’m sorry did you want something?” he said simply, looking back towards the incoming cars, two more and then they would get into their places and the race would start! Perfect!

[Miss F. Atigue]

Zabra looked back at John as he spoke to Zack, listening with interest at the whole thing. Dominic was coming tonight? She could have kicked herself, she should have been racing tonight to impress him, show him that she was made out of the real stuff but she hadn’t arrived in her car today, it was just a few blocks away from the garage she both lived and worked at. (She loved above the garage in a nice, cosy flat. How amazing was that? She could just walk down some stairs if she wanted to go to work or see her car.) She didn’t want to walk back and miss anything either, that would be terrible. Instead she’d just have to settle with looking like any one of the other floozies that loitered around looking to score with the winner of the racing. Which would be Dominic; he had never lost a race according to the people she had heard the tales about him of. He was pretty much the king. She was still one of the little pawns that followed the flow, won some races and then used the money she got from it. Sighing more to herself then any one else, she ran a had through her hair- cut shorter then usual and spiked in a very fetching way that she could pull off well because of her bone structure, she looked back at Zack. Well, it could be worse, she supposed, she could try to race and then crash embarrassingly as she definitely knew this man had. Her eyes glinted with amusement as she remembered this before it was gone, lost in the deliberation of how Zabra would introduce herself to Dominic if he saw her or vice versa.

She grinned as Zack was polite about the compliment. Thank god he hadn’t ranted on and on about how he had installed it, what made it so special… So many people could turn out to be complete pricks about the littlest of things. Then there was a little part where she was ignored for a while, which she thought was pretty entertaining. No-one had ever done that before. “Well, conversation is quite nice… But if you’re busy…” She replied, faking indifference to everything.

[Mr.Malory]

In fact, Dominic wasn’t coming tonight as he hadn’t for god knows how long. Apparently he had gone missing and hadn’t even bothered to send a note etc. However, the Dominic would soon be revealed to be some Psycho man of which had nothing to do, or had a death wish,, after all lately everyone would get all hyped up about this ‘Dominic’ arriving back and it would just turn out to be one of the pranksters, people would attack them and beat them to a pulp. And this was all just for fun, some people need to get to know the meaning of ‘fun’. In the meantime while thinking about this Zackery had shifted a bit to look round, dark coloured eyes scanning the crowds wondering what the sudden fuss had been kicked up about, turned out to be what Zackery had guessed. A mad man of which had a death wish. Shifting a bit, he stepped back to lean against the car again, looking back and forth from zabra to the cars…

Oh yes, Zack had crashed but it definitely wasn’t embarrassing, Quite the opposite, in fact he was famous because of the amount of cars he had ‘accidentally’ blown up. He loved doing this, in fact it would actually be considered a ‘hobby’ of his., Nah, what was he on about, running his hand through his hair so it was stuck on end Zack looked back towards Zabra.. Zack wasn’t really a type to rant on about something he had done, even though he was amazed by what he done to his own car, and in the amount of time it was done.. “Conversation, fine… It would be better if we actually had something to talk about though!” he said simply before looking back towards Zabra, “I’m Zack by the way!” he said simply holding out his hand for her to shake it.

[Miss F. Atigue]

Well, even if he didn’t turn up, she wouldn’t be that disappointed. She would much rather be racing if he ever did, it was more of a matter of proving herself then trying to win if he ever raced against her. Coming second would be good enough. She’d heard the tale that he had disappeared with out a trace and not even left a note or contacted any one since then. More of the fanatical rumours said he’d left to join professional racing, but she found this doubtful. Professional racing was no way near as good as street racing, any thing could happen here and the risks were every where- the police could crack down on you, a gang could turn on you and want your blood… There were more obstacles, no team made your car- you had to buy it yourself- and there were sharp corners, raising bridges… All sorts of things. She could never imagine herself leaving this, even if she lost she would continue, even if she was at risk of loosing her life she would continue. She was more the comfortable with working night shifts at the garage, going out racing and doing it all on a low budget then she would be getting a proper job and working the day before racing at night. Standing there, waiting for the seemingly delayed reaction from Zack, she couldn’t help but raise and eye brow in a questioning manner. Usually people were quicker at a response; she couldn’t help but hope that he wasn’t this slow when trying to drive his car. Looking around herself she spotted another nice looking car and took a few seconds to gaze at it. She needed a new, brighter paint job on hers.

“Well!” She exclaimed immediately after he spoke, waving her arms dramatically as though she was at a pantomime, but toned down a lot. “This is meant to be an exciting event! Care to talk about racing, by chance?” She cracked a wicked grin, it looking like a bizarre mix between and smirk and a genuine smile of friendliness. As he held out his hand, she stretched out hers and shook it in a way any enthusiastic, colourful person would. There was also a bit of steadiness behind it that said she wasn’t as flighty as her appearance was letting on. “Names Zabra.” Maybe he would know her? Me might ‘Abra Kadabra Zabra’ was like a show name, she was good at pulling of tricks that let her win the race. Yes.

[Mr.Malory]

Yes, the idea of racing was quite exciting, yet it was more of a life for Zack, after all he did like it and more so, he liked actually racing for himself. Luckily, he had the current car for ages and he had managed not to blow up the bloody thing, good riddance as well. He loved that car; the spray paint was actually all of his ‘marvelous’ idea. He had got himself into a sticky situation quite a few times with the police; Dominic had actually saved him once, after him managing to bow up the car. The police had arrived, and therefore, he had no car to get away in, leading Dominic to helping him. Pausing he looked back towards the crowds where people were being pulled of the track as the cars were starting to get ready for the race. He smirked looking back and forth between his own car and the others, wishing that he could have raced; after all it was much more fun to race then stand and watch.

“Oh racing, sure… after all, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t meant to be racing…” he smiled looking back towards her again, pausing as he did so, leaning back against his car again. Running his hand through his hair, pondering on what to do, he could get into the race if he wanted to, his car just wouldn’t be /as/ fast, and plus, with one less racer it would be fine. Oh maybe he would.
OOC: short post :x

[Miss F. Atigue]

“Speaking of racing…” Her eyes travelled towards his car as though wondering what it was doing there, like it had just sprung out from a door way to pounce upon some unsuspecting victim and then devoured them with its bonnet. She continued to gaze for a few more seconds before they returned to Zack with a questioning look lingering on her face. “Aren’t you going to race?” It was a perfectly logical question, really, usually when people arrived with a car they meant to race at some point, for all she knew he might be planning to race later. To be honest this wasn’t the most riveting conversation she had ever had, it felt like she was talking to a rock- she was making most of the talking and it wasn’t like what Zack was saying left her with much to comment of really, was it? If she’d been treated like this all the time by him then she would have felt quite fed up, really. But it must be better then simply having him being horribly sarcastic to her all the time, as some people could be, especially when they seemed to find it amusing to tell you that you sucked every other couple of seconds. Those kind of people made Zabra feel depressed which she didn’t favour very much, she was perfectly happy getting on with her life and being happy about it- people who spent their time complaining or being nasty made her feel mistreated and upset after a while, why did they think it was so good to make others feel bad? Never mind, if he got too boring then she’d just leave him to what ever he was doing.

Looking over at the cars lined up to race, she moved her head lightly to one side and then the other to a catchy tune she’d had caught up in her head for a while just lately, her fingers tapping on her arms as she crossed them more for warmth then any thing. She was wearing one of her usual skimpy tops with the jeans and a bikini under that, the top a bright pink and the bikini top was a deep scarlet. She blinked and looked back at Zack, waiting for an answer of sorts, maybe time was just going faster for her then other people so it seemed like there was a huge gap in between the limited conversation. “Not much of a talker, are you?” She finally said, chuckling lightly in a friendly way.

[Mr.Malory]

Looking back around towards Zabra, Zack smirked “Well, I was going to race, but I don’t really have my car ‘up to date’ for it?” he said simply looking towards her in a small confused sort of way “What about you?” He said simply, after all, it was probably best to at least /try/ and make conversation amongst them otherwise it would be silent, yes silent. Zack however was actually considering racing at this point during the day, just not yet, probably in the second race, if they even got to that race on time, at the rate this was going, it would take god knows how long. He looked back towards the race simply, the cars engines now starting up as they got ready for the race, no body Zack knew was racing at this point, quite odd really as most people he knew were actually racers, and none of them were actually here, they had departed or been caught by the police on recent occasions, but that was a long time ago, something really to consider, or more-so wonder where everyone was.

He smirked leaning against his car, in the sort of way you would if you were to stretch and fail, whoo! He looked back towards Zabra again in time to catch the next part of her speech. “Well, no not really, when I don’t know the person very much, the conversation will get better, if it lasts that long…” he said simply smiling, running both hands through his hair again as the flag was lifted up and dropped, the track then seemed to come alive and the cars that were revving up their engines were now a way across the track, and Zack had missed them because he was talking darn it. The crowd had suddenly gone wild with excitement, the next contestants made their way to the positions on the track…

[Miss F. Atigue]

“My car is back at the garage, I’m having a night off from the racing and the mechanics.” She answered, stretching in a cat like way to stretch, arms lifted into the air and feet rising to be on their tip toes. As if she wasn’t tall enough when she didn’t stretch! In that pose she looked suddenly very long and lanky compared to the sight a few minutes ago of a person that looked healthy and in proportion. She was, actually, feeling kind of ill of late. She couldn’t explain it, but she kept feeling tired for no reason and then she would doze off when she could get a break. Other wise she felt fine, but she wasn’t the type who needed lots of sleep so it was quite inexplicable to why she’d woken up one day last week feeling exhausted. Was her life style catching up with her finally? She doubted it. Probably she’d caught a virus that she was trying to fight off as best as she could. Returning from the stretch, she looked back at Zach, where as before she’d taken a scan of the crowds to see if any one else she knew was around. It looked like these races had attracted a lot of the newer kids who wanted to try and be the best, good luck, most of them only lasted one race where they failed horribly and then gave up, sold the car and went away to be accountants. (All the while bragging to girls that they’d raced and won spectacularly and scored five chicks in one night, Zabra presumed, even the losers got at least one girl. Not the same for the female racers.) “Sometimes you need a little break, right?” It wasn’t one of those questions where he could disagree, it was more of a conformation kind of thing, Zabra trying to get assurance that it was normal for some one not to race for at least one night. “Well, the garage has owed me a night off for a while.”

Her eyes wandered over to the race just in time to notice it was about to start. Listening to his words but not watching, the flag dropped and they were away like no tomorrow, you’d think that a monster would spring out up from the floor if they stayed for too long on one spot. The crowd exploded into shouts and screams of excitement that Zabra didn’t get involved in- she didn’t know the racers of those cars that well, if she had then she would have been cheering along with them. There was nothing like a good bellow of support, after all. “You don’t know me that well? Aw!” Her eyes flickered away from the track that she had been watching towards Zach once more. “Well you could.” She nudged him in the ribs suggestively with a wink, followed by giggle that clearly showed she was joking around.