Street Dreams: Between the Streets and the Sky

by DJDJ

Chapter 1: History Lessons

Class was in session, I sat silently pondering my future. Specifically, how my life would change after my driving test next week. Since my dad was planning on getting himself a new car, my mom had offered me her old one. Fine, it was a 4 banger compact sedan, but it was turbo and had a manual, and at the very least, it was a good start for me. When my ponderings led me to my future car, my train of thought sort of stopped at that station for a while. All I could think of was ways to make that car mine; a vinyl wrap to match my t-shirt, DEFINITELY bigger pipes, probably tweak the ECU for more turbo pressure, gonna need a new intake to go with that. You know, just to name a few things.

Of course, I was still in class so inevitably, my fantasies were shattered when I heard my name. I looked up to see the teacher and most of the class staring at me. “Well…?” He coaxed. In my peripheral vision I saw my classmate, Sour Sweets holding up four fingers.

I held my chin up and answered confidently, “Four.” After which the teacher grimaced at me and the other students fought back fits of laughter with varying degrees of success.

The teacher’s grimace disappeared long enough to smarm at me. “An appropriate answer for your math studies I’m sure however, the name of the protein with which cells share information between one another is not ‘Four’.” And with just enough time to flash me one more condescending grimace before turning back to his board and continuing his lecture. I sighed and shot Sour a bitter glare as she high-fived her friend Indigo Zap under their desks. Mercifully, it wasn’t long before the lunch bell rang and I could attend to other more important matters.

I opened the door to the library cautiously and as it creaked the librarian greeted me with a viscous shushing which made me recoil slightly. I tip-toed around the library with a delicate footfall in fear of more wrathful shushings from the librarian. It was easy to search since most students were out to lunch instead of studying. I figured there was no one in here until I eventually found Twilight nose deep in books.

I carefully sat down next to Twilight and waited a moment to see if she would notice me. Realizing I had no chance in a competition for her attention against books, I tried to clear my throat. Twilight flinched and turned to me, simultaneously, I could hear a distant shush. I whispered as softly as I could to avoid more of the librarian’s wrath, “Twilight, what’s up?”

Twilight looked at me curiously and shrugged cautiously. I noticed she had no lunch, despite our break only having started minutes ago. “Hungry?" I inquired apathetically.

Twilight shook her head and turned back to the book on the desk in front of her. “I already finished and cleaned up."

I nodded then got into the reason for my surprise visit. “So…” I began quietly. Not having totally thought this out, I continued bluntly. “I gotta ask…would you mind terribly, uhm…helping me with my homework?”

Twilight’s gaze snapped back to me in disbelief. “Me?” She asked quietly, as if she was the least qualified person in school to help me. I nodded. She looked down in contemplation for a moment before asking me, “What subjects do you want help with?”

“All of them.” I quickly answered, smiling meekly. Again, Twilight looked away from me in thought.

I sat for a few tense moments wondering what she could possibly be thinking until she spoke up. “Okay.” She answered indifferently.

Her bluntness made me double-take and almost raise my voice when I asked her, “For real? Just like that?”

She shrugged, “As long as you’re serious…I guess I can help you.” She replied, looking at me indifferently, as if I was some kind of research project. Before she could follow up, the bell rang warning us to make our way to our next classes.

Twilight started to pack up her things and I headed for the door, but while I was still in ear shot, I clarified, “So we’ll pick this up tomorrow? At lunch?” I know she said something in reply but I couldn’t quite hear, I did see that she nodded her head, which was confirmation enough for me. With our rendezvous set, I headed to my next class.

Having coasted through my remaining classes for the day, it was time to go home. I made my way across the courtyard with the herd of students and boarded my bus. Twilight and I both took the same bus so when I saw her get on I motioned for her to sit next to me. I thought we could hang out and chat a bit before we got down to business tomorrow. Instead, she decided to take a seat on her own and bury her face in a book as usual. Sugar Coat on the other hand had no issue filling the seat next to me.

Sugar Coat smiled at me warmly. “Hey.” She greeted as she nudged my shoulder. I smiled politely and greeted her likewise. She looked down into her lap for a moment before looking up at me. “So, what are you up to later this week?” She asked cheerfully, leaning into me slightly.

I shrugged indifferently, “Not much,” I paused, “be studying with Twilight starting tomorrow.”

Sugar Coat smiled half-heartedly. “Right, Twilight.” She looked to the back of the bus where Twilight had sat herself to read on her own. “You know, I bet I could help you if you want.” She offered eagerly, scooting closer to me.

I hadn’t noticed her getting extra comfortable around me at that time, so I shrugged her off disinterestedly. “That’s cool, Twilight already agreed to help me.”

Sugar Coat sat back in her seat, “Well…” she offered, “…I’m pretty smart too you know.” She insisted, folding her arms and casting her gaze on me.

I turned to see her glaring at me and tried to reassure her. “For sure, it’s just…the class I need help with, Twilight is in that class with me.” I tried.

She sighed and exhaled the word, “Okay.”

For the remainder of the bus ride, Sugar Coat and me sat in silence. I felt like I had hurt her feelings but being a guy, I’m not actually sure how. When the bus came to a creaking halt at my house, I bid Sugar Coat goodbye and disembarked. I sighed and smiled contently seeing my dad’s station wagon in the driveway. As I reached for the handle on the front door, I heard another car pull into the driveway. I looked behind me to see it was my mom in her sporty compact sedan.

My mom emerged from her car smiling as I waited for her at the door. "Hey Mom." I greeted her eagerly as she approached the house. When she got close enough, we pulled each other into an affectionate embrace. “Welcome home.” I said. I was especially happy to see her after she had been away for the better part of a week because of work.

"Hi Son, welcome home from school." She greeted me enthusiastically. “How was your weekend? How was school?” She asked as we released each other.

I shrugged and answered as any typical teenage boy would. “Was arite.” I smiled warmly. My mom smiled at my bluntness and I let us inside. “Hey Pop,” I called out, “come see who I brought home.” I joked.

Dad came downstairs with his typical scowl on his face. As soon as he saw Mom was home, he lit up like a camp fire. They embraced each other passionately and as they started to get even more affectionate, I made my way upstairs to my room. I set down my backpack by my bed then fell flat on my mattress. As I rested my black and white baseball cap over my face, I let out a yawn and shut my eyes. Moments later, I tossed my hat across the room and sat up, deciding I should do at least some of my homework.

Having sat down and completed all of the work due the next day, I concluded I could save the rest for tomorrow when Twilight could help me. When I went back downstairs, my dad was getting ready to make us dinner. Lumpia, my favorite. My mom called out to me from the other room, asking if I wanted to catch up on our TV watching. Ever since I was little we would watch all manner of detective shows together. Lately though, I’ve been getting into a lot of car shows. I could tell she wasn’t quite as into it as me, but all the same she was happy to spend the time to watch with me. Still, our favorite to watch together was a show called Skeletons. It was about a forensic anthropologist who partners up with a government agent to solve crimes.

We didn’t get too caught up before Dad called us to dinner. Mom and I put our show on hold to join him. As we ate together as a family, my dad and I asked my mom all about her trip. Predictably there was nothing too exciting, but we wanted to hear about it regardless.

When Mom had finished outlining her weekend to us, attention was turned back to me. “So, hows school going?” My dad asked.

I looked down at my plate and shrugged, “Okay I guess.”

“You guess?” He followed up suspiciously. I didn’t really want to talk about my grades…or my work, so I tried shrugging innocently.

Thankfully, Mom picked up on my discomfort and steered the conversation to a less sensitive topic. “Have you been making friends?” She asked enthusiastically.

I looked up at her and Dad and shrugged again. “Not really.” I looked back down at my food for a moment and sighed, then looked back up to my parents and continued. “One of the girls at school said she’d help me with my class work.”

My parents looked at each other and I instantly regretted dropping the G word. “That’s a good start.” My mom reassured me.

“She cute?” My dad added playfully.

I smiled slightly and went back to eating. After a moment of comfortable silence my mom spoke up, “You know, you can go to a different school if you want.” She offered sympathetically.

I shook my head, “Naw, I kinda like it at Crystal Prep.” I turned back down to my food and mumbled. “I can’t imagine any other school being any better anyway.” Mom nodded and dropped the subject. I didn't really eat after that.

After dinner, my mom asked if I wanted to go back and finish some more of our shows but instead, I decided to go back up to my room and relax. Since it was getting late and I likely wouldn’t be out of my room for the rest of the night, I gave my mom a hug and kiss good night and retreated to my own domain.

I took off my shirt and changed into some gym shorts before laying down on my bed. I launched the FaceTube app on my phone and searched for “Fairgrounds Ave racing” videos. What I found was exactly what I was expecting, amateur footage of amateur racing taking place on the street near where the Crystal Prep fair was held every year, at least until Superinten-dumb Sombra put Principal Cinch in charge. By amateur racing, of course I mean street racing, by street racing of course I mean, “illegal” street racing. I lay back and watched all manner of highly modified cars racing head to head in quarter mile drag races. Some cars were all about performance; others were built for style over speed.

The star of almost all of these videos was a full size sedan called "Windigo". I saw a video all about that beast. It started with expositional shots of the Windigo rolling around the crowd or creeping up to the start. Windigo was clearly the crowd favorite and definitely something for me to aspire to with my own car. The ice white muscle car sat on white walled tires which were wrapped around blue plastidipped wheels. Whenever the driver would rev up the feral V8, the exhaust would pop and crack and a steady blue flame would stream out of the twin pipes.

The driver's identity was a total mystery to anyone who wasn't connected to Empire's underground racing scene. He (or she for that matter) hid behind fully blue tinted windows, the color of which, matched the blue rims. As it lined up for a race, the cameraman got a great view of the front, centering the cross hair grille in the frame, with the headlights encircled by blue light rings. Between the two cars, a girl I vaguely recognized from school dropped both her arms and when Windigo was away, the rings around it's lights turned red and absolutely demolished the mid-engined car it was right next to just a blink ago. It. Was. Legend.

Between videos, I imagined myself in their places, thinking I’d want to find a middle ground between outlandish looks and pin you to your seat speed that is when I inevitably got my own car. Having satisfied my rebellious fantasy for the time being, I set my phone aside and settled in to go to sleep. The next day, Twilight Sparkle would tutor me and help me improve my schoolwork and things would be going my way. I got a contented night’s rest knowing things would be better tomorrow.

Comments

[Dash32]

Street Dreams??? YOU STOLE THE NAME OF MY CAR CLUB!!! Jk were cool

[DJDJ]

7674473 Ossim dude! I rolled with a crew called Hyphy Muscle a couple times but I try to keep everything above board now

[Dash32]

7674484 what do you mean above board??

Muscle cars??? You have peaked my interest

[DJDJ]

7674487 I mean...well I write street racing stories so try to use your imagination

[Dash32]

7674490 Aaah. I gotcha

I actually lost a race earlier today because it rained and I couldn't get any traction worth dick