All I remember from that day were the blinding police lights, men in uniform taking me out of class, and for the first time seeing the deceased bodies of people I loved. They told me,

"Your parents died because of an experiment they were working on, it went wrong and they sacrificed themselves so it wouldn't get out of control. Your parents were very brave people, I'm sorry for your loss."

So cold and non-understanding, the police officer never let his emotions peek out from his stoic mask; if he felt any at all. I was twelve and unable to take care of myself. My parents never had siblings, so I was sent to live with my Godparents, Ron and Judy Witwicky, along with their son (and my best friend), Sam. They gave me comfort, a home, and helped me heal from the loss of my own parents. Now me and Sam are on the verge of graduating High School, and everything is about to change, again.

"Sam! Move your ass otherwise we're going to be late!" I screamed as I ran out the door.

Jumping in my baby, a Toyota Corolla, and starting the car, I waited. I glanced in the mirror, my acid green eyes ringed with black eyeliner, my slick black hair fanned around my face. It's too hot for my hair to be down, I sighed and strung it back in a ponytail. Sam jumped in the car and I sped off.

"Sam you have everything you need for history class today?" I glanced over at him.

He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a separate bag, which I assumed had everything he needed.

"Yup, It's all in here."

Turning on the radio, P!nk started to blast, Same made a disgusted face.

"What?" I laughed, "too mainstream?"

He nodded and switched it, we jammed out all the way to school. Walking up to the school Sam sighed,

"I can't wait to get my car. I can't believe you got a car before me!"

"well, I made straight A's and paid for three-fourths of my car! While you were making straight C's for the longest time." I replied.

"W-Well, whatever Delyia! I'll see you in history." He darted off to class.

Walking to class, I checked my phone; as I picked it up, a little electric current flowed through me. I screeched and dropped my phone, earning a few stares from people in the hallway. Quickly gaining my composure, I shakily grabbed my phone and hurried to class.

At the end of the day, I met up with Sam before history. He quickly went through his family geneology project with me and he wasn't focusing on what he needed to get an A.

"Sam you can't constantly ask them to buy your stuff, focus more on facts and things like tha- are you listening to me?"

I saw the glazed look in his eye and turned around, Mikaela strutting down the hallway and glided into class with her half-brained boyfriend. Rolling my eyes, I patted Sam on the head and walked into class, going to my seat near the back. The bell rang and a few students went through their projects, nodding me off to sleep.

"Okay, Mr. Witwicky, you're up." The teacher announced, at the sound of my best friends name I sat up straight in my seat.

"Sorry I got a lot of stuff." He mumbled as he poured out a lot of what seemed like junk.

I heard some whispers in class and suddenly Sam's neck was hit with a paper taco; the teacher bolted up from his seat,

"Who – Who did that? People! Responsibility!" He sat back down and let Sam continue, whilst I glared at my classmates.

"So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first to explore the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took 41 brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by 19th-century seamen – "

The class abrupt into laughter, I rolled my eyes and the teacher put up his stupid "QUIET" sign.

"This here is the quadrant, which you can get for 80 bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the sextant here. 50 for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things – "

"Are you going to sell me his liver? This isn't show and sell Mr. Witwicky, This is the 11th grade and I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing."

"I know I know, I'm sorry, but. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks it's on eBay, I take PayPayl. Cold hard cash works too. And the compass makes a great gift for Columbus Day!"

"SAM!" the teacher yelled,

I warned him, I sighed and continued to watch Sam drown in embarrassment, an uneasy feeling in the stomach,

"Sorry, Unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward. Drawing these strange symbols and blabbing about some giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered – "

The bell rang signaling the end of class,

"Sam I'll see you after work okay? Good luck with your car."

I hugged him and headed to my own car, changing into my work clothes. Working at a car shop wasn't my first choice, but I liked learning about cars, even though I didn't know much. I just handled the register, and maybe if one of the workers needed someone to hand them tools, then I'd help with the cars. Work that day went by pretty fast, only a few cars came in and I was allowed to leave early. Speeding home, I felt butterflies fly in my stomach, I couldn't wait to see Sam's car. As I pulled into the drive way, I saw Sam talking to his parents, and an old rusty camaro sitting in my cars spot. The yellow was faded in places and black almost grey racing striped were painted down the middle. I pulled up next to it and got out of the car quickly inspecting it. I loved the car.

"SAM!" I squealed as I continued to look around, "This is the cutest car ever! I love it, how'd you find something like this for four grand!"

I whirled around and shook Sam, excitement bubbling over,

"You like it?" Sam asked, surprised at my reaction.

"Yes! I love it! Can we go out for a drive?" I ran over to the car and laid on the hood, I almost though the car rumbled underneath me.

Then the radio started playing, I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it! – And you're my best friend –

Sam immediately ran over to the car and tried to shut off the radio, I jumped off the car,

"Sam, does your radio turn on by itself? That's kinda cool, I mean, you don't ever have to take your eyes off the road!"

"It does, but I don't think I like it, this car has some kinks that need to be worked out sometime." He sighed and motioned me to get in the car as he slipped in the driver seat. I jumped into the passenger seat, Sam coughed.

"Uh, Delyia, don't get mad, but I'm bringing Miles to this party, and you – "

"Alright Alright, I'll sit in the back, but only cause you asked." I crawled into the back seat and the radio static hummed,

Your family should always be your number one, hallelujah ! –

"Stupid radio, do you see what I mean by kinks?" he groaned.

"Sam, it's not a problem, if you want you can come by the shop and we can see what we can do. I'll get you a discount or something." I sprawled out in the back seat.

As soon as Miles jumped into the car he chatted animatedly the whole drive; halfway through an headache throbbed in the back of my brain, so I dozed off into sleep to escape Miles' talk.

When I woke up, we were parked and Miles was climbing up a tree, the radio static hummed up again and played,

Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girl –

I busted out in laughter and ran over to Sam,

" – researching a book I was writing." Sam said. Oh no.

"Oh yeah, what's it about? Sucking at sports?" Mikaela's boyfriend snickered.

"No, it's about the link between brain damage and football, no! It's a good book, your friend will love it! You know, it's got mazes in and little colouring areas, sections, pop-up pictures it's a lot of fun."

"That's funny." He snarled at Sam and stepped forward, fists balled.

"Hey! You leave him alone you big idiot." I snapped, stepping in front of Sam.

"You stay out of this you stupid girl, maybe that's why your parents killed themselves. It was because they couldn't stand to see your ugly face everyday!" He growled.

Anger rose up inside me and steamed, my joints ached to throw punches and kicks. Instead, I grabbed him by the collar and forced his face to level with mine,

"You ever say anything like that again, I'll make sure you wake up the next day with missing limbs." I let his shirt go and Mikaela ran up pushing him away.

I stormed off to the car and curled up in the back seat; Sam was busy trying to get Miles out of a tree. I fought back tears, but they won the war and salty droplets fell from my eyes. I went to wipe them away, but more only fell in their place. The radio switched on and it played, - you've got a friend in me, you've got a friend in me, - It switched off as Sam raced to the car, Miles not following. He jumped in the back seat and held me, whispering things I wasn't paying attention to.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked, worry etched on his face.

I nodded, "Yeah I'm fine Sammy, It just caught me off guard is all."

He sighed and patted me on the head, giving me one more hug he jumped in the front seat.

"Is it okay if I give Mikaela a ride home? I think she just broke up with that guy."

"Why are you asking me? Of course you can. What about Miles?"

"If I took Miles, he'd mess everything up before it began."

"Very true."

He sped up to catch up with Mikaela and asked her if she wanted a ride. Eyes heavy, I fell into a dreamless sleep, only to be woken by the radio blasting some romantic song and the sun blaring in my eyes.

"where are we?"

I asked, however neither of them were paying attention to me, Sam was busy blabbing apologies and Mikaela was getting out of the car, getting ready to look at it. Both me and Sam got out after her and she popped open the hood, taking a look at the engine.

"Whoa you've got a high-rise double-pump carburetor, that's pretty impressive Sam." Mikaela gasped.

"Double-pump?" Sam asked.

"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster." I interrupted.

"You know about cars?" Mikaela looked at me with surprise.

"Yeah, a little, I work at an auto-shop so I sort of have to know a little bit." I smiled.

Sam staring at Mikaelas body, practically drooled and mumbled,

"I like to go faster."

"How do you know about cars?" I asked her, ignoring Sams comment,

"Yeah, how'd you know that?" He repeated.

"My dad, He was a real grease monkey. He taught me all about this. I could take it all apart, clean it, put it back together." She awkwardly smiled.

"I just wouldn't peg you for mechanical." He turned away and put his hand in his mouth.

"Guys don't like it when you know more about cars than they do. Especially not Trent. He hates it." She sighed.

"Yeah, no, I'm cool with it. I prefer it actually, you know, females working on my engine."

"Okay." She continued, "You want to fire it up for me?"

This is so awkward. I shivered, not interested in being around the two of them I climbed back into the back seat watching them chat for a few before Mikaela sighed and went to grab her purse,

" I think I'm just going to walk, it was nice meeting you…" She looked at me, with an awkward stare.

"Delyia." I smiled.

"It was nice meeting you, See you guys at school." She walked away from the car.

"Oh god, no, no, no, no, no." Sam stuttered as he tried to fix his car. I can't believe this is happening. I thought as the car roared to life.

He drove after Mikaela and she reluctantly got back into the car. Sam drove up to her house and shut off the engine.

"There it is." He smiled.

"I had fun. So you know, thanks for listening." She smiled back at Sam.

They're so totally into each other. I grinned from the back.

"Oh yeah yeah." He gave her an awkward smile.

"You … you think I'm shallow don't you?" She frowned.

"I think you're, no no no! I think there is a lot more than meets the eye, with you."

"Okay." She replied, getting out of the car. "I'll see you at school." She waved at me and walked to her house.

"Wow Sam, that was the worst pick-up line. Ever." I snorted and jumped in the front seat.

"I know, it was so stupid!" he groaned, banging his head on the steering wheel, "Oh God, Oh my God, I love my car." He hugged the dashboard and grinned like an idiot.

"yeah your car is pretty cool." I grinned as he drove us home.