I came home from school crying. Again. Why can't Delilah just leave me alone? What have I done wrong to her?

I locked myself in my room. I wish I had someone to lean on, to trust. But I guess in this lifetime, it wouldn't happen.

In my home I was a prisoner, in my school I was a laughing matter. I was always picked on by my younger sister. Yeah, I know. It sounds rather pathetic. But she is the leader of her own group. She always approaches me during breaks and yells at my face. Calls me names, even slaps me in front of everyone.

One time I returned her the gesture, and got suspended for 2 days. Yeah, life is just that great. My step-mother banned me from leaving the house except for school for a week. Delilah wasn't even her daughter!

My best friend Britney is the brave one. I worship her. She was the one who smiled and the one who beat the crap out of people when they picked on someone she cared for. Usually it was my sister's group that got bruises, every time someone wanted to pick on me. Brit would fight to the death for me. I loved her so very much. I considered her a true friend. A family member that God forgot to give me.

But I needed someone to hug me, not like Brit does, even though her hugs were appreciated. I needed to love someone, and that someone to love me back. Romantically.

I had a boyfriend once. We kissed in his car after he got me home. Then he slapped me hard. I never trusted guys since then. Well, except for Sam. He really is a good friend, and besides he has a major crush on Mikaela. She is one of my good friends. We used to be project partners. She's a really sweet girl.

Suddenly my cell phone rang. I looked at the number and above it, there was a name. Sam.

Hm, wonder what he wants. I pressed the green button as I answered to the call.

"Hey Sam."

"Hey, Nicole, this is the best day of my life!" Sam squealed like a little girl.

I jerked the phone away from my ear, as the squealing had been too loud. "Whoa, Sam what is it?"

"Come by my house when you can. I gotta show you something.", he hung up, obviously ending the conversation and ordering me to go to his house. Well, I certainly am interested to see what he's got.

Sam lived quite a distance away from me. It usually took me an hour by bus, so I hopped on the first one and went to his house. In about an hour and 10 minutes I was by his door.

I knocked on the door. Sam's mother opened it and greeted me with a delighted smile.

"Nicole! Oh so great to see you! You know, you don't have to knock, you can come here anytime!"

"Thanks, Judy." I replied. I couldn't call them Mr. or Ms. Witwicky. I was Sam's childhood friend as he was mine. I could almost call them my parents.

"Sam called me. Where is he?" I asked Judy as I entered the house.

"Oh he's in the back yard. He's got a real surprise." Judy said with a bit of excitement in her voice.

I headed towards the back yard and saw Ron gardening. It was no secret he and Judy liked to keep their yard clean, and he was putting some stone blocks on the grass. I figured he was making a pathway. I walked toward Ron.

"Hello Ron." I said. He looked up at me and seeing his garden gloves filthy, he took them off and shook my hand. There was always a bit of formality between us, but we didn't mind. Then I saw Sam running over the grass.

"Sam." His father scolded, "I don't like footprints on my grass"

"What foot- there's no footprints dad!" Sam urged and rolled his eyes.

"That's why I built my path." Moving his hands towards the path, "So why don't you move from my grass onto my path?" Clearly annoyed.

"It's family grass dad", Sam said as he moved onto the path.

"Yeah, well when you own your own grass you'll understand."

"Yeah, whatever." Sam approached me and we hugged friendly. His dad continued his garden work. I followed Sam to the garage as he opened the gate, I could see cloth covering something. Sam flipped the light switch on to his right, and I could see some car lines. He took the cloth off and revealed an old and rusty car, but the rally yellow color and the black racing stripes drew attention to it.

"OhmiGod! Sam! You got a car!" I squealed in happiness. I couldn't believe Sam's parents would buy him a car.

"Yeah, I love the car! Sure it needs some new paint and stuff like that." Luckily, I knew my way around cars. I ran my hand along the side of the car and onto the hood. I felt the car slightly purr. Weird. I must be imagining it.

"Can you pop the hood?" I asked, I wanted to see what's under the hood.

Sam opened the hood buy pulling a trigger on the driver's side.

I opened the hood fully… I was speechless.

"Wow… Sam how much did you pay for this car?" I asked in astonishment.

"Four grand, why?" Sam was worried that he may have been fooled or something like that.

"These headers are expensive. Sam, this engine costs that much, if not even more! You have a high-rise double-pump carburetor." I said.

"Oh, Miss Know-It-All, what does that mean?" If I were any other girl he wouldn't have had the guts to ask.

"It pushes the fuel in so you can go faster." I noticed something. "The distributor cap is a little loose, but that won't affect the engine." I looked at Sam pleadingly.

"Let me guess." He was eyeing me. "You wanna go for a ride?"

I nodded fast, closed the hood and jumped in the passenger seat. Sam was in the driver's seat in seconds and he started the engine. It did have a good sound though.

I always loved cars. And somehow, I felt Sam's car was special. Was it because it was Sam's, I did not know. But there was a feeling of safety inside the car. Something I didn't feel for a long time.

"Want you home at eleven o'clock!" Judy yelled.

"Eleven o'clock!" Her husband repeated.

"And please for the love of God, drive safely!" She continued.

"Seatbelts on!" Ron yelled.

As the car turned on, black smoke came out from the undercarriage and Judy gasped loudly.

She turned to Ron. "Wow. You are so cheap."

"It's his first car." Ron defended himself. "It's supposed to be like that."

XxXxXxXxXxX

"So where are we going?" I asked Sam.

"Were going to a party." Sam replied.

"Sam, are you kidding me? Who's throwing the party?" I became curious.

"Well… Were going to the lake, Miles' going with us. Were gonna pick him up at his house and proceed to the lake." Sam said.

"Whoa, proceed? Sam are you learning another language or something?" I asked, well, teased.

"Yeah, it's called English, maybe you've heard of it." Sam replied humorously. We stopped and waited. And waited. And waited.

"Sam, we've been waiting for 20 minutes, where is he?" I can't believe he made us come by his house and wait for him. I never liked Miles.

"Come on, Nix." It was a nickname he gave me, and only my very best friends were allowed to call me that. "He'll be here in—oh there he is."

"Hey Sam, hi beautiful." Miles leaned on the passenger door, since the windows were down, he put his arms on the door. He addressed the 'beautiful' part towards me. Yeah, I had the body, the looks, but I was never going to use them. I had a personality above all.

"Miles, stop it." I hated it when he addressed me in compliments. Sure it was sweet, but Miles was a jerk. He always talked nonsense about Mikaela.

I got into the back seat, so that Miles could sit in the passenger. In about 20 minutes we arrived at the Lake.

"Hey Sam, you and Miles go out, I'll wait here." I saw Trent's truck.

"You sure? Is something wrong?" Sam had a slight worried tone in his voice.

"Don't worry, everything's alright. I'm just sleepy, that's all." My yawn confirmed my words.

"Okay, girl. We'll be back in about 10 minutes." Sam said.

"Wait! Aren't you gonna stay?" Why would he be going so soon?

"Hey man!" Miles called out to Sam. "Are you sure we're invited to this party?"

"Miles, it's a lake, public property." Sam assured.

"Ha! I knew there wasn't a party!" I said out loud. Sam turned his head in another direction. I guess someone was calling him. I shrugged and adjusted myself in a laying position in the back seat. I didn't know why but I was so tired. Maybe I was too excited.

I didn't even get to sleep, the radio turned to life with the words 'Who's Gonna Drive You Home Tonight' and Miles was in the passenger seat. Ugh, I was just about to go to dreamland.

"Damn it, Miles! Tune it down!" I yelled at him.

"It wasn't me, dudette!" Miles defended himself. "It turned on it's own."

"Hey man, what's wrong with the radio?" Miles yelled, so that he could overcome the radio's volume.

I saw Sam leaning on the car hood, with his hands in his pockets, saying, "I'm drivin' 'er home tonight."

Miles was dumbfounded, "What?" but quickly gained his stance, "She's an evil jonk concubine, man, let 'er hitchhike."

"She lives 10 miles away from here, okay, this is my only chance, you gotta be understanding here."

"Alright we'll put her in the back, and I'll be quiet-" but Sam quickly cut him off.

"Did you just say put her in the back? Miles, I'm not putting her in the back, Nicole is sleeping in there. You gotta get outta my car." Thanks, Sam. I knew I could always trust him. He took care of me, even when I wasn't aware of it. Only this time he wasn't aware that I was awake.

"But I called 'shotgun'!" Miles seriously didn't want to leave the car for some concubine. "It's a party foul!"

"What rules?" Sam asked him, he had to sum this up real fast if he wanted drive Mikaela home.

"A-a-bros before hoes, man!" Miles was panicking.

"Miles I'm begging you, get out of my car, okay?" Jeez, Sam. Since when can you tell someone to get out of your car and expect it to be okay?

"Ah-you can't do this to me!"

"You gotta get out of my car, right now." And with that, Miles got out of the car, and Sam turned the engine on and sped off to find Mikaela.

XxXxXxXxXxX

"Mikaela!" Sam yelled as he drove right next to her at a steady pace. I groaned silently as I was waken up. Again. "It's Sam. Witwicky? So listen, I was wondering if I could ride you home. I mean-uh give you a ride home-from my car to your house?"

Wow, nice going Sam.

He opened the door for her. "Here you go."

She obediently sat in and looked out the window. She hadn't noticed me. It had been a slightly tense situation and Sam wanted to try and break the ice.

"So.. uh.." He didn't have a clue about what to say.

Mikaela was looking out the window. "I can't belive that I'm here right now."

"Oh- you can duck down if you want, I mean, it won't hurt my feelings." Yeah right.

"Oh, no, no, no I didn't- I didn't mean here with you. I just meant here, like, in this situation."

"Oh."

"The same situation that I'm always in. 'Cuz, I dunno, I guess I have a weakness for hot guys with tight abs and really big arms."

"Big arms?" Sam repeated. I could sense he was planning something. "Well, uh, there's a couple of new additions in the car. Like I just put on that light there." Obviously there was no light, but he was tightening his bicep to look like he had big arms. Oh Sam…

"On that disco ball. So that the light reflects on the disco ball." Wow, bravo Einstein. I didn't know you were planning something stupid.

There was a moment of silence.

"Are you, are you new to school, this year? Is this your first year?" Mikaela started a conversation, since Sam obviously failed to charm her.

"Oh, no, no… We've been in the same school since first grade."

"Really?" Mikaela sounded curious.

"Yeah, long time."

"Well, do we have any classes together?" At least she might learn something about this guy. He was in fact doing her a favor.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, history, language arts, math, science…"

"Sam."

"Sam, yeah."

"Sam Wilkicky."

"Wit-wicky."

"You know I'm so sorry."

"No, it's cool."

"I just didn't recognize you."

" Yeah, well, I mean, that's understandable."

"Can you guys please be quiet? I wanna sleep." I whispered to myself.

Of course they couldn't hear me. But what happened next was something no one could predict. The car turned off. Weird. An engine like that would never turn off on it's own, and I'm sure Sam would never turn his car off while driving.

Now I thought, I would never fall asleep.

"Oh, no, no, come on." Sam talked to the car. "Sorry, just working out the kicks, it's an new car."

Then the car turned out of the concrete road and into the gravel and dust. The radio turned on with the song "Sexual Healing".

"This is like an old radio, I can't get it to stop." Sam tried to turn off the radio, but to no avail.

Mikaela was trying to pick her hair up as Sam started to talk.

"You know, I wouldn't try this on you."

The song changed to "I Feel Good". Was it because I was bored and patting the seats, I wouldn't know, but I stopped doing that anyway.

"This-this is like a romantic thing that I'm not trying to do."

"Uh-huh." Mikaela said, but I knew her better. She was a bit stressed and nervous.

"Not that you're not worthy of trying something like this on." Sam rushed.

"No, of course not." Now she was stressed.

"I'm a friend of yours, I'm not a romantic friend, romantic friends do this, I-I-I mean I'm not that-that friend. I mean we-I-I could be."

Wow! I feel good…

"Just pop the hood." She said and exited the car.

Nice going, Sam. You're a real schmoozer.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Sam yelled at the radio and was kicking at and the car made some weird noises. Like it was wallowing or something like that.

Mikaela opened the hood. She also noticed the headers and the distributor cap. She tightened it and they talked about something. I couldn't hear them. Then Sam entered the car and asked Mikaela.

"If Trent's such a jerk why do you hang out with him?" I knew why. But it was a secret between me and Mikaela. And I was the best at keeping secrets. No matter how badly you treated me , I wouldn't even let a hint. That's how good I was.

He tried to start up the car, but nothing came out. It was usual for car fanatics to talk to vehicles and I was no excuse. I petted the seats I was laying on and said "Please turn on, I wanna go home."

The car roared to life. I shot up from my laying position. Did it… listen to me? No way, I told myself. I guess the ignition was a success. But I still had to say something.

"Thank you." Heh, this car might be my new friend. Or I could go to the madhouse. Either way, anything is better than being picked on everyday by your younger sister. Trust me, anything.

XxXxXxXxXxX

I was still in the back seat as the day had faded into night and we came to a stop in front of Mikaela's place.

"There it is." Sam quietly said. He still thought that I was sleeping.

"I had fun, um, so, thanks for listening."

"Oh, yeah, yeah."

"Do you, do you think I'm shallow?" Mikaela insecurely asked. What the hell?

"W-what, no, no, no, no. I think.. there's a lot more than meets the eye.. with.. you."

"Oh, okay." She grinned, but was confused. Honestly, so was I.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I-I'll see you at school."

"Alright." Sam smiled at her.

She exited the car and Sam scolded himself. 'There's a lot more than meets the eye with you' it's stupid, stupid line.

"Oh God, I love my car." Sam said to himself.

"Mhmm…"

"Nicole?" Sam turned to me.

"Oh hey Sam." I faked a yawn so that it didn't look like I had been awake and listening.

"You know it's late and knowing your mom, she will most probably scold you for being this late out, so you wanna sleep at my place tonight?" Sam was such a sweetheart. But not in the romantic kind of way.

"It's Saturday tomorrow, right? I asked.

"Yeah, so we have no school, and I could drive you home later."

"Yeah, thanks Sam." I really was grateful to him. My step-mother devil, would kill me on sight.

But, I did have an idea of what I was going to do to the car early Saturday morning…