A phone rings as Jamar lies on his bed, groaning to himself. He tries to ignore it. The phone goes silent as Jamar continues to lay on it asleep. Suddenly, it rings again as Jamar sighs, not willing to get out of his bed. A few knocks come from the other room.

“Hey, Jamar get up, that could be a client or something.” Louis says from the wall.

“Ah, fuck off.” Jamar replies.

“He could be right.” Anya says from the opposite one.

He sighs as he picks up the phone which is ringing again for a third time.

“Hello?” Jamar says.

Getting up partially, Jamar yawns to himself as he stretches.

“Hey, did you go back last night and tell the kid he got the part?” John asks calmly.

“Yeah, why?”

The line is silent as Jamar gets up from his bed.

“Why did you go behind my back and do that?” John asks.

“Kid obviously knew what he was doing and you weren’t having any of it, so-”

“So? What, you decided to take him in without even talking to me about it?”

“Don’t worry about it. I took him out for a test run.”

John sighs.

“And besides, we don’t have time to look for anyone else, New Year's Eve is just around the corner.” Jamar continues heading into a communal bathroom and taking out a toothbrush. He begins to brush his teeth.

“For fucks sake. Is he any good?”

“Yeah, better than most.”

John sighs in relief.

As Louis and Franklin walk inside the room carrying towels and their personal hygiene items. They wave as they walk towards the showers.

“Any news from our driver?”

“Yeah, she said she was open to meeting later today to talk about it more.”

“I thought it wasn’t going to work out.”

“Yeah, I thought so too, but the race isn't going to pay for itself.” Jamar spits into the sink as he looks at himself in the mirror.

“So I was thinking… Maybe we do a group introduction later today. I know a place, an old warehouse I use to store some of my things, the owners know me.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

“Great, see you then. I’ll send you the details.”

----------------------------------------

Driving into a garage, Rachel begins to slow down her descent. The garage is packed with several other cars as mechanics can be seen working on them. Turning into an open runway, her brother guides her towards a spot. Unlike the other spots, it’s just her and her brother at their spot.

Turning off the engine, Rachel gets out.

Immediately working on the car, her brother gets a jack under it as he starts to prepare for a shift, Rachel looks exhausted as her brother starts on the various other jobs he’s going to need to finish to get the car ready.

Grabbing a cart, he starts to move under the cart.

“How was your run?” He asks.

“Better than the last one, shaved a few seconds off a turn. Did better around one of the intersections.” Rachel says.

“That’s good. Everything down here looks normal, just an oil change up top and some new fuel and you should be ready for your next practice run.” Her brother says getting out from under the car with a tray of oil in his hand.

“Thanks, Pete.” She says.

“You know I’m just looking out for you, sis.” Peter replies.

He sighs as he looks around. Standing up, he grabs a fuel rod as he sticks it into the car. As gasoline drains into the car. Rachel looks over at him as she grabs a bottle of unmarked engine oil as she chugs it into the front.

“What’s wrong?” Rachel asks.

“It’s nothing.”

“Doesn’t seem like nothing.” Rachel retorts.

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“I don’t know, everyone here’s got a team, and it’s just us. I’m not sure how long we can continue to do this.” Peter says anxiously.

“We can do it until we die.” Rachel says.

“Isn’t there anything else you wanted to do?”

“What do you mean? It’s always been about racing, hasn’t it?”

“I don’t know, just the chance to live a normal life as a family. Mom and Dad are gone but still, haven’t you wanted to meet somebody? Get to know them, start a family? I know I’m older than you, but have you ever stopped to think about it?”

“This is our life, Pete. There’s nothing else to it.”

He sighs.

“Sometimes, it feels like you aren’t even listening to me.” Taking out the spent fuel rod, Peter puts it aside as he takes out a tablet and begins diagnostics of the car. Rachel closes her cap as she puts down her hood.

“Why is there something you mean?” Rachel asks curiously.

Staring down at the tablet, Peter tries to ignore it.

She leans on the car as she looks over at him.

“Come on, you can tell me. We’re family.” Rachel continues.

He sighs.

“That’s exactly why I don’t want to talk about it with you. But… Alright. How much do you think everything here costs to run? Hell, even renting this spot alone.”

Rachel crosses her arms as she appears anxious. Seeing this Peter winces.

“We’re almost out of money, Ray.” Peter says.

“Just one more try, if we win this one, we’ll make it to the big leagues. I know it, Pete.”

“I’m not sure we can win-”

“Don’t you believe in me?” Rachel asks.

“It’s not that, look around. Everyone here who’s competing has a full team, sponsorships, everyone else here is just as good as you. I- I just don’t know how we’re going to be able to continue like this.” Peter says.

“We can do it. We’ve always found a way.”

Peter shakes his head.

“Not this time, this is going to be my last race.” Peter says.

“No, no fucking way.” Rachel walks away.

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Outside of the garage, we’re greeted to Toshiro Furukawa who’s walking along with his friends back from the dining area.

“Ah, good job with the controls, Asahi, and you too Haru.” Toshiro says.

“No big deal. Been looking to update the firmware. Glad you liked it” Asahi says.

“Right, Hina, I really appreciate all the extra work you’ve been putting on the engine over the last few nights, I’m a bit embarrassed about it actually.”

“Don’t be, it’s almost time for the big race, we all have to do our part.” She says.

“Right, this is going to be easy.” Toshiro says as they laugh.

“I don’t know about that, the competition seems even bigger than when we raced at the international level, some of these stars I think will have their breakout performances here.” Haru says.

“You really think so?” Toshiro says.

“For sure, the drive and hunger. The vibe here is something else.”

Haru’s stomach growls.

They laugh.

“What was that Haru?” Asahi says.

“Shut up.”

They walk towards the entrance of the garage as Toshiro looks in his peripheral vision and sees just as Rachel runs out, her head down to the ground as his eyes tremble.

“Huh?” Toshiro mutters.

The others seem preoccupied as they head inside.

They look over at Toshiro who’s stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Hina asks.

“Oh, nothing. Just have to use the bathroom. You guys go ahead of me.” Toshiro replies as he quickly walks off from them.

He looks around to see where Rachel went. Walking along he begins to hear the sound of somebody crying, thinking to himself, he stops. For a moment contemplating something, whether or not to turn that corner. Finally, he does. On the opposite end, he sees it, it’s Rachel who’s crying to herself.

Committing to it, Toshiro walks slightly forward. Unsure what to do, or to say. He stands there, slowly walking over. He lets out a sigh as Rachel finally looks over.

“Who’s there?”

“Hi.” Toshiro says as he waves.

“I’m probably not the person you were expecting to see.” He laughs to himself as he sees her eyes open up in shock.

“Listen, I can pretend that I saw nothing. Or we can talk.” Toshiro says.

----------------------------------------

Sitting together on the wall, Toshiro and Rachel look up at the sky.

“So it’s like that. I never knew about your situation.” Toshiro says calmly.

Rachel doesn’t reply.

“I know what that can feel like. But in your case, I think your brother might be right. I know it’s not what you might want to hear. Before coming here I was a part of the big leagues. And I’m not sure if you’d be able to compete at that level.”

“Is that why you came down here?” Rachel begins to get up.

“Wait.” Toshiro says.

“It’s a lot more complicated than that. Team size really does matter, you can’t just run a two man operation and think you’ll succeed. Every year every team creates a new model of their car, better than the last. If you can’t do that, no matter how good your skills are, they’ll just leave you in the dust. Street Racing is a lot more different than the real deal. It’s also been getting alot more dangerous, with new rules and regulations.”

He sighs.

“You’ve got the skills, I think you’re actually better than me.”

Rachel turns around and looks at him.

“But, you won’t stand a chance. You’re going to need sponsorships, deals, there’s a whole nother level to this game just besides the game itself. If you can’t get those…”

Toshiro looks away.

“My dad used to pay for everything that I did, told me to be the very best. All around me I heard people saying the same exact thing, over and over. I was cocky, overconfident. Then I almost died, and my dad pulled the rug.” Toshiro continues.

“To be honest, I like it here a lot.”

He sighs.

“I’m not trying to trick you to try to get you to drop out or anything. Honestly, besides the few friends that came with me here. I don’t care about the big league anymore.”

Rachel just stares at Toshiro.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I don’t know. Guess it feels good to know someone might understand unlike the rest of them that just think I’m washed up trash.” Toshiro continues.

He stands up as he begins to walk away.

“I don’t know what your next steps are but whatever they are, I just want you to know that you’re brother might be right here and it’s for you to decide how you’re going to take care of yourself moving forward. Whether it’s your last race, or your first.”

Toshiro waves as he leaves.

“Call me if you ever need anything.” Toshiro says as he tosses a card.