A spring breeze swept through an open window past the blowing curtains, but its warmth was quickly cooled by an air current summoned by a large fan on one of the wooden shelves.

The wooden shelf held a plethora of different tools ranging from large wrenches to small bolts. The tools were quickly joined by a plastic container holding a quart of oil that was placed in a cleared off surface dedicated to it

There was a figure eaning over the engine compartment of a vibrant blue Subaru WRX. She straightened her posture and pushed her back inward. Grease splotched her from fingertips to forearms. Her tense muscles relaxed just enough to let her look into the compartment once more, gasping in response to the satisfying popping sensation in her spine.

"Alright, Skye," called out a young man whose legs were showing from beneath the front bumper of the car. "Start pouring in the last of the oil while I check for the leaks you were worried about."

"With a task as labor intense and time consuming like this, everything needs to be perfect." Skye admonished her helper's detached tone. She motioned to her tool table to retrieve the remaining oil needed to complete their task.

The jug was tilted over a vent in the engine to help it receive a clear, golden hued liquid. She alternated between filling the port and checking the dipstick not too far from where she was standing. Once she determined that the oil was at a proper level, she tapped the front bumper to alert her helper.

Emerging from underneath the car was a young man; he rose to his feet and stretched his arms skywards. "Now, what I need you to do is get into the driver's seat and turn 'er on." Skye instructed as she wiped sweat away from her forehead with a clean, blue rag.

She tightened her grip on a small portion of the rag and rubbed it on her cheeks to remove as much grease as possible whilst her assistant entered the car. She put the rag aside to gaze at the engine compartment, waiting for the young man to start the engine, but all she saw was the chassis being rocked back and forth.

"Klaus. What are you doing?" He didn't see it, but she was crossing her arms and wore a hardened gaze aimed at the car's undercarriage in Klaus's stead.

"Turning the car on!" he yelled from inside.

"Just stick the key in!" she demanded; the engine whirred to life immediately.

She commended its roar and vigor as she closely investigated the serpentine belt, making sure it was in sync. She groped the upper radiator hose and nodded in confidence, noting that it was warming up as it should have been.

The mechanic dove towards the ground impulsively as she shone a nearby flashlight underneath. She looked all around underneath, yet not a drop of any liquid other than water from the air conditioning unit had been slowly dripping.

She rose to her feet as her back and legs protested against the sudden movement, yet opted to lean over the customer's car once again in spite of the strain of her muscles. She shone the flashlight into the engine compartment to check for any hidden leaks or anything that was breaking apart from the new engine. Everything was in working order.

She pat the raised hood to have Klaus shut off the car. When the engine shut off, Skye was already burying her nose in a notebook. Klaus climbed his way out of the car and wiped the sweat from his brow with his arm.

He crossed his arms rather impatiently as he watched his roommate scribble notes in it, but just as he was about to space out waiting on her, Skye quickly pulled him back to reality.

"Any strange noises?" she begun to question.

"Other than the engine, no," he answered bluntly, letting his mouth open wide to let a yawn out.

She hummed quizzically as her pencil scratched against paper. "Any lights on the dashboard?" Skye would inquire as she was still recording his last answer.

"The gas light was on, but that was about it." Klaus got his fingers tangled in his black locks in an attempt to scratch his head for accurate answers, as though just saying the car was in need of refueling wasn't accurate enough.

To his surprise, he watched the mechanic close her notebook by closing her hand as she wore a bright smile. He felt the weight leave his chest as he sighed in relief; it was a success.

"In need of gas, you said?" she watched Klaus nod with a hum to accompany it. "Now would be a good opportunity to take her out for a test drive, too. Clean yourself up if you're coming with me." She pointed the eraser end of her pencil to his body to bring attention to just how much grease he picked up on his clothes.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I could say the same thing about you." He pointed out the stains on her arms and legs, as well as the splotches of grease on her work clothes and cheeks as well.

Skye laughed to herself. "So you could, so you could."

~ ~ ~

The gas station was well needed change of environment from their house's garage. Though spacious enough to store tools and one car at a time with twenty feet in either direction, the massive space made it difficult for their fan to keep up with the humidity that came with late spring.

While the gas station down the street was outside in the heat, at least the heat was able to escape from under the shade. With the added breeze, it helped to keep the duo cool as they refueled.

"Our customer's gonna flip when he sees this!" began Klaus as the two of them watched digital numbers rise on a small screen in front of them. "Imagine the biggest smile on his face when he realizes how revitalized this puppy is. I mean, what more could you want out of a new engine? So, why did we need to replace it anyway?"

Skye hummed as she leaned against the side of the car. It was part of the premium care package the customer purchased, along with washing, waxing, and vacuuming the insides. She leaned just enough to see the pine tree air freshener she added to the mirror for free, which was about five dollars he didn't need to worry about paying.

"Um, Skye?" She shook off her deep thoughts and looked to Klaus, whom was waiting on a response. "Spaced out again watching the numbers, yeah? I was asking why he needed the engine replaced."

"Oh, that's because the customer hit ten-thousand RPM during a race. It was too much for the twenty year old engine to take and it threw a rod." Klaus said nothing after that, perhaps now realizing why the car came in on a flatbed with oil seeping from the hood.

As they shared a silent moment, an eerily familiar engine roared as the car it was in drove to a gas pump. The Seattle silver sedan was packed with passengers as music blared out from the speakers, to which the volume was thankfully turned down before the driver and passengers climbed out of the car.

Among the passengers was a red haired woman about Skye's age. A block of ice settled in Skye's gut as she watched those brown eyes turn in her direction.

"Play it cool!" Klaus whispered to his mentor. They turned their backs to the side of the car that was just done refueling, but the woman was already leaning against the other side of the car.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Shut-in and Forelock," the woman spoke coldly. They begrudgingly turned around to see a stern woman whose reddish hair was blowing in the warm breeze.

While Klaus was self consciously gazing at his white fringe that stuck out in contrast to his black locks, Skye sighed to herself and reluctantly gave her the attention she so desperately craved. "What the hell do you want now, Jade?"

Jade smiled. There we go, there's the annoyed tone she loved to make Skye use. She didn't have to do much to get under her skin whenever she left the humid garage for the first time in days. "What, are you so broke now that this rust bucket is the only thing a couple hundred dollars could buy?"

Skye's stomach twisted into a knot. If only she was just more resillient, she could ignore this living bane of her existence. "If you're such a good mechanic like you make yourself out to be, shouldn't detailing be one of the basic things you should consider doing? This is your car, right?"

"If the customer doesn't ask for it, I can't do that," was all Skye could bring herself to say.

Jade's chuckles were like knives impaling Skye's gut. She had always wished they were just ripped out immediately rather than twisted with any following dialogue. "Well, what did you do to fix this car this time? A few gallons of gas? Modify it so an old woman can actually see the road? I didn't know you had aspired to run a garage that doubled as a nursing home."

It was only just once that she helped an old couple. In spite of that, it only needed to happen once to provide Jade with extra ammo.

"Here we go again," the young man buried his face in his hands.

" 'I'm gonna pay you to shine up my car and give it more gas and then it'll work like it's the nineties all over again.' Is that what your customer told you this time?" The instigator crossed her arms with a smirk as one of the victims of said instigation walked towards the hood with the former behind her shoulder.

Upon opening the hood, the new engine's cleanliness and robustness stood out from the older, dirtier, wearing down parts of the engine compartment. For a moment, Skye caught a small glimmer of wonder in the redhead's expression, but it disappeared when she realized she could be seen in her peripheral vision.

"Whatever. I bet you found this at a junkyard and cleaned it up to pass it off as a new engine." Jade said as she immediately turned her back to Skye with her arms folded. Skye and Klaus exchanged glances; as they smirked at each other, it was starting to look like a battle they could actually win.

"Hey, Jade!" A voice called out from the other side of the gas station. "Stop talking to that recluse and get over here before you run us late to get to the beach! It's Spring Break, remember?" He was waving at her, beckoning her to join them.

Skye and Klaus exchanged another glance, one with less than a smirk between them this time. This was the week of Spring Break, a week where college students like herself and Klaus got the freedom to do as they pleased before they had to return to their studies. No wonder they had so much time to work on an engine without their professors sending out texts asking about truancy.

"You hear that, Shut-in? It's Spring Break." She spat the phrase out at her. "Why don't you act like a normal person and spend some time outside like you actually have a life instead of tinkering with hunks of metal, wire, and plastic?" Jade waited on an answer, but after a few seconds, she walked back to her friends. That'll show them.

Klaus closed the hood with a sigh. "Maybe she's right," Klaus's mentor spoke under her breath.

"there's nothing to do in my life except go to college, fix cars, pay bills, watch the occasional television, and then going to bed. Is my life really all that abnormal as Jade says it is?"

Her apprentice looked up slightly at his mentor, frowning at her with concern written plainly in his expression. "Don't let her get under your skin. I have run an errand while we're out here. I'll drive us if that's okay." He put the gas nozzle back into its slot as he watched Skye shrug.

Moments after the car was start up again, it drove out of the gas station and was back on the road without a hitch.