Chapter 19 - Revelations

After the fun weekend at Thanksgiving, things died down while counting the days until Christmas.

School was just more of the same, going to class, trying to keep focused during the whole lesson, even when I got almost everything the first time, whereas my peers sometimes took many attempts before they understood the concept.

Shop was progressing, the other kids loved working on the jeep, they had fallen over themselves to pay the $20 entrance fee to the raffle I had suggested, when the jeep was roadworthy, there would be a raffle and the lucky winner would get the jeep as their own.

Mr. Carter had pulled me aside after a lesson to tell me that the funding for the class had come through like I had predicted. I was glad of that; the booster club had followed through with my contribution, the stipulation being followed as I wanted.

I had the Range Rover’s damage fixed, it hadn’t been easy, but I had followed the instructions I had found on the web to the letter. It was just now waiting for the interior to be returned from the upholsterers to be roadworthy. I would get it checked out by a certified mechanic, before having someone drive it on the road.

I was going to start on the Harley for my next project. I knew how to do that after watching dad do his bike. The Trans Am would be my last project car wise; I hoped to have that done by the following summer as it had much more work required.

From what I heard from Stan, Greg was doing well at the car lot, he was still mainly doing sweeping up and tidying up the tools, though he had helped on some basic mechanics on occasion.

I had a shock due to Chloe, she had informed Gemma who had been her savior on the night of the Halloween Dance, and I had been stunned speechless when at the last varsity football game with my parents, she had found me, sat in my lap and given me a hug which nearly broke my ribs.

Mom and Dad had been surprised at this incident, not knowing who this girl was sitting in my lap, especially when she started to cry. I did my best to comfort her, patting my hands on her back till she calmed down, not only my parents were looking at what was happening. There were lots of people in the bleachers watching what was going on with us, rather than the game. Which wasn’t really a surprise, since our team was losing yet again.

“Thank you Jack, you don’t know how scared I was, I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t showed up and stopped things when you did.” She told me loud enough for my parents to hear what she said.

When they realized who the girl was, (I had told them of what had happened at the dance) they gave me big smiles and encouraging signs to continue to comfort Gemma.

Another shock I got was Chloe herself; she grabbed me one day after exiting the bus on the way home from school.

“Jack I just want to thank you again for a great date at the dance.” she explained.

“Uh it was my pleasure Chloe.” I replied, I had been worried about what was going to happen next since our kisses at the end of the night, was I expected to ask her to be my girlfriend. I wasn’t sure if that was expected of me, so I had waited to see what happened before committing myself.

“Will you be my friend Jack, like you are with Rory?” she asked.

Now that I could do, well not in the same way obviously, I wouldn’t be going out and playing ball with Chloe, she wasn’t into doing that sort of thing.

“Sure Chloe, I would like that.” I replied, that was the safe answer I hoped.

Chloe grabbed me in a strong hug, giving it a few seconds, and then looked me straight in the eye, because she was slightly taller than me, leaned in and gave me a quick peck kiss on the lips. “I am not going to risk kissing you again like Halloween, you do things to me when we kiss that shouldn’t happen unless we were dating.” she explained.

“Alright, sorry Chloe but you will have to explain this to me, I am just a boy after all.”

Chloe burst out in giggles, “Oh Jack you are just so cute sometimes. I would just like to have a male friend like you. I have seen how you act with Rory, I know our friendship will be different, but I would like to try and be good friends, is that possible?”

“I would hope so Chloe, I will try to be your friend, I haven’t had many, in fact I think Rory was my first true friend, hopefully you might be the second.” I explained.

“I would like that too.” Chloe replied.

We did become better friends after that, now when I went to the Burns’ house there was no animosity, we all just had fun, bantering with each other and just talked about inconsequential things about school or students.

When I had the Range Rover seats and headliner back, I spent a lot of my free time getting it all put back in correctly, I actually preferred the look of the brown interior rather than the cream it was previously. Once it was all back in, one of Stan’s regular mechanics came round to double check the work I had done on the repair.

He complimented me on the work, saying that he couldn’t have done it much better himself, though it would have been done quicker. That didn’t bother me, since he was experienced and I wasn’t, the Trans Am was going to be a much more stiffer challenge, since I was going to have to do a complete overhaul of the engine, as well as doing up the bodywork and damage on it.

Dad took the Range Rover to Stan’s lot for it to be checked over thoroughly on ramps, before having an inspector from the DMV give it their approval to be re-licensed. (Department of Motor Vehicles) I got a call on my cell from dad, to go down to Stan’s place.

Mom gave me a lift, when we got there we went into the bay that the Range Rover was being checked over in.

“Hey Jack.” Stan welcomed me.

“Hi Stan” I responded. “So what’s up that you asked me to come down?”

“Jack, I think you got the deal of the year on this motor, when we went to put it up in bay one, the lift struggled to get it up, so we tried it in the commercial bay instead, that has a weight monitor on it for licensing. Your Range Rover is nearly over a ton heavier than it should be.” Stan explained.

“I asked the licensing inspector to check it over, explained the weight discrepancy to him, he did his inspection and gave the following explanation.” Stan continued. “The reason that it is so heavy is that it had modifications we didn’t know about. The panels all have armored panels inserted behind them, and all of the glass is bulletproof.”

I was standing there with my mouth hanging open.

“Not only that, but he explained that this was a special series in the first place, it was the longer wheelbase and had the biggest engine you could purchase in this vehicle. It’s a 5.0L V8 Supercharged SV engine. That engine had to be used to cope with the extra weight of the modifications.”

“So I understand the modifications raised the value, but why is it the deal of the year?” I asked.

“I looked up how much this version was worth brand new.” Stan explained. “Even with a year’s depreciation, the car was bought for $200,000 last year. The modifications would have cost an additional $30,000. Even after a year, this thing could have been sold for over $175,000, because of the modifications, and you got it for $10,000. That is a huge profit, I am so jealous I didn’t give it a better look over myself.” Stan groaned.

I just started laughing, I had really only done the deal on the Range Rover because Stan had suggested it, I had liked it since the damage meant it would take some time to mend, it wasn’t like I needed a car yet, since I couldn’t drive, so it was more for a project to do than for what it would become. I had liked the idea that it was rare to see them, so it would garner attention once I could drive it.