Chapter 3

Ex headed downstairs the following morning, somewhat sleepy. The day before hadn’t seemed that long but the emotional nature of his and his dad’s car find had obviously taken its toll. That and the fact he was so keyed up had meant he found it difficult to sleep and when he did it was fitful, to say the least.

Grabbing some cereal from one of the head height cupboards he got some milk from the fridge and was tucking into his morning breakfast when his dad walked in.

“You’re up early Ex!” Said James, “or did you decide to see your parents off this fine Monday morning?”

“Couldn’t really sleep after yesterday, Dad, in the end I just decided I might as well get up and get on with my day. I can always catch a nap later.”

“True,” Said James, “Ex, I have been thinking about the cars we found yesterday. We really need to get them moved somewhere more secure or get some improved security for the warehouse. They’re worth a small ... well maybe a medium sized fortune, or at least they will be after we do a little remedial work on them. I’ll start looking into that today, when I get a chance. In the meantime, I suggest you don’t mention it to anyone else. It will only cause problems.”

“Good idea, Dad.” Said Ex.

“Oh, and maybe start thinking about which one you want us to work on first. You know, the one you want for your first car.” James said, giving his teenage son a massive grin. “They’ve obviously stood for a while, so I imagine they’ll need a bit of tuning at the very least; and nearly all of them looked like they could do with a touch up, or a new paint job.”

Ex just stared at his Dad for a second, whilst James couldn’t get the inane grin off his face.

“Seriously! You’re seriously going to let me have one for my car when I pass my test?” Said Ex, beginning to bounce on his toes.

“Well they are your cars, after all,” said James, “but you’re only driving them once we’ve given them a full work over and likely made some safety improvements.”

“Thanks, Dad!” Exclaimed Ex, “you’re the best Dad ever!”

“Thanks son. LLook, I have to run or I’m going to be late for work. What with me being the boss and all that, wouldn’t look good to my new staff. I’ll have to bring you with me one day this week, or you at least need to check in and meet these guys. Some of them will no doubt end up helping us with your car.” Winking again at Ex, “Your mum’s already headed out to get an early start, as she has a busy week this week, getting our life in order; so we will see you later on, ok? Be good.”

“Always am, Dad” Ex said to his dad as he left, muttering to himself under his breath that sometimes he wished he wasn’t so good.

Ex had an inate sense of fairness and doing the right thing, which often battled with his teenage hormones that were telling him to do something else. Quite literally, he felt at times as though he had the devil on one shoulder with an angel on the other. Almost all of those times, that happened to be a horny devil, as most of his ethical dilemmas to date had revolved around the opposite sex. Quite to Ex’s frustration he was a ‘good guy’ and as a result still had his V, plates even though with a bit of peer pressure or manipulation he could likely have lost them a number of times in the last 18 months or so. But that just wasn’t him!

Sighing, Ex decided the best way to get himself up and moving for the day was to quite literally do that! Get up and get moving - so he decided to run early today. Maybe he’d bump into Alyssa again.

...

‘No such luck today,’ thought Ex, as he got back to the house. He’d actually extended his run today, hoping to bump into Alyssa but hadn’t seen her in the hour that he ran that morning. So after making a piece of toast, he had a quick shower and settled in to do a couple of hours reading, as he still had a number of classes he needed to catch up on before school started.

...

The shill ring of the house phone woke Ex in the early afternoon. He had reheated some pasta left over from Saturday night for lunch, heavy on protein and carbs, just what a sportsman needed, he told himself, and then, having stuffed his face, had fallen asleep on the couch.

“Hey ... that Ex?” Said a familiar voice.

“Lavon, that you?” Said Ex, stretching and wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“Yep, you coming out this afternoon, man? We got a good number getting together at around 2, get your kit on, and get out here.”

“Alright, man,” said Ex, looking at the clock - it was 1.30. “I’ll be there.”

‘Well at least I got an hour’s beauty sleep,’ thought Ex, as he headed upstairs to throw on some suitable clothing before heading out.

...

Ex had a good afternoon throwing the ball around. They didn’t have enough players to get a proper scrimmage going, so it was decided that they would try practicing with Ex’s potential future receiving corps running a variety of routes - whilst being covered - to work on Ex’s timing with his receivers and to get him to make spot decisions about whom to hit, when to hit them and when not to.

By the end of the session his future receiving corps had a slew of grins plastered to their faces, and an excited buzz about what they could do this year and beyond. Ex had a hell of a lot more zip on his short passes, could actually throw an accurate long pass, had much greater range and even better accuracy than their previous quarterback. They were all going away feeling much more positive about the season to come and the contributions they could make to a successful season.

...

That evening, James informed Ex that he had found a suitable location where they could safely store the cars. “I did a bit of working out when I got to the shop,” he said, in passing, to Ex over the dinner table. “I think I have the perfect solution for you and me, moving forwards. I’m gonna put a couple of the cars in our show room, if we can at least get them sorted out cosmetically, even if they still need work underneath. Cars like that would be a great advert. I can also then pass of the cost - or at least some of it - as a business expense, which is good for you, too, in the long run. We can store the others in the back for now, as I should have room, especially if we bring your chosen ride back here to the home garage for you and me to work on together.”

“About that Dad.” Said Ex. “I love those American muscle cars, but I’m thinking this: the power they have as a first car might not be the best idea, and if I’m honest, I still kind of consider myself a Brit. I’m kinda leaning towards the DB5. Do you think I could pull it off?”

“Son,” said Estelle, “I think, if that’s the car you want to drive, that’s the car you should drive as long as we can make sure it’s as safe as possible. Don’t you, James?”

Smiling, James agreed, though wincing slightly inwardly. With it being a British car, the parts were almost bound to be more expensive than their American counterparts, at least here. Still, he had plenty in the bank and had already almost got a full job sheet for the week, even though he’d only just opened. He had been right when he thought that the location needed another mechanic/garage.

“Okay, if that’s decided, then I’ll get onto getting the cars moved ASAP. Ex, you’ll need to spend tomorrow going through the boxes in the garage and clearing some space for us to work on your new, old motor. You can move some of the boxes into the spare room, for now, if you run out of space whilst re-stacking what’s left in there.”

“No problem,” Said Ex, He wasn’t about to complain about giving up a day of his holiday to unpacking and re-stacking boxes, if it got him a step closer to a car ... and what a car!

...

The following day saw another bright sunny day in Cazenovia. Ex had run early again hoping to see Alyssa, but without any luck. It was mid-morning, and he had the garage door wide open whilst he opened, closed, re-stacked and moved boxes from the garage into the house.

He was facing into the garage taking stock of where he was up to, and what to do next, after having just taken a hefty box full of miscellaneous crap - as he liked to call it - into the spare room.

“Hi!” came a sunny voice from behind him. “What’re you doing?”

Ex described the voice as sunny as it held a certain excited quality that he could only imagine coming from someone wearing a beaming smile.

Ex turned with a curling grin forming on his face as he said. “Hi Brianna, nice to see you again. I’m just clearing some space in the garage so we can get a car in.” He said carefully.

“Parental chores, eughhh,” Said Brianna, still smiling at Ex. “Well, I’m not doing anything for a bit, if you want a hand. Might as well get to know you, if you’re going to be in the same grade as me at Caz - and from what I hear, maybe a future star of the football team.”