Formal Introductions

Sally was feeling invigorated. She had finished acing a series of challenging finals. Now was the time to unwind. She was free to be herself for a while. So, with the t-top off, the Cougar was being made to purr. Sally was pushing that pedal very liberally, letting the V8 roar and purr. The back road was open and quiet, it was just the feel of power and the comfort of a sweet ride.

At one of the stop signs, a guy in a Mustang pulled up and giggled at her. Waving her hands in a gesture of questioning, she rapped her gas pedal. The guy started to laugh and waved her off. Sally knew that look. The guy was feeling incredulity towards her. As if saying girl, you can’t drive and can’t take on my Mustang.

Not to be put off, Sally did a quick brake-stand. There was no one else around. The guy didn’t seem in a hurry. He threw his head back and laughed pretty hard.

Without warning, the guy gunned his Mustang and took off. Sally, quick natured, let off the brake pedal and floored her Cougar. It was common knowledge that sleeper machines were always underestimated. Sally had a well kept car and her dad had tune the motor to her liking. The supercharger cranked more than the manufacturer prescribed 300 hp.

The Cougar surged and cleared it’s throat as it gracefully launched in hot pursuit and quickly sprinted up to the Mustang. Before she could over take, the next stop sign pulled up and they had to stop.

The smile was gone from the guy’s face. A racing face clouded by frustration and anger met her jubilant gaze. Sally nodded to the guy and dropped her pedal to the floor. The guy was caught by surprised and tried his best to catch up. There was no catching Sally. His stock Mustang didn’t have the power to Sally’s tuned motor.

The guy was not trying to let this one go. For the next several stop signs, he tried everything he could to get a jump on Sally and beat her but couldn’t. His anger was getting the best of him as he started just doing rolling stops to gain an advantage.

At the last stop before the lone country road gave way to to the edges of town, the man signaled Sally to stop. She paused and as happy to see that he was not trying to gain a jump on her. However, his voice and body language was anything close to welcoming.

With a flurry of insults, the guy tried to make Sally feel bad for abusing her boyfriend’s car… insisting that a homey looking girl like her could not possibly know how to handle all that horsepower.

Sally listened patiently. Her right foot was hovering over the gas pedal with her hand on the gear shifter. The left foot was just on the brake enough to prevent the car from rolling.

The sound of a familiar four cylinder car pulled up. It was the Civic from the boy who had rescued Sally a few times months before. He pulled up in the opposing lane to the left of the Mustang.

Within a few minutes, the Mustang guy looked over and insulted the driver of the Civic while advising him to keep out of his private conversation.

Troy waited for a break in the man’s insults to throw out a challenge of his own.

“The last stop sign is a quarter mile back. If I beat you to it from a standing start, I get to keep your Mustang and you leave this lady alone” Troy stated.

The guy laughed. With a flurry of noise and smoke, the guy lit up his tires and spun his car around and lined up. Sally, not wanting to see the boy in the Civic get beat, threw in her own challenge.

“I’m calling the start and I’m racing too, just to make sure there is no funny business. You have to beat the both of us in order to get his ride” Sally said sternly to the Mustang driver.

Punching her pedal, she spun around and lined up for the race. Sally could not understand why the Civic had remained calmly facing the same way. The Mustang driver was throwing out his insults to Troy who seemed un-bothered.

Sally screamed at the Mustang driver to lay off. Then explained the start to the startled and surprised Mustang driver.

“I will count down from 5 and on zero, we go. Got it?” Sally instructed.

The Mustang guy nodded. Revved up his car and loaded up the rear suspension. Sally did the same and then used her free hand to start a slow count down.

When she had reached zero, Sally floored the pedal and felt the power surge launch her car immediately into the lead. The stock Mustang struggled to keep up while roasting it’s tires.

No one expected to see the Civic. However, in reverse, the dropped Civic popped into the lead. The driver looked very focused as his engine quickly climbed the revs towards redline.

With a very skillful flip of the wheel, Troy spun his car around and dropped the Civic into second and tweaked his turbo setting. The full power of the Civic started to roar out of his heavily modified motor. By third gear, his car was at full song and eating up the asphalt and overtaking the Mustang. Fourth gear had him in the lead by a healthy margin.

Knowing that the car papers were not yet secured, Troy knew that the other driver was not going to stop at the stop sign and admit his loss. So, with a very stout lead, Troy stopped his Civic at the line and made for a turn to block the road.

The head fake worked like a charm. Sally slammed on the brakes and her traction control took over and brought the car safely to a stop right on the line. The Mustang, sadly, was not of the vintage with traction control. The resulting lockup turned the speedster towards the edge of the road as he slid to a stop in the ditch.

Troy was out and waiting. Before the driver of the beaten Mustang could attempt to get out of the ditch or his ride, Troy had the keys in hand and tossing them to Sally.

“A stock Mustang versus two finely tuned sleepers… yeah… not your finest hour” Troy said as he shook his head in disappointment. “Good luck getting your keys back from the new car owner”

Sally playfully hopped over. “If you apologize and play nice, I might be encouraged to give you your keys back” she teased in a very flirtatious way.

A shaken guy stepped out and looked at his ride. It was going to need help getting out of the ditch. It was his baby. He had just lost it in a race. The Cougar had to be seriously modified. The Civic was low to the ground and didn’t have a normal motor under the hood.

With sadness, the man got down on his knees and pleaded to have his keys back. Sally played with him and teased him. The guy tried to hold his rising anger in check as the look on Troy’s face overwhelmed him with dread and fear. That small Civic driver looked like he could do hurt just on sheer will power alone.

Finally, the guy apologized about his sexist assumptions in a convincing manner.

“I accept your apology” Sally said as she skipped and hopped over to the Mustang and got in. She fired it up and revved it several times. The power felt amazing. The car felt good. Slipping in gear, she made several attempts to drive out of the ditch but couldn’t find the traction needed.

Troy signaled the guy to push the car. The two got behind the car and gave a heavy push and the Mustang slowly fishtailed itself out of the ditch as Sally played with the pedal.

Once the car was back on the road, Sally stepped out and left the Mustang’s door open as she signaled for the driver to leave. He got in and unceremoniously drove off quietly in total complete humiliation.