Combustion

Ignition

You may be confused about who the hell my team and myself are and I wouldn't blame you. I
know I went into a little bit of detail about some of them earlier in the night but you may still
have a few suspicions that leave you curious. You want to know who we are and what our purpose is and that's understandable. I can assure you we aren't apart of some secret government organization or any nonsense of the sort. We're just a group of individuals with a common interest in cars, technology and most importantly power. The principles we stand on are respect, loyalty and love in that order. You see most people assume loyalty is more valuable than respect. They assume if someone is loyal to them they will always agree with their
decisions and follow in their footsteps.

Those things aren't bad examples and
depending on how the individual leads a team they might even be necessary for them to
maintain control. I believe respect is more valuable because of the impact it has when you're
operating in the streets. Whether it be rivals, law enforcement, your own team or government
officials, respect can have all of them with your best interest in mind at all times. Unfortunately
as we all know everything isn't concrete, whether you're in the streets or not. Everything damn
sure wasn't concrete when I first met Blaze, I'll never forget that damned day. It's what ignited us all on this fiery path.

It was the final week of school before we were free for an entire week for our Christmas break. I
received my drivers license in the mail that Tuesday and began begging my parents nonstop to let
me drive to school just once any day that week. My mother caved the next day on Wednesday after our family attended church. I asked her in a heartbroken tone, "What Would Jesus Do?" The guilt and sympathy poured into her urging her to recant her previous denials. Maybe I went too far, maybe, but I was determined and motivated to drive that car to school. My father was the stern one, stuck in his decision to keep me from behind the wheel of his car as long as he possibly could. Thankfully he finally caved Thursday night at dinner when I propositioned to him that letting me drive to school could be my Christmas gift instead of all the presents sitting under our Christmas tree. He didn't hesitate to accept my offer. If there's one thing I learned from mafia and gangster movies it was that risky propositions always went well when discussed over food, give or take two or three of 'em.

That Friday morning I got up extra early just to detail the car before school, the sun hadn't even risen. It was parked outside our apartment building. The apartment complex we lived in was nothing short of rundown. The goal at the basketball court was bent with no net in its rim, bikes and toys from the children lay sprawled across lawns often where they didn't belong. Thugs gathered in their yards all day and night spewing profanity and verbally abusing women that passed by all while smoking weed and drinking alcohol. As usual they sold drugs and most of them were gang members, they were only a few years older than me. The outside appearance of the building we lived in certainly didn't match how we lived inside. My parents worked hard to provide for me. We weren't living lavish but we made it through our bills with some cushion left over. I was the first kid living here that had a bike. Although our neighbors weren't as fortunate as us they didn't bother us because of the respect my dad had in the community. That's why respect is the first principle. It's a shield of protection.

I approached the car with a soapy bucket of water and a big yellow sponge. Two weeks after my dad got a raise at the auto shop he worked for he went and purchased a 1997 BMW series 5, his dream car (connect the dots). I didn't blame my parents for their hesitation at all but I knew they trusted me with their car. Afterall we'd only had it for four months. As I was rinsing the car off my father came outside with a towel, tire shine spray and a bottle of glass cleaner.

"You can't forget about the details Benny," he said as he approached the car and sat the tire spray down, "no matter how unimportant the little things may seem you can't forget about them and act like they don't exist." He sprayed the front wind shield and began to wipe it. That was my father all day, teaching like a professor and working like someone in construction. I started cleaning the tires shortly after. "Everything you do in this life matters," he continued, "whether you hit snooze or stop when the alarm rings, whether you say thank you and please, whatever it is it all matters."

I finished the last tire and walked to the front of the car where my dad was standing. "I love you son, be careful today," he said as he grabbed me with one arm and pulled me in for a hug. "I just want you to know whatever happens to this car happens to you," he chuckled while putting me into a playful headlock. We stood there and admired the car until mom walked outside and yelled at me for not getting ready for school. The sun had risen twenty minutes ago. "Come on champ, let's head inside," said dad as we waltzed inside our apartment. I stopped at the door and looked back at the BMW one more time. It's chrome wheels shining like teeth glistening in the sun from its happiness for me. Today was about to be a damn good day I thought to myself as I walked in the house. Little did I know it was about to be a long ass day.