I am Amber

Chapter 3: Meeting Jason

Meeting Jason:

People always ask me. How did you meet Jason. Well it really is simple, at the racetrack. I was 14 the first time we crossed paths. I was in the garage with Kyle who had just got his #5 ride. Jason's crew was next to Kyle's. At the end of the night before the race I was learning everything I could about the car from Kyle, we were crawling all over it. I had been living with Jimmie and Chandra almost a whole year. I still preferred Kyle's Company.

The whole night sticks out to me, of course, it tends to do that when a person has as much as an impact as Jason did on my life. Kyle and I were talking about the set up,

"Kyle I know that is too tight, think about how you drive."

He nodded and said, "Okay, so maybe you are right. But I could start the race too loose?"

"Would you rather be too tight or too loose Ky? Which is the easier fix."

"That's what she said, and fine, you're right. You really gotta stop listening to Kurt so much, you're turning into him."

I rolled my eyes and flipped my hat backwards. Rick Hendrick had walked up to us going over his set up.

"You are one smart cooking Miss Miley. All these years of listening to the boys and now you are smarter than the rest. Seeing you climb all over the car with the hat backwards reminds me of Ricky."

"I miss Ricky."

Rick hugged me and said, "Me too kiddo, me too. He's watching you, he always knew you were gonna make it huge. And you are well on your way. He's always with you."

I pushed my wristband down over my wrist more, "Yeah, still miss him though."

Kyle was still my guardian, as was Kurt. Kyle signed off for me to get a tattoo that Dad not Chandra knew about. It was a black heart. Ricky would leave me encouraging notes on my school work and he would always shade in a heart next to his name when he signed off. He treated me just like a big brother. The artist took one of his notes and did the heart just like him. It was my little piece of him.

"Well kids, time to call it a night."

Kyle and Rick were talking, so I followed. I wasn't paying attention when I walked out of the door. I bumped into someone.

"Dude I am so-" I turned and there was Jason, "Um, ma'am, I am so sorry."

"It's okay, I wasn't paying attention, long day."

I had on a shirt just like the crew members with jeans and my boots, so I had the look of a crew member. My hair was in a bun in the hat so there's a good chance I looked more like a boy than I should've. Jason eventually told me that part of the reason he didn't know what to say was because of how I talked.

"I'm Jason, Jason Leffler."

"Hi Jason, I'm Miley."

"Miley? I like it. What's your last name?"

"Depends on who is asking. Either way it gets people to hate me."

He smiled, "Well, I hate to hold you up, your driver is getting away from you."

The word driver caught me off guard, I thought everyone knew about me with Jimmie, Kurt and Kyle.

"Oh, yeah, without me. Nice to meet you Leffler."

"You too Miley. See you around."

It didn't take long for Jason to know I was Kyle and Kurt's little sister and Jimmies daughter. But, Jason had no clue my full name or age until I was 17 and I was crew chiefing Kyle in the truck series. Every time we saw each other in track we would talk, he would be at dirt races as well as the NASCAR.