The sounds and smells of an autobody shop always made Johnny somehow feel right at home, which was one of the reasons he liked working at Mike's; today just happened to be one of the busier days. He'd already tuned up four cars and replaced two full sets of tires, and it wasn't even noon yet; right now, he was changing an oil filter.

Screwing on the new oil filter, he slid himself out from under the car on the dolly he was lying on and sat up; he wiped his hands off on a semi-clean rag and grabbed the stuff from under the car. Then he moved the dolly and the items out of the way and popped the hood to start checking the fluids.

(Jus' a suggestion, but maybe next time you could be a little more descriptive? Y'know, set the scene, describe what your character looks like. All that stuff is neccesary and tends to attract people. I mean, to your board. -_-; )

The sounds of a student, swearing, were muffled completely by the city's chittering and bustling, cell-phones ringing, horns beeping, cars screeching to halts at red lights they could have sworn would've stayed yellow for longer. Damn, them, though. Working cars, and they were ruining them.

Alec's piece of junk car just refused to start, and Alec didn't know what in the hell its problem was. But, Alec, you must realize, is not the brightest lightbulb in the bunch, when it comes to cars.

"Start, dammit!" he cursed.

It took about fifteen minutes of God knows what Alec did for that thing to start, and the blonde-haired man sighed, carelessly beginning the drive to the autobody shop. As always, late for his appointments. Alec had to stop doing that and at least arrive on time for things, if not early.

He turned on the radio, blasting some rock music to better his mood, and after a few minutes, pulled into the parking lot.

Opened the door, got out. You know, standard stuff that Alec thinks is a waste of his time.

Strolls up to the guy, working on the car, and sighs, wordlessly.

((Gotchas - and I don't know what kind of rock you like, so I'll just use something. ^_^ ))

Johnny finished checking the fluids and, glancing down randomly as he dropped the hood on the Durango, brushed a spider off of his oil-stained, faded blue jeans; he honestly didn't care about what he wore, as long as it was comfortable, and the jeans with a rip in the knee and oil stains all over it - for him, at least - were as comfortable as it got. So was the dark blue t-shirt that was now covered in oil, for that matter - covered in oil only because the damn oil filter he'd been changing had been cracked; if it weren't for the fact that he loved fixing things up, and he needed the money to keep his bike running smooth, he would have quit. He couldn't believe what some people did to their cars. He was just about to head inside to talk to the owner and take his money when he saw someone pull up. "Be with ya in just a minute," he said to the driver, whose car was pouring out loud music from Kiss; he couldn't help but grin as he walked inside - it was the kind of music that he loved, but it drove his parents crazy.

He took the money and gave the owner a receipt, then backed the truck out and walked back to the garage as the owner drove away; he stepped up to the new customer. "What can I do for ya?"

(S'much better. ^_^)

Alec, looking like he could barely pass for Johnny's age (people often thought he looked too young to drive. Around the age of fifteen, say) nodded his head, and mumbled an "All right," while the kid was inside talking to the owner.

"Ehm, I hit whatever it was, beat the crap outta my rims. Talked to someone, said they'd have tire rims in. And... if there's anything you can do about a transmission?" He asked, hopefully.

The green-eyed fellow wasn't dressed like Johnny... much. He had a red Gap sweatshirt on, and some durable, dark blue jeans. And that was really all the clothing that was visible. I won't describe every layer he had on to keep from being cold.

"All right, I'll need to take a look under the hood; if you could just pop that for me..." He took a look at the rims and said, "I'll go see what we've got that can match this car and I'll be back in just a minute; I'll check the tranny once I've changed the rims."

"Hmm? O' course," he mumbled yet again, and popped open the hood of the blasted car. It was his problem car. Everything always went wrong with it. "Mmkay," he nodded in acknowledgement, standing near his car. He was going to criticize and scold himself to no end if only something simple went wrong and he didn't see it, or something other. But Alec knew little about cars, so it wasn't exactly his fault.

Johnny came back a few minutes later with some rims; it took only a couple minutes to change the rims, scrapping the old ones for later use. He didn't believe in throwing anything away that could be used later.

Raising the hood and taking a look at the tranny, he said, "Hmm...yup; okay." He then turned to the customer. "You're going to need a new transmission soon; this one can probably last you a little while longer, but it's going to go out and then you'll be in trouble. A decent tranny for this car would probably cost around eighty bucks, extra if you want us to install it."

He didn't really understand why he didn't scrap them, but it was no matter. He could care less at this point. He just wanted his car fixed.

"Damn it. Eight bucks?" Agh, highway robbery. Damn car, sucking up all his money. "Mhmm, just great. Thanks. How much do I owe you?" Alec was surprised the kid didn't ask for his license or something. Being twenty, he looked younger than the kid completely.

"Come on inside and I'll total it up for you."

He went inside and stepped behind the desk. "Let's see...thirty-five dollars for the full set of rims, plus fifteen dollars for the labor...plus tax...that'll be - fifty-eight dollars and sixty-two cents, please." He looked up at the guy, waiting for his payment.

Well, that wasn't too much to pay. Especially for brand new (well, assuming they're brand new) rims. He followed the kid inside.

"Uhuh. Mmkay, just a sec..." He reached into his back pocket and grabbed a nice, crisp looking one-hundred dolalr bill. He handed it to him, face a pretty much bored blank, because he was thinking.

Johnny was a bit surprised; few people came in here with crisp hundreds; he took the money and counted out the change. As he handed it to him, he said, "Just for future references, we generally don't take anything higher than a fifty; have a nice day."

"Sorry, s'all I got." He shrugged, pocketed the money. "Thanks. You too." Then walked off.

Johnny watched him walk out and drive off, then helped another customer; finally, he went out to the garage to help another customer who'd just pulled in...