UNDER MY SKIN

eight. fireworks

“What did the tornado cowboy have to say?” Javi asked, though it was clear that he was irritated by the fact that Tyler had spoken to the two girls.

“Exactly what you’d expect,” Kate nodded.

“Really?” Sam mumbled, her eyes focused out the windshield as they approached the forming storm. “‘Cause he hardly ever says what I expect him to.”

“How do you even know him?” Javi asked, his hand tight around the steering wheel. He almost sounded jealous, which had Kate glancing in his direction with a furrowed brow.

Sam shrugged, still watching the sky as she leaned towards her window, “met him years ago. Known him almost my whole life, feels like.”

“Y’all… together?” He seemed to have trouble with the word, which had her turning towards him – though his eyes were on the road, so she narrowed her eyes at the back of his head.

“You don’t get to ask me that. It’s none of your business.”

He swallowed hard, shifting in his seat a little, “it is, if it’s gonna interfere with my work.”

“You really think I’d do something to hurt you on purpose? Or mess with the company you built? You really think I’m that kinda person?”

He sighed, “no, Sam, I don’t.” He glanced at her in the rearview mirror, “sorry, I just… he’s been getting in the way of our data for weeks.”

“Then he doesn’t need my help to do it.”

Kate looked over at Javi before turning in her seat to look back at her sister, it was weird seeing them like that. She could so easily see them laughing and sharing a beer, and seeing them on the outs felt wrong. But she also couldn’t explain the small feeling that bubbled up when she thought Javi might actually be jealous of the so-called tornado cowboy.

It had only been there for a second, and it was just enough to notice but she couldn't place the feeling – a feeling she hadn't felt in five years.

“So, Katie, how’s the sky lookin’?” Sam asked, meeting her sister’s eyes – she was still turned around in her seat.

“Oh, um…” Kate turned, her eyes on the sky as she leaned forward and peered out the windshield. “Updraft is cycling, can you see that, Sam?” She pointed, wanting her to understand it.

Sam squinted a little before tilting her head to the left, “yeah, totally.”

Kate chuckled, “we’ll work on it.” She quickly looked at the computer screen in front of her, “okay, let’s take a right up here.”

Sam’s eyes scanned the turbines as they drove past a wind farm, her brown eyes squinted a little as she saw a few of them tremble with the force of the wind. She took a breath and looked towards Kate, she couldn’t see her face but she knew that it must’ve been hard.

Sam reached forward and placed her hand on Kate’s shoulder, giving it a small squeeze as the younger girl glanced back with a smile on her face. She nodded her head, lightly patting her sister’s hand a few times, a silent way of telling her that she was okay… even if it wasn’t entirely true.

“It’s forming just like you called it,” Javi grinned, watching the forming storm.

“Wow,” Sam breathed out, leaning forward to watch the sky through the windshield.

“Scarecrow, Tin Man, get into position.” Javi talked into his ear piece, letting the rest of the team know what to do. “Wizard, stick with me.”

Sam chuckled a little, not having put it together before, “like the names, Javi.  RIP Dorothy.”

Javi merely smiled, glancing back at to see a small smile on her face. Of course she got it, so few people did.

“What’s the plan?” Kate asked, once Scarecrow and Tin Man split off.

“So, we want a 3D scan of the entire area around the vortex, which means we’re gonna surround it with three radars, each one pointed at the tornado.” Javi explained, tapping the small screen on the dash to show them the plan. “Tin Man will get behind the tornado and plant his rader on the right-hand side. Scarecrow is gonna get behind the tornado and plant his on the left. And all the data that they send will be received by Wizard.”

“Dorothy would be proud,” Sam mumbled, her eyes wide as she took in the image on the screen – it was a digital tornado with lights indicating where the radars would be placed.

“And how ‘bout Lion?” Kate asked, her voice a little shaky, knowing that they were Lion.

“We gotta complete the triangle,” Javi answered. “We get right in front of that thing and set up our rader.” Kate tensed a little, which he noticed. “You got this, Kate. Just tell us where the front of the tornado is.”

“Yeah, Katie, you can do this.” Sam reached forward and squeezed her shoulder again.

“Okay,” the younger blonde breathed out as the vortex hit the ground.

“Shit,” Sam mumbled, as if the fact that they were gonna be in the tornado’s path just sank in.

“That’s our tornado, baby!” Javi cheered, slapping the steering wheel excitedly. He pressed harder on the gas and a small, barely audible gasp left Kate as she pressed herself back into her seat.

Sam’s phone buzzed and she pulled it out, smiling a little at the notification from YouTube, she unlocked her phone and clicked on it. Then, outta nowhere, a familiar, obnoxious red truck cut in front of them, running them off the road. Sam’s phone was flung across the truck, and hit the floor as she held onto the back of Kate’s seat.

Javi finally managed to get control of the truck, driving in the grass beside the road.

“Alright, what’s up, chat?” Sam could faintly hear Tyler’s voice coming from her phone as she leaned over to grab it.

“I’m gonna kill him,” she mumbled just as she grabbed the device.

“Dumbass!” Javi huffed, “It’s like the wild wild west out here!” He hit the gas and turned, pulling back onto the road in front of Wizard. The action slinging them around in the cab of the truck – Kate braced herself on the roof and the door while Sam held onto Kate’s seat.

“Welcome back! Thank you for joining us. It’s a perfect weather day. We just had tornado genesis. I’m looking at a tall rope due north of us, and she is pretty. Joining us today, per usual, got my chief storm hound, Boone.”

Boone’s face took up her screen, “Booney, baby! Whoo!”

“You’re seriously watching that!” Javi shouted, his anger peaked and she clicked her phone off.  

“Katie?”

“I’m okay,” she panted. “You?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, taking a breath as Javi seemed to weave across the road, trying to find a way around Tyler, but the cowboy seemed to easily block him. “I’m so gonna kill him. He’s a dead man.”

Then Tyler pulled off the road, cutting through the field and Sam watched with wide eyes. She’d seen a few of the turbines shaking and she was worried, even if she had just threatened to end his life.

“Get me in front of it,” Javi glanced at Kate, and she quickly looked at the laptop.

“Okay, we need to take a right. Here!”

Javi made a sharp turn, jerking Sam around, but she turned, watching Tyler’s truck. Which got a little harder to see as the hail started to fall over the red truck. So she pulled out her phone, opening it to see the live stream.

“We got golf balls, baby!” Boone shouted excitedly.

Tyler leaned forward, looking out the windshield, “are those golf balls or baseballs?”

They shared an excited look, their eyes wide, “grapefruit!”

Ben leaned forward, having to raise his voice a little to be heard over the hail hitting the truck, the music and the excitement of the other two in the truck, “I’m assuming this is safe?”

And just as the question left him, the faint groan of metal echoed as one of the turbine blades broke off. It impaled the ground barely a foot from the truck.

A gasp left Sam’s lips, her hand covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes as she watched all of this on the small screen of her phone, she glanced back, hoping to see the truck, but it was too hard to see much of anything.

She looked back at her phone, relief flooding through her as Tyler veered to the right to avoid it.

Then she watched Boone’s eyes grow wide, the camera angle changing, and she watched as the turbine fell towards the truck, it missed them by a hair and Tyler cheered as he pressed the gas harder, the truck just barely slipping under the blade.

The cowboy just cheered, hitting a bump, which had all four wheels coming off the ground for a second.

“Whoo!” Tyler cheered, smacking the steering excitedly.

Sam took a breath, turning her phone off

She had seen a lot of their videos and a lot of them had an air of danger, but nothing like that had ever happened and she couldn’t get the sinking pit in her stomach to go away.

She turned and watched, just barely able to see the red of his truck as he tore up the grass of the field. It was scary as hell but she, like the group of wannabe chasers, watched the madness. Though, they all cheered like it was the best thing they had ever seen.

And she was so preoccupied trying to follow that stupid truck with her eyes that she jumped when Javi honked the horn and shouted, seemingly annoyed with the group of onlookers.

“That’s the Tyler Ownes effect,” he muttered, rolling his eyes a little.

“Yeah,” Sam mumbled, though he barely heard her. Kate, however, did and she looked back to see a worried look on her sister's face. Whether Sam and Tyler were just friends or not, it was clear that Sam cared about him. “Fucking idiot,” she muttered, though it was meant for the crazy cowboy and not the two in the truck with her.

“Wizard, hang back,” Javi instructed, speaking into his headset. “Get those hard drives fired up.”

“The path is shifting,” Kate rushed out, her eyes on the screen before her. “Okay, there’s a right coming up.” She pointed forward and Javi turned, but it wasn’t much of a road, it was all dirt and mud.

Sam watched the vortex, it was right in front of them – she’d never been so close to one. She had always stayed with Javi while the others drove into the storm; now, she couldn’t stop the shake in her hands.

As they approached the storm, her mouth went dry, and for just a second she was on a horse… but not just any horse. It was Bullet. She could vaguely hear the rush of the crowd, then the pain as she hit the dirt, then the impact as Bullet seemed to take all of his anger out on her.

It wasn't the same, she knew that. A horse wasn’t a tornado, but if there was one that could rival such a storm, it’d be Bullet. She shook herself out of it, if this was hard for her then she knew it must’ve been harder for Kate. She reached forward and squeezed her shoulder, the action seemed to help keep her calm.

Tin Man and Scarecrow quickly and easily got into position, setting up their radars, and Wizard got all of it.

“Where, Kate?” Javi asked, they were the last last piece to the puzzle and they were so very close. Javi was finally gonna get the data he desperately needed. “I gotta be within three hundred meters for the radar to work.”

“Almost there,” Kate mumbled, taking comfort in the way Sam kept her hand on her shoulder.

“Kate, Sam, take these.” He held up two pairs of goggles.

“Nope, my happy ass is stayin’ in the truck,” Sam told him and he just dropped one pair as Kate took the other pair as the windshield wipers shook, seemingly fighting against the wind – which had Kate freezing in place. She couldn’t stop the rush of panic that flooded her as she was reminded of that day.

“Come on, Kate. Talk to me,” Javi glanced over, seeing how the girl hesitated. “We getting close?”

“J – just up in the clearing,” she rushed out and he drove towards the tornado before turning. And when the truck bed was towards the tornado he parked and the two up front put their goggles on.

The two jumped out, and Sam turned to watch them, Javi rushed to the tailgate, pulling it down, but Kate faltered as she looked up at the raging vortex.
Sam pushed her door open, her hair blowing on the harsh breeze and she held her hand up to shield her eyes from the debris, “Kate!”

“Get in the tuck!” Kate shouted, Sam's voice having brought her back to herself. “Javi, get in!” Javi closed the tailgate and rushed towards the passenger side.

“What is it? What is it? What do you see?” He asked, once they were all in the truck and Kate hit the gas.

“This isn’t right,” she mumbled, her hands tight on the wheel and Sam watched her with furrowed brows, then she looked back at the tornado… noticing that Kate was driving away from the storm.

“Hang on, guys,” Javi informed the rest of the team. “We’re gonna find a closer spot.” he glanced back before looking over at Kate again. “Is this where it’s headed?”

She pulled onto a road then stopped, “Javi, I-”

He didn’t give her a chance to say anything before jumping out of the trunk and rushing towards the tailgate.

He glanced back at the storm, and when he realized he slammed the tailgate. “We’re too far!”

“Kate?” Sam asked softly, leaning up and laying her hand on her shoulder.

“I-I-”

Loud music cut off the younger girl and they watched as Tyler pulled up next to the truck, “Javi! What are you doing out here, man? Tornado’s that way!”  Then he glanced at two in the truck. “Hey, Sam.” he grinned, but she didn't smile. If anything she looked mad. He knew he was in trouble. So he just nodded towards the other Carter girl, “Kate.”

He looked at Sam again, her jaw was clenched and her eyes narrowed, and he knew she was beyond pissed.

“You’re in trouble.” Boone nearly sang, but his smile faded when Sam's narrowed eyes fell on him.

Tyler held her gaze for a second longer before driving right towards the vortex. He plastered on a smile, shouting “nice goggles, Javi!” Both girls stepped out of the truck, Kate was curious and Sam was worried.

“They just…” Kate mumbled as she and Sam stopped next to Javi. All three watched the truck disappear into the tornado without ever lifting off the ground. Then the tunnel lit up with red, orange, and yellow lights.

A small smile tugged at Sam's lips. It was beautiful, the most insane thing she had ever seen in person.

“Are those fireworks?”

“Yep,” Javi nodded, clearly unimpressed.

And as the tornado passed, they could faintly hear Tyler and Boone cheering and a small breath of relief left Sam at the sound. She chuckled as she watched them jump out of the trunk, hollerin’ as they bounced around excitedly. Well, except for Ben, who doubled over and puked.

“He’s insane,” Kate stated.

“Yeah,” Javi muttered, turning to get back into the truck and Kate followed, getting back in the passenger seat.

Sam watched as the truck rolled towards them and she planted herself in their path, making them pull to a stop.

She rounded the truck, using the step to hoist herself up towards the open window, “you're fucking crazy, you know that?”

“That a bad thing?” Tyler asked, a smirk on his lips but he was a little worried – she still looked a little mad.

“No,” she shrugged. “Just a scary thing.”

“Baby, we're fine.”

She nodded, managing a small smile, “just be careful.”

“Always,” he hummed, his eyes searching hers. Her eyes seemed darker, burdened even, and he hated that he was the reason for it.

She glanced over at Boone, managing a smile, “I told you to keep him out of trouble.”

“He don't listen.”

“Don't I know it,” she hummed jokingly, getting a smile from him. “Well, I'll let y'all go.”

“I'll call you later, maybe we can meet up.”

“You better, cowboy.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Bye, baby.” A smile tugged at his lips, the tips of his ears turning pink, which she loved. She chuckled as she hopped down and he waited until she was in the back of Javi's truck before he drove away.

NOVA SPEAKS

twisters is finally on peacock and i don't have to struggle trying to watch it as i'm writing lol

also, my wifi is currently down and i'm not sure how long it's gonna be down which sucks, but oh well

lovey babies so much 🤟🏼