FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Things were going great that week for me. I finally knew what was troubling Terry and to have talked about it felt great. I figured things would go naturally and we'd give it time, like we did with most things. Nevertheless, the week went by fast. Nikki has been approaching me several times and we started to spend time together as well in the cafeteria and after school. And Terry was right. She did opened herself up to me. She reminded me of Samantha because Nikki always had something to talk about which what made her such pleasant company. I liked having her around... And even though I didn't knew her all too well, I figured that it'll come. There was a lot to learn about her...

The following Saturday was the day that we'd go to that carshow in Rayvale, at the Aldbay Arena. It's a huge indoor complex to host large scaled events, such as the Speed and Design '09. Terry said that the show itself would be consisting mostly out of supercars. Nikki and Terry are fond of cars and I wasn't so it actually got me wondering why I agreed going to that show in the first place... "Oh yeah, showing some interests in his hobbies..." Needless to say, Terry never complained whenever we went shopping for clothes so I figured going with him was the least I could do for dragging him from shop to shop...

Terry woke me that Saturday morning at around eight o'clock... True, we both were very sleepy and had a lot of trouble to get out of bed... But once he remembered why we got up so early, he was smiling all the time... Even when we picked up Nikki from her apartment, that smile never disappeared. And so, we hit the road... Along the way, the three of us acted like retards and sang along with whatever song there was on the radio. And it was nice to have let myself go like that because I'm normally not as crazy... But it was also nice to see Nikki loosen up in my presence and I figured that she acted like this around Terry all the time... Just a "happy go lucky" kinda girl...

It took about forty-five minutes to get there but once we did, Terry followed the signs to the parking lot and had to buy a ticket of ten dinar to park his car for the entire day. And so, we made our way to the entrance. But once we got inside, there was one hell of a line... 'It's a good thing we got here on time.' 'On time? Look at the queue!' 'You should see the queue in an hour, haha...' 'It's a good thing you pre-ordered those tickets.' 'You still have them, Nic?' 'No, you didn't gave them to me.' ' ...What? You kidding me??' 'No, I'm serious, you didn't gave them to me!' '...Ceylan?' 'Uh... Don't tell me you forgot them.' 'Oh for fucks sake...' 'I told you to check everything twice before we left!' 'Oh man...' 'I saw you putting them in your pocket when we left.'

The three of us were standing there, feeling our pockets, looking in every one of them. We stood there for about ten minutes but Terry just didn't seem to find them... 'I got 'em!' 'Finally...'

Turned out Terry wasn't looking in his pockets deep enough... Anyway, once Terry got hold of the tickets we could walk straight past the queue and some people were looking at us, as if we were cutting in line. But we got through and made our way in the main-hall and it really showed how massive this place really was... Everywhere you looked, you saw stands of supposedly supercars. Some manufacturers of them I knew, like Ferrari but most of them were unknown to me. The place was crowded and everywhere you looked, there were people taking pictures of cars, smiling and commenting on how awesome they looked. 'Hope you didn't forget to take your camera with you, Nic.' 'As if I would, haha! Wow, look at his place...' 'So where to first?' 'I honestly have no idea where to start...' 'Let's just follow the route and see where we'll end up?' 'Good thinking, babe.' 'Oh my God, Terry, look!' 'What?' 'Spyker has a stand over there!' 'Spyker??'

Before I knew, the two of them raced towards the stand of Spyker. They reminded me of little kids walking in a candy-shop, not knowing what they want, raiding every display in search of that one special treat... But once I joined them, I saw the car... It couldn't be missed... I think it's called an SUV but I didn't like it all... It was fucking horrible to look at... 'You seriously like that car, Nic?' 'Naah, I think it's more of an acquired taste. You'll learn to love it. Hell, it's a Spyker. Spyker's aren't exactly common in the supercar world. The fact that they're rare makes them so wanted.' 'Even when they're as ugly as this?' 'Yup, even when there as ugly as this. The D8 is still a prototype at this stage though. Perhaps they'll take it in production when the demand is high enough.' 'They're all supercars right? Why would they make an SUV?' 'Because, they're wanted. And because they can.' 'Hmmm... Porsche did the exact same thing, Nic. Look at the Cayenne, it's ugly as fuck in my opinion and doesn't fit with their range of models. They still build it and it's actually a successful range. Why would anyone buy such an ugly car?' 'Because, it's a Porsche. You can wrap a turd in gift-wrap, slam a Porsche logo on it and people would still buy it.' 'I really don't know what you guys are talking about...' 'Nikki and I have different opinions on this car.' 'Yeah, no matter how ugly it is, it's still a Spyker.' 'Then again, it couldn't be worse than the Porsche Panamera...' '... It's still a Porsche.' 'But they did it all wrong! I mean, it's an extended 911 with four doors! Aston Martin did it right with Rapide concept.' 'Lamborghini did also a nice job on the Estoque concept...'

I had no idea what they were talking about. So instead, I looked at the cars on display. The Spyker stand only had three cars at their stand. There was the ugly D8 SUV, the ugly sports-car which said C8 Laviolette on the sign in front of the car and there was a rather nice looking one... I moved closer to the car, making my way through the crowd and stared at the silver cabriolet... Now this was a car I could imagine myself driving in... There was something written on the place where the roof comes out. I had no idea what it meant... "Nulla tenaci invia est via..." I stared at the car for a while, reading the sign in front of it. It had a name I wasn't able to pronounce and technical specifications I wasn't able to comprehend... Still, the car looked beautiful nevertheless... 'You like that one...?'

Nikki stood next to me and smiled when she saw I was intrigued by this car. The car was slowly rotating, looking at it from every angle... There wasn't a single thing I didn't like about the car... 'Yeah, this one is awesome.' 'It's the C8 Aileron Spyder...' 'This'll be my first car.' 'Hehehe... Look what it says...' 'Where?' 'Where the roof comes out...' 'Oh, yes, what does that mean?' "Nulla tenaci invia est via"... It's Romarian. It means "no road is impassable for the tenacious"...' 'Never knew cars could be so philosophical...' 'You'd be surprised...'

I looked at Nikki and saw how she smiled nervously as her eyes averted from mine... For a second there, I thought I felt something strange... But that feeling quickly disappeared once Terry interrupted us... 'Did you see that Lamborghini stand over there?' 'Where?!' 'Come on!'

And the two of them ran off again like little kids... I can't blame them, really. I can only smile to see the passion they share for cars... Even though I'm not into cars, it's great to see them. Nikki and Terry would never be able to own even one of these cars they had on display. But I guess that's what keeps the dream alive... Terry and Nikki waited for me just up ahead once they realized they forgot to take me with them. But nevertheless, I smiled at them and joined the Lamborghini stand... And once we had a good view on the cars that were on display, Nikki all of a sudden went nuts and pointed to a rather angular looking car... It looked like the Batmobile... 'Oh my God! It's the Reventón!'

And with that, she hasted through the crowds to get as close as possible to that car and made several pictures of it... Once we joined her, she was leaning on the balustrade, having a rather dreamy look on her face as if she could imagine herself driving that thing. And Terry? Well, he was just gawping at it in silence while taking pictures as he walked around the stand. I seemed to be the only one at the Lamborghini stand not interested in that particular car... 'I can't believe they have one here on display...' 'It looks, uh... really fast.' 'Hm-mm... It's design is based on a fighter-jet of some kind, costing one and a half million dinar each.' 'That's a lot...' 'Yeah... It's basically just a Murcielago LP640 with a different body-kit and a slightly modified engine but it looks so amazing...' 'Hehehe... Well, if I ever win the jackpot, I'll buy you one.' 'That would be awesome but uh... Really hard to come by... You see, there are only twenty of these made and their all sold...' 'Ah...' 'But I appreciate it... There's nothing more excruciating to see something so beautiful and exotic, only to know that you'll never be able to be a part of it...'

It stayed silent for a moment... And I noticed from the corners of my eyes that Nikki was staring at me... Once I looked down on her, she smiled nervously and averted her eyes once more... "Did I just hear what I thought she insinuated...? Is she really that lonely...?" I looked at her once more and saw how she kept staring at the car with a dreamy smile on her face... Until Terry got back to us and went nuts as well... 'Nic! McLaren's just over there!' 'What?' 'Further down, near the Jaguar stand!'

Terry went on ahead as I looked at Nikki while she looked straight back at me with a bit of a nervous smile... All I did was to smile back at her and put an arm around her shoulder as we followed Terry...

At around one o'clock, the three of us started to get hungry and looked for a place to sit down and have some something to eat. When I looked at the prices however, it made me regret not take some sandwiches from home... Three dinar for a can of Coca Cola... It's a fucking rip-off... But you know, when you're hungry, you'll have to eat eventually so the three of us got the cheapest thing there was. And it still was almost fifteen dinar for three sandwiches and three coke's... Anyway, we ate our sandwiches on a bench nearby. As Terry and Nikki were talking about the cars they've seen, I was looking at the surroundings... I have to admit though, some of the cars I've seen looked really nice. But I saw something much more appealing... Yes, women... Just because I don't consider myself bi-sexual anymore and have a straight relationship doesn't mean I wasn't looking at girls anymore... Not exactly the way I used to but still looking nevertheless... At every stand, there were beautiful women... And I do mean beautiful... Some of them wore classy dresses with open shoes, smiling at everyone and everything as they pose next to a car... Others were passing flyers around... Most of these women looked very attractive... Some women were wearing tight jumpsuits that really made their figure stand out... And I could easily picture myself being a little naughty with one of them... Of course, I looked at them discreetly but one girl was actually smiling back at me and gave me a little wink when she noticed I was watching her... Hm... 'I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in a sec.' 'Okay, we'll wait for you right here, Nic.' 'Alright.'

I got snapped out of it by that as Nikki walked off to do her thing and I looked around once more. Terry took a last bite from his sandwich and took a sip from his coke... 'You having a good time, dude?' 'Yeah, I do... Most of the time, I have no idea what the two of you are talking about though. I'm just here to look at the cars.' 'Hehehe...' 'But yeah, it's quite nice here. I like some of the cars we've seen.' 'It ain't over yet, we still got two more halls to explore. The stands I definitely want to see is Gumpert, Koenigsegg, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Saleen and Noble. So according to the map, we have to follow the route to the Koenigsegg stand that'll lead us to other end of the hall and back to exit.' 'A shortcut?' 'No, it's actually a detour.' 'Hm... I have to admit though, looking at all those cars makes me want to have one of my own. Something affordable.' 'You've been thinking about that for a while now, haven't you?' 'Yeah. Perhaps you and I can look around some time?' 'Hmmm... You should go with Nic. She knows all about that.' 'For real?' 'Yeah, she knows where to look. Also, she's a lot more into technical specifications than I am. All I know is how to fill my car up with petrol.' 'Hehehe...' 'You should ask her, she helped me getting my Ibiza as well. Nikki checked the engine, tires and everything. She even managed to get me a discount at the dealer. I took the Ibiza home with me for a thousand dinar. It's still in good shape.' 'Wow...'

Several moments later, Nikki came back to us. Terry got up and asked us if we were ready to get going again. I looked at Nikki and she smiled nervously once more when she looked at me... I can't imagine a girl like her knows so much about cars and I have to be honest, I was sceptical at first... Then again, she told me things I didn't understand while we looking at cars so I guess Terry was right. I smiled at Nikki and placed an arm around her shoulder... All she did was smiling... And so, we made our way to the stands that Terry pointed out...

The day at the car-show turned out better than I expected. Nikki and Terry literally made hundreds of pictures in total with their camera's. Most of them were cars but Nikki also had several pictures of her, posing with the girls at the stands, including with the girl who winked at me... It was great to have seen Nikki being so open and spontaneous like that... She's normally so very shy and timid and it seemed as if Nikki changed so all of a sudden... I guess Nikki was glad that the three of us could hang out together... She still had Terry as her best friend and Terry's girlfriend as her friend... I think she was glad to know that things wouldn't change between her and Terry now that I was in Terry's life. And I guess I felt great to have her involved in the things we did...

Like Terry said, I asked Nikki if she could help with finding a car for me. And without hesitation, she immediately said yes to me and planted me on a chair in the OLC at college. Nikki asked me all sorts of questions; did I want diesel or petrol, a hatchback or a sedan, etcetera, etcetera... Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about so she changed her questions. What kind of car was I looking for? Well, a small one, cheap and reliable. So she Googled some images of several cars, like a Suzuki Alto, a Nissan Micra, a Citroen Saxo, a Seat Arosa and a Fiat Uno. Those five cars looked the most appealing to me. So she wrote those five down and looked around the internet to see if they had any of them for sale. Preferably a dealer close-by. When she asked me when I wanted to look for cars, I told her the following Saturday would be good. Immediately, she took action by calling the dealers to see if that particular car was still available and asked if we could come by to inspect it. After calling several dealers, she had five of them that had those cars. Once she disconnected the last call, all she did was smiling at me and I was a little flabbergasted. I guess my wish of owning my own car was closer than I thought...

So the next Saturday, Nikki picked me up at ten o'clock and we headed towards a dealer that sold the Fiat Uno. Took about twenty minutes to get there but once we were there, Nikki made her way to the reception and told us we were here for the Uno. A friendly young guy lead us to a grey Fiat Uno and I remember I thought to myself that the car looked a bit like Nikki's car. The guy said it was great value and the car is like new. Nikki asked the guy if he could pop the hood to take a look at the engine and I think it was at that point, the guy realized he wasn't dealing with some dumb broad who didn't know anything about cars and that he really had to try his best to pursuade her to buy it... Nevertheless, he didn't refused and once the bonnet was open, the guy left to help other customers, giving Nikki and me all the time in the world to look at it. After seeing it, I was sold immediately and sat behind the wheel of the car while Nikki inspected the car more closely... She even sat behind the wheel to check a few things... 'I love it...!! I can imagine myself driving in it! And it's only fifteen hundred dinar!' 'That's still pretty much for a car that has over one hundred and seventy thousand kilometres on the counter. I'm not sure about this one.' 'Why, what's wrong?' 'Hm...'

She walked around once more to check the tires, the roof, the engine and so on... But after a while, she sat next to me in the passenger seat. All I did in the mean time was imagining how this car would drive... I looked at Nikki and grinned but all she did was to shake her head... 'I wouldn't buy this one.' 'No?' 'No, definitely. Come, I'll show you why.'

The two of us got out of the car and Nikki stopped in front of the left front tire. She kneeled in front of it and pointed between the hub-cab... I didn't see anything to be honest... 'You see that? That brake block seems pretty rusty.' 'They can fix that, right?' 'Yeah of course, but that'll cost you extra.' 'How much extra?' 'Not much, I think around thirty dinar or something.' 'Oh well... That's doable for me...' 'Yeah but that's not all.'

She got up and pointed to the inside of the door and that's something I did noticed... 'Look at the hinges, lots and lots of rust... This is something that can't be fixed... Also, the rubbers seem to wear off. Rolling the window down takes lots of effort.' 'Okay...'

And for the next malfunction, she let me sit behind the wheel... 'Put your foot on the brake and push the clutch all the way down. How's that?' 'Kinda heavy, it feels as if I have to put my weight down on the clutch.' 'Okay, try shifting in second gear, how's that?' 'Smooth.' 'Alright, and third?' 'Not so smooth...' 'Okay, fourth gear?' 'It seems stuck... Hey, isn't the engine supposed to be running when your switching gears?' 'No, switching gears should go smooth when the engine is turned off.'

After a few good pulls, I managed to get in fourth gear and then it went smoothly into five and reverse. But shifting back to first gear was difficult... Nikki and I looked for the nice young man if we could hear the engine but I think Nikki already had her verdict on this car... Nevertheless, the dude started the car and as Nikki looked at the engine... The car itself sounded a little rattled though... After several moment, Nikki said to turn the engine off so the guy did. Well, the guy looked a little hopeful at me, for getting rid of this car because no one else seemed to want it... I understand why now though but Nikki asked if we could think things over and we'd get back to him. Once he left, Nikki showed me the other malfunctions... 'Look at the exhaust manifold. It looks as if its about to fall off any second.'

And then gently tapped some rubber belt... 'The fan belt has to be changed as well...' 'Soooo... You're final verdict?' 'Definitely a no. I wouldn't even buy this one for a hundred dinar. This thing can be brought straight to the junkyard. It wouldn't surprise me if you had to call RGMA to pick you after that thing broke down on your first ride. I think the repairs will be more expansive than the car itself in the end. It's certainly not worth it.' 'Oh... Okay...' 'We still got four more other cars to see, don't worry. Come on, let's get out of here.'

And so, we got out of there and the guy who helped us looked a little disappointed not to have sold that car to me... The price for taking it to the junkyard wouldn't have nearly been as high if he sold it to me...

We checked the other dealers that day as well. The Nissan Micra and the Suzuki Alto were in good condition but wasn't really to my liking when I saw it for real. The Citroen Saxo was too expansive for me, which was five thousand dinar but nevertheless, in top notch condition... The Seat Arosa however, was spot on... A blue, purple-ish colour, which I loved... With a price of two thousand dinar, this one was the best buy. Only ninety eight thousand kilometres on the counter... The engine was in good condition and the only flaw Nikki could discover was that the upholstery was a little worn off but that could easily be fixed with car seat covers. Also, the interior light didn't seem to work but the seller said that they would get it fixed before they would deliver it. Nikki bargained with him and managed to haggle the price down to seventeen hundred and fifty dinar. Of course, it was still a lot of money but the car had Nikki's seal of approval. But a decision like that isn't made so easily on the spot and I told him I would call him later on the day. I wanted to talk to Simon and Catherine first before I was going to buy anything...

It was around three o'clock when we headed back home. I was so excited that I was so close into owning my own car. On the way, we talked about it and I just couldn't be more happier... Nikki seemed to know that... Having a car of your own makes you so much more independent... Once Nikki dropped me off at home, I immediately discussed it with Simon and Catherine. Not that it would change my mind by talking to them because I already had my sights on that Arosa... Nevertheless, they were happy for me that I was able to buy my own car. Simon was a little disappointed though... He always thought that I was gonna look for a car with him together. But despite that, he was still happy for me. I showed them the pictures of the cars on the website where Nikki looked. I told them about Nikki who inspected the car thoroughly and gave me her thumbs up for this one. The moment I asked Simon and Catherine on what they thought, they both smiled at me... So the decision was easily made... Within the hour I got home, I called the dealer and told him I was going for it. They would fix the interior light, give a car a good wash and polish, clean the interior and half a tank of petrol and some minor check up's. It went fast after that... I received the license plate of the car by e-mail so that I could arrange insurance for it, with the help of Simon of course... The dealer and I discussed a pick-up date and it could be ready next Saturday. Once the insurance was a go, I confirmed the date to the dealer... Made arrangements with my bank to pay for the car with my ATM card... Everything went flawless... A week later, I was the proud owner of a '97 Seat Arosa... And even today, it's still going...