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The cat totally received the middle finger today. When Ellie had woken up, got dressed, and went downstairs to get breakfast, she managed to catch the note her Mom had left her.

Dad left his dinner in the fridge, can you take it to him after school gets out? ~ Mom

This meant an afternoon free of the cat. There was no way the teenager was going to miss out on such a wonderful opportunity. The girl practically ran home after school, popped open the garage after picking up her Dad's dinner from the fridge, and soon enough was zipping down the road on The Spectrum. It was very hard to miss a yellow motorcycle. It was even more difficult to miss the yellow motorcycle with that small bit of pastel rainbow paint on the back of it.

Her dad had been working at this lot ever since she was a kid, so she knew how to get there without a second thought. When she leaned into the turn to make it into the lot, she whizzed past some guy just walking onto the lot. Her dad had told her some of the tricks to the trade before, and occasionally he had scammed Ellie into being part of that trick of the trade. In an almost eager fashion, she parked her bike and popped her helmet off. This guy was walking to the lot, which mean he needed a car now. With her arm about her helmet, she walked over to the man with a big friendly grin.

"Hey there, Mister!" Almost like a shark, she loomed towards the man, making the claim of this potential customer in the name of her dad. "What's happening?"

The blonde girl grinned and ruffled her own messy hair out a bit. "Usually, that's the whole point of going to a used car lot!"

Anybody who was familiar with Ellie Spectre might have been wondering what had happened to her speech. It sounded practically normal, rather than her usual lazy fashion of speaking. It was yet another lesson she had learned from her father. People were more willing to buy from you if you sounded educated. Obviously, Ellie was not selling a damned thing, since she was only 17 years old. However, as this man was going to soon learn, she was an accessory to the purchase.

Hiking her backpack up her shoulder a bit while keeping her helmet firmly at her side, she signaled for this gentleman to follow her. "My name's Ellie. I'll take you over to my dad's office so you can talk about what you're looking for." She would have offered a handshake, but that was something she could save for her dad's office.

She glanced back, golden eyes making certain that this man wasn't trying to flee for safety by abandoning the car lot. Some people could be really skittish about buying a car.

Really skittish.

"Ummm... no... not the owner's daughter. Just an employee's daughter is all." Once they got to the small main building, the girl pushed open the door and held it open with a foot.

Apparently she wasn't one of those girls that liked having the door held open for her and preferred doing the holding.

"There's another 3 salesmen who work the floor too." Once the man was inside, she walked in after him, quickening her pace so she could sneak in front of him to make sure she could lead the way. There wasn't much room in the "office" area, but there was apparently enough room for cubicles.

A partially balding man peered out from a cubicle. "Oh, hey Ellie!" he called out in a pleasant tone as she walked past, easily noticing that the potential customer was going to be Ed's claim.

Ellie was easily taller than the balding man by at least 5 inches. "Hey Smithers! Working hard or hardly working?" She grinned before she rounded the corner into the proper cubicle.

With a big grin, she greeted "Hey Dad! Found someone looking to buy a car." She turned to face the man she had located and signaled for him to come in and have a seat in the chair in front of her dad's desk.

Edward Spectre, was sadly, a very stereotypical salesman, at least in appearance. Messy hair, the "douchebag" goatee, and very casual business clothing. He stood up from his chair, and like a practiced businessman, gave a cheery greeting with an extended hand meant for a handshake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm Ed Spectre, and I see you've met my daughter, Ellie."

The tall girl just grinned.

"Anthony? You have any sort of nickname? Tony maybe?" Ed had been around the block when it came with selling used cars. First thing was to try and make them feel comfortable. The more comfortable and the more they could relate meant the more money that came Ed's way.

"Dad?" The girl was still standing there. She had set her helmet on his desk, trying to get his attention before he got too far into the wheeling and dealing.

"Hope you don't mind," the salesman apologized as he turned towards his daughter.

Having gained her Dad's attention, the girl pulled out a paper sack. "Mom asked me to drop this off for you." No mention of him forgetting it at home, because that made him sound irresponsible. Seeing as she didn't really want to go back home to deal with a certain cat, she then harmlessly asked "Is it okay if I stay and hang out for a bit?"

Ed laughed and placed an arm along the girl's shoulder, hugging her up against him and turning to face the potential customer. "I can't believe this girl. She just can't get enough of cars and bikes! Did you know she put together her bike herself? Seriously, Ellie is just an amazing kid!"

The golden eyed girl just played along, big smiles at Mr. Darrow. Yet another way to appeal to a potential customer's heart. Talk about your kids, and now that she was close to getting to college (one more year to go), appeal to the fact she's going to be out on her own soon.

With a hearty laugh, attention was now back on Mr. Darrow. Ed released his daughter and made certain to address the request that had been made. "So, when you said simple, you mean a car without all the extra features, right? No need for seat warmers or anything like that?"

The father of the pair began to lead the way, pausing at the entry to his cubicle. "Well, let's go take a look in the lot then!" He did have a point, since standing there talking wasn't going to get the car sold. Well, depending on the case, and in Ed's expert opinion, this man just wanted a car and to go. It made things easier that way.

His daughter took up the end of the line, sandwiching Tony in the middle of the father-daughter pair. The girl hadn't even bothered to bring her helmet with her, since she was just going to end up going back to the office again anyways. It wasn't like Smithers was going to steal her sh*t.

"So, Tony... I take it that your job is the cause of your headaches? Or are you a family man?" Ed wove through the cubicles and soon enough the trio were at the door, where this time the blonde man was holding the door open for the two.

Rather quickly, Ellie already had zipped out the door, and wash running towards the car lot. She knew her dad too well. Anything to earn a buck. She was going to make the less of a headache than it had to be. The tomboy soon enough stopped at what looked like a reasonable car and began with the bare basic step of looking for a "new" used car. She popped the hood. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Tony and her dad wandering on over after her.

Ed knew his daughter too well. She was a straight shooter and a mechanic. He wasn't going to get away with anything today.

"This one would last you 3 months at best."

The hood got pulled down rather quickly, fortunately missing any fingers, because they would have easily been broken clean off with how she slammed the hood down. She looked to her dad, the mere glance hinting that he should get that taken care of before she clarified "The engine is practically shot. So unless you like spending money, I'd suggest you hold off and take a look at some of the others."

She flashed a smile in his direction before moving onto the next car, which looked a little more banged up on the exterior. Without missing a beat, the girl popped the hood again and seemed a bit more content with what she found.

"With a little work on the exterior, this one could be a pretty sweet deal..."

Ed followed along, hitching his hands in his pants pockets. "So what sorts of things do you do at your job if it keeps you so happy, huh Tony?" It was obvious that there was a correlation to the arm sling and the mention of vandals, and in all honesty, who the heck really could get a good night's sleep these days? Bring the attention to the good, not the bad, that was the way to work things.

As the men ambled up behind her, she patted the car itself almost affectionately as she then began to inspect the rest of the car. The obvious basic exterior only got minimal attention as she knelt down to look at the wheels. She silently nodded to herself, but one thing was obvious with her actions. This apparently was a good find.

Of course, Ellie was also very familiar with used car lots. Don't settle on the first car you see that's good.

No matter how pushy the salesman could be.

Of course, Edward already knew not to try with his daughter present. "Well, Ellie seems to like it so far... what about you Tony? Looking for something a little more classy on the exterior?"

Ellie wasn't one to hide what was on her mind, even when forcing herself to talk more normally.

"Nobody's ever taught you how to shop for a used car before, have they?" She had finished up her inspection of the wheels, finding that they were also in pretty good condition, but not nearly as good a condition as the engine itself.

"Never settle for the first thing you find that works nicely. There might be something that works out better, but you didn't buy just because you didn't bother to look."

Ed was seriously starting to wish that his daughter hadn't been involved, but there wasn't much he could do beside grin and bear it. "I personally just think she wants an excuse to look through all of our stock today. So, based off what you said, would I be horribly off if I guessed you worked at a library? Or some sort of book store?"

The tall girl popped up to her feet and promptly slammed the hood shut before moving onto the next car. And promptly skipping it. She didn't even need to look at the motor to know that this car was in crappy condition. The wheels and tires were very noticeably ruined. Only a mechanic would have wanted that car (so it was no surprise that Ellie mentally chalked that up as something she'd maybe want in the future).

The car after that was a nice shiny red car that hardly looked like it had ever been used. Occasionally, you found such gems on a used car lot, but at the same time, the prices usually reflected the splendid condition the car was in. She popped open the hood, and let out an impressed whistle as her father continued to walk along with Tony.

"Oh, this one is a beaut! I know you said you didn't want all the bells and whistles, but this car only got about 5000 miles on her from the previous owner." Of course, the price sticker on the car also reflected this, but it didn't prevent Ed from trying to upsale.