(A/n: before the chapter starts I would like to mention something to you all. It's canon that Eli has ASD, I believe it's actually mentioned in this episode, so I decided to make Ellie have ASD as well. Now, I have ASD so what Ellie does/experiences is either from my experiences/feelings about certain things that I've been told are linked to ASD or from the research I've done as to understand my own disorder along with Ellie & Eli's disorder.)
•~3rd person P.O.V~•
Daniel didn't typically call Ellie into the dealership during school, but Ellie didn't mind. She'd rather be anywhere else but school. Her mom didn't mind either, because Ellie would always make up any schoolwork she missed. It just made Ellie wonder what was going on with the cars that made Daniel call her while she was at school.
"Hey, Mr. LaRusso." Ellie smiled, shifting her school bag on her shoulders. She'd have to tell Eli that she'd left school, or else he'd lose his shit wondering where she was. No one really knew she worked on cars with Daniel LaRusso, but that could be because she didn't work at LaRusso Auto's so no one suspected she would.
For as long as she could remember, Ellie had always loved cars. She loved the look of them, how they work, and most of all she loved fixing them. When she was little, she used to always check out books from the library about cars. Whenever someone in her family's car started acting up, she always offered to fix it.
When she was diagnosed with ASD, autism spectrum disorder although most people simply said on the spectrum, they also identified that cars were one of Ellie's special interests. Her brother, Eli, was diagnosed with the same thing except his special interest was said to be science. At first, Ellie's Mom believed that Ellie may have had ADHD while she believed that Eli had autism since he was so reserved. Turns out, they both had it, Ellie was just more talkative than Eli.
"Thanks for coming in Ellie, your Mom didn't mind you coming in during school?" Daniel asked as Ellie walked quickly beside him. He'd first seen Ellie when she came into the dealership with her stepfather, and she started appearing every day after that. He decided, as long as it was okay with her Mom, to have her work on fixing the cars whenever she desired or whenever Daniel couldn't figure it out himself.
"Nope, as long as I keep straight A's my mom doesn't mind," Ellie answered, looking around the room. Ellie noticed very small things were different, things that she knew were small tasks that Anoush let pile up. Someone had taken care of them. That was when she saw him.
A boy, with light brown hair like the boys Ellie had seen in The Outsiders movie except without hair grease. He had bright green eyes and wore cream-colored khakis with a black LaRusso Auto's shirt. Ellie hadn't ever seen him before, working at LaRusso Auto's or in town. He looked about the same age as Ellie, maybe she just hadn't noticed him at school before.
"Hey, Robby!" The boy, who Ellie suspected was Robby, looked up. His eyes flicked from Daniel to Ellie, his eyes lingering on Ellie longer than she enjoyed, and then back to Daniel. "C'mere for a second!" Ellie glanced at Daniel, he introduced her to all of his workers but she was mentally begging him not to. Robby was cute, and the last thing Ellie wanted him to know was her obsession with cars.
"Yes, Mr. LaRusso?" Robby glanced at Ellie again, her cheeks growing hot as Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder.
"This is Ellie, you'll probably see her around a lot," Robby looked at Ellie, her cheeks were bright pink, she was nervous and it was cute to Robby, "Ellie, this is Robby Keene, we just hired him recently." Ellie gave him a small smile, and a crooked smile formed on Robby's face as well.
"Nice to meet you," Robby said with a nod, his eyes not leaving Ellie's.
"If you need any help, Ellie will be in the back," Daniel announced before he lead Ellie to the room behind the showroom where the repairmen fixed the cars that needed it.
Robby knew where that was because he'd given some parts to some of the repairmen. He found many excuses to go to the repair room, seeing Ellie focused on the red car she was fixing. Ellie was the prettiest girl Robby had ever seen, with her mid-length wavy blonde hair, her light blue eyes, dark eyelashes, and plump pink lips that she pulled between her teeth when she was hyper-focused on one of the car's parts.
Robby lingered in that room as long as possible, but he never had an excuse to go up and talk to Ellie. He was hoping she'd need a part, and maybe ask him to get it for her but she asked someone else every time. Truly, Ellie just hadn't noticed him in the room. When she was working on cars, she was in her own world and couldn't hear or see anyone else who wasn't in it.
When Ellie had finished with the car, much to her sadness, she plugged her ears with her AirPods that blasted Phoebe Bridgers in her ears. Ellie was texting Eli as she walked into the showroom, telling him she wouldn't be in sixth hour when she heard it. A loud car reverberating, her head jolted up giving her enough time to jump away from the car in the showroom.
Whose dumbass was driving a car in the middle of a crowded showroom, Ellie asked herself until she saw Robby jump out of the car and run to her, grabbing ahold of Ellie's upper arms.
"A-Are you okay?!" Ellie opened her mouth to answer with "I'm fine" but Robby didn't give her the chance to answer. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to...I mean like...I didn't mean to almost run you over it was an accident, I swear!" Ellie pursed her lips together as to hold in her laughs. Why was he so nervous? It wasn't as if he knew she'd come around the corner and into the showroom.
"What the hell is the matter with you? Starting a car in a crowded showroom? What, are you out of your mind? What were you thinking?" Daniel shouted as a quiet snicker started to erupt from Louie, Anoush simply glanced at Louie before slowly walking away from him.
"Screw this," Robby muttered before he spun around and walked out.
"Ellie, are you-"
"Mr. LaRusso." Daniel furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at what Ellie was pointing toward, making him frown almost immediately. Louie tried to conceal his laughs, as a mischievous smile appeared on his face. "Maybe you should go talk to Robby, and I'm fine." Daniel gave Ellie a quick nod, quickly running after Robby.
"Ellie, sweetheart, are you okay?" Amanda asked, making Ellie jump slightly from how quickly she'd appeared. "Sorry." Amanda gave Ellie a soft smile, to Ellie, Amanda was like a second mom. A mom that paid slightly more attention to her than her real mom.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Ellie returned the sweet smile, whilst glancing out the large glass windows. Robby held up a fist, his eyes filled to the brim with confusion, as Daniel instructed him to do...something. Ellie wasn't sure, she wasn't a great lip reader.
"Did Daniel call you in? Shouldn't you be in school?" Ellie looked back at Amanda, who stood in a disapproving mom manner.
"Yes, he called me in, yes, I should be in school, but it's all okay with my mom," Ellie said whilst shrugging. Again, she hated school more than anything. With the stuffy classrooms, crowded hallways, and crappy people. She didn't understand why some people enjoyed it. Even smart people. She was good at school, but she hated it more than anything.
Amanda liked Ellie. She was a sweet girl and helped them out a lot. She wanted to hire Ellie, but Ellie refused. She said that would make LaRusso Auto's lose its hospitality. So, Amanda would sometimes just ask Ellie questions about cars and listened. Even if Ellie got off track from the original conversation.
"I really should go, my mom said she wanted me home after I finished up here so I could start on my schoolwork that I missed." Amanda nodded before she told Ellie a quick goodbye. Ellie rushed out of the door, ready for Eli to come home and ask her where she'd been despite him always knowing the answer.
"Hey, Ellie." Ellie stopped, pausing her music on her phone as she found that Robby was the one talking to her. "I'm really sorry about what happened I-"
"It's okay, Robby, Louie's just an asshole." Ellie gave him a small smile, hoping it would ease his obvious nerves just a tad.
"I'd really like to make it up to you if you're okay with it." Ellie furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side just a bit, yet just enough to make her blonde hair fall from behind her ears.
"What do you mean?" Robby crossed his arms a small huff escaped from his lips. When he prayed he'd have an excuse to talk to Ellie and ask her out on a date, this really wasn't what he'd imagined.
"Like out to dinner or something, to show you that I'm really sorry and I'll never almost run you over ever again." Ellie smiled, a small giggle falling from her lips. An "almost date", which was what she called events such as the one Robby offered, with Robby? How could she turn that down?
Especially since she'd never really found many guys attractive or had the desire to date them. Sure, she'd had her fair share of relationships but they were mainly just girls or people who identified as something that wasn't male or female. When Ellie actually thought about it, she'd only ever had one boyfriend, and he didn't even really count because it was a middle school relationship.
"Sure." Robby felt his eyes grow wide, along with the smile that had already made its way onto his face. Had she really said yes, or was he just hearing things? "You need my number, right?" Robby was so dumbfounded, that he simply stood there for about three seconds before nodding.
~
"Eli, please, he's some middle-aged drunk who had nothing else better to do with his life than make fun of a bunch of kids." Eli quickly sat up from his bed, his eyes were bright pink and his cheeks were stained with tears.
"It's not just him, Ellie, it's everyone!" Ellie always tried her best to help Eli when he was upset, but it was difficult. Ellie had never been bullied, at least not by her peers, so it was hard for her to try and fix something she had no clue about.
"Eli-"
"You just don't understand! He was cool! Miguel became cool too! You just don't understand what it's like to go to school and get tossed around all the time." Ellie sighed, he was right. Eli couldn't help that he had a scar left over from his cleft lip, meanwhile, no one could physically see that anything was "wrong" with Ellie.
"What did your Sensei tell you to do?" Eli furrowed his eyebrows before sniffing as he thought.
"Flip the script?" Ellie nodded.
"So do that! Do something drastic that'll take the attention away from your lip." Eli nodded slowly, trying to think of things he could change about himself.
"Like what?"
"Your lack of confidence, your style, maybe your hair." Ellie shrugged, she thought Eli was great the way he was but if he really wanted to change then Ellie would support him.
Later that night, around two AM, was when Ellie received her very first call from Robby. She hadn't really looked at the caller ID when she'd answered it, because she was half asleep, so she answered it like she would've answered anyone else.
"Hello?" Ellie could hear the grogginess in her own voice. She was immediately awakened when she heard Robby chuckle.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you were asleep." Ellie gulped, sitting up in her bed, and rubbing her eyes.
"Uh, no, I was awake." There the sound was again, Robby's chuckle from deep in his throat.
"Really?"
"Mhm." Ellie hummed, thankful that it was the weekend.
"Well, I just wanted to tell you that Louie got me again." Robby smiled when he heard Ellie laugh, it was utterly adorable and he hoped he'd hear it more in the near future.
"Again?"
"Yeah! He said I was supposed to take some papers in an envelope to Mr. LaRusso and turns out there was a Playboy magazine inside of it." Sure, Ellie was tired, but she'd stay up for however long she needed to hear Robby talk. Something about his voice intrigued Ellie, but she couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was about his voice.
"Well, I could've told you what he was doing." Robby playfully scoffed at Ellie's remark, while she smiled and twirled her hair around her finger.
"Well, we can see who the smart one is here." Ellie giggled, only making Robby smile wider than he ever thought he could.
"I mean, you did try and drive a car in the showroom." She joked through giggles, giggling more as Robby dramatically gasped.
"Wow, how nice of you to being that up."
Ellie and Robby talked for an hour and thirty minutes that night, mostly because Robby was trying to find more and more things about Ellie as he could. Surely there had to be a downside to her, but so far he hadn't found one.
That morning, Ellie was shaken awake by her brother. Ellie locked her bedroom door while she slept, for certain reasons, but Eli knew how to unlock it. However, he only did so if it was important. Ellie couldn't understand how a blue mohawk and an eagle tattoo was "unlock Ellie's door" important but she could tell it was important to Eli.
So, it was important to her.
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A/n: sorry it took me so long to post a real chapter, I've just been busy with preparing for Easter and all of my first chapters tend to be a bit longer than others which takes them longer to write. anyways, I hope you enjoyed and I'm sorry for how long it is😭
Word Count:2,449