𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚎:
𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙨

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She strolled into the market with a twenty dollar bill in the pocket of her pink jacket and a lanyard around her neck. She walked up to the counter and waited in line. She fiddled with the set of keys on her lanyard as she looked up at the person in line before her. The person in front of her moved out of line and she took a step forward and gave her biggest grin to the long haired woman who stood waiting.

"Hi sweetie what can I get for you?" The woman's soft voice caused the girl to grin wider as she stood on her tiptoes to reply.

"I need a ham sandwich please. No lettuce." The girl rattled off. "Oh and no brown bread."

Mia Toretto gave the girl a polite smile and turned to give the order to her older brother. "Ham on white, no lettuce for the little lady." Mia nodded her head behind her in the direction of the girl and Dom quirked an eyebrow as he noticed her.

Standing at four feet and six inches (an average height for a ten year old) Izzy waited as patiently as she could for her order. Without saying anything, she fished the crumpled bill out of her pocket and unrolled it as smoothly as she could before handing it to Mia. Mia handed her back the change and the girl balled it up into her little fist and pushed it into her pocket.

"Here you go sweetie." Mia handed the brown bag to the little girl.

"Thank you." Izzy left the store without another word and made her way down the street.

"Cute kid." Dom spoke as he sidled up to his sister.

"Yeah she was. Don't think I've ever seen her around before though."

"It's summer break. She's probably out from school. Alright let's get to work."

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By the time the next day came around and the same hour approached Mia was surprised to see the girl again. She came in wearing the same pink jacket but a yellow dress on to match the bow in her hair and the glittered shoes on her feet. She ordered the same sandwich as before, handed over another crumpled dollar and went on her way. The routine happened everyday for a week before there was a small change.

Izzy strolled into the store like clockwork. Same pink jacket, same pigtails, hair bows coordinating with her shoes, and a lanyard around her neck. She strolled up to the counter and seeing nobody at the register, she stood there quietly waiting to order.

"Here again, kid?" Dom approached the counter and put his hands on it as he leaned against it.

"Yes sir." Izzy smiled politely at him. "Can I have a-"

"Ham sandwich, white bread, no lettuce?" Dom smirked as he recited the order.

"Yes sir." Izzy replied. She handed over the crumpled money and took her change as he dumped it into her hand.

"What's your name?"

"Izzy."

"You live around here Izzy?" Dom motioned for her to follow him along the counter, eyeing the glass windows of the store with a steady gaze. He didn't see any cars parked outside so he figured she came walking and while it wasn't uncommon for the neighborhood, he didn't like the idea of a little girl walking around by herself.

"My Grandpa does." Izzy followed slowly. She kept her space between them, not trusting the stranger who made her Grandpa's lunch.

"What's your Grandpa's name?"

"Grandpa." She giggled.

"Got it." Dom smirked. He quickly went to make her sandwich. He heard the door chime as it opened and he peeked his head around the corner to see who came in.

"Aye Dom, make me food!" Izzy spotted three men enter the place and she scooted closer to the counter cautiously. "Hey girl you seen a bald man around here?" One of the other men swatted him on the arm and Izzy eyed them warily.

"Yes sir." Izzy replied honestly.

"Here you go kid."

"Thank you." Izzy grabbed the bag and without saying anything else, she left.

"Cute kid, she yours?" Vince joked.

"No." Dom chuckled.

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Over the course of a month, Izzy showed up everyday for the same sandwich. Dom and Mia had little conversations with her throughout the twenty minutes she was there each day but they still knew next to nothing about the little girl that showed up each day. Not for their lack of trying either. They asked the girl every question they could and they quickly learned that she took her lesson of stranger danger very seriously.

They still only knew her as Izzy, no last name. They knew she had a grandpa, no first name. They knew she was ten and becoming a fifth grader, homeschooled. They were trying to piece together her little puzzle and Dom heavily respected the girl's parents for teaching her to be private with people she didn't know.

It was the first day of July when Dom and Mia noticed Izzy didn't come in at her normal time. Instead she arrived four hours later with a pink sequined backpack on her back and a book in her hands. Letty, one of the girl's newest admirers, smiled slightly at the pigtailed child and stood to the side of Mia as she watched the little girl wait in line.

"Hey Izzy. You're a little late today." Mia smiled.

"Yes ma'am." Izzy replied with her usual wide grin. "Can I have a-"

"Ham on white, no lettuce?" Mia began to write it down but stopped short when Izzy said no. She watched as Izzy pulled a paper from between the pages of her book and read the order aloud.

"A turkey sandwich with the works." Izzy read. "Oh and brown bread." She carefully placed the paper back in the book and smiled politely as Mia read the order back to Dom.

"You got it." Mia nodded. "Oh Izzy, this is Letty." Letty gave the girl a little smirk.

"Hi ma'am." Izzy greeted her politely.

"You have some good manners kid." Letty commented.

"Thank you." Izzy beamed. The girl's Grandpa and Uncle did their best to instill etiquette into her little brain and Izzy made a mental note to commend them for it later.

"I didnt know little kids liked wheat bread."

"It's nasty." Izzy grimaced. "But my uncle Jay does and it's for him." Mia's attention was officially on the girl. Letty got more information out of the little girl in five minutes than she had in a whole month, she was shocked.

"Is he here with you?" Letty looked around the empty store before glancing outside and her lips formed in a thin line as she noticed nobody waiting outside for her.

"He's with my Grandpa." Izzy told her before her eyes widened. "Crap." She cursed. "I'm supposed to tell you that he's outside waiting for me. I'm not alone."

"Smart girl." Dom walked over to the counter and handed her the bag. "Get home safe."

"Oh I'm not going home." Izzy mentally face palmed herself. "I mean, I am going home." She giggled nervously and held the bag in one hand as she ran out the door, her pigtails swaying in the breeze she created.

"She's a cute kid." Letty smirked. "I can see why you talk about her so much."

"She said more words to you in five minutes than she has to me in a month." Mia huffed.

"What can I say? Kids like me."

"No they don't."

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For the next three weeks, Izzy stuck to the new routine. She came in around dinner time, ordered the sandwich with the brown bread and went on her way. The two Torettos and Letty kept her company the twenty minutes she visited, occasionally one of Dom's friends waiting beside her when the store had more than just her in it.

It was the first week of August when they noticed another change in the young girl. Instead of her usual pink jacket and glitter shoes with matching hair bows, she had on a brown shirt and jeans and her hair laid softly against her back. There wasn't an ounce of color to girl's outfit and the three of them shared curious looks as they watched her wait in line.

"Hi Izzy." Mia smiled. "No glitter shoes today?"

"Uncle Jay says I'm too old for them now." Izzy informed her nonchalantly as she unfolded the paper in her hand. "Can I have a tuna sandwich? With white bread."

"You won't like our tuna. It's gross." Mia joked.

"It's okay." Izzy shrugged and refolded the paper. She handed her crumpled money to Mia and the girl quirked an eyebrow as she noticed it was almost the exact change. "You can keep the coins. I don't have pockets."

"You got it." Dom took his time making the sandwich, ignoring the foul smell coming from it.

"So no more glitter huh?" Letty leaned on her elbows as she peered over the counter.

"I'm eleven now." She stated as if that was the only acceptable answer.

"You can still wear them." Letty suggested. "You're not that grown up yet."

"I already donated them." Izzy replied. Inside she was sad she had to get rid of her glitter shoe collection her Grandpa got her throughout the school year but on the surface, she played indifferent. A skill she mastered at her young age.

"Here you go kid." Dom handed the brown paper bag to her.

"Thank you." Izzy grabbed the bag and smiled kindly up at him. "Bye." The three adults watched her leave but instead of making her way down the street like she normally did, she sat on the ground outside, her back against the window, as she opened the bag and began to eat the sandwich.

"I'll be back." Letty walked away and she open the door slowly, not really sure what she wanted to say to the girl but she knew this was way different from anything she's seen the girl do. "What're you doing Izzy?"

Izzy swallowed her bite before answering. "Eating."

Letty chuckled. "You don't want to come inside and eat?"

"No it's okay." Izzy took another bite.

"Do you need a ride home?" Letty offered.

"No." Letty wasn't understanding why the girl still wasn't trusting them, even slightly. She knew they were still technically strangers but she thought the little girl had at least warmed up to them a little.

"Are you sure you're okay out here?"

"Yes." Izzy nodded. They heard the engine of a car speeding down the road and Letty watched as Izzy wrapped up the remaining bits of her sandwich and put it back in the bag. "Bye Letty." Izzy waited for the car to speed down the street before walking in the opposite direction. Once she turned the street corner, she was out of Letty's sight and she resisted the urge to follow the child.

"You guys thought that was a little weird too right?"

"She's a kid. They're all weird." Dom chuckled.

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When Izzy showed up the next day, it was like the previous day hadn't happened at all. The girl was back in her pigtails and glitter shoes like normal. She sauntered up to the counter and ordered a tuna sandwich and spoke to Letty while she waited.

"You almost ready for school?" Letty inquired, knowing she was a couple weeks away from starting.

"Not really. I'm homeschooled."

"Oh yeah I forgot." Letty smirked slightly. "I see you got your shoes back."

"Only for today." Izzy looked down at her purple shoes. "Uncle Jay said I get a free pass. Whatever that means."

"Maybe he felt bad."

"I guess." Izzy shrugged but smiled when Dom handed her the bag.

"Where you headed?" Dom asked, hoping the girl was at least headed home for her own safety.

"To the library. Bye!" She walked away and on her way out, she turned and waved goodbye with a big smile on her face. The three of them waved back and watched as Izzy left their sight.

"Her Uncle sounds like a piece of shit."

"Agreed." Was an echoed reply.

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They didn't see Izzy for two days after that. They didn't know the girl well enough to know her daily routine or home life, so they could only assume she was readying herself for school and they tried not to notice that she never came back. Dom's friends asked about the girl and he just told them she started school. It wasn't until a day later when they got a real reason for the little girl in pigtails not returning.

The group of them were standing around the counter, no customer in sight, as they talked excitedly about a race Dom had coming up. They all tensed up when they heard the bell above the door echo around them. They watched a girl - a teenager named Alice - look around before walking up to them, a stack of multicolored flyers in her hand.

"Can I help you?" Mia asked nicely.

"Hi, do you mind if I hang a couple of these on your windows?"

"What is it?" Mia accepted the flyer the girl handed over and her face paled as she read the word 'missing' in all capitals at the top with a picture of Izzy smiling beneath it. "Dom." Mia's eyes watered as she handed him the flyer. His jaw clenched as he looked at the smiling girl on the yellow paper. The flyer passed around his group as he turned to face the teenager.

"Do you guys know her?" The teenager asked. "Her Grandpa said she came in here a lot. She's my neighbor so I really only saw her in passing."

"Yeah. We do." Dom answered her. "What happened?"

"I don't know a lot. She went missing three days ago. Her Grandpa said she never came home from the library."

"We saw her three days ago." Letty spoke up. "She came here before the library."

"Oh dang." The teenager commented. "Yeah, so her Grandpa called the police and they've been looking for her ever since."

"Her parents must feel terrible." Mia frowned.

"Oh she doesn't have any." Alice informed her. "Her Uncle adopted her and she lives with him. But she came to stay with her Grandpa for the summer. Her uncle had like a business trip or something."

"She doesn't have parents?" Dom quirked an eyebrow.

"Nope. She had a mom but she died during birth I think and her Grandpa said her dad left way before then."

"Poor kid." Letty smacked her gums. "She was so polite and nice." She reread the flyer and read the name aloud. "'Anisa Torres.' At least now we know what Izzy was short for."

"Are they getting close to finding her?" Vince spoke up. He was watching the four converse quietly and he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he knew they hadn't.

"Nope. There's no leads or anything. So now they've got a bunch of us handing out flyers hoping someone knows something." Alice looked at her wrist and quickly muttered out a goodbye as she left to go hand out the rest of the flyers.

"Dom, there's gotta be something we can do." Mia begged him as her eyes watered. "She's just a little girl."

"The police will find her." He replied. He left the store without another word and walked down the street, mindlessly walking the same path Izzy always did. He didn't know why the girl's disappearance had such a profound impact on him but he knew the police would find the girl, he didn't need to get involved. She wasn't his family.

Little did he know just how wrong he was.

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"Did you really have to say she was kidnapped? She couldn't have just moved away?" Buddy grumbled to the man before him. "They'd forget about her eventually had we just done it my way."

"Not my orders." The man shook his head. "I'm needed in Greece and she's coming with me."

"She's not like you. She's just a kid. That's not her world." Buddy tried to reason.

"It's always been her world. She's not out playing with rainbows and chalk when she's not with you, she's training. She's working."

"She's fucking eleven. Not thirty."

"Doesn't matter. My world is her world. She does just fine handling it."

"She's still just a fucking kid!"

"A kid that can hack a system faster than I can say go. She's got talent. We utilize it. And it's not like she's not protected. She stays back and handles everything from a base. She knows what she's doing." The man argued. "She's a lot safer with me than she is here. Especially since you're letting her hang around them."

"That's what this is about?! They don't even know who she is."

"They'd figure it out eventually."

"If Dom hasn't figured it out by now, he never will." Buddy rolled his eyes. "I had it handled."

"No, you didn't." Jakob glared. "She's gone now anyway. She's already at the base readying for her next mission."

"She needs to have a childhood Jakob. You can't rob her of that."

"I didn't. She chose this. I invited her into my world, she decided to stay on her own."

"She'll hate you for this one day Jakob."

"No she won't." Jakob scoffed. "You don't see it but she loves it. She is his kid after all. This kind of shit runs in her veins. She was made for this world. I won't be the one to tell her she can't stay in it."

"She needs to be protected."

"And she is. My boss does a good job at keeping her safe every second shes with them or me. Just accept it Buddy. This is her life. She's old enough to say no. She just doesn't want to."

"He'll figure it out eventually. If not him, then she will. She's a Toretto, she's as stubborn as the rest of you."

"She may be his but he didn't raise her."

"You didn't give him the chance to. Your days are numbered Jakob. I'll always protect you but he's still your family. And as much as you hate it, she's his family too."

"Family only runs so deep." Jakob responded solemnly. "See ya around Buddy. Take care of yourself."