Thanks for giving me a chance to fix this. There’s an announcement at the end of this post that will, hopefully, have you cringe. Here’s the story!
*********
Finals were murder. Absolute murder. Amy couldn’t help but wonder why the teachers felt that it was necessary to combine all the tests of the semester into one large mass of regurgitated knowledge. Honestly! If she hadn’t known the basics by now, there was no reason why she should stay.
Even a few days after finishing her finals and she was still thinking about how terrible they were. And her teachers were cruel, waiting until after her race to post the results of her tests. If she hadn’t gotten a good enough passing grade, according to her contract she would be forced to drop. That was the last thing she needed hanging over her head for a race.
“Earth to Amy,” Maxx said in her ear. “Come in, Amy.”
Amy continued to ignore her program, focusing on her phone more than the small prop plane she was leaned against. Her friends had been texting her good lucks since they arrived and she kept asking how the stand food was. She was jealous of the cheesy nachos they were enjoying.
“Yo. ‘Chesty’ Adele Broadside. I’m talking to you.”
Amy glared at her plane, finally putting her phone away in her front jumpsuit pocket. “I thought we agreed to not use those code names for the race. Really? ‘Chesty’ Adele Broadside? Where did Jay come up with that?”
“He didn’t,” Maxx laughed. “He as playing around with a pirate naming app or something.”
Amy smirked. “Well, if you’re going to insist on calling me that, you should call Jay up with his code name. It was great.”
Maxx laughed. “Ah, yes, the infamous ‘One-eared’ Chains the Well-Endowed. He won’t be living that down any time soon.”
They laughed hard enough that they didn’t notice when Hacker came up, giving them both confused looks.
“I’m missing something,” he said as he put his computer tablet down on the tool chest reserved for Maxx.
“Oh,” Amy said, still chuckling, “we’re just talking about Master ‘One-eared.’”
Hacker chuckled. “Ah, yes. Teasing material.” He walked up to Maxx and shined his small flashlight in to peek into the plane’s engine.
“Why didn’t you get a nickname?” she asked, once again leaning against Maxx.
“I did,” Hacker confessed. “But, luckily, I was able to deter Jay from telling anyone.”
“Lucky,” she agreed. “How does Maxx look?”
“Perfect condition, as always,” Hacker said, patting a hand on Maxx’s single prop.
“Thank you,” Maxx said, sounding smug. “I do always strive to be perfect.”
“Perfectly obnoxious,” Amy muttered.
“You’d miss me.”
“Feeling nervous?” Hacker asked.
Amy shrugged. “Honestly? I’m more nervous about my test results than this race. I just have to get a decent score and I’m in the Finals. This will be a piece of cake.”
“Cocky, are we?” Maxx asked. Amy got the impression of a raised eyebrow from her program.
“You’re rubbing off on me,” she teased.
“Racers!” the overhead announced. “It’s time to get ready for the race! Racers Yuletide, Dagger, and Aims will preform first.”
“Good luck,” Hacker said, briefly shaking her hand before leaving. Sighing, Amy climbed into Maxx, securing herself in and adjusting the helmet on her head. She wasn’t boasting when she said that this was going to be easy. She wasn’t worried about being the fastest or the best at the tricks. She was going to jam as many simple tricks into this course as possible. And unlike other races, she wouldn’t be racing all the other Racers at once, just two others. Even for the Sponsors, it would be too dangerous to have that many planes up in the air at once. There would be a public outcry if that ever happened.
Amy was glad that she was in the first set of Racers, allowing herself a chance to relax and watch the others race having hers out of the way.
“Game plan simple is on?” Maxx asked as she drove him out onto the runway.
“Of course,” she said as the other two Racers lined up next to her. “We just need a decent score…”
Just a decent score. As long as she was in the top ten winners of this race and they would be going to the Finals. Her first Finals.
She tried to blow off the suddenly queasy stomach on the nerves of this race finally setting in, not her worry about the most cutthroat race she would soon be entering.
*********
Jay had been excused from the Sponsor box as soon as Amy touched down from her race. True to their plan, she didn’t try to speed through the course, keeping to simple tricks that quickly earned her points. As Jay walked to the hanger where she was driving in and the next three Racers pulled out for their turn, he kept half of his attention to the scores being called out by the commentator. He smirked as Amy’s race name came up as placing first place in her performance, even though she was the last plane to cross the finish line. The other two Racers, though experienced, were too focused on impressing everyone with their speed instead of their tricks. It really wasn’t a surprise that Amy won this by a landslide.
“Good job,” he said as he approached as Amy climbed out of Maxx. “Our plan worked. You won it.”
“Of course,” Amy snorted, taking her helmet off. Jay smirked as her hair stood on end after being under that helmet. “It wasn’t that hard. Compared to my finals, this was easy. Maxx, sports car.”
Jay turned his head away from the flash as the prop plane shrunk down into his familiar silver car form.
“Ah,” Maxx said, the stretch heard in his tone. “That’s better. It’s nice to have all four wheels on the ground again.”
Jay raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you like being in the air?” he asked.
“Meh,” Maxx grumbled. “I like being supported by something other than air.”
Amy pulled her phone out, quickly checking it. Jay raised an eyebrow. It was unusual for her to be more focused on her phone than her surroundings. He didn’t need to ask what brought this change on though. He already knew.
“How are your friends?” he asked. He couldn’t bring himself to ask about the specific one.
Amy snorted, flipping the phone around to show him a picture of a greasy looking churro. “They’re showing off, that’s how they’re doing.” She looked at the picture again, scowling. “I didn’t know that the races provided food like that….”
“Jealous?” Jay asked, uncertain if she was actually wanted the greasy food or not. In the Sponsor box, he and the other Sponsors were treated to the best hors d'oeuvres available. He wasn’t sure if the fat-fried foods the other spectators were offered could be any good.
“Have you ever had a churro?” she asked, eyeing him. “If not, you’ve been deeply deprived.”
Jay simply rolled his eyes. “Do you want to stay and watch the rest of the races?” he asked. “There’s been a Racers Box set up, if you wanted.”
“Unhealthy food there?”
He shrugged. “Dunno? Maybe?”
“My friends were showing pictures of their nachos earlier,” she mumbled. “I want some of that!”
“I’m sure they can send for it.”
“Alright,” she sighed. “Where’s this Racers Box?”
He gave her instructions and watched as she and Maxx took off. As much as he would like to join her in the Racers Box, he was sure that he wouldn’t be very much welcomed their, by either the Racers or Amy. Sighing, he wandered back to the Sponsors Box. He didn’t know why it felt so lonely walking back to it. He was used to being alone, keeping his Talent as a secret had often placed him in the uncomfortable position of isolating himself. But that was what he was raised to, once his father learned of his Talent. A lonely life so that no one would discover his powerful Talent that would have others trying to kill him.
So, why did he feel so lonely today?
“Well, hello there handsome.”
Jay inwardly groaned. That was a familiar saying he would prefer not to hear. Ever since he hit puberty, Jay often had random ladies hitting on him. Why they ever thought that pointing out his looks was a good way to stoke his ego, he’d never know, but he had to deal with it all the time.
“Yes…?” he said, turning around to find an objectively pretty young woman in a surprisingly simple yellow summer dress. Her wavy brown hair was perfect, her blue eyes crystal clear, makeup immaculately done, and every curve shown off.
A gold digger. Just what he wanted to deal with.
“May I help you?” Jay asked, already preparing himself to fend her off.
She laughed. Jay flinched a bit. Her laugh grated on his ears, sounding a bit fake. “Actually,” she said, checking her manicured fingers, “Your father hired me to help you.”
He frowned at her. Of all the things his father had done for him, not one of them was to hire someone to ‘help’ him. Jay learned how to get things done on his own; hard for anyone to discover your Talent if they aren’t around. He glanced over her again, wondering what his father could possibly think this woman could help him with. He briefly thought she might have been hired to distract him from his attraction to Amy, but he dismissed that. His father would never stoop that low.
“Help me?” he repeated.
“Not now, of course,” she said, grinning with perfect white teeth. “We’ll need to wait to see if Aims gets into the Finals, but once there… Well, she needs some publicity.”
Jay groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he finally caught on what was going on. “Advertising,” he grumbled. “She doesn’t like being in the public eye. You’d have to be Talented to get her to do anything.”
The young woman grinned. “Good thing I am.” She finally held her hand out to him. “Emily Halcroft,” she introduced herself. “Art Talented.”
He shook her hand, grinning though he wanted to scowl. Of course. A Talented, an Art Talented. With a good Art Talented on the case, they wouldn’t need Amy for the publicity shoots or sponsor covers. This Emily could do it in her sleep instead.
“She still isn’t going to like it,” he told the young woman. “Aims is a very…”
“Stubborn, bull-headed, pain in the ass?” Emily filled in for him, still grinning.
“I was going to settle for opinionated,” he said, fighting the urge to flinch at the young Talented observations. “Do you know Aims? Since it seems you could describe her.”
“She and I went to the same high school, same graduating year,” Emily said, pulling a lock of her hair in front of her face, inspecting its ends. “She’s obnoxious then so I bet she’s obnoxious now.” She let the hair fall from her fingers, her eyes zeroed on him. Ah, that was the look he had been missing from before. His father might have hired her, and she obviously had distain for Amy, but she took the job so she could get close to him. As he thought before: gold digger.
“I’ll try to make sure you two don’t cross paths,” he promised, only vaguely feeling his Talent kick in. As long as he didn’t outright promised anything, he could get away with grey areas. Try was a wonderful word in his vocabulary. “We’ll meet up on Monday morning to discuss the publicity.” He paused. “You do know where our headquarters are, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she said, flipping her hair back. “Eight then?”
“Nine,” he corrected. “I like sleeping in.”
“Nine then,” she said, that fake smile making another appearance. “Are you sure that you don’t want to meet up sooner? At like a restaurant?”
Oh, the passes. He was wondering when she’d put those in. “I’m sorry,” he said, feeling himself smirk. “You’re not really my type. Pretty? Yes, but I prefer my women a little more…” The image of Amy flashed in his head, of her just after her race, static hair in all directions, talking of greasy food, and calling him deprived for never having a churro before. “Snarky,” he finished. Emily looked baffled at his last word. Smirking again, he nodded his head briefly to her. “Until Monday, Ms. Halcroft.” He walked away, wondering if he could pick up a churro on his way back to the Sponsors Box.
************
“Why do I need publicity for a race I’ll already be racing?”
Amy and Jay sat on the couch in Hacker’s shop, discussing what their next step would be in the Circuit. Sally actually joined them this time, having rolled over her chair in front of them. Hacker was under Maxx, once again doing his post race checking. Amy wondered if Maxx was the best-kept program in the entire Circuit.
“Its not so much for you as it is for me,” Jay said, looking decidedly put out. Really, he had missed out on the food in the Racers Box. Her nachos had been waiting for her and she thoroughly enjoyed them as she watched the rest of the races. “I do have products that I need to sell. Everyone in the industry knows that my dad is going to pass the business onto me. I need to show off my skills before that happens so that I don’t get pushed around when it does happen.”
“You sound like you’re looking forward to that…” Sally said, uneasy. Amy was a bit uneasy about it too. She had always imagined CEOs of large companies being strange old men who cared little for their surroundings and were more concerned about what was wrong with their golf game than their company. It was easy to forget that Jay was a businessman, groomed from a young age to become a CEO. Her Sponsor rather eat delivered pizza in a greasy garage than spend his time at some cocktail party.
“I do like business,” Jay deadpanned. “I did have a choice to pick something else to do for a living. But I do like what I’m doing. I am looking forward to taking the company over.”
“Just promise me you won’t turn into a golfer,” Amy teased, poking her Sponsor in the ribs. “I’ve never understood that game.”
“Too late,” Jay laughed. “I golf every other weekend.”
“Maxx checks out,” Hacker said, pulling out from underneath the program. Amy quickly took the metal reader off her temple, tossing it aside as Hacker joined them. “Everything is in the clear.” He then coughed, giving Jay a pointed look. For a moment, her Sponsor looked a bit confused before his eyes widened. He suddenly coughed, his eyes darting to and away from her.
“There is something we need to talk about.”
“And that is?” she asked, suspicious.
Jay took a deep breath. “Your protection.”
Amy raised an eyebrow. “What protection?” she asked, switching her gaze between the two young men. “What’s going on?”
“Amy,” Hacker sighed. “I expressed this worry to Jay, so I’m going to tell you. I’ve disabled the kill code in Maxx, yes, but I’m afraid that isn’t going to be enough to protect you from the Sponsors. There are still kill codes in the heads of all the other Racers around you. If one of them goes off while close to you, you could die.”
Amy froze, shivering as a chill ran through her. She had never thought of it that way…
“Only one kill code was used in that accident,” Jay explained to her. “And it killed two other Racers. If the Sponsors want to kill you off, then they still have the means to do it.”
“What can we do then?” Sally blurted out. She grabbed Hacker’s arm, pulling him close as she stared terrified at her friend. “If the Sponsors are that powerful to…” She took a deep, shuttering breath. “There must be something that we can do… right?”
“I’m working on it,” Jay said somberly. “I’m trying to get into their secret meetings.”
“Oh, really?” Amy snapped, the cold that settled into her chest clenched at her. “And how has that been going for you? I haven’t seen any progress on that, Jay.”
“One,” Jay said sternly, “is that I have to be careful to get into those meetings. I can’t seem too anxious or they’ll know something is up. I’ve been carefully placing hints to the other members of that meeting that I want to join, but none of them have seemed to pick it up yet. And two: my father won’t let me get in there. He knows about my Talent and he knows what would happen if I get just a few of those men to promise the wrong thing to me. He’s impeding a lot of my progress in that, which is another reason why I’m going slow.” He shook his head. “It’s taking much longer than I thought to get into those meetings. I fear that the time I do, it might be too late for you.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Amy demanded to know, jumping up from the couch and pacing. Her Talent triggered a bit and she practically ran laps around the garage. “I don’t want to die in the Circuit! I don’t want my life in the hands of madmen! I don’t want!”
Arms wrapped around her shoulders, the person dragged behind her by her Speed. It took a moment before her Talent stopped and she slowed long enough for the person to catch up. Catching her breath, she noticed that it was Jay who had her by her shoulders, his tight grip.
“Calm down,” he said firmly, looking her in the eye. “I made a promise that I’ll see you out of the Circuit. And I believe that’s the way out of this.”
She took several deep breaths. “What do you mean?” she asked softly. “They won’t let me disappear.”
Jay smirked. “They won’t have a choice. I have a plan, but you’re going to have to trust me.” She glanced around the shop, then her eyes settled on Maxx.
“What about Maxx?” she said softly. “And my schooling…?” She faced him again. “I can’t give this all up.”
Jay also glanced at the program, frowning slightly. “We’ll figure something out,” he promised. “But I need time for a plan. Will you trust me that long?”
Amy crumbled, burying her face in his shoulder. Jay simply held her as she cried, whispering that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her, that she was going to be safe.
She wished she could believe it.
**********
Now, the story on the fixing I’ve been doing (since I think this deserves to be said). As I started editing the last half of my NaNo novel, I realized that I was putting in a lot of fluff and not enough plot into it. I realized I was straying from what I had planned for Racer. So I had a heart-to-heart with my novel, which involved me writing down where the story was, where I wanted it to end up, and how I should progress the story to that point. Once that was bared out for me, I came to the conclusion that Racer had run away from me (pun intended) and that I needed to reel it back in. I’ve done some heavy revisions to the plot, turning it more to my desired ending than what my characters seemed to want. I hate to say this, but the Sponsors were right trying to kill Amy off at the beginning on the month. The Sponsors were moving the plot along where it needed to go, not where the other characters wanted it to go. The other characters wanted to put off the inevitable and they distracted me from the end.
Darn characters.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to scrap what was left from NaNo and move forward from here, finally including a plot twist that should have already happened at this point. Worry not, though. With the end goal in sight, I can now bully my characters back into what is supposed to happen and not the side stories they’ve been feeding me. (As I read once, subplots are like candy, nice to have, but it will spoil the rest of the story. Sometimes it’s just better to cut it out.)
Long story short, expect the plot to suddenly kick into high gear. Things are going to be moving fast now, to pull out of the subplots and back into the story. I’ve even decided the name of book two (which has been plaguing me for years now). Hopefully, by April, we’ll be starting this second book.
Its name is Talentless.
Enjoy the Journey!
