"Wait," said Lena.

"Lena-" I tried, but she beat me to the punch.

"He was the one you were checking out that day, wasn't he?!" she realized. "Ugh, I knew it was a racer crush!"

Albeit, I loved Lena to the moon and back, but sometimes, I just couldn't stand her. Jackson looked at me, a smirk on his face.

"Checking me out?" he asked, obviously aware of how embarrassed I was, right then.

He was just enjoying this, wasn't he?

"I-It's not what you think-" I managed, a nervous smile on my face, as Lena cut me off, again.

"Oh, my God." she said. I groaned, as Mom and Dad laughed about the whole thing.

Yes, laughed.

"You had to see her at the Dinosaur 400-"

"Dinoco." I corrected, while proceeding to attempt to bury my face in the ground. This was the kind of moment where I wish I had arms, like Guido, so I could dig a hole for myself. Lena proceeded to tell Jackson everything.

Speaking of Guido and Luigi, they had just shown up, along with everyone else, and were hearing everything Lena was spilling. Guido laughed.

"Eh, Alex finalmente innamorato di qualcuno?" he asked.

"Si, Guido," said Luigi, eagerly. "our little girl is.. growing up."

Here came the watery eyes.

Yup, there they were.

"Guys can we please just not discuss this right-" I tried, again.

"We were looking at the pit crews and stuff, and I was like, asking her what to do-I personally wanted to go on the track and get a close-up view- and she was just sitting there staring at you and..." Lena interrupted, rambling on.

Mom must have seen the look on my face, seeing as to the fact that Lena cut me off, and then proceeded to embarrass me.

I mouthed the words "Help Me" to her. I heard Dad laugh, and assumed he saw.

"Okay, Lena," she laughed out. "You can finish your story, later."

"Oh, thank goodness," I blurted out. Lena groaned, and Dad laughed (again). Jackson looked to me, smirking. He then did the eyelid thing that Dad usually, where he lowers and raises his eyelids for a second.

"Go home, Jackson." I pouted. He chuckled a bit.

"I'll see you later, Alex."

"By the way," said Lena. "Did I mention how hot your boyfriend is?"

"Lena!!"

"What?"

All I could hear, as Jackson left, was his laugh. I blushed at his laugh. I loved that laugh.

But, as soon as that laugh was out of earshot, I looked to Lena.

"Um..." Lena drifted. "Did I mention that you are, like, the bestest friend in the world?"

"Drive."

---

I was getting ready to head down to Florida, where the tiebreaker would be held.

Two weeks later, I'd be racing with Dad in the Florida 500. I'd been singing to myself, and had just reached, "Your eyes could make the moon jealous", when I heard Dad.

"You ready, yet, Rookie?" he asked. I drove out of the cone, a smile on my face.

"Yup," I said. "Let's go win a race."

"Correction," someone whispered. "He's winning."

I turned, and whoop-dee-do: Lena, again.

I just loved her.

"How did you even know that?" I asked.

"Your mom told me what the plan was." she explained.

Come on, Mom. I get it, you're trying to help out, but was Lena really the best person to spill the secret to?

"That's not until the Florida 500." I corrected.

"Oh...right," Lena responded. "I knew that. I was just testing you, to see if you knew what the plan was."

I smiled.

"Lena, don't ever change." I joked.

"Like I ever could." she responded.

"Enough chatter, girls," said Dad. "Let's get going."

He left off, and Lena and I followed suit. We decided to take the plane, because driving would take over forty hours, and the plane ride would only be five hours.

I will never take Lena with me to a race ever again. Especially if I have to go to an airport with her, in order to get to said race.

She wouldn't stop complaining about how the shops there weren't like the ones at the mall ( I personally never liked the mall, anyways), and how the food tasted like plastic, etc.

"Do they seriously not have any salads or anything?" she asked. "Can I at least get some oil to drink? Not anything fattening, though. I like the one Fillmore makes, but like, you know...healthier than that."

"Lena, this is an airport," said Dad. "Not a five-star restaurant. We're not at Wheel Well."

I guessed that he was starting to feel it, too.

"I at least want something to drink.." I heard her mutter. I wasn't worrying much about food. I was dying to meet up with Jackson, when we got to Florida.

I know, it sounds childish, but hey. I was starting to like this whole relationship thing. Besides, I was having fun with it. We had a lot in common, like our sarcasm, for example.

Luigi, Guido, and Mater met us at the gate ( I'll admit that I was hoping Jackson was there, and I was bummed out when he wasn't), and we took our seats inside the plane. Because my dad and I were celebrities (Dad obviously the bigger one), our group was able to snatch some VIP seating, which Lena and I thought were the best.

Unfortunately, I was seated next to Lena, and she drove me nuts the entire five hours. I have to give her credit, though. She kept me up, so I was able to catch some cool views. I loved seeing the clouds out the window. They had some nice TVs inside the plane, too. I'd recognized that they were kind of like the TV in Dad's trailer, Mack.

When I turned to ask Dad about it, a while later, I discovered that both he and Mater had fallen asleep. I smiled. It felt good to know that my father was slowly becoming my father, again.

Hopefully, he would stay himself, this time around, as well as not want to smash my boyfriend to a billion pieces.

Trust me, he was capable of doing it.

---

Racing Jackson would be difficult, and it didn't help that the reporters wouldn't stop talking about my dad and I throughout the entire race.

Dad could handle himself, but if one of those reporters said the wrong thing (especially Sterling, who owned the Rust-eze company, apparently), everything would fall apart for him all over again. He was doing excellent in his training, according to Cruz, and we couldn't afford to lose that, not when the Florida 500 was next week.

While I was lost in my thoughts (more like worries), Jackson had just passed me by.

"It looks like Alex doesn't have it, today, folks!" said Sterling.

"If you had been through what she had in the past few weeks, you wouldn't either, Sterling!" Darrell defended. "The girl's got enough, being the first female rookie, and being discovered as Storm Swift!"

I ignored their discussion about me, and tried to catch up with Jackson. As he turned the corner, he gave me a smirk, winking, and driving off.

Oh, it was so on.

From that point on, it was more of a game between Jackson and I, than a race. However, the rules on the tiebreaker had changed, long before the tiebreaker race began.

Apparently, the rule was that whoever won would go on to race in the Florida 500. Jackson and I agreed that it would be hard racing each other, since we were a couple now, but nonetheless, one of us had to win. I didn't really have any idea of what I would be doing, if I lost the race.

Which is why I planned to win.

I sped up, catching up with Jackson. He looked a little shocked, and I wondered if he forgot I had a new engine.

"Is it just me, or has that engine made you a little too fast?" he asked, a smirk on his face. I smiled.

"That, or yours is slowing you down." I answered. His smirk changed into a smile. Other than the sound of the wind, as we raced inside the course, and the crowds cheering us on, it seemed silent between the two of us. I decided to take the opportunity to ask him a question on my mind for the longest.

"Hey, Jackson." I said. He looked to me, but he was quiet. I didn't know if he was trying to listen, or if he was wondering what happened to the smile I had, that seemed to fade.

"I have a question."

"I have an answer."

I looked down, then back up at him. The two of us had a slowed a little, but not enough for it to be considered slow.

"The first time I raced you, before the whole "new design" thing," I explained. "Did you..did you let me tie with you?"

He didn't say anything.

"Would you be upset if I did?" he asked.

"Not if I knew why you did." I answered.

"If that's the case," he said. "I did."

"Why did you?" I asked. His smile returned, and I could almost feel him speeding off.

"Guess you're special." he said, and as predicted, he sped off. I smiled, and let my engine roar, as I zoomed down the track to catch up with him. We had only finished two laps, and there were still one hundred ninety-eight left.

I'd forgotten one thing though.

"Wait a minute..." I muttered, drifting off.

"Were you listening to that entire thing?!" I asked, and I could hear Dad laughing, through my communicator.

"We all were, Alex."

I forgot that I had a pit crew, now.

---

After the hundredth lap (literally), the both of us pitted.

I looked to Dad. He would be my crew chief, for the tiebreaker.

"You've only got one opponent in this, Alex," he said, as Guido changed my tires. "Get out there, take the lead, and show him what Cruz taught you."

"Don't forget, Dad," I responded. "you taught me a few things, too."

I raced off, before he could say anything.

"That must be the fastest pit I've seen, and it's only Alex's first, of her season!" Darrell exclaimed.

"The pit was fast, but she still needs to beat that yellow car, Darrell!" said Natalie.

"It's gonna be close!" Sterling exclaimed.

I managed to beat it out, and the crowd went insane.

"She has the lead, but can she keep it?" Sterling asked.

"Not even she knows." I told myself, racing off. Jackson was behind me, and I had to be strategic.

He caught up next to me, and smirked, doing that eyelid thing again (the thing Dad does, where he lowers and raises his eyelids within a split second), driving ahead. I caught up, and did it back to him. He smiled, and it became a complete game between us.

We were having to much fun messing around, that we hadn't even realized that there was only a lap left, until I looked at the Jumbotron. My eyes widened, and I roared the engine, taking off. Jackson must have noticed, too, and sped up with me.

The tension built up quickly, and everything became a blur, until it was just Jackson and I, and nothing else.

We then crossed the finish line.

---

"Are you kidding me?!" Darrell exclaimed, and he seemed a little caught up in the moment. "Did they just tie? Again?!"

They watched the camera footage, trying to get a better look, to see whether it was a tie or not. A few hours later, Jackson and I had some time to run around and whatnot, so we decided to check the camera footage.

I was completely heartbroken.

"It seems that Jackson Storm will be moving forward to race in the Florida 500, next week!" Sterling announced. Jackson looked to me, and I couldn't tell whether he was satisfied with his win, or disappointed that I lost.

Not that he would be. He was Jackson Storm. Who could have expected him to not win?

"You alright?" he asked. I didn't answer.

I had to admit, I actually had begun to love racing, and, though I expected it to happen, I didn't want him to win.

"Alex?" he asked. I looked to him.

"I'm okay," I said. "I'm glad you won."

The last thing that I needed was for him to be hurt, again.

"Good luck, next week." I said. I gave him a reassuring smile, and drove off, before he could spot the tears blurring my vision.

All of this training had been for nothing. I drove back to my pit, and looked to everyone. They seemed as sad as I did. I spotted Cruz, who seemed to have made it there while I was racing. I looked at Dad.

Along with everyone else, he was silent.