Being the daughter of the once most dominant street racer in town, Alystabella Cassidy was a force to be reckoned with, winning street race after street race in her beloved car, Obsidian. But when her driving talents were recognised, she was offered...
With Ashley still sulking, Lyst had to work on Obsidian all alone.
She jacked the car up, and using her tools, unscrewed the nuts holding the wheels in place. With all four wheels off the car, Lyst carried them to the tyre fitting machine that she had bought for cheap a few years ago. Slowly and steadily, the machine removed each tyre from each rim one by one. Then, she carefully fitted the new tyres onto the bald rims. After all the tyres were fitted nicely on the rims, Lyst pumped some air into the wheels before balancing them. Fortunately for her, all of them seem to be relatively balanced, so tweaking them didn't take Lyst a whole lot of time like she expected.
This freed up some extra time for Lyst to upgrade Obsidian even further. Using her self-taught aerodynamics knowledge and limited fabricating skills, Lyst quickly fabricated some vortex generators to stick to Obsidian's body panels. After her last race with the boy, Lyst found out that the biggest problem with her car was its drag that came with its monstrous downforce. She hoped these new vortex generators would somehow make Obsidian more slippery through the air.
'Hoped' was the keyword here, since without actual simulations, Lyst had no idea if her modifications were going to work at all. But as her mom would say...
It is only by experimentation can you truly tell if something works.
Lyst gave herself a sad smile. Gosh, she truly missed her mom.
The colours of sunset were starting to creep into the sky by the time Lyst finished working on Obsidian. She had to reach the street racing venue for the rematch in a few hours. In the meantime, she went for dinner, and a cosy shower.
As Lyst came out of the shower, she got dressed. She shuffled her wardrobe for some clothes to wear, and decided that a simple orange t-shirt and a pair of jeans would do the job. It was the safest attire choice for racing after all, since there wouldn't be any loose cloth that might get stuck somewhere.
Lyst then moved on to her makeup. She didn't want too fancy makeup, so she settled on some foundation, lipstick and eyeliner. She expertly decorated her face, just enough to highlight her facial features.
Next up was her hair. She ran her fingers through her auburn locks, and decided that on that day, she would want straight hair. She quickly straightened them using a hair iron.
Before leaving her room, she checked herself in the mirror. A hazel-eyed, auburn-haired girl stared back at her. Honestly, Lyst felt as if she was going on a date. But in reality, she's going for the win. A burst of confidence hit her, and she let loose a smile before hitting the road.
***
As per usual, Lyst arrived at the street racing venue in her beloved BMW. Upon seeing the familiar car, the crowd cleared the area, and gestured towards the starting line. Lyst followed.
The boy was leaning on his car when Lyst got out of hers. He gave her a smug grin and called out, "Hey grid girl! Pretty face and pretty car you got there!"
"Thank you, child. You too." replied Lyst. She paused for a while. "I meant the car, not the face."
"Ouch," the boy winced. "But we'll see how pretty your car will turn out after the race, eh?"
Lyst pointed a finger at him. "Are you threatening me?" she snarled.
"No," the boy gave her an annoying smirk. "I'm merely doing something else."
Lyst scoffed. This boy was really getting on Lyst's nerves. She felt like her mind was going to explode into a million, flaming shreds if she continued the conversation. So, she diverted the conversation.
"Listen, kid," Lyst began. "If I win, you have to give me 1000 pounds, and I don't want to see you ever again."
The boy considered it for a moment. "That's harsh... But fine, I'll accept that." He continued, "But if I win, I get your car."
Lyst's face went pale. "You what?"
He laughed. "Scared to lose, grid girl?"
Lyst would not let herself get taunted like that. "Not. In. The. Slightest. Game on!"
Just like last time, the two racers jumped into their cars and revved their engines. The roars of the inline 6 and V8 engines filled the atmosphere, battling each other, creating a melody that sounded like heaven... Although non-car enthusiasts would probably beg to differ.
As the crowd continued to cheer, the same brunette from the first race came forward to start the race again. She finally remembered to wear her hair up in a neat ponytail, that would save her a lot of headache from brushing the nest of tangled hair afterwards.
After checking that both racers were ready, she held up her hand, holding a chequered flag, and counted down from five. When she waved down the flag, both cars sped past her.
Lyst had a flawless start. Right from the get go, she was ahead of the green Aston Martin. And it has appeared that Lyst's vortex generators were getting the job done fairly well. With lower drag, the boy didn't manage to catch up to Obsidian along the straight leading to the first corner. Instead, Lyst held onto the lead, and started to pull away from the boy. She silently cheered to herself for the small victory.
Every so often, Lyst would take a glance at her rear view mirrors to check where the boy had been relative to her. But after she turned right from a junction, she found that the boy wasn't trailing her anymore. Had he given up on the race entirely? Did he mess something up and slow himself down enough to have zero chance of winning the race? Either of those options sounded good for Lyst, and so she continued driving with a smirk on her face.
For now though, all Lyst had to do was to make sure she crossed the finish line in one piece.
And hopefully nothing would jinx her.
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Nothing bad would happen to our beloved Lyst, right?
Right?
Anyways, let the questions roll: 1. What do you think is gonna happen next? 2. Are you a writer yourself? If so, feel free to advertise your work here :)
