Page 14 of Until The Lights Go Out

“Nice to meet you!” she said. “Officially and all. It’s Theo, right? Bauer?”

“Uh…yeah.” Somewhere in the back of my brain, I knew I should probably say more than one-word answers. But she was talking enough for both of us.

“My dad says he knows your dad,” she continued casually. “Says he’s kind of a meany.”

I froze. Again, the only sound that came out of my mouth was, “Uh.”

She winced immediately.

“Sorry. That’s kind of mean to call your dad mean.” She scratched the back of her neck now, her confidence suddenly slipping a little. “He’s not mean to you though. Probably. Being your dad and all.”

“It’s fine,” I said quickly, then, to my own surprise, a small smile tugged at my mouth. “He’s…a little intense.”

“Oh, my dad too!” she said brightly. “Previous F1 drivers always are!”

“My dad’s not—” I started.

“Oh, shoot, nope, that’s Carlos’s dad!” she corrected herself. “My bad.”

“Who?”

“Oh, another serious-looking teenager,” she said thoughtfully. “He’s older though, now that I think about it, moved up to the next level a while ago.”

I blinked. “I’m serious-looking?”

“Very.” She nodded firmly, suddenly looking extremely stern herself. I stared at her. Sure, she was pretty. But Maisey Andrews was definitely weird.

For a moment, she just looked at me, head tilted slightly like she was studying something interesting. Then that bright smile returned.

“Well,” she said, rocking back on her heels, “I’ll beat you next time.”

I frowned. “You almost did today.”

“Almost doesn’t count.” She shrugged easily, like losing didn’t bother her in the slightest. “Next race, I won’t lock up that corner. I figured out what I did wrong already.”

The confidence in her voice caught me off guard. Most kids bragged before the race. But she sounded like she had already planned the next one.

“You’re pretty fast though,” she added, pointing at me with one of her pink nails. “So don’t get worse or anything. That’d be boring.”

I blinked again.

“Okay,” I said slowly.

She grinned like we had just agreed on something important.

“Cool.” Then she started walking backward away from me, braid swinging behind her. “See you on the track, Bauer!” She turned and jogged toward the paddock, disappearing into the crowd of drivers and parents.

I stood there for a moment longer, staring after her.

Weird.

Definitely weird.

But as I watched her go, one thought kept circling in my head. Next time. Next time, she was going to try and beat me. Those words swirled around in my head. It had been a while since I had the spark of wanting to win for me, of actually having fun. The older kids always said racing was fun when you were rivaling someone. I had never really had a rival. I was a good driver, just some mess-ups here and there, and kinks to fix that sometimes landed me lower. Next time. Next time sounded like fun. Like I was ready to go racing again.

7

MAISEY | PRESENT