Fortuitous || Jack Steele [1]

forty nine

Steeley's POV.

"You know I'm just going to win, right?"

"Excuse me? You lack faith," Madelyn scoffs. "You're very arrogant too. That spells disaster."

The boys surround the two of us as we sit on the floor, controllers in our hands, staring at the TV. They lean forward on couches or lay in beanbags with interest at what's about to go down.

"I'll have you know I'm the champion at this in my household," she brags, smirking at me.

"Yeah right." I roll my eyes to show how I don't believe her.

"She is," Gigs butts in with a frustrated sigh. Her smirk grows and I groan.

"Put him in his place, Mads!" Jonesy cheers. I just glare at him in annoyance at his siding with Madelyn. So much of a teammate you are.

Madelyn drops the controller in her lap before rubbing her hands together in readiness. She picks it up again and focuses on screen.

I stick my tongue out in concentration.

Let the Mario Kart race begin.

The countdown goes and I get the perfect take off, my Yoshi bursting in front of the pack. I hear Madelyn grunt beside me as her Toad gets caught in traffic. She gets free though.

My kart drifts around a Moo Moo Meadows corner with ease. I hit an item box and receive three banana peels. Madelyn is not far behind me. I smile with cunning.

"You bitch!" She screeches, barely dodging the banana I drop. I cackle. She scowls in the corner of my eye.

I move around the livestock, careful not to hit them which'll slow me down.

"Didn't know Bytes was in this," she snickers, referring to the cows on the track. "Get out the way fatty!" There's a chorus of laughs. I laugh myself.

We complete a lap.

I'm 2nd whilst Madelyn is 4th and closing in. I don't even have a second to react when I'm somehow hit by a rogue green shell.

"The hell!"

"Karma is a great thing," the King sibling chuckles, passing my fully stopped kart.

Madelyn takes the lead, claiming 2nd after Luigi hits 'Gigs' in the middle of the track. I speed up, needing to desperately catch her.

On the way other characters eliminate each other which helps me into the position behind Madelyn. I collect an item box which grants me a red shell. Perfect.

I shoot my shot and release the shell after her.

Seeing this she somehow swerves in from of Mario so my red shell hits him instead. This gives her 1st place. I grumble in annoyance, having no other shells to hit her with.

"Ha!" She yells out, speeding ahead with me hot on her tail.

It's the final lap.

It's a battle between us. Red shells hit their target but so do banana peels. There's a gap between us and the other racers.

Somehow we manage to reach the last part of the race without a blue shell destroying us both.

We're on the home stretch, a straight path to the finish ahead. Madelyn and I are neck and neck, battling it out for victory. Everyone is intrigued, leaning forward on the edge their seats whilst cheering to egg us on.

Our vehicles are side by side, no item boxes to help us out. It's only us.

I attempt to ram her out of the contest but she doesn't budge and holds straight. Her concentration is hard to break. But mine isn't apparently.