The Academy, several years in to the future. A future where Sang is part of the Academy, but hasn't met the Blackbourne Team. Yet. That's all about to change.
Will the mysteries surrounding her from the past bring them together, or will she be fate...
When I arrived at the test track that afternoon, I saw that Marc was taking a few practice laps. The track layout had been updated recently, and I was looking forward to getting out there for a drive. I climbed the stairs to the observation tower to get a look at the new layout and to watch Marc.
The sky was clear, the weather was crisp, and the visibility was excellent. I picked up the pair of binoculars that was sitting on the bench desk in the tower and focused on where Marc was on the course. Today he was driving his Audi S4. It looked like it was fun to drive, and handled amazingly well for an all-wheel drive, but for me, nothing could beat my Mini Cooper S. My little Pixel was six gears of fun, and a blast to drive. She was fantastic and had good power out of the box, but Jackson had had someone from the Academy make a few modifications to her, making her even more responsive and powerful.
I watched as Marc maneuvered through the deep serpentine S bends, banking around the corner towards a straightaway, down a hill and around the final hairpin turn. He gradually slowed down and pulled in to the course staging area. Finally, I thought. I set down the binoculars and ran down the stairs to meet his car.
I was bouncing on my toes, waiting for him to come to a stop and get out of his car.
"Anxious much?" he asked with a laugh through his open window.
"It looks so awesome. I've been watching you for a few minutes."
"Slow down, short stuff. You have to go through the slalom, slow speed and normal speed. Forwards and backwards. No cones down. Got it?"
"Ugh," I said, slumping "that's no fun. I want to get out there!" I said, waving my hand towards the track.
"Nope. Gotta go through the basic stuff before the fun stuff."
"Oh, all right... Are you riding shotgun or watching from the ground?"
"I'll watch from the ground for the slow speed run, shotgun for the normal speed round. Sound good?"
"Yup! The sooner I go through the cones, the better!" I laughed.
I climbed in to Pixel and started her up. She gave a little growl, as if she couldn't wait to get on the track, either. Marc grabbed his clipboard and stopwatch climbed in beside me and I drove us both to the slalom area. I stopped the car at the white line marking the beginning of the slalom course and waited as he got out of the car and walked to the far side of the cones.
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Marc nodded at me to start and clicked his stopwatch. I shifted into first gear, and then quickly in to second gear. Since slow speed runs were taken at 10 miles per hour, I didn't worry about switching to third gear. Hands on the steering wheel, around and back, I deftly maneuvered the car in and around the first row of cones in smooth, continuous S curves. I finished the forward run, stopping the car at the front cone. I watched Marc and he walked to the cone and noted the distance between my bumper and the cone. If I was too far away, I would have to do it again. If I hit the cone and knocked it over I would definitely have to do it again. He gave me thumbs up, indicating I was within the tolerance range. I nodded, shifted into reverse, quickly looked over my shoulder to start, and then used my wing mirrors to navigate, making smaller steering movements to guide the car back through the slalom without knocking over any cones.
