One For The Road

10: Blameless

"That was pretty good for your first try. As soon as you figure out that you can't drive the robot through solid objects, you'll be a superstar," Drake said.

I laughed. "Why didn't you tell me that before? That information would've been helpful."

As a kid, I didn't have much time to sit around and play video games. Little did I know that my lack of preparation for the real world would kick me in the ass as an adult.

We headed back into the house, and the ticking of the bazillion unnecessary clocks greeted us along with a chocolatey smell.

Annie stood in the kitchen, and when she looked up from the oven to us, she clapped her hands together. "Oh, how was the first day of driving?"

A smile rose upon my face. "It was, uh, pretty good."

"She made a lot of progress in the few hours we worked. She's good at spinning around in circles," Drake said.

Annie smiled. "Good, good, good. I'm making brownies to celebrate today, and after that, I need to get some information from you, Katie."

"What kind of information?" I asked, and the words came out of my mouth a little more quickly than I wanted them to. I grimaced. Was it her or the question that made me nervous?

"Well, group costumes are important to Team Peanut, so—" Annie began, but Josiah interrupted.

"Annie, honey, we talked about this. We're not doing the costumes anymore."

"I thought they were cute." Annie looked down at the floor. "I don't care, I'm still making us matching outfits. I want us to look like a team."

"What about t-shirts? That way we match, but Josiah still feels like a man," Drake said.

Josiah shook his head. "That's not what the problem is. She uses the cheap fabric from work, and it's too scratchy. I have sensitive skin."

"Forget it. We'll just get t-shirts. This isn't worth arguing over." Annie turned back to the oven, which still had five more minutes on the timer. "I don't have time for costumes anyway."

It clearly wasn't my place to interject, but I had to ask her about the costumes eventually. Josiah and Drake didn't care about them, and Annie prioritized peace over what she wanted. I smiled. We were two very different people.

Plus, I wouldn't have minded her getting my measurements for a costume. I wouldn't have minded at all.

There were still several days until we had to leave for my first robot fighting tournament, which meant that I could catch the race on TV. Was it even worth watching? With all the random drug testing they put me through, it seemed that NASCAR didn't want much to do with me, but Griffin was still racing, and it was Elizabeth Tonkin's first one.

I couldn't watch it. RTR left me out to dry for her. And maybe that made me a bitch, but everyone already knew that I was.

No one spoke for a moment, and the clocks kept ticking to fill the silence.

"So, Katie, why don't you tell us a little about yourself? Where are you from?" Drake said.

Anyone with internet access could have looked that up on Wikipedia in half a second, but I answered anyway. "Akron, Ohio. It's pretty much right on the other side of Lake Erie. But I've spent the past few years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Roger Truscott Racing's headquarters are."

Drake nodded. "So do you still have family in Ohio?"

I hesitated. "Technically, I guess I do, but really, I don't. Family sticks by you, and they didn't."