y/n's pov:-
"salazar. give caleb another chance", i spoke out clearly, giving salazar a last opportunity to let caleb's truck go before i destroyed him in the race.
"ah yes, you expect me to listen to a 12 year old now?", salazar shot back. i chuckled, shaking my head.
"im 17"
"you're still a kid, so you can stay out of it", salazar said to me.
"would you be able to win a race against this kid though?", i smirked and asked salazar, challenging him.
"there's no reason not to", salazar proudly said.
"then lets see put your skills to test. race me", i said, crossing my arms.
"no thanks", he said.
"does that mean you're afraid of losing against me?", i asked him, looking smug so i could convince him into racing with me.
"oh my god", he muttered. "OKAY. FINE. ill race with you", he said to me.
"very well. but i have a condition", i started speaking.
"now what? are you gonna ask me to lose against you under all circumstances?", he asked me, rolling his eyes. i laughed, looking at the ground.
"no."
"then?"
"if...i win, you're gonna have to give me caleb's truck back", i placed my condition in front of him.
"so that was your plan all along", salazar said.
"might be"
"alright. you'll get the truck. BUT...if i win, then i get to keep the truck and also the car you're racing with. deal?", salazar asked me. i thought about it for a while, then slowly nodded a yes.
"deal"
"very well then. to the starting point", he said.
i started walking towards my very own yellow devore GT, when i heard someone shout something at me from behind.
"DO YOU THINK YOU'LL BE RACING IN THAT?", salazar shouted at me from a distance.
"YES"
he walked towards me.
"i want a costlier car. i already have two devore GTs.", he said to me, a threatening tone in his voice.
"no one asked you to flex your car collection here", i snapped back to him. from the corner of my eye, i could see millie stifle a laugh.
"i. want. a. costlier. car.", salazar stayed stubborn. i heaved a sigh. my hands slowly went to my pocket, grabbing the keys tightly.
i slowly pulled it out as salazar watched.
"is that...", he started but trailed off, staring at the keys.
"yes", i replied for him.
"what is it, y/n?", millie whispered in my ear.
"wolfhard's car", i whispered back. i saw her eyes go to wolfhard's dark green aylesbury and so did salazar's.
"so you'll be racing in wolfhard's car?", salazar asked me, for reassurance.
i grit my teeth, thinking about it once more. it was risky, sure, but i had to win back caleb his food truck. i made up my mind.
i nodded at salazar.
"yes. its you against me in wolfhard's aylesbury. i win, i get the food truck; you win, you get to keep the food truck and also the aylesbury. deal?"
"deal", salazar said to me.
"y/n, who know how much of a risk-", caleb started to warn me but motioned at him to stop.
"i know"
"just know that you dont have to do this.", he said to me. i nodded.
"but i choose to do it. i'll be fine", i said to caleb. even the thought of losing wolfhard's car gave me goosebumps but what could be done?
"good luck, y/n", millie said to me, taking my hand. i slowly wrapped my pinky around hers.
she smiled at me and i could feel myself smiling back at her. i know i was not supposed to feel what i was feeling at the moment. i had to stay focused on the task i was given; i could not mess it up by letting my heart fall for her. and so i pushed away even that tiny little tinge of feelings i had started to feel for her.
"well, im gonna be waiting for you at the finishing line. see you", she said to me and turned around.
"uh, wait- maybe..you could ride in with me? i promise you'll be safe", i asked her. she turned to me, smiling.
"i mean, i can, sure, but is it allowed? like by the rules?", she asked me.
"there's no rule about that. plus, i could really use the extra pair of eyes. what do you say?", i asked her, biting my lip, secretly hoping she would say yes.
"well then...why not. lets go", she said to me and my face broke into a smile.
"alright", i said and i entered the driver's seat of wolfhard's car and millie called shotgun.
i gently pressed the accelerator and slowly inched up right beside salazar's car.
"im gonna absolutely crush you today, kid", salazar jeered from his open window.
"shut up salazar", i shot back at salazar, while everyone got ready for the race.
i must've been fidgeting because i suddenly felt millie touch my shoulder.
"huh?"
"i've never seen you this nervous. you'll be fine. you can do this", millie encouraged me.
"i know, im...usually not this nervous. its because its wolfhard's car", i said to her.
"dont-"
"RACERS GET READY", a voice cut out. i exhaled, shifting my entire focus on the road, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"good luck", millie said and i nodded.
"3...2...1...GO!", i heard the voice say and i immediately pressed the gas. the aylesbury i was driving shot out of the junkyard. salazar started a second later. good, i got a headstart.
"tell me when salazar's speed increases", i said to millie. she nodded and turned back. i squinted hard at the dark road. i could faintly see the race track around the hill through fog and darkness.
"he's catching up, we need to speed up", millie said to me.
"on it", i said, going harder on the accelerator.
"FASTER, YN!", she said to me.
"I CANT GO ANY FASTER, IT'LL BE TOO MUCH OF A RISK WITH WOLFHARD'S CAR", i replied to her. my peripheral vision could see salazar's car beside me now.
"SHIT, they're throwing something out the window", millie warned me. i swerved around the flying object at the last second.
"fucking piece of shit", i muttered. millie was actually helping a lot.
"good save", she said.
"okay im speeding up a bit", i said to her, going faster at the smooth turning of the hill.
"i can see him speeding up too", millie said, peering closely at salazar's car.
"i've got a plan", i said to her.
"what?", she asked.
"i'll let salazar take the lead now and just keep up with him", i started.
"but then-"
"hear me out. there's perks of driving an aylesbury- its faster than the average car that salazar is driving. when we descend the hill, our speeds are gonna get faster anyways; cuz we're going down and he'll also be in his maximum speed. thats when i speed up", i said to millie, starting to slow down to let salazar take the lead according to plan.
"so you're gonna make him believe that he's winning, and then trick him?", she asked me, her head working out the details.
"thats exactly what we're doing"
"oh my god yes alright thats genius. look how smug salazar is looking", millie said to me, staring at a very proud salazar.
"im gonna wipe that grin off his face", i muttered.
"okay we're near the descend, get ready", millie reminded me. i nodded.
"here we go", i said, letting the car pick up speed due to gravity.
"he's ahead"
"....and im hitting it", i said to millie, i pressed the accelerator as hard as i could. soon enough i was right beside salazar's car, slowly starting to inch forward.
"y/n, look, he's trying to ram into us", millie said widening her eyes.
"asshole", i muttered under my breath jerking the steering wheel way from him.
"its working, we're forward", millie said to me.
"knew it'd work", i said, a smile appearing on my face.
"nice"
"okay im gonna pull something, dont freak out", i warned her.
"alright, um-", but before she could get ready, i abruptly turned to the right, right in front of salazar's car.
"what the fuck-"
"sorry i warned you"
"what are you even doing", she asked me.
"im staying right in front of salazar's car, so he can't go in front of us", i explained to millie, all while staying focused on my driving.
"but he'll just ram you from behind-", millie started but i cut her off.
"i'll drive away if he tries anything. i can still see him you know", i said to her with a chuckle.
"there, i can see the finishing line", she said, pointing straight at where the junkyard was.
"we're gonna make it", i said, creasing my eyebrows to see clearly. everytime salzar changed lanes, i drove right in front of him so he couldn't get past us.
"aaaand, WE'RE HERE", millie celebrated as our green aylesbury shot into the junkyard. i hit the brakes which made the car do a complete 180.
"yup. we did it. wouldn't have made it without you though", i said to an excited millie, while unfastening my seatbelt.
"shut up", she said and we got out of the car.
"MY GIRL Y/N MADE IT", caleb screamed and engulfed me in a hug.
"yeah yeah", i said, smiling and laughing awkwardly.
i broke away from caleb and made my way to salazar.
"now. the truck", i ordered salazar sternly, holding out my hand.
he stared at me for a moment before he dropped the keys on my outstretched palm.
"very well, then. nice racing with you salazar", i said, being polite.
"you think you've won, don't you?", salazar said to me, clearly sour over the fact that i actually won against him.
"i mean, i kinda did", i said to him.
"turn around", salazar said to me with a dirty smirk.
shit, what was he up to now.
"oh fuck", i heard millie say. i slowly turned around.
i saw one of salazar's guys hold up a key and calmly glide it across the green body of the car with a loud screech.
oh no they wouldn't.
"wolfhard. asked. me. to. keep. his. car. safe", i said to salazar, gritting my teeth, anger burning in my head.
"oh dad! how nice of you to join us!", I heard an annoying voice say. oh, finn. of course it had to be him.
well shit. now wolfhard was here.
everyone whipped their heads around to see wolfhard watching us from a distance, arms crossed.
"shit", i heard salazar mutter.
yes salazar, you're quite right.
"whats going on in here", millie said to me, tugging on my hand.
"wolfhard is here and no one knows how much he saw. basically, im in trouble.", i quickly explained to her. it was pretty weird how i wasn't tired of her yet.
wolfhard stood up straight and calmly started walking towards us.
"sir, i asked y/n to race with her regular GT but-", salazar started. that asshole.
"oh, so now it's on me?", i spoke in between.
"-but she decided to step things up and race with your aylesbury and then she got that scratch", salazar finished as wolfhard patiently waited for him to complete.
wolfhard stared at salazar for a moment after he stopped talking then abruptly threw a punch to his face which made salazar stagger back, clutching his jaw and bloody nose.
i saw millie flinch beside me.
"no need to lie, salazar, i saw it all", wolfhard said in a few words.
"i...i...", salazar went wordless.
"and even if i didn't see it all, i would certainly know better than to trust you over an MPC member", wolfhard added.
there was a cold silence until i broke it.
"uh, here's your truck keys...caleb", i softly said, holding out his keys.
"y/n, a word?", wolfhard asked me and i immediately nodded.
well, guess it's time to face the music.
"yes sir?", i said to him after we moved away from the crowd.
"that was a brave thing to do. racing with my car", wolfhard said to me, not a lot of expressions on his face as usual.
"im sorry, i shouldn't have, but i just had to get caleb his truck back-", i started to explain.
"don't be sorry, you didn't cause it any harm. what you did was honourable and showed a real example of a fearless and responsible human. well done.", he appreciated me, with a small smile. him smiling was rare. wow, this was certainly unexpected.
"thank you...sir"
he nodded and left with a pat on my shoulder. i turned my head to the direction of where he went.
that was when i spotted finn staring at us from a distance. as soon he saw me looking, he turned his gaze away.
i shook my head and made my way back to millie.
"hey"
"oh hey, you're back. did you get into any trouble?", she asked me, concerned. no one's showed so much concern for me before. it felt nice; to be someone's priority for once.
but i already knew this wouldn't work. it wasn't meant to. maybe it would kill millie if she got to know later on. i knew it was wrong.
"um..hello?"
"oh, sorry, kinda got lost in my thoughts there. yeah, no, didn't get into trouble. wolfhard was oddly chill about it", i told millie.
"that's great", she said to me.
"uh...hey, do you wanna go see the garage today?", I suddenly popped the question to millie.
"uhhhh sure", she said to me.
"yeah? alright, come on, lets go", i said to her and we got into my car.
"i really hope you'll like them", I said to millie, referring to the rest of the MPC members.
"me too"
well then...here goes nothing.