Because this category needs a finished story, and I love Finn.

"Give me four clicks of compression."

"All right." Joe reached beneath the car he and Finn were currently working on and did what Finn had requested of him.

Finn smirked a little. "Actually, make it three." Joe obliged his request. "No, two. Two is perfect."

"You wanna make up your mind?" Joe called up to him. "What is it, two, three, or four?"

"Exactly."

"You know I'm gonna hurt you, right?"

Finn laughed at his friend's annoyance. "Two."

"Thank you."

Tess smiled from her computer. She loved listening to Joe and Finn's banter. It never failed to be entertaining.

"Guys," Pete called coming into the room with his tablet. "Joe, you gotta check this out, man."

"Yo," Joe said as he walked over to the boy.

"Monarch's on fire. Tess, you too."

Tess took her computer off her lap and joined the others watching Monarch's latest webcast.

"Cretin, go ahead," the man said to a caller.

"Monarch, this is Darryl from East Orange," the caller said angrily. "Why would you let a redneck trust fund baby into the De Leon? He doesn't deserve to be in a winner-takes-all race with multi-million-dollar cars! Come on, Monarch!"

Monarch sighed and rolled his eyes. "Caller? Do I get to talk?" Darryl continued his rant on the phone while Monarch tried desperately to get a word in. "Darryl, have your parents ever smacked you upside the head? See, this is a case where sometimes you just need to beat kids. Darryl, Darryl, it's my show. I get—Shut up!" Darryl finally stopped talking. "Listen to me! Darryl, one important question. Have you ever even driven a race car? That's what I thought." He pushed a button, and Crazy Darryl was gone. "Let me explain to all of you people out there how this works one more time. It's my race. It's the De Leon. I created it. It's rarefied air, kids. It's beautiful. I decide who gets in and who does not get into the race, okay?"

Benny came barreling into the garage from the paint room where he had been spray-painting a new car red. "What y'all talking about?"

He looked over Pete's shoulder at the tablet to watch Monarch continue his show.

"The Flyin' Hawaiian just took down Steve Heavy Chevy in the Arizona desert."

"Tobey could easily beat those guys," Tess remarked. "We all know it."

"You got that right!" Pete smiled.

"…an invitation as a wild card," Monarch continued. "Okay? That's important. Wild card. Maybe. I'm not saying he's in, I'm saying he might be."

"Alright, I've heard enough," Tess sighed. "If Monarch knew what was good for him, he would let Tobey race in a heartbeat."

The boys smiled as everyone went back to their work stations.

Tess held out her bag to Finn. "Gummy worm? They're the sour kind," she said in a singsong voice.

Finn took one from the bag. "Do you ever eat any other kind?"

"Depends on what project I'm working on and how desperate I am." She pulled out another gummy worm. "Here, catch." She tossed the gummy worm to Finn, and he managed to catch it in his mouth. "Ooh, nice one! Now do me."

Finn took out a gummy worm from the bag, and Tess opened her mouth to catch it. When Finn threw it, it hit her cheek and fell on the ground.

"That was a terrible throw!" she laughed.

"You're just mad you missed!"

Tess laughed as she headed to the entrance of the garage to find the leader of the team.

"Tobey!" she called. "You ready for the race tonight?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," he smiled at her. "You got your programs all good and ready?"

"Never leave home without them. Prize is supposed to be pretty good tonight."

"So I've heard."

"You've got it in the bag."

"I'm glad you think so highly of me."

"Of course I do, Big Bro."

Tess had been a part of the team for around three years. She hardly ever worked on the cars, but Tess was a valuable asset to the team in that she was an incredible hacker. Tess had computer skills that the other boys could never even dream of having. Give her a computer and she could do almost anything.

Most of the time, she used her programs to figure out the best way to modify the cars they were given that Tobey would use to race. Other times, she could hack into other places and computers and find out what exactly their competition was.

Similar to how Pete and Tobey considered each other brothers, they also considered Tess a sister. Tess came in the middle: older than Pete but younger than Tobey. She loved them even more than family and would do anything for them.

When it came to her and Finn, they had been shamelessly flirting with each other for the better part of the last three years, but nothing had ever come of it. Their relationship never advanced past 'friends who flirted', even though everyone teased them about it.

That night, the team drove down to Mt. Kisco Drive-In where the latest race was taking place.

Tobey pulled up with Finn, making sure to let all the girls admire his latest race car. Pete got up off the hood of his own car.

"Tobey," he smiled.

"Pete," Tobey smiled back as he got out of the car. "You good?"

"Good."

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"You know, Monarch gave you a shout-out," Benny told Tobey. "Then he crapped on your car."

"Yeah, I know, I heard," Tobey said dryly.

"Never mind that," Pete said as he put his hand on his shoulder. "While Monarch was talking about you, I had a vision."

"All right, here we go," Finn remarked as he rolled his eyes.

"Quiet, okay?" Benny smiled. "I happen to like his visions. Pete, proceed, please."

"I see water, and the sun, and—"

"Your sister in a bikini," Finn interrupted. Tess rolled her eyes as the other boys laughed.

"Shut it. I see Tobey looking at a lighthouse. I see you, and you're gonna win De Leon."

"Really?"

"Hey," Tobey said to Pete. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Petey, but I got my hands full trying to beat Jimmy Macintosh and you tonight, so…"

"Jimmy Macintosh isn't in the right head space tonight," Tess told the guys. "Fight with his girlfriend going on. Shouldn't be too hard to beat him."

Tobey chuckled a little. How that girl managed to hack into all those peoples' computers, he still didn't know. He was a little wary of her digging into people's personal lives, but she had told him that she didn't go digging any farther than necessary. Now whether that was actually true…

All of their heads turned as a car approached the drive-in with two very familiar people inside.

"Oh, man," Pete said quietly. "My sister and Dino are here. She didn't tell me she was coming home, guys. I'm sorry."

Tobey and Tess stared at the two people stepping out of the car. "No, it's fine."

"Coming with Dino isn't," Joe said, looking over at Tess.

"What's this fool even doing back here, man?" Benny asked.

"Maybe he just came to watch how a real racer drives," Finn joked.

"The guy raced Indy," Tobey said. "It doesn't get more real than that, Finn."

Tess scoffed. "Oh, please. You can drive circles around him, and we all know it."

Pete's sister/Dino's fiancée, Anita, started to walk over to them.

"Let's go, Tobey. You don't need that distraction."

"No, it's fine."

Benny looked at his watch. "All right, boys, the race is gonna start soon."

"Ben, you should head up," Joe said.

"I just wanna let you know I'm going because I want to and not because you told me to. Just know that."

"Okay. Way to put your foot down, Benny."

Everyone laughed as Benny, Joe, and Finn walked off to prepare for the upcoming race.

"Hey, give me a second," Tess said to Joe and Finn. She walked over to Anita and tightly hugged her. "Hey, Anita."

"Hi, Tess," Anita smiled.

"It's really good to see you again. You look wonderful."

"Thank you. You do too. I hope it's not awkward with Dino here…"

Tess smiled to mask the disdain she felt for Dino. "Not at all."

"Oh my Lord, Tess, you're taking forever!" Finn said as he came up behind her and picked her up.

"Finn!" she shouted. "I was talking!"

"I know, and we need to go get ready!"

"I guess I'll see you later, Anita!"

Anita smiled and waved to her.

"Okay, put me down!" she ordered.

They both laughed as they arrived at Joe's truck, AKA The Beast.

Tess looked back at Dino who was signing autographs. "I can't believe I used to date that guy."

"Why did you even date that guy?" Finn asked.

"I ask myself that every day."

Tess really liked Anita and considered her to be one of her best friends. Dino, however, was another story. She had dated him a couple years ago before he got engaged to Anita. Looking back, it had been one of the stupidest decisions of her life. Dino only cared about two things: winning and money. She'd tried to tell Anita that, but the girl wasn't convinced.

Tess secretly wished that Anita and Tobey would get back together, but it didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon.

They all drove down to the finish line and set up their equipment for the upcoming race. Joe called up Tobey on his cell phone.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Good," Tobey answered. "Have you got the roads locked down?"

"The road is clear. We are at the finish line, and Benny is in the Cessna." Joe hung up the phone and took out his walkie-talkie. "Liar One, you standing by?"

Benny groaned from inside his plane. "Ah, here we go with this again."

"I wouldn't have to use that handle if you stopped telling people you flew Apache helicopters."

"I took an Apache for a joyride, okay? That's all I said."

"I know that's what you said. We just don't believe you."

"Hey, man, look, just because I'm a crew chief doesn't mean I don't know how to fly. You gotta have guts of titanium alloy to do what I do. So I need a little respect. A little R-E-S-P-E-C-T."

"All right, enough messing around. What's the status…Liar One?"

Finn and Tess looked at each other as they laughed.

"Clear," Benny said unamused. "And this is 'Maverick'. Call me Maverick, or I will kamikaze this into your fat head."

Finn and Tess put on their headsets so they could hear Tobey and Benny. Finn set up everything on the screen on the side of the Beast while Tess readied everything on her computer. During each race, Tess recorded various racing tidbits that they could use in future races. If one part of a car worked better than another, she wanted to remember that and let Tobey know so he could fix up another car with that part. She also liked to make notes of things Tobey and Pete did well and things they could improve on.

Dino walked up to the two of them. "Mind if I watch?" He looked over at his ex-girlfriend. "Tess."

"Dino."

Finn awkwardly stood between them as the tension in the air thickened to a point where he really wished he could be absolutely anywhere else. There was rarely a time where Finn couldn't lighten the room with a small quip, but this was one of those times.

Joe joined them as the racers formed at the starting line. The videos on the front of Tobey's and Pete's cars were working perfectly.

The passing train blew its horn and the race began.