2. Love

Through out the many trips back and forth between her Camaro and her dorm, Madison kept on seeing flyers posted through out the school. Until now, she never really had a chance to see what they were for. And since this was her last load and she only had one bag to carry, she decided to stop and see what these flyers were all about.

'Racing Academy's summer rally tonight at seven-thirty.' Was what the entire flyer said in great big, easy to read letters. And around the flyer was various racing symbols and even a cartoon drawing of the driver X's car on the bottom. She knew it was X's car because through out all of the research that she had done on the Racing Academy, she came across X a lot. She also found out that he was the son of Speed Racer and that he was the best driver in his class.

But even though the flyer said 'summer rally,' on it…what did that mean? Was it a race, a dance or something else? Considering that Madison was new to the Academy, she figured she'd drop by Speed's dorm to find out what this rally was all about.

And after she dropped the last bag off at her dorm, she made her way across campus to Speed's. And with a knock at the door, Speed was surprised to see Madison standing there in front of him.

"Hey Madison…what's up?" Speed questioned as he leaned against the doorframe.

"What's this big 'rally,' going on tonight? Does it have anything to do with classes?" She questioned as Speed let out a small giggle while Madison looked at him with one eyebrow raised as to why he giggled.

"No, it doesn't. The 'rally,' is our annual dance. We have one every summer and winter." Speed answered as Madison sort of fell quiet.

"Oh, are you going?" She questioned.

"I wasn't planning on it…"

"Oh, well…I wished I would have known about it earlier. But…would you wanna go with me anyway? I don't feel like unpacking my stuff and I, I thought it would give us a chance to hang out." Madison some how managed to get out.

Not knowing what to say, Speed looked around but thought…what else was he going to do tonight? There was really nothing to do on the Mach 6 and for once he actually had a night free. And he said he wasn't planning on going when a girl like Madison asked him? What was he an idiot? He couldn't help but to think to himself.

"Yeah, I'd love to go. I'll swing by about seven?"

Did he just say yes? Was Madison hearing things? Did Speed actually agree to go to the rally with her? She heard him right, she knew she did…she just never thought in a million years that a guy like Speed would actually agree to go out on a date with her.

"Oh, yeah…I'll see you then." Madison replied as she snapped out of her disbelief state of mind and proceeded to write down her dorm and cell number.

"See ya tonight." Speed said as he took the piece of paper in his hand and waved bye to Madison as she made her way out the door and into the hallway.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry!" Madison replied as she turned the corner and bumped into someone as she was in too much of a trance as she thought about the rally.

But she quickly snapped out of it as she realized the person who she bumped into was X.

It wasn't before long when her chin hit the floor as she just stood there because she couldn't believe that she was standing there in front of X Racer. The son of Speed Racer, and needless to say that he was extremely gorgeous in person.

"It's okay…really. I'm X." He replied as he introduced himself.

"Are you new here? I don't remember seeing you here before?" X added.

"Yeah, I am…I'm Madison, Madison Parker…"

"X…Come on!" Madison heard a whiny, high pitch, bratty girly voice call after him.

"Whoops, gotta go. You know how girlfriends are. Anyway, nice meeting you!" X called out after her as Annalise dragged him by the wrist down the hallway.

"You too." Madison said softly as X was too far down the hallway to hear her anyway.

'Wow…is he ever so hot! I bet he gets all the girls here at the academy.' Madison thought to herself as she brought herself to start walking back to her dorm like she was in the middle of doing before she bumped into X.

XXX

It was about seven o'clock as Madison finished fluffing her hair for the last time before Speed arrived. She hoped he would arrive soon because she wasn't sure if what she had on was okay for the rally. And just as if he was on que, there was a knock at the door and Madison let him in.

"Hey, I'm glad you're here. Is this okay for the rally tonight?" Madison questioned as she turned around to show Speed what she had on.

Of course what she had on was perfect. But Speed couldn't stop starring at her long enough to answer her considering he was too busy checking her out. Like the dark, faded, washed out skinny jeans, her Kelly green tank top and her high-healed sandals didn't have anything to do with that. But before she caught him checking her out, he figured he ought to say something.

"Yeah, it's perfect. This rally isn't formal or anything like that…it's just a dance. The winter rally is formal." Speed informed her.

"Ah…hey, guess who I bumped into this afternoon in the hallway?" Madison excitingly questioned as she shut the door to her dorm as they left.

"Who…"

"X! I just turned the corner after leaving your dorm and literally bumped into X!" Madison squealed, as she was so unaware that X was really Speed's older brother.

As they continued to walk to the building where the gym was located, Speed silently giggled to himself as he contemplated on rather he wanted to tell her that X was really his brother. But in the end, he decided that he should tell her, considering that she was new and all. And besides, Speed sort of liked her…he really didn't want X taking her away from him or for that matter, he didn't want Madison falling for X. But he could already tell that she had something for X.

"Um, yeah…X is my older brother." Speed finally decided to explain to Madison.

And now, he kind of wish he hadn't had told her because he could see the excitement in her face.

"Shut up…really? Get out of here!" Madison replied as she playfully shoved Speed on the arm.

"Seriously, I just recently found out that X was my older brother and that Speed Racer is my father…that I've never met." Speed softly replied as he looked away from Madison because that was still a touchy subject with him. Even still, he was still trying to grasp the fact that X was even his brother.

Madison could tell that Speed was beginning to feel uncomfortable as she noticed how he kept on roaming his eyes elsewhere and that he didn't say much after he explained X. And after noticing how Speed reacted, she wanted to say something, but didn't really know what to say because she didn't want to make Speed feel even more uncomfortable.

"Hey…I'm sorry I brought up X…I didn't know." Madison apologized.

"That's alright…hey Connor, hey Lucy." Speed replied as they ran into the two of them as they approached the long line that led into the gym.

"Still no date Connor?" Speed replied as he noticed his best friend didn't have a date, even though he was determined to find one before they even posted flyers for the rally.

"I wouldn't say that…" Connor replied as he took off down the hall to somewhere unknown. But as he came back, Speed got weirded out as he noticed he brought back ChimChim dressed up like a girl. He could feel his face grow warm with embarrassment as he noticed Madison caught onto the fact that Connor's date didn't look normal.

"Isn't that a…" Madison asked as she leaned in closer to Speed as she didn't know just exactly what to say.

"Yeah, see Connor wanted a real monkey but he's allergic to them…so, he built one. Don't worry, you'll get used to Connor." Speed replied as Madison nodded her head in agreement.

XXX

Time seemed to pass by rather quickly as Madison hung out with Speed, Connor and Lucy. The rally was nearly half over and she couldn't believe how much fun she was having. In a way, she almost didn't want this night to end.

And to make matters worse, she seemed to have caught Speed in such a way that he seemed to be hotter than X. Wait, Speed was hotter than X? She had to have caught him in the right light because she's had a thing for X way before she came to the Academy. She couldn't have been in love with the two Racer brother's…could she?

She had just met Speed this morning and X just a little while ago. But she just couldn't help it…there was just something about Speed that she just loved. And she always believed in that saying where it's love at first sight…well, maybe for once in her life she wanted to believe that was true.