The Next Day

Gatewater Land

11:59 AM

"Eeeeek! I can't wait!" Kay squeals as we wait for Edgeworth to arrive.

"Boy, you really want the car, don't you?" Maya asks, somehow still filled with energy despite staying up all night in anticipation of today's contest.

"Yup! I got my driver's license last week, so now I just need a car and I can show off to my friends!" explains Kay, with excitement that can probably match Maya's.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but you're going down! Nick and I were doing intense training all night to sharpen our minds and maximize our driving skills." Maya brags.

"Woah," gasps Kay in amazement. "You guys are hardcore."

"Not really," I sigh, "Maya's idea of 'intense training' is just playing Steel Samurai Kart Racing all night."

"Niiick! Don't tell our secret to the enemy! No offense, Kay."

"None taken."

"Excellent, you're all here," Edgeworth says as he pulls up and gets out of his brand new car. Very flashy and expensive-looking, just like everything else Edgeworth owns. Typical. "Which means we can get to the first challenge right away. Now obviously, I could not in good conscience give my car away to a horrible driver, and so today I must test your ability to drive. You will all participate in a round of Go-Karts. Finish 5 laps and then return to the starting area, the last one to finish will be eliminated."

"And you thought all those hours of training would be for nothing." Maya accused me, smiling smugly.

As we're all putting our helmets on, I decide to ask Larry a question.

"Hey Larry, why are you even doing this? Don't you already have a car?" I ask quizzically.

"Well yeah, but it's not as nice as Edgey's." Larry replies matter-of-factly.

"So what? It still looks nice and it works fine, so why would you need another car?" I argue, but I'm worried I already know where this is going.

"Nick! Isn't it obvious?" He asks.

Oh, boy. Here we go. Please don't tell me it's about...

"Girls, Nick. Girls love nice cars." Larry explains, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

I sigh. That's what I thought you'd say.

"Seriously! With a car like that, there isn't a single chick in the world who'd say no to a date with me! Just look! Hey, Maya!" Larry calls out. "If I got Edgey's car, you'd date me, right?"

"Uh, nope. Sorry." Maya answers distractedly, fidgeting with her helmet. My heart leaps, even though I wasn't really expecting different.

"Huh? But it's so nice! Ohhh, I get it. Nick, you finally manned up and asked her out, huh? You sly dog!" Larry shouts, pointing his finger at me. Everybody turns to look at me.

"Wh-what? No, I didn't, I mean I, no I...Uh..." Thanks for putting me on the spot there, "buddy".

"We're just friends!" Maya interjects quickly, saving me from further embarrassment.

"Seriously? Then why not? I bet you'd go out with Nick, if he had the car, wouldn't you?" Larry accuses. He's never really been one to take rejection well.

"Well... Uh..." Maya mumbles. The sun's a bit too bright for me to be sure, but I could swear that I see Maya's cheeks redden. Well? Would you?

"Alright people, let's get a move on! Save the embarrassing yourselves for when you're on the track!" Edgeworth exclaims, hurrying us all along.

Foiled again... I restrain the powerful urge to punch Edgeworth in the face as I pass him. I swear that if I end up getting that car, I am going to do horrible things to it, just to see his reaction.

Larry, Gumshoe, Kay and Franziska pile into their go-karts. Since Maya and I are working together, we take a kart with two seats. I'm about to step into the driver's seat when Maya sticks out her hand to stop me.

"Woah, woah, slow down! What do you think you're doing?" she demands.

"Um... Getting in?" I reply, not really sure what the problem is.

"Not on that side, you're not! I'm driving!" Maya protests.

"What? I've driven plenty of these! The closest you've ever come to driving is playing that stupid kart racing game!" I complain.

"It's not stupid! Besides, I kick your butt at it!"

"That's only because I'm horrible at it!"

"Exactly! You're the worst I've ever seen! No way I'm letting you drive."

"Fine, drive. I don't care." I sit down in the passenger seat grumpily and cross my arms. "How is it that despite being a lawyer, I always seem to lose our arguments?"

"It's probably because you don't want to argue with such a pretty girl." Maya jokes.

"You can say that again." I mutter.

"Huh?" Oh god I said that out loud, didn't I.

"I think we're starting soon, pay attention!" I cry out. Very smooth.

"On your marks..." Edgeworth begins, "Get set... Go!"

The go-karts screech to life. In a flash, Maya's flooring the gas pedal and sailing past everybody. I didn't even know a go-kart could move this fast.

"Told you I should drive!" shouts Maya, her voice being somewhat obscured by the wind rushes past us.

"Slow down!" I yell. "We're gonna crash!"

"No we're not! I'm a professional go-kart racer!" She tries to assure me.

"IN A VIDEO GAME!" I scream.

"Same difference!" She shrugs.

Despite being in total fear for my life, I have to admit that Maya might have a point. Despite us going faster than humanly possible, Maya still seems to be in control of the kart and manages to get around all of the turns easily. I look behind us to see the competition. Gumshoe's a bit behind us, but despite not being in first he seems to be enjoying himself. Right on Gumshoe's tail is Kay, who seems to be a bit more frustrated. They seem to have some sort of friendly rivalry going on. Way behind them is Larry, who keeps steering off of the track and crashing into things, which isn't really that much of a surprise. After all, it took him 6 tries to finally pass his driving test. Surprisingly, in dead last is Franziska, who actually seems to be whipping her go kart for not going fast enough. Go figure. It looks like she's crashing more than Larry is, too.

"Hey Nick, watch this." Maya says to me as we get close to Franziska again, with her still struggling through the first lap while we're on our second. Maya slows down so that we're right beside Franziska's kart, and then she makes a sharp turn, bumping Franziska off course. Her cart turns in the wrong direction and she drives completely off the track, causing her to drive even slower than she already is. Franziska starts screaming something that was probably about us being fools, but we've already driven too far away to hear her.

I burst out into laughter. "What was that? She's going to kill us for that, you know!"

"She's going to have to catch us first!" Maya grins. "Besides, it's payback for her beating you up yesterday."

I grin back. "Maya, you're really something else, you know that?"

"Aww, thanks Nick." This time I'm positive she's blushing.

Without any further distractions (except Franziska trying to whip me once when we drove past her, fortunately she missed) Maya and I are the first ones to finish our first laps. As we slow down at the starting area, Maya leaps out and hugs me.

"First place, Nick! That car's as good as ours!" She cheers.

"U-Um...Yeah." I agree, feeling a bit flustered by the unexpected (yet very much appreciated) intimacy. Pull yourself together, Nick!

"Excellent work, you two." Edgeworth congratulates us. "I must admit that I found that push you gave Franziska's kart to be rather amusing, even though it may have been bending the rules a bit. I suppose I'll let you off the hook this time."

"Hear that Nick? Even Mr. Edgeworth is OK with it! Which means we'll be fine, Franziska's got no reason to try and harm us!" Maya exclaims.

"That's never stopped her before." I moan.

We wait for the other contestants to come in. Kay is the next to arrive, and she seems to feel some sense of accomplishment for being able to pass Gumshoe in the middle of the race. Gumshoe follows after her, claiming that he let her win, and that he's going to beat her for sure next time. Larry follows a while after, for some reason seeming very pleased with his driving despite spending most of the race crashing into things.

Edgeworth is doing a very bad job at masking his laughter by the time Franziska reaches the finish line.

"Well, Franziska. I have to say I'm... pfft... surprised at your performance." He says, trying to mask his chuckles by coughing.

Franziska is not amused. "Driving is for foolishly foolish fools, just like this foolishly foolish game! I don't even need to drive, I have a chauffeur! This was a waste of my time!" She declares through gritted teeth.

"Well, since you were the last one to arrive, I'm afraid you're disqualified from the competition, so you won't have to deal with any more of these 'foolishly foolish games'." Edgeworth replies, his laughter having died out but still bearing a smirk on his face.

"What? My driving may have had a few.. flaws, but I was nowhere as reckless as those two!" Franziska points an accusatory finger at Maya and I. "Their driving was an atrocity! They even ran me off of the road!"

"Now now, Franziska. I won't hear excuses. The rules were that if you came in last, you would be eliminated, and I wouldn't be a very good prosecutor if I just ignored the rules whenever I pleased, now would I?"

Maya giggles at this and I try to mask a snicker. Franziska goes ballistic.

"Rrrrrggghhh! It doesn't matter, this competition is for fools, anyway!" And with that, she turned on me and went on a total whipping frenzy, catching me completely off guard. I crumple to the ground, surrounded in pain.

"What was that for? Nick wasn't even driving the go-kart!" Maya shouts at Franziska.

"Hmmph!" Franziska grunts, and then walks away.

"Nick, are you OK?" Maya asks, crouching down to check on me.

I try to say "No", but it comes out more like "Nghhhhhhp".

The last thing I hear before I lose consciousness is "Well, excellent job, the rest of you. I'll contact you later this evening with details about the second task."