The bell rang and young people soon flowed out of the big facility, brimming with energy. This special occurrence was something one could only see on a Friday. Students entered the school at dawn, looking more like the dead than a living person and only a few hours later everyone was all sunshine and rainbows.

No one was excluded. Teachers and students alike basked in the thoughts of a bright time in front of them, a weekend. Nobody could leave the cursed building of horrors fast enough. Eva was the happiest of all. Her smile wasn´t cocky or teasing, it was warm, so warm and nice that it creeped the hell out of her friends.

"As much as we like you smile…" the younger one of the twins started "…it's freaking me out!" Aki threw his hands in the air and hid behind his brother, who wasn´t all too happy about it, but let it slide for now.

"I like her smile." Demnian added shyly. Some of-course-you-would-say-that-looks were shot at him, but the new member of the group (now officially one) decided to back him up. "Doesn´t everyone like to see his friends happy?"

The boys turned back to Eva whose face changed from warm and loving to pure evil, while they weren't looking. "Ok now that's creepy." The boys huddled together like frightened bunnies and looked in the direction their friend was looking.

A girl with over-bleached hair and a bloody red face was hauling a heavy box up the stairs. Fighting with some really outdated clothes, her skimpy ones got confiscated, she tried to pull, push or kick the box upstairs. The stupid girl was the centre of attention, a situation she normally enjoyed, desired, needed. Right now the stares weren't full of admiration, if they ever were, they were practically laughing.

Teenagers are cruel, but there was an important lesson to learn. Sometimes you must sink to the bottom to find yourself and the nurse made sure of that. She wasn´t licit, but her air of authority overpowered even the principal. Nobody wanted to make the school-nurse their enemy, especially if she was the sister of one's wife.

The bitches' followers were itching to help her, not out of human kindness, but out of fear of losing their place among the others. A leader without power was useless and they would lose their goal, whatever goals a bitch would have, nobody has solved this mystery jet. Only one stern look held them in place and they were being forced to watch their leader despair.

"You are cruel, Eva." Haru cleaned his glasses, not able to look anymore. What seemed funny at first soon turned pitiable. The other boys nodded silently in agreement.

The redhead didn´t took their comment to heart, instead opting for a funny counter attack. "Who was water bombed by them last year? In winter? I think that's karma."

Karma or not the group decided to leave, they still had a group-"date" at a popular café.

Rays of light warmed the air and brightened everything and everyone was in a god mood. Eva didn´t expect to treat Demnian to cake at a maid café, but it certainly had a very good atmosphere. The redhead liked the place enough to consider coming here more often.

After a while a maid took their orders and they started chatting among each other. Aki found out that his friend's warm smile was nothing to worry about. It was a rare occasion, but the girl got a letter from a friend from another country and it even said that he would see her soon. It was certainly unusual to send scrolls instead of e-mails, but hey, not everyone liked modern technology.

Their cakes arrived a short time after ordering. At first they wondered why they all got a scoop of ice cream with their order, but the petite maid with brown hair simply smiled and said something about a co-worker sending their greetings. A water bottle was thrown at her and she struggled catching it instead on getting hit head-on.

Everyone who happened to see the bottle fly, turned in the direction it came from. Only seeing white hair disappear into a black spacecar.

Eva looked confused at the poor maid who nearly got hit by a full water bottle, only to see the maid smiling. A small note on the bottle read following: "Don´t forget to drink enough in summer. I don´t want you collapsing of dehydration - again. Ps: I want the bottle back, by Monday."

The rest of the afternoon went by rather eventless and they split up as it started to get cloudy. The twins walked to the nearest train station and Demnian took off in the opposite direction. Eva and Pierre walked back to school to fetch his starcycle and drove to their respective homes first. They couldn´t go shopping if the sun was still so far up. The best stuff still got sold at night.

"This will cost 200 (insert currency)"

"Outrageous! This piece of junk isn't worth more than 100."

"100!? That´s a joke, this is a limited edition, works better than the normal ones, it's up at a bargain price and now you want to pay only half of it?!"

"Hah! I know your tricks. This is piece isn't worth more. This model works well at first but a production error guarantees certain breakdown after 1 month and it takes half of the cycle with it!"

"… 180 then."

"…"

"165?"

"…"

"…150?"

"Deal."

"Why did you shout at the poor salesman? I thought you would start strangling each other at any moment."

"That's called gambling, Pierre. You can´t just say yes and buy it at their price, you´d lose a fortune for nothing."

"But this gear is defect, you said so yourself."

"Nothing I can´t repair." Eva pulled out a screwdriver out of her bag and started pulling out some screws and putting them in at another place, a part of the device was brutally broken off and some strange stares were shot at them.

The duo wasn´t the centre of attention for long. "The cops!" Everyone within a radius of 2 kilometres started to run, salesmen packed their merchandise and closed the shops. Everyone hid as best as they could.

Eva and Pierre were one of the very unfortunate, who couldn´t hide fast enough and were now running from the spotlights of the police task force. The redhead led the way and her classmate followed her but every turn another one of those damned police cars appeared. There was no opening and no way out. The girls breathing was ragged from the sudden use of so her lungs and her heart felt like it would jump out from her chest.

They almost got caught if someone didn´t pack them at their collars and pulled them into a narrow alleyway. Unfortunately the alleyway was so narrow, that they stumbled across each other and laid sandwiched on the ground, Eva in the middle and Pierre on top of her.

The three people waited till the police passed by and no sound of them was heard. They only started to move when the typical market noise reached their ears. "Ouch, you two are heavy."

"Sorry." The blond boy quickly scrambled of his classmate and helped said one up. The other person stood by itself and patted it´s earth coloured clothes free from dust. Blue eyes shone brilliantly in the dark, even if the alleyway was only dimly lit by the lights of the marketplace.

"Ah, it´s you!"

Eva pointed her finger at the boy in front of her. Shock written on her face. She wouldn´t have guessed to meet him here out of all places. Well, given that he obviously has something to do with races, she could have, but it was very unlikely to meet so soon.

"So we meet again." The boy looked around. "Let´s not talk here. I know a place we can go to."

3 figures sat on a steel bar and looked down on the turmoil on the streets below. The bright lights of the market made it almost impossible to see them. You could only see their silhouettes if you were looking for them. Hidden by the shadows they started talking. It was no forced talk, there really was no need to talk. About what should they talk? Why were they even up there, hidden from the curious glances of others? Nobody knows and nobody will.

"Sorry for last time, I didn´t get the chance to thank you properly." Blue eyes looked at brown ones.

"No problem. I had to go suddenly, cause the start was soon and my dad was waiting." Eva looked up at him, not able to stop staring in the eyes that mirrored the sky.

"Sorry, what are you talking about?" Pierre tapped his classmate on the shoulder to get her attention. "From where do you know each other?"

The redhead was quick to answer the question. "I met this guy some time ago on the weekend. We literally ran over each other."

"You met at the USR?" Pierre's eyes widened. He liked spaceraces as much as the next boy, but he wasn´t so sure about the illegal ones.

"Yeah don´t remember me. It was awful." Eva frowned and turned to the other boy sitting beside her. "What did you think? You were there too. The end was just so, so…"

"Contrived?"

"Yeah. At first it seemed normal but the end was just too suspicious." Eva let her anger out, but kept her voice to a moderate level.

"It was indeed fake." The boy wrapped his arms around his legs and hid part of his face in his legs.

The redhead looked at the albino beside her. "What makes you so sure?"

The white haired boy chuckled and took his braid in one hand, a little wiggle with his eyebrows and a guilty smile were all it took for the girl to realize what was going on. "You are White?!" Eva jumped so fast onto her feet that she nearly fell of the half build skyscraper. She would have fallen if Pierre weren't there to catch her.

It all made sense now. Why couldn´t she see it sooner? The obvious hint about his hair colour, the delay, because he got lost on his way to the toilet and his knowledge about the faked race.

What? Wait a moment. How did he know about the faked race and why did it leave him so cold? He lost the race after all. Total defeat, no price money, nothing. One look at his face said more than thousand words could.

"You faked the wrong turn to let Team Valens win?!" Eva was trembling with rage, not even Pierre's calming hand on her shoulder helped anything. She wouldn´t have guessed that the boy in front of her would do something so dishonourable than fake an entire race. Racing was here to compete, to test ones limits… to find oneself. "What would you get out of it? There is now gain in losing!"

A hand on her mouth stopped her. The target of her anger got up at least and looked deep into her eyes. Emotion radiated from them and the redhead couldn´t put her finger on it. At first she thought of anger, but that wasn´t the case. Maybe frustration? No that makes no sense.

"You don´t know half of it." Every word was sharp and punctuated. White's eyes were glowing dangerously, challenging her to say anything more. The usual relaxed happy-go-lucky face was replaced with one that made her veins freeze. "These races are not there to fight fair. It´s to settle, debts, to decide something and most of all: to make money. This is the underground, everything here revolves about money. If they want me to win I´ll win, if I get more if I let another one win, I´ll lose."

She wasn´t one to get intimidated by another boy, she had seen worse, but his voice sent shivers down her spine. Not wanting to give up on him she did the only thing she could think of. "Then race me."

Both boys looked at her in shock. The girl's eyes showed a fire of passion, daring anyone, anything to say no to her. "You said it´s about settling debts or getting what we want, so well do it your way. If I win, you´ll fight with all you got from now on."

"Sure. And what happens if I win? What do I get out of this fuss?" His eyes didn´t remember her of the sky anymore, they resembled ice, cold and hard.

"Eva that's a bad idea. Your father said you mustn´t race. What if he gets wind of this?" Pierre tried his best to stop his friend from making a mistake, she would regret later, but the redhead was stubborn.

"Oh please, I have done worse things than that without his knowledge. This is the underground. Nobody will tell him, he´s a legal after all." Eva didn´t care what her blond friend had to say.

The young girl was fixated on winning. This white haired boy had hurt her pride, the way she, and her mother before her, thought. He had to pay. Even if it meant crushing him. Sure she was one to boast about her racing skills if she deemed it necessary, or wanted to make her point clear to her not so understanding dad, but today she decided to stay silent. Surprise would be on her side. Nobody would be able to defeat the winner of the great race of Oban, sure she was defeated once or twice, but she had family issues to attend at that time, don´t blame her.

"You done jet?" A chill ran down her spine and she turned around. White came towards her with a hard expression on his face. The lower half of his face was hidden by his green scarf, which only contributed to the cold stare he was giving her. Blue eyes flared in the dim light and anger never seemed so cold to the redhead.

A man in tattered designer clothes and silver chains around his neck followed him suit, obviously afraid of the determined underground-racer, who explained the rules in a fast and merciless way. "Each one of us pays 3000 (insert currency) and we can use the training racers of this facility, if you damage one you pay the repairs. If one can´t pay…" one heads of gesture later "… we will both use the griffon model, an all-rounder for every terrain. Not good or bad at anything, pure driving skills." The winner gets his deposit back and of course the stated price. You just need to sign."

The rules were simple enough. Start at the green light, drive to the red point on the map and win. No weapons, no fouls. Everyone drove on his own, no co-pilot. Eva clearly had the advantage, rumours said that White was bad with directions and now there was no Black there to help him. Eva on the contrary never had any help, exempt Rick Thunderbolts coaching, with her races. This spoiled guy would go down.

"Ready?" The lights turned on and Eva shifted in her seat. "One."

The motors of the two identical space racers growled. "Two. Tree."

The redhead glanced at her opponent, who was surprisingly calm and focused, his eyes darting from screen to screen. "Four. Race!"

It was clear. The screen couldn't lie. The outcome of this race was utter defeat. Clearly written in red letters. Griffon 2 had won this race, by exactly 15 seconds. The track was long sure, but it seemed so short, when they were racing.

The redhead was panting due to the strain in her muscles from gripping the handles of her griffon too hard. She gave her best and the numbers on the screen proofed that, her skills were a little bit rusty, but she still managed to set a new hall record. 7,56 seconds earlier than the previous high scorer at this hall who held the top position over a year was defeated in a heated race between a hothead and a strange guy.

She did great, she really did great, she was in the lead the whole time, so why? Why? Why did she lose? Wasn´t she leading the whole time? A good start, the best route? No obstacles? Why? Indeed, why?

A pale hand took of the security helmet they put on their head and a white braid was pulled over one shoulder. The boy looked down from the top of his starracer at the poor girl who already left hers and was now looking up at him, literally. Devil wouldn´t even begin to describe the way he looked now. His dignified stance and the solemn look on his face were illuminated by bright white light. The lower part of his face showed for the first time and a grin adored his face. Evil, he was pure evil. Everyone standing on the ground and witnessing this scene would call him Lucifer himself.

Feather light steps went down the vehicle and White landed with grace, showing no sign of gravity. Impossible given that he jumped at least 2 and a half meter down. No normal person would get away with something like this, without breaking at least one of his or her bones.

His steps were slow and direct. Eva had the sudden urge to flee, she told herself that she wasn´t afraid, but her legs told her otherwise. Please don't give out, please don´t give out. Please …

"True power…" The albino was only inches from her face away, mouth and nose hidden by the dark green scarf, but voice clear despite being only a whisper.

"True power on the road is the one to control the outcome. I wouldn´t have gained anything from losing today, so I had to defeat you."

The ice in his eyes soon turned back to the colour of the sky, or was it the feeling? The redhead couldn´t describe her feelings of relieve as the eyes of her opponent returned to the one that resembled her dearest friend so much.

"Don´t take it to heart dear. You are good, but I had the stronger desire to win." Those were the last words he said, before he disappeared. The try to follow him was futile, for a person with rumoured non-existent orientation skills, he sure was fast.

Note: Written during lessons and a little more after school. Yeah! I´m hungry, very hungry, want to make a "Strudelel", but to impatient. Need to get my stuff back from friend's house. Decided that over 3000 words are a good length for a chapter. Since I´d have to force the rest. Wrote 3 days on this. (date: 22.6.)

Now for the story: Well get a little more adventure in this chapter. The story should get interesting from this point on, but we still have a long way, to reach Oban.