Chapter 8: Forgiving and Going Down Under
Rachel looked out at the skies the next morning, hoping that Dylan would return, but as the race was almost ready to go, she didn't see him.
"Amber," she said. "Do you think I was too hard on Dylan, telling him to drop out, even if it was for his safety?"
"Well," Amber said slowly. "You probably could have been a little gentler with it, but I think you right about his safety being number one, but he knows the risks and he's still willing to race despite that."
Rachel sighed. "You're right. I was a total idiot, and now either we do the race without Dylan or just drop out completely."
"No way!" shouted a voice. "The Flight Hearts never quit!"
Rachel and Amber whirled around just in time to jump back to avoid getting slammed into by Dylan pulling a fast short stop. "Dylan!" The girls exclaimed happily, too excited to scold him for nearly running them over. All three best friends group hugged each other.
"You came back," Rachel said. "Dylan, I'm...,"
"It's okay, Rach," said Dylan. "I'm sorry I quit."
"I'm sorry I doubted you could still race," she said. "Can you forgive me?"
"Only if you forgive me too," said Dylan, holding his hand out for a handshake.
"Deal," said Rachel, shaking his hand with a smile.
"Okay, come on, guys! We've got a race to do!" said Amber as the Flight Hearts took their place at the starting line.
"Down Under, here we come!" The three cried in unison as they took off.
Surprisingly, the race when smooth, but Rachel kept looking over her shoulder to see Ripslinger glaring at them. He had hoped when Dylan had left that the Flight Hearts would quit the race, but here they all were. Feeling somewhat smug, she stuck her tongue out at him and thumbed her nose as if to say "Na-na!" That made Ripslinger even more angry, especially when Amber back Rachel up and Dylan came up nearer to him.
"When you try to trick us, you end up being the tricked one!" he taunted and flew away to join the others, laughing and taunting Ripslinger more before hitting the throttle hard and pulling away fast and landed in Australia in third place, something that made them wildly happy and Ripslinger landed sixth place because his ego was wounded and he was mad.
Later on, the Flight Hearts were enjoying a relaxing evening after radioing their mentors who were very happy that Dylan had made it and the team had landed third place.
"Good job, you three," said Skipper. "You've made us proud."
"Si, very proud," said El Chu.
"You've done well," Bulldog said.
"Next stop is Hawaii," Skipper said.
Rachel's eyes lit up. "I've always wanted to go there!" she said excitedly.
"Luau!" Amber shouted excitedly as she and Rachel began dancing crazily, making Dylan laugh.
"Can't wait to get a taste of the famous islands," he said.
The girls finally calmed down enough to sign off and collapse around the campfire they had burning brightly. Suddenly, the door was thrown open by an angry Ripslinger and the Flight Hearts jumped up to confront the green flyer.
"What gives, canalla!?" Rachel growled at him.
"One last warning," he answered. "Drop out now."
Dylan marched up to him. "Listen, creep," he said. "You've pulled every nasty trick in the book just so that you can hog all the glory because winning is all you care about. Not teamwork or good friends, and that's why no matter how many wins you have, you are always the loser."
"Dylan's right," said Rachel. "The friendship the three of us have is more important than winning any race or trophies, because to us, having friends is the best award."
"Now get out, Ripslinger," said Amber. "And don't come back unless you have an apology for us, which we know will never happen because you're too stupid to even come up with a decent apology!"
With that, all three charged at him and shoved him out the door, slamming it shut to send him a crystal clear message.
"We'll see how you feel when I win the race, losers," said Ripslinger before rolling away. But he didn't notice that Rachel heard him.
"Oh, we'll definitely see about that when the time comes, canalla," she said to herself as she then turned in with her fellow flyers for the night.
Whew! Sorry for the Flight Hearts ranting at Ripslinger, guys, but after pulling that nasty trick in Italy to Nepal, I kinda figured the kids should give him a taste of his own medicine. Oh, and yes, Amber has a very fiery temper and does tend to say things like that when she's mad. I'm sure Ripslinger is smart, but he's really a bad guy who doesn't care about others. The moral of this is: don't let something like winning get in the way of having good friends. You end up with no friends in the end. Anyway, hope you liked it!
Next chapter: The kids have fun in Hawaii and is truly a place for love!