Jordan walked with Eva down to the Avatar's temple the next morning; he couldn't help yawning and dragging his feet, though.

Eva looked at him and commented, "You're dead on your feet. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said.

When they reached the center of the temple, Jordan noticed that all the teams were there except the Erridian. He also noticed Eva approach an alien they had raced before on the first trip to Oban. His name was Spirit.

Eva seemed to be afraid, but she was sincere when she talked to Spirit. "How are you today, Spirit?"

The alien simply nodded and seemed to gesture the same question back to Eva, who replied, "I'm fine."

Then an alien named Garan who served as the Avatar's servant climbed up on the large rock in front of them. He counted all the teams and asked, "Where's the twelfth team?" Everyone looked around. The Crog stepped forward and said, "I believe that the Erridian team has withdrawn from the competition." Then he laughed.

Jordan tensed. 'What? No!' he yelled mentally. 'They can't have! I haven't heard a word about them doing so.'

Then everyone suddenly heard a noise in the tall grass. Jordan looked with them all to see if it was them.

The Erridian mechanic named Kaleb walked out, to Jordan's disappointment. Was Kezi never going to show her face again?

Kaleb walked to the group and said, "HAIL NO! We ain't withdrawing!" He had the stupidest grin on his face.

"Kaleb!" the rest of the pilots heard from the grass. Jordan recognized one as Kezi's.

The two Erridians ran out into the open in their apparent sleeping clothes. Both Zack and Kezi's hair was in complete disarray. Kezi spotted Kaleb and ran over to him.

Garan looked between Kezi and Kaleb and asked Kezi, "I s he your new representative?"

Kezi grew agitated at the question. "Uh-uh. No way. He just turned off our alarms and was plotting something." She turned her eyes on Kaleb as she held the collar of his shirt. Jordan could almost see the anger radiate from her.

Kaleb just laughed at her and lodly said, "See how grouchy she is in the morning, everyone?"

Kezi couldn't control herself; she punched him as hard as possible in his face. He fell backwards, yelling, "Ouch!"

Kezi then walked up between Rush and Jordan to turn her attention to Garan. "What did we miss?"

Garan merely said, "Nothing. I was just fixing to discuss the next racing rules."

Zack came over and stood between Rush and Kezi. Garan began, "Well, the next race will take place in an ocean region of the mother planet. And it doubles the points today."

Kezi smiled at that. 'I still have a chance to catch up...' she beamed mentally.

Garan spoke, "The race begins in three hours. You'd best get yourselves ready." And with that, he was gone.

The pilots dispersed back to their pits; Jordan stayed behind to spy on the Erridian team.

Zack helped Kaleb to his feet as Kezi seemed lost in thought; Kaleb rubbed where Kezi had hit him in the eye.

"Damn." he complained. "Why'd you do that?! It hurt!"

"Good. It should have."

"Why are you so bitter?"

"Why are you so annoying?"

"Ya know..." Kaleb began. "I really hope you don't have a brother you treat like this."

"Kaleb..." Zack scolded as he saw a spasm of pain shoot across Kezi's face. She put her pissed-off face again quickly and walked away.

Jordan saw Zack slap the back of Kaleb's head as he said, "You idiot. We're going back to the temple." They walked off in the opposite direction of Kezi.

Jordan decided to follow and make sure Kezi would be okay.

Kezi paced in a small garden. She was probably trampling all over the flowers, but she was too angry to even care. She finally sat down and wrapped her arms around her legs. Kaleb was an idiot; she shouldn't let his words get to her. But she couldn't help it. They did.

She stood up abruptly and wiped her angry tears away from her face. She thought it was an embarrassing habit to cry when she got pissed off. She stood for a long time with her arms crossed. She turned to find Jordan standing in front of her path. She grew afraid and angry at the same time. She decided to appear angry.

"What do you want?" she growled. Jordan looked at her gently.

Kezi got even more angry; she refused however to remove her arm from in front of her chest. "Well?"

"Kezi." he walked a couple of steps toward her. When he was within touching distance however, Kezi had jumped up into a nearby tree. She looked down at Jordan with narrowed eyes. She didn't trust him at all.

"Will you please coe down?" Jordan asked. She frowned at him. "Why?" she countered.

Jordan shrugged and said, "I was just wanting to apologize for the things I said." He looked up. "Are you going to come down?"

"No. I like it up here a lot better."

"Listen...I know I was horrible to you but, please Kezi. In all honesty, you're my best friend." He saw Kezi's surprised face as he said that.

He continued. "I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just...well...I shouldn't have forced you to...well..." He was at a loss for words.

Jordan was surprised when Kezi jumped out of the tree in front of him. She wouldn't look at him, and her face was bright red.

She stammered her words out. "Well...uh..you didn't...force me at all...actually...I...uhh..."

Jordan's eyes widened at her words; She shook her head back and forth, and her curls bounced with the movement.

He choked out his words. "What...what...do...you mean?"

Kezi gasped as her face got even redder than before. She quickly shouted her next words at him. "Ex-Exactly what I said!"

She took off running.

Jordan just stood there, dumbfounded.

'Is sh-she being serious?' he asked himself. 'I mean...I assumed that...that I...'

This news changed everything.