Today was supposed to be fun, what with it being a big ol' race and all, but Tria was mildly stressed out and that was majorly lame. It was hard to stay psyched up when she knew she had to do actual work and deal with Violet breathing down her neck. Gosh Violet was the worst.
The first time through Europe she hadn't seemed so bad. They didn't have a mission outside of the Speed Fiends thing and that was an easy job, it was just tracking down some loud, obvious idiots and sorting them out. Also Lucky wasn't technically involved even though they totally brought him and didn't tell anyone. Now it was a little harder and the BR Brigade was something that affected everyone and Violet wouldn't leave her alone.
"Hey, uh, don't you have, like, head of the branch things to do?" Tria said, leaning against her buggy. She was aimlessly scrolling through pictures on her phone in a desperate attempt to seem indifferent about the situation.
Violet, who was standing in front of her, had that stupid little cat smile-smirk of hers. "I'm not the head of the branch, Drake is, so that means I can keep an eye on you!"
Tria felt her eye twitch just a little bit. "Yeah but like, you're just staring at me, what's this accomplishing?"
"You're thinking about your bloody assignment, aren't you?" Violet said, and Tria mentally screamed. She was thinking about it and she hated it so much. This was supposed to be a fun day, dammit.
"Why can't Prescott do the looking out, you actually trust him," she grumbled back. The frustration was damming up in her throat, she was gonna blow her cool cover if this conversation kept up.
She noticed Violet crossing her arms and fought off the mild amount of joy that gave her. "Believe me, I'd rather he was doing this, but this branch would fall apart without at least one person doing their damn job all the time. And then obviously Dahlia can't do this so, you know-" Her wand tapped Tria on the head "-I'm supervising you."
That made Tria look up from her phone. She gave her the most uncaring glare she could muster and said, "Wow, thanks for the pep talk."
She got a dumb little grin in return and fought the urge to audibly cuss.
Deciding to poorly attempt a power play, Tria went back to staring at her phone. There wasn't anything she could really do on it, not with Violet like three feet away from her, so it was back to phone pictures. Gosh she didn't have a lot of pictures.
She checked the time, disappointed to see she still had another 15 minutes until her time to race was up. Everyone took turns for the Parsec GP since the track was so narrow, which was pretty stupid. At least there were only two rounds of this nonsense, otherwise she'd be really pissed.
After a couple more minutes of uncomfortable silence, the door to the garage opened. Both of them reflexively looked towards the door and Violet flinched. Tria noticed that immediately and smirked.
"Hey, there you are!"
Lucky ran up and hugged Violet, who was probably the most visibly frustrated that Tria had ever seen. "Heyyy, what're your doing here, you little bugger?" she forced out, not even bothering to move her arms.
"Da said I was stressing him out," Lucky said, and Violet kinda glared off to the side. Tria was enthralled.
"Well, I suppose vague premonitions freak him out sometimes," Violet managed. She noticed the generally smug vibe Tria was giving off and gave Lucky a pat on the shoulder. "Lucky's been feeling a bit anxious about the tournament, is all."
He tried to grin at that but obviously said anxiety was ruining it. "Yep! It's cool because I totally sensed this way before Mum! But also it makes it hard to sleep, so that's kinda lame."
"Oh yeah, that sucks," Tria said languidly. She peeked at the time on her phone and beamed. Two minutes till, time to get ready. "Oop, looks like it's race time! See you guys in, uhhh, twenty!"
She popped open the door of her buggy and, as she climbed up into it, heard Violet yell, "Make sure you look for weirdos!"
"Yeah, whatevs!" Tria said back and slammed her door shut.
Tria was definitely flexing a little bit when she drove up to the starting line in her brand new turf shredder. It was one of the first things she'd bought after ditching Jura a week ago and it was the best purchase of her life. It just drove fast, what else did she need it to do?
She heard the announcer start talking and zoned out. What time she needed to get to move on to the next round didn't really matter when she knew she was gonna win anyways. Eventually the countdown started, she revved her engine for effect, and then she was off.
It wasn't that hard of a course, honestly. She floored it on the straight parts and drifted on turns like crazy because she felt like it, not because it was at all necessary. She actually ran into a ton of crap, too, but she was going fast and there was a lot of stupid adrenaline in her and running into crap and either bouncing over it or going through it was just adding to her enjoyment. She crossed the finish line in like 50 seconds, it was awesome.
And finally, finally when she got back to the garage, it was the start of what she actually wanted to do. The second her shoes hit the ground she knew what to expect.
"Dude, you crushed it out there!"
Tria slammed her buggy door shut and spun around to high-five Dahlia. She'd wanted to enjoy the pre-race hype with her but a between rounds celebration would work. Hopefully Violet wouldn't show up again to be the worst and ruin it.
"Thanks, dude!" Tria said, cracking a grin. "It was awesome out there!"
"How was the track? It seemed kinda short when you went through," Dahlia said, slinging an arm over Tria's shoulders.
She shrugged. "It was alright. Definitely short like you said, but still pretty fun. I'm definitely excited for the final with the full track, though!"
"Hell yeah! That's the spirit!" Dahlia pat her on the back and gestured towards the exit. "You wanna go get a quick pop'r something, by the way?"
Tria blinked. "Oh, uh, yeah, sure. Gotta stay hydrated for the final!"
"Hydration's important!" Dahlia said, starting to walk off. Tria fell in beside her after a few seconds. "Anyways, you gotta go all out for me since Vi wouldn't let me race."
She huffed. "Yeah, gosh, she's the freaking worst."
Dahlia glanced up at her briefly. "Well, she's not normally this bad, but yeah at this exact second she's being the worst."
Tria rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I bet this is because of stupid Lucky being all freaked out about the race."
"Yeah, probably," Dahlia said, then gave her a light smack on the arm. "Whatever, don't worry about it, let's just get you that drink!"
There were a couple concession booths set up in the main square of the park and the lines weren't that bad since group B was still racing. They popped in at the end of a line. Dahlia grabbed her shoulder.
"So, since you're in the final race, we gotta strategize, man," she said, giving Tria a fairly serious look. "You're up against Mach Juan, who's like a freaking machine when it comes to racing."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, he does freaking everything in his car, it's nasty. But he's a really great driver so I guess it excuses it. Kinda. Not really." Dahlia's hands rested on her hips. "You'll probs never meet him since his manager picks up all his trophies'n shit for him, so yeah. You've gotta be giving it 110% if ya wanna win this."
Tria snorted. "I always give it 110%, we chill!"
"Good to hear! But yeah, don't let your guard down, Tria."
Around then a hand that was definitely not Dahlia's grabbed Tria's arm and she tensed up. Combined with the phrase, "Ah, you are Tria?" in a thick Russian accent, she was feeling pretty threatened.
"Uhhhhh, yeah, that's, uh, that's me," Tria replied, looking behind herself as cautiously as possible. Upon seeing the voice belonged to a tall, friendly-looking lady with silver hair, she relaxed instantly. "Oh, okay, who are you, exactly?"
Smiling warmly, the woman let go of Tria's arm. "I am manager of Mach Juan, Olga."
Dahlia elbowed Tria in the side as subtlety as possible. "See? He ain't showing up here."
"Mach Juan wishes to send regards," Olga continued, still absolutely beaming friendliness. Tria hadn't met anyone this nice in the parks so far. Well, maybe besides Sean.
"Cool, I guess?" Tria said, shrugging faintly. "Uh, send mine back?"
"He will appreciate them, I am sure!" she said, and her hands clasped together. "Mach Juan is very excited for race, yes? You were fast, he thinks you will be worthy opponent."
"Oooooo," Dahlia chimed in, eyes wide. "Dude, you're in the big leagues now, this is sick!"
Tria smirked. "Hey, good thing for Mach Juan you ain't racin', if I'm a challenge you'd have him shakin' in his boots!"
"Thanks fam," Dahlia grinned, and they did one of those subtle low-fives.
Olga chuckled at their response. "I am glad you are excited for race, yes? It will be most fun!"
"Hell yeah! Tell Mach Juan I'm ready to beat his sorry ass!" Tria said, and retrospectively cleared her throat. Olga was too nice to swear around, oops.
"Are you two going to order?" suddenly interrupted that thought, and Tria remembered they were in line for a pop. She did a sort of distracted wave at Olga.
"Anyways, uh, nice meeting you!" she said and immediately walked up to the register.
After Dahlia ordered her drink, she paid and they headed back to the garage. Group B was winding down and it was getting close to the final now. There was no sign of Violet so far, thank god.
There was a ding over the intercom. "Would the two finalists Tria and Mach Juan proceed to the starting line?"
Tria and Dahlia looked at each other. "Guess I'm up," Tria said, grinning. Dahlia smacked her on the back.
"Take 'em out for me!"
They high-fived and Tria jogged over to her buggy. She hauled herself in, took a deep breath, and smiled. Time to win.
It took about five minutes to pull up to the starting line. There was a red speed demon already sitting there that Tria assumed belonged to Mach Juan. His face flashing up on the radio seemed to confirm that.
"Hey there, kiddo," he said, pulling his sunglasses down for dramatic effect. "Name's Mach Juan. You've been doing some sick racin' today."
Her competitive nature flared up. "Hell yeah I have!"
He laughed. "I like your attitude, you might make this interesting!"
Around then the announcer's voice boomed over the stadium. "Alright, it's time for the finals! From group A we've got the newcomer, Tria!"
There wasn't as much cheering as Tria would have liked. She stuck her tongue out at the crowd.
"-And from group B, we have the fastest man alive! You know him, you love him, it's Maaaach Juaaaan!"
There was suddenly a lot more cheering and Mach Juan revved his engine a couple times in response. Tria just kinda glared at her steering wheel. It was fine, it was chill, she'd kick his butt and get the attention she deserved.
Mach Juan got to go first since he was actually a recognized individual. He shouted and floored it off the starting line, his tires screeching as he shot off. Gosh he sucked.
It only took about a minute for him to finish the course. Tria shifted slightly in anticipation, smirking as the countdown started. She couldn't wait to see the sad little look on his face, it would be like pushing Jura over and seeing him cry.
And there was the start. She also floored it but it was cool when she did it, and then she was off. Time to ruin this man's career.
The one thing she had on Mach Juan is that her car could go off-road and his couldn't, so that meant some serious short cuts were about to be made. She plowed through a log and broke out cackling when the entire vehicle bounced around violently.
Somehow she managed to avoid hitting any living trees that would have effectively ended her life, and after going off a couple cliffs she was headed towards the final stretch. Tria grinned as she hit a speed boost panel and zoomed across the finish line, crossing at just under 50 seconds.
"Suck it!" she yelled as her buggy screeched to a halt.
His radio didn't even have to connect for Tria to hear his response.
"Great buttery biscuits!"
She snorted. Time to go celebrate with Dahlia.
There was a stupid ceremony where she had to stand on a pedestal in the stadium holding a weird greenish trophy and have people take her picture. It was fun at first but it went on way too long and she got bored halfway through. Eventually some official took the trophy to put it in a display case for her and Tria jogged out to go yell about winning with Dahlia. Unfortunately, she got out into the lobby and was met by Violet instead. Her excited jog quickly changed into a frustrated trudge.
"Congrats on winning the GP!" she chirped, and Tria glanced off to the side.
"Uh, thanks, I guess."
She tapped her wand against the palm of her hand, mildly annoyed. "I can't believe I didn't predict you'd win, that's so weird! Could've saved money by not betting against you."
Oh, so Violet wasn't actually being normal to her again, good to know. Tria rolled her eyes in response. "Yeah, geez, your psychic powers not working is so weird."
Violet side-eyed her. "Okay, anyways," she said, her normal cat-like smile returning, "nothing bad happened! The BR Brigade didn't show up, everything went smoothly, so I'd say today was successful!"
"So what you're saying is you didn't have to bug me all day," Tria said, crossing her arms. Violet glared at her weakly.
"No, I'm not saying that at all," she said plainly. Around then Tria noticed Olga walking up towards them and perked up.
"Hey, Olga!"
The tall woman glanced over in her direction and beamed. "Ah, Tria! Hello!"
Olga had her weird greenish trophy, that seemed strange. Violet froze and turned around very slowly.
"Thanks for bringing me my trophy, I guess?" Tria said, starting to reach for it. Violet grabbed her arm.
"Tria you dumbass!" she said, pointing at Olga, "She's in the BR Brigade!"
Tria blinked. "Wait, shit, really?"
"Yes!" Violet said, and Olga took off running.
The two of them stared for a second at her disappearing out the door. Tria's brain was still reeling over the development that this totally friendly person was apparently criminal. And so, thoughts still scrambled, she said, "Yikes."
Hey guys! I tried to get this up earlier but I'm actually on a school trip rn and haven't had time to write lol. Had to get back into my Tria writing groove too so that was a little bit of a wrench in things but otherwise this has been fine! the trip's great, I've seen a crap ton of birds and it's awesome, and I'm super excited to get back to writing this a bit more! Hopefully I can update again soon :)