A/N: X Games are now over… boo hoo! I KNEW Tommy Clowers was gonna win Step Up! I was rooting for him the whole time. And Metz… backflip to backflip! VERY impressive!!!! (even though I don't like Metzger that much… or the Metal Mulisha, for that matter.) Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed X Games VIII as much as I did!

DEAN

Day 2, 9:28 AM

"I've always hated that," Kori said, her eyes on the TV.

"What?" I asked, continuing to look at my car magazine. We were sitting in the hotel room having some downtime for once. She was laying on one of the beds on her stomach, her head at the foot of the bed, and I was laying the opposite way on the other bed.

"You're not even listening," she stated.

I closed it and looked at her. "What do you hate?"

Kori seemed to be in a different world as she spoke next. Her tone was even and gentle, her eyes staring ahead at nothing in particular. "When you're meters away from the finish line, an inch ahead of the other guy, when you suddenly slip. Wipeout. The bike ends up on top of you and you're lucky if you can go home with less than 4 broken bones. Not to mention now you're probably gonna finish last."

OK, that was weird, I thought. Not necessarily what she said, but how she said it. Kori was definitely on my list of strange, very freaky people.

"Yeah, that would suck," I said.

"It's like… victory is right there. Hang on for 5 more seconds and you're the very best. One slip, and it's all gone."

"Uh-huh." I opened back up my magazine, but when she continued talking I turned my attention back to her.

"I think that racers – any kind of racer – are the only people who really realize how fast everything can be taken away. Who really, truly realize the reality of the effects of one fire, one theft, one arrest, one car crash…"

"Yeah."

Kori turned to look at me. "You're such an insensitive jerk, Dean."

My eyes widened. "What?" I demanded. "What was that? I didn't ask for that!"

"All you care about are gears and parts! Did you ever stop to think that maybe people-"

"Woah, there. Hold on. Before you start lecturing me, would you like to tell me how you decided that I'm such a jerk?"

"I'm trying to have a deep, meaningful conversation with you and all you can say is "Yeah, uh-huh, that sucks." When all the while I'm trying to make a point on a more…" She paused, looking for the right word. "On a more significant level."

I really didn't want to get into this with her. Especially not right now. I was really sick of fighting with her about this "meaningful, significant" stuff, so I just let it roll.

"Fine, then. I guess I'm a jerk."

"Finally, you're right for once."