DEAN

Day 5, 12:10 pm

Kori sighed and hung up the phone in our hotel room. "I'm out," she said. "of the X Games."

Andy and Andrea were in our room with us. The four of us were eating pizza when the phone had rang minutes before.

"Now what?" I asked. "Today's the 250 competition. You could get gold."

Kori shook her head. "Not anymore. I guess I forfeit."

Andy stood. "Let me race," he requested. "I can do it, I promise. I raced before I got into freestyle and I wasn't half-bad. I won't let you down."

Kori shook her head. "No, Andy."

"But I can do it!"

"No!" Kori said sharply. I was a little surprised that she spoke to him in that tone. "No," she said more quietly. "I want a girl on the bike."

"A girl? But where are you going to find a girl that races in 15 minutes? And-" Andy stopped and looked to where Kori was. I turned my gaze there, too, and saw Andie smiling.

"Me?" she asked.

Kori nodded. "Yeah, girl. You."

Andie laughed and got up to hug Kori. "Thank you so much," she said. "This is all I've ever wanted."

"Just don't disappoint me, OK?"

"OK."

~*~

"Andrea Carson is on bike 47 taking Kori Talon's place," the commentator said. "We're not sure what to expect from her since she doesn't have much of a record, but her brother Andy is here doing freestyle and impressing a few of us."

I looked over to Andie and gave her a wink. We were both getting set up at the starting line. We had less than one minute.

I hopped on my bike and started it up. I looked down the line at all the guys I could see. Some I recognized from the past few days' competitions, others were new faces. But I didn't have much time to look. Before I knew it, we were off.

Almost immediately we were separated into a front and back section. Andie and I were both in back. Once the race progressed a little more, I started passing a few people. I'd lost sight of Andie, but I was pretty sure she was behind me somewhere.

The race seemed so short. It ended in what seemed like seconds later. Before I knew it, the places were being announced.

"Out of 10 racers," the announcer began. "Andrea Carson – 10th, Andrew Prince- 9th, Paul Jordan – 8th, Joe Craft – 7th, Dean Talon – 6th, Drew McEllen – 5th, Matt Anderson – 4th, Guy Bentley – 3rd, Kyle Davis – 2nd, and Michael Reed got 1st."

I looked around, searching for Andie. I found her and Kori talking to a guy from ESPN. I realized that it was being broadcasted live on a large TV screen like what they have at most sports games. I turned my attention to that, since it was easiest to see.

"So, Kori, you had your chance at a second gold medal, and you ended up with a final standing at 6th. How does that feel… are you disappointed? A lot of money was on you to win."

"I'm not disappointed at all," she replied. "I accomplished what I wanted to. I began with a girl on the bike and that's how I finished. I couldn't ask for more… except maybe a Step Up gold medal."

"Well, congratulations on that."

Then it switched to another person talking to Michael Reed, the gold medallist. I got off my bike and went to find Kori to tell her how proud I was of her to take the loss so well.

"Words of a champion, from X Games rookie Kori Talon."

Maybe if this were a movie Andie and I would date again, Andy and Kori would date, and us 2 couples would marry, have children, and live happily ever after. Then we'd find Kori's mother's killer and put him behind bars and everything would be pink and fluffy. But that didn't happen, and until it does… well, this was certainly enough for me.

THE END!!!!

A/N: please check out my other Motocrossed fanfic that isn't up yet but will be in maybe a week or so. It takes place right after the movie (btw, it has nothing to do with this fic) and the Carsons get a DIFFERENT 250 rider other than Dean (yeah, imagine how mad Andie gets about that!) and Andy has a suspicion that she wants to commit suicide. Things get bad, sparks will fly… trust me… =)