Ch.9

"You ready to race" A blonde hair kid said, he looked about 17 years old and was tall and musclar, his car was a jet blue mustang with racing stripes going down the middle.

"Definetly" Kris replied,

"Be careful Kris" Alex begged. It had rained that day and the roads were still wet from the rain. The only thing to see the puddles on the roads were the moon that now toward up in the sky.

They each got into there cars and pulled up. Cleo dropped her arm and tires squealed as they left the starting line. The boy was in the lead as they sped by, Kris not far behind. They were coming up on a curve, Kris could go to the outside and squeeze right by, but the boy had slid over so instead of going to the outside Kris squeezed by up top. But as she did her car hit a wet spot and slammed into the other car, making it spin out of control and go head on into a tree by the side of the road...

"NO!" Kris sat up in bed, that nightmare. The day she killed someone...she was tempted to never race again...but even if she tried she couldn't stay away. She wasn't the perfect little angel, and probably never would be, her...something she was hoping to forget. And even though she couldn't stop racing she had dropped her racing name and just stayed with her birth name. Kris heard footsteps in the hall, she really didn't want to wake anyone up, but she was afraid she had. Kris slid out of bed and pulled on her cargo pants, her black mustang t-shirt hung down a little bit. She then stepped out into the hall only to see, Nolo, Vert, Karma, and Markie were out moving around. Markie noticed Kris walk out and walked over to her,

"What is going on" Kris asked, afraid of what his answer is going to be

"We heard something" Nolo said, also walking towards her.

Kris noticed Andrea, Alex, and Cleo walk out. They saw Kris at the end of the hall, and walked towards her,

"what is going on" Andrea asked

"Nolo, Vert, Markie, and Karma claim they heard something" Kris answered

Karma walked over and looked them up and down and then just said, "let's just all go back to bed"

"agreed" Vert said, a little irrated that something had woken him up.
All of them cleared out pretty quickly, except Cleo, Alex, Kris, and Andrea. Cleo was standing beside Kris and looked over at her,

"Is something up Kris" Cleo asked

Kris sighed and then motioned them to follow her.

Kris walked towards the Teku garage and leaned against her car putting both of her hands on the hood, Cleo, Alex, and Andrea just stood there watching Kris.

"I had it" Kris said, turning around and looking at them.

"The dream" Cleo asked quietly

"The dream...the nightmare that is tearing my life apart"Kris said

"Kris let it be" Alex said
"That is just it...I can't let it be." Kris said

"How about you talk with your brothers about it" Cleo said
Kris shot her a look, like you have to be kidding.

"you know lets just get to bed and worry about this later" Kris said, desperately trying to change the subject. Cleo, Alex, and Andrea nodded, figuring it would better and than pressing Kris right now, and headed for there rooms, Kris headed for hers. Figuring a good night sleep will help.

The next morning at breakfast the conservation went around about the noise last night. The other Metal Maniacs had found out about it. Kris, Cleo, Andrea, and Alex sat there keeping quiet figuring it would be better than getting involved, but Markie kept watching Kris. He knew something was up, just didn't want to press it, before it's time. Nolo, Vert, and Karma were talking about the noise last night,

"I just don't understand what was going on last night" Vert asked

"Yeah, I know...I mean dead quiet and then that noise...I swear it was a scream" Karma said

Kris couldn't stand it anymore and got up and walked out. Cleo, Andrea, and Alex just watched her go, figuring it was best to just let her be for a while.

Kris was headed for the garage. She had some work to do and she also wanted some time to just think, but before she left she headed for the infirmary to check on Kurt. Vert had woken up several days before and was getting along fine, or like he said it, "back to his normal self", but Kurt hadn't woken up yet. Kris sighed, worry seemed to be on her mind lately, she really didn't want to deal with this. She wanted it back to how it was...not this worrying about her brothers. As she stepped into the infirmary she saw Kurt still out of it. She decided to just let it be and go work on her car. Hoping it will get her mind off of Kurt and Markie.

Back in the Mess Hall, Karma, Vert, and Nolo were talking about what had just happened.

"Kris just left" Nolo said

"Yeah we saw her leave, I wonder what's bugging her" Vert said
"Who knows" Karma said "Wait how do you know something is bugging her"

"We were friends when we were growing up" Vert said

"so you knew her before we even met her" Nolo asked

Vert just answered with a nod, "Back then she went by the name of Viper"

"WHAT!" Nolo and Karma said at the exact same time
"I want to check this out some more" Nolo said, all of them got up and left.

Cleo had heard the conservation and was thinking about how she was going to tell Kris about what she heard. Cleo knew that it was true and that Kris was Viper, but how was she going to find Kris and warn her? Cleo told Alex and Andrea about what she heard and they all had to get to Kris before Karma, Vert, and Nolo. Cleo, Alex, and Andrea got up and ran out to find Kris.

Kris was under her hood fixing some things...when she heard running footsteps. She looked up and saw Cleo, Alex, and Andrea running towards her. Kris cocked a eyeridge at them, as they slid to a stop in front of her,

"What's up?" Kris asked

"Nolo, Vert, and Karma are headed this way" Alex said, panting

"So..." Kris said

"They know about Viper and they want to know if it is true or not...or at least Nolo does" Cleo said
"mmmmm..." Kris said, "Well, speak of the devils" Kris had looked up and saw Karma, Nolo, and Vert walking towards them over Cleo's shoulder.

Kris looked at them as they stopped behind Cleo, Alex, and Andrea.

"Yesssss..." Kris asked, Cleo, Alex, and Andrea had stepped behind Kris.

Nolo just cocked a eyeridge at her, he had a feeling that Cleo, Alex, and Andrea had told Kris about what they heard.

"I won't bead around a bush, I will just get to the chase, what is going on?" Nolo asked

"I will just tell you straight up then" Kris said, "Since Kurt is out right now...I'm thinking about bringing in another driver temoprarily"

"You aren't...She won't like this" Andrea whispered

"Well...she will have to deal with it" Kris hissed back

Nolo just shrugged and then said, "fine...that will be okay. I just want to know one thing"

"And what's that" Kris answered

"Are you Viper" Nolo asked

"That you will never know...now I'm going to go call the temporarily replacement" Kris said walking away.