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Chapter 3:
"I think I'm gonna take off," Andrei said, after they took several group photos. "I promised my family that I was going to take them out tonight. We have a lot of catching up to do."
"Us too," Mark said, waving a hand at his crew, "We have a lot of work to do with the upgrades."
"Yeah!" said the 3 mechanics in unison.
Miss Satomi and the others watched as the 4 men said their good byes and left. Amy was helping Jesse clean the plates and tables, while Luca slept on one of the chairs. Miss Satomi had a meeting with another possible sponsor, High Wire, a new gaming company, whose stock shares went thru the roof in just 2 weeks.
Before she left, she gave them a thumbs up and said, "I really am proud of you guys!"
Meanwhile, Johnny was having the time of his life! He couldn't wait to tell his friends that Miss Satomi invited him for a tour of Satomi Headquarters tomorrow. Yuri was yelling at Takeshi for spilling some punch on her shirt. Liz was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, thinking. She was proud of herself…..of all of them. They managed to work together and get through this hectic season. She had a flashback of their first match against Team White Snow; when Amy was seriously injured and had to be hospitalized. Their coach, Andrei, a.k.a The Rocket, took over as Midfielder. She looked over at Amy, who was now picking up Luca and petting him.
"She may not look it, but Amy is a very tough pilot," she thought.
Her comeback was pretty damn amazing! River was itching to take her out, but with quick thinking, her and Luca recovered and helped Team Satomi defeat Team Sledge Mama. Much to the dismay of Sledge Mama's captain, Yamma. Liz then looked over at Takeshi, who was trying to calm his sister down. Man, did he frustrate Liz in the beginning! He only cared about himself; he wanted to be the best on his own. Her and Takeshi were always butting heads. She liked it though; always got her fired up, but deep down inside she really did care for him. No way was she going to admit, in the beginning, that Takeshi made her feel a certain way….it was embarrassing…it was too girly-girl like…it was so not like her!
"Too much pride, I guess," she accidentally said out loud.
The young group looked at her, confused.
"WHAT!" she yelled, after realizing she was thinking out loud.
They just shrugged their shoulders. Takeshi gave up on his sister, who was now buttoning up her jacket to cover up the stain, and walked up to Liz.
"You ok?" he asked as he stood next to her.
Liz sighed, "Hmmm, yeah. Thinking about the season."
"Brutal, but awesome," Takeshi added.
Neither of them said a word for several minutes; they just stood there watching the others. Takeshi glanced over at her a couple times, but never spoke. Then, unexpectedly, he quickly felt Liz's hand wrapping around his own. He looked down and then at her. He could see her cheeks becoming a little red, but she continued looking at the others, not saying a word. Takeshi grinned, and there they stood hand-in-hand, leaning against the wall, not saying anything. Jesse spotted the two of them there and remembered how she walked in on them just when they were about to kiss. She started beaming again. She nudged Amy on her side so she could have a look at them. Amy giggled.
"I think we have our first fan club," Takeshi whispered to Liz.
She saw the girls looking away the minute Liz saw them.
"Maybe now is a good time to call it a day here," she said, feeling as if a million people were watching them right now.
"Maybe," Takeshi said.
"Guys, we're leaving," Liz said to the remaining group.
Gotta get ready for tonight, huh?" Jesse said with a smirk on her face.
Both of them blushed.
"Don't do anything that I wouldn't do," Yuri said to them.
"Which is what? Nothing?" Takeshi answered back.
Yuri just pouted and yelled, "DON'T THINK I'M GOING TO FORGET WHAT YOU DID TO MY SHIRT! YOU OWE ME!"
"You know where I live," Takeshi said, trying to sound serious, "Send me a bill or something."
And with that, both he and Liz took off after waving good bye to everyone.
"How do you think it's going to turn out, "Amy asked the others.
They shrugged their shoulders.
"With those two," Jesse said, "who knows."
Out in the hallway, Liz and Takeshi found themselves alone again. On the outside, they both looked cool and collected, but on the inside, they were both nervously anticipating their very first date….TOGETHER!
"So….what did you want to do first?" he asked her.
Liz thought about it for a few minutes, but it wasn't until she felt the cool crisp air outside Satomi Headquarters, that she decided that a nice quiet walk in the park would do just fine.
"Wanna go for a walk?" she asked him.
Takeshi nodded his head, "That's fine. There's a hot dog stand in the park; I'm craving for a hot dog or two."
"You're still hungry? Geez, Takeshi, you can be a real pig sometimes," Liz said.
"You should talk," he said, "Amy told me that you ordered everything on the menu down at the Chinese restaurant and then ordered seconds."
Liz's face turned red. "Why did Amy have to tell him that?" she thought to herself.
"Hey, we had a long day! I was hungry…I couldn't help myself," she answered.
"Oink oink," Takeshi playfully said to her.
"Shut up!" she yelled at him.
"Guess old habits die hard," he said.
Both of them stopped walking, stared at one another…… and started laughing.
The trees around them started rustling from the cool breeze. Liz accidentally left her jacket back at the building and was feeling a little chilly. Takeshi saw her rubbing her arms. Without thinking about it, he took his jacket off and put it around her.
"What are you doing?" she asked him after the jacket was placed around her.
"Oh, well, you looked cold, so I thought I would offer you my jacket."
"I'm not some damsel in distress, Takeshi. I'm fine," she answered back.
"Sorry, Liz. I thought I was helping," he said as he was about to take his jacket back.
"Now what are you doing?" she asked him.
"You told me that you were fine," he said, sounding confused.
"Well……you already offered it to me. You can't just take it back! It's ok...really," she said, looking down.
Takeshi looked at her, "Yup, I still have ALOT to learn about girls, but I guess Liz isn't used to this kind of attention" he thought.
"Sorry again, Liz. I just…….."
"No, Takeshi...I'm the one who should be sorry," she interrupted, "I grew up acting a certain way, and this right now is just something that I should get used to, that's all."
Takeshi slowly turned her to face him. They both blushed when they made eye contact.
"Liz, I like you just the way you are. I asked you out, didn't I?"
"I know, but…."
"But nothing," he said, "Continue acting like yourself, Liz. That's all I want."
Liz felt a deeper appreciation for him, but out of curiosity, she asked, "How would you describe me?"
Takeshi was taken aback by her question. He thought about it for a moment.
"Where to begin……." he began, looking away, "Loud, obnoxious, bossy……. did I mention loud?"
He looked over at Liz. Her mouth was hanging open. She looked like she was about to explode.
"Liz, relax. I'm just having a little fun with you."
Liz loosened up a little.
"That's the popular opinion about you from the rest of the team," he added, smiling.
"Oh……...WHAT!" she yelled.
Takeshi started laughing. Liz slapped him on the back as hard as she could. He fell and luckily, landed on a pile of leaves. This time it was Liz who was laughing. She extended her hand out to help him up, but he ended up pulling her down towards the leaves.
"Guess, you should learn to block my moves," he said.
"I guess so."
They sat there, on the leaves, gazing at one another.
Come on, let's go find your hot dog stand," Liz said.
They both got up, wiped some leaves off of them, and headed for the stand. When they got there, Takeshi ordered 2 hot dogs; one for Liz and one for himself. They mostly talked about the IGPX and the way Cunningham took off before Team Satomi were to go up on stage to accept their trophy.
"I respect the guy and all," Liz was saying, "but I think he's a little too obsessed with it."
"Maybe, but you have to admit that he is a damn good pilot. It's never a boring race with Team Velshtein," Takeshi said.
They talked for what seemed like an eternity. Liz spotted a little chipmunk next to the park bench where they were sitting. Liz isn't a big animal lover, but she started to get used to Luca being around them alot. She dropped a small piece of her hot dog on the ground so that the chipmunk could have it. Takeshi watched her; seeing Liz's tender side. A leaf from a nearby tree landed on her head. Takeshi gently removed it; Liz felt his hand and looked over at him. They both hesitated as they looked at each other. They closed their eyes and began to slowly move closer to one another, when Takeshi heard Liz laughing. He opened his eyes and saw Liz staring at his head.
"What?" he asked.
"That...chip...he's sitting...the chip...on your head!" she said laughing.
He felt something jump off of him as he and Liz were quickly interrupted by a group of fans asking for their autographs and wanting their pictures to be taken.
"I forgot that we are pretty recognizable here," Liz thought.
"Uh, oh," she heard Takeshi say.
She followed his gaze and spotted what was making him react like that; 2 reporters were heading in their direction! Not now! Not the paparazzi! Personally, Liz wanted to take them out, but she knew that wasn't the wisest thing to do at this point. Takeshi quickly grabbed Liz's hand and they took off running in the opposite direction.
"He's HOLDING her hand!" one of the fans shouted.
"Thanks!" Liz thought sarcastically.
Hearing that, the reporters were more determined to catch up to the alleged couple.
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End of Chapter 3. Hope you guys are liking it. Stay tuned for Chapter 4 : )