"Ahh, Prince Aikka, I see you've met Eva. She is Earth's youngest champion and if she agrees your opponent." The President smiled.
I looked at my father for a moment and seeing nothing but distaste for the race in his cold eyes. Looking at the serene eyes of the prince and then back to my father something snapped. I smiled at the President knowing full well that what I was about to say could, and probably would, end my carrier. "I'd love to."
The Prince smiled back and the President went on about the good I was doing. I was still smiling even though I could feel the cold anger radiating off my father. No matter what I kept my eyes focused on anything but him as the conversation went on. I was not introduced to the King or the Queen yet but the President assured me that I would be in due time. Until then I was to prepare for the race as I normally would. After they left I rushed to my bike and called Chelsea telling her to come over to the house. As an afterthought I messaged Chelsea to meet me at the pool house. I hoped that if I hid out there my dad my cool down enough for this to all just blow over.
Maria helped me carry some of my stuff out understanding all too well that I had screwed this up myself. After I'd moved in I just sat in the living room waiting. If my mother hadn't died, would I be in this mess? Or would it not matter because I'm just a natural screw up. I slid back into the couch to the point where my butt was beginning to hang off when I heard them coming. There was no need to get up; Chelsea had a key ever since the last time I had to hide away there.
"Look, we'll go see the movie tomorrow or something, but this is an emergency," Chelsea said.
"She has a pool house…she has a pool!" Jordan said with disbelief.
"When we were younger, before she started her career as a racer, this was our clubhouse, our hideout. We would make her nanny so mad." Morgan chuckled.
A small smile tugged at my lips before it slipped away again at the memory of the current situation. "Hey, Eves, what's up?" Chelsea asked slowly as she entered the room.
"I did something stupid, extremely stupid." I said pushing the heels of my hands into my eye sockets.
"What happened?"
Chelsea sat down next to me and put her hand on my shoulder. "Something extremely idiotic," I sighed. "Putting it simply, my dad said no and I said yes and now my entire career is on the line over a stupid exhibition race."
"The phone call earlier, that's what it was about? An exhibition match?"
"The President is pushing an alliance with Nourasia. The Prince of Nourasia is some kind of race and by honor of my great 'victory' I'm the one whose supposed to race him. My dad was not pleased with the offer and didn't want to do it. I got pissy and agreed to it. Now my dad is super mad at me. He holds power over my entire career, my paycheck….my whole life." I said standing up and being to pace the living room. "There goes me going to the dance, my career, and he knows hat but he knows it would be worse for me to change my mind now."
"What do you mean about the dance?" Steven asked.
"I've been saving up for a dress and for everything else, now it looks like the only way I'll be getting anything is to raid what I've already put into savings for college."
"Don't you have some oversized trust fund?" Jordan asked mockingly.
"Yes, but I can't touch it, not until I've graduated college. My dad never even gave me an allowance. When my mom died, by the way, if you ever want to see that look up Maya Wei's crash, the vid is out there. Anyway after that my dad went off the deep end. I never saw them, I had a nanny, someone to raise me because he couldn't, and she had a limited budget with which to do it. I lived almost the same life you did, except I didn't have parents. The only time I had the life your thinking about is when it suited my father. On my ninth birthday my dad gave me a job, not a list of chores, a job, at Wei Int. For two months I worked within the Janitorial services and then I got a promotion. By the time I was twelve I was working with the mechanics and then at fourteen, I was given my own team. By then I had been training to be a racer for more than four years. Everything I've had since then I've bought myself, only recently did the free stuff come in."
The room was silent. The three new comers didn't know any of it; they knew only what the public knew. I grimaced, my father's reaction would be swift, and no doubt he sat in his office plotting just that at that very moment. I stopped pacing. There was nothing that could be done about it. My cell rang in my pocket and with dread I pulled it out. For the second time that day Cassie was calling me with my father's words, but I doubted this was by his order.
"I'm so sorry, Eva, I t-tried. I really did." Cassie cried.
"Shh…Cassie, what's going on? What happened?" I asked doing my best to keep myself calm.
"I tried t-to s-stop him but he w-wouldn't listen." I could hear her truly weeping over what my father had done. She took a deep breath. "Tomorrow he will announce that you are ending your career after your race against the Prince. Along with that, your pay will be cut in…in half. I couldn't do, so I quit but I left a little gift. The cut, it won't take effect until after the race."
"Thank you," I kept my voice steady. "Take care of yourself, Cassie." I hung up and dialed the head of my team of mechanics.
"Hey boss, heard a nasty rumor, bad stuffs about to go down." Darrell said.
"Indeed, did Mr. Benway stop by today?" I asked.
"He did indeed, wasn't too pleased. He left his racer here but we didn't touch it. Didn't even say what was wrong."
"Have him come in tomorrow around nine. My metal works teacher should let me video conference him in. Tell him I'm sorry but I had to think about the President's offer and I didn't have the time to stop by the pit. He should buy that. As for the nasty, I'll handle that, you stay clear and keep your nose clean, got it."
"Yes, ma'am."
I hung up and fell back into the couch. There were no words to describe my feelings or the situation I had started. It was hell, it was war and I had started it. It could only end badly for all parties involved. I had to limit the people involved. Sitting up slightly I saw the light on in my father's room in the main house. It had to be use fighting in this. Maybe a couple of others, lawyers and secretaries thinking of what I'd have to do to get wht I wanted, what I wanted back.
"Work?" Morgan probed.
"My career is over." I stated.
"Don't be dramatic; I'm sure everything will be fine." Jordan said.
I looked straight at him and stood up. "That first call was from my father's former secretary. She quit because my father is ending my career and cutting my salary because I agreed to race against some Prince in some stupid race. Exactly what I was saying earlier. You don't go pissing off an employer." I sat back down. "The good news is Cassie, on her way out, "messed up" on his order to cut my pay. It won't take effect until after the race, in a month. Which means I have a month to figure things out."
Chelsea rubbed circles on my back. One month….what am I going to do?