CHAPTER 11
Deep Doodoo

I had lost all track and sense of time. All I had was my sense of touch, my sense of smell, and my limited vision. The living room was almost pitch dark, as Cunningham had managed to turn off the TV and the lights at some point in our kissing fest. Now, I could feel his mouth moving down my cheek to my neck. It felt nice, but…

"I have a race in two days," I said. The butterfly kisses stopped.

The shadow of his face loomed over me as he straightened back up and looked down at me. "Are you worried?"

"It's against Satomi."

"Are you worried?"

I sighed and turned my face so that my cheek brushed the pillow my head was resting on. "I guess."

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"Is the Socratic method part of your pre-race warm-up or something?" I snapped back, sitting up abruptly and causing Cunningham to pull back a little to avoid colliding into me. At least that's what I thought he did because I couldn't see very well still.

"Whoa, bite my head off, why don't you," Cunningham replied, resentment edging into his voice. I sighed, feeling guilty and mean.

"Sorry. I just…I don't know."

"Feel angry that I kept you here after curfew on purpose?"

I turned to look at where I thought he'd be. "So you did keep me here on purpose! You jerk!" I took the nearest pillow and flung it against where I hoped his body would be. Somehow, he not only dodged the pillow, but ended up tickling me until I squirmed and slipped off the couch onto the floor, laughing and trying to catch my breath.

"You're just so irresistible, Lotus, that I had to have you all night," he said mockingly, his breathing not too slow either.

"Yeah, yeah, just show me where I can sleep safely for tonight and leave me be," I said sarcastically, getting up slowly and walking toward him. When my knee hit his knee, I wobbled and waited for him to get up and steady me.

"All right then, if that's how you want it," he said, his warm hand finding mine as he led me through the darkness of his huge house. Other than a few trips or bumps into walls, we made it upstairs and to the doorway of an empty spare bedroom without any major injuries. "And this is where this tour guide leaves you," Cunningham then said, turning so that he faced me. There was a little moonlight coming in through a nearby window, so I saw his face and eyes. Gentle concern was displayed there. But there was something else. Something like…love?

No.

It couldn't be that.

Not yet at least.

"Thank you. You were wonderful in your guiding duties," I replied. Then I stood on tiptoe as I kissed him one last time before disappearing into the bedroom and closing the door.

---zoOM---

Just like many mornings before, I woke up with sunlight tickling my eyelids. I turned to my other side, trying to escape, bunching up the blanket up to my chest. Mmm, sleep…

FWAP.

What the…?

"Good morning, Lotus."

OH MY GOD! I jumped about a foot as I sat up, knocking my head on the headboard of the bed. Sunlight was now streaming through the uncovered window, the blinds having been pulled up. And there was Cunningham, standing at the end of the bed, looking at me with a quizzical and amused look. As I rubbed the back of my head, I bit down a scream that had started to bubble up.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed at him finally, once I got my mind back.

"I live here, remember?" he answered, smiling at me and walking out the door, leaving it open. "When you're all ready, you can come down. We'll go somewhere to get breakfast and then I'll send you back to HQ."

As he started to walk away, everything from last night came flooding back to me. Understanding happened. And then I jumped out of bed, and ran after him.

"Oh, you all set already?" he asked, with a little smirk still hanging onto his lips.

"No, of course not. But wasn't the plan supposed to be get Lotus back to her HQ before everyone wakes up so it would look like she was never gone? And now you want to go out for breakfast?"

Cunningham finally did laugh, a little chuckle. Then he inclined his head toward his right toward the wall of the hallway. "Check the time. I'm pretty sure even if we don't go out for breakfast, they'll be awake."

I looked. And doggonit he was right. There was a clock, something that I couldn't for the life of me find last night. Huh. This house was evasive. But never mind that. I was so in deep shit.

"Why didn't you wake me up this morning then, Cunningham?" I yelled after him in despair. Reality was starting to sink in and it sucked.

"You looked really peaceful out cold, so I decided to let you get the full rest you deserve," he said, without even looking back at me as he went down the stairs. I rolled my eyes and followed him, not caring that my hair was messy, my clothes were a disaster, and that I probably looked terrible.

"We are leaving. NOW," I informed him as I followed him into the cavernous kitchen.

"But neither you nor I have eaten anything…"

"I don't care. We are going. NOW."

"Fine, fine," Cunningham said, snagging an apple from a basket of fruit nearby. "We're going, Miss Crabby."

I made a face at him.

---zoOM---

"Oh, this is rich."

I didn't know if I should have been grateful or not that Jax was the first person to see me when I got to HQ. Actually, right when I got to HQ, because as soon as I stepped into the building he came out of one of the elevators and had been having a field day ever since.

"Shut up." That was me. Obviously.

"Get a load of Miss Crabby," he continued. "So where've you been this whole time?"

"Would you believe me if I said I went out to take a morning run and then went to have breakfast?"

"Just because you phrased the question that way, no."

I sighed, leaning against the wall of the elevator. Whatever plans he had had he had ditched in favor of making fun of me as I returned to my room.

"Just don't tell anyone I was gone, all right?"

Jax leaned against the handhold along the wall of the elevator and posed his face into a pondering look. "Well, I don't know…it would depend on if you told me where you actually were."

"Oh I hate you, Jax."

Jax shook his head slowly. "That's not helping your case, Lotus," he whispered to me, as if he was giving me a forbidden pointer. Then he settled back to wait. He knew I would cave.

And I did. "Okay, fine, I was with Cunningham, okay? But don't take it the wrong—"

Jax practically choked on his own spit. "You were with Cunningham? Are you serious? Are you fucking serious? Ohhh, this is just so great! Well, I have to tell now."

"Jax!" I protested. "I will beat you up and you know I can."

"Okay, okay, I was just kidding. But. Cunningham. Man, you're good." The elevator arrived at my floor with a ding just as he said it.

"It wasn't like that, okay Jax? God…"

"Well, it's only logical I think that, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess. But that didn't happen."

"Okay then, what happened?"

I turned to face him. "Nothing happened, okay? So you can stop sounding so excited because it's kind of scaring me."

"Well, I can't help but be excited." I gave him an annoyed look with an eyebrow raised. Jax shrugged. "Well, our race is tomorrow." I pivoted back around and groaned. Jax laughed at my reaction. "You are coming to practice today, aren't you? Or are you going to ditch that too?"

"Haha, very funny," I said darkly. "Remember you promised not to tell anyone."

"Scout's honor!" Jax declared, giving me a goofy grin and a snappy salute before the door to my room slid shut on him.

---zoOM---

"Since Lotus never came back to our meeting later in the evening, I'll just have to go over our strategy again for her sake."

I had effectively managed to avoid anybody remotely acquainted with me for most of the day. But all of my efforts were starting to feel pointless now. I was sitting smack dab in the middle of our team meeting and Addy was trying to make me feel as bad and as much a piece of dirt on her shoe as possible.

It was whole bunches of fun, let me tell you.

I buried my head in my arms, listening to Addy drone on. This was so much like hell. At least Beckem hadn't yelled at me again. When I walked into the briefing room, he just greeted me with a hi and where have you been? I told him some made up story about losing track of time (at least that bit wasn't untrue) and he bought it. Or at least, it appeared he did. Now he was hopefully more on my side than Addy's as she kept on harping on me…

"Lotus, are you even paying attention to me?" Slowly, I straightened back up, meeting Addy's ferocious eyes. "We're doing this all over again for your sake, you know, because you were inconsiderate enough to extend your break indefinitely for a little vacation or whatever you went off to do."

"I am paying attention," I said slowly, tired and bored out of my mind, wanting and wishing to be anywhere BUT here.

"Don't give me that, Lotus. You obviously are trying to sleep instead of trying to focus on winning tomorrow out there on the track. Or do you want to look like a complete ass when you get out there tomorrow?"

"What if I do?" I countered, getting irritated. Well, she was kind of asking for it.

"Well, then, Miss Sassy Mouth Lotus, be my welcome guest. I'm done here anyway. Let's just get suited up and get out there." With that she turned and left the room, slamming the remote control for the TV screens down onto the nearest desk as she exited.

I gave a groan inwardly and slid back down into my arms, closing my eyes in the darkness that my head and arms formed against the desk.

"Wow, great going, Lotus," Jax commented in the ensuing awkward silence.

---zoOM---

"It's a beautiful day for an epic race!"

"Could Ben turn down his microphone a bit? It's too early in the morning," Beckem groaned, massaging his forehead with his left hand.

"I highly doubt there's a volume switch on it," I commented sullenly, "but, yeah, less would be nice at the moment."

Considering I was already sufficiently dying of nervousness, I didn't need Ben to jumpstart it again and again every time he even so much as breathed into his mike.

The walk down the hallway to our garage couldn't have been shorter. When the three of us stepped into the mech room, Brad was standing there waiting and smiling. "There they are, my three favorite pilots." I managed a weak smile and stood back as he helped Beckem and Jax into their mechs first. It was tradition that I went last by now.

When Brad turned to me, I was ready to get into my mech. Not in the sense of I was ready to race. Just because I wanted a place where I could sit down. I could feel the lack of sleep cloud over my head and start to descend. My, what perfect timing. Maybe I was a good enough pilot to doze and be able to fight and win at the same time.

Against Satomi? No.

Against anyone? Uh, no. Again.

"All right, rockstar. Make us proud out there," Brad said with a huge fatherly grin as I was lifted into my mech and deposited gently on my much-needed seat. I sighed, sinking into the hard, uncomfortable, but nice plastic. "Beat Satomi to within an inch of its life."

Again, I smiled weakly. "I'll try," I said to him. If they don't manage to do that first.

Once all three of us were locked in, we rumbled our mechs to life and started the lumbering walking to the start of the track.

A/N: Happy New Year to all of you!! I know it seems like I haven't updated this story in ages, and it's quite true. I apologize profusely. I've been caught up in the Naruto world. But I thought it was high time to update this story, especially since I was writing more of it the other day and felt inspired (although now I've hit a total road block, uggh). So in this chapter, Lotus really shows off her lovely charm. And the next chapter will finally be another RACE! I'm pretty excited myself. Are you?

Thank you so much to my four lovely reviewers. Thank you so much to ALL of my readers. I hope you enjoyed this one.

Until next time...!