CHAPTER 13
It's Just Business

Not even one day after tying with Satomi in a race that seemed to get the whole world talking, we had a problem. A big one.

"We need a sponsor," Mr. Karlen said bluntly. He had called an emergency (he didn't use this exact word but we all knew it from his strained expression) team meeting and had gotten straight to the point. He never was one for eloquent words, anyway. Maybe that was a good thing.

"Oh dear," Addy said with a long, tired exhale. Apparently she had been in this predicament before and it was a troublesome predicament indeed.

"And that means…" Jax prompted.

"Someone needs to endorse this team in order for us to continue racing. We need the publicity and the money." Mr. Karlen's forehead was crinkled into lots of thin wrinkles. It seemed that he had a massive headache. "And we need to find one soon."

"Is this another rookie team thing?" Beckem asked in a wary voice, almost as if he already knew the answer.

"Yep," Addy said instinctively, even as Mr. Karlen opened his mouth to explain. He frowned even deeper and now looked irritated as well as worried.

"Other teams already have found sponsors in past years," Mr. Karlen said after Addy didn't bother to elaborate. "And now we need one. So, any ideas?" His wrinkles receded momentarily as he looked around at all of us hopefully.

"I'm out," Jax said, sliding down in his seat with a sigh.

"Me too," I agreed.

"Ditto," Beckem intoned. The wrinkles were coming back. Mr. Karlen was starting to look desperate and I was not feeling any sympathy. He was pretty much the most incompetent manager I had ever seen.

"Well," Addy said again from where she was standing behind us toward the back of the room, "it won't be very hard. Platinum is doing very well so far considering its rookie status. I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting phone calls soon."

"Are you sure?" Mr. Karlen asked, squinting at her in an attempt at a stern expression.

"Absolutely," Addy said. We all turned around to face her. She gave us a smile.

---zoOM---

"So did your coach let you come or did you have to sneak out?"

After the Race was a bustling little restaurant with a pretty much kickass name. People were sitting, eating, chatting, laughing everywhere. All the tables seemed full, but there was somehow still room for the six of us. I guess being a celebrity (was I now?) did certainly have its advantages. The moment the waiters caught sight of the six of us strutting in with our sunglasses (I love how we ALL had sunglasses; it seemed a prerequisite for pilots who wanted to walk the streets unnoticed), they just KNEW. HELLO, high profile people coming through.

So, after the also prerequisite mini-autographing session (obviously, Team Satomi got more autograph requests than Team Platinum but I was surprised even one person asked), we were ushered kindly to the most secluded table they had and were now comfortably sipping ice water (ice tea for Amy and I) the restaurant had supplied us.

Jax laughed at Takeshi's question. "Why would you say that? Does sneaking away from coaches happen often?"

"Are you kidding me? All IGPX pilots do it. Don't you?" Liz laughed and lifted her glass of water to her lips.

"We didn't sneak out this time, but we'll probably start soon enough," I offered, twirling the straw in my ice tea around with my fingers. And, I thought to myself, at the rate things are going, I'll be the first one do to so. But actually, I already did, I remembered. I decided to keep that information to myself.

"Hey, look, we're on TV," Beckem said, pointing to a large flat panel television right beside us. All of us turned our heads to see an instant replay of yesterday's race, or, at least the end of the race. Over and over, Takeshi and I crossed the finish line at snail's pace, the tips of our mechs crossing the line at the same time. "Wow, they are obsessed."

"Well, can you blame them? 'First year rookies give third year veterans Team Satomi a run for their money.' Can't you see that those headlines will be everywhere after that race?" Liz picked up her fork and pointed it at us for emphasize. "It's good for you but bad for us, that's what I say."

"And besides, why do you guys think we are treating you to lunch? We don't break bread with all of our opponents." Amy smiled at us sweetly as Luca stuck his head over the table, looking around to see if food had arrived yet. "You guys really are good. And we respect that."

"Aw," Jax placed a hand on his heart. "We really respect you guys too. Thanks for…HEY, that's ME!" He pointed excitedly at the television. The Platinum Midfielder was fighting for his life on the television screen, except for the fact that he was doing it in slow motion. "I look so awesome."

Takeshi couldn't help but laughing. "Sports broadcasters do this after every race. They break it down and analyze all of our moves and strategies. Sometimes its funny to listen to them guess strategies wrong, but other times they actually have some good insight. Personally, I think we could really benefit if we listened to these guys more."

"Do they have any advice on how to get a sponsor?" I asked, sipping at the very yummy ice tea. Liz immediately turned to me with a knowing look.

"Oh, are you facing that problem?" she said. I nodded, a little freaked out about how familiar she sounded with the situation. "I'm so sorry." And the apology looked serious and genuine too. "That problem gave us stress for weeks. Although we probably weren't as good as you guys on the track when we were facing the problem."

"Yes, but you guys have Luca. Simple solution," I said, looking as the white cat glanced my way at the sound of his name.

Amy shook her head. "Not so. It was hard to get a company to take him on."

"Well, it's going to be hard to get a company to take us on," Beckem said with a sigh, taking his folded napkin on his plate and spreading it out on his lap.

"Nope, not so." Liz shook her head knowingly. "Probably what'll end up happening is one of you will do all the sponsorship work and the rest of the team will get off scot-free with no worries and still get the benefits."

"Well, that sucks," Jax said, before dumping an ice cube into his mouth and crunching on it.

Liz shrugged. "Just the way it works." Then she spotted what we had been waiting for the whole time. "Food's here!" she announced happily. It was then I realized that I was starving.

---zoOM---

"Who're we against next again?" Beckem asked as we made our way to the elevators. We were back once again at team HQ, a building more familiar to me than my house back home in the states. Our little reprieve of it with Team Satomi hadn't lasted long. Actually, any reprieve from this building didn't seem to last very long, because sooner or later, we'd be back here anyway, wiling away the hours until our next big race.

"Edgeraid, I think," I said, shrugging. Beckem reached across me to punch the up arrow on the wall for the elevator. "That should be fun."

A small ding sound emanated from the elevator and the doors slid open. All three of us were just about to step inside when Mr. Karlen came out, a big smile on his face. Jax, Beckem, and I exchanged quick confused/amused glances. What was going on now?

"Ah, pilots," he said. His voice had a cheerful lilt that I found awfully suspicious. "I was just about to go look for you." The sheer absurdity of that statement made it incredibly funny. Here was a guy that could barely manage an IGPX team and he had been about to traverse the whole of this IGPX town to find us, without knowing the slightest place to start. Addy had probably set him up to do this, laughing in private after he left. Addy usually was the most respectful out of all of us toward Mr. Karlen, other than Brad. But we all knew Addy had the same feelings about him as we did.

I wasn't the only one who realized this humor. Jax snorted and then had to disguise it as a coughing fit. I saw Beckem out of the corner of my eye struggling to keep a straight face. I clenched my fists and tried not to replay Karlen's statement in my head. I looked up at him with a face of attentiveness, an angel pilot ready to listen to her manager.

"I have great news." Mr. Karlen looked as if he could have clapped his hands together with delight. "I've found us a sponsor." I highly doubted he did anything on his own. But we all played along.

"Oh, that's great," Jax said, in an unusual display of good acting. There was no sarcasm in his voice whatsoever, which was really impressive. "We were out all lunch racking our brain for ideas." Beckem and I openly looked at him with raised eyebrows. Now that was pushing it, dude. But Mr. Karlen lapped it up.

"Oh, really? Well," he said with a big grin, "there is no need to worry now." He gave a little dramatic pause, enough time for the intrigued audience to take a quick breath. "AthletiTech has agreed to sponsor us."

"Who what?" Jax asked, squinting his eyes at Karlen. All of us had about the same question at that same level of eloquence too. What wack sponsorship have you gotten for us, you dud? I wanted to scream. But, of course, I refrained from doing so.

"AthletiTech. It is a new designer sportswear line by Hannah Benden that will assuredly be all the rage once our name is associated with it. The clothes are made of a new state-of-the-art eco-friendly fabric that breathes and stretches easily but is extremely durable." I watched my manager in amazement as he prattled on. Already, he was like a walking advertisement for these clothes. It was crazy. I guess there was one thing he was good at after all: being exploited by the corporate industry.

"It's a very promising venture," Karlen continued in his didactic voice, "and I'm sure you'd agree with my decision to jump at the opportunity. I'm sure other offers will come in, but we are kind of desperate and they offered us very good terms so I felt obliged too…"

"So how exactly are we going to be associated with them?" Beckem asked, obviously not too enthralled with Karlen's lecture in fashion and so-called business negotiations.

Mr. Karlen looked surprised, as if we were stupid, stupid little people if we didn't already know. "Why, Lotus will be modeling their clothing line for them, of course."

That hit me like a slap in the face.

"What?" I snapped.

"Ho ho ho!" Jax chortled, probably goaded by the look of utter horror on my face. "Oh, do tell us more! We are all very interested."

To my right, Beckem covered his mouth and turned his face away from me. But from his shaking shoulders, I could tell that he was trying very hard not to crack up in my face.

---zoOM---

An hour and a half later, I was sitting in a large and luxurious black sedan that was being driven farther and farther into the town that surrounded and revolved around the IGPX. I looked out the window and watched in indifference as beautiful streets and quaint street shops passed. This was not to be a fun excursion into town. This was to be an excursion of business and hell.

Oh, and it would also more or less decide my immediate fate. Just thought I'd throw that in as well.

Addy sat beside me, just as mute and indifferent as I was. I was glad to have her company because she was on my side, not just in the car, but on the modeling job as well. I didn't have much time to talk to her beforehand to work out a strategy to make sure that this deal didn't happen (pretty much as soon as I got back to HQ, it was off to my two o'clock "appointment" with the head of the clothing line), but I was sure that once we got there, she and I would play off of each other.

Across from us was Mr. Karlen, seated facing us. He was looking out the window and humming a little unfamiliar tune. Only he seemed to be enjoying the nice weather and manicured town outside.

I couldn't see what we had pulled to a stop in front of until I got out of the car, and when I did, I was immediately intimidated. For some reason, this seemed worse and more nerve-wracking than waiting on the track to race against Satomi. I was standing at the foot of a huge skyscraper, with glittering cool blue windows that reflected the sunlight and the few clouds that were lazily drifting by. Everything about it was crisp sharp edges and serious, suggesting that a major corporation resided in it. My eyes drifted down to in front of me. Large black lettering glinted at me, sending the name impressively into my face: ATHLETITECH.

"Lotus." I refocused on the people that I had come here with. Addy and Mr. Karlen were both standing at the silver revolving door that was the entrance to this behemoth. It was Karlen who had spoken, looking at me with an expectant face. I moved forward before I thought about moving forward. My feet walked me toward the revolving door and then walked me inside the building.

The theme was obviously silver. Silver or cool blue, when needed. The receptionist desk was silver and a long semi circle, arching around the stylish receptionist. While Karlen and Addy walked up to go talk to her, I looked around and felt painfully aware of my ugly clothing. Pretty much, I had woken up this morning and thrown on a pair of jeans and one of my favorite T-shirts: a vintage (or what I consider vintage) band shirt, with Fall Out Boy in big block letters on it. Then I had walked to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and decided that I looked presentable for a day out in the public.

Obviously, this was not so.

I looked around as official-looking employees strutted around in their crisp tailored suits (for the men) and long-legged cool slacks for the women. It was the women that I most paid attention to. All of them had on high heels; open toed, closed toed, stiletto, plain, black, patterned, you name it, they wore it. It was amazing. Some also had form fitting pencil skirts and cute little overcoats. And some of them, I guess the ones that felt "casual" today, wore what looked like warm-up pants and a zip up jacket. Which still made them look semi-formal anyway, because it just looked that good on them.

So I felt a little self-conscious and a lot grateful when Addy and Mr. Karlen started walking for an elevator. I followed them quickly, wanting to get out of Fashionistaland as fast as possible. Once inside the nice solitude of the elevator, I exhaled an audible sigh of relief. Addy glanced in my direction and gave me a little, closed-mouth smile. None of us said anything. The elevator music played a tinny little tune.

Then the doors slid open and again I was a deer caught in headlights. We entered a floor much like the ground floor, except for there were more glass walls and doors and offices. My head whirred with all the walking and talking and phones ringing and papers shuffling and talking and walking. I followed Mr. Karlen obediently, afraid of getting lost in such a place. We wound our way through the maze and then stopped at a young secretary's desk. She smiled at us and told us to go on ahead. I didn't exactly know where "ahead" was until Mr. Karlen pushed open a big glass door and held it open for me. I went ahead.

Inside the big, important looking office was a neat dark wood desk and behind the desk was a young, stylish woman, standing to greet us. However, even standing, she wasn't a very imposing presence. For example, she was shorter than me, even though I assumed she was wearing high heels like the rest of the woman in the facility. Even so, the air about her suggested somehow that she was an extremely important person and should definitely be respected. She smiled at me, her teeth a brilliant, flashing white. I smiled back nervously.

"You must be Lotus," she said.

A/N: I realize it's been a long time. I apologize for that. Now that it's summer, hopefully updates will come faster.

I'm glad so many of you liked the race against Satomi. I definitely enjoyed writing that race. I guess it came out well. c:

Thank you to all my readers and to the person that thought up the sponsor (she knows who she is). Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers as well. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter that was mostly trying to break my writer's block.

Until next time...