Cyberchase Jealousy
Cyberchase Jealousy.
Chapter 9: Healed Hearts And Broken Ones.
Thanks to the data collected by their survey in Castleblanca, they've located a castle on the cybersite, where Jackie was likely to be hiding. Digit, Jake, Matt, and Inez were hoping she would be in the castle, especially Slider.
Matt was surprised at how fast Slider could actually run. He knew he skateboarded amazingly, and he ran fast during the new and improved Mount Olympus Games, but he ran way faster than that. It was probably because he was determined to find Jackie, whatever it took.
They approached the large blue castle. Slider flung open the wooden doors and ran inside. Digit hurried after him, followed by Jake, Matt, and Inez, who closed the doors behind them.
The inside was enormous, even larger than the inside of Hacker's vacation mansion in Sensible flats. There was a beautiful candle chandelier hanging above them. In front of them were five staircases, each leading to different section on the floors above. Large portraits of different Cyborgs were hanging on the walls down two halls to their left and right.
"There was light coming from one of the towers," Jake recalled. "Let's try the stairs."
Matt nodded. "Let's split up, we'll cover more ground that way."
Slider didn't need to be told twice. Before anyone could act, he was already hurrying up the third spiral staircase. Matt started climbing the first one on the left, while Inez made her way up the one on Matt's right side and Slider's left. Jake hurried up the fourth staircase, and Digit activated his propeller tail, and hovered up the last flight of stairs.
It wasn't long until Slider made it to a stone platform at the top of the spiral staircase he climbed. He was panting hard, considering that flight of stairs more tiring to climb than the one in the tall tower in Happily Ever After.
He was hoping Jackie was in the room behind the wooden door he was standing in front of. Not losing hope, he reached for the golden doorknob on the door and opened it slowly, and peeked into the room.
Inside the room was a wooden table and stool in front of a glass window. A picture of a jack-o-lantern was hanging on the wall, as well as a dark red oval-shaped rug on the cold stone floor. There was also a queen-size bed by another wall in the corner of the room, with a green quilt and soft white pillows.
Slider scanned the room for any sign of Jackie, and his face brightened once he discovered that the pillows and quilt weren't the only things on the bed.
Sleeping underneath the comfortable quilt, with her head on one of the soft white pillows, was Jackie. She was sleeping soundly, with crumples tissues scattered on the ground below the bed. Putting two and two together, Slider concluded she cried herself to sleep. Her red and yellow pom-poms were by the end of the bed.
Slider closed the door behind him and walked over to sit down on the bed, next to Jackie. He had to wake her up. He hated to do so, since she looked like an angel sleeping, but they were going to be late for the Radopolis Grand Prix if they didn't hurry, and Jackie needed to know the real truth.
"Jacks," he cooed, shaking her gently with his left hand. "Jackie, wake up."
Jackie yawned slowly and sat up, her arms in the air, stretching. She rubbed her eyes afterwards, before opening them. The first thing she noticed was Slider sitting on the bed.
She backed into the wall apprehensively, where the bed was up against. "Slider, why are you here!?"
"You wouldn't believe what kind of chase you sent us on," Slider stated, grabbing her left hand with his right. "Anyway, let's go, the Radopolis Grand Prix starts soon."
She scowled, slapping him with her free hand, causing him to let go of her, rubbing his sore arm.
"Ouch, dudette!" Slider yelped. "I'm guessing you're still mad at me."
Jackie crossed her arms. "Gee, you think!?"
"Look Jackie, you don't understand," he tried to explain.
She glared at him. "Yeah, right, you got together with me, and planned to dump me two weeks later! What's not to understand!?"
"Well, you understood it wrong," Slider answered. "Inez over heard my conversation with Matt yesterday all wrong. She thought I said you were too clingy and that the relationship wasn't working out, when I really meant her."
Jackie frowned, not believing him. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Inez is my best friend! She's not clingy or anything! Why would she do such a thing!?"
Before Slider could respond, his skwak pad rang. While Jackie continued to glare at him, he pulled out his skwak pad from his right shorts pocket, and answered it.
"What's up?" he greeted.
"Slider, it's Inez," a female voice answered. "I met up with Digit, Jake, and Matt, but we didn't find Jackie. What about you?"
"Oh, I found her," Slider replied. "But she won't believe me when I told her the truth."
Inez was in thought, trying to get Jackie to believe the truth. "Give the skwak pad to Jackie. Let me talk to her."
Slider nodded, turning back to a pissed off Jackie, handing her his skwak pad. "Here, Inez wants to talk to you."
She took the skwak pad, reluctantly. "Whatever, talking to her is better than talking to you now, anyway." She began her conversation with Inez, while Slider watched. "Hey, Inez."
"Hi, Jackie," she answered, seriously. "Listen, Slider is not at fault here."
Jackie raised a black eyebrow. "What are you talking about? He was going to break up with me. You told me yourself."
"I know," Inez replied. "But like Slider tried to tell you, I overheard his conversation with Matt wrong." She took a deep breath, before confessing. "You may not have noticed, but I've been flirting with him ever since you got together with him. He hated me for that, since he already had you for a girlfriend, and planned to end his and my relationship as friends."
Jackie gasped. "Inez! How could you!?"
Inez shrugged on the screen. "I guess I was jealous. You and I both like him, and we still do. But me as a friend and you as the girl he really cares about."
Jackie grinned a bit. "Really?"
Inez nodded. "Of course, Jacks. He loves you. Why else did he persuade us to go after you, even if it meant he probably would have to skip the Radopolis Grand Prix?"
Jackie displayed a sweet smile on her face. "Okay, then, apology accepted. Go tell the others to climb the third staircase to meet us here."
"Sure, we're not that far from you guys," Inez said, smiling as well. "We'll be right there."
Jackie hung up and handed the skwak pad back to Slider, who slipped it back into his right shorts pocket. When he looked up at Jackie again, a tear ran down her cheek, as she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
Before you knew it, she crawled over to him and flung her arms around his neck, letting a few tears fall onto his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her waist, rubbing her back gently; reminding her he was there for her.
"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you," she said, quietly, stepping back from the embrace after a moment. She was kneeling in front of Slider, looking down at her lap, where her hands now were. "I don't deserve someone like you."
While Slider reached into his right shorts pocket once more with his right hand, he clutched her right hand in his left one. He pulled out the Cyberdiamond ring she gave back to him, and slipped it back onto her right hand, on the second finger from the right.
"It's okay, Jacks," he said, still holding onto her hand. "It was just a mistake. Nobody's perfect and you don't have to be for me."
She looked down at the Cyberdiamond ring on her finger, on her right hand Slider was still holding on to, wiping her tears away with the back of her left hand. "Thanks." Pause. "Gee, I feel so stupid now."
Slider laughed a bit. "You're not stupid Jackie. You just made a mistake, and so did Inez. You're only human. And I like you the way you are."
She looked up from the ring on her finger into Slider's eyes. Still clutching her right hand with his left hand, he brought his right hand to her face, caressing it. He smiled, before pulling her in for a passionate kiss. She didn't break it, until she desperately needed to breathe.
"Again, sorry for the long wild goose chase around Cyberspace," Jackie said, apologetically. "Thanks to me, you missed the Radopolis Grand Prix."
Slider shook his head. "There's still time to get there, dudette. We'll get there in time, once the others get here." Their faces got closer to each other once more. "But while we're waiting – "
Jackie placed her hands on each side of his face and planted a sweet kiss on his lips. His arms snaked around her waist again, bringing her closer to him. They were both kneeling on the bed, into the moment.
Just then, the tower door opened and Inez stood in the doorway. Digit, Jake, and Matt were still standing on the stone platform outside the door, but were still able to view what was going on inside the room.
"We're here," Inez said, looking around the room for Slider and Jackie. "What did we miss – oh!"
She noticed Slider and Jackie kneeling on the bed, carrying on with their passionate kiss, not noticing anything. Digit, Jake, and Matt noticed them as well and were about to go in past Inez, but she pushed them back out, closing the door behind her.
Jackie heard the door close and broke the kiss, staring perplexed at the wooden door. Slider looked at her, letting go of her at the same time, before looking at the wooden door as well, raising a brown eyebrow. They were sure someone was at the door, but didn't know who.
The door opened again and Inez walked in, trying to grin innocently. "Uh, hi! What's up?"
Jackie smirked, finally getting her question about who was at the door, answered. "Oh, nothing much."
Digit walked in, followed by Jake and Matt, who, like Inez, were pretending to just arrive. "So, have you two patched things up?"
Slider wrapped his left arm around Jackie, pulling her closer to him. "Yeah, it's all cool, dudes and dudette."
Jackie hopped off the bed and grabbed her red and yellow pom-poms on the other side of Slider. "Come on, we've got a race to get to!"
The Radopolis Grand Prix was about to start. The introduction of the racing teams were taking place. A giant television was placed in the middle of the arena, where cameras would be following the racers, giving live video footage to everyone in the arena, as well as at people's homes all across Cyberspace.
Creech, Mary Pat, and Britney met up with Shari Spotter at the Radopolis Racing Arena. They were sitting in the bleachers, along with everyone else who attended the event. Half of the people at the arena were sporting Shari's specially-designed Radopolis Racing Radsters T-Shirts.
Shari was sitting on the right side of Creech. She wore her specially-designed T-Shirt over her wizard robes. In her hands was a yellow flag, with three large red R's overlapping each other in the center.
Creech wore the same shirt over her pink T-Shirt. Over her right hand was a large red foam finger, with "RRR is #1 in bright yellow letters and numbers.
On her left side was Mary Pat. Like Creech and Shari, she was wearing one of Shari's specially-designed T-Shirt over her pink spaghetti-strap midriff. In her hands were red and yellow pom-poms.
Lastly, on Mary Pat's left side, was her twin sister Britney. She wore one of the Radopolis Racing Radsters T-Shirts over the upper part of her orange sleeveless knee-high sundress. Like her twin sister, she had red and yellow pom-poms in her hands as well.
"The race is about to start," Shari said, looking at her gold watch on her left wrist. "Where are Digit, Jake, Slider, Inez, Jackie, and Matthew?"
Creech looked over at Shari. "I'm sure they'll be here."
"I'm totally sure Slider has gotten back together with Jackie and are on their way with the team," Mary Pat stated.
Britney nodded, in agreement. "Like, they'll be here, for sure!"
Standing on a stage, by the arena's entrance was King Dudicus, king of Radopolis. He was the host for the Radopolis Grand Prix. He wore his usual orange sweater, blue baggy jeans, and purple shoes. His golden crown was perched in his shaggy blonde hair, with a microphone in his right hand.
"And, like, for the last team!" he announced, gesturing to the arena's entrance with his left hand. "Please make a lot of noise for – the Radopolis Racing Radsters!"
The orange Cybercoupe zipped into the arena, making its way to the starting line, along with the other Cybercoupes and racers inside. The audience applauded loudly. Shari waved her flag enthusiastically, while Creech waved her red foam finger as well. Mary Pat and Britney cheered, waving their own pom-poms, for support.
As the Cybercoupe took the last spot behind the starting line, the glass cover opened and Inez and Jackie hopped out, doing a double flip in the air, before landing in front of the starting line, their pom-poms held high.
"They're awesome, they're amazing, they're the best you've seen!" Inez and Jackie cheered in unison. "Show you support for the Triple R team!"
Jackie smiled, as the whole stadium erupted in more cheers and loud applause. "Go Radopolis Racing Radsters!"
Digit, Jake, Matt, and Slider waved at the audience, as the glass cover on their orange Cybercoupe closed, as they prepared for the race.
Digit and Jake were sitting in the back seat, their necks slightly turned to view the back window. "The back's all clear."
"The gas tank is full," Matt added, sitting on the seat next to Slider, checking the gauges on the control pad. "The cryoxide is also fresh."
Slider nodded, flipping a few switches on the control pad. "Let's do this."
Matt signalled Inez and Jackie to get out of the way, before the race started. They nodded, sprinting to a bench on the side of the racing track.
King Duducus was ready to start the race. "Alright, dudes and dudettes, on your mark – get set – go!"
Before the other racers speeded off, Slider had already put the orange Cybercoupe in drive and speeded off at the cue. The other Cybercoupes raced after them. Slider exited the arena, their team already in the lead.
Inez and Jackie took a seat on the bench, looking at the giant television in the middle of the arena. So far, their team was in the lead by a few Cybermetres, with a few Cybercoupes trailing them behind. They were speeding through downtown Radopolis, following the track marked by different coloured flags.
While Jackie looked at the giant television, smiling, Inez turned to face her. "Again, sorry about giving you the wrong message, Jackie. I should've been sure of the entire thing, before I told you."
Jackie looked at her best friend, grinning. "It's okay. What matters is that everything worked out and Slider and I are back together."
"Right," Inez said, looking down at her feet. "And I've got no one."
Jackie looked back at the arena's giant television screen, seeing Matt in the orange Cybercoupe. "Well, there is one person who probably likes you."
Inez sighed. "I highly doubt that. After what happened, I bet everyone hates me."
"Oh, don't say that," Jackie replied. "You might jinx it."
Inez rolled her eyes, as her skwak pad rang in her right red mimiskirt pocket. Sighing, she pulled it out to answer it, while Jackie was watching the race on the giant television, with great interest.
"Hello," she said, depressed.
Matt was onscreen, smiling at her. "Hey, Inez. Slider said we're about halfway through the race. And we're in the lead too!"
She grinned a little. "Oh, that's great news."
Matt could see past her enthusiastic face. "Inez, is something wrong?"
Inez shook her head. "No, I'm fine. I'm glad we're winning."
"Yeah," Matt said, knowing he would never be able to persuade Inez to tell him the truth, especially when he was involved racing at the moment. "Well, there's something I need to tell you, Inez." He took a deep breath. "I –"
Before he could finish, a whooshing sound was heard in the background, followed by Jake's freaked out voice. Inez winced at the sound.
"Dudes, someone pulled ahead of us!" Jake yelled. "Matt, can't you and Slider make this thing go any faster!?"
Slider was trying to pull ahead of the racer in front of them, with no luck. "Matt, flip the switch to activate the Ultraspeed capability!"
"Sure, thing!" Matt responded, turning back to the skwak pad. "I got to go, Inez. I'll tell you it later!"
Inez sighed, hanging up, and slipping her skwak pad back into her right red miniskirt pocket. She turned to Jackie, who was standing up in the middle of the track, doing another cheer. She gestured for Inez to come over, and she obeyed.
"Three, five, seven, nine!" they cheered in unison. "Radopolis Racing Radsters to the finish line!"
Just as the crowd applauded and cheered once more, an orange Cybercoupe zipped back into the arena, back on the track, heading for the finish line. It seemed as though Matt did activate the Ultraspeed capability, because they were speeding towards the finish line pretty fast.
Deciding it would be best to get out of the way, before they got run over, Inez and Jackie hopped off the track, just as the orange Cybercoupe zipped past the finish line. Inez cheered, while Jackie squealed, loudly. They had won!
The audience applauded and cheered loudly, at the results of the RadopolIs Grand Prix. The orange Cybercoupe stopped by the stage, where King Duducus was standing with a giant golden cup-like first place trophy, filled to the brim with a million snelfus, as well as a gift certificate for a year supply of ice cream.
Slider hopped out of the orange Cybercoupe and hurried towards Kind Dudicus. Digit, Matt, and Jake followed, eager to get their awards.
"Like, the champions of this year's Radopolis Grand Prix!" King Dudicus announced, handing Slider the snelfu-filled trophy and gift certificate. "Let's totally hear it for the Radopolis Racing Radsters!"
The entire arena erupted in loud cheers and applause. Grinning, Slider held up the golden trophy into the air, happily. Digit, Jake, and Matt surrounded him, telling him continuously that they've won. Slider handed Matt the trophy, giving him a chance to hold it.
Jackie sprinted across the arena to Slider and threw her arms around his neck, her pom-poms tickling the back of his neck. He returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around her waist. Inez walked up to Matt, who passed the trophy over to Jake.
"Hey, Inez," he said, in a cheery mood. He noticed Inez's depressed face. "Come on, cheer up. We won!"
"I know, I'm happy for us," she answered. "But that's not why I'm not in a cheery mood."
Matt became concerned. "What's the matter, Nezzie?"
Inez didn't bother to yell at Matt for called her Nezzie again. She sighed, taking a deep breath. She was about to tell him, when Shari ran up to them, with Creech, Mary Pat, and Britney behind her. They congratulated the team, enthusiastically.
Shari wrapped her arms around Matt. "Congratulations, Matthew!"
Matt turned a bit red. "Uh, thanks." He turned back to Inez. "Did you want to tell me something, Inez?"
She looked at Shari and Matt, who still had their arms around each other. She sighed, sadly. "No, it's not important anymore."
She watched Slider and Jackie laughing together, while Matt and Shari were in a deep conversation with each other. Unknown to Inez, Matt was watching her out of the corner of his eye. She sighed, walking towards the orange Cybercoupe, her head hung low.
"It's all over," she thought, climbing in and closing her eyes.
But she had no idea how wrong she was.
Chapter 9 up! Only one more chapter to go!
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