Chapter 5

My eyes cracked open. I was lying on my side in a sick bay. Great. What had I done this time? Looking at the time I saw it was 1930 hours. I groaned as I tried to turn over, but gave in to the pain.

Please, Beth, I can help close the wound on your back so your back is smooth again. A scar will still be there, but it won't hurt anymore.

Ok Deja, just make it quick.

There was an itching sensation on my back as Deja healed the wound. The skin was knitting back together, and my back was once again smooth. I heard a knock on the door, then a voice.

"Beth, are you awake? Can I come in?" Jake said.

"Sure, come on in, Jake," I said quietly. He came in and walked straight over to me. He sat down beside my bed and grabbed my hand, and subconsciously started rubbing his thumb against my palm.

"How are ya feeling, girl?" he asked.

I chuckled. "Been better."

I still had most of my armor on, but from the waist up, all I was wearing was a cotton shirt.

"It's all coming back to me," I said. "I saw how you ran into the group of elites and take them down, so I decided that I could do better."

"Oh, Beth. You're an idiot, aren't you?" he laughed. He leaned over and gave me a quick hug. "Hey, the reason I came was to ask if you were up to a race? The Noble Team, it seems, have a racetrack. We are gonna pair up and use mongooses. You have been recovering for a while and we kinda thought you would want to join in... Wanna play?"

"Hell yes, yes, I'm going to play. Who will I go with?" I said giggling.

"You will ride behind me, and that's that," he said firmly, but his green eyes were twinkling and laughing.

I smirked at him and stood up to put the rest of my armor back on. He walked out of the room to go tell the Commander that I would be participating. I pulled up the gel skin suit that went under my armor, and then proceeded to put on the rest of my armor.

Using the tracker on my HUD, I found the other Nobles quite quickly, and smiled at what I could see of the racetrack.

"Come on you slow coach!" Jun yelled. "It's been ages since we had a race, and I am ready to beat all your asses!"

"Not to burst your bubble or anything, Jun," Emile started. "But we don't have any donkeys around here..."

Jorge hit him over the head for his stupid joke, and the rest of the team chuckled.

"These are the teams," Carter started. "Kat, you're with me, Jorge with Emile, Jun with a random Marine or ODST because he sucks ass, Beth with Jake. Go find your vehicles and mount!"

Jake and I found our mongoose, and to our delight, it was purple. The race is on, people!

I jumped into the drivers seat, and Jake chuckled as he got on behind me.

"Beth, don't go too fast," Jake said through a private comm.

"Jake. Really. This is a race, and I am on your team," I said. "Of course I am going to go fast."

The race started, and the others all took off. I lagged behind a bit.

"What's the matter, Six? Are we too fast for you?" Jun said through the comm.

I didn't reply, but I knew exactly what I was doing. Looking up ahead, I saw a sharp corner coming up. When the others slowed down, I pulled the throttle hard and we zoomed past them. We drifted around the corner, and then I sped up again going down a straight.

"Woohoo!" I yelled. "This is awesome!"

In no time at all, everyone except Jake and me and Carter and Kat had been knocked off the racetrack. It came down to the finale straight. The others, as I said, had either slid of the racetrack or had lagged too far behind, and they were waiting at the finish line. We were already going as fast as we could, without completely ruining the engine. Carter and Kat were slowly going past us.

"Ha HA! Take that Beth and Jake!" Carter yelled as they past us. No. I would not let them win!

I pulled the throttled harder, going way faster than the engine could withstand, and we sped past them. The engine started to make a really wrong sound. Looking up, the finish line was near, and everyone was waiting and watching to see who would win. The engine started whining. The finish line was right there.

"Bail out!" I screamed. We both jumped off just as the mongoose exploded. I flipped in the air, and landed on my feet, sliding a meter. Jake landed beside me, and pieces of shrapnel from the mongoose flew past us. Well, that was a heroic ending to a silly Spartan past time.

The rest of the Team came up to us and Jorge hoisted us up onto his shoulders.

"YEAH!" they all screamed. "JAKE AND BETH! YEAH!"

I laughed as Jorge put us down, and I hugged Jake. We all then went to the mess hall for dinner.