Throughout the entirety of that Summer of 2044, when the phenomenon of AG Racing was starting to rise exponentially across the globe after the latest shows and broadcasts presented to the public scene, Barbara spent her school vacation in the newly opened FEISAR's Junior Team, created for those who wanted to join them ranging between the age of 16 up to 21. Thankfully for the Italian girl, she was fitting the age range just fine since she had her sixteenth birthday just a few months prior.
In the meantime, the initial gigantic list of people wanting one of the twelve sought-after spots as a FEISAR Test Pilot was trimmed down dramatically, leaving exactly a total of 10.000 contenders across Europe yet in need to continue the selections and testings in the general list - a mere shadow of those 100.000 at the very start of the project.
The race remained on and harder than ever, no signs for it to be more merciful from now on.
The Junior Team itself was a fairly large portion of those thousands, but unfortunately they were also those who suffered the most through the eliminations, especially due to the fault of being unfit for some of the strongest stress tests or for other reasons indirect to them, such as unfitting backgrounds, behaving poorly with the rest of the Team members or their superiors and, in one absurd instance, destroying deliberately one of the prototypes with the zealous intents to keep proving that "gravity is fake".
Aside from those few rotten apples, sad goodbyes and stricter selections underway, the youngest contestants remained a strong number at the front lines, further ignited and motivated by the news of one shining star rising high at the Anti-Gravity Youth League of Japan, Arial Tetsuo, beating the rest of her age with ease. Even the mention of her name sparked the eyes of the most discouraged, beaten up members in the Team, hoping that one day they'll aim just as high as that girl.
To "worsen" it all, through even more rumours spreaded across various Socials, it's been claimed that some underground AG-Racing have begun to spread, notoriously in the aforementioned state and even in some older areas of New York so far¹. How some managed to build from scrap the engines or managed to reverse-engineer the first public models for competitive yet illegal racing, or minimally think about planning such things, surprised even Belmondo himself during some of his latest interviews over the matter. Reassuring that they had no affiliation with such individuals, he condemned this unwanted side effect of his technology, promising that the Anti Gravity Federation will deal with them for public safety. Barbara, however, had minimal interest in what was going on with those events outside the campus, preferring to keep her experience focused across the trials and errors she collected in the months that followed, and eventually it was paying her back by the end of September.
Neither her return to her last year of High School stopped her from keeping her training both in-remote and in presence with them. Between the classes and interrogations, she magistrally moved through the shrinking numbers of contestants in the League, showing at least that she had a decent amount of self-adaptation in any presented situation, almost as a testament of her childhood spent as a fugitive beside her mother more than a decade ago already. In her humble corner at the exclave comune of San Colombano al Lambro, she was getting quite popular herself, mostly because she's one of the fewest citizen from the metropolis of Milan pursuing this dream of becoming an Anti Gravity Racing Pilot, enough to give her the boost she needed to keep going on restlessly.
In a blissful moment away from all the worries of the world and homeworks to attend to, Barbara laid down on the sofa of the living room, flicking through the pages of an old album of her mother. Her face lit up when she saw her with her parents, those grandparents she will always be grateful for thanks for their patience and help during their darkest days. Then, in the next page, she gazed proudly at her holding high the slate grey Thesis in the blue skies reflected further in the countless windows of the University of Bocconi standing behind as background. Silently, she felt in awe, when she was her age she was at the start of a human revolution with the public reveal of the Anti Gravity technology they're now experiencing slowly to the fullest.
Her eyes only avoided the face of her father present in the gathering of friends to celebrate her graduation, glad that she never heard from him ever.
The album closed with a soft sound of pages in her hands, and after one more look at the Polaroid she had sneakily slipped off one of the pages, she put the book back in its place at the highest shelves and hastily returned to her bedroom. The "ancient" photograph was pinned alongside her own private album, made of magazine and journal pages cutted and torn, all about the latest news of the AG Community, the failures and successes of the Foundation of Pierre, the triumph of the maiden flight at the Desert of Nevada, lastly the announcement of the Racing interest taking place in the heart of many with Belmondo. For the good of mankind, he always claimed, and slowly she could see it with her own eyes, a flourishing future ahead for all of them. All the trinkets and pages collected were there for her to always remember for what she's striving for, her own place in the world alongside the ever growing Community she had welcomed since the very first day.
Her phone rang on the desk and she nearly jumped off the chair for the surprise, such an abrupt call back to reality. After she chuckled to herself, she picked it up and answered her mother.
"Hi mum! How are you? Oh, you'll be late tonight, too? Alright, drive with care on your way back, and take my favourite Ramen in our favourite restaurant, please! … Hm? Oh, yeah yeah, I've finished my homeworks already, after all tomorrow I'll be back at the campus for a new stress test, nothing new. If you want to come and watch me, I'd be happy! Alright then, see you later, bye!"
After she closed the call, she sighed out tiredly, knowing that she'll be too busy anyway to come tomorrow. Shrugging off in resignation, she closed the Dial page off her phone screen to surf around her Socials in search for a brief comfort in her self-proclaimed leisure time dwelling in her past and in her passions.
January 2045, Innsbruck, FEISAR Junior Team Campus
"SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE, NOW!" Yelled the tall Coach from the racebox as soon as he noticed the vitals dropping off the stopped AG craft of Barbara.
He saw everything going on there thanks for the camera installed inside the cockpit, from the moment the engine was turned off for safety as soon as she begun to look nauseous, to the moment she threw up in the cockpit before she could even speak in the microphone - all happening not even in the span of three laps done in that cold morning with one of the first Speed Class chassis working beautifully.
Right when she was having the best time of her life, closer than ever to her dreams, everything crumbled under her grasp, leaving a taste of bitterness in her mouth, literally as well.
Pure panic arose as soon as she was dragged out of the machine, unconscious, fearing for the worse since she was literally burning under the touch of her colleagues to check her vitals over her paled face. Is she unsuitable for the real racing scene? Was she suffering from some impairing motion sickness as some others before her did show up with the same unexpected outcome? Many more questions arose from the minds of those who saw her resting on the ground in the safety position on her right side.
Finally, the bright red lights marked the arrival of the hovering Ambulance, in record time, then from that point on it was a fast trip to the nearest hospital, where she was promptly stabilised in the next hours upon her arrival.
For a long day, everyone feared that there were some side effects going on inside her that'll make it impossible for her to continue her dreams. Cristina sat beside her hospital cot, holding her hand gently yet firmly. Inside she was praying that this wouldn't be the end of her career, but she was also getting ready in case the doctors found out that there were some serious problems going on for Barbara.
Her stream of thoughts were interrupted when the door slid open with a soft noise, alerting her to stand up from her seat and get ready to confront the medic.
"What happened to my daughter? Is there something wrong going with her?" Was the only thing she blurted out, direct to the point as always.
The man straightened his arms holding a datapad, and with a reassuring smile he looked at them both.
"Our scanners found nothing going wrong with her brain, no strokes or aneurysms, but we saved her from a severe food poisoning. She'll remain with us for a long week to make all the necessary investigations." He explained as he pointed at the teen.
'Right in time for the last selections going on this month, great' the woman thought bitterly as the slightest hint of a smile died out on her face the moment he said so.
The initial fear for the now proved non-existent issues were promptly shifted for the fear of not being selected right at the very end for one failed driving test. Thankfully, somewhat, she's the second unexpected accident which caused the selections to be paused indefinitely for more assessments by the supervisors, after another one demonstrated to be unable to handle the g-forces properly of a real racing AG craft in their hands.
And now her and the food poisoning incident.
And as the small family of Barbara held their breath for her, the months passed mercilessly…