Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Okay Theo, you can do this. Just be calm, and everything will be alright..."

Theo was very anxious about his first day in his new school, Starlight High. He kept talking to himself to be calm, but it wasn't working at all.

I wish I could act like Chet, he thought. Chet wasn't worried like this, in fact, he was making breakfast instead of panicking like a child.

"Theo? Breakfast is ready!" Chet shouted from another room.

"Coming!" Theo shouted back and went downstairs.

---

"There he is," Chet turned to his brother. "Good morning."

"Good morning, bro," Theo replied and sat on his chair.

As they both started to eat their breakfast, Theo starting talking. "So, are you scared for our first day? Or excited? Or both?"

"Mainly excited, but a bit scared too," Chet replied. "How do you feel?"

"So excited! I can't wait to see if there's a racing club or not. You know how addicted I am to racing!" Theo said.

"Yep, I do," Chet smiled.

They continued to talk as they ate their breakfast. When they finished, they took their schoolbags and went outside to take their bikes. Usually, Theo was faster than Chet when riding a bike, but Chet didn't mind.

"I'll go slow this time," Theo joked.

"Yeah... Not believing it."

"Of course you won't." Theo smiled. "Now let's move, we have a class to go."

---

Everyone looked at the blond, curly-haired boy and his brother as they entered the school grounds.

Theo was surprised at how... unique the people looked.

Nearly no one had brown hair, except for one or two. Everyone was wearing colourful and bright outfits along with cool accessories.

But so far, the coolest people were the gang that included six members.

There were four boys and one girl. The girl had pink medium-length hair with shaved sides. She was pretty short and had a dark skin tone.

One of the boys had flattop hair with purple streaks on it. He was tall, dark-skinned, and he had... purple eyes? Probably contact lenses, Theo thought.

The other guy was... way too tall. He had half-pink and half-green hair with shaved sides and had a light skin tone.

And the blue-haired boy, he had an alien necklace along with blue eyes and fair skin.

The last one was a bit overweight, and he had dark blue eyes with platinum blonde hair. He also had a necklace in the shape of a bee.

Theo walked closer to hear them.

"Did you guys see the new kids? Because I did, and let me tell you, the purple- haired one was SO cute," The girl said.

"Oh, I saw the kids. They don't look like racers, so why are we talking about them anyway? They're probably just losers," the blue-haired boy said.

The purple-eyed boy entered the conversation. "Yeah, true."

"I don't look like a racer, but I surely am one."

Everyone looked at where the sound came from – and there he was, the blonde kid, just standing there and staring at them.

At first, no one knew what to say. Finally, the purple-eyed boy spoke up.

"If you are one, prove it."

Theo moved closer. "I would love to."

"Alright then. Tomorrow, we'll be at the racing track, meet us after school."

"Consider it done."

And with that, the purple-eyed boy left as the others followed him.

"This will be easy," Theo mumbled to himself.

"What? What will be easy?" Chet asked, walking behind him. "What did I miss?"

"Well, I heard the popular guys talking trash about us, long story short I'm gonna race with them tomorrow. Also, a girl called you cute."

"You're gonna WHAT?! WHEN DID ALL OF THIS HAPPEN-"

"Don't worry, it'll be easy! They're probably noobs at racing."

"No, they're not. Because guess what, they're the members of the school's racing club."

"What?!"

"Yeah, that's right. I went to the principal to ask about the racing club, and he told me about the club and those guys. It turns out the whole school knows about them."

"But... How do you know that the guys I talked to are them?"

"I saw them before they dashed off."

Theo sighed. He was glad that there was a racing club, but now, knowing the members of it, he would never win.

"Well... At least there is a racing club," he tried to smile.

"Yeah, but you're probably never gonna be a member of that club."

"I'll enter the club if I win their race tomorrow."

"Do you really believe you can do that?"

"Of course I can! Anything is possible if you believe you can do it."

"NO, IT'S NOT!" Listen, Theo, those guys are the best racers, there's no chance you'll win against them. And what if you injure yourself at that race?! I won't be here to save you-"

"Alright Chet, enough." Theo angrily said.

"No! I haven't finished yet!"

"And I don't need you to."

Theo realized he was too angry to talk with Chet, so he left before anything wrong could happen.

Chet was shouting beside him, but Theo didn't care. At that moment, all he cared about was the big race.

---

After Theo dashed off, there was only one place he could go.

The racing track.

When he reached the track, he was surprised how beautiful the track was. It was clean, silent, and nobody was there.

Almost nobody.

Theo saw a person on the track. He had purple hair, purple eyes... It was the leader of the racing club.

Seconds later, the purple-eyed boy noticed Theo staring at him, and he stopped.

"So, why are you here, Blondie?" the boy asked as he approached Theo.

"To train myself, obviously. There's big race tomorrow."

"Yeah... It might be significant to you, but for me, it'll just be another small competition."

Theo was surprised at how confident the boy was. He sounded like he was definitely going to win tomorrow, which made Theo quite worried.

"By the way, my name is Whiplash. But my friends call me Whip." Whiplash said.

"Oh, cool name! My name is Theo." Theo said, being slightly suspicious about how friendly Whiplash sounded. "So, is Whiplash your real name, or...?"

"It's a nickname. I hate my real name."

"Oh, I see..." Theo said. "Does everyone in the racing club uses nicknames as you do?"

"Yep. No one really likes their names, so we all use nicknames. Except for Smoove."

"If I enter the club... Will I be using a nickname too?" Theo asked with hope. Even the thought of entering the club made him happy.

"Whoa, wait a second. You think you can enter the club?"

"Um... Yeah?"

Whiplash laughed.

"So what?! Come on, I love racing as much as you guys do." Theo crossed his arms.

"Listen, I appreciate your effort..." Whiplash moved closer. "But you don't seem like a professional."

"Well then, want me to prove it? Because I can."

"Alright then. Let's race."

"Right now?"

"Right now."

Whiplash walked to the track as Theo followed him.

Theo suddenly felt anxious. He didn't want to lose, especially to the club's leader.

"So, are you ready, Blondie?" Whiplash said, snapping Theo out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah!"

"Okay, now listen, we'll run in three laps, got it?"

"Sounds good for me."

"Alright then... 3... 2... 1... GO!"

Both of the boys started to race pretty fast. When Whiplash saw how fast Theo was, he became both impressed and surprised.

Whiplash didn't want to lose to Theo, especially after the words he said to him. He went faster. When Theo noticed, he went faster too.

Whiplash was surprisingly slower than Theo. Theo saw it and became surprised; he excepted better from the leader. But Theo didn't relax and he went faster.

The first lap was complete, both boys finished it at the same time. Theo was faster than Whiplash on the second lap, which made Whiplash surprised again. Whiplash went as fast as he could but Theo was still faster than him.

The second lap was complete too. Theo was still way ahead of Whiplash. Both boys were pushing their limits. Theo went on full speed, so did Whiplash.

In the end, Theo won.

"Whoa... You... You're pretty fast..." Whiplash said, trying to catch his breath.

"Told you." Turbo smiled.

"If you win again tomorrow, we'll be pleased to welcome you to our club," Whiplash said. "Will you use a nickname when you enter?"

Theo was happy about how Whiplash wanted him to join. "Yeah, I'll definitely take one. I was thinking about 'Turbo', my old friends used to call me that."

"Nice name. I hope to see you in our club, Turbo."

"Thank you." Theo smiled again. "Um... I kinda have to go right now, so... See you tomorrow?"

"I'll be there," Whiplash said. "Goodbye."

"Bye!"

And with that, Theo left. He still couldn't believe that he won.

I can't wait to see Chet's reaction to this, Theo thought.

He took his bike and started to overthink about the race again.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

Chapter Text

“YOU WON?!”

“Like I told you before, yes.”

Chet couldn’t believe that Theo won against Whiplash. No matter how much Theo told him, he just couldn't believe it.

“So, let me get this straight – you won against Whiplash, the club leader?”

“Chet, how many times do I have to tell you? Yes, I won,” Theo said.

Chet was both happy and worried – he was happy about his brother’s victory but worried about tomorrow. “Listen, brother...” Chet said, “Congratulations about your victory, but I’m still not sure if you can win tomorrow.”

“I’m definitely gonna win!” Theo said confidently.

“And... You might get hurt at the race... You know that I won’t be there to heal you, right?”

“Don’t worry about that, Chet. I’ve had millions of races and I barely got hurt.”

“But this one is different. You’re racing with real racers tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but keep your hopes up!”

“Okay, I guess...” Chet replied, “Well, we should get some sleep, right?”

“Right. Goodnight, brother.”

“Goodnight,” Chet replied as he walked into his room.

- - -- - -- - - - - - -- - - - - -

3... 2... 1...

RING RING RING!

The bell finally rang. Theo was waiting all day for the school to end, so he could go to the race and win it. Before the teacher could finish his words, Theo dashed off with his bag, running into the racing track as fast as he could.

It didn’t took long to reach the track, and when he did, he saw them. The members of the racing club.

“Ah, look – there he is!”

Everyone looked at Theo when the blue-haired boy told everyone he was here. Everyone was wearing athletic clothes and very expensive-looking sneakers.

“Um... Hi everyone!” Theo said, trying to be friendly.

“Hi there, Blondie,” Whiplash replied.

“So, did you really beat Whiplash yesterday?” the only girl spoke up, walking closer to Theo.

“Yeah..?”

“Well, I don’t know how you managed to do that, but it won’t happen again. Now, let’s race.”

“Sure, but... you guys didn’t introduce me yourselves...” Theo said nervously.

“Okay then. I’m Burn. Our leader is Whiplash. The guy with glasses is White Shadow. The tallest boy is Smoove Move and the blue-haired boy is Skidmark. Now can we please start? This is getting boring.”

Theo was quite sad about how he didn’t talk to the other members but he agreed anyway. “Alright then...”

“Okay everyone, to the starting line,” Whiplash said.

Everyone went to the starting line.

“Good luck guys, you’ll need it,” Theo said.

“Who needs luck when we got my alien friends to protect us?” Skidmark said. Theo looked at him, a bit weirded out.

“Don’t worry, he’s always like that,” Burn said.

“Okay, enough chat! 3... 2... 1... GO!”

Everyone started to run fast as they could, but so far, Whiplash was the fastest. Theo was surprised at how fast he was; he wasn’t fast like that yesterday. The second-fastest runner was Burn, and behind him, there was Theo. Theo went faster but no matter what he did, he couldn’t reach Burn.

Soon enough, Skidmark and Smoove reached Theo and Burn reached Whiplash. Theo started to lose hope, those guys were really fast.

But Theo ran faster and reached Whiplash. The first lap was complete, with Burn being first, Theo being second and Whiplash being third. At the second lap Theo was now closer to Burn, and Whiplash almost reached Theo.

Skidmark, White Shadow and Smoove ran faster and reached the other members while Theo reached Burn, now he was the first. Of course that made Burn angry and she ran as fast as she could. Burn was so focused on reaching Theo so she didn’t see Smoove reaching to her. Now everyone was trying their best but the first person was still Theo.

At the final lap, everyone was pushing their limits. Everyone, except Whiplash, was surprised about how fast Theo was. He was still the first. Burn wanted to get faster but she was already doing her best, so all she could do was watch Theo win.

And that’s what she did.

“I... I WON!!” Theo yelled happily. “ I WON! Now I’m a member of the club, right?”

“But... how..?” Burn said sadly.

“All I had to do is believe in myself. And a lot of practice, of course,” Theo smiled.

“Whoa... You really are fast! Welcome to our team,” Smoove said happily.

“Thanks! And... I get to choose a new nickname now, right?”

“Yep.” White Shadow replied.

“Alright then... Call me Turbo.”