Chapter Text
It was a warm mid-June morning as Amity prepared herself and her car for the first stage of three. Amity was confident in her skill as a driver and hoped her brother was as confident in his skill as her co-driver. She had been towards the top of the competition since she started racing at only fifteen years old. This year she was damn near at the top with only a few older legends ahead of her. Amity planned to put them behind her after this leg of the competition.
Amity was suiting up when a new face approached her. She was a tall woman, only slightly shorter than Amity, with bronze skin. She had a mop of dark brown curls and pools of chocolate for eyes. She was well toned, well hidden by her lanky build. ‘Wow she's beautiful.’ was Amity’s first thought. She didn't let that thought reach her face though and kept a scowl present as the woman spoke.
“Hi. You're Amity Blight, right?” The woman asked with a blinding smile on her face. Amity's scowl cracked for a moment as she let a small grin grace her face before returning to the scowl.
“Yes and who are you?” Amity asked harshly. The woman deflated slightly before returning the smile to her face; albeit a little less bright.
“I'm Luz. Luz Noceda.” Luz said as she offered her hand to Amity to shake. Amity glared down at the hand before shifting her gaze back to Luz. Luz deflated even more as she said, “I just wanted to introduce myself as we'll be competing today. I also just wanted to say that you're really impressive.”, shuffling her feet.
Amity cocked an eyebrow, inviting Luz to explain. “When I was young my dad would tell me stories about racing against your dad.” Luz explained as a sorrowful look graced her face. Amity hated seeing that look on her pretty face. Luz quickly recovered. “I heard about your father's retirement and how you were taking over. I've followed your career since then.” Luz admitted with a blush.
Amity's face heated slightly and hated what she had to do next. “Then you know you have no chance of beating me. Now if you don't mind, I'm up soon.” Amity said snarkily as she put on her helmet.
Luz’s smile faltered as she moved out of the way. “Oh yeah. Of course.” Luz said sullenly before heading back to her own car.
Amity sighed to herself as she climbed into her 2023 Audi TT. The outside of the car was lavender in color with splotches of darker and lighter purples spread all over the body. The whole car looked like it was melting and oozing the paint off as the splotches looked like they were dripping. The headlights were painted with a lime green frosted coat while everything around the bulb itself was black. The headlight bulbs themselves weren’t changed though. The side of the car was littered with sponsors with the biggest one being Abominade, Blight Inc.’s own sport drink.
The body and inside of the car met all World Rally Championship regulations as well as the engine and drivetrain. Amity and her brother, Edric, had matching racing suits. Their suits were a deep purple with lime green accents that made it look like their suits were oozing off them.
Amity headed for the driver side of the car and lifted her visor up. “Ed! Time to go.” Amity hollered before pulling her visor back down and getting in her car. Not long after her brother joined her and they made their way to the staging area. There was only one car ahead of them. The car in front of them was driven by Hunter Wittebane and his co-driver was rally legend, Kiki Mora. Hunter’s uncle, Phillip Wittebane managed his team and Hunter as it was actually his old rally crew. Hunter was a tall man with blonde hair and light brown eyes. He had a muscular build and was generally good looking, but wasn’t Amity’s type.
Hunter’s uncle was a very tall man, being 6’6, with a lean body and blue eyes. His blonde hair had begun fading to a lighter blonde, almost white, color. Phillip was bona fide rally royalty, being a legend back in the early 80’s and mid 90’s. He was at the top of Group B with the likes of Timo Salonen and Stig Blomqvist. Kiki Mora came up under Phillip and owed everything to him.
Kiki was a short Scottish woman with a thick accent. She had black hair, and red clay colored eyes. Kiki felt being Hunter’s co-driver was beneath her and she made sure he knew it. Hunter and Amity had grown up together in the sport and considered each other their only true friend.
Their car was mostly white with gold accent colors all over. They, like everyone else, had a smattering of sponsorships. Their main, and most prominent, sponsor was Golden Guard Security Systems, Phillip’s security company.
Amity watched as Hunter took off from the start and pulled forward and waited until she was allowed to start. This stage was thirty-five miles of hills and corners through the forest of the Ozarks. As Amity took off, Edric started relaying her the pace notes. “Flat 4 left plus narrow short opens through crest.” Edric relayed. Amity made her adjustments for the corner, dropping her speed a little as she entered. As they made their way through the stage, Amity passed Hunter who had ended up in a ditch. She was sure she’d hear about what happened later from him.
After passing Hunter, Amity drove through the foothills with ease. A couple of Edric’s pace notes were off, causing Amity to correct during the curves, costing her precious time. She knew she’d be hearing about that later. They finished with a time of 28:42:13, coming in at the top of the leaderboard of everyone that had already finished. A few minutes later Hunter and Kiki came through, finishing with a time of 31:34:87. There were only six drivers left to finish, with Amity and Edric being the fourth set of drivers to start.
Once they had finished, Amity drove their car to the liaison stage, before being allowed to head to the service park. Once they arrived, with no penalties, the two got out of the car. Amity headed over to her dad, Alador Blight, and let him know what she thought might needed looked at and slight modifications to the suspension. It wasn’t their service time yet, so Alador made a note. Amity walked over to look at the leaderboard and saw she was still in the lead. Second place was Boscha and Cat, who were old friends of Amity’s.
Boscha joined rally racing after her and Amity’s friendship fell apart; determined to best Amity at what she was great at. Boscha dragged Cat along with her and the two made a pretty good pair in the car. Boscha had yet to beat Amity at the end of the Championships in point total, but she had gotten slightly better times than Amity in a few stages over the years. This wasn’t one of those times as Boscha and Cat finished with a time of 28:59:98. Besides Boscha, another three drivers had also finished finding times between Amity’s and Hunter’s. As Amity was looking at the leaderboard it updated again. The ninth drivers, father and son duo Wrath and Braxus, finished with a time of 32:56:86; taking Hunter out of last for this stage.
Amity was confident now that she would keep her top spot. She was about to look away when she saw the leaderboard update again. Amity watched as her name was moved down to second place and Luz Noceda was placed in first. Amity was seething. When she met Luz, she assumed she was some rookie who didn’t know what she would be doing, but now she was first. As the board finished updating, Amity’s anger changed to sorrow, as she saw who Luz’s co-driver was, to shock as she saw their time. Luz and her co-driver, Willow Park, finished the stage with a time of 27:35:30. They had beat Amity by over a minute. As much as Amity hated to admit it she was impressed.
As it settled that she came in second, Amity thought back to her brief conversation with Luz. She was trying to figure out why her last name sounded so familiar. ‘She also said that her dad told stories about racing my dad. I know I’ve heard her last name before.’ Amity thought to herself as she headed back to her car and waited. She knew there would be a call any minute now that the leaderboard was complete and the results final. As if right on cue, Amity’s phone started ringing. She picked up the phone, bracing for the conversation. “Hello mother.” Amity said as evenly as she could.
“Do you care to explain why you aren’t on top of the leaderboard? I expect the best from you and that’s what you deliver?” Odalia Blight asked rhetorically, not wanting a response. “I expect you to clean up your act tomorrow otherwise I’ll find a different driver to finish out the year.” Odalia finished as she hung up.
Amity was trying so hard to hold back her tears. She hadn’t noticed as she was being berated by her mom but Luz and Willow had arrived at the service park, and Luz had been walking up to Amity. Before Luz could say anything to her, Amity ran away to hide and cry out her feelings. She found a secluded spot between the trees, but close enough to the service park to hurry back if needed. Amity slouched against a tree and started letting her tears fall. She was too busy letting out her feelings she didn’t notice Luz approach.
“Amity?” Luz asked softly. “Are you alright?”
Amity jumped slightly and sniffled before exclaiming, “Why would you care? Are you here to gloat over me?”, sharply.
Luz recoiled as she was yelled at before she slid down against a tree that was a couple feet from Amity’s. “I was going to congratulate you on a good race when I was heading towards you, but you were on the phone so I slowed my pace. Then I saw how upset you looked after the call and before I could come over you ran away. I figured you wouldn’t want to go too far from your crew and found you here.” Luz explained before asking, “Are you upset about me taking your top spot?”
Amity studied Luz’s face closely, looking for any signs of ulterior motives. Not finding any, Amity asked, “Why do you care about me being upset?”, again.
“No one should be upset by themselves. I know from experience. I saw you were upset and wanted to help. I’m sorry if I’m intruding. I can go.” Luz said and began to get up from her spot before Amity stopped her.
“NO!” Amity shouted. “I mean, could you stay?” Amity asked as she blushed slightly. She knew she still had about an hour or more before she needed to get back to her car. Luz slunk back against her tree and started tapping her hands against her legs.
“Do you want to talk about it? We don’t have to if you don’t want to. We can just sit in silence until you’re feeling better.” Luz offered
Amity wasn’t sure why, but she felt safe around Luz and could vent to her. Amity sighed before she started explaining her situation. She cried through the whole thing and Luz moved to share the tree with her so she could comfort easier. The two of them sat under that tree talking for an hour before Amity was able to collect herself to go back to her crew.
“Thank you Luz. I was mean to you when you talked to me before the stage. I don’t know why you would help me after that, but thank you.” Amity said as she wiped her face.
“I could tell even then you were pretty stressed. Besides that’s what friends are for.” Luz said with her sunny smile.
Amity let a soft smile grace her face. “So we’re friends now, huh?” Amity asked teasingly.
“I mean I hope we can be. Unless you don’t want to. That’s fine.” Luz started backtracking before she realized Amity was giggling. She loved that sound.
“I’m just messing with you, Luz. Do you have your phone?” Amity asked as she pulled out her own.
“Yeah.” Luz said as she pulled out her own phone.
“Here. Put your number in mine and I’ll do the same with yours.” Amity said as she traded phones with Luz. “There. Now we can talk even between events.” Amity said as she traded phones with Luz again.
Luz squealed with delight. “Thank you again Luz. I probably should get back to my crew now.” Amity said as a light blush dusted her face.
“Anytime Amity. Yeah I probably should too.” Luz said as she gave Amity a quick hug before heading back towards the service park.
Amity had a smile plastered on her face as she returned to her crew’s area. She got back in the car and took it over to the Park Fermé. Once it was secured, Amity headed back to her tent she had set up earlier. Her family, minus her mom thankfully, brought an RV to sleep in, but Amity preferred sleeping outside if weather permitted it. It was about seven pm after Amity had finished getting ready for bed.
Amity pulled out her phone and saw she had a text from Edric, a text from Hunter and five texts from Luz. Amity giggled as she opened her messages with Luz as she laid down. ‘Maybe she can be more than just my competition.’ Amity thought to herself. She stayed up messaging Luz till midnight before they both agreed to go to sleep.