The Starlight Cup: Regionals

Takari zoomed across the finish line, just in front of me and Jane. She swivelled her board around to slow it and smirked at me.

“And that’s how it’s done, Nebue,” she said, as I stepped off my board. I teleported so I was right next to her and she fell off her Galaxydrive in shock.

“What? But- how?” She sputtered, getting up.

“It’s called teleporting, Stargirl. Some of us can do more important things than racing.”

“You can’t think a little party trick is more important than racing, can you?” She wiggled her fingers at me and the next thing I knew I couldn’t see anything. All I could see was white and a couple of drifting black spots. I blinked a couple of times and slowly the white reseeded to those weird marks your eyes get when you look at the sun for too long.

“That was my party trick. Do you like it? No, I didn’t think so.” When my vision cleared enough for me to see her she was storming off to the dormitories. Stuck up Star. Just like the rest of them.

“What did she do to you? You almost fell over.” A crisp voice said next to me. I startled and jerked to the side, seeing Jane beside me.

“Oh, you startled me. Yeah, she just blinded me for a sec. I don’t know how she did it. Probably some sort of extra light she stores in her fingers or something.” I picked up my board and followed Takari to the dormitories, staying a safe distance behind her.

🌀🌀🌀

I plonked down on my bed, sliding my SkySight behind my ears and making sure none of my spiky, dark blue hair was caught in it. My hair was very sensitive. I touched the button on the side and it flickered to life, updates and racing stats scrolling across my vision before sliding to the side.

“Welcome, Jasper!” The little electronic voice said in my head, sounding slightly too enthusiastic.

“Show me videos of Takari.” I said quietly, not wanting anyone walking down the hall to hear.

“Yes, Jasper. Showing videos of Takari Stell, Starlight Cup racer.” A couple of videos came up with random clips of Takari racing in last year’s Starlight Cup, her light blonde ponytail swinging as she rounded the corners. Her pale green skin shone in the spotlight as she accepted her prize for coming in fourth. Then, there was a picture of her smiling with her arm around a tree, its trunk almost the same shade as her skin. I remember from my geography lessons that the trees on Luminaria have green trunks that store light and heat in them, with white-gold leaves to reflect the worst of the constant sun and starlight. Her hair was like that as well, almost like spun starlight.

I scrolled down, trying to find a whole race with her in, to see if I could figure out how she was so good. But then I found a different video. Its title said, “Things the officials missed in the Starlight Cup”. I clicked on it. It was a couple of minutes long, but as I watched, I could see people cheating subtly. One, jumped over a barrier to make a shortcut, and someone left a branch in the way so the next racer tripped and fell, wiping out. Then I saw Takari. She was leaning over low, trying to get around the bend quickly, but someone came up behind her and stomped on her board. It was a Nebue. Actually, it was Calli, who returned as a hero after getting second place last year in the Cup. And she had cheated to get there. 

I watched the whole scene play out in slow-mo on my SkySight. Calli had swung herself off of a pole on the side of the racetrack and shot past Takari, but she put her foot out at the last second, pushing the end of Takari’s board down, causing her to spin out and lose second place. As she was trying to get control again, another racer passed her, meaning she came in fourth. Huh. So that’s why she automatically hated me when she bumped into me. She thought I was trying to be like Calli. I mean, it could just be because she’s a Star, but unfortunately, it looks like there might be a real reason for her to be cautious.

Suddenly, there was a knock at my door. I jumped and threw my SkySight under the pillow and stood up. I took a deep breath and opened the door. It was Jane.

“Hey!” She said, “I was wondering if you wanted to come for a little ride with me and Takari? We’re going to head out to one of the proper courses, ‘cause they just announced we could check them out.” She already had her casual clothes on, a loose tee shirt and jeans.

“Uh, sure, let me just get changed quickly and we can head out.” I said, thinking this might be a good chance to clear things up with Takari. I closed my door and opened the little closet that came with the dorm. I sorted through mostly racing outfits and a couple of formal stuff. Then I found a comfy shirt that had a couple of holes in it as most of Nebues’ clothes do, and some ripped sweats. I slipped them on and grabbed my new board, shoving the SkySight into my pocket at the last second, deciding it wouldn’t hurt to practice with them a little.

I found Takari and Jane waiting for me outside the dorms. When Takari saw me she glared at Jane.

“You didn’t tell me HE was coming.” She rolled her eyes, “I’ve better things to do than hang around with stupid Worms.” She tried to walk away, but Jane grabbed her.

“I didn’t tell you on purpose. Look, all three of us are obviously the best in our areas, but if we want to fake it in the top ten, we’re going to have to help each other. I know there’s some weird tension between you two, and I don’t want this to end badly for either of you. I’d like to think we can all be friends at the end of this and I’m pretty sure you two can work things out if you try. So. Here’s what’s going to happen. Jasper and Takari, you’re both going to come for a ride with me and we’re going to check out the tracks and then put our SkySights on. Then we can practice with those. And we’re all going to be civil and NOT call anyone made-up names that only you know. Ok?” Jane said, turning on her heel and striding purposefully towards the shuttle that would take us to the racetracks. Takari and I had no chice but to follow.

🌀🌀🌀

I tried to talk to Takari about the race last year, but every time I started talking, she would speed up and start talking to Jane instead. Eventually, I gave up. If she wanted to be stubborn, then who was I to try to stop her?

I was coasting through a cave-like tunnel when suddenly Takari came beside me. I thought she was going to do something, like push me, but she just kept up with me, mimicking my every turn.

“Jane told me to talk to you. So. How are you today?” She said, not looking at me and making a face when Jane rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation behind us.

“Come on, Takari! You’ve got to make an effort otherwise I’m going to wake you up every half an hour tonight and get you to talk to him!” Jane shouted, pulling up to us and giving Takari a threatening look. Takari sighed.

“Fine. Why did you walk into me when we were in the airlock yesterday?” I frowned.

“I didn’t walk into you, you walked into me. I was trying to see out of the window and the next thing I know, you’re glaring at me and calling me a Worm.” She looked at me like I had said her board was on fire.

“Uh, no, I was looking around and the next thing I know, you’d bumped into ME and started telling me how GREAT it’s going to be racing with me.” She said, giving me the same look she gave me in the airlock. It was a look that said, ‘You’d better die now, otherwise I’m going to kill you’.

“Look,” I said, “ Maybe I did walk into you, I was lost in thought. Can we please move past this?” She looked confused like she hadn’t expected me to give in like that.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Jane sped up a bit and stayed next to Takari. She had a huge grin on her face like she had just been given the best Birthday present ever.

“Yay! Now that you two are besties, we can get to the good stuff. Who wants to program the course on our SkySights?” Takari and I looked at each other, probably thinking the same thing. No one would ever call us ‘besties’. Jane took our hesitation as an opportunity and declared that she would do it and we were all going to have so much fun that our heads were going to explode. I rolled my eyes, but put my SkySight on anyway, keen to see what Jane was going to set up for us. She scrolled through a couple of settings, selecting the ones she wanted and then she told us to find the ‘Team Sparkle’ interactive racecourse. I selected it and the next thing I knew, holographic unicorns were floating around everywhere and there were these weird floating cubes that had question marks in them.

“OOOOH! It’s JUST like Mario Kart!” Jane squealed. I frowned, not knowing what she was talking about. Takari obviously felt the same.

“What’s that?” She asked, voicing my thoughts. Jane’s grin fell.

“You don’t know what Mario Kart is? It’s only the best retro game there is! It’s like hover racing but in cars and you get these special powers! It’s soo cool! I don’t know why you guys can call yourselves Advanced Species if you don’t have Mario Kart. Come on, if you don’t know, I’m going to show you!” She raced off towards the starting line, leaving Takari and me in her proverbial dust. I shrugged and we both set off, each determined to get the to starting line first.

🌀🌀🌀

I crossed the finish line and promptly collapsed in a heap of laughter, Takari and then eventually Jane coming in behind me. Takari was also roaring with laughter, trying to stay upright. We had beat Jane at her own game, literally. I had Red Shelled her right before she could see the finish line, swerving around her to take first. Takari was hot on my tail, her board almost touching mine. I had one trick left in the tank though, so I touched the watch that had come with the SkySights and my last power-up came up in a bright hologram. I clicked on it and watched as Takari flew backwards thanks to my speaker-like thing. We were all still laughing when Takari caught her breath and asked Jane what power-up I had used to send her flying.

“Oh, it’s called a Super Horn, it sends a shockwave out and any people near it will get blasted. It’s quite helpful when you’ve got a lot of people near you that you want out of the way.” Just as Jan finished her explanation, a notification popped up on all of our SkySights. It was time to return to the dorms to get picked up for the ranked races. Those would determine the top five for our region and whoever made it would get to go to the Starlight Cup. This was when things started to get real. 

Jane called us a shuttle and as we headed back to the dorms, we talked about what we would do if we won the Cup. Takari said she would use the money to buy a decent-sized plot of land on her planet and turn it into a racetrack. Jane said she would use half of her money towards saving Earth as it was in decline, and use the other half for buying vintage games and racing gear. I had to think about my answer for a while.

“I think I would use some of it to fund the Starlight Cup, maybe helping to create a coaching program for the judges. I saw a video earlier about some of the things racers got away with last year, and I don’t want that sort of thing to happen again.” As I said this, I looked at Takari, watching her expression. For a second I saw a flicker of something, but then it was gone, replaced by a casual nod.

“That would probably be a good idea. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you some of the things I saw out there last year.” 

“You’d be surprised.” I replied, looking at Takari with what I hoped was a gentle expression. She looked away though, studying the passing landscape and various BioDomes we were flying over. It was a mostly silent journey after that, with Jane occasionally trying to get us involved in conversations on various topics. In the end, she gave up, turning to her window with a sigh.

We landed about 50 meters away from the dorms and as the doors to our shuttle opened, I could see why. There was a huge crowd gathered around the racers’ shuttle, parents and rogue fans shouting and pushing. Jane, Takari and I all looked at each other and together we dove into the crowd, shouting ‘excuse me’s and ‘coming through’s while using our elbows to part the tightly-pressed throng. 

Eventually, we reached the open shuttle door and climbed on, finding our solar-system seating areas. Jane smiled encouragingly at me and I gave a half-hearted smile in return. I was starting to feel sick, remembering all the people who were gathered in the stands of last year’s races, even the Qualifiers. 

I had never been one for lots of people; my mother even had to hide and not tell me she was videoing me for the submittal video because every time she tried doing it with my knowledge or out in the open I would fall or mess up on one of the complicated jumps or something, my stomach a mess of nervous tangles. And right now my stomach was starting to feel like a ball of yarn tossed around through black holes and rolled across my rocky and craggy planet.

Suddenly the doors closed and the lights dimmed, a hologram appearing in front of the now-closed door. It started talking about the rules and all the safety junk they have to say in case anyone sues. Usually, this sort of thing calms me, going through all the stuff I’ve heard before, but this time it just made me feel sicker, one of my arms disappearing entirely. That happens a lot when I’m really nervous. Then, just as I was running through all of the horrible things that could go wrong, I felt a warmth spreading up my remaining arm and through my body. I looked up to see Takari smiling gently at me, her little star-freckles glowing and twinkling in the dim light. I took a deep breath and focused on what the hologram was saying, the knotted feeling going away.