Part 4 (1/2)

And he left.

'Could've said, ”Nice work today, kids,”' Jason said.

Sally clapped him on the shoulder. 'Nice work today, kid.'

'Thanks.'

CHAPTER FOUR.

Jason walked to the dining hall, alone. The Bug and Sally had both gone off to their rooms to rest - Jason was going to bring them some food later.

Ahead of him walked Horatio Wong and Isaiah Was.h.i.+ngton, Scott Syracuse's other two charges. Neither Wong nor Was.h.i.+ngton even attempted to include Jason in their conversation.

Wong was complaining.

'What is his problem? I mean, why should I have to attend a d.a.m.n physics cla.s.s? So long as my Mech Chief knows what's happening inside my car, I just want to be left alone to drive it.'

'Frickin' A,' Was.h.i.+ngton agreed. 'Hey, he pinned me for a pit bay violation. G.o.d, everybody does it. When was the last time you saw any racer pinned in a pro race for a pit bay violation? Never! Scott Syracuse wasn't that great a racer when he was driving on the tour anyway. What makes him think he's such a great teacher now?'

Wong lowered his voice, did a Scott Syracuse impression: 'To err is human, to make the same mistake twice is stupid.'

The two of them laughed.

'Talk about bad luck,' Was.h.i.+ngton said. 'Why'd we have to get the teacher from h.e.l.l?'

They came to the dining hall.

All of the other students at the Race School were already well into their dinners, having started at seven. Wong and Was.h.i.+ngton quickly grabbed a couple of trays and joined a table of boys their age, taking the last available seats.

Jason scanned the room for a place to sit.

Many of the racing teams were eating with their teachers, laughing, smiling, getting to know each other. Syracuse hadn't even offered to dine with his students.

At one table, Jason saw Barnaby Becker and his crew, eating with their teacher, a skeleton-thin man with a beaklike nose.

Jason recognised the teacher instantly: he was Zoroastro, the celebrated former world-champion racer from Russia. One of the very first hover car racers, Zoroastro was still regarded by many as perhaps the most technically precise driver ever to grace the Pro Circuit: he was almost mechanical in his exactness, never missing a turn, just wearing his opponents down until they cracked under the pressure.

Now, as a coach, he was so good - and so vain - that he only deigned to teach two driving teams, not three, as all the other teachers did. And the Race School indulged him.

Which brought Jason's gaze to the other young driver seated with Barnaby and Zoroastro.

He was a strikingly handsome boy of about eighteen. He sat high and proud, and he scanned the dining room as if he owned it. He was dressed completely in black - black racing suit, black boots, black cap - perhaps to match his jet black hair and deep dark eyes.

His absolute coolness rattled Jason.

Alone among the racers in the room, his sheer confidence was unsettling. It was said that the very best hover car racers behaved as if they owned the world: you needed a kind of narcissistic super-confidence and self-belief to propel yourself successfully around a track at close to the speed of sound.

Jason made a mental note to keep an eye on this boy in black.

He resumed his search for a place to sit.

A quick survey revealed that there was only one option and it was a strange one.

Over in the corner of the dining hall, seated at a table all by herself, sat Ariel Piper, the pretty girl he had seen at the Opening Ceremony.

Jason grabbed a tray of food and went over to her table.

As he arrived there, he realised that Ariel Piper was even more beautiful up close. He hoped she didn't see his face flush slightly.

'Hi,' he said, 'is it okay if I sit here?'

Ariel Piper looked up at him suddenly, as if roused from a daydream, as if she were surprised to hear a human voice so close to her.

'Sure,' she said sarcastically, 'so long as you're not afraid to catch cooties.'

'Come on. I can't catch cooties just from sitting near you,' Jason said with absolute honesty. 'You only catch cooties from kissing a girl - ' He cut himself off, blushed bright pink, before adding quickly: 'Not that I came over here hoping to kiss you, miss.'

Ariel Piper snuffed a laugh at that, and examined Jason more closely. At seventeen, she was lean and graceful, and way too old for a fourteen-year-old like him. Never had Jason wished more that he was three years older.

Then she said, 'You don't know anything about me, do you?'

Jason shrugged. 'Nope. Just that you're a student here at the hover school, like the rest of us. I'm Jason Chaser, from Hall's Creek, W.A.'

'Ariel Piper. Mobile, Alabama.'

'Why did you say that about catching cooties? Are you sick or something? Is that why you're sitting over here all by yourself?'

Ariel gazed at Jason, a curious smile forming on her pretty face.

'You race with girls back in Halls Creek, Jason?'

'Sure. All the time. Some of the girl racers back home are the most vicious and dirty - I mean, compet.i.tive - racers in the district.'

'Okay, then. Have you ever seen a girl racer on the Pro Circuit?'

That stopped Jason.

'No...' he said slowly. 'No, I haven't.'