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7- Meet the Racecar

Emma

"Oh my gosh, how good are these Gushers?" moaned Emily with one hand on the steering wheel and one holding the snack. How did she ever get her driver's license?

"I honestly don't know how you can eat those. They taste weird. Heck, they don't even change your head."

"You sure you don't want one?" She tried to offer, but all I could do was push away with my lips sealed. "So why do you hate Gushers so much. What did they ever do to you?"

"What do you think sixth grade will be like next year?" asked Jeremy with a tire in his hand. "Do you think middle school will be as great as everyone says it is?"

Sitting in the seat of our unfinished race car, I couldn't help but tamper with the wheel. Would this wheel actually work? At that moment, it didn't matter as Jeremy asked something that took over my interest.

"I don't know. I'd rather not think about it until next year."

Placing the tire on the ground, he sat next to me with a bag of Gushers in the palm of his hands. It was a silent offer. Not saying anything, the gushers were accepted. During these last several months, I wanted nothing more than to try this new snack. With the bag opened, a diamond-shaped gummy was picked out. This was it. Bam! The gusher was on my tongue. The feeling was strange. My teeth began chewing only to find out how chewy and juicy this was. It felt like this would never make it down my throat. It would be stuck in my teeth forever. After about a minute, it was swallowed. The temptation to puke was growing and I just sat there.

"You don't like Gushers, do you?" asked Jeremy.

How could I disappoint him? The boy went out of his way to buy these? His own mouth had finished the bag.

"No, these are really good. I mean I can't wait to eat another one." How the heck was I going to eat another one?"

"Are you sure? You don't have to eat anymore. I can finish the bag for you."

For the next couple of minutes, I tried to convince Jeremy that my taste buds absolutely loved Gushers, but it was hard to convince him. In the end, he was right and ended up getting a second bag."

Emily couldn't help but laugh at my story. "Sounds like you've come a long way. More for me I guess."    

Yes, more for her. In fact, she ate the entire box as we drove in her car. We eventually arrived at the scene of the unfinished race car. It looked worse than ever. The mirrors had fallen, the tires were flat, and there seemed to be a leak.

"Thank goodness for the junkyard," I quietly commented.

"Maybe the junkyard is the problem. I mean, there's a reason you find all this in the junkyard."

She had a point. "You know full well that I can't afford actual parts. The junkyard is literally my only option."

Walking up to the car, Emily placed a touch on the car and began feeling it. "Can you at least afford college?"

"Somewhat. I mean, I have a couple of decent scholarships. My dad offered me the money from my grandma's life insurance, but I couldn't do that to my grandma."

"Sounds terrible."

For the next hour, we got busy working on the car as I played music from Selena on Emily's boombox. With a bike pump, we pumped up the tires and quickly put duct tape over them. The tape would be a temporary fix. Maybe when we got the engine working, we could actually get the car somewhere for a professional tire fix. Tires were hard to come by in the junkyard. Once the tires seemed fine, the hood of the car was opened. Emily took a look at it and began messing with a few things. Once the girl was done messing around with what was in the hood, we gave the car a quick and nice oil change.

"Not looking too bad," I claimed with dirt on my skin and a couple of new holes in my jeans. "Although, the mirrors need to be fixed."

"Wanna give it a test run?" asked Emily. In agreement, my head answered with a yes. "The honor is yours." The key was handed over to me. How had I never lost this key?

Emily was the first to get into the car and sat in the passenger seat. She looked a little silly the way her butt sat on the seat. Getting in, it quickly came to my attention that I was the only one with a seatbelt. Fingers crossed for no accidents. Slowly, the key was placed in the ignition. With a little force, the key was turned. Nothing. All I could do was keep trying. After the third attempt, our ears heard a promising noise. A smile took over my face with my tongue licking my lips. With the fourth attempt, the engine was officially running. For the first time ever, the car was actually running.

"Aiight," was the response that I gave. "What do you say we try driving this bad boy?"

Unfortunately, the car wouldn't allow us to go more than five miles per hour. Speed was another factor that would need to be worked on. As the car drove, we both screamed in excitement. Our excitement quickly died once a strange ticking noise arrived.

"Do you hear that?" I asked. "What the heck is that noise."

Putting my foot on the break, my stomach hardened finding out that the breaks were having problems. A few seconds later, the car stalled. In response, my breath needed to be regained. Emily did the same. Zap! Something from the car attacked my arm. It felt like getting a million shots. Zap! Emily's arm was also zapped. Soon enough, my other arm received another zap. With hard pain, getting out of the car was going to be a challenge.

Buzz! The car began shaking. More zaps were arriving. All I wanted to do was cry. Why was this happening? When would it end? Did we do something wrong? What went wrong? In the blink of an eye, Emily had passed out. Hopefully, she wasn't dead. Clearly, this was too much for her. Maybe this was too much for me.

"I need to get out of here," I claimed.

Boom! Something exploded. What was it? It all happened too fast. And before I could figure it out, I too had passed out.

Yay! You read the seventh chapter! Don't forget to comment and vote!

Have you ever had a Gusher?

What's going on with this racecar?

Is Emily dead?