adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 31

after stopping for a water break, the twins were back in karts and out on the track.

sandy had been given a pair of headphones, the same kind that charlie, cory, and darren were wearing.

because the twins were in official race standard karts, they also had helmets with radio systems so they could communicate with their engineers, who in this case were cory and darren.

they couldn't spend too much longer at the track because the tracks official karting team, "LAS Racing" was coming in to practice at 5pm, so charlie suggested sending each twin out for a fast lap to see what their full potential was.

both karts had the same set up and were using the same tires so there were no unfair advantages.

dani went first, under instruction from darren to do a warm up lap, a fast (or "flying") lap, and a cool down lap.

on her warm up lap she weaved around, trying to generate as much heat into the tires as possible.

she rounded the first corner and went flat out, launching into her flying lap.

as dani sped around the track at high speeds, the world around her just a blur, she was reminded just how much she missed racing.

her foot slammed the breaks as she took a sharp turn, breaking at the last second so she lost as little speed as possible.

her neck strained under the force of the car, and she groaned internally at how out of shape she was.

her lines were clean as she pushed the car to the maximum, completing her lap with a 1.27.60 time according to darren over her radio.

she slowed down for her cool down lap and made room on the outside of the track as dylan entered to start his warm up lap.

once she was in the pits, she traded her helmet for a headset and joined charlie and sandy on the pit wall.

charlie took his eyes away from dylan's warm up lap for just a second to pat dani on the back and flash her a smile and a "nice job kid".

sandy gave her a side hug and patted the seat next to her, which dani gratefully took, the bruises on her body slightly aching from the force of the car.

dylan rounded the first corner and started his own flying lap.

he pushed the car to its max speed on the first straight, not as cautious as dani had been.

he flew into the next turn with such speed that he felt the back end of the car slip up behind him, but he was quick to correct it.

he pushed twice as hard on the next stretch to make up for the time the small mistake had cost him, the kart seeming to respond to his every move as if he had been driving it his whole life.

as he moved to the last turn, he knew his lap was a good one.

the rest of his problems seemed to melt away as it was just him and the sound of the engine of the car beneath him.

he crossed the line and heard the crackle of the radio in his ear.

"dylan...that's a 1.24.07...uhm...cool down and head to pits."

dylan didn't know if it was just the radio, but cory sounded sort of confused, almost upset.

dylan hoped he hadn't done anything wrong, the lap had felt great to him.

when he arrived in the garage, charlie, sandy, dani, darren, and cory were all waiting for him.

he hopped out of the car and removed his helmet, looking up at them with a nervous smile.

"everything...okay?" he asked.

the deadpan expressions on everyone's faces were starting to concern him.

charlie was the first to speak.

"dylan," he put his hand on the young boy's shoulder, "1.24.76 was the track record for karting. no one has been able to come close to it in over twenty years. you just broke it on your first real run in three years."

dylan was absolutely speechless.

"i...what?"

"you broke the track record. the last person who set the record was a seventeen year old in an expensive kart from a foreign team and that was over two decades ago."

while dylan was still processing this information, charlie turned to dani.

"your 1.27 was nothing to be ashamed of either. that was the same time as the fastest lap set by state champion last year, who is a seventeen year old boy. you have the second fastest female time, although we don't separate by gender at this track."

dani beamed up at him, "i'll take that!"

charlie then turned to sandy, "if i could see you in my office for just a second, kiddos why don't you two go get changed and then join us."

dylan and dani nodded, and sandy followed charlie to his office.

he sat down behind the desk and turned his attention to sandy who was in the seat in front of him.

"listen, you've got two absolutely extraordinary kids here, i mean, i'm talking talent that we haven't seen in years. we're about one month, so two races, into this season and already have a confirmed driver lineup for our main team. even there were seats open, we only take kids sixteen and over. that being said, we have a junior team that we haven't run since our drivers turned sixteen and we couldn't find younger kids interested in racing. i would like to offer dani and dylan the two spots on the junior team. now, they'd be behind on points because they missed the first two races, and we'd have to ask for a significant amount of money from you because of the late fees, as well as regular gear and karting fees. i didn't want to mention this in front of the kids incase it wasn't something you wanted, i didn't want to get their hopes up."

before sandy had time to respond, the kids walked in, now changed in their regular clothes.

they took the seats on either side of sandy, looking between her and charlie with intrigue.

all it took was one glance from sandy to see each of her kids with their hair stuck to the edges of their faces with sweat, grinning and fingers drumming with adrenaline from the kart, to know what her answer was.

she gave charlie a pointed look and a wink, "charlie, why don't you share the good news with dylan and dani!"

charlie proceeded to explain the prior details to the kids.

dylan was ecstatic.

he was on top of the world from being in a kart again, and breaking the track record was something he could have never imagined.

it reinstalled confidence in himself and his abilities that he had lost during his years with max.

charlie explained that there were nine junior teams in the league and they would join late as the tenth.

practice would be four days a week in the afternoon, with races every other weekend.

charlie gave sandy info about where to buy racing gear, as well as showing the bullock family the plaque for track records that dylan's name would be added to.

as they left the track with plans to be back tomorrow, dani and dylan finally felt like their life might really be turning around.

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chapter 31 - i hope you like this chapter, i know racing stuff can be boring! i'm sorry for the slow updates as my school is starting back up, but i can promise i have some exciting chapters planned for the future! please continue to vote + comment :)