Mechanical love

Chapter Thirty-three

Time stood still for a brief moment as she watched the light change from red to green, but with a reaction born only out of sheer practice; Carolina floored it.

Both she and Bumblebee shot forward, the vehicles lurching from the horsepower of the engines. Her Ford may have been an old, classic model; but her baby was anything but washed up.

The engine was powerful, and had been made entirely from scratch; pieced together by multiple different vehicles to serve its purpose.

As she shifted through the gears by pure muscle memory, she felt her heart beat a little faster. Bumblebee was gaining on her, and she wouldn't stand for it.

"Come on Ford girl, show him what you've got!" she hissed to her car, feeling it pull ahead just a fraction. What they were doing was so wrong, so illegal; but by Hell, her heart was racing, and it felt so good.

A loud, whirring noise sounded from next to her, and she spotted Bumblebee whoosh past her; his tailpipe glowing with a blue flame from its exhaust.

Cybertronian fuel!

Carolina put down the window in a rage and screamed out at the yellow Camaro as she flew down the road. "CHEATER!" she roared furiously, shifting the gears and slamming her foot down on the accelerator hard.

She caught up, but not enough. Her eyes were focused on the next set of lights; their unspoken finish line. "Come on," she hissed, "Come on, come on, come on!"

The gears were as high as they could go now, and Carolina was out of options; all she could do now was floor it and pray. There was a higher power smiling down on her.

A truck pulled out from an office building and almost collided with Bumblebee, causing the yellow Camaro to swerve violently and spin out.

Carolina screamed and pulled the wheel to the side, shooting around the Autobot and losing momentum; but she was ahead...she was ahead!

As soon as the initial shock was passed, and she knew that Bee and Mikaela were unharmed, she hung out the window with a laugh.

"That's what you get for cheating, Bee!" she cried, before shifting the Ford back into appropriate gear and breaking for the finish line. She was going to win, she could feel it; the mark was right there-

"Bumblebee?"

The competitive young bot had put all the power he had into his Energon boosters and was catching up to her; already he was out of view of her rear-vision mirror, which meant he was coming up on her blind spot.

"Shit, shit, shit!" she cried, shifting gears and flooring it once more, "Come on baby! Go, go, GO!"

Neck and neck, tire to tire; it was so close. Good God if she hadn't been the one driving, she'd have been biting her nails down to the bone; the finish line was meters away now.

She gave a yell as she bared her teeth and floored the accelerator one last time to gain some speed, not watching the Camaro that was in her peripheral vision; she didn't want to know who was winning.

However, only inches before she reached the mark, the yellow Autobot cut a few centimeters in front; just enough to push his nose in front.

Both cars crossed the line and skidded to a halt. Carolina had lost. But to her surprise, she started to laugh.

It was hysterical, with a manic lunacy about it. She had lost, yes, but she'd had so much fun losing! With the adrenaline coursing through her body, teamed with the sheer freedom of having been in control of a car for the first time in forever; she was experiencing something akin to a high.