She

2004

Marshall stumbled to the garage and told Lucy to drive them to the track.

- Okay, follow me. - Marshall was a bit tipsy, but Lucy followed him into his office. - Sit down.

Marshall ruffled through one of his drawers and pulled out a huge collection of newspapers. He slammed them on the table and Lucy grabbed the one on top.

"Disaster at GT World Challenge America"

- What happened? - Lucy started looking through all the newspapers.

- 2004, it was the GT World Challenge America, the final race. Carla was sweeping the race. She was lapping people one after another. I remember it perfectly, it just keeps repeating in my head. On the last lap Carla spoke through the radio, she kept repeating the same thing over and over:

"I can't see, I can't see, I can't see"

- The car wasn't perfectly set up, and with a slight mistake, the car went airborne. It had roll cages so we didn't panic too much. Carla smashed into the track wall, but we still had hope. We heard one last thing through the radio:

"I can't see, but I smell petrol"

- And then, the car blew up. Before the explosion we had hope, but at that moment I never felt so dead while being alive. Do you know what's the worst thing?

- I can't imagine. - Lucy slowly answered.

- She won the overall championship, so in the ceremony, there was nobody on the top podium. That day was the day every SINGLE NEWSPAPER EDITOR DECIDED THAT THE DEATH OF CARLA WAS A GREAT WAY TO PROFIT.

Lucy was startled by the screaming, but Marshall soon calmed down and put his head on the table.

- Listen, I'm sorry... - Lucy felt the tension in the air.

- It's okay. We race a couple of weeks, we should get ready a little bit more. Your acceleration is fine, but the handling is horrible.

- Umm, yeah, okay, let's go home?

- Yeah, let's go, it was stupid to come here.

- No no, it's okay.

- Shut up, let's go.

Lucy drove Marshall back and went to bed. The next morning Marshall said he regretted everything he said, but couldn't change anything. Lucy noticed Marshall was making a lot of good and powerful decisions on the track.

- The car is rolling on corners, I want a change of suspension, when's the last time we changed the suspension? - Marshall asked.

- We haven't changed them since the original tune. - Howard chuckled.

- Well no wonder they're wobbling, they've been used for a million years.

- Will change, all good. - Connor went to the garage.

- Anyone noticed anything else? - Marshall asked the drivers. - I know Howard and Connor noticed but did you?

- No, I don't think so. - Zane answered.

- No, didn't feel a thing. - Keith shrugged.

- Bad, very bad. Howard? - Marshall turned towards the mustached mechanic.

- Some of the sparkplugs are either broken or not working because you're losing tons of gas and the car is spitting. A lot of fuel exits the exhaust, the car is warm, that fuel lights on fire, and all of a sudden you're on fire. So we'll change the sparkplugs. - Howard turned around.

The car was taken into the garage and the crew of ten people started working on it.

After a full day of work, people starting heading home one after another.

- I'm going home, are you coming? - Marshall asked Lucy.

- No I'm good, I'll come home later.

- Alright, help yourself.

Lucy and Howard were the only ones left. They were working until 2 am.

- And that's it, she's ready to go. - Howard smiled.

- Nelly is ready.

- Nelly?

- Well she didn't have a name, so I picked one.

- It's nice. - Howard sat down and cleaned his hands.

- We were looking through pictures yesterday with Marshall. You've known him for a while, right?

- Oh yeah, I met him in a race. We were teenagers and we met in Florida watching Daytona. We talked, realized we lived in the same state, and just started hanging out. Also, good job, he never lets a young female driver get close.

- Carla?

- ...Yeah. From that day he promised he would never sign another girl, but here you are. I'm proud of him, I am.

- Do you ever argue?

- Actually, we never do, - Howard was putting the tools into their places, - well I can remember one time.

- He got mad at you for something?

- Oh no, he's the least mean person in our crew. The damn devil Scotty himself got signed for Ford, and boy did I get jealous.

- I can imagine.

- But then I realized being jealous is stupid...And I became a mechanic for Ford.

Lucy laughed and decided to ask Howard another question, realizing Howard was open to talk about anything.