emphasise that he was stronger than her and that she wouldn’t get far if she made another lunge for Tiffany.
‘Dammit,’ Bethany said angrily, as she combed her fingers through her dark hair, showering the ground with bits of gravel. ‘I can’t believe she pinned me. I’m so weak; I’ve got to get back in training.’
‘She’s not worth getting punishment laps over,’ Lauren said soothingly, as she rested her hand on Bethany’s back. ‘And you didn’t do that badly. That first punch: she’s bleeding out the corner of her giant trap.’
‘I owe you one,’ Bethany grunted. ‘I’d have lost half my front teeth if you hadn’t pulled her off.’
By this time most of the crowd had turned back towards the race. Terry Campbell looked up at the sky to check the light before taking a stopwatch from the pocket of his overalls. Bruce pressed the button to start up the motorcycle engine and within ten seconds the air was filled with blue haze.
‘Another blow for the environment,’ Lauren coughed.
Terry lowered his hand to indicate that he’d started the stopwatch and Rat floored the accelerator pedal. James smiled proudly as a few chants of ‘Go Rat’ came out of the crowd. Everyone seemed impressed as a cart that had spent a decade pootling around campus at fifteen kph blasted uphill with its back wheels chucking up dust and gravel.
‘We’re running the engine on the highest octane super unleaded,’ James explained to the girls, as Jake and Andy joined them. ‘We’ve altered the fuel injection so that it puts a very rich fuel mixture into the cylinder to increase power and we even downloaded a hack for the engine management chip so that you can rev it much harder and—’
Lauren interrupted. ‘Like I really care about your stupid engine, geek boy. We’re just here hoping we get to see something blow up.’
James realised he sounded a bit of a saddo as Terry counted out a full minute before releasing Stuart’s cart on to the circuit. Shak’s team had stripped the roof from their cart and James was worried because it looked more stable as it powered up the hill.
‘Ready to lose, my man?’ Shak beamed, as he gave James the finger.
Despite being a year younger, Shak was taller than James and had a similar chunky build. ‘I’m so glad we took the top off. And finding that set of fresh tyres at the scrap yard should give us way more traction.’
‘But our computer hack gives us at least twenty extra horsepower,’ James bragged.
Shak shook his head exuberantly. ‘It’s not how much power you’ve got, baby. It’s how much power your wheels can get down on the road.’
Bethany and Lauren looked at each other and deliberately broke into loud yawns, as the drone of the high-powered carts receded into the distance.
‘I think I preferred it when James was only obsessed with girls,’ Lauren said.
‘I’ve got a joke about that,’ Shak said happily. ‘Who wants to hear it?’
‘Nobody,’ Jake said firmly. ‘You and your bloody jokes …’
‘Why are motorbikes better than women?’ Shak asked, ignoring the protests.
Lauren tutted. ‘Because you don’t need permission every time you want to ride on your motorbike.’
Shak was disappointed. ‘You’ve heard it.’
‘You told it at the dinner table last night,’ Jake pointed out. ‘It wasn’t funny then either.’
‘Where’s Dana anyway, James?’ Shak asked. ‘Didn’t your bird want to see your dinky little cart getting crushed, along with your ego?’
James shrugged. ‘She’s reading some book. She said she’s happy for me to be involved in this project as long as she doesn’t have to hear anything about it and I don’t come near her until I’ve washed off the smell of petrol.’
‘Sensible girl,’ Lauren nodded. ‘Although I question her taste in boys …’
‘It’s one of the coolest things about Dana,’ James said. ‘She likes her own space and she doesn’t mind if I go off and do my own stuff.’
‘I thought she was going to that racing place on work experience with you,’ Andy said.
James nodded. ‘Yeah, if she gets the other place.’
‘What work experience?’ Bethany asked.
Lauren pointed at James. ‘All the fifteen-and sixteen-year-olds are doing two weeks’ work experience. Mr Campbell set James up with some university mate of his who runs a motorcycle racing team.’
Jake shook his head. ‘He’s so lucky. Most kids end up working in a clothes shop or something like that.’
‘James is always lucky,’ Shak noted. ‘He’s got more jam than Sainsbury’s.’
Everyone’s ears pricked up as it became clear that the distant drone of two motorbike