Light fluttered and flashed as Izzy took her seat in front of the room filled with journalists. She raised her hand to her forehead, reducing the light from the ceiling lamps as she scanned the room. Dozens of journalists called out her name, grasping for her attention, and she slowly gathered herself as she pointed her finger at a caramel-skinned journalist with her hair braided in two cute buns.

  “Yeah?” Izzy pointed her finger at the journalist.

  “Thandi, from Centralised Cintri,” The journalist said as she stood up.

  “I like your hair, Thandi,”

  “Oh, uhm. Thanks,” She blushed. “Today’s race seemed like a bit of a struggle for you. Just wanted to get your thoughts.”

  “Uhh, yeah, I had a bit of a spin out on the drop and had to avoid a collision that took place between Team Silic and Team NorthWay. I dropped from fourth to ninth by the time I recovered and spent the rest of the race trying to recoup my position. Not ideal.”

  “You still managed to come in second, though, which is rather amazing considering how far behind you fell. Are you proud of your racing?”

  “Thanks, but the goal was to beat Team Veyn, and that didn’t quite pan out, so… Not really.” Izzy shrugged, still a little frustrated by the race. Making a comeback wasn’t new to her, and in the past, she’d managed to come first after such an outcome. However, the race for first in the overall leaderboard required a point finish ahead of Team Veyn, and her goal was to win the championship. Thandi sat down, and everyone’s voices roared as the camera flashes strobbed-

  “Yeah?” She pointed at a man in the back as the room hushed.

  “Hi, Izzy. The race today was quite incredible to watch. Do you think Team Koy deserved their time penalty for the crash into Team Ren later in the race?”

  Izzy Chuckled, “Miin said in the lineup that he was going to try crashing me out today,” She shrugged, grinning a somewhat devious smile, “I guess he missed and hit Kelly, so. He should focus on himself more, that’s for sure.”

  The majority of journalists cackled at her comment. The crash was rather uncalled for, considering he had a solid position in third place, but chose to race aggressively when Izzy and Kelly contested his position. He might’ve finished second if he’d chosen to race properly, but Miin tends to be eccentric for entertainment value.

  “And do you think that Team Veyn deserved their position, considering they got to redo their qualifying time three days ago?”

  “I’m not sure what to say about that, but their Team and the DRF came to some sort of agreement about a technical error that interfered with their qualifying time. All I know is that I need to do better in the qualifying tomorrow because I’m tired of these fourth-place starts.”

  “Thanks, Izzy,”

  “Sure,” She said as she pointed at a rather angry-looking journalist in the front row.

  “Bale, Cath daily,” He murmured. “What’s with these fourth-place qualifications anyway?”

  “No idea,” She shook her head.

  “Last week, you said you still won with lapses in concentration, but it seems to be eating away at your performance.”

  “Two weeks isn’t a long enough time to conclude such.”

  “Yes, but this is out of character for you. In your entire career, you haven’t had such consistency in poor performance. It’s almost as if you aren’t quite the champion racer you once were,” He pressed further, breaking the two-question protocol as he stared at Izzy directly in the eyes with a look of disdain. Izzy wasn’t quite sure why Bale or Cath Daily didn’t like her, considering they’re her home news outlet, but even when she was a teenager, the organisation had been overly analytical of her statistics and performance, critiquing every race regardless of how well she’d performed.

  “Huh,” She mumbled, a little unconfident. She just remembered that she’d never qualified below third position twice in a row before. “Maybe,” She shrugged, swallowing the pill but feeling the pain of it. “I work really hard, and try my best to live up to the title that I have, but sometimes it’s difficult… I can’t say I’m not afraid of the day I fall off and am no longer the best… But, I don’t think that day has come yet. I hope not.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The journalist looked rather disarmed, and the whole room erupted in whispers, surprised by Izzy’s honesty when she would usually shrug off criticism like this with confidence and humour. It took her a moment to notice that she’d never revealed her emotions like this before, and that it wasn’t on brand with the Izzy she’d built up, but she wasn’t sure what made her so comfortable with answering this way. Maybe it was her age, or maybe she was also tired of the charade she’d always played. She felt confident, and sometimes she didn’t. Maybe it was time people knew that about her.

  “Izzy,” A journalist stood up, also breaking protocol. “Many people think you’re the greatest pilot in the galaxy. Are you saying that you aren’t anymore?”

  The loud whispering continued. It would go against her image to say anything other than ‘of course I’m the greatest,’ but, for some reason, she didn’t feel so confident today. It wasn’t that she was a bad racer– she’d shown that today. It may be that she wasn’t quite as interested in winning as she used to be. What is this feeling? Here finger tapped on the table faster and faster.

  “I’m not saying that at all,” She retreated to the familiar, discomforted by her thoughts. “I’m going to win the championship,” She said, but for the first time, she didn’t believe it. “And you should be following protocol.” She chided.

  The journalist nodded, agreeing with her before taking a seat, and the others all raised their hands again as they called for her attention.

  “I, uhh.” She stood up, “I think I’m done for today,” She concluded as she exited the stage.

  Waiting in her dressing room, beyond the swinging doors, were Pearl and her Mother, who didn’t often come to her press conferences.

  “What was that?” Her Mother asked, with an annoyed snarl.

  “What was what?” Izzy deflected, sighing because she knew what she meant.

  “That’s not the image we curated for you,” She added, “You can’t be responding to questions like that.”

  “The image you curated for me,” Izzy mumbled under her breath.

  “Were you unprepared?” Her Mother asked with searching eyes.

  “I briefed her on the approach as usual, Ma’am,” Pearl added.

  “Then what?” She continued, “Why would you give such a weak answer to a journalist you know is always aggressive?”

  “I was just… Being honest.”

  “Honest?” Mother tilted her head, “We never trained you to be honest.”

  Yeah, no kidding, Izzy thought to herself as she kept walking, ignoring her.

  “Cath Daily is going to eat us up for that, Isabella.”

  “It’s fine,” She responded with her back to her Mother, changing out of her racing gear.

  “Isabella Montoya. You look at me when I’m speaking to you!” She yelled.

  Izzy froze in place, taking a deep breath as she felt her stomach churn. She turned to face her Mother to see the enraged eyes prying into Izzy’s.

  “Don’t you dare give me that attitude again, do you hear me?” Mother said.

  Izzy said nothing and looked at the floor.

  “You cannot embarrass the company and our sponsors like that again, do you understand?”

  Izzy silently nodded, wanting to tell her Mother off but refraining from doing so. It won’t help, she hushed herself.

  “After everything we’ve done for you. Do you not care about your family, Izzy? About the business?”

  “I do,” She replied, softly. Uncertain. Her finger tapping against her thigh

  “Then you need to act like it.” Her Mother’s voice eased up as she approached Izzy and placed a hand delicately on Izzy’s cheek. “We do all of this for you, mi amocito.”

  Izzy nodded, and her frustration melted into disappointment that she directed at herself. What her Mother said was right– it was a bad look, despite how harmless it may have seemed. Izzy had been media trained when she first entered the league at seventeen, and the cocky, overly excited attitude she had was one that they taught her to exaggerate and use to her advantage.

  Ever since then, her personality has been a major contributor to her success, and is the main driver of her image– lately, however, she felt as though she wasn’t the little girl that entered the league, but a woman who thought of herself in a spectrum of ways. Sometimes she felt like she was the greatest pilot in the galaxy, knew it even. But other times she felt like a failure that’d never live up to that title. She thought it might be good to reframe her image around this newfound mentality, but she should have known better.

  “Your Father and I do everything in our power to make your dreams a reality. Sometimes, it means you have to stick to the plan, okay?”

  “Okay,” Izzy agreed as her Mother hugged her.

  She wanted so badly to tell her Mother about the woman she believed she was becoming, to talk about it and devise a new path for the image that she had, but she knew that would not lead to the outcome she hoped. She felt that within her, and wished she were wrong, but the reaction her Mother just had was evidence of it.

  “Get dressed,” Her Mother released her embrace, “We have a dinner to attend in two hours with the Drop Racing Federation.”

  Izzy continued changing, glaring at the tight-fitting dress laid out for her. She didn’t like the colour, royal blue with golden detailing etched into it. But her stylist knew she looked good in it, so she didn’t have much of a say in what she wore, considering the image she had to portray.

  “Pearl, walk with me,” Mother ordered as she exited the dressing room.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” She followed.