The morning starts as usual, the birds are chirping soundly, and the sun shines brightly outside. Then suddenly a loud burst of laughter from the break room disturbs the bird's chirping.

"Bwahaha, you ended up skipping school just because of that!" Sugimoto asked while laughing at Alice.

"Idiot, stop laughing like that, I didn't want to be made fun of for today so I decided to skip school!" She crossed her arms angrily.

"Won't your parents be mad about it?" He asked her.

"Don't worry they won't find out. Besides, the school won't be mad if I skip for a day or two." She says and plays it off.

Sugimoto sees she is a bit annoyed and starts petting her.

"How many times have I told you this and you never listen!" She said angrily while pushing his arm away and scolding him.

"Sorry, it's hard to resist." He chuckled.

"Jeez, you're often irritating to deal with, Senpai." She pouts as she says that.

"Come on, it's not my fault you suddenly hugged me from behind." Sugimoto told her.

"As if I wanted to do that! I just happened to fall when I went over to you." Alice angrily told him.

While they were arguing, the manager came into the break room and was surprised to see Alice being early on the weekdays.

"Ah, Alice, aren't you supposed to be in school today?" The manager asked curiously.

"Oh, erm- I had permission from the school to be absent from school today." She told the manager.

"I see, good to hear that since there's something important I wanted to discuss with both of you." The manager told them.

"Sure, what's up chief?" Sugimoto asked him.

"Today I want to discuss our upcoming qualifiers for the first round of the ROA Cup." The manager told them.

"Sure, what about it?" Sugimoto asked him again.

"I want to discuss the rival teams competing for the upcoming qualifying session. We have some new faces for this year's edition. A Japanese car manufacturing company Nissan has joined this edition of the ROA Cup." The manager told him.

"Nissan? They're competing here in Akinabalu?" Alice asked in a curious tone.

The manager nods his head while crossing his arms.

"I remembered Nissan used to dominate all 6 rounds of the ROA Cup in 2015. They were a powerhouse in Akinabalu until they suddenly pulled out from the competition in 2018." Sugimoto conveyed to them.

"Yup, this is what I'm worried about. The first round out of 6 will be one of the hardest to qualify since there are only 24 spots for the fastest car during the qualifiers out of 64 cars competing. I still don't know their full capabilities but I'm confident you two can qualify for the race. " The manager told them.

"Don't worry chief, we won't let you down." Sugimoto said and smiled.

"Yep, we will not let you down manager!" Alice told the manager with enthusiasm.

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"Good, I think we all know now that qualifiers are in about two weeks from now so I expect both of you to work harder, right Sugimoto?" The manager said as he glared at him.

"Y-yes sir." Sugimoto nervously replied.

The manager nodded and exited the break room, leaving Alice and Sugimoto together.

"Remember senpai, work hard." She said as she nudged his arm and teased him.

"Yeah yeah, kid." Sugimoto scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Alice and Sugimoto went out of the break room and geared up to begin their practice session. They went inside the pitlane's garage and saw the other pit crew members nearby checking up on their cars. While they were standing together, a man with a goatee and glasses approached them.

"Peace, I'm Awang Ghazali, the new pit crew principal for Akinabalu Motorsports. It's nice to meet the racer himself!" Ghazali said and began shaking his hand with Sugimoto.

"Nice to meet you Ghazali. I'm Alice Shah." Alice said and extended her hand towards Ghazali.

"Nice to meet you too little girl, is this your child?" Ghazali said while smiling and shaking her hands.

Time stopped and the world became black and white for a few seconds. After the initial handshake, Sugimoto became understandingly worried for Ghazali's safety.

"S-Sugimoto, the wrench please..." Alice said in an angry tone.

Sugimoto a bit frightened, reluctantly gives her the wrench and looks over towards Ghazali who's still oblivious to the situation. Ghazali notices Alice slowly approaching him while holding the wrench and begins backing off.

"Eh, dik(kid), what are you doing?" Ghazali asked her.

"Do not. Call me. A CHILD!" Alice screamed and began running towards Ghazali with a wrench.

Ghazali saw flames in her eyes immediately read the situation and began running for his life. While Ghazali ran from her, Alice threw other objects toward Ghazali. He ran around the garage and narrowly dodged every object thrown at him.

"Dik what's wrong with you!?" He said as he was still confused and kept on running.

Ghazali ran out outside the garage and began running on the sidewalk. Alice tried to chase him but Ghazali had already sprinted across multiple garages.

"Ghazali I'm going to kill you if you come back!" Alice shouted at him from a distance.

Alice returned to the garage and met up with Sugimoto. Alice let out an exasperated huff as Sugimoto looked into the distance and saw Ghazali still running.

"You really chased him huh?" Sugimoto said to Alice.

"Hmph, once he gets back he will be begging on his knees." Alice said as she crossed her arms.

"You sure will kid." Sugimoto reassures her and pets her head.

"Maybe someone else wants to get wrenched?" Alice said as she gave Sugimoto a death stare.

Sugimoto lifts his hand slowly off her head in order not to die in the hands of Alice. After a while, Ghazali returns to the garage and is currently on his knees in front of Alice.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't know you were a driver! Please don't kill me!" He said in a frightened voice.

Ghazali is on his head asking to be spared as he's at the mercy of Alice who is still holding the wrench.

"Fine, I forgive you, don't make that mistake again!" Alice said sparing his life.

Ghazali became relieved that the dispute was over. Ghazali got up on his feet and fixed his glasses.

"So now that's over, let me introduce myself, I'm Sugimoto, and this, as you might already know, is Alice Shah. We're the drivers for the Akinabalu Motorsport." Sugimoto told Ghazali.

Ghazali nods and greets both of them equally.

"Glad to meet you two, I'm happy to be working with both of you." He said and sweated a bit.

As they were talking, the manager noticed them and went up to them to greet them.

"Ah, it seems like you have met with our new Pit Crew principal, Ghazali. Looks like you guys had a good impression of him." The manager said.

"Yep, we had a friendly talk, right Gaz?" Alice said as she nudged Ghazali.

"Y-Yup, they are quite friendly people!" Ghazali told the manager in a frightened tone.

The manager looks confused by Ghazali's expression but decides not to say anything about it.

"I-I see, glad to hear that, starting from now Ghazali will help look over your races and keep you all in check." The manager told them seemingly pleased.

"Yep, you can rely on me!" Ghazali responds enthusiastically.

They all nodded and the drivers got ready to practice. Alice and Sugimoto drove onto the track and from their earpiece, they heard Ghazali as he communicated with them on the radio.

"Alright drivers, from now on, you can call me Gaz for short. I want you guys to push yourself to the limits so we can obtain proper data from your races alright?" Ghazali explains to them on the radio.

The drivers agreed and began doing laps around the track. After hours of practice, it was time to go home. Alice went back home that evening by bus. She begins tip-toeing her way into the room until she hears someone yell from the hallway.

"Alice Shah! Come to the living room this instance!" Her grandpa told her angrily.

Alice was later scolded by her grandpa when he found out from the school that she didn't go to school. Her grandpa began lecturing her for skipping school and Alice reluctantly listened to his lecture.