Chapter 7

Stella Star and the Sisterhood of the Dingo Boots

Wednesday : March 5th 2025

As Ruby opened her eyes again, she was met by a glare of someone she didn’t immediately recognize. The prideful yet confused red eyes bore down into her soul, stirring a sense of panic she hadn’t felt in a while. Like a cat seeing a cucumber or when your car slides unexpectedly. That “Oh shit” you feel not in your throat, but the depths of your soul as you contemplate your mortality and life choices up until this moment. These were the eyes of someone with purpose and drive, that until this very moment, hadn't so much as considered finding Ruby here. And so, as these two realities collided, what resulted was both girls shreking at each other…

“EEEK!” In unison, the confused scream stopped all surrounding work except for Revz and the tipped off McClaire who were both dying of laughter behind the car. 

 “Oh for fuck sakes Revz…” McClaire laughed, head in her hand. 

“What? She got a good nap out of it at least!” Revz replied, as Stella Star tore the door to the GT40 open to confront poor Ruby.

“What the hell are you doing in my car?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!! I was just helping Revz and…” Ruby tried to explain, but all this did refocus Star’s outrage. 

“Of course… Revz you couldn’t have warned me?!” Star hissed, slamming the Ford’s door in Ruby’s face and marching off towards the chunky American who was easily three times her size. 

“It’s not like she’s a spider Star. Girl just wanted a nap…” Revz laughed in reply.

 “You’re still a jerk! Jeez…” Star hissed. In truth, Star was less mad about being startled by Ruby, and more annoyed that she had screamed. Embarrassed and annoyed, she took a long deep breath, and shook her head. 

“I hate you.” She finally muttered. Meanwhile, behind her, Ruby finally extricated herself from the Ford. 

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t really sleep last night and…” Confused, Ruby was still trying to explain herself, but quickly she was waved down by Revz.

“No, no, no. I’m the one who’s sorry Ruby, I kinda used you as bait to get back at Star.” He explained. 

“Again, you’re a jerk!” Star hissed, pointing at Revz authoritatively, before turning back to Ruby.

“You want to help me kick his ass later?” Ruby smiled and laughed at the offer, happy at least Star was no longer mad at her. Practical joke over, the sound of a race car tearing past the pits heralded a return to normalcy. 

“Uh, so you’re Stella right? We haven’t really had a chance to meet yet? I’m Ruby Starfire!” Ruby chirped, determined to put her best foot forward from this point onwards. Star turned around fully now and nodded out of respect.

“Nice to meet you Ruby, and sorry for yelling at you.” 

“No, I get it. I’m sorry I fell asleep in your car! Hehe!” Ruby giggled cutely, feeling the situation had been defused but not entirely. Now there was a new tension in the air, a change in how Star was looking at her. Was she a friend, foe, rival, or ally?

 “Are you a driver Ruby?” Star finally asked, and again, a small part of Ruby’s brain wanted to lie. Her acting skills, her dreams, could she combine the two and talk her way into it becoming a reality? Star was the same size as she was, if she could drive a race car, why couldn’t Ruby?

“Uh… No.” Still, as bad as Ruby wanted to say yes, she couldn’t force herself to say it. She stood there awkwardly as once again Star’s gaze changed. Ah, a friend!

“Aw, that's a shame. You’re really pretty, are you an influencer or a youtuber or something?”

“I guess you could call me that, although I prefer the term idol. I do a little bit of everything! Acting, voice acting, motion capture, modeling both catwalk and photoshoots, basically everything but singing.” Ruby explained, carefully leaving out the less interesting parts of her weird nomadic life.

“I would rather get shot at then sing…” Star nodded in agreement. 

“By the way, where did you get those boots? I really like them!”

“They’re custom made by a company I modeled for called Roo Riders! They make these Dingo styled… or I guess you would call them cowboy boots.” Ruby quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket. With a few taps, she brought up a few of the magazine ads she had starred in. These were full page ads with Ruby expertly showing off the specially footwear. Provocative titles like, “Sweeter than chocolate”, “Tough yet sweet on the feet”, headlined the page with Ruby doing something to match the theme. Eating a chocolate bar in a teasing way, or stepping on a scorpion while holding a bouquet of flowers. 

“Oh my god, cute! Wow Ruby, hook a girl up will ya?” Star’s eyes lit up, clearly enjoying what she was seeing.

“Sure, I’ve got the owner’s number! Maybe he’ll do the same deal for you?” 

“Huh? What, you mean, I model for them?” Star’s confusion kinda took Ruby by surprise, but then she realized... Of course, Star wasn’t a model like she normally converses with, but a race car driver. Still, the wheels were turning in Star’s head, and eventually she shrugged.

“Fuck it, I’ll model for some free boots!” Ruby smiled, nodded, and laughed even if inside she was kicking herself. Look what happens when you say yes Ruby. Just then, a mechanical monster roared to life in the garage beside them. 

“Oh, sounds like McClaire’s going out.” Star more lipped then said, her voice drowned out by the reverberations bouncing off the concrete. 

“WHAT?!” Ruby replied, somewhat amazed she had managed to sleep through this ruckus. Following Star over to the next door's garage, McClaire was putting on her driving gloves having already loaded herself into the McLaren Formula car. Revz leaned in to check her seat belts, and then with a thumbs up, he waved McClaire out into a gap of the pitlane traffic. The engine protested at first, clearly unhappy at being tasked with setting the machine into motion. But after the massive tires started rolling, the car seemed to glide away and down the pit road out of sight, effortlessly transversing space and time with an overabundance of horsepower. 

“I wish my Indycar sounded like that…” Star sighed, a mixture of disappointment and jealousy showing through on her face.

“Don't we all…” Revz replied. 

“Well, I guess I'm going out next. I've got to get changed so, I'll see you around Ruby.” Star announced, and Ruby nodded as she ran off.

“See ya Star! Best of luck.” With that she turned back to the American.

“Well, you two made up quickly? Hehe, sorry about that.” Revz said again.

“Nah, it's okay Revzy! I find it hard to hold a grudge,” Ruby admitted.

“That's a good trait to have Ruby. McClaire can tell you all about the death spiral a grudge can cause.” Revz said, the term “death spiral” hitting a little too close to home.

“Yeah… say, do you know what time it is?”

“It’s about 11:00 o'clock last I looked, why?”

“Oh? Well then I need to get going! I've got a babysitting job and I've got to go back to Melbourne!” Ruby said enthusiastically, but a concerned look on Revz's face signaled something was wrong. 

“Uh, that might be easier said than done…” Revz explained. Where Ruby had driven her car into the interior of the circuit to reach the paddock area, it was now effectively trapped in here. The track had been opened for practice and thus the gate to cross the track was closed until later this evening. Suddenly that feeling of panic and adrenaline was back into Ruby’s bloodstream. 

“So, I'm stuck here, is what you're saying?”

“Yeah pretty much. The only way out right now is the pedestrian tunnel, and there's no way you're getting your car through there.” Revz explained and Ruby’s heart dropped.

“Ohhhh, crap!” Ruby moaned. She had never had to call off one of her odd jobs before, and in this case, there wasn't even a way she really could. She was expected to be at her friend's house at six, so seven hours of heads up wasn't much in trying to arrange another baby sitter. 

“I'm sorry Ruby, had I known you needed to leave I would have warned you…” 

“Revz, there has to be some way I can get out of here? I've got a friend that's counting on me here.” Ruby begged.

“I see, well… Give me a minute to think, we'll come up with something.” A few moments later, McClaire returned to the pit lane, having not even run a lap. Something was wrong with the car, and using hand signals, she motioned to be pushed back into the garage. Both Revz and Ruby quickly came to her aid as she killed the engine.

“Air in the brakes, they need to be bled again.” McClaire informed Revz as the car rolled back into the shade. 

“On it, let me get you in the air.” Using a pair of manual pivot jacks like you see in Formula one, Revz lifted the car into the air as someone else put jack stands under each corner of the car. With it in the air, the massive tires came off with air tools, and soon the process of bleeding the brakes started.

“Back in the 1970’s, we weren't allowed to use air tools in the pits at most Formula 5000 races. We had this massive oversized four way to take the single lug wheels off. We should go back to that.” McClaire explained, sounding almost reminiscent of the days she could torment her pit crew just that little bit more. 

“Yeah right, shut up McClaire.” Revz said back with a chuckle.

“You talk like you were there, McClaire!” Ruby said.

“What do you mean? Of course I was?” McClaire replied, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice. This confused Ruby… the 1970’s was fifty years ago. 

“Huh, what do you mean McClaire, you're not that old?” Suddenly the whole garage went silent, silent apart from McClaire’s hysterical laughter in the driver's seat. She pulled off her helmet and looked over at Ruby.

“You're telling me you don't know anything about my curse? That's fucking hilarious!” McClaire shouted, laughing her ass off. 

“Curse?” Ruby repeated, meanwhile McClaire facepalmed. 

“Google me, just put in Stephanie McClaire and see what you get?” Ruby did as instructed, and what came up was a controversial mishmash of posts. Some about her being banned from the FIA, some highlights from the various races she partook in, some however seemed a little more conspiratorial. 

“Who is Stephanie McClaire, and is she an alien?”

“The McClaire clone Program exposed.”

“McClaire is proof time travel exists…”

Ruby raised an eyebrow, looking through the incredible mass of reddit posts, X threads, and even entire YouTube documentaries about McClaire. And then she found the book… “Road Racer.” 

“Road Racer is the claimed combined Autobiography of Max Grayson and biography of Stephanie McClaire written from 1967-1999. Despite fictional aspects such as time travel and historical manipulation, it is claimed to be an explanation of the controversial and scientifically unproven curse inflicting the seemingly immortal racing driver known as Stephanie McClaire.”

“Immortal?!” Ruby was dumbfounded, what the hell was all of this?  She knew McClaire was a “Racing Mercenary” a term she herself had coined. A driver who pays no mind to championships and races in events all over the world for cash and fame. But this whole Immortal, time traveling, alien, clone thing was a little bit unbelievable. As the confusion showed through on her face, McClaire just laughed. 

“Just so we're clear, I'm not an alien.” 

“So… wha… what is all this?” Ruby stuttered, not sure if she should be amazed, in awe, or utterly terrified. McClaire just smiled and with a shrug replied. 

“I'm immortal.”

Ruby stood there, silent, confused. This had to be a prank, it's not possible for someone to be immortal. But looking around, all of McClaire’s team Revz included was as serious looking as she was. 

“She's not lying to you Ruby, McClaire really is immortal.” Revz eventually said.

“That's not possible.”

“You're right, it's not. Because technically you can kill me, it just takes me a couple of months to respawn.” McClaire laughed, finding this whole thing hilarious. Ruby however did not.

“That’s not funny McClaire!”

“I know, I shouldn't laugh, but it's so weird finding someone who doesn't know after all this time! The rest of the world has just accepted it at this point…”

“Minus the FIA.” Revz chimed in.

“Yeah, minus them, Assholes…” As work resumed, Ruby stood there, mouth agasp, confused. She didn't know what to think, let alone what to say. Luckily, she didn't need to say anything. As the tires went back on, Revz stepped around the car, crouched, and spoke to McClaire face to face..

“Hey, we do have a little bit of a situation. Ruby drove her car in here and now she's trapped here, but she needs to go to work. Can I loan her one of the rental cars?”

“Well… she's not a member of the team, and not on the insurance. Australia is really picky about that, just loan her my car.” McClaire instructed. Revz' face twisted into a concerned look.

“Uh… your car?”

“Yeah, she can handle it, she drives a supercharged Holden daily.” McClaire insisted with a nod of reinsurance. 

“Ruby, give Revz your keys so we can move your car if we need to. Revz, my keys are in my jacket pocket…”

“You're sure about this?” Revz confirmed one final time.

“Positive. Now get me back on the ground and get this engine running, before practice ends!” McClaire ordered, and Revz relented. The jacks came down, the starter went into the back of the car, and with a “whizzzzz” the V8 engine fired back into life. With a few gasps of air the mighty engine's pulsing revs stabilized, and McClaire put the car into gear and rolled out back onto the track.

“Immortal?” Ruby said, more to herself than anyone else. She couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible. Yet for some reason, everyone in earshot just accepted it. Why? Surely this couldn't have been more than a stupid joke?

“Ruby.” Revz said, her attention rejoining reality. In his hand was a key, and on it, was a silver bull. Are you nuts?!

“Huh, a Lamborghini?!” Ruby's voice jumped in excitement, her eyes showing stars of lust as she looked at the key. 

“Ruby, I just want to be real with you. McClaire is putting a lot of trust in you, and so am I. Be careful...” 

“Yeah… hehe, sure!” Ruby laughed casually with a reassuring smile. She was putting on a jacket of fake actor's confidence. 

Of course she could handle a rocket ship like a Lamborghini! No problem!

However, inside…

Oh God Ruby, what have you gotten yourself into.