It was a few weeks after I got back from the mission that had come after the World Grand Prix, and I was still having trouble with the car form. I rarely used it, but thought nothing of it until Doc pointed it out.

I looked straight down, trying to avoid the unavoidable.

"Foxy…"

"All right. I have been… not using it as much as I might want to…"

See, when we got back, the first thing Finn had done was gone to Doc and asked if he could train me in the ways of a car when we had gotten back. Doc was only too happy to, and had been on my case about it at least once a day.

"Foxy…"

"All right…" With a sigh, the hologram took over, and once more, I was a yellow-with-red-swirls Porsche.

"Go ahead, down to the track." He replied, and I pulled out slowly. Ugh, this was humiliating. He followed me down, since it wasn't too hard to catch up to me. Obviously. To my surprise, he didn't tell me to go drive twenty laps or anything like that. Instead, he parked on the top of the hills overlooking the track. I had kept on rolling, but braked when I noticed he hadn't continued onwards. I reversed back to where he was, and braked, parked a little crookedly, but I could've cared less. He chuckled at my mistake, and I could feel my hood heat up in a blush.

"Foxy, I want you to be completely honest. Why haven't ya been practicin'?"

"Complete honesty?" I asked, and he nodded. I sighed, then looked down at my hood. The hood that still seemed so new to me, along with everything else. "It's scary." I replied in a quieter voice then usual. There, it was out.

"What's scary? Weren't ya complainin' about how ya wanted to be able to go this fast, and go do this, and that?"

"I was, but that was just because I never thought it would actually happen." I replied guiltily, never taking my eyes off my hood.

"There ain't nothin' scary about it." He replied, giving my fender a nudge.

"Easy for you to say. You've stayed in one form your entire life. This is all completely new to me. To know about something is one thing, but to execute that something is a completely different story."

"All right, let's say that I'm gonna humor ya and ya tell me what's so scary about all this."

"There's plenty of things! The Interstate, crashing, and others' stupidity." He chuckled at the last one, but I was serious. I had seen how the teenagers had been driving, many of them not even using turn signals, running red lights, and speeding as fast as they could. Then they blame the cops for finding them. If anything, they should blame themselves for their own stupidity. And who caused most of the crashes? Teenagers. Hence why I had preferred walking.

Doc's voice sounded again, startling me out of my thoughts. "Why's the Interstate scary?"

"Tractor trailers." I replied with an involuntary shudder.

"I guess Mack's a sheep, then, since ya don't seem too scared of him."

"I should've clarified. Their retreads. I'm horrified that one of them could come flying off and hit me straight in the windshield."

Doc sighed, shaking his hood. "Foxy, how often are there tractor trailers around here, other then Mack?"

"Not here, the Interstate!"

"Then ya don't have to drive on the Interstate. I'll admit, crashing's a scary thing, but ya ain't gonna crash. Not at the speed you're going." He chuckled, and my hood lowered.

While I knew it was true, it still hurt a little.

"Next. Others' stupidity."

"They don't know how to freakin' drive right!" I exclaimed angrily, and he outright laughed. "I'm serious! I sound like such a hypocrite right now…" I realized what I'd said a little too late, and my voice gradually diminished.

Still chuckling, Doc nudged my fender again. "I know what ya mean."


We sat in silence for a while, then he said that he was going to go back.

I nodded soundlessly, deep in thought. Did I want to be a car? Before, yes. Now… I wasn't so sure. There were so many things that I didn't know, and I think that was what frightened me the most. While everything I had listed was scary, that was horrifying. That I wasn't the genius they all thought I was. I didn't know everything about anything.

With an angry scoff, I rolled down towards the track, intent on trying to get the hang of driving.

Over the passing week, I chose to stay in my car form, and I begged Doc or Lightning to help me. They each agreed readily, but a few days before the Piston Cup, they both had to leave. Now I was stuck. To my surprise, Flo rolled down to the track while I was there, just gazing out across it, thinking once more about my predicament.

"Ready, honey?"

I jumped and blinked, making her laugh.

"Sorry. I thought ya were just lookin' out across the track, hun."

"It's all right. Ready for what?"

"What you've been pesterin' Doc and Lightning about for a while." She replied with a smile.

"Oh… I guess so."

She smiled, then we headed down to the track. As we circled it slowly, we talked.

At the end of it all, I felt like I finally had it. At least below twenty miles an hour. I celebrated by taking a lap around the track, probably faster than I should've. When I came near the cactus patch's turn, I never even slowed, which was just pure instinct. I just leaned into the turn, and paid attention to what I had to do. When I came out of it, my eyes widened. I wasn't dead! I laughed, then sped up, going into a sideways slide as I crossed the starting line. I looked up to where Flo was with a grin, only to find the ones who had stayed behind cheering.

"Foxy, you did it!"

I was instantly swarmed by the children, who all proceeded to climb up onto my hood. Shaking from the excitement, I grinned. "I did it." I laughed, my front wheels pattering excitedly on the track.

Flo rolled down, smiling widely. "I knew ya could do it, honey." She replied, nudging my fender.

"So that's why they love to go fast." Was all I could get out, and Flo laughed.

"Sure is."

"I gotta try it again!" I exclaimed, jumping in the air.

"Go ahead. Just be careful."

"All right, munchkins. Time to disperse."

They giggled, then left.

I started at the line, hoping I didn't screw anything up. As I took off, I set my sights on the wall. I flew onto it, and couldn't help it. I started grinning. Now I really knew why they loved going fast. It made you feel like you were free. I felt like I could drive and drive, never stopping. I focused on the track once more, and rotated myself after I leapt into the air, off the wall. I landed on my tires, and kept going. I came to the turn again, and did what I had done before. This time, I tried timing it perfectly so I didn't lose any speed. It worked, and I revved my engine gleefully, heading for the finish line. When I was close, I turned to face the others in my slide, grinning wildly.

They laughed, and I finally came to a stop. "Whoo! I did it! Yeah!" I was laughing like a madman, but I didn't care. I had gotten the entire thing right not once, but twice! I felt like I could do anything now, and so I drove back up to the others. "Now what?" I asked eagerly, bouncing on my tires.

"Foxy, wanna play tag?"

"Bring it on." I replied, not even bothering to try and stop grinning.

The children squealed, and we all took off towards the track.

For the next few hours, we played tag, and I discovered that it was easier to drive then I had thought. I just had to focus on what I wanted my tires to do, and they would do it.

Finally, at the end of the day, we went back up to town, all of us tired and worn out. Once there, I headed straight for the dome, going to check on the twins. Jimi and Lily.

They squealed happily when they saw me, pawing at my tires eagerly, wanting to be held. "All right, all right." I hoisted one up, then the other.

"Hi!" Lily grinned, and I grinned back.

"Hello to you too, little miss Lily."

Jimi squealed, always the jealous type.

"Jimi, are you jealous?" I asked, and he giggled. "I think Jealous Jimi's jealous again." I replied, giving him a playfully stern look.

He completely ignored me, and instead swiped a tire at me.

"Hey, what did I tell you? It's not nice to hit."

He gave me the puppy-dog eyes, but I held firm.

"Nope. Not gonna work today, munchkin. Mommy's had a far too entertaining day to even think about it."

His eyes fell back to his hood, and I tickled him. He giggled again, and nudged underneath my tire.

"Yeah, I'm not mad anymore." I told him, hugging him gently.

Lily whimpered, and soon copied her brother.

"Oh, Lily. Now you're jealous too?"

She just giggled, and I began tickling both of them, laughing evilly. They squealed, then darted in opposite directions.

I watched as they met back up and hid behind my bean bag chair, and tried not to laugh. Instead, I began pretending to look for them, all the while loudly wondering where they went. When I was directly in front of them, my back turned, I pretended to look through the cabinets for them, still wondering where they had gone, trying not to laugh and ruin everything. Without warning, I whirled around, grinning at their startled expressions. "Gotcha!"

They squealed and darted off in separate directions again.

I didn't hear Brian rolling over to the dome, which was surprising in itself. It goes to show you, I could be so scatterbrained at times. In fact, the only time I noticed him was when the kids ran over to the doorway. I looked, and boom, there he was.

"Hi." We greeted each other at the same time, then laughed.

"What's up?"

"Want to come with us?"

"I would, but I've got to watch the twins. Oh, wait. Little monsters, I'm sorry."

He chuckled, and picked up Jimi, who was pawing at his tire.

I watched as Jimi grinned, then hugged Brian's hood.

Brian chuckled, then his eyes returned to me. "Ohh, I'm sure they'll be fine for a few hours. We don't even have to stay out that long."

"All right, I'm gonna be straight. It has come to my attention that Wingo has been attempting to…" I left the sentence hanging, not wanting the twins to hear.

His expression went from confused to complete understanding in about half a second. "Ohh…."

"Yeah. Trust me, I've told him more than once about it, but I've heard him giggling like a five-year-old every time he's behind me. That, and he decides to drive with his front bumper nearly underneath my rear one."

He started snickering, and with a look I silenced him. "Do you even know how distracting it is? It's like dealing with a five year old who's screaming about something or other while you're trying to drive and trying to corral him at the same time."

"Yeah, that's nuts." He replied, and I nodded.

"Yeah."

"All right, just thought I'd ask." He replied, setting Jimi down and patting his roof gently.

"See ya, midget banana." He replied, and Jimi squealed.

That had been his nickname, ever since he was old enough to go outside.

Brian left shortly after, and I winced at the ache in my axle. 'Probably because I'm not used to that much speed for that long.' I thought, and decided to try and sleep. "Come here, you two. Time for bed." They both rolled over, and we snuggled on the mattress. I didn't know about Jimi or Lily, but I was exhausted.

I fell asleep quickly, sinking lower on my tires.

When I woke up next, it was with a sudden, shuddering jolt. What time was it? I rolled outside slowly, not wanting to wake up the twins. When I was safely out of the dome, I rolled over to Flo's, yawning widely.

"Mornin', honey! Want coffee?"

"Sure, that'd be great. Thanks, Flo." I gave her a smile, still not sure what time it was. As I looked up at the sun, I could see that it was later than my usual time. "All right, who told the sun to jump ahead a few hours?" I joked, casting a suspicious eye around the cafe.

The others snickered at my poorly made joke, and I grinned.

Flo set my coffee at my side, and I took a sip, feeling the warmth flow to the very tips of my tires.

Once I had finished, I decided to go back down to the Butte and practice more.

Here's My Life As a Car! ^^ And yeah, it's 'As Told By Foxy'. Anybody get that reference? It's from the 90's Nickelodeon show, 'As Told By Ginger'! As for 'My Life As a Car'? That's from one of my favorite books, 'My Life As a Dog', by Ann M. Martin. ^^ It's a really good book about a stray dog named Squirrel, and her journey through the streets. It really gives you a new look at the life a stray dog leads, I'd check it out if you love dogs! :)

There will be a section of 'self-loathing' in this, so if you're not comfortable with that, look for the warning above the chapter it's in, so you'll know to skip that one. :/

Anyways, this is my 'I'm sorry for not uploading all day Saturday' gift to you guys! I hope you like it, and again, I don't own Cars, Cars2, or any characters you recognize from the movies. Just Foxy, the kids, and Thunder. ^^