It was just your regular day in the town of Radiator Springs: cars were talking and laughing at the café enjoying their oil and gas. Red was watering his flowers around the Stanley statue listening Luigi and Guido who were trying their best to sell their white wall tires.
"You sir would look a' simply dashing in these white wall tires!" Luigi called out to a Chevrolet Suburban driving along Main Street.
"No, thanks buddy."
Lightning chuckled as the little yellow Fiat continued to try to convince the SUV to buy his tires.
"I said no thanks!" The big black four door tried to tell him again. Finally he managed to break free and pull into the café lot. "God, that guy certainly is a determined little bug."
Lightning smiled at his comment. "Oh yeah, sometimes he just doesn't take no for an answer."
The Suburban jumped, not realizing that Lightning Mcqueen was sitting just next to him. "Oh my heavens! You're Lightning Mcqueen!" His eyes widened as the red racecar nodded.
"Indeed I am." Lightning gave him one of his best TV smiles. He loved making his fans happy. It brought him so much happiness to see their joyful expression as they realized that they had crossed paths with one of the most popular racecars of all time.
"It is such a pleasure to finally meet the Lightning Mcqueen! I knew you lived in this town but I didn't know that you'd actually be out in public like this."
"Oh, yeah, in Radiator Springs I act like any other regular car in the world."
"Wow… I bet you run into a lot of fans here then."
Lightning could see that the SUV was finally beginning to relax with their conversation. "Sometimes, it's mostly on and off."
"Hey, listen, I've got a family staying here at the Cozy Cone: my wife and my two kids, Mike and Elizabeth. I was wondering…"
"If I could go and surprise them?"
"Yeah." A nervous expression suddenly crossed the Chevrolet's face.
"Sure, it's no problem at all." Lightning grinned at him as he let out a happy sigh.
"Thanks, Elizabeth is such a big fan of you and it's actually her birthday today."
"Oh, well we don't want to keep the birthday girl waiting." Lightning started his engine and pulled out onto the street with the SUV driving along side him. "So, what's you're name?"
"Mark Charleston."
"Well, Mark I hope you've had a good stay here at the town."
"Oh we have. We love it here in Arizona! We hope to stay a while actually. Oh here they are." Mark stopped just outside the entrance to the motel.
Lightning pulled further up and caught sight of the wife and kids. His wife was a nice silver 2007 Pontiac G6 while Elizabeth was a red 2006 Pontiac Solstice. He looked over at Mike and saw he was a black 2006 Chevrolet Camaro. Lightning nodded silently to himself. Obviously they were family of very nice cars with good engines. Though it was weird that the kids were cars and not on the SUV side like their father.
"Hey Elizabeth, I have a surprise for you." Mark had rolled up to her but still kept Lightning a secret behind him.
"Oh, what is it what is it?!" It was apparent that her age was around ten or eleven.
At her asking that Lightning rolled forward and revved his engine slightly. "Ka-chow!" Lightning angled his lightning bolt so it wouldn't get in anyone's eyes. He heard Elizabeth squeal with delight.
"Its… its Lightning Mcqueen!" She squealed once more before rushing up to him and hugging him.
"Elizabeth!" her mother exclaimed.
"No, no it's fine," Lightning laughed as he felt her grip grow tighter on him. She finally pulled back with they biggest smile Lightning had ever seen.
"Ohmygoshican'tbelieveit'sactuallyyou!"
Lightning smiled at her excitement.
"Yeah, she's crazy about you Mr. Mcqueen. She has posters of you all over her walls at home," Mike rolled his eyes as he informed Lightning about his sister's obsession of him.
"It's true; you're my favorite racer out of all of the other NASCARS. I've been to five of your races, including the one when you tied with Chick and The King."
"Oh have you now? That was a pretty exciting race wasn't it?" He watched her as she took out a notebook with a pen inside the metal spirals. He automatically took it from her and opened it to the first page to sign it.
"Oh most definitely Mr. Mcqueen."
"Please, call me 'Lightning' during your stay here." He handed her the notebook back after he was through with it.
She opened it to look at his fancy signature. "Thank you Lightning!" She gave him one last hug and this time felt Lightning give her a brief squeeze back.
"I hope you enjoy you're stay here," he said to the couple as Elizabeth went back over to stand next to her mother.
"Oh I'm sure we will. I've heard wonderful things about this historic place."
Lightning nodded. "It's does have a rather interesting past to it."
"Well, we'll get out of your way Lightning," Mark spoke up.
"Alright, happy birthday Elizabeth."
"Thank you!" the young Pontiac exclaimed.
"And thanks again for doing that for our little girl here," the wife thanked him.
"It was no trouble at all." Lightning watched as the family drove off down the road, no doubt going to get dinner at the café.
"That was nice of you."
Lightning turned to see Sally standing there behind him. Lightning smiled "You saw it?"
"Yeah, from inside the lobby. You're too nice."
Lightning shrugged. "You can say that."
She giggled. "What you did for that little girl was really sweet. I love watching you with your fans."
"Yeah, it makes me feel really good doing that for them. I also love seeing their expression when they see me." They both started on down the road in the direction of the café.
"I bet you do. You just starve for attention don't you?"
"Oh yeah, and I get it alright, from fans and you." Lightning nudged her.
She smiled. "Now that you're done with your fans, do you know what I want to do?"
"What?"
She gave him a flirty look. "Race." Suddenly she took off down the road.
Lightning laughed out loud and took after her to their special look out: Wheel Well.
