Chapter 2- Here We Are

(Lightning's POV)

"All right", I announced a few days later. "End of the line."

"We're here!" Fudge cheered, leaping out of Mater's truck bed, kind of stumbling since she'd been sitting down for so long. "Whoa!" she cried.

I found myself looking around at our vacation spot. Not bad. Our house was right on the beach. As soon as you were off the porch, you were in the sand. It was three storeys with balconies extended out from several rooms.

Next to me, Fudge was staring intently at the ocean, which seemed to stretch on forever in gentle waves. However, I was distracted by something- or someone- else.

"Ah! Lightning McQueen!"

"Hey, Francesco", I greeted him casually. "When'd you get here?"

"Francesco got here two days ago. You were-a slow to arrive. Just like you are slow on the racetrack."

"He can't be that slow if he beat you in the Porto Corsa race", Fudge piped up.

"Francesco was-a tired that day", he informed her quickly.

"And the Radiator Springs Grand Prix?" Sarge asked.

"Francesco was-a tired that day too", he replied.

"What about the-" Fudge began.

"Yes! Francesco was-a tired all of those-a times!" Francesco insisted. "I was-a dealing with jet lag."

"I was gonna say that race you hosted in Porto Corsa last year", Fudge informed him. "You'd been home for about a year and you still had jet lag?"

Francesco paused. "Si", he responded finally.

"Hey! There's Finn!" Fudge announced two minutes later, pointing down the beach where Finn and Holley were. Fudge liked Holley all right, but she simply adored Finn. She began waving her arms frantically. "FINN HEY, FINN! OVER HERE!"

I laughed. "Seriously, Fudge? You're not a castaway."

Fudge smiled, slightly embarrassed. "I haven't seen Finn in a while", she justified her craziness.

Finn approached Fudge, chuckling. "It's good to see you again, Fudge."

"You too! Hey! Guess what! I just had my thirteenth birthday! And you're not gonna believe what Luigi got m-"

"Come on, Fudge", Sarge interrupted, just as amused as everyone else. "We got two whole weeks to catch up. And you got something very important to do right now."

"Unpack?" Fudge guessed, sounding far from happy.

"That's right."

Fudge groaned.

"Come on, Fudge", I intervened. "Don't you wanna see your room?"

"My room?" she repeated, intrigued.

I nodded. "Yeah. Well, not just your room. You gotta share with Luigi and Guido. We got nine sleep rooms (AN: That's what I call bedrooms in the car world cuz cars don't have beds.) between nineteen of us."

"Nineteen?" Fudge repeated incredulous.

"Yeah. You, me, Mater,Luigi, Guido, Sarge, Fillmore, the other ten race cars, Holley and Finn."

"I knew there were a lot of us, but not that many."

"Actually", Francesco began awkwardly. "There is-a twenty-a here."

This was a surprise to me. "Really? Who is the twentieth?"

A female Italian accent called to Francesco from the second floor. I didn't understand a lot of it, but I understood the word beach. And I knew who it was. Francesco's mother. And sure enough, she came down to the first floor, greeting us in Italian and heading out the door.

"Your mother is here?" Fudge asked in surprise.

Francesco nodded. "Si. When Francesco is away from home, he misses his mama-"

"Because he's a wuss!" Fudge whispered to Mater.

Francesco ignored her. "-so Francesco invited her to join us on our vacation."

"Okay." I kind of wished Francesco had given us a heads-up (AN: Hoods-up? *Shrugs* Meh. Who cares?), but I didn't really mind.

"So, who else is here?" I asked Francesco.

"Jeff, Lewis, Shu, Miguel and Raoul", Francesco answered. "And Nigel. Rip, Max and Carla get here-a tomorrow."

"Where's everyone else?"

"They were-a couple of stores that they-a wanted to go-a to", he replied.

"Okay, which room's mine?" I questioned.

"There are still several rooms left on the second and third floors", Finn spoke up. He and Holley had been so quiet as we all made our way inside that I actually forgot they were there.

"Let's get one on the third floor!" Fudge called to Luigi and Guido, eagerly making her way to the third floor to snag the best sleep room.

Mater and I were sharing a sleep room on the second floor. The walls were a dull yellow and the rug matched. There wasn't a lot in the room. It was really bare, but we had a great view. The ocean greeted us from the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Not too shabby", I remarked as I began unpacking.

"Yeah", Mater agreed. "We is gonna have so much fun!"

"MCQUEEN!" The shout rang throughout the house as the door banged open.

"Hey, guys!" I made my way down to the first floor to greet my fellow racers.

Francesco, Nigel, Jeff, Lewis, Shu, Miguel and Raoul were there waiting for me.

"How've ya all been?" I questioned them all.

Some catching-up followed up, which I won't bore you to death with before Jeff announced, "All right! Let's hit the beach!"

"Yeah!"

Fudge was already in the water when we got out there. She was up to her waist, trying to jump the waves. She'd laugh hysterically whenever the waves knocked her over.

I chuckled, watching her. She was obviously having a good time. As I joined my fellow racers closer to the ocean to just chillax in the sand, I wondered if I would be able to have that much fun and be able to relax.

No such luck. At that moment, a scream sounded behind me.

"Francesco Bernoulli!" a fan girl squealed. "Oh my gosh! I am your biggest fan! Wow! What are you doing here?"

"Francesco is on-a vacation with the other race cars and his-a mama."

"With the other racers and your mother?" she repeated. "Do you miss your wife when you're away?"

A pause followed. "Francesco doesn't-a have a wife. He's-a single."

It was the fan girl's turn to pause. "Whaaaaat?!" she cried finally in disbelief.

"She was-a nice", Francesco commented as the fan girl drove off, exclaiming to everyone she passed, "Can you believe it?! Francesco Bernoulli is single!"

"Yeah", I agreed. "But it'd be good to be able to relax without some fans around."

"AUUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!" came yet another scream. "LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!"

My fellow racers and I laughed. Some things just never change.

Okay, okay. I'm hoping things get more interesting in the next chapter. This was really just everyone settling in and reuniting.

So, Francesco's mother was the first "Vacation Crasher". I wasn't sure if I was gonna do that, but I thought, Eh. Why not?

The awesome folks at Pixar own Cars and the awesome folk at Cars Crazy Fudge owns Fudge. And the "I don't have a wife. I'm single.", "Whaaaaat?!" part is not my idea either. I got it from Australian comedians Hamish and Andy.

So, that's chapter two. Please read, review and stay tuned for chapter three…