Half the reason I'm updating this is because I have an announcement at the end, which I am hoping you will all be excited about.
By the way, this chapter contains the first of several flashback sequences featured in this story.
Enjoy. :)
Chapter 3- Fudge's Problem
Another weekend, another race. This one was in Georgia and Lightning scored yet another victory.
"Yes!" Fudge cheered as he came back into the pits, ready for all the interviews that would surely come his way. "Lightning strikes again!"
"Way to go, buddy!" Mater shouted.
The rest of the team took care of the pits while Fudge and Lightning were interviewed. It seemed like the press couldn't get enough of Fudge either. Well, that kind of made sense, given that she was the world's youngest crew chief and what she'd been through after her accident. Even though those two things really made her fame skyrocket, that wasn't the exact moment that made her famous...
When Fudge was six years old, she began to attend Lightning's races regularly. She would always cheer loudly and jump up and down when he came flying past.
"Go, go, Lightning!" she would scream at the top of her lungs.
Already, she had the attention of the press for being adorable, but she became really well-known after a race in Virginia.
Lightning had won the race, so of course, everyone wanted to congratulate him and little Fudge was no exception. She raced out of the pits to try and find Lightning to give him a hug. However, he was surrounded by reporters, firing questions at him and fellow racers and pitties, congratulating him.
"Lightning!" she called out.
She could hear his voice, but it wasn't aimed at her. "Yeah, it was great to have another win. I think the season's going pretty well. I guess that's 'cause I got a great mentor now."
"Lightning!" the little girl shouted again.
"Hey!" a grumpy cameraman barked at her. "Get out of the way, kid!"
He gave her a hard shove, sending the human sprawling across the ground.
Immediately, Fudge started bawling, which attracted the attention of several people, including Lightning.
"Hey, hey!" he cried gently, rushing forward to the six-year-old. He picked her up and gave her a hug. "What's wrong?"
Still sobbing, Fudge told him what had happened.
"Where does it hurt, sweetie?"
"Here. And here." She showed him all of the scrapes she had. They didn't look too bad.
"Hey, hey, it's all right, Fudge-O!" he whispered soothingly, cuddling her. He continued to do that for a couple of seconds. "You're all right. Yeah? Wanna give me a smile?"
Fudge said nothing.
"Come on." He launched into the task of tickling the girl till she laughed.
The press had their cameras focused on them the whole time.
"McQueen!" Kori Turbowitz called out, gesturing to the human girl, clinging to the famous race car. "Who is this?"
"Oh, this is my little sister, Fudge Rossi-Topolino." He gave her an extra cuddle as he tried to explain how he knew Fudge.
"Fudge?" several cars who heard repeated in surprise.
"Yeah, because she's so sweet!" Lightning explained.
"Well, she's really cute", another reporter commented.
"Yeah, I know."
"So, Fudge, what do you make of McQueen's win?!" Kori wanted to know.
"It was really, really good!" she answered, drying her eyes. "Lightning is the best race car! I love you, Lightning!" She kissed him, melting the hearts of everyone, who witnessed it.
Reporters continued to ask Fudge question after question about her opinions on the race, how she liked being in the pits for races and the Piston Cup in general. Everyone seemed interested in her, even that jerk of a cameraman who had pushed her over.
"Is this on TV?" Fudge wanted to know, looking at Lightning.
"Yeah. Yeah, it is", he confirmed.
"I'm on TV!" she squealed excitedly. "I'm on TV! That's so amazing!"
"Yeah. Yeah, it is", the stock car repeated.
From that day, she became known as Lightning McQueen's adorable cheerleader. Not only that, but she landed quite a few jobs doing commercials. A lot of companies wanted her because she was so cute. So, if people didn't recognise the little girl as Lightning McQueen's cheerleader, they recognised her as the girl from commercials for pizza joints and cereals. She really had become a celebrity in her own right.
Anyway, after dealing with the press at the race in Georgia, Fudge and Lightning went off to check in with Rusty and Dusty.
"Hi, guys!" Fudge called out.
"Hey, Fudge!" the two brothers called out in unison.
"Hey! Are my sponsors happy today?" Lightning questioned.
"Stop winnin' for cryin' out loud!" Dusty ordered jokingly. "We're runnin' out of bumper cream to sell!"
All four of them laughed. Just over ten years ago, Rust-Eze wasn't really struggling, but business wasn't exactly booming either. Now, thanks to Lightning's victories and his sponsorship with them, the medicated bumper ointment company was now a household name and it was no secret that the brothers could hardly believe their luck.
"Hey, Fudge!" Rusty shouted. "We heard your birthday's coming up soon."
The teen nodded. "Yeah, it is. June sixteenth." It was only a couple of days away and she was kind of excited, especially since she was an eager to have a nice birthday, which she didn't get the year before.
"How old are you gonna be?" Dusty asked.
"I'll be sixteen."
"Told ya!" Dusty hollered at his brother triumphantly. "My brother said you were turning fifteen! He doesn't even know how old you are!"
"You always were my favourite, Dusty!" Fudge kidded, prompting even more laughter from the group.
"So, sixteen, huh?" Rusty brought the conversation back on track.
"Yeah. I'm getting old, aren't I?"
"Yeah, you're makin' us feel old!" Dusty informed her. "We remember when you were a little kid. Next thing we know, you're gonna be married and have kids of your own!"
Fudge rolled her eyes. She'd heard the rest of her family in Radiator Springs say this kind of thing to her as well. "I don't even have a boyfriend or a girlfriend yet. I'm not really looking for anything right now." She wasn't even sure that she wanted to have children anyway.
"Well, we got you a little somethin'!" Rusty brought forward a wrapped present and envelope.
"Oh!" The human girl was pleasantly surprised by the gesture. "Thanks, guys! You really didn't have to do this!"
"Sure we did", Rusty insisted. "You're part of our team!"
"We would've got you a card with your age on it, but someone thought you were turning fifteen!" Dusty added pointedly.
Fudge giggled. She'd always liked Rusty and Dusty. She'd known them since she was five, but didn't really get to know them till she was six. They often made her laugh with their corny jokes and insulting each other. They'd always been genuinely nice to her too. They often looked after her during races when she had fallen asleep and Luigi decided that she should go back to the sponsor tent. There were even times when Fudge had woken up from a nightmare (after she was threatened to leave her family and found out that she was abandoned by her mother as a baby, she became prone to nightmares) and Rusty and Dusty had had to deal with it.
"Well, thanks", she repeated.
"Yeah, thanks, guys", Lightning echoed. "That's really generous of you."
"Lightnin' McQueen!" a familiar voice called out.
Fudge turned around to find a golden Cadillac by the name of Tex Dinoco there. "Hey, Mr. Tex!"
"Howdy, Fudge! How's it goin'?"
"Good, thanks. You?"
"Can't complain."
"Hey, Big Tex!" Lightning greeted him. "How's my favourite competitor?"
"Just say the word and I'll boot Cal off the Dinoco team and replace him with you!" Tex responded with a laugh.
When Lightning had turned down the offer of the Dinoco sponsorship, Tex had assured him that the offer still stood. Yet Cal was signed on and, despite insisting that it was a joke, Tex would always say that he'd drop Cal for Lightning.
"You know I can hear you, right?" Cal deadpanned from his trailer right beside Tex. "I'm right here."
Fudge pretended to look around. "Did you guys hear something?"
Lightning and Tex pretended to look around. "Nope."
For a moment, Fudge tried to think of something else to make a joke about, but decided not to. They all enjoyed a joke at Cal's expense, but more than once, she had taken this kind of thing too far and had genuinely upset Cal, never intentionally. Of course, she would always apologise and luckily, Cal was very understanding and forgiving. Cal was never upset over anything Fudge said longer than Fudge herself was.
"Well, Fudge-O", Lightning grinned at his sister, "what do you say we get outta here?" He scooped her up onto his roof and started driving off with her. "Bye, Cal!" he called after him. "See you next week! Or not!"
"Oh, come on now! I'm jokin'!" Tex assured Cal at his hard glare.
"I need the bathroom", Fudge informed Lightning about a minute later, sliding off his roof. "I'll be right back."
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"Can you please look after my thing from Rusty and Dusty?"
"Sure."
"Thanks." Fudge ran off.
When she was alone, Fudge began to think and not just about anything; the third thing she would change about her life. She loved hanging out with her family from Radiator Springs and the friends she had in the racing circuit. It was just that, well, she kind of wished she had some friends her own age (after all, it was hard to feel on an equal playing field in their little group when most of them had changed her diapers!), but she didn't. Why was that? Well, she felt like there were three reasons for that:
One, she didn't really know how to talk to other kids her age, which came from a combination of her autism and spending the first six years of her life as the only child she knew. That was why others kids thought she was weird.
Two, after her accident, she became kind of funny-looking with the scars and the missing teeth.
Three, something else, which happened just then...
After she did her business and had come out, the fifteen-year-old found four girls- a pink Corvette, a dark purple Ferrari, a black Mercedes Benz and a blonde human- about her age, maybe a year or two older, crowded around her.
"Fudge Rossi-Topolino!" the Mercedes Benz squealed.
"Yeah?"
"It is, like, so cool to meet you!" the human declared.
Fudge blushed. "Thanks..."
"What's it like working with Lightning McQueen?"
"Yeah. I definitely love it."
After five minutes of talking to them, she learned that the Corvette was Tiffany, the Ferrari was Sophie, the Mercedes was Mikayla and the human was Kelly. They also wanted to know every last detail about Lightning McQueen. That's right. Not her. Lightning. And if she got even a little bit off topic, they were right there to inform her.
"Every year, we go to Disneyland the day after the race in Los Angeles", Fudge informed them. "Have you ever been to Disneyland? It's awesome! I remember one time, I-"
"Yeah, great", Tiffany cut her off expressionlessly before returning to fan girl mode. "So, what about Lightning? What's his favourite food?"
You know, that kind of thing. They had to make sure they learned everything that they needed to know about their favourite famous race car.
And that was the problem. Being a teenage girl who was close to someone very famous had a lot of amazing perks, but it also had a horrible downside. All anybody- mainly within her age group, but older people as well- ever wanted to talk about to her was Lightning McQueen, wanting to know every little thing about him like these three did, but nobody wanted to get to know her, Fudge, a person! Of course, she was more than happy to supply whatever information that she could, but was it so bad that she wanted someone to talk to her about her and show interest in her for once?
Why should they be interested in me? Fudge wondered on many occasions. I'm not a pretty girl or a smart girl or a talented girl! I'm just the otherwise-insignificant girl who knows the famous person!
All anybody did was use her to try and get to Lightning! They were hoping that, by meeting her, they could become good friends with her and that meant that they got to meet Lightning McQueen. It had been going on for years and she was sick of it.
Not only was she sick of people treating her like that, but she was annoyed at herself. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened and it most likely wouldn't be the last. Plus, why hadn't she especially learned from the absolute worst incident a little over a year ago?...
I hope you enjoyed that chapter and will leave a review. But first, my announcement...
*Insert drumroll here*
I've got good news and bad news: The bad news is that I may not be updating this story for a while. The good news is that's because I'm hoping to return to posting Ride soon! The story my friend wanted to post first (The Memories We Hold by PinkCookie11, which you should check out) has been published. She still wants to get a couple more things out before I start updating Ride again, but I'm hoping that happens very soon!
And the good news keeps coming (I hope you think so)! I'm currently working on a fic titled Happy Birthday, Fudge! to go in the short story collection. Here is the summary: "It's Fudge's eighteenth birthday and the RS gang have a massive surprise party planned. Fudge is gonna love it! There's just one problem. Where is Fudge?" So, keep an eye out for that!
Please review. Lately, my stories haven't been getting the reception I've wanted and, as I've said before, reviews are what make me want to continue posting for you guys. So, if you want to see my work continued, then please review. I hope I don't sound pathetic, but this is a two-way street. You guys enjoy reading my work (I hope)! and I enjoy reading your reviews. Thanks.
