I looked up a few hours later as I heard an engine approaching the dome. Lightning rolled in the dome, and when he recognized me, his eyes instantly brightened. "There you-" "Shh." I nodded my hood over at Jimi, and he instantly dropped his voice.

"There you are. We've been looking all over for you. Why are you in here?" My bumper dropped against the mattress again with my exhausted sigh. "I'm a failure." I replied wearily.

He parked at my left side, the side opposite Jimi. "What happened? Why are you a failure?" He asked with a nudge.

"Long story short, I actually was able to drive up to speed for a few shining days, but went face first into the cactus patch yesterday. To make matters worse, nobody who knew anything about pulling cactus spines out was here, so Sheriff did it." He had to suppress a laugh with a tire, and I rolled my eyes. "Trust me, if you think it was awkward, multiply that by ten. That's the awkward level it reached, especially since I had them scattered across my undercarriage."

He didn't say a word, and instead just rolled straight out of the dome.

I heard his laughter flowing in through the beaded curtain, and rolled my eyes. Of course he would find that hysterical. Of course he would.

After a few minutes of laughter, he came back in, looking completely serious. "That sucks, Foxy. Did the cactus spines attack your tires, too?"

I didn't answer, instead gave him a look that clearly oozed sarcasm while it said, 'What do you think?'

"I'll go get Mater, that way you can-" "Don't bother getting Mater. I can leave if I want to. I was just too mopey to feel like it." I replied, and rose, glancing over at Jimi before hobbling out of the dome, Lightning directly behind me. It appeared that he had made it into town before most of the others, and only a few who had gone to the race were back so far. Luck decided to work with me for the moment, because Luigi and Guido were both there. I breathed a sigh of relief, and Lightning called them over.

"Si?"

"Foxy had an incident with the cactus patch, and I think it won." Lightning replied, snickering.

I swatted at him, but because my tire was flat, it completely ruined the effect.

"Oh, caro! This is-a horrible!"

Lightning nudged me into the tire shop, and I began hobbling. I could feel my rims beginning to ache again, and I was glad that I'd hopefully be getting new tires.

I rolled out about a half an hour later, wearing wide oval whitewalls. "Luigi, I just don't think whitewalls are my thing." I replied, and of course, he opposed.

"Nonsense! Whitewalls are brillante!"

"...All right. You know best. Thanks for the tires." I replied with a weary smile, not feeling like getting into an argument at this point in time.

He nodded with a grin, as always.

I headed back over to the dome, figuring that I'd check on Jimi, and maybe even get some sleep too, or read a good book.

"Hey, where are you going?" Lightning asked, pulling up at my side.

"To go check on Jimi, then maybe for a nap."

"I won, to let you know."

"And this is news to me? You win every time anyways."

He grinned, and nudged me with his fender. "And don't you forget it." He dropped back after that, and headed over to Flo's to chat with the others while I headed for the dome.

There, I found Jimi exactly as I had left him, snuggled on top of the gigantic bear. I smiled and rolled over to him, sinking down onto the mattress with a sigh before shutting my eyes gratefully. What I hadn't realized was that Fillmore had followed me. Just as I had opened my eyes, there he was. Right in front of me. I gasped sharply, tensing up before I realized it was him. "Geez, what is it with everyone scaring me? First Sheriff, now you." I mumbled, sinking back down into the mattress.

He nudged my fender with his, and I returned the gesture, leaning against his side with a soft sigh. He leaned back, and I was grateful for it. Before I knew it, my front bumper had hit the mattress, and my eyelids had drooped shut.

When I woke up from the nap, I realized that it was late at night. Fillmore was asleep, as was Jimi. Lily was snuggled up next to Jimi on the bear, and I smiled sleepily before sinking down onto the mattress once more and falling back asleep, content to not do anything else at the moment.

The next morning, I yawned, widely and extremely unladylike, but I didn't care. Since when was I ever a lady? There wasn't a car in sight, and I supposed that was because I was up late. I rolled outside, looking around for Jimi or even Lily or Fillmore.

"Foxy!"

I jumped at the angry shout, instantly awake. What had I done? I just got up!

Doc rolled over to me, not looking happy at all. Uh-oh. "What's this I hear ya got yourself completely covered in cactus spines? After flying through the turn the wrong way?"

I could think of nothing to do except try and babble out an answer, at the same time trying to inch away. At that second, Lightning rolled over, blocking me off from Doc.

"It was an accident, Doc. She told me when I got back last night."

"Foxy, how many times have I told ya to never speed up around the turn?" Doc pressed on, completely ignoring Lightning.

I dropped even lower to the ground behind Lightning, looking down at my hood guiltily. I scoffed as I was nudged by one of Lightning's back tires sharply. Did he just kick me?! He used the same tire to gesture off to the right. I looked right, and there was the dirt road to Willy's Butte. I hesitated, knowing that Doc would be even more angry if I just left.

I waited for him to finish yelling, then I cautiously peeked around to Lightning's fender. "Can I go to the Butte?" I asked quietly, my eyes darting from Doc to my hood and back again.

He sighed in irritation, and gave me a look. "Go ahead. If ya hurt yourself, don't come cryin' to me."

I just nodded, sure that he was angry.

I sped down the road, Lightning following after.

"What did you do? He only ever gets that mad at me!" Lightning exclaimed.

"I didn't do anything! I just got out of bed and came outside, and he starts yelling!" I replied, drooping closer to the ground.

He sighed, and nudged me in the fender. "Hey, show me what you did when you screwed up. Maybe I can take a look and see."

"All right…" I replied hesitantly, then headed for the track.

Lightning stayed parked on the hill.

"All right, now how did I do that the other day? Hmm.." I sighed and gave up, figuring that it would be easier if I just tried to do everything the way I did as I was doing it. I took off from the starting line, thinking that if he let me fall into the cactus patch, I'd tear him apart. I sighed, then sped forwards, heading onto the wall, a ribbon of orange being churned up from my whitewall tires. "My tires…!" I exclaimed, and looked down at them. They were slowly turning orange, and I found that I liked orange even more than white. I laughed, and hopped off the wall, once more rotating so I landed flat on the track. I came to the turn, and leaned into it as I had the first time, glancing behind me and noticing that the ribbon was getting thicker. I grinned, then surged ahead, straight over the starting line. I wasn't stopping there though, and I kept going. I headed onto the wall again, a little lower than the first time. I came down off the wall without needing to jump, and headed towards the turn again.

I kept at it for nearly three hours, until something happened. What it was, I couldn't tell. Whatever happened, it promptly dumped me at the side of the track, teetering dangerously on the edge of the cliff above the cactus patch.

In an instant, Lightning was flying towards me. He grabbed one of my back tires, and yanked me back.

"Thanks, Light." I gave him a shaky smile, and he nodded.

"That's what it is. You almost seem to lean too much into the turn. You only need to lean that much if it's a 90-degree-angle turn."

"That's how far I leaned last time." I replied, and he shook his hood.

"Simple mistake. You need to lean some, but not too much. Just angle your tires, and go with it, don't force yourself to lean into it."

"All right." I nodded, then followed him back up to town.

Hi everybody! I'm baaack! :D Sorry it took me so long, I couldn't figure out how to work the website for a while. XD