StacyMcMissile: LOL, glad you loved it! Yeah, I enjoyed writing the story with it being sort of Finn's P.O.V. You'll be glad to hear that I'll be doing that a lot more now, in order for the full story to be told. :) And LOL, sorry about the Cammie and Finn thing... And for any upcoming scenes like that, too...
MovieGirl44: Thank you! :)
finnberry9: Yeah, she would be lucky, but I think I'm going to have HolleyxMater in this story. However, there will be plenty of father/daughter like moments between Finn and Holley. Thanks for reading!
InTheShadowsxX: Oh, shut up. Nah, I'm joking, keep the reviews coming! ;)
...
The next morning, Holley smiled at Finn as he approached Flo's, looking deep in thought and slightly concerned, but she brushed that off - maybe he just still felt a bit bad about the previous night or something.
"Good morning, Finn," Holley greeted the slightly older car. His glazed-over eyes cleared in an instant, replaced by a flicker of emotion that only lasted another instant before it was gone.
"Good morning Holley, everyone," Finn greeted as he pulled into the gas pump on Mater's left. Mater also greeted the spy.
"Hey, Holley," Sally unintentionally diverted Holley's attention away from the mystery the world called Finn McMissile. "I was wondering if you'd want to come over to my place later and watch Liam Hemsworth in action?"
That immediately caught Holley's attention. "Oh, the Hunger Games? I've always wanted to see that." Holley had never had enough time or money in her human life to get and watch the famous movie.
Sally nodded. "Yeah. I also have The Last Song. He's in that a lot more than the Hunger Games, but - "
"But that movie totally stinks!" Lightning interrupted from his spot next to his fiancee, scowling comically. "I mean, come on, the girl's dad dies!"
"Yeah, it's sad, but it's still a great movie!"
"I don't like sad movies. In my opinion, there's enough sadness in the real world. Why watch more sad stuff in movies?" Lightning argued, scowling slightly.
"Yeah, I know, but sometimes sadness is necessary. It helps us to appreciate the good things in life," Sally smiled faintly at Lightning. He got the hint and smiled back, nuzzling her affectionately. Holley had to smile at their romance - it was obvious that the two were really in love. Holley wondered if she'd ever be feel like that about someone.
After a few minutes, Sally cleared her throat and turned back to Holley, her tire still in Lightning's. "So how about it?"
It took Holley a second to remember Sally's offer for her to come over and watch the Hunger Games. "Wha - oh. Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."
"Oh, it's my pleasure. When do you wanna come over? Does six thirty work?"
"Yeah, totally." Really, Holley would have been able to come over at any time. She didn't have anything on her schedule, minus spending time with Mater. She was still pretty shy of the other townsfolk, except Lightning, and there wasn't all that much for her to do. She didn't even have a phone or computer or anything.
"Alright, cool. I better get to work. See ya."
"Bye, Sally."
Sally smiled at Holley, gave Lightning a peck on the fender, bid everyone else good-bye and drove away. "So, ya like da Hunger Games?" Mater asked from beside Holley. Holley looked at him.
"Well, like I said, I haven't seen or read it yet, but I've heard great things about the series," Holley replied the tow truck, who shuddered.
"It's not mah type of movie," he confessed, and Holley had to smile at him. Something stirred inside of her at Mater's display of innocence, and she froze a bit. The feeling was pretty unfamiliar... But she had felt it before... Once, when she was putting the Jackson kids to bed, she paused in the doorway. She had looked at their sleeping, serene faces and smiled contently. They really were lovely children. An unfamiliar feeling, the same feeling that was creeping through Holley's body now, filled her heart. She had identified it as love then.
"Yeah. I convinced him to watch it once with me. I won't share all the details, but I will say the night ended in spilled oil, feathers flying everywhere, and my popcorn stuck in some pretty weird places."
Holley was snapped out of her bewildered thoughts as everyone in the cafe laughed at Lightning's explanation, except for a blushing Mater.
"Not everyone likes scary things like the Hunger Games. At least you don't like Twilight," Holley told Mater. He blushed more and glanced at the ground.
"Actually, about that..." Mater glanced up and saw Holley's stricken face. Mater? Twilight? WHAT? "Ha, Ah'm just jokin'! Shoot, you should done see yer face right now!" Mater laughed, along with the rest of the cafe. Holley slumped in relied and rolled her eyes teasingly.
"My Lord, Mater," she couldn't help but laugh. "How many times do I have to tell you - you simply can't joke about Twilight!"
"But you never said anythin' bout Twilight bafore," Mater pointed out, confused. Holley had to smile again at Mater's child-like innocence. Sometimes she wished she were that innocent.
"I - I'm just joking," Holley chuckled weakly at her failed joke, but everyone in the cafe was roaring with laughter.
"Gosh, Twilight is just horrible. I mean, come on, vampires don't sparkle!" Lightning snorted. Holley gave him a suspicious look.
"How do-a you know-a that the-a vampires sparkle?" Luigi asked curiously.
"Sally told me so."
"What? How does she know? She didn't read them... Did she?"
Flo nodded. "I convinced her to."
"WHAT?"
"They're good books, I thought she'd like 'em. She didn't, unfortunately."
"No offense, Flo, but Twilight isn't a good book series! Come on - remove the stupid love triangle, and it's all about a girl that moves to a rainy little town," Lightning snorted.
"And how do you know that?" Holley asked, again suspicious of Lightning's knowledge of Twilight.
"Saw it on the internet."
"Why were you searching Twilight?"
"I wasn't, I was searching 'funny Hunger Games pictures' and there was a picture that popped up explaining about the love triangle thingy," Lightning informed Holley. She stared at him, not fully convinced. "Come on, why else would I have known that? I don't read Twilight! No man reads Twilight!"
Guido said something to Lightning in rapid Italian. Holley frowned as some of the words made sense - since when did she speak Italian? Well, it was her hallucination, maybe she could understand other languages in it... Holley shook her head a bit. She didn't want to think about this being a hallucination. Not now. Not in this wonderful moment she was sharing with her new friends...
"Guido read'a Twilight," Luigi translated to Lightning, who had been taking a sip of oil, which he instantly spat out. Holley jumped to the side a bit, even though it wasn't headed anywhere near her, and bumped into Mater. She hastily apologized before turning back to the amusing conversation.
"WHAT?!"
"Guido read-a Twilight."
"Well, then that explains why Guido isn't a man!"
Luigi translated for Guido, and Guido's purplish eyes turned murderous. He started yelling furiously in Italian as he charged the red race car, but Luigi stopped him. "Guido!" he scolded, and Guido yelled some more before sending Lightning a final death glare and speeding away, Luigi following.
Holley broke the silence by clearing her throat as she said, "Well, that was... amusing."
Lightning snorted. "I'll say. Good Lord, what man reads Twilight?"
"Apparently that one," Flo laughed a bit as gradually the conversion in the cafe resumed.
...
Holley watched, her mouth gaping open slightly, as President Snow studied Katniss and Peeta's happy faces on the screen before him, gave a sort of sigh, turned around and drove up the ramp behind him. The screen went black, and Sally sighed happily as she went to turn off the DVD player and take out the DVD. "So, what do you think?"
"I think I'm totally addicted," Holley answered truthfully as she stared at the blank screen. wanting more. Sally laughed.
"Wait until you see the second one! There's a bit more of Liam in that one," she assured Holley. "Ford, he's hot..." Holley frowned as Sally grinned, thinking of Liam.
"I dunno... I think maybe Josh is a bit hotter," Holley mused, tilting her head to the side as she considered the two young men. Sally's mouth popped open and her windshield widened.
"What?!"
Holley laughed. "I'm just joking!"
Sally shook her hood. "Don't DO that to me!" she exclaimed, trying to sound reproachful, but failing as she let out a small laugh and grinned at Holley. "You know, this was really fun. You should come over again soon."
"Yeah," Holley agreed as she shifted out of her casual position on Sally's sort of couch and started tidying up, although there wasn't much to tidy up, other than the popcorn she had accidentally spilled during a scary scene. "Thanks so much for having me."
"Thanks for coming."
"My pleasure."
The two exchanged small talk, and then Holley headed out, driving towards her Cone as she thought about the Hunger Games. Her thoughts, however, were soon interrupted as someone called her name. "Holley!"
Holley braked and turned around. "Finn?"
Finn drove up to Holley from Flo's cafe. "Holley, I need to talk to you," the British secret agent informed her, looking a bit flustered.
"Sure, what is it?"
The two cars started driving off towards the Cones together as Finn explained, "I need to go back to London." Holley's tank sunk. What? "The agency needs me for a mission."
"Oh," Holley said in a small voice, not entirely sure how to feel. She felt attached to and protected by Finn, and she didn't really know what she would do without him to go to if she needed any help with the whole I've-Been-Transported-Into-A-Random-World-And-I-Don't-Remember-Anything situation. Then again, she had Sally and Mater now... But Finn had been by her side from the very start. What would she do without him? "Um, what's the mission?"
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you," Finn informed her regretfully. "The agency is very particular about who knows what about the mission. All I can say is I don't know how long it will take me."
Holley nodded. "Alright, then... When are you leaving? Now?"
"No, tomorrow morning," Finn corrected. Holley nodded again as they reached the Cones.
"Okay... Well, I better go to bed... I'll see you tomorrow, unless you're leaving before I wake up."
"My good friend Siddeley will be here to pick me up at nine, so I should be able to see you before then."
"Okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then. Night."
"Good night, Holley."
Holley gave Finn a quick smile as she opened the door to her Cone and entered the building. As soon as the door closed, her smile was replaced by a worried frown. Finn was leaving? What would Holley do without him to guide her through her problems of being a car?
Holley tried to shake off her worries. Maybe if Finn left, maybe she would be freed from the hallucination. He had been the one to pull her in it in the first place.
But was it really a hallucination? It had to be... She couldn't be a car... But she hadn't remembered her life before getting hit by the car in the human world. And why couldn't there be a world inhabited by cars? Many people thought that there were other planets that could support extraterrestrial life. Maybe this was one of those planets.
Holley spent another five minutes trying to convince herself that there was proof that this wasn't all a hallucination. She didn't want it to be a hallucination. She wanted it to be reality. She had friends, and the possibility of a new life. She felt better in Radiator Springs then she ever had in the human world. Here Holley had people watching after her, people caring for her, she had everything she could ever want. A new start. But she didn't want to settle into a new life, only to be yanked out of it. She didn't want to wake up one day in a hospital bed, finding herself to be human and owing some mental hospital thousands of dollars. Holley knew she'd be heartbroken to lose her friends if that ever happened. But what if she never did wake up?
Holley sighed. She didn't want to think about this. As she settled down on her mattress, she pushed away her worries for another day, and instead allowed herself to recall her favorite scenes of the Hunger Games. As she started to doze off, she thought of Liam Hemsworth as she pictured him in her mind. She smiled a bit as she mentally studied his handsome face, but suddenly, right before she found sleep, Liam's grinning face melted into another one.
Mater's.
But before Holley had time to wonder, the darkness of sleep claimed her, and her surprise faded into the black.
...
Hey guys! Hope you liked this chapter!
A review would be appreciated. :)
Thanks for reading!
Kitty
