Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Pixar. All OCs belong to me.
Chapter 14 – Lightning's Stressful Day
Triple Eight Race Engineering Headquarters, Banyo, 13kms north of Brisbane, Queensland – Tuesday, 22 March 2016.
Lightning scowled as he entered the Redbulldozer Racing team's headquarters. Shane was just placing his huge trophy from the Australian Grand Prix inside the team's enormous trophy cabinet. Shane had ended up winning the weekend overall, owing to the amount of points he'd accumulated. Craig had finished in second place overall, while Jamie had finished in sixth. Lightning had ended up outside his goal of top ten in thirteenth place overall.
If I hadn't been penalised, I probably would've finished in the top ten overall, Lightning thought dismally as he tried to sneak past Shane. Unfortunately, Shane saw him. He held up his trophy proudly.
"What do you think, Lightning? Not a bad piece of silverware, huh? Too bad you're not good enough to win something like this."
Lightning had been prepared to ignore Shane's taunts, but that last comment completely infuriated him. In a flash, Lightning raced over to Shane, and he slammed into Shane, sending the younger race car into the glass door of the trophy cabinet. The glass instantly shattered, raining down on top of both race cars. Neither of them were hurt, but the noise instantly brought everyone in the building over to the scene.
"What on earth is going on out here?" Leyland demanded to know as he approached the group.
"Lightning attacked me," Shane said, feigning pity.
"He deserved it," Lightning retorted. "If I have to look at his smug little face one more day…" Everyone could clearly hear Lightning's engine purring with rage.
"Okay, okay! Cool it you two!" Leyland interjected firmly. "Shane and Lightning, get into my office. Now! Can I have someone clean up this glass, please, before someone bursts a tyre on it?"
Lightning and Shane reluctantly headed upstairs to Leyland's office. The team boss followed them, slamming the office door once they were all inside.
"I have just about had enough of this!" Leyland exclaimed. "If you two cannot learn to at least learn to tolerate each other, I'm afraid I will have to start disciplining you both. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Leyland," Lightning replied. Shane just shrugged.
"Good. However, your little incident out there won't go unpunished. I am going to take the cost of repairing that glass out of your salaries."
"But Lightning pushed me into the glass!" Shane protested. "Why should I have to pay for it?"
"Because you're the one who's trying to pick a fight with Lightning, so I think it's only fair for you to contribute towards the cost of repairs as well. You're just lucky that none of the trophies were damaged. Now, I believe you both have training to do, so you'd better get on with it. Your crew chiefs will debrief you after lunch. You may go now."
Lightning left the office ahead of Shane. He was so angry now. All he wanted to do was to fight with Shane and have it out with him, but he knew he had to remain mature and sensible. That way, he'd still have the upper-tyre with Shane. It wasn't easy though. Shane was, in many ways, far worse than Chick Hicks had ever been.
At least Chick was never on my team, Lightning thought as he entered the training room. The door swung shut right into Shane's jaw!
"Ow!" Shane yelped. "You'll pay for that, McQueen!"
So, he's resorted to using my surname only, Lightning thought smugly. Big deal!
Shane burst into the room, revving his engine furiously. "You nearly made me lose a tooth!"
"That'd be a drastic improvement to your features!" Lightning retorted.
"Why, you little…brat!" Shane spat. He didn't want to get into trouble for swearing, so he settled for something tamer.
Dutto sounded an air horn. "Will you two please do the world a favour and SHUT UP! Get onto your rolling roads. If I hear one more word spoken between you two today, I swear, I will make Doctor Andrews sedate the pair of you!"
"That'd make a nice change," Jamie muttered from his perch on his own rolling road.
Craig just groaned quietly. At least nobody is forcing me to take responsibility for Lightning. Then again, why should they? He's an adult, and he's about to become a father, so this really has nothing to do with me. I've done my best, and that's all anyone can ask of me, I suppose.
Knowing how angry Lightning still was, Tony quickly made some changes to Lightning's training schedule for the day. The exercises he'd now planned for Lightning were designed to exhaust him and thereby, hopefully, help to settle him down. He was glad to see that Grant had the same idea in mind for Shane.
Sure enough, by lunchtime, Lightning was thoroughly worn out. Craig kindly had his lunch all ready for him by the time Lightning arrived at the cafeteria. He smiled his thanks.
"I saw Tony working you hard today," Jamie said.
"Yeah, and I'm glad he did," Lightning replied. "I was ready to beat Shane up once and for all this morning."
"Nothing less than he deserves," Jamie muttered. Craig gave him a sharp nudge. "Ow! What was that for?"
"You two just need to leave Shane alone," Craig told them firmly. "We'll never win the team's championship at the end of the year if all we're doing is fighting."
Lightning exhaled deeply. "You're right. Sorry Craig. I'll do my best to ignore him."
"Me too," Jamie added. "Although it won't be easy. If he wasn't on our team, I'd love to run him off the road."
"I sure hope Leyland doesn't renew his contract with Shane," Lightning said.
"Speaking of contracts," Craig interrupted, "have you given much thought to your own?"
Lightning frowned. "Yes, but I still don't know what to do. I love being here in Australia, and racing in the V8 Supercars, but…"
"You're homesick, right?" Jamie finished.
Lightning nodded. "Yeah."
"Perhaps you should take a break," Jamie suggested kindly. "It might do you good to go back to the States for a couple of weeks."
"Yes, it would," Shane interrupted, coming up behind them. "Especially if you stay there."
In unison, Craig, Jamie and Lightning left their table, and they drove away, leaving Shane all by himself. None of them saw how sad Shane looked as he parked at the table all by himself. A moment later, Dutto joined him.
"You have to be a friend to have a friend," Dutto told him sensibly.
"I know," Shane sighed. "Problem is, I resent them all so much. They have everything; money, nice houses, beautiful wives…well, except for Jamie, but still… The point is, I've have to work very hard to get to where I am now. I didn't have mentors or a multi-million dollar team to help me."
"Which is why you're a fantastic asset to our team. You know exactly what it takes to get here. But you know what? None of the others have had it as easy as you seem to think they have. Just try to be a lot nicer to them. You might be surprised."
Shane sighed despondently. He really did want to be friends with his teammates, but his past difficulties with teammates made it hard. He was used to being the centre of attention, so having to share that attention with others was extremely difficult for him. Maybe, if I apologise to the others, it might make things a bit easier for me. Really, I have no one to blame for my loneliness other than myself. Lightning and Jamie just react so beautifully whenever I tease them. It can be so much fun fighting with them…
…
Later that evening, Lightning was driving home from training. He was tired after the hard training session Tony had given to him, and now he was just looking forward to spending some quiet time with Sally.
All was quiet as Lightning drove up the long, straight driveway towards his mansion. He paused for a moment in the driveway nearer to the house. The enormous mansion dominated the landscape, and it could easily been seen from the road. It was such a vast contrast to the small, but humble house he had behind the racing museum in Radiator Springs.
They're both a perfect place to raise a family, Lightning thought. Sighing despondently, he drove as quietly as he could around the back. He wanted to check on the tractors, but then he saw Sally slipping into the swimming pool for an evening dip. Grinning cheekily, Lightning entered the pool area without letting Sally see him. Seeing Sally disappear underneath the surface, Lightning revved his engine and he drove straight into the deep end of the pool. Underwater, Lightning swam over to Sally, surprising her with a quick kiss on the lips. Both of them promptly surfaced.
"Lightning!" Sally exclaimed. "When did you get home?"
"Just now," Lightning replied as he swam over to a ledge. Sally joined him.
"So, how was your day?" Sally asked.
"Not that great. I lost my temper at Shane, and we ended up fighting. Yes, Leyland told us off, but at least Shane left me alone after lunch. Tony and I discussed some things we need to work on."
"Do you think you'll be ready for Tasmania?"
"Dunno. I'll be as ready as I can be, I suppose. I knew the competition here would be tough, but I never expected it to be this tough. In the Piston Cup, all I needed was speed, which I have plenty of. But in the V8s, speed is only important during qualifying. During the races, it's all about tactics and overtaking manoeuvres. And, of course, each racetrack is so vastly different from the previous one, so each weekend presents me with a new chance to redeem myself. What would really boost my confidence is a win; or at least, a podium finish. Tony says that I'm just as fast as all the other racers out there, but I'm having trouble committing to that speed, and then converting it to results. Sorry if I'm not making any sense."
Leaning over, Sally kissed him on his fender. "It's okay. You needed to rant. Guess the stress of impending fatherhood is getting to you as well, right?"
Lightning exhaled tiredly. 'Partially. Ten years ago, I would've fought with Shane at the first snide remarked he made at me. But now, I keep thinking, 'what kind of an example would this be for our child?' And so, Shane gets away with his bullying, and I'm left seething."
"It's called 'maturity', Stickers. We all get infected with it eventually. Well, okay, maybe not everyone… Mater has never had it!"
Lightning burst out laughing, thinking of his playful best friend. Sally joined in, and then she snuggled up closer to Lightning. Lightning sighed contently.
"Thanks. I needed a good laugh."
"I know… How about a water fight?"
"Nah. Let's just sit here. Oh, look! The moon's up."
"The constellations are different in the southern hemisphere," Sally mused. "Let's see if we can find the Southern Cross."
Half an hour later, Gracie came outside to find Sally, and tell her that dinner was ready. She didn't know that Lightning had come home yet, so she was very surprised to find them both snuggled up together in the swimming pool. She coughed to get their attention. Lightning and Sally reluctantly spun around to look at her.
"Dinner is ready," Gracie announced. "I'll just grab another towel for you, Lightning."
"Thanks," Lightning replied. "So, what is for dinner?"
"Nothing you can't have," Gracie replied, grinning.
"Damn! See, this is the one downer to being a race car. I can't have anything unhealthy!"
"Don't you want to win anymore?" Sally asked as she drove up the ramp out of the pool. Gracie threw a towel over Sally's roof.
"Touché!" Lightning said, and he followed Sally. Gracie also threw a towel over him.
"I remember doing this after your baths when you were a toddler," Gracie said to Lightning. "You'd never keep as still as you do now."
Lightning blushed profusely. Unfortunately, since his paintwork was now dark blue, it showed. "Thanks for the reminder!"
"I enjoyed being your nanny," Gracie smiled. "And I can't wait to be a nanny again. Providing, of course, that your baby doesn't have Jaguar Syndrome as well!"
"Don't worry," Sally assured her. "Jaguar Syndrome isn't hereditary."
"That's a relief," Gracie said, breathing a small sigh of relief. "I'm too old to go racing after a baby race car!"
Laughing, the three of them headed inside.
I'll admit that I'm rather excited about the next few chapters, because of what happens between Lightning and Shane. It was something that happened in real life, but it fits into this story so perfectly that I have to use it!
Guest, thank you so much for your suggestion! I really like it. I'll be sure to keep it in mind for later in the story.