Hi! And if you've just arrived here in this story after reading Ride, then welcome! I hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 18- Life's a Beach
"Are you sure about this?" Fudge wondered as she, Lightning, Luigi and Guido made their way down to Fireball Beach the following morning. She'd tried to get herself pumped up, reminding herself that this was going to be fun and Lightning could do this, but she couldn't hide her doubts.
Lightning nodded. "Absolutely!" He paused and added, "Why? You're not?"
"Well, I've got mixed feelings about this, to be honest", she voiced her opinion. "I mean, I'm sure you can do this, but there's always the possibility that you won't. I guess I'm just a little bit worried about that. I mean, do you really wanna sell mud flaps?"
"Not really", he admitted. "But this was the only way to get Mr. Sterling to let me do this. I just had to take it." While Fudge thought about that, he added, smiling, "Come on! You and I've had a lot of adventures together. This'll just be another one. I can do this. We got this!"
Fudge smiled. "Yeah! Let's go!"
The weather was gorgeous and perfect for racing. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was windy enough to cool the otherwise warm air, but it wasn't cold. The waves coming from the ocean looked beautiful too, all shimmering. Fudge smiled as she took off her rainbow flip-flops. Since Sterling wasn't around, she could wear whatever she wanted and that was a denim jacket, denim shorts, her star necklace and a greyish-blue T-shirt with WEST COAST L.A. CALIFORNIA GOLDEN STATE 1986 written on the front. She felt comfortable in that; not too hot, not too cold. Plus, with nobody from the training centre around, she didn't feel self-conscious about wearing shorts, showing off her scars. Lightning, Luigi and Guido had all seen her scars millions of times, so she didn't mind them seeing.
"All right! Let's do this!" Lightning cried, eager to get the show on the road.
"Yeah!" Fudge cheered, readily armed with a notebook and pen to record his speeds.
"I'll track and record your speeds", she'd promised him that morning, "but other than that, I'll let you do your own thing. I'll be there as your sister, not your crew chief."
However, before they could start, they got a surprise. A familiar voice called out, "You talked him into it! Way to go, Mr. McQueen!"
Lightning sighed when he saw who it was. "Cruz." Though he only said her name, his tone said it all.
"Cruz!" Fudge cheered, running up the beach as fast as she could to greet the yellow car, who was lugging a massive trailer behind her. She'd left before Cruz woke up and, therefore, hadn't known she was coming.
"Hey, Fudge!" Cruz greeted her. "I'm so glad you talked to Mr. Sterling, Mr. McQueen! How did you do that?! You could talk a snowmobile into an air conditioner!"
"You're going with me?" Lightning sounded far from thrilled. "With that thing?!"
"Yeah!" she confirmed. "You still need my help! You're brittle! Like a fossil!"
She started opening up the trailer, which was revealed to be a treadmill. Fudge, who had just been returning to the three guys, stopped halfway and turned around to watch the treadmill boot up.
"I don't need a trainer out here, Cruz!" Lightning protested.
"You're old!" she countered. "What if you fall on this beach and can't get up?"
Fudge giggled at the mental image.
"Well, life's a beach!" Lightning shot back. "And then you drive!"
There was a pause before Guido and Luigi started laughing.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Fudge cried out slowly, grinning, pointing at the stock car.
"Oh, McQueen!" Luigi exclaimed.
"Thank you!" the stock car replied casually.
"But I thought life was a highway!" Fudge joked, referring to the song they often sang on the road.
Lightning rolled his eyes, but he was grinning a little.
"This is beautiful!" Cruz proclaimed, looking around at the beach and the weather. Either she didn't get Lightning's joke or she simply chose to ignore it; most likely the latter. "I can see why you come down here every day, Fudge." She looked back at Lightning. "And why Mr. Sterling said you wanted to train out here. As soon as this thing's booted up, we'll get you on the treadmill and I'll track your speed."
"What?!" Lightning cried incredulously. "No! The whole idea is getting my tyres dirty! Real racing! I'm not driving on that thing when I've got the sand! And the whole Earth!"
Both of them looked to Fudge, who was standing halfway between them. (AN: Symbolism! :)) Fudge was silent for quite a while, readjusting her glasses, scraping her teeth across her tongue and even pushing her tongue through the gap where her top two front teeth had once been, thinking of what to say, not wanting to hurt either of them. Her head said, Lightning needs you to help him win! This is important to him! Yet her heart said, Cruz is your friend; you can't hurt her. But Lightning is your brother; you can't hurt him either.
"Don't you think a treadmill kind of defeats the whole purpose of being out here?" she asked Cruz finally, trying to sound logical, but polite.
A tone sounded to say that the treadmill was ready.
"Oh. Okay." Embarrassed, Cruz shut the treadmill down.
"Luigi", Lightning called, "let's do this."
So, everyone got ready, leaving Cruz behind. Fudge shot her friend a sympathetic look as they went off.
"Welcome, racers, to Fireball Beach!" Luigi began, holding a green flag. "Historic home for today's great test of speed! Our finish line will be the abandoned pier in the distance." He gestured to it.
"All right", Lightning whispered to himself in order to get psyched up. "Quicker than quick, faster than fast... I... am... speed."
"That is great self-motivation!" Cruz interrupted him. "Did you come up with that?"
"Yeah! I did!" McQueen answered, clearly annoyed.
"Note to self: More of that!" Cruz announced.
"Yeah, but you probably shouldn't distract him again when he's doing that", Fudge whispered to Cruz. "One time, I did and he nearly bit my head off!"
"Fudge!" Lightning called. "You're doing it again!"
The sixteen-year-old looked back at Cruz. "See what I mean?"
"Fudge!" Lightning hissed.
"On your mark!" Luigi called it after Fudge had mumbled an apology. "Get set! Go!"
Lightning shot off. Pretty soon, he was just a dot on the horizon, leaving behind a blazing trail of sand. The other four watched, impressed. Cruz was completely awestruck, watching the race car. He was going faster than anybody had seen him go in a long time. Awesome. Totally awesome. When he shot under the pier, he came to a stop, sending sand flying.
"Whoo-hoo!" he cheered. "There you go! Felt good!"
"There's the Lightning McQueen we know and love!" Fudge cheered upon his return.
He couldn't help grinning as he turned to Cruz. "Hey. What was my speed?"
"I don't know", she answered. "I can only track you on the treadmill."
"You gotta be kidding me!" Lightning groaned.
"Well, how was I supposed to know you wanted me to track your speed?"
"It's not rocket surgery, Cruz! If I'm gonna train, of course I wanna track my speed!"
"So, get on the treadmill!"
"No treadmills!" he insisted.
Once again, both of them looked to Fudge, each expecting her to be on their side, which put the teenage girl in a very difficult position.
She sighed and finally suggested to Cruz, "Is there any other way we can track his speed?"
The yellow car brightened at that. "Oh! What about Hamilton?"
"Hamilton here!" the computerised voice came from her radio speaker after several rapid beeps.
"Who's Hamilton?" Lightning wondered.
"My electronic personal assistant", Cruz explained. "You know, like on your phone." She gave a little laugh. "You do have a phone, don't you?"
"Race cars don't have phones, Cruz", Lightning replied.
"But you only just found that out yourself the other day!" Fudge reminded him. She didn't want to add that while she had a phone, she rarely used it and really only had it for safety reasons. She didn't want Cruz thinking that she was uncool. That was something that the yellow car was bound to learn over time.
"Hamilton! Track Mr. McQueen's speed and report it!" Cruz ordered.
"Tracking!" Hamilton confirmed with another series of rapid beeps.
"I'll stay as close as I can", Cruz explained to Lightning. "Your suit will transmit your speeds to Hamilton."
"Fine! Whatever!" Lightning sighed, eager to get on with training and getting his speed up. "Let's do this."
He and Cruz lined up together in front of Luigi.
"Let's go, guys!" Fudge cried.
"Quicker than quick, faster than fast, I am speed!" Lightning recited quickly. "Come on, Luigi."
"On your mark, get set and go!" The Fiat lowered the flag yet again and sent the two racers on their way.
They were off! Correction: Lightning was off. Unfortunately, he could only get up to sixty-three miles an hour before Hamilton started blaring at him, "Out of range, out of range, out of range."
Lightning skidded to a halt to see what the problem was. The problem turned out to be a big one. Cruz hadn't even moved from the starting line!
"Huh. That's odd!" she proclaimed, trying to move. "I didn't go!" Her rear tyres sprayed sand all over Fudge.
McQueen returned to the starting line, looking exasperated. "Why didn't you go?"
"I don't know. I just..." She was trying to start as if she were on the asphalt.
"On sand, you gotta ease into your start, so your tyres can grab, okay?" Lightning coached his trainer.
"Okay." She nodded.
"You do work with race cars, don't you?"
"Yeah, but never outside!" Cruz protested.
"Don't be so hard on her", Fudge jumped to the yellow car's defence. "This kind of thing wasn't easy for you at first either. This is new to her."
"Well, I guess I can't argue with that", Lightning admitted, remembering his first disastrous attempts at racing on dirt. "All right. Let's go again."
"Take two!" Fudge called out.
"Go!" Luigi shouted.
Fudge had to hand it to Cruz. She was a fast learner. She got the hang of what Lightning had told her straight away.
"There you go!" Lightning told her.
Even so, that didn't mean that she didn't have a lot to learn. Once Lightning hit seventy-five miles an hour, Hamilton was blaring again. "Out of range, out of range, out of range."
Once again, he stopped to see what was going on, only to find Cruz stuck in a sand dune.
"Sorry!" she called out. "Got stuck!"
"Go again!" The stock car was clearly annoyed.
First, though, they had to rescue Cruz.
"How did you even get stuck?" Lightning wondered when she was out and they were returning to the starting line.
"I don't know! One second, I was racing; the next thing I knew, I was in the dunes."
"Well, you gotta stay clear of the dunes."
"Okay. Lesson learned", Cruz assured him.
"All right", Lightning sighed. "Third time's the charm."
"And go!" Luigi announced.
Third time's the charm? Well, not quite. This time, Cruz went in the opposite direction, into the water.
She yelped as a cold wave splashed her. "Sorry!"
Lightning groaned. "I thought it was obvious that you weren't meant to end up in the water!"
"I said I was sorry!" Cruz shot back.
"Yeah, well sorry isn't gonna get me faster than Storm!" He gave the heaviest sigh he could muster. "All right. Let's try this again!"
"Go!" Luigi called out.
When Cruz's performance didn't improve, even Fudge had lost patience with her and found other means of entertaining herself: sliding down the crumbling sand dunes as she watched Cruz spin out.
"Take forty-six!" she'd hollered right before Cruz found herself half-buried in sand.
"The beach ate me!" the trainer proclaimed, making Fudge giggle.
By that point, Lightning was just about ready to kill Cruz. It took nearly two hours to get her out of the hole; two precious hours that could've been spent training wasted!
"All right, Cruz", he began, "pick a line on the compacted sand. Gotta have traction or you're gonna spin out. Let's do this thing."
"On your mark, get set, go", Luigi sent them off, no longer putting any energy into it.
For the millionth time, they took off. Lightning was able to get up to a higher speed that time- one-thirty-four miles an hour- before he heard the inevitable, "Out of range!"
He'd learned to expect it by now, so he came to a stop. "Now, what?!" he demanded, utterly and thoroughly fed up.
"I didn't wanna hit a crab!" Cruz answered.
"You gotta be kidding me!" he groaned.
"What?" Cruz asked innocently. "It was cute!"
Another groan.
"What happened this time?" Fudge wanted to know, upon their return.
"Someone didn't want to hit a crab!" Lightning replied as if it was the most ridiculous, unbelievable thing he'd ever heard.
"It was cute!" Cruz insisted.
"It's okay, Cruz", Fudge sympathised, "I wouldn't wanna hit a crab either." Fudge had a serious soft spot for animals. She lit up. "Hey! I've got an idea! Why don't I come with you and keep a lookout for crabs?" She tried to get into a good position on the car.
"Fudge, no", Lightning vetoed the idea flatly.
"Why not?" The sixteen-year-old pouted and refused to budge off Cruz.
"Because I said so."
"But why?"
"You know why!" The 95 racer raised his voice at her and it was shaking slightly; he sounded like he was ready to cry. However, he cleared his throat and continued in a much stronger tone. "Now, come on! We've wasted enough time today already! I really don't wanna waste any more arguing with you!"
Fudge wasn't happy about it, but she slid off nonetheless. Cruz looked from the race car to the human girl and back again, confused. Lightning had always seemed like the caring older brother towards Fudge. Yet, those words sounded so familiar to Cruz. What was all that about? She had no idea and she wasn't about to ask.
"All right", Lightning gave one last run-down, clearly at the end of his rope, "one last chance to try this before it gets dark. Now, you're gonna take off slow to let your tyres grab."
"Yes!" Cruz comprehended.
"And pick a straight line on hard sand, so you don't spin out."
"Uh-huh."
"And all the crabbies have gone night-night."
"Mr. McQueen." Cruz gave him a Look while Fudge giggled.
"All right. Let's go again."
"And go." This time, Luigi looked and sounded like he was about to fall asleep.
So, they were away again. The two Italians and their daughter didn't pay much attention, convinced that pretty soon, Cruz was going to stop for some reason or another. Yet she never did. She didn't quite catch up to Lightning, but she wasn't that far behind. After trying all day, the two dashed under the pier. With how long it took to get there, Lightning had almost forgotten where the finish line was.
"Whoo-hoo-hoo!" he hollered as he came to a stop. He looked to Cruz. "All right! Finally! You made it! Congratulations! How'd I do?" He was eager for the moment of truth.
"You topped out at one-ninety-eight", she reported ruefully.
"One-ninety-eight?" he repeated, unable to hide his disappointment. "That's it?"
"Still slower than Storm."
Fudge had wanted to run up to the pier to ask about Lightning's speed. However, with her knees and lung, she decided against it, thinking that the best course of action would be to wait for them to come back.
"How'd you go?" she demanded the second they were within hearing distance of each other.
With a heavy heart, Lightning told her.
The human girl's shoulders slumped. "Oh."
Needless to say, Lightning wasn't in a good mood.
"Wasted my whole day!" he grumbled as they left the beach for the second time (they left, but went back because Fudge had left her flip-flops, which had done nothing to improve the stock car's mood) to meet up with Mack. He was talking to himself more than anybody else.
"I wouldn't say that", Cruz argued, towing the treadmill.
Fudge nodded in agreement. "Maybe you're not as fast as Storm yet, but you're getting better and that's all that matters right now. It's still progress."
"Besides", Cruz added, "it... it did feel great to be out here, doing real racing-"
"This ain't real racing!" McQueen countered.
"It was a couple of hours ago", Fudge reminded him, puzzled. Lightning's thoughts and feelings were so inconsistent lately. Since they'd stopped, she sat down on Luigi's hood to brush the sand off her feet.
"Fudge, you know it's not!" Lightning snapped. "We're on a beach! All you do is go straight! How am I gonna get faster if I don't-" He stopped short, glancing up at a sign in front of him.
"What?" Fudge wondered.
Lightning didn't answer.
"What?" Fudge asked again, beginning to get annoyed.
"Thunder Hollow", Lightning read the sign softly. "Thunder Hollow!" he repeated, much louder and more enthusiastic.
"Yes!" Fudge shouted excitedly, catching on.
"There's a dirt track there!" Lightning stomped his tyre. "That's what I need! To race against actual racers!"
"Yes!" Fudge cried again, not noticing the hurt look on Cruz's face at her trainee's words.
"No! Too public!" Luigi was very quick to dismiss this suggestion. "As the head of security, I must forbid it! If the press find you, they will be like many, many bugs on you!"
"Paparazzi!" Guido added, spitting on the ground to get his point across.
"Guys, I really need this!" McQueen insisted, backing up into his trailer.
"Absolutely", Fudge agreed. "We have to go. But it's true we can't have the press around."
"Eh, just leave it to me, boss", Mack jumped in. "I am a master of disguise", he added mysteriously.
"Should we be worried?" Fudge questioned jokingly.
"Good idea, Mack!" Lightning proclaimed appreciatively. "Fudge, you'll probably need a disguise too", he mused. "You'll be recognised too."
"I really, really doubt that", Fudge countered, thinking of her declining fame.
"Great idea, Mr. McQueen!" Cruz cut in. "And I know just where to get one! Come on, Fudge!"
Before the sixteen-year-old could protest, Cruz whisked her away.