Chapter two of two for today! :)
Chapter 27- Old School Training
The following morning, just as the sun was rising over Thomasville, Fudge was still asleep in RJ's old room, dreaming that she was living in a floating city, surrounded by flying cars. They would flap their wings and honk their horns at her. However, she began to feel uneasy when she got the feeling that someone was watching her. Quickly, she snapped her eyes open to find Herman in front of her, honking and flapping his wings. She yelped in surprise and fell out of bed. Still, Herman didn't back off.
"Help! He can sense my fear!" the human girl yelled.
Thankfully, Sammy came rushing in at that moment. She wasn't dressed yet either.
"Herman! At least let my sister wake up before you say hello!" Sammy laughed, scooping the goose up and smiling at Fudge apologetically. "Sorry about that. Herman can be a little suspicious of strangers. He just cares about Thomasville and its people, that's all. Give it a couple more days and he'll realise you're a friend."
"That's okay. Geese just freak me out", Fudge explained as Sammy helped her to her feet. "They always have."
Herman appeared to give Fudge the evil eye as if he understood what she just said.
"Oh, my God!" Fudge exclaimed. "He looks like he's staring into my soul!"
"Are you all right?" Sammy wondered, muffling a laugh.
"Yeah, I'll still take waking up to that over a reveille and Jimi Hendrix any day!"
Her sister laughed. She'd been to Radiator Springs before and so, she knew what Fudge was talking about.
"What's he doing here?" the teenager wondered.
"He just peruses the town", Sammy explained. "Thomasville is a place where you can keep your doors open at night, so he occasionally shows up in people's homes."
"I could've been killed, I hope you know", Fudge informed her.
"Oh, no!" Sammy protested. "Herman is just precious! He wouldn't kill anyone, would you, Herman? But if it bothers you that much, I'll make sure to keep the door locked tonight." She petted the goose before giving Fudge a dark green mechanic jumpsuit with the Smokey's Best Dang Garage in Town logo on the front pocket. "Well, we better get dressed. We got a busy day ahead of us."
When they met up with Lightning, they could see that he was more determined than before to get to work. Although Thomasville didn't exactly have the latest technology, there was still a TV, so the fact that Jackson Storm had clocked two hundred and fourteen miles an hour on the track failed to escape Lightning's attention.
"Okay. Maybe I'm not gonna be faster than Storm like Smokey said", he informed anybody who was listening, "but I still need to get smarter than him."
"All right", Smokey began, "we got one thing we need to before we get started."
"What?" Lightning asked. While he highly doubted that would be Smokey's training method, he immediately had flashbacks to naps and being suspended on seesaw-like contraptions.
"Actually..." Smokey looked past the 95 racer and was looking at a certain yellow car. "It's not you. It's her."
Cruz was surprised. "Me?"
"I got somethin' in mind for you", Smokey informed her.
It took the combined efforts of Luigi, Guido, Fudge and Sammy (the two humans both wearing their green Smokey's Garage jumpsuits) to get Cruz ready, but everyone was happy with the end result. She'd been outfitted with a new spoiler and racing tyres in exchange for having her muffler removed. In addition, she had the word STORM duct taped to her rear bumper and the number 2.0 duct taped to each of her sides.
"Who's the racer?" Sammy questioned, hoping that Cruz would feel more confident.
"You wanna beat Storm, you need someone to stand in for him", Smokey explained to Lightning. "Like a sparring partner."
"I'm not so sure!" Cruz piped up. "Not a racer! Just a trainer!"
"You can do this, Cruz!" Fudge assured her. "Like how you learned to drift, remember?"
"And remember what we talked about last night", Louise added.
While Lightning and Smokey were gone, Fudge and Cruz had remained talking to Sammy and the Legends. At one point, each of them had opened up about their doubts about being racers. Cruz recounted the story of how she didn't take her one shot.
"It's not that I don't want to race because I love it", Fudge had added, "but after the accident, I am kind of scared." She sighed. "It doesn't matter, anyway. I'm not allowed to race after that." She sighed again, looking at the Legends. "I wish I had your confidence."
"If you two really wanna race, you shouldn't let anything stand in your way", River had told them. "You think we did? Did you not hear what Lou did to race?"
"Guess you guys are just more confident and badass than we are", Fudge had commented.
"You know, I was so scared when I started... my career too", Sammy added. "But I had the help of an incredible mentor and soon, I found I loved it and I was good at it."
"What do you do?" Cruz asked.
"Well, I used to be in insurance", she lied (that was her cover story for being a spy), "but I recently gave that up. Now, I'm training to be a mechanic." She glanced down at her outfit. "As you can see."
"Maybe we should try to do something", Fudge had suggested to her best friend. "You know, if I ever get the chance..."
"Why should you wait for your chance?" Louise had questioned. "If you want it, you do it!"
"You're right..." Fudge had realised, but she wasn't sure if she was ready for that.
"Come on!" Sammy insisted, putting an arm around Fudge. "You're a very talented rider, Fudgsicle. Who cares what McQueen says?"
"Well, he does have a good reason", Fudge pointed out.
"He's still gonna race after his crash!" her sister countered. She looked over at Cruz. "And you, Cruz. Granted I haven't seen you race that much, but you seemed pretty good."
"You really think so?"
"Yep. And you seem passionate about racing. Both of you are. If either of you get a chance to prove yourselves, take it."
Now, as Cruz stood before them in Smokey's garage, with her spoiler and racing tyres, doubt began to creep into her mind, despite the Legends and Sammy's advice echoing in her mind.
"I really don't think-" she began to protest again.
"Go ahead and gun it!" Smokey ordered, cutting her off.
Cruz obeyed, revving her engine. Fudge's hands flew to her ears as she had not been expecting such a loud noise so sudden and so close. It was so loud, in fact, that everything around them shook; even a couple of items fell down. Herman flapped his wings, clearly upset by the loud noise. Everyone was impressed, especially Cruz herself.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "Yeah!"
"With no muffler, you even sound like Storm!" Smokey declared.
"Oh, you're going down, McQueen!" Cruz vowed. Then she shouted, "Get that arthritis-riddled keister onto the track, so I can put you into the old folks' home against your will!"
Everyone stared at her in shock.
"How was that?" Cruz asked in her normal voice.
"That'll work", Lightning responded.
"Worked for me", Louise added.
"I... I'm good", River stammered.
"Yep. That'll do", Junior chimed in.
"Did you hear what she said?" River quizzed the others.
Down at the track, Smokey made Cruz take Storm's place in pole position while Lightning stood several feet away. Guido was the flag bearer, stood on top of the platform where Fudge had watched Cruz and Lightning race the day before. Fudge herself joined Smokey, Sammy, Herman and the Legends in the infield.
"You didn't show up in Florida for qualifying!" Smokey reminded Lightning. "So, you'll be startin' dead last. I'll give you three laps to catch her!"
"Go through the entire field in three laps?" Lightning repeated incredulously. It couldn't be done. It just couldn't.
"Do you wanna beat Storm or not?"
"Yes! Of course I do!"
"Well, then, go!"
Both Cruz and Lightning revved their engines and shot off.
"Come on now!" Smokey murmured to himself.
"Go, Lightning!" Fudge hollered.
Unfortunately, Lightning tried his hardest, but he just couldn't catch up to Cruz. As Guido waved the checkered flag, Cruz crossed the finish line way ahead of him.
"All right! Looks like we got some work to do!" Smokey announced.
"You're telling me!" Lightning sighed.
"Well, I think that's enough laps for now. I got somethin' else in mind for now."
Although it wasn't as ridiculous and outlandish as some of the things Cruz had made him do, the next thing Smokey had in mind took Lightning and Cruz by surprise. Smokey had brought out two long flatbed trailers.
"Holy crap!" Fudge exclaimed at the sheer size of them.
"What do you want us to do with those?" Cruz questioned, dreading the answer.
"I want each of you to tow one trailer with us on top from this tyre-" He gestured to a tyre he dropped directly in front of them before driving off up some hills to drop another one way in the distance. "-to this one."
Lightning and Cruz's jaws dropped. The other tyre was so far away that they could barely see it. It was just a dot on the horizon.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Lightning exclaimed.
"Not kidding! Let's go!"
It required some discussion as to who would go on which trailer. Factors such as making the weight of each trailer as even as possible and Fudge's refusal to go with Herman were considered. Finally, it was agreed that Lightning would tow a trailer with Smokey, Junior, Luigi and Fudge on top while Cruz would be hauling Louise, River, Sammy, Guido and Herman.
"Let's go for a ride!" Fudge cried gleefully once everyone was in position. Everyone was on board their respective trailers and Cruz and Lightning were lined up at the start.
"All right!" Smokey barked. "Go!"
Only they didn't go. Lightning and Cruz tried and tried with all their might to get the trailers to move, but they just couldn't do it.
"Come on now!" Smokey would yell at them. "Come on now! Pick it up!"
"Let's move!" Junior called out.
"Yeah. Let's go!" Fudge hollered. "This is the worst ride ever! I want my money back!"
Luigi grabbed his daughter's arm to get her attention and when she looked at him, he shook his hood at her with a frown. Angry and ashamed of herself, Fudge shut up.
"You ain't gonna pass Storm movin' like that!" Smokey pointed out after about half an hour of absolutely nothing.
"Well, I'm pretty sure we won't be tugging massive trailers in the race!" Lightning retorted.
"I can't move this thing!" Cruz groaned.
So, that was the end of that.
Still, Smokey wasn't giving up on plans to train Lightning. He had another idea, for which he required the help of Guido and Fudge. He wanted them to load up his truck bed with bales of hay and climb on board.
"We're goin' for a little drive!" the pickup truck announced.
He instructed Lightning to follow. "Not too close, but not too far behind!"
Lightning had no idea what was going on until they were out of the town.
"Look alive!" Smokey called out. "Reflexes are the first thing to go!"
Without warning, Fudge and Guido started tossing hay bales the race car's way. Lightning yelped in surprise as every single one hit him in the face. Even Fudge who had terrible hand-eye coordination managed to hit him with all of hers. The human girl couldn't help laughing as Lightning screamed every time a hay bale hit him.
Smokey, on the other tyre, was not amused. "Looks like we gotta work on your reflexes too."
The next exercise didn't go much better. Confusion took over Lightning and Cruz from the very start. They were in a pasture, surrounded by tractors, mooing lazily.
"Why are we in a field?" Lightning wondered.
"Ah, the times I've asked myself that very same question after a big night", Sammy commented.
The only other answer they got was Smokey locking them in and shouting, "Sneak through that window!"
"What does that mean?" Cruz demanded.
"I don't know!" Lightning was just as clueless as she was.
"Go!" Smokey honked his horn, startling the tractors into moving, all mooing loudly. The two of them were caught in the middle of a stampede! They screamed as they started driving.
"Whoa!" Lightning exclaimed as two tractors merged closer together directly in front of him, forcing him to slow down.
"Not cool, man!" Cruz cried as she and Lightning struggled through the chaos. "Not cool!"
Fudge, who was stood beside Smokey (he'd initially wanted her to race with them, but Lightning had put his tyre down firmly), laughed at their misfortune until Smokey turned to her.
"Help 'em, Fudge!" he instructed her. "You're the crew chief! Watch what's goin' on! Help 'em sneak through the window!"
However, Fudge had about as much of an idea on what "sneak through the window" meant as Lightning and Cruz. She stammered for a couple of seconds before calling out things like, "Look out for that tractor!" or, "Lightning! A tractor's chasing you!"
Based on the look on Smokey's face, that wasn't what he wanted.
The sixteen-year-old turned to Sammy. "Do you know what he's talking about?"
She nodded and grinned. "I do."
"Tell me!"
Unfortunately, Sammy shook her head. "No way, kiddo."
"This ain't a math test!" Fudge protested. "Come on! You can tell me!"
"Nope. That's for you, McQueen and Cruz to figure out."
"This is hopeless!" Fudge groaned to herself.
That wasn't the only training method Smokey had for Fudge. In fact, he had one just for her.
"A good crew chief knows the track as well as the racer!" he explained as he had her stand in the middle of the dirt track. "If you're gonna be a crew chief, you gotta help your racer navigate the track in the best way possible. I want you to walk side to side, back and forth all the way around the track. See everything, feel everything, know everything! Got it?"
"I think so." The sixteen-year-old understood what he was saying. She just wasn't sure if she could do it. She wanted to remind Smokey that she wouldn't be allowed on the track at the races, but the words wouldn't come.
Tentatively, she walked around the track, moving back and forth, side to side, taking note of everything she could see, feel and even hear. There was mostly just dirt and gravel. The oddest thing was a bit of watermelon near the third turn. Fudge wasn't sure why it was there, but then again, she didn't know what "sneak through the window" meant either.
When she was finished, she was completely caught off guard by Smokey's next instructions.
"Do you think you know the track?" he quizzed her.
"Uh..." Fudge was unsure of how to reply.
"I hope so", Smokey continued. "'Cause now you're doin' it blindfolded."
"Oh, no..." Fudge groaned as Smokey handed her a blindfold. Reluctantly, she put the blindfold on over her glasses. "I... I don't know if I'm ready for this!"
Unfortunately, her protests were ignored as Smokey yelled, "Go!"
Even more tentatively than before, Fudge set off. As she moved around the track in all directions again, she was swaying a lot more than she had the first time and was beginning to feel dizzy. Still, she tried to stumble across the track, trying to take everything in. Everything was fine for about thirty seconds until Fudge stumbled over a rock.
"Owww!" she moaned as a stinging pain started in her arm.
However, Fudge knew that Smokey wouldn't want her to just lie there. She felt like part of the exercise was about resilience. She staggered to her feet and continued to make her way around the track. Then, things got even worse as she attempted to round a corner too early. Instead of going around a corner, she toppled over the boundary of the track and fell over into the infield.
"Dammit!" Fudge groaned as she struggled to find her way back onto the track, trying to climb back over the boundary.
Of course, trying to get over it resulted in her doing a perfect face plant.
"Dammit!" the human girl repeated.
"Come on!" Smokey called out. "Let's move!"
So, even though she'd lost her sense of direction and had a lot of pain in her body, Fudge had no choice but to keep going. Things went without any serious incident until they got to the third turn. The strong smell of watermelon swept over her. Fudge liked the smell of watermelon, but hated the taste as she did with most fruit. As soon as she smelt the large fruit, she walked from side to side, trying to find a position where the smell wasn't as strong. Once she found it, she kept moving forward. One step, two steps, three st-
Fudge jumped right out of her skin as she heard a series of loud honks and the flap of wings, which could only be one Herman. She screamed.
"Even when you know the track, unexpected things can happen!" Smokey called out. "When things go wrong, you gotta adapt! That's just as important for the crew chief as the racer!"
Fudge was only half-listening. "Get that goose away from me!" she whimpered, backing up as quickly as she could, but she knew that Herman was chasing her. "I can't run!"
However, as she tried to run at the very slow speed that she could, Fudge slipped on a piece of watermelon. She fell right over and landed splat in a pile of watermelon! She had watermelon in her hair, watermelon on her clothes and watermelon on her face and arms!
As if things weren't already bad enough, Fudge heard laughter ring out and it wasn't just Smokey's. Fudge removed her blindfold to find that she had an audience, consisting of everyone: Smokey, Lightning, Cruz, Luigi, Guido, Sammy, Junior, River, Louise and Herman. All of them were laughing hysterically; even Herman's honks sounded like laughter. Fudge felt her face go red. She couldn't believe that she'd just utterly humiliated herself like this- and in front of some of the biggest legends of the sport, no less!
The two things she felt like doing- crying and yelling at everyone to shut up- would have only made it worse. Realising she must have looked ridiculous lying there in the midst of all of the watermelon, she got to her feet and wiped bits of fruit off of her angrily. She was still covered in juice, though.
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" she yelled at the crowd, sounding close to tears.
"Now, that's not true!" Sammy responded with a laugh. She doubled over, clutching her stomach. "I'm just sorry I didn't record that!"
"Are you all right?" Cruz questioned, concerned, though she was still laughing.
"Herman nearly killed me!" Fudge bit her lip to prevent herself from crying and save herself from further embarrassment.
Smokey rolled his eyes. "He didn't nearly kill you."
"He just loves his watermelon, don't you, Herman?" Louise added.
The human girl stood in silence for a moment, still willing herself not to cry.
"I need a shower!" Fudge huffed, tearing off as fast as she could with her bad knees and lung, storming back to her sister's house.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Smokey wondered.
"She will be fine", Luigi assured them. "She is just a little sensitive."
"I think her pride is hurt more than anything", Lightning added. After a pause, he kept going. "I... I'm gonna make sure she's okay."
When he got there, Fudge was in the bathroom with the doors closed and the water was running.
The stock car knocked on the door. "Fudge?" he ventured. "You all right?"
"I hate that goose!" the sixteen-year-old answered with tears stinging in her eyes and a painful lump in her throat. She wasn't crying, but she was close. She stepped out of the water to lather her hair in shampoo. "The Evil Goose of Thomasville! He's one of Satan's minions! That was so embarrassing!"
"I know, but you'll be able to laugh about it one day."
"Maybe", Fudge agreed, "but today is not that day!"
Lightning sighed before continuing to speak in a depressed tone. "Well, I'm not gonna dress it up. Today didn't go well."
"No", Fudge agreed, sounding equally depressed. She stepped back into the running water to wash the shampoo out of her hair. "If there's one thing I've learned today, it's that I suck! This stupid water!" she exclaimed abruptly. "I always either freeze or burn! There's no in-between."
"I just don't see how I'm gonna be ready in time for this race. It's only in a couple of days."
"I know. What are we gonna do?"
"Well, I'm all out of ideas, so I guess I just gotta keep going with this and hope for the best", Lightning sighed again.
"Yeah." Fudge let out a sigh of her own.
"Well, that, or get ready to sell mud flaps."
"No", Fudge countered. "It hasn't come to that yet."
Unfortunately, things didn't seem to be getting better the next day. Everyone was relieved to see that Fudge was a lot calmer in the morning and she was relieved Sammy had kept her promise and locked the doors the night before to keep Herman out. However, as she stood in the infield of the track with Sammy, Smokey, the Legends and Herman, she made a point to stand as far away from the goose as possible. Still, there were other problems. Like how Cruz was still beating Lightning in every single race. They spent hours running lap after lap, growing more and more concerned with each and every one of Lightning's attempts to beat Cruz. He would get closer and closer to catching her, but it still wasn't enough.
"Let's run it back!" Smokey called out after one run. "Do you even wanna be out here?!" he shouted after another while Fudge shouted, "Come on, Lightning! You got this!" as he got closer again to catching Cruz.
"Only two days left, kid!" Smokey reminded him. "You gotta work harder!"
Lightning grunted in frustration. This was the hardest he'd ever worked for a race. He was running out of time. He needed a miracle.
The trailers are actually part of a lot of books I've read, including the official book of the film. You can even see it fully animated on YouTube, so I'll put that up on the Wattpad copy of this story.
And I thought the incident with Herman was pretty funny, even if Fudge didn't. (I Googled what geese like and it said watermelon, so...)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to review!
