ffn seriously messed up this chapter upload. so hopefully it worked finally. i had to delete and publish over and over. sorry for any delays.
"So for our motivational speaker today, I give you Lightnin McQueen everyone." Cal announced. Lightning stood up and made his way up amonst the slow applause. Cal sat down next to Megan and Sally. Everyone became silent and stared at Lightning. He stood there a moment. Taking them all in. Them. about 50 students... Cruz.. Sally. His loving Sally. And some early retired racers from the accident. Reb Meeker, the racer Lightning saved. Ted Turbo, Markus Krankzler, and even Daniel Lapp, Lightning's original Academy racer. He stared. The king and Linda too, Bobby, a few other old piston cup racers. A few people wondered if he was going to speak or not. Lightning frowned. What motivation could he feed these kids.
Lightning sighed and began. "Um. What's.. Motivational?.. What can I say to you that.. Speaks to each and every one of you individually?" He was rambling. "Um.. I can say from.. Experiences.. It's.. It's not death that I'm afraid of.. It's.. dying without trying. Um.. Afraid I'd never.. make it.. The smallest misstep and.. I fail. I'll be.. Worthless.. Because.. Losers, lose.. Winners.. Win." Sally raised a brow. This wasn't something Lightning would say. Not yet anyway. This was not motivational. Even other people in there were a little unsure here. This wasn't the Lightning they knew. "Forget.. Imagine if you knew you were going to go on that track and that horrific accident was going to happen, but you still had to race. What would you do? Knowing you might die.. What would you do the hours before that race?" The students and the racers that were in that crash looked at each other. This wasn't motivational so far.
"Would you try harder?.. Would you have regrets? Things you did or didn't do?.. Um.." He was thinking a little about Jackson and how he quit as he paused. Sally realized Lightning was falling apart as he spoke and she nudged Cal. "Hey.." she motioned for Cal to put a stop to this. Then the door opened. Everyone looked over. Dianna Swwann. She awkwardly walked over to the nearest seat and sat down along with her giant briefcase. Sally and Lightning glanced at each other. But Lightning looked at Dianna. Man, she really did look like a younger Doc Hudson. He sighed. Doc.. He lookes at the people in the seats and thinking of Doc. Oh how he wished Doc was here. Thinking of Doc gave him the help and inspiration he needed to continue and fix this speach. Lightning cleared his throat and continued. "Jackson Storm Quit. It's true.' It was going around that he did.
The students began talking amongst themselves. Lightning sighed. "Now as much as I'd love to say it wasn't my fault, it was. I failed him. But when I look back on Jackson coming here and being here? It was also your fault to. All of you." The students didn't like hearing that. They had nothing to do with Jackson quitting. Cal and Megan were even concerned. It wasn't even a good speach, let alone blaming ither students for Jackson's quitting. Cal stood up and shouted "Okay!.. I think what Lightnin McQueen means is that we are all.. A.. Part.. Of.. The school.. And the school.. should have tried more.." Lightning glared at Cal and corrected "No, I mean them, us. We failed him. You all are walking contradictions. The very opposite of a racing team" A few people gasped, staring. Couldn't believe what they were hearing from the old racer. "You all came to this school. Why?" Lightning asked. Cal didn't leave yet and stood next to him in case he needed to step in.
One student spoke up answering "To race." He chuckled saying that. Kinda like duh. Lightning nodded asking "What else?" "To become part of the pit crew." A young man added. Lightning nodded again asking "What else?" Took a minute, but a young lady raised her hand answering "Become coaches and pit row bosses." Lightning snickered and nodded replying "Yes, exactly. Now what is the one thing that a racer, the pit crew, the crew chief, mechanic, and the coach have in common?" The students stared at each other. No one answered. That made Lightning mad and feel a bit worse. He and Cal were suppose to be teaching these future racers, pitties, mechanics and coaches, these things. "A team. You will all be part of a team. And a team doesn't single out to destroy one of it's members." Cal was actually even listening to this more. Maybe he couod kearn something too.
Lightning sighed and continued "You will all be part of a single team. The mechanic will keep the car in prime condition, the racer will race and be the image, the pit crew and pit boss will run the pits and make sure to watch the computer for alerts which they warn the crew chief. They will get that car and racer in and out as fast as they can but with careful detail so that it is as safe as possible. The crew chief will be the racers eyes. He or she will see what the racer can't. Warn the racer of what's ahead, behind, and stats, the coach will keep the racer going because as much as even I loved racing! At times I missed my friends, my family, I had bad days.. Some really bad days where I was not feeling it. Coaches help, often times the coach and the chief are the same person. Sometimes they're not. But the thing is and I saw it happening. And worse, I didn't do a thing about it.."
The students still weren't sure what Lightning meant and some did and were shutting down. Playing on their phones and chatting with each other rather than listening. Cal sat back down next to Megan as Lightning continued more of a lecture than motivational speach, "I saw you all and you racers to.." Markus glared at Lightning as he was pretty sure he knew where this was going and didn't like it. "You all blamed Jackson. I watched you students talk badly behind his back. I heard you all laughing and blaming and pushing him out more and more. I saw you racers, his fellow RACERS. Turn away, not even looking at Jackson like he was trash. I heard his own team say he deserved it, i heard most of the racers say he deserved that! That he should have died! I heard a few of you say I wish he had! That's not what a team does! Back when I was racing things were different, better! It wasn't every racer for himself!"
One kid raised his hand and reminded "Not to sound like I'm criticizing here or.. Saying you're wrong, but.. You yourself were a pretty selfish rookie and racer." "Because I had to learn that for myself. I didn't get to go to a school like this that was run by good people like Cal. I didn't have former racers with experience, personally teaching me until I met Doc."
Lightning sighed and shook his head. "I am disappointed in all of you and myself included. We failed all of you. Because the way you all pushed your team mate away.. It's despicable and all of you should have known better." One kid snickered and shook his head. Lightning stared at him and asked "What?" The man shrugged saying "Jackson wasn't a team mate to us anyway sir. He was a use to be racer that crashed. That caused a crash and death." "He could have been your coach." The kid snickered "Uh no.. He'd probably run me into a wall. Am I right?" he joked about Jackson's disability and he and a few of his click chuckled at that. Lightning glared and nodded. "Fine." Lightning snapped. He turned to the white board behind him and began drawing out the oval race track and out row. Students and others watched as they were intrigued. Dianna included.
Lightning drew a spots on the track with numbers above them, 11, 22, 33, 44 "Now, let's play a little game here." he said. Definitely had everyone intrigued. He drew a box in the corner and wrote inside it engine. "Alright.. Sense you there wouldn't have a coach in this race. You can go first." Honestly the young cocky student smiled at that. Lightning sighed and instructed. "Come down here and tell me your name." The man stood up and walked down where he stood next to the board and answered "George." "Alright George, you'll be 11. Now, you're running the race and you have no coach, which in this scenario, as is normal, is the crew chief. Means you have no crew chief. I can tell you from experience you're stupid. Now, you go into turn three and feel a shake. Not in the wheel, what do you do?" George snickered like a know it all and answered "Check the dash for warnings."
Lightning answered back saying "Nothing. No warnings inside the car. You have no coach so you don't know what's going on at the computer immediately. What next?" The kid sighed answering with a glare "Well if the shake isn't that bad I keep racing." Lightning nodded poiting to turn three, "The following lap the shaking can now be felt into the wheel. What's that mean?" "Tire damage?.." he more or less asked. A young lady raised her hand from the seats. Lightning motioned for her to wait. "So you think your tires have low pressure?" The kid stared. he didn't want to answer wrong. "So i pit." he said.
Lightning nodded "Alright, you pit. But you don't have the time to let the crew search for the problem unless you wanna be dead last, and your tires are good. What do you do?" "I.. uh.. Keep racing I guess.." Lightning nodded and pointed to turn one again. "You get out the pits and you begin to increase your speed, wheel is shaking still." "Oh! Tires are out of line!" he shouted. "Could be. But if that's all your safe to race long as you know your car. So you keep going right?" The kid nodded. Lightning continued "A few laps in you notice the shaking stops at the higher speeds." "So.. It's not out of line than?" the kid asked. Lightning shrugged answering "Don't ask me? I'm not your crew chief." The kid glared. "The shaking stops, no warning, no problems. Then it starts again at your top speed. Now what?" Lightning asked. The kid stared at the board and Lightning. "Um... Shaking.. Could be the engine.." He answered. Lightning pointed to engine . "Running fine." The kid stared a moment. Taking his time. "You hear a snap, you lose your line, you feel a pull in the rear, the car swerves and you hit the wall." "What!? Why!?" He shouted.
"Tie rod snapped." Lightning answered with a glare. The kid was furious "How was I suppose to know the tie rod was bad!?" Lightning glared and explained "You couldn't. But you could have told your crew chief and he would have saw on the computer that your tire pressure and engine were good. Saving you minutes that you spent thinking of what could be the problem. If you had a crew chief and told him that the car shook at low and top speeds, not medium he would have ideas of either tire alignment or the rod. He would have time to explain that to your crew which would have checked quickly and saw that you looked good. Which meant that the car had a dangerous time bomb as the problem." The kid rolled his eyes. Lightning shook his head and as the kid left he stopped him saying. "I'm not done with you." The kid was pissed off and annoyed.
Lightning pointed to the turn continuing "You hit the wall just as 22 is coming up into the turn, you swerve and hit into her passenger door. This sends 22 down into the field. She's fine. But was this your fault?" The kid stared at Lightning silently a moment. "Not by race law..." the kid answered like a snot. Lightning shook hos head. Kid was pissing him off. "Should of had a crew chief. Thats why you need one. A lot of times, a racer can spot the major problems while in a race, but not the invisible ones or small ones that lead up to a major issue." Lightning then asked the girl who raised her hand to come down. She did with excitement. "Name?" "Tiffany." Lightning sighed and pointed "You'll be 33. You are doing great in the race and"- George began to walk back to his seat, but Lightning snapped "No! You stand here. You will be the official here." The kid sighed and stood next to Tiffany.
"Tiffany, you are in the middle of the pack, car is running perfect. Suddenly," He points to the engine. "Warning light for the engine. Somethings wrong, what do you do?" "Confide in my coach." Lightning smiled at that. Rubbing that in George's face. "Good idea, but for some reason, your communication is gone. You can't communicate with your team." The girl stared answering "I pit." "You gotta make it past the straight away and two more turns before you can pit." Lightning warned. Tiffany nodded. Lightning points to the engine continuing "Engine ceases, now what?" "Turn off the track slowly or into the emergency lane." "You turn but car won't turn. It's locked up." "Um.. Brake." Tiffany said. Lightning nodded explaining "You can brake immediately or slowly up the track." "Well immediately braking could cause me to get rear ended.. Hurting someone.. Slowly?" "Yes, but that causes a multi car accident as you slow into the middle of the track in the middle of the pack. George, is this Tiffany's fault what happens to these guys back here in the accident?"
George and Tiffany stared at each other. George eye rolled answering "Not technically.. But it is her fault for having faulty equipment." he griped. Lightning snickered replying "In Jackson's case, the helmet was switched. The car messed with. Whose fault is it now?" George shook his head. "Sit down." Lightning ordered. The kid walked away then Tiffany followed. Reb, Ted, Markus and even Daniel all felt bad for how they treated Jackson now. Jackson was their fellow racer. Sure, he was more aggressive than what they'd like. But he wasn't the first and not the last aggressive driver out there.
"You all picked on Jackson and bullied him because he was weak and you wanted someome to blame. And you blamed him. When you become a team, you don't let a team mate down. You gotta keep your team in just as good condition as your race car. Other wise something will happen out there. The only thing that will save you from that is experience. And you won't have any of that for years. You all disappoint me. Now I know, none of you have my back out there! That hurts. Hurts more knowing that we as your mentors didn't teach you better. We failed you just as much as we failed Jackson. You want a motivational speach? Jackson Storm is blind and I had him working on a project. A car. Now, it didn't start.." George snickered rudely.
Lightning glared and explained "It didn't start because he couldn't see the wires weren't connected correctly and a dew nuts were loose." The kids just stared. "You want motivation, inspiration, energy, passion for this sport, to see something done that should be impossible? Jackson was that and he did that he should be up here speaking to you, not me. You guys want to be the best of the best one day and yet.. You push away those who could teach you! What do you honestly think I can teach you guys, if you won't become a team? I will not stand here and teach you all that I know just so you guys graduate, go out and destroy each other. If that's the future of racing, I quit. Because I don't wanna see people like you out on the track. There is so much more to racing than winning. I guess THAT'S something I can't teach you.." He frowned.
"I know some of you guys are here because you absolutely love cars, racing and you have a passion. But not all of you. And those of you that aren't willing to work together and stick up for each other, will not succeed. You want something from me that sounds motivational?.. um.. Work together as a team. Become a team. Not.. This.. I'm sorry I failed you all. Especially as any sort of role model.." Lightning stared ar Sally and Cruz a second then said "You want motivation.. Don't listen to the negative people around you. Storm listened.. He let it get to him. He let the words of.. Negative people get into his head which made him shape this.. Image of himself.. A self destructing image. Tune out that negativity and maybe.. Maybe you can become something amazing. Don't give up because the people around you want to see you fail. Dont give up because the negative people say things that only hurt you. Don't listen to it. You can be better than that.."
Lightning then turned and left the class room. Sally stared a moment at the class and other racers before rushing off after her love. Cal stood up as the people inside began talking, judging, a few bickering. He needed to get ahold of a few of them...
Sally caught up and grabbed Lightning's hand. He stopped and stared at her a moment before asking "I screwed that up huh?" Sally shook her head. "You were right about alot of that.. Even I said Jackson deserved worse.." She frowned. Lightning sighed. At least he had Sally's support. "Wonder if Cal is gonna want to talk latwr after that.." Lightning admitted. "LIGHTNING!" The young man shouted. Sally and Lightning turned around to see Daniel Lapp catching up to them. "Dan?" "Hey.. I.. Thanks?.. For that. I needed that realization really.." The kid admitted. Lightning nodded replying "Wasn't all that motivational though.." Dan nodded. "But it made think and.. I wonder.. If I could try racing again?.. For you?" Lightning's eyes widened. Daniel wanted to race for him again!?
Dan continued "After the crash I.. I was scared to race again, but.. I loved it and.. I don't know. I just needed time I guess. I would like to try to.. Ease back into it. If that's possible?" Lightning was so surprised and glanced at Sally with a slow smile. "Yes! Definitely. Come by tomorrow and we can.. See what we need to work on!" Lightning was definitely excited. Danile sncikered with a smile and shook hands with Lightning and thanked him. Sally smiled saying "See?.. All works out in the end for everyone." Lightning nodded but was thinking. Everyone except Jackson...