21

McQueen

I help Cruz and help Adelaide. Poor Adelaide. Two-hundred and fifty laps pass, and I pay attention to the screen. Don't mess with Adelaide, Sara! If anyone messes with my kids, they would have to mess with me first.

Phew! Sara hasn't messed with Adelaide. I take a headset and put it on. I shouldn't have trusted Adelaide with responsibilities, I shouldn't have made Adelaide in charge of Caleb and Zachary, and I should've been there for her.

Adelaide's eighteen, and it's not too late. Good thing I can assist Cruz and help her. Adelaide and I have got to compensate for the past six years. Well, Adelaide and I opened up a bit at the trailer ride back to Charleston hospital, and now we understand each other. Adelaide does not deserve a perfect world. Well, I can't train her every race, but Cruz can.

"Adelaide, how are you feeling?" I say.

"I'm feeling…alright," Adelaide's voice says.

"Are you sure?"

"No, I'm still not alright! Sara's getting on my nerves!"

"What did she do?"

Sara Stephans, what tricks are you putting up? Are you just calling Adelaide such things? Are you trying to talk trash in front of us? Are we peasants to you? We're not peasants, Sara, and you should also stop calling us that. We're not!

We're not peasants! Do we look like peasants?! Leah must've been right about Sara. She hurt Leah without knowing, Sally told me and everyone else about her plan for the New York Five Hundred and this!

"She was peasant tagging me, but it's worse than Charleston!" Adelaide's voice says.

"You could still do this. Don't let her get in your head," I say.

"Thanks, but I really gotta continue my laps. I'm going to have to contact Cruz."

"I love you."

"I love you too. Keep going."

I finish temporary mentoring duty, and I look after Caleb. Sally, Zachary, Leah, and everyone else prevent Caleb from putting his tire on the racetrack. However, Caleb resists and puts his tire on the racetrack.

Oh goodness, Caleb, you're banned from racing this season. Sara banned you, and didn't the doctor forbid you? I block the edge of the pit stop, but Caleb steers around me. I sigh. Caleb stays at the edge of the pit stop.

"I gotta help Adelaide on that track! She can't do this without me!" Caleb announces.

"You're sidelined," Zachary says to Caleb.

"I'm fine!"

"Caleb Hudson McQueen!" I say, "You're sidelined. Accept it."

"But I'm already fine, and Adelaide needs me!"

Caleb, Adelaide will be fine. Sally told me about you needing to skip a racing season. Besides, she also told me about Sara banning you and every other racer from racing! What's the point? What's the point in helping Adelaide on the racetrack?

Sara's rules sound ridiculous. Why would one racer be considered a cheater and the other a real winner? Well, Chick Hicks technically cheated. I let him get first place, but I still got the respect from fans. However with Leah…what can I say about Leah? If Sara actually made Leah do it…Sara cheated and should be taken down.

Why does Sara think she could do this? Racers won't have…oh wait, Chick Hicks has a TV show. The last twenty one years, a statistical analyst, anticipated I would lose to Storm for being slower and unable to put up with modern racing. Turns out she was wrong.

"Sara Stephans only wanted Adelaide! She 'won!' You can help us at the pit stops. Isn't that enough?" I say.

"I guess, but she still needs my help," Caleb says.

"She'll be fine. Cruz can worry about her."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Oh right, Henry Moore. The tied winners are allowed to race. Well, the racing world calls Leah a cheater for Caleb's crash. Did she invite Henry? I'm not surprised. Yeah, Henry's just annoying and just following Sara's orders. No wonder Sara hates Leah.

Henry whispers to one of Sara's pitties, and a tire flies in the air. Whack! Smack! Curse you, pitties! More tires come flying to our pit stop, and everyone else from our pit stop takes a look.

Caleb and Leah take our tire rack, and they throw tires on the other pit stop. Hopefully, Sara's pitties get hit. I shouldn't wish pitties this way. They work hard for the racer they worked for. Well, my old pitties deserve another racer. I already learned my lesson and found some friends. Sara's pitties should be hit. They threw tires at our pit stop.

"Boo! Boo!" Caleb and Leah say toward the other side of the pit stop.

Guido gathers the tires on the ground, and he brings them to the front just in case. I piled some tires for Guido in the middle of the pit stop. The tires shine with dark blue rims. Adelaide's going to like them when she pits.

It turns out Sara will have to get Adelaide's tires. I hope Sara won't get so angry that she would throw a fit. Well, she might. It won't be on me, but be on her. Sara shouldn't even act so obnoxious towards us. Sally told me about Sara's plan. Sara shouldn't ban us. She should be banned from the race.

Caleb and Leah have been throwing tires at Sara's pit stop forever. It just feels endless. Are they done or not? Won't they get tired from causing such a ruckus? Well, they're just being them all the time, and I have nothing against it.

"Well, it's Caleb the wuss and Leah the traitor! You shouldn't be here! All the racers are kicked out! Why are you here?!" Henry says to Caleb and Leah.

"Why are you here?!" Leah says to him.

"I'm Sara's friend, and she allowed me here!"

"Caleb and I are here because it's none of your business!"

"Yeah, stay at Sara's pit stop!" Caleb says.

"Let's see about that!" Henry says.

Caleb and Leah continue throwing tires at Henry, but Henry throws tires back at Caleb and Leah. Caleb and Leah blow raspberries. Mater and I push the empty tire rack away from Caleb and Leah, and Mater tows some tires from the pile onto the shelves of the rack.

Wow, that's such a huge pile of tires. Won't someone clean it up? We got it anyway. Everything's done for now. If I was still Cruz's crew chief, everything would still be neat and tidy, but it wasn't so bad. However, my racing days are over, and I have what I have.

Caleb and Leah continue mocking Henry, and I join in. That's what you get for having a pit crew member throw a tire at me! I throw a tire. That's what you get for messing with my son and new family friend! I throw another tire. That's what you get for messing with my family and family friends as a whole! I throw the last tire. I've had enough. I've had enough of Sara and Henry.

"I can't believe you joined the peasants, you traitor!" Henry says to Leah.

"You're a peasant! I belong with them! You're insisting that you're a peasant!" Leah says to Henry.

"You children don't know any better!"

"Yeah right!" Caleb blows raspberries at Henry.

Caleb and Leah stop as Adelaide and Sara drive toward us, and Leah and Caleb stop throwing tires. Sara passes us. Curse you, Sara Stephan! You'll pay for this. I approach the front of the pit stop as Adelaide gets everything.

Well, good thing Adelaide made it. Who would've known Adelaide would get a tire mix up? That fight sure seemed intense, but it just leaves a mess all over pit row. Well, at least I piled some of the tires in my pit stop, but the tires in Sara's pit stop…better off left a mess. Sara's pitties probably don't care and will just get the job done. They might as well pick them up.

"Thank you, everyone," Adelaide announces.

"You're welcome," everyone else says to her.

"Ooh, cool rims!"

Adelaide gets back on the racetrack and takes the lead, but Zachary parks beside a tire by himself. He looks at the tire on the ground as he looks at the shiny dark blue rim like he looks at the mirror. I approached him.

Why park all alone like this? What happened? Was something wrong? Poor Zachary. He never deserved this. He didn't deserve this at all. We're not fine, but we shoved it under the rug. Did my kids deserve living their own lies? Lies about themselves? Lies about who we are? Well, I never told Adelaide about my past until now.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

"I'm fine," Zachary says.

Zachary tears up. He probably regretted his choice yelling at Adelaide. He shouldn't have acted like that, but he probably went through a lot. However, he and Adelaide should stop their fighting.

Their fights lasted for a long time, and it drives me insane. They didn't deserve hurting each other for that long. Zachary could've just given Adelaide some slack, and Adelaide could've not been too ambitious with racing at all.