Originally, I was gonna write a chapter in Radiator Springs at this point, but I decided not to because I was struggling to juggle plot lines as it is. I hope you enjoy this, anyway. :)

Chapter 10- Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Sally's POV

Dear Amy,

How was your Christmas, sis? Mine was wonderful! Now, my friends and I are on vacation in the Freewheeler Islands. You won't believe the amazing scenery here and the great friends I've made.

Unfortunately, my old friends aren't all getting along. Though, I think we're starting to work things out. I hope so.

Love, Sally.

"Come on! Can't you stay a little longer?!" Heather begged us, sounding disappointed.

"I'd love to", I answered honestly, "but I think our friends are starting to miss us." That, and if I had one more drink, I didn't think I would remember much of my time in the Freewheeler Islands. Zithat's Island Specials were fantastic, though. They'd kept us going through an entire afternoon partying on the beach.

"But tomorrow's our last day here!" Laura protested.

Stickers blinked in surprise. Or, at least, I think that's what he was doing. It was hard to tell when he'd sucked down about three too many Island Specials. "It is?"

"Hai", Atsushi confirmed. "We spend tomorrow at Ocean World, collecting footage there and then, early the next morning, we leave for Australia. We are spending ten days on the Gold Coast, doing videos for the theme parks there."

"And the rest of us are all going home", Hamish put in.

"We've got a huge send off party planned for tomorrow night", Fred added. "You would not miss that, would you?"

"'Course not!" Lightning assured him, his speech becoming slurred.

"But for now, we need to get back to our friends", I announced. "We'll see you guys tomorrow. Come on, Stickers!"


After bidding our friends (including Zithat) farewell, Stickers and I staggered away from the beach towards our building. It took quite a while to find it with blurred vision, but eventually, we stumbled into the bright lobby...

...where the first thing we saw was Sarge carrying his bags towards the checkout desk.

"Sarge!" I shouted and everyone's eyes shifted towards me. "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like?" he retorted. "I'm going home."

"But why?" I wondered.

Ding! The elevator chime rang in my head and it hurt. The doors slid open and Mater, Fillmore and Andy Dunn all came rushing towards Sarge.

"Sarge, wait!" Fillmore called.

"Pardon me, sirs, young lady!" Gabe got their attention. "We do not allow such speed inside of-"

"Sorry; we is in a hurry!" Mater apologised. Then he noticed us. "McQueen! Sally! You is back! I was getting worried!"

"Sarge, you can't go, man!" Fillmore begged.

"I was having so much fun with you!" Andy added sadly.

"I never should've come in the first place!" Sarge countered. "This vacation has been a complete disaster!"

"Look, I'm sorry about my mess, man!" Fillmore cried. "And I think I've got a solution!"

Sarge looked skeptical and unimpressed, but he muttered, "I'm listening."

"Well, you don't wanna room with me because of the mess, right?"

"Right", Sarge grunted.

"And Mater doesn't like being all alone while McQueen and Sally are out partying, right?"

"That's for sure!" Mater agreed.

"Just get to the point, hippie!" Sarge snapped.

"Well, what if you and Mater switch rooms? Mater can room with me, so he's not alone anymore and you can have the other room in McQueen and Sally's suite. You'll have your own room, so no mess!"

Sarge didn't say anything.

"Come on!" Andy pleaded. "It's worth a try, isn't it?"

Sarge sighed. "You okay with that, Mater?"

"I guess so."

"McQueen? Sally?"

I looked at Stickers. He was too drunk to pay attention to what was happening.

I smiled at Sarge. "We'd love to have you."

"Please?" Fillmore and Andy chorused.

Sarge sighed again. "All right! I'll give it a shot."

"Yay!" we all cried.

Stickers' eyes widened. "A celebration? You know what we need? Some of Zithat's Island Specials!"

"No!" I laughed. "C'mon! Say good night, Stickers!"

"Good night, Stickers!" he repeated, sounding like an obedient child.

I laughed again and dragged him back to our room.


"So, why did Sarge wanna leave early?" Stickers wondered at breakfast the next morning.

To my surprise, Mater gave him a pretty cold look. "Well, you would know if you was here, wouldn't you!"

Stickers blinked, obviously just as surprised as I was. Mater had never spoken to him like that before. "What?"

"You heard me!"

"Look, Mater, I'm sorry-" Stickers began.

"You and Miss Sally is too busy with yer new friends to spend any time with the rest of us!" Mater whined. "If y'all had been here, y'all would know why Sarge wanted to leave! And that Fudge has been embarrassed 'cause some girls made fun of her scratches! And that I done watched a show about the world's scariest vacations before we came here and that's why I ain't enjoyin' myself!"

Silence.

"Is that what's going on?" I asked finally.

"Mater, why didn't you say anything before?" Stickers wanted to know.

"'Cause you ain't been here!" he responded.

"Well, we've all been here", Flo pointed out. "Why didn't you tell any of us?"

"'Cause I wanted to talk to my best friend, but then he done disappeared to spend time with his new friends!" Mater complained.

"Mater, I'm sorry!" Stickers apologised again. "My new friends are leaving tomorrow morning, so we should be able to spend some time together then."

If that was supposed to make Mater feel better, it didn't work. "Sorry you is just gonna hafta settle fer me once yer friends are all gone! I hope you have fun today!" With those final words, he reversed back from the table and stormed off.

Everyone else stared after him, completely stunned. It was very rare that Mater got that angry, but never had he ever gotten sarcastic like that.


Stickers and I were quick to finish up our breakfast and get out of there. The others had been given us evil eyes once Mater had left. I guess they were all thinking the same thing he was.

I felt awful, but I wasn't so sure that the feeling was mutual.

"We don't need them", Stickers assured me.

"We don't?"

"No. We got a whole day at Ocean World with some people who aren't mad at us."

"I guess..." Sure, I was looking forward to spend time with people who weren't arguing. Still, I wanted to spend time with my old friends too. And I especially wanted to make things right with Mater.


But I guess Stickers was right. We did have a whole day at Ocean World to look forward to. Mater's not here right now, I reminded myself. Enjoy yourself now and worry about him later.

"Hey! There they are!" Hamish called out the second we made it through the front gate to the park.

Atsushi and Kazuya were just wrapping up their opening shot of Ocean World. Then they all turned to face us.

"Hey! How you going?!" they all greeted us warmly.

"Not great", I admitted. "But it's nothing a day here shouldn't be able to fix."

"Then let's get started!" Kazuya shouted enthusiastically. "First, why don't we go on the monorail? After that, we could go to the aquarium. Then we can go on rides. And we should have plenty of time to see the dolphin show after lunch?"

"Rides?" I repeated. "There are rides at Ocean World?"

"Two of them", Sakura confirmed. "There is The Storm and Jet Rescue."

"Oh, and there are the Battle Boats as well!" Fred contributed. "I can not wait to check those out!"

"But we'll get to those later", Atsushi promised. "For now, let's start with the monorail."

The monorail was a nice, relaxing ride that went all the way around the park. Most of the view was hidden away by trees, but the view we did get was amazing! There was lots of vibrant blue water in the rock pools and plenty of colourful marine life in them. We went past the dolphin pools, the stingray pools and the rides.

"Those must be the Battle Boats!" Fred exclaimed, pointing to the boats in the middle of a pool. There was a wooden bridge to get to the boat and on the boat and around the railings on the other side of the water were toy cannons. Children were having a blast shooting water at each other. I couldn't wait to experience a day at Ocean World.

Finally, we got off the monorail at the same station where we got on.

Laura grinned. "Now, let's head to the aquarium."

The aquarium was much bigger than the one I had been to with the Blumenthal-Dunns. Much like that one, there was only one glass wall and the rest was surrounded by rocks. Plus, it was huge, so there was plenty of was a nice, natural environment for the fish.

There were fish just about every colour of the rainbow. Most of them were native to the Freewheeler Islands. Blue and green Freewheeler angelfish were swimming back and forth along the wall. A couple of bright purple fish peeked out from the pink coral. There were even a couple of sea turtles in there too, which I loved! It almost looked like the opening scene from Finding Nemo.

"Wow! It kinda looks like Finding Nemo!" someone read my mind.

I knew that voice. Not many people have an American-Italian accent like that. When I turned to my right slightly, sure enough, there was Fudge. She was wearing her flamingo shirt and long black pants. That's when I remembered that she'd been wearing pants pretty much the entire time we'd been here, even though it was much too hot for pants. Mater had mentioned that she'd been teased about her scars, so was that why?

The other thing I noticed was that Fudge was with Luigi, Guido and Fillmore. I hadn't known that they were going to be at Ocean World that day too.

For some reason I couldn't explain right away, I was embarrassed to see them. A second later, it hit me. Seeing them reminded me of our problems with Mater. (I was pretty sure he was mostly upset with Stickers because they were best friends, but I knew he was still upset with me too.) I still had no idea what we were supposed to do about it. I think this deserved more than just an apology, but what?

"Hey, Sal?" Stickers pulled me away from my thoughts. "You okay?"

"Yeah!" I lied. "Let's get out of here, though. I could use some oil."


So, we headed outside to the nearest refreshment stand where we all got oil, except for Hamish and Heather, who had diet Cokes.

"Is everyone else okay with going to the Battle Boats?" Fred requested.

"Sounds like fun!" Stickers declared.

"Yeah", I agreed.

We headed in the direction of the Battle Boats.

I felt like a complete kid again as Stickers and I practically got into an all-out war with the water cannons. I shrieked with laughter every time he got me or I got him. Then when Fred staged a sneak attack on the rest of us, we all teamed up to fight back. It was a lot of fun!

Eventually, we had to drag a reluctant Fred away from the Battle Boats.

"Perhaps we can come back later if we have time", Atsushi told him, "but for now, we should check out the rides. It will not be much of a theme park review if we do not try the rides."

"And I really want to see the dolphins", Sakura added.


Neither of the rides disappointed. Nor did the dolphin show. The first ride, The Storm, was set up like you were in a lifeboat after a shipwreck. The climbs and drops were supposed to resemble waves and at the beginning and end of the ride, the coaster was actually in the water. We all got drenched on the final drop, which felt good on such a warm day.

The second ride was Jet Rescue. You rode around on what looked like a JetSki and went around in a circle, supposedly to save a sea lion. I wasn't prepared for how fast it went, though. Right away, it shot off very fast. Not only that, but a couple of times, the JetSki tilted so far over, I thought we were going to fall off and onto the rocks next to us. I screamed and laughed. I loved it.

As for the dolphin show, it was incredible! The dolphins seemed to love performing (or maybe, they just enjoyed the treats they earned for doing it). The narrator made a speech about the connection between dolphins and people, but I was too enthralled to pay attention. What a great day!


I ended up seeing Luigi, Guido, Fudge and Fillmore three times. The first was when we were heading towards the line to ride The Storm. We had just stopped to take a photo of the sign for the ride (which read YOU WILL GET WET. YOU MIGHT GET SOAKED) when Fudge came sprinting out with a big grin on her face. Her clothes were sopping wet.

"That was awesome!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah? You like that, man?" Fillmore asked. He'd been waiting nearby with Fudge's backpack.

"Yeah! We were right up front and it was insane!"

Luigi and Guido came out just then. They didn't look like they'd had as much of a good time as their daughter had had. I smiled. They would do anything for that girl.

"Maybe we can come back later", Fudge suggested.

"Maybe", Luigi agreed, "but right now, PapĂ  wants to park somewhere and rest."

"There's a movie theatre nearby", Fudge suggested.

Luigi consulted the pamphlet. "There is a show in a few minutes. The Big Wide World of Everyone Discover the Ocean. Good idea, Fudge."

"Sounds groovy", Fillmore agreed. "A show about marine life."

At theme parks, we've all learned to just let Fudge lead.

So, they headed off. I was ninety per cent sure that they didn't see us. Although, if they had, they pretended not to.


The second time was when Sakura and I were just coming out of the bathroom. Directly in front of us, several feet away, they were around a table on a patio, having lunch. For a second, I was tempted to dive behind a pillar, but that would've been ridiculous.

Luigi slid a tray with a hot dog, some fries and a bottle of orange juice on it towards Fudge.

"First lunch, then medication, then ice cream", I heard him remind Fudge.

"Hey, Sal?" Stickers called. "You coming?"

I dragged my eyes away from my other friends and followed Stickers and the others to the movie theatre.


The third time was at the dolphin show. I could see them taking seats right at the other end, as far away from us as possible. I was sure that it wasn't intentional. There was no way they could have seen us.

After the dolphin show, we had to go on the Battle Boats one more time for Fred before we got ice cream.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Heather quizzed us as we crunched on the last of our cones.

"I am", Atsushi, Kazuya, Sakura, Laura, Hamish, Fred and Stickers replied.

I wasn't ready for the day to be over so soon, but since everyone else was ready to leave, I said I was too.

"We'll come back another day", Stickers promised me as we made for the exit.

On the ferry back to the resort, Atsushi and Kazuya showed us the footage they'd gotten that day. Apart from an embarrassingly loud and high-pitched scream from me on Jet Rescue, it was great!

"We'll put it all together into a video when we get back to Tokyo", Kazuya explained. "It may be a couple of months before it's online."

"But be sure to subscribe to Atsushi to Kazuya, so you don't miss it", Atsushi added. "We can show you how if you need it."

"But for now, let's party!" Fred shouted.


And party we did. The nine of us were up all night on the beach with music playing through Hamish's portable speakers and we just kept dancing and dancing. We didn't do much talking, but we did a lot of laughing. I almost didn't want morning to come.

Of course, there was no stopping morning. We all parked there in companionable silence as the sun rose over the ocean, casting the waves in a glint of gold.

Finally, Atsushi broke the silence. "I suppose we should go now. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have not yet finished packing."

"Me neither", Laura, Heather, Kazuya and Hamish chorused.

Fred laughed. "I have not even started yet!"

"I am packed up and ready to go", Sakura announced proudly.

Heather snorted. "Of course you are! You're the most organised person I've ever met!"

Reluctantly, we all headed back to the resort and to our friends' rooms on the thirteenth floor. Pretty soon, most of them were busy packing. We were silent at first, but then, at about the same time, we all started making jokes and saying other silly things. I think we were all trying to pretend that this wasn't goodbye.

But when they all had their things and headed towards the elevator, we couldn't do that anymore. Stickers and I decided to see them to the elevator and let them go to the airport by themselves. They would all be on the same flight to Miami and, from there, catch respective flights home or to Australia.

"You will keep in touch, yes?" Laura questioned. We had all exchanged contact info already.

"Sure", Stickers promised. "And we can't wait to watch the videos you got."

Kazuya grinned. "You will be the first to know", he assured us.

"Maybe we can meet in America next year", Fred suggested. "I have always wanted to visit."

"Good idea, Freddy!" Heather agreed. "You can all stay at my place and we can visit Radiator Springs too."

Ding! The elevator had arrived.

After a quick group hug, we untangled ourselves and called out, "Bye! See ya!" Finally, though, Atsushi, Kazuya, Sakura, Laura. Heather, Hamish and Fred all got in the elevator. It swallowed them and they were gone.

Stickers turned to me. "I'm gonna miss them", he murmured.

"We'll see them again." I was trying to reassure myself more than Stickers.

He nodded in agreement. "But for now..." He pressed the up button. "There's something important I have to do."

All eight of our friends from Radiator Springs were waiting outside the elevator when we got to our floor. They were all quite surprised to see us.

"We were just going to get some breakfast at the buffet", Sarge informed us. "Would the two of you care to join us?"

"In a sec", Stickers answered. "Mater, could we talk to you first?"

Mater didn't look too happy, but nodded.

"We'll meet you down there", I promised.

Sarge nodded too. Then, once Stickers and I got out the elevator, everyone else, except Mater, filed in.

We all headed into our suite and I went into the bathroom, leaving Stickers and Mater to some privacy.

"So..." Stickers began awkwardly. "How're you getting on with Fillmore?"

"It's fine. And now, even he and Sarge is gettin' along better now that they is in separate rooms."

"That's great..." Stickers cleared his throat. "Speaking of, um... Speaking of getting along better... Mater, I'm sorry. I should've been here for you, to have fun and to listen when you've been worried. I may have a lot of friends, but I only have one best friend and I promise I will never shut you out like that again."

Mater was silent for a long time. I wasn't sure why. I couldn't see him.

"Shoot, buddy! I can't never stay mad at you!" Mater responded finally. He burst out laughing. "You is my best friend, after all! And it's my birthday in three days! We gotta spend it together!"

Uh-oh! I'd forgotten about Mater's birthday. I was pretty sure Stickers had too.

"Right. Well, I promise I'll make it up to you, but right now, let's go have breakfast. I'm starving!"

"Me too!"

I took that as my cue to exit the bathroom and follow the boys back to the elevator

"So, how was your day yesterday?" Stickers wanted to know.

"Pretty good. I done went to the beach with most of the others. Except Luigi, Guido, Fudge and Fillmore. They all done went to Ocean World."

Once we were all inside the elevator and going down, Stickers had another question.

"So, why did Sarge wanna leave early?"

So, I know I ended that plot line quickly, but again, I've been struggling to juggle them. So, I just wanted to end one.

Please review! :)