Hi, guys! I know it's been a while, but don't worry. I haven't forgotten about this story.

This chapter is just a filler, but this one is a first: the first time Flo narrates. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 13- Rain, Ducks and Laser Tag

Flo's POV

Dear Angelica and family,

Having a great time here in the Freewheeler Islands! We've only had one day of bad weather and that was today. We still had a very nice day, but hopefully, the weather improves for the rest of the week.

Give my love to your family. We love and miss you so much and hope to see you soon.

Love,

Mom and Dad

I had to admit, while I was enjoying this vacation, it wasn't going exactly the way I'd hoped. One thing I hadn't counted on was the constant bickering and arguing, whether it was between Sarge and Fillmore, or my husband and Luigi.

Another thing was that when I visualised a vacation in the Freewheeler Islands, not once had it been raining. However, on the first day of our second week here, that was exactly what we woke up to.

Okay. No one really minded that much. We had had plenty of nice days already and we were all on a bit of a high after our snorkelling trip the day before.

Still, we were all gathered in Luigi, Guido and Fudge's suite, trying to figure out how to spend the day. So far, we weren't having much success.

The TV was on, but no one was paying any attention to it. Guido, Lightning and Mater were busy building a house of cards on the coffee table. Ramone had borrowed Fudge's laptop and was sending the snorkelling photos to Red, Sheriff, our daughters and everybody else he could think of. Luigi and Sally were writing postcards. Sarge was driving around, tidying the place up (I think he was especially in need of getting out of the room). Fudge was lying on her bed with the door open. She had just finished a journal entry about our trip the day before. Once she had closed the door to hide her journal, she just lounged on the bed, gazing out the window. She looked miserable. Not only was she sunburned, but rain made all of the bones she broke in the accident, which was quite a lot, hurt.

Fillmore and I just parked there, watching everyone.

"Well, Red and Sheriff loved the pictures I sent", Ramone reported.

"That's great!" I informed him. "But what're we gonna do today? I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't really wanna stay here all day."

"Oh!" Mater exclaimed excitedly. "Have any of y'all been to the arcade yet?"

"We have", Fudge answered, speaking for herself, Luigi and Guido.

"Why don't we go there?"

Sarge shook his hood, making a face. "I can't stand those noisy arcades."

"Just for a little while!" Mater pleaded. "We could all go bowlin' and play some games."

"Then maybe we could all take a walk afterwards", Fudge suggested, propping herself up on her elbows. "Or drive, as the case may be."

"But it's rainin'!" Mater protested.

Fudge shrugged. "So?"

"I think a drive in the rain sounds like a lovely idea!" I voiced my opinion.

Luigi frowned. "Are you sure that that is a good idea, angel? Are you not in pain?"

"Just a little bit", she admitted. "I think I'll be fine. If I'm not, then one of you can carry me."

"Oh! Thanks!" Ramone snapped in a sarcastic tone, but there was a teasing twinkle in his eye.

But I guess Fudge didn't notice. "Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean..."

Ramone laughed. "I'm just teasing, Fudge!" he assured her.

"Oh."

"So, we'll go to the arcade for an hour or so and then we'll take a drive somewhere?" Fillmore wanted to confirm.

I nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Ramone nodded. "Me too."

"Same here", Fudge put in as Guido nodded excitedly.

Everybody else was a little slower to okay the idea. We all knew that Sarge objected to the arcade and that Mater objected to the drive. Luigi didn't like any part of it. Eventually, though, they all agreed and we were out the door.


The arcade was very noisy, as you can imagine. A cacophony of beeping; voices on the games; kids shouting and laughing; loud music and the slamming of buttons all added to the noise. It was even more crowded than it had looked any other day, which made sense because of the weather. It was obvious that Sarge wanted to turn around right away. I kind of felt the same way. I used to go to arcades with Ramone when we first started dating. I still have the stuffed animals he'd won for me. Although, they were nowhere near as rowdy as this one. Still, Mater wanted to be here and I wanted all of us to be together.

Grinning, Fudge made a beeline for the claw game where she had won the rubber ducks. It was called Lucky Ducky.

"C'mon, buddy!" I heard Mater shout to Lightning. "Let's try that there racin' game!"

Lightning laughed. "You really think you can beat me, the Lightning McQueen, at a racing game?"

"Yes", Mater replied seriously.

I couldn't help laughing. We all knew that while Lightning was fantastic at real racing, he was quite terrible at video game racing.

"Hey! Flo!" Ramone called out, trying to make himself heard over the sound of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". "They got a dancing game! You wanna try that with me?"

I smiled. "Sure, honey!" I used to love doing those dancing games with Ramone. And since I was here, I might as well enjoy myself.

When it got to be our turn, I noticed a bunch of kids looking at us and each other as if to say, These old people think they can do this?

Ramone grinned at me. "C'mon, baby! Let's show these kids how it's done!"

The music started up. It was "Low" by Flo Rida. Or, at least, that's what it said on the screen.

"That's perfect!" Ramone declared. "Low and slow!"

So, that's just what we did. I fell into a rhythm and I'm pretty sure Ramone did too. I even forgot about all of the kids who were watching us. I was just having a good time with my husband.

Before I knew what had happened, the game was over.

"New highest score!" the machine announced.

"Yes!" I cheered, hugging Ramone. "You were wonderful!"

"Yeah, baby!" he cheered. "You weren't so bad yourself."

We turned around to find the kids staring at slack-jawed.

"You might wanna close your mouths before somethin' flies into 'em!" Ramone teased them.

The kids shook their heads and hoods and drove off.

"Flo! Flo!" Luigi came charging towards me. "Have you seen Fudge?" he asked me as if Ramone weren't right next to me.

To prove a point, I shook my hood. "No I haven't. Have you, Ramone?"

"Yeah, last time I saw her, she was over by the claw game with the ducks", he informed Luigi.

Instead of thanking him, Luigi just muttered, "The duck game", and sped off.

I was going to follow him, but Ramone stopped me. He was parked right in front of a claw game.

"Let me see if I can win somethin' for you." He started up the machine and manoeuvred the claw expertly, managing to pluck a huge stuffed monkey that was sitting on the top of the pile. "I have been chosen!" he recited from the movie Toy Car Story, which we saw a million times when Fudge was little. "Farewell, my friends!"

I laughed and, at that moment, he dropped the monkey.

"Oh."

"Try again!" I encouraged him. "I'm sure you'll get it this time."

I was right. Pretty soon, I was hugging a stuffed monkey and kissing Ramone.

He smiled proudly. "I still got it!"

"You sure do."

I made my way through the crowd to see if Luigi had found Fudge yet. It was hard to find them because the place was crowded and nobody seemed to be in much of a hurry.

When I did find them, Luigi was telling Fudge, "I am cutting you off."

"Awww!" she whined, disappointed. Her arms were loaded with rubber ducks.

"Oh, man!" Ramone exclaimed. "Fudge, let someone else have a turn!"

"I have!" she insisted indignantly. "I leave for a while and then, I come back."

Luigi shook his hood. "Is there anything else you want to do here?"

Fudge looked around. "Air hockey!" she decided.

Ramone and I joined Luigi and Fudge at the air hockey table and took turns playing games. Fudge wasn't very good, but she had fun, trying to hit the puck back to her opponent. The only bad part was when Fudge missed the puck that Ramone had just sent her way and it smashed right into her hand. She winced in pain.

"Fudgie!" Luigi gasped. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah", she assured him. "Lesson learned! Don't put your hand on the table."

By the end of that game, we were all bored with air hockey and decided to find the others. We were halfway out of the arcade when loud cheering sounded.

"New highest score!" a machine announced.

Guido had just beaten Ramone's and my highest score on the dancing game.

"Yay, Babbo!" Fudge cried.

Guido smiled proudly. "Peet stop!"


I think we were all done with the arcade by then, including Mater.

"Could we go bowling?" Mater asked.

"Yeah!" Fudge agreed.

"Are you going to have a tantrum every time your ball ends up in the gutter?" Sarge deadpanned. She did that once in a bowling tournament against Chick Hicks.

"No!" Fudge cried defensively.

"Yeah, we'll have the bumpers up", Mater added.

"Bowling sounds like fun!" I commented.

Everyone agreed, so we went there.

The bowling game turned out to be a lot of fun. We had two games going on at the same time, so we didn't have to wait as long for our turn. Fudge didn't have any tantrums, even when she could only get a couple of pins. Mater wasn't much better, but he kept a smile on his face.

Ramone and I kept getting strikes.

"Oh, yeah, baby!" Ramone kept cheering whenever he or I got a strike. He would then give me a big kiss.

"Yeah!" everyone kept shouting.

Not only that, but Guido was getting strikes.

"Yay, Babbo!" Fudge kept yelling, clapping her hands.


I ended up coming second. Guido was first. Then me, then Ramone, followed by Sally, Lightning, Luigi, Sarge, Fillmore, Fudge and Mater.

"Are we ready to leave?" Sarge demanded.

"Wait!" Mater shouted. "We ain't done laser tag yet!"

"Laser tag?" I repeated.

"What's that?" Ramone wanted to know.

Lightning explained. "I've done it several times with Bobby and Cal", he added.

"I came with them a bunch of times", Mater put in.

"I've done laser tag too", Fudge chimed in.

Lightning frowned. "You didn't come with us."

"I know. Remember when I was in that youth group? We did laser tag then."

Sarge and Fillmore decided to sit out on laser tag. The rest of us got suited up.

"Hey! I didn't expect to see you here!" a friendly German accent called out. It was Karl.

"We didn't expect to see you either", Sally replied.

"Well, I'm gonna destroy you all!" Wolfgang proclaimed. "I am awesome at laser tag!"

Karl spoke to him in German, which made him scowl. Sally told us later that Karl had told the boy to calm down.

"Where's Fillmore?" Astrid wanted to know.

"He's waiting outside", I explained. "He didn't wanna come in."

"Neither did Sheila and Andy", Astrid informed us.

"They're just taking a walk", Karl added. "These two wanted to play laser tag instead of walking in the rain. So here we are."

Our conversation was cut off there because an employee was explaining the rules of laser tag. Then we headed into a dark arena.


"Ha ha!" I heard Ramone shout. "I got you!"

I got zapped by Ramone a second later and darted off.

"Oh, you're gonna regret that!" I vowed, chasing after him.

Heavy footsteps pounded on the walkway above me and a child yelled out an inappropriate word. That must've been Wolfgang; he had been taking the game a little too seriously.

Before I found Ramone, I got zapped again. This time, it wasn't Ramone, though.

"Peet stop!" Guido hollered, disappearing.

I chased after him and hoped to find Ramone too. Unfortunately, before I could catch them, the game was over. We had to leave the arena.

Not surprisingly, Guido won. Wolfgang was second. I was pretty far at the bottom of the scoreboard, but I wasn't surprised. It was my first time playing laser tag.

"Well, that was fun!" Fudge declared as we filed out. Behind us, I could hear Karl scolding Wolfgang.

I thought so too. I had spent the morning acting like a complete kid and it didn't matter a bit.

"So, is everyone ready to go?" I asked.

"I think I'm ready for lunch", Sally announced.

"Me too", Lightning added.

Luigi checked the time. "Fudge needs her medication soon."

"Treetop Café again?" Fillmore suggested. That had become a favourite spot of ours.

I smiled. "Sure!"

Everyone else agreed.

Ramone eyed the monkey he'd won for me with a smirk. "Maybe you should take your friend back to the room first."

Yeah, so, I know that wasn't much, but I hope you enjoyed anyway. Please review.