Chapter 20- A Little Adventure

Fudge's POV

Dear Annabella,

The Freewheeler Islands are great! It's just that Papá still won't talk to me. I just don't understand it. Even Babbo doesn't and he knows Papá better than anyone. Our dads are brothers. Do you- or Uncle Mario- have any ideas?

Anyway, today was an awesome day, when I wasn't worrying about that. Well, you'd probably know that by now since you'll have seen the pictures I sent you. It's a shame we only have three more days left here. I just hope I can make up with Papá between now and then.

Ciao!

Fudge.

I just did not understand what was going on with Papá. It's not like I've never been in trouble with him before, but this was something completely new. This was the silent treatment and I didn't like it one bit. To make things worse, I could not think of one single thing that I could have possibly done to make him so mad at me. It made me want to scream. It made me want to tear my hair out. It made me want to burst into tears.

Only, after we'd had breakfast on the beach, I decided that I wasn't going to do any of those things. Aunt Flo had told me to make the most of my last few days of vacation. The only way I felt like I could do that is by reconciling with Papá. Reconciling... for what? I had no idea, but I had to find out.


The second that Papá left. I got up slowly and trailed after him. It's not like I needed to give him a big headstart. He was way faster than I was (a disadvantage to being a human; I mean, like everything else, it has its pros and cons, right?). Anyway, I struggled to keep up with him. I nearly collided into a pickup truck who was coming round the corner.

"Sorry!" I apologised hastily as he shook his hood, annoyed.

Just because I have several very good friends who are master spies, that doesn't mean I am a great spy myself. I'm not. I'm not quiet. I'm not coordinated. I'm not strong. I don't respond well under pressure. Plus, Uncle Sarge says I'm as subtle as a sledgehammer. I think I know what you're thinking: But Fudge, you solved the World Grand Prix case. Yeah, I got one lucky break.

Keeping all of this in mind, I tried to be careful as I followed Papà. He had just gone to the adults only pool. Great. Now, I'd never catch him. Unless... My eyes darted from side to side before diving into the vibrantly coloured green and pink bushes. I craned my neck up at the fence, I could make out colours behind it, but not who anybody was- or where Papà was.

"Fudge?" I heard a familiar voice hiss. It was Babbo.

I hesitated. I knew Babbo wouldn't be mad. "Yeah?"

"(What are you doing?)" he quizzed me, only to answer his own question. "(Are you trying to find out why Papá is so upset?)"

"", I admitted sheepishly.

"(I don't blame you)", he replied sympathetically (isn't Babbo great?), "(but you are really not supposed to be here.)"

"Fudge, just go and find something to do!" Papà spoke up, annoyed. "You should not be here and you are wasting your time."

"What should I do?" I wondered. Normally, Papà would have a never ending list of instructions for me.

"Anything", he replied.

"Anything?!" I echoed uncertainly. The rules could get a little frustrating at times, but I kind of missed them now. Did Papà not care anymore?

"Yes, anything!" Papà answered, starting to lose patience. "Just go have fun!"


"Fudge!" a British accent called. "What are you doing in there?"

I crept out of the bushes to find Avery Proudwheel, daughter of Sir Tobias Proudwheel, parked there. She had become a friend of mine. With her were Dave and Claudia, two other friends I'd made. They were both American like me, but neither one of them lived anywhere near me. (Dave was from a small town in New Hampshire, right near both Maine and Canada while Claudia lived in Orangeburg, South Carolina.) We had become fast friends a couple of days before. The Staceys were giving me a hard time about my scars and my sunburn (again!) and these guys, plus a couple of others, stuck up for me. I appreciated that and was grateful for their invitation to hang out for a while.

"Were you spying on the grownups?" Dave asked, a knowing smile on his face.

"Uh..." I hesitated. I didn't want to admit it, but I couldn't exactly deny it either, could I?

"I didn't think that would be the type of thing you were interested in, Fudge", Avery teased.

"Normally, I don't", I admitted sheepishly. "It's... a long story." Not only that, but I didn't exactly want to get into it.

"We got time", Claudia assured me. "Right, guys?"

I sighed. Reluctantly, I found myself going into the whole awful story. The words just came pouring out and the only time they stopped was when I got a text from Babbo, reading, Don't hesitate to call or text. I took a second to reply with, I won't. I love you, Babbo. Then I got back into it.

"Wow", Claudia breathed sympathetically. "That's rough."

"I've seen your dad", Avery put in. "He seems nice, unlike my dad", she added under her breath. We all knew that she was embarrassed by her father's snobbish ways. Unlike him, she seemed very down-to-earth. "I don't understand why he would do that."

"It's weird", Dave commented. "My dad's kinda strict, but he's basically a good guy. I don't think he'd ever give me or my sisters the silent treatment."

"I wouldn't know how dads are", Claudia spoke up awkwardly. "Mine left not long after I was born."

It was my turn to be sympathetic (Dave and Avery didn't seem to know what to say). "That sucks. My mom left right after I was born."

That left us all in an uncomfortable silence. I think we were all relieved when Avery changed the subject.

"So, Fudge, why don't you come with us today?" she suggested brightly. "We've got some brilliant things planned. I just know you'll have a good time and forget about your problems with your dad."

"I don't know..." I wanted to, but despite how mad he was, it didn't feel right not to get Papà's permission.

"Come on!" Dave urged me. "How can you say no? We'll have a blast, I promise."

Slowly, a smile spread across my face. Most of my life, I've tried so hard to stay out of trouble, to never do anything to piss my family off, especially my dads. I guess it was partly because I'm just a goody-goody and partly because I've always been afraid that if I mess up too badly, my dads will abandon me the way my mother did. (I'm pretty sure they won't, though.) This time, though, of course I didn't want to break the resort rules and get into serious trouble, but I didn't feel like following Papà's rules. If he didn't want to talk to me, then I wanted to break a couple rules.

Besides, I was on vacation. Not only that, but there were only four days left of our vacation. The day looked promising with more brilliant blue skies with no clouds and bright sunshine. I was going to have some fun. No matter what.

"What have you got planned?" I wanted to know.

Dave grinned. "Find out. We dare you!"


Rounding the corner between the adults only pool and our building, we ran into our other friends, Yu-Mi, Samantha, Antonio and Carlotta.

"Hi, guys!" I called, waving. Then I added, "Ciao!" Antonio didn't speak much English; Carlotta and I often had to translate.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Samantha asked in her great British accent.

"Me, Claudia and Avery planned an awesome day for us all!" Dave reported. "To the docks!"

"Away!" Claudia added, laughing.

Carlotta interpreted for Antonio.

We all followed Dave. Claudia and Avery to the docks. Even though I was very curious and excited, I was still having doubts. Should I be doing this? I knew Papá wouldn't be happy and, honestly, after the way he had been treating me, I didn't really care. That didn't mean going with these kids was a smart thing to do. I didn't know them all that well. At least in the pool, there were plenty of people around.

Relax! I told myself. Somehow, I doubt that they're serial killers or anything. You want to make some friends and this is your chance. Besides, it'll be fun.

I was right about it being fun when we reached the dock. Dave made a beeline for the counter to book jet skiing. My heart leapt. I have always wanted to go jet skiing. Not surprisingly, Papá had deemed it too dangerous. I had so made the right decision to come with these guys. So, so, so made the right decision!

"Who's up for it?" Dave quizzed us.

"I am!" I practically exploded with excitement.

"Me too!" added Samantha, Antonio and Carlotta in both English and Italian.

Yu-Mi looked a little uncertain, but finally nodded.

Even though I was eager to get the show on the road, it couldn't quite happen like that. First, we needed to be fitted with life jackets and receive a safety briefing. After that, it wasn't easy to find enough jet skis to accommodate our group. Of course, the vehicles needed much bigger ones (in case you've forgotten, Yu-Mi, Antonio and I are humans; everyone else is a car). Finally, though, I was on the back of a jet ski, with my arms wrapped around the waist of a native Freewheeler Island human man named Alex.

"Are you ready?" he questioned in his thick accent.

I grinned, my heart pounding. I was so nervous, but so excited too. "Ready as I'll ever be!"

"Three... two... one!"


Wow, what a rush it was to go bouncing across the waves. As we sped off, an even wider grin spread across my face. I had missed this feeling, a big rush of adrenaline. Ever since the accident, everyone had been getting on at me to slow down, to take it easy. Now, I didn't have to. I could just enjoy this moment. I felt free!

Oh, sure. It was nowhere near as fast a race car, but that didn't matter. It still felt great!

For a brief moment, thoughts of how Papá would react entered my mind. Only for a brief moment, though. I knew he would freak if he knew what I was doing, but what Papá didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Besides, how could I worry about that? How could I worry about anything? This was awesome!

As Alex and I rode across the water, some bright colours in the sky attracted my attention. Then I heard a noise, "WHEE-HOO!" There was only one person who that could be. Sure enough, when I glanced up, I could see Mater parasailing with Ramone. It was hard to see their faces, but from the way they were whooping, it was no secret that they were having the time of their lives.

To the other side of me, there was another boat, taking people parasailing. I happened to glance over at it, curious to see if any of the others would take on something like that (maybe Lightning would, but I couldn't imagine anybody else doing something as crazy as parasailing). I was wrong, though. I got the shock of my life when I saw Babbo and... Papá! My dads, who practically pass out every time we got on a plane, who got on at me every time I want to do something adventurous, who call jet skis and speedboats death traps, were going parasailing.

"No way!" I couldn't help exclaiming.

"It's fun, yeah?!" Alex quizzed me, not knowing what I was talking about.

"Yeah! Very!" I shouted back.

Maybe Papá wouldn't kill me after all. I should've felt happy at the sight, but instead, it got me down. Papà wasn't talking to me and he goes and does this. I was afraid I just didn't understand him anymore.

Then I remembered where I was and what I was doing and I cheered up.


The jet ski ride seemed to be over far too soon. Next thing I knew, we were back on the dock. It was the quickest half hour of my life. When I met back up with Avery and the gang, we all started exclaiming over how awesome it was. Evidently, I was not the only one who had fun. Even Yu-Mi, who was hesitant at first, admitted, "That was the most fun I ever had!"

"So, what is next?" Carlotta wanted to know. She seemed quiet and sweet, but she had a good sense of humour. She reminded me of my cousin, Luna. "Or is that all you have got planned?"

Claudia grinned. "Far from it!" she assured us. "Have y'all ever been to Friday Island?"

Of course, Dave and Avery had, but Carlotta, Antonio, Yu-Mi, Samantha and I shook our heads and hoods. Even though I hadn't been there, I had heard about Friday Island from Zara. It was, obviously, one of the islands in the Freewheeler Islands, but it was very popular for water sports. Not that you couldn't do those things here on Green Island, but it really was Friday Island's claim to fame. Plus, Friday Island had one thing Green Island did not have: rapids for white water rafting, something else I had always wanted to do. It sounded awesome!

"Let's go then!" Dave hollered.


Something I noticed about the Freewheeler Islands that day was, away from the Rearview Mirage Resort, nobody really questioned or cared all that much about teenagers roaming around with no adults around. I hadn't noticed it until then because I had always been with my family when I left the resort. However, Dave and Avery were sixteen; Samantha, Carlotta, Claudia, Antonio and I were all fifteen and Yu-Mi was fourteen. Yet, we were able to get on the speedboat to Friday Island by ourselves. We were able to do all the activities by ourselves: white water rafting; zip lining, snorkelling and zorbing without our parents' permission. (The latter was especially fun. I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed so much.) I guess it came from the fact that in the Freewheeler Islands, you come of age at thirteen and are give much more independence after that.


So, yeah. We had a blast that day. I don't have an awful lot to tell you about it. Every activity we did gave me that rush of adrenaline that I had missed so much. While we were zorbing, I ran around in the big clear ball, bumping into the others in their balls, laughing hysterically. I almost had trouble breathing at one point. Then I remembered Papá telling me to calm down. I took several deep breaths and slowed down.

There were a couple of times where I remembered my problems with Papa. Those pinpricks of worry and sadness deflated my bubble of joy for a moment. Then my new friends would call out to me and I'd remember where I was and what I was doing. That would perk me back up.

Not only did we have fun, but I was glad that I had found these guys. They seemed fun, nice and pretty cool. In the past couple of years, I felt kind of tentative about making friends. Normally, people just pretended to be my friends to be close to Lightning McQueen. This time, though, it didn't really matter. Since I was on vacation and this people all lived so far away from me, I was sure that I would never see them again. Maybe none of these people would end up becoming close friends, but I was glad to have just-right-there-in-the-moment friends.

Between zorbing and snorkelling, my new friends and I took a break for lunch. There was this little hut that served as a café where you could buy local food. The vidlay was delicious and, when I had a few mouthfuls left, I remembered something. I reached into my bag and popped a couple of pills in my mouth. (Unlike Papá, Babbo trusted me to be responsible for my medication and you know what? While Papá had been giving me the silent treatment, I hadn't forgotten my medication once. I had a feeling that Papá would be proud. Even though I felt like rebelling a little, at the same time, I wanted to prove that I could take care of myself.)

"You doing drugs, Fudge?" Dave teased.

"Yeah", I replied, pretending to be serious. This was one of the reasons I hate taking my medication. What if people think I'm just doing drugs? (That, and it reminds me that I'm not completely better.) "And I'm gonna make you do them too 'cause I'm a bad friend."

"Peer pressure is not cool, Fudge!" Carlotta laughed.

"Seriously, though", I added. "It's for my pain after the accident."

"You are still on medication after the accident?" Yu-Mi asked, surprised. They all knew about my accident. It had been big news at the time.

"Yeah", I answered.

"So, what actually happened?" Samantha wanted to know.

"Yeah, I mean, we've all heard about it, but I wanna hear it from you", Dave requested.

"But if you don't want to, that is fine", Carlotta assured me.

"No, no, it's fine!" And it really was. I told the whole story twice (once in English and once in Italian) and answered dozens of questions.

"Wow, that's unbelievable!" Dave murmured.

"(You are amazing, getting to where you are now)", Antonio marvelled.

"I don't know if I could do it", Avery added.

I shrugged. "It wasn't easy. I didn't think I could do it either. I felt like giving up tons of times. It's only 'cause I had a lot of support from my family."

"Either way, you should be very proud of yourself", Claudia informed me sincerely.

I blushed "Thanks!"

That's when I became aware of voices behind me. I didn't even need to turn around to know who they were. With the high voices that made everything sound like a question and constant giggles, it could only be the Staceys.

"She still need pills?" I heard one of them ask.

"Yeah; she needs to take her brain pills!" another one laughed.

"I hope they're not beauty pills!" a third voice chimed in, choking with laughter. "Those are not working."

All four of them seemed to find that comment hysterical.

I was livid. I'm not exactly sure where the boldness came from. Maybe it was because I was so sick of their garbage. Maybe I felt braver because my friends were right there. Maybe I was emboldened by what we had just been talking about. Maybe their mean girls act seemed trivial compared to my problems with Papá. Whatever the reason, I found myself standing up and confronting them.

"Y'all know I can hear you, right?" I began angrily, but calmly. "I guess you wanted me to hear you, didn't you? But I don't care what y'all think, since you're just a bunch of brainless snobs-"

"Brainless?!" Stacey M repeated incredulously.

"Snobs?!" Stacey W added, also sounding disbelieving.

I guess maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I was mad and they were sorely in need of a harsh dose of reality. Anyway, I was on a roll. "-who don't even know what's really important. And it ain't appearance."

"Of course, you think that!" Stacey W sneered.

I ignored her. "And I should be proud of these scars! I got them through a tough time in my life and I survived, thanks to hard work and love and support. Things y'all will never understand!"

"Get over yourself!" Stacey J scoffed. "You're just jealous!"

"You wish!" I retorted, turning around. They would never believe it, but I was not jealous of them; quite the opposite. I pitied them. Since they were too stuck-up and shallow to get to know people and, instead, judge them by appearance, they would miss out on having truly caring people around them. "Just leave me alone!"

When I returned to my friends, heart pounding and knees shaking, they all stared at me in amazement.

"That was great!" Avery congratulated me.

"I wish I had the nerve to tell them that", Yu-Mi added.

"I doubt they learned anything from it, though", Claudia murmured.

"Probably not", I agreed, just as Stacey B muttered, "Wow, what a loser." "I guess the only way they'll ever learn is if something like my accident happens to them. Not that I want it to", I added hurriedly. It was true. As awful as the Staceys were, my accident was even worse. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

"I suppose you are right." Carlotta nodded.

Even so, it felt good to do that.

"C'mon!" Dave grinned at me. "Let me buy you an ice cream!"


After snorkelling that afternoon, we just sat around, talking on the beach. We didn't really talk about anything in particular, though; just life and stuff. I wish I could've stayed there forever. However, eventually, we had to head back to Green Island. I remembered Babbo and Aunt Flo discussing dinner plans at breakfast time. I didn't know what those plans were, but they made me promise I'd come this time. I had promised, so I had to go back. (Anyway, I was not about to miss dinner with my family for the second night in a row. The previous night, while everyone else went out, I was worried about the situation with Papà. So, I stayed in my room, ordered room service and watched Lilo and Stitch. But I digress.)

As the sunset in a series of gorgeous pink, purples and oranges, we caught the speedboat back.

"D'you think you'll hang out with us tomorrow?" Dave quizzed me.

I frowned. "I'm not sure", I answered honestly. If I reconciled with Papà (which I doubted), then I wanted to spend the last couple of days of my vacation with my family. Besides, Avery and Antonio were both leaving early in the morning. This was the last time the eight of us would ever hang out together.

"Well, when the Piston Cup comes to South Carolina, I'll look out for you", Claudia promised.

"(And maybe I could see you when you visit your family in Italy)", Antonio suggested. He lived in the Tuscan countryside; Carlotta lived just outside of Rome.

Carlotta smiled and nodded. "(Me too.)"

I smiled. "I'd like that."

"And I heard you had friends in London", Avery added. "Now, you have two more. Perhaps we could meet up." She and Samantha hadn't even met until this vacation, but they discovered that they only lived a ten-minute drive from each other in London.

I smiled and nodded again. "Definitely."

I felt cheered up by the possibility of seeing them again (except for Yu-Mi, probably; she lived in Seoul and I wasn't sure if I'd ever get the chance to go there). Even so, I felt a pang of sadness when we disembarked the boat. I hoisted my backpack over my shoulders and took off, calling, "See you guys!" over my shoulder. I ran down the path towards our building.


Before I could get back to the room, though, I ran into Babbo.

"Ciao!" I greeted him.

I thought for sure that he would hurry me off to get ready for dinner, since it was another fancy restaurant, apparently. Instead, he led me to a café to have a drink. That was pretty weird, but I figured maybe he was just trying to be nice to me because Papà wasn't. Then it got weird again when, after talking for a little while (I told Babbo about my day, hoping he wouldn't be mad; he wasn't) and waiting around since Babbo was full, he exclaimed that we had to go.

I was suspicious. He was up to something, but I had no clue what. I just followed him back to the room and made a dash for the shower.

Once I had finished in the shower and was drying my hair, I emerged from the bathroom, asking, "Babbo? Could you please help me with my hair? I-"

I stopped short. Babbo wasn't in the room... But Papà was. He was just lounging by the couch, reading his book. He glanced up when he saw me.

"Guido!" he shouted. "This was a setup!" He started to storm out.

I chased after him. "Wait, Papà!"

Will Fudge and Luigi reconcile? Why is Luigi so mad at her? Find out in the next chapter. Till then, please review! (Due to lack of reviews, I will continue this when I get one, so please let me know if you are enjoying this. It means a lot to me.) :)