This was originally my idea for Fudge, but I decided it was more appropriate for Lightning.
Enjoy! :)
Everyday Adventure
2008
"Let's do somethin' fun today!"
Those words from Mater prompted the tow truck; his best friend, Lightning McQueen, and their eight-year-old sister, Fudge Rossi-Topolino to fall silent, thinking. Now that Lightning had finished his training for the day and Fudge's homework was out of the way (two math worksheets; three chapters of the story she was reading for English, plus comprehension questions and practising her oral presentation on how the human body works), the trio were eager for some fun and excitement... but what?
Normally, it wasn't hard for the three of them to find something to do. Mater had a wild imagination and all three of them had boundless energy and a good sense of humour. Plus, they had an extremely close bond, like siblings, which was especially nice since not one of the three of them had any actual siblings.
"What do you wanna do, Mater?" Lightning questioned.
"I dunno", Mater responded. "What do you wanna do, Fudge?"
"I don't know", Fudge answered. "What do you want to do, Lightning?"
"I don't know", Lightning replied. "What do you wanna do, Mater?"
"I dunno", Mater responded. "What do you wanna do, Fudge?"
This went on for quite a while till finally, when Mater asked Fudge what she wanted to do, they got an answer.
"I want to go on a picnic", she announced.
"A picnic?" her brothers repeated.
"Yeah, a picnic", she confirmed.
"Well, dad-gum!" Mater exclaimed. "That there sounds like fun!"
"I can't remember the last time I went on a picnic. It does sound like fun", Lightning added. "Good idea, Fudge!"
Not to mention, it was a perfect day for a picnic.
Fudge beamed proudly. "We could have it down by the waterfall!" she suggested. "Then we can go swimming too! Oh! And make boats out of sticks and leaves and race them!"
The other two agreed. Even though Mater couldn't swim, the waterfall did seem like a fun place to have a picnic and he liked to fish there.
"And if we bring lots of blankets, we kin build a fort and pretend we're campin'!" the tow truck chimed in.
Fudge lit up. "Yeah!"
"This is gonna be fun!" Lightning declared. "Let's get to work, making our sandwiches."
Lightning had just recently moved in with Sally at the Cozy Cone, so the three of them raided the kitchen for sandwich supplies and other snacks they could take with them on the picnic.
"I want bologna on my sandwich!" Mater requested.
"I want cheese on mine!" That was Fudge. "And ketchup!"
"Cheese and ketchup sandwich?" Lightning made a face as he smeared peanut butter on two pieces of bread. "Gross!
"It's nice!" Fudge insisted, only just as she was reaching for the cheese, she knocked the entire bag of shredded cheese to the floor. "Oops."
"It's okay", Lightning assured her. "Just clean it up."
"Hey!" Sally greeted them. "What's going on in here?"
"We're goin' on a picnic!" Mater announced excitedly.
"That sounds fun!" Sally proclaimed sincerely.
"We're going to the waterfall!" Fudge added. "I wish you could come, Sally! That would be fun!"
"It would", the Porsche agreed ruefully, wishing that she didn't have to work. "But you three have a good time."
"We will!" they chorused,
"Marshmallows!" Fudge exclaimed abruptly.
"Fudge, I really don't think you should be eating-" Lightning began.
"But we're pretending we're camping, right?" she pointed out. "And people always roast marshmallows when they go camping."
Lightning laughed. "I guess that's true." Not that he'd ever been camping, but they always did it in movies and on TV. "All right. Bring the marshmallows!"
"Yay!" Fudge cheered. She was so excited that she forgot she was holding the ketchup bottle. She shook and squeezed it, sending ketchup flying everywhere. There was ketchup on the walls, ketchup on the floor, ketchup on the ceiling. There was ketchup on Sally's hood, ketchup on Lightning's tyres and ketchup in Fudge's hair and on her clothes.
Fudge grinned sheepishly. "Oops."
Once the kitchen and everyone in it had been cleaned up, it was back to work. Lightning, Mater and Fudge had two sandwiches each and they'd also packed celery sticks, apple slices, granola bars and the marshmallows. To drink, there were cans of oil and a couple of juice boxes for Fudge. Then Fudge ran home to grab her bathing suit and a towel and put the former on under her clothes. She put her stuff in a backpack and headed off to meet up with the boys. While she did that, Mater and Lightning collected as many blankets as they could for the fort.
When they met back up, they were ready to go.
"Let's go!" Fudge cried as she and Mater ran off.
"Hey, hey, guys!" Lightning called, chasing after them.
Fudge skipped alongside the cars and she and Mater began to sing a song, which they just made up as they went along.
"Everybody, everyone,
"It's time to have some fun,
"Lightning, Fudge and Mater,
"Let's all celebrate-a,
"We're going on a picnic,
"Eat so much, you'll get sick,
"Swimming, forts and boat races,
"Let's all stuff our faces,
"Is there a better way,
"To spend the day than play?
"No! So, let's all play... TODAY!"
Lightning laughed and couldn't resist joining in as they sang it again.
When they arrived at the waterfall, Mater and Fudge's excitement tripled.
"Last one in the water is a total lug nut!" Fudge hollered, stripping off her clothes and sprinting towards the water. She jumped in with an almighty splash.
"Ka-chow!" Lightning shouted, jumping in after her.
"Look at me!" Fudge cried as she started swimming. Not too long ago, she'd had swimming lessons at the pool in Ashgrove every Wednesday over the summer vacation period. Her family thought it was important for her to learn how to swim and thought it was an opportunity for her to make some new friends (unfortunately, she did not; the other kids weren't mean to her, but they did all know each other from school, so they mainly talked to each other). Now, she was eager to show off what she'd learned.
"Nice job, Fudge!" Lightning congratulated her sincerely as she demonstrated different swimming techniques.
The eight-year-old just beamed modestly. Then she splashed Lightning.
The race car pretended to be shocked. "Fudge Rossi-Topolino!" he gasped.
Fudge just giggled.
"You know what happens now?" Lightning quizzed her.
Fudge shook her head, still giggling. In a split second, Lightning charged forward, trying to push her over.
"No, no, no, NO!" Fudge shrieked with laughter, fighting her brother off.
Eventually, though, Lightning won and the human girl fell over into the water. When she resurfaced, peeling her sopping wet hair from her face, she was laughing hysterically. Her brothers laughed too.
After about twenty minutes of Lightning and Fudge swimming and splashing while Mater fished, the three of them were eager to move on to their next activity. So, they collected all of the sticks, leaves, rocks and any good materials to make a boat that they could find.
"How do you make boats?" Fudge wondered. "It looks like fun, but I don't know how to do it."
"C'mere!" Lightning instructed her. "I'll show you. I used to do it all the time when I was a kid."
Pretty soon, all three of them had pretty decent boats.
"Where's the racecourse gon' be?" Mater wanted to know.
"From this bank to this one", Lightning decided, gesturing from one side of a narrow stretch of water to another one.
"Okay!" the other two agreed.
"All right!" Lightning shouted. "Boats at the ready!"
He, Mater and Fudge lined up their boats in their grip.
"On your marks!" all three of them hollered. "Get set... GO!"
They let their boats go at the same time and the boat race was underway.
Unfortunately, Fudge's boat fell apart almost immediately.
"No!" she moaned as she watched the leaves and sticks wash away in the stream.
"Never mind, Fudge!" Lightning tried to comfort her. "It's just a game."
The eight-year-old pouted, but she didn't look too upset.
Now, it was down to Lightning and Mater. Each boat seemed to bob slowly towards the finish line. They were neck and neck the whole way.
"Come on, come on!" both of them were whispering excitedly and nervously.
The boats were just inches from the finish line when a big gust of wind came from nowhere and swept both boats away into the waterfall.
"No!" both Lightning and Mater moaned.
The three of them stared at each other.
"Rematch?" Lightning suggested.
"Definitely!" Fudge agreed.
In fact, they had seven more boat races. Lightning and Mater won three each while Fudge only won one. They were all laughing hysterically, having a good time.
"We should do this more often!" Lightning declared as he and Fudge returned to the water.
"Yeah!" Fudge agreed as she twirled around, sliding her hands across the water to create some splashes. Then she scrambled out of the water onto a rock where she grabbed a low-hanging tree branch. "Watch this!"
She gripped the branch as tightly as she could and swung towards the water. Only, she was too scared to let go the first time around and didn't drop into the water until the branch had become still.
Lightning couldn't help laughing. "Good one, Fudge, but I wouldn't do that ag- Fudge! FUDGE!"
Too late. Fudge was trying it again. Only this time, the branch couldn't hold her weight. It snapped and the human girl was sent tumbling into the water with an almighty splash.
Once again, when she resurfaced, she was laughing like crazy.
"That's enough, Fudge!" Lightning scolded lightly, but he was laughing too.
Another half hour went by before the trio decided they were ready for lunch. The sky had grown darker by then, but not one of them paid any attention to it; it was just clouds.
"I'm starving!" Fudge declared, making her way out of the water towards the picnic basket.
"Me too!" Lightning agreed, oblivious to the silver flashes going on around them. "You really work up an appetite playing in the water."
"Sandwiches!" Mater hollered, swinging the basket back and forth on his tow hook. "Git yer sandwiches!"
"Thanks, Mater!" Fudge took one of her sandwiches out of the plastic Baggie. "Then we can make our fort!"
"And roast our marshmallows!" Mater chimed in. (They weren't really going to start a fire; they were just going to pretend to roast their marshmallows.)
"Yeah!" Fudge cheered. She was about to take a bite of her sandwich when...
KA-BOOM!
Lightning groaned as rain began pelting down. "You gotta be kidding me!"
Fudge whimpered and put her hands over her ears.
"Let's get outta here!" Lightning called to the other two.
"But what about our picnic?" Fudge protested, disappointed.
"We can't have a picnic in this weather!" Lightning pointed out.
"Yes we kin!" Mater countered. "I know somewhere we kin go."
"Where?" Lightning and Fudge chorused.
"Follow me!"
So, Lightning and Fudge loaded up their picnic supplies into Mater's truck bed and the human girl jumped in after them.
"Lead the way, Mater!" Lightning instructed.
Through the heavy rain and fear as thunder and lightning hit, Mater led his friends through town, out the other way and through the desert. Finally, they came to a cave with lots of glowing lights all around.
"Wow!" Fudge and Lightning exclaimed softly in amazement.
"Welcome to the beautiful Tail Light Caverns!"
"This place is amazing!" Lightning cried.
"Awesome!" Fudge chimed in.
"Mater, how come we've never seen this place before?" Lightning wondered.
"I dunno." Mater shrugged. "I guess nobody comes here much."
As the guys started unloading the picnic supplies, Fudge peeled off her sopping wet bathing suit and dried herself off as best as she could with a towel. Then she got dressed back into her clothes: pink and black striped long-sleeved top; denim skirt; pink tights and white sneakers. Thank goodness they were dry. She was still a bit cold, though, so she kept herself wrapped up in a blanket.
"Anyone hungry?" Mater quizzed the other two.
"Me! Me!" Fudge cried eagerly.
"So am I!" Lightning chimed in. "And this is a great place for a picnic!"
So, the tow truck distributed the sandwiches and for a while, the only sound was three hungry explorers munching on their sandwiches and various other snacks.
"Yummy!" Fudge declared as she broke into the marshmallows.
"Yummy!" Mater echoed as he pretended to roast the marshmallows over a pretend fire.
"Hey, save me some pink ones!" Lightning requested.
"Let's build a fort now!" Mater hollered the second all of the food disappeared.
"All right!" Lightning grabbed all of the blankets and it was a moment's work to fix them up over some rocks to create a fort.
Fudge was the first one to enter. She crawled in and lay down. "Well, I'm gonna take a nap!" she announced, closing her eyes. She let off loud- and very fake- snores before pretending to talk in her sleep. "Fudge Rossi-Topolino wins the Florida 500! And she wins the Piston Cup and the world's biggest apple pie! Yum!"
Lightning and Mater laughed. Then they both pretended to be asleep too and muttered complete nonsense. Pretty soon, they were all laughing hysterically.
"Now, what?" Fudge wondered once they'd calmed down.
"Let's tell scary stories!" Mater suggested. "Dat's what folks do when they go campin'!"
"Johnny locked the door", Fudge told the story just above a whisper, "but as he looked out the window, he could still see the trail of blood coming down the street. The boy with the bloody fingers kept staggering towards Johnny's house, moaning. Johnny hid under his bed, but all of a sudden, he heard a loud bang. Someone was at the door."
Mater screamed. "It's da boy with da bloody fingers!"
"Johnny just ignored it, hoping it would go away, but it didn't. In fact, it got even louder. Bang! Bang! Bang! Johnny didn't want to, but he crept towards the door and opened it as slowly as he could..."
"No!" Mater shrieked.
"Yes", Fudge confirmed. Now, her voice was a hushed whisper. "There was the boy with the bloody fingers. He moaned and Johnny realised that he was about to speak. He opened his mouth and said..." Mater looked like he was about to pass out. "'Can I have a Band-Aid?!'"
Mater and Lightning burst out laughing. Not only was it a good twist, but they were relieved that the story didn't have a horrific, gruesome ending like some of the other stories they'd told.
Lightning peered outside of the caverns. The rain had stopped and the sun was just beginning to peak out from behind the clouds.
"We better start heading back to town", he announced.
"Aww!" the tow truck and human girl whined, disappointed.
"Guys, we've been gone for a few hours!" Lightning pointed out. "And the others must be worried sick about us not coming back after the storm."
"Can we do this again sometime soon?" Fudge requested.
"Sure!" Lightning agreed with a huge grin. "This has been really fun!"
On the way back to town, Lightning found himself thinking about just how fun it had been. He remembered when he was younger, dreaming of becoming a racer, his idea of an adventure was travelling around the country, chasing after that coveted Piston Cup. Now that he lived in Radiator Springs, on days like today, he had a much greater appreciation of the everyday adventure. There wasn't anything major about what they'd done that day, but they'd just had fun exploring the world around them. It was nice.
Once again, Mater and Fudge were singing. This time, it was a slightly different version of the song they'd sung before:
"Everybody, everyone,
"The end of the day has come,
"Lightning, Fudge and Mater,
"We like to celebrate-a,
"We went on a picnic,
"Ate so much, but didn't get sick,
"Swimming, forts and boat races,
"Put smiles on our faces,
"Is there a better way,
"To spend the day than play?
"No! So, we're glad we got to play... TODAY!"
Also, again, Lightning couldn't resist joining in.
"Hey, Stickers!" Sally greeted her boyfriend when he showed up in town with Fudge and Mater.
"Hey, Sal!" he returned the greeting.
"Hi, Sally!" Mater and Fudge shouted.
Sally smiled and returned the greetings warmly. "So, Stickers. I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me."
Lightning grinned. "Sure!" Did she even need to ask? He always wanted to have dinner with Sally.
Unfortunately, this was immediately met by Mater and Fudge exclaiming, "Dinner?! Can we come?!"
"Fudge, Luigi and Guido are waiting for you at home", Sally informed the human girl. "They've got a big pot of spaghetti and want you to come home."
"Okay!" Fudge ran off.
"Spaghetti?" Mater repeated. "My favourite!" He raced after Fudge. "Hey, Fudge" Wait fer me!"
Lightning laughed. "Shall we?"
Sally laughed too. "Sure."
Dinner with Sally, Lightning thought happily. A perfect end to a perfect day!
Unfortunately, the next day wasn't so great. Lightning, Mater and Fudge all came down with nasty colds after spending a lot of time out in the storm and the cold caverns.
"But it was worth it!" Mater commented, sneezing. The three of them were all snuggled together inside the Cozy Cone.
"I'm not sure it was!" Lightning disagreed. He, too, sneezed. "I hope I don't have to miss the race this Saturday!"
"Let's watch a movie!" Fudge suggested. "That's good when you're feeling sick."
The other two agreed, so they relaxed a little bit more as they watched the movie. Lightning found himself enjoying not just the movie, but the company. If he could appreciate the everyday adventure he'd had the day before, he could certainly appreciate a day like this.
Yeah... I really didn't know how to end that. Hope you enjoyed it anyway.
