Chapter 2 "Left Behind"
The next few days were the same as before for the Hot Rodders. They were awoken by Sarge and Fillmore discussing difference between music and noise while listen to the racket being played. They received their fuel rations, and then were hooked up to Bessie for the whole day. While pulling Bessie, Mia and Tia would drop by to see Wingo and DJ after the busy lunch hours had settled down. While the twins were over, DJ and Wingo would abandon their duty of pulling and begin flirting. Boost, who believed that since he was the leader he didn't need to perform any physical labor, would leave the weight of pulling to the other gang members. This left Snot Rod with all the work. Although he was the biggest out of the group and was technically a "Muscle Car" he still wasn't capable of doing it himself. Occasionally Bessie would over boil, which she was so famous for doing, and tar would splatter all over them. For the imports, most of the tar would slide off of them because of their curved form. But for Snot Rod due to his wide box like shape, most of the tar would build up on top of him which added on more weight. This made the work harder and more pain staking.
Over the past couple nights, when everybody was asleep, Snot Rod would gently as he could try to brush off the tar against the impound fence. In doing so it would peel his paint off. He'd whimper at know he was ruining his paint job but also at the fact that he was at a higher risk of rusting.
It had been a week since the sighting of the mystery car and no one had ever seen it since. The Delinquent Road Hazards had finally completed their community service time and all four were rear'n to go. But there was a set back, Wingo and DJ still had their dates with Mia and Tia.
"Dude, you're a mess." "Yes thank you DJ" replied Wingo in an agitated sarcastic tone. Boost came rolling up, "Alright boys it's time to go", he declared in a commanding tone. "What! Come on man we have a date," complained DJ "Yea they promised to take us to the Wheel Well tonight," whined Mia and Tia as they drove up to the gang. "You all are pathetic," muttered Boost. "Please Boost? We even invited our friend Leela so you could have a date too, please can they go," cried Tia. "Great………. I get a blind date," grumbled Boost," fine let's just start heading that way."
"O boy Wheel Well, I heard it's really cool up there!" came an unfamiliar voice. "Huh? Who said that?" Asked Wingo. "Come guys it's me!" said Snot Rod in an extremely stuffy voice. "Whoa…………. I take back what I said earlier Wingo. Snot Rod you're really a mess, you look like you lost a fight to Bessie," chuckled DJ as Snot Rod drove up to them covered in tar with patches of paint missing. "EEEEWWWWWW!" cried Tia and Mia at the same time. "Snot Rod, you're staying here because one, you're a complete mess and I'm embarrassed to be near you; two, if you sneeze you're gonna break something; and three, I don't want you embarrassing us in front of our dates. GOT IT!" stated Boost. "Please guys? I won't sneeze I ……… uh uhh uhhh………….." "Yo DJ, he actually held it in." "ACHOOOOOOOO!'' "Whoops, I guess I spoke to soon."
Snot Rod was propelled back due to the tar clogging his super charger and smashed through a pyramid of oil cans at Flo's dinner. "Ah man, we spent all morning trying to stack those cans up for Flo," whined Tia. "You are such a klutz," growled Mia. "Let's go girls, before he causes any more damage and all of us are given community service," said Wingo as they all headed in the direction of Tailfin Pass. Snot Rod slump in sorrow. Boost shouted back," We'll come back for you later……………. Rodney." Snot Rod cringed at the sound of his true name. Flo had gone to go get groceries and would be returning soon. The last thing he wanted to hear was her yelling at him for destroying her display of cans. With nothing better to do he slowly began stacking them back up to how they were.
Just as the three imports and the twins were about to pass the court house Mia stopped them. "You know you can't go on a date with us and Leela with all that tar on you," she replied. "Oh and what do you propose we do," grumbled Boost. Tia answered," We talked Red into giving you a quick shower before we leave town." Red came out behind the court house with a small smile on his face. "Whoa, wait!" shouted Wingo," How did he even agree to this, he hates us." "Oh he's just upset at ya and wants to get you back fer kill'n his flowers, fer nearly kill'n Lightning on the innerstate, and fer being rude to him, and…….." "How did he find out that was us, and Mater how the heck do you keep popping up in our lives!" yelled DJ. While they were distracted at Mater showing up out of nowhere, Red fired the water hose that them.
"Cold! Cold! Yo, Watch The Tanks Man! Hey You're Going To Crack My Spoiler! What Are Doing Dude, You're Causes Me To Skip My CDs!" They all screamed in union.
Flo and Ramone were just about to turn into the diner when they saw a stranger covered in tar trying to clean up the oil can display. At first they didn't recognize him with all that tar but soon recognized the trade mark supercharger on his hood. "Oooooo if he was vandalizing your dinner baby I'm gonna give him a paint job with a blowtorch," growled Ramone. Right then the Sheriff came cruising by. "Sheriff was he stirring up trouble again?" Asked Flo. Sheriff glanced over at the tar covered car and shook his grill. "Nah, he just sneezed and knocked into the cans while his friends were heading up to the Wheel Well; and, for some reason he just started trying to put them back together after they left. I didn't even tell him to pick up the mess," he replied. The couple stared at him in disbelief. The sheriff shrugged and continued his patrol. "Ok, well I'm going to close up the shop for the night, I'm meet you at the diner in a little bit" said Ramone as he pecked his wife on the cheek. Flo watched her husband as he headed for his shop and noticed that the sun had set about half an hour ago. Slowly she approached the car at the diner. He seemed to be having trouble placing the higher cans in place and would accidentally knock down everything and would have to start all over again. Flo just smiled and sighed. "The extra weight from that tar makes it harder don't it?" Snot Rod suddenly stopped what he was doing, turned to face Flo and nodded with a frown while looking at the ground. "Well why don't we see if we can get all of it off huh? Red! Could I see you for a moment?" she called.
The fire truck merrily drove up from Lizzie's and stopped in front of her. "Red," she started "This poor fella has kindly been trying to fix the damage he caused but this dried up asphalt is making it rather difficult for him. Could you please clean him off?" The truck smiled and fired his hose at Snot Rod. Red managed to get all the tar off of him and even got all of it out of his supercharger but it also took off most of his paint. Red smiled when he finished the job and drove off. Snot Rod opened his eyes and immediately went back to work on the cans. He was done in no time. Flo smiled and told him to wait there as she went inside to get him a fresh can of oil.
Ramone, Doc, and Sheriff had stopped my Flo's as they always did at the end of the day to catch up on the current events. All were surprised to see Snot Rod there quietly and slowly slurping his oil. "He's really not such a bad kid, he's just shy, and just hangs out with the wrong crowd," she replied to all of them. Doc looked passed her at Snot Rod. "What's your name son." Snot Rod gave a small jump and looked at Doc. "It's Sn……" "No I mean your real name, the one your parents gave you" "Oh…………… it's...," he looked down at the ground before murmuring," it's……. Rodney." Doc smiled," So Rodney what are you and your friends going to do once you leave Radiator Springs?" "Well uh I'm going to go home to check on my two little sisters." "Your sisters live with you?" Flo butted in. "No, I live at my mom's house." "What does your mom and dad do for a living," she asked again. "My mom has two jobs and I don't know what they are but when she comes home late at night she's really drunk and angry; and, my father left us when I was ten." Flo frowned, wishing that she hadn't asked.
The conversation was cut off as a roar of an engine ripped through the night and a tuner coming from the south headed straight for the café.