Chapter Three

That morning...

"Hey Chick," Cobb said giving his driver a nudge. Chick and his team were at a gas station stopping for a top off on their way back home.

"What is it?" Chick asked.

"Check this out, McQueen and Gram are making an "appearance" at some park not far from here," Cobb said.

Chick turned his attention to the TV hanging over there heads as the camera zoomed in on Breeze.

"Wow, she looks really beautiful today," he said softly.

"What was that?" Cobb asked.

"Oh, um...I said wow, how stupid can they be?" Chick lied.

"Heh, got that right, you should go show up and humiliate them, that would be funny," Cobb said with a laugh.

"Yeah...funny..." Chick said. "I should."

"I was just kidding Chick, we're on a tight schedule we have to...Chick...Chick?" Cobb asked as Chick left his crew chief's side. "Chick where are you going!" Cobb asked. "Chick!"

Chick ignored his crew chief and made a sharp left out of the gas station on his way towards the park.

"OOh give us a group shot!" one of the reporters yelled.

"Teammate and teammate come on!" another yelled.

Breeze looked over at Lightning and he nodded.

"Ka-chow!" they said together striking a pose. The camera's flashed wildly and the fans screamed happily.

Chick was making his way through the crowd trying to get past all the pick-up trucks so he could see.

"They make like the cutest couple, it would be totally awesome if they hooked up," Chick heard a girl say.

"Yeah, Lightieze?" the other said. Lighting Breeze

"No, not Breehting...no Ligze... Breing...wow yeah there names are hard to combine."

"Yeah," the girl's friend agreed.

Chick rolled his eyes at their teenage stupidity and he leaned to the side to get a better look and accidentally ran into a small red truck.

"Hey!" it snapped.

"Sorry," Chick apologized.

"Hey wait a minute you're that Chick Hicks guy," the truck said with her southern accent.

"Unh, yeah," Chick said trying to push by her.

"Why are you here? Trying to spy on your competitors?" she laughed.

"Look, could-could you move?" Chick asked.

The truck narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well I'm not that fond of that actually I prefer..." Breeze was interrupted by scream of a familiar voice.

"Will you...stop all I did was ask you to move!" Chick yelled as the truck repeatedly struck him on his hood.

"Chick?" Breeze asked with a laugh.

"Serves you right you city boy!" the truck yelled as she struck him once more and drove off with a scoff.

"Fans," Chick said shaking his fender as he drove off to the side.

"You ok? I mean that lady did kinda kicked your axel," a voice said with a laugh.

"Breeze?" Chick said as he turned to her smiling face. "I'm fine."

"Good," Breeze laughed. "What did you do to her?"

"I just asked her to move," Chick said.

Breeze laughed, "Oh well I guess she took it the wrong way or something...anyways why are you here exactly?"

"Oh...I unh...saw you on TV and I...I was in the area..." Chick stammered.

"Oh right...you sure you didn't come out of your way to see me?" Breeze asked him.

"What would make you say that?" Chick asked.

"Oh maybe I was just flattering myself," Breeze said.

"Breeze!" Lightning yelled trying to find out where she had vanished too.

"Oh Lightning," Breeze sighed. "I better go..."

"Wait...I..." Chick said.

"Hm?" Breeze asked as she looked over at him.

"Um..." Chick looked down at the cement.

"What is it?" Breeze asked she drove up close to his fender.

"I..." Chick stammered.

"You what?" Breeze asked.

"Breeze there you are, Chick?" Lightning asked as pulled up next to Breeze.

"McQueen!" Chick said as he backed up.

"Lightning hey I'll be there in a second ok?" Breeze asked.

"Why is he here?" Lightning asked confused.

"I'll be right back, just go before ours fans get into a frenzy!" Breeze told him.

Lightning sighed and glanced over at Chick with narrowed eyes. "Ok," Lighting said as he turned and drove back over to the press and crowd of fans.

"Well what were you going to say?" Breeze asked Chick.

Chick sighed and tried to clear his head.

"Breeze!" Lightning yelled.

"I really have to go Chick, maybe when you think of it call me my numbers in the racing directory," Breeze said as she drove back over to Lightning.

Chick sighed, "Lightning..." he said narrowing her eyes.

Later that evening...

Breeze was driving around the city checking out the sights and reminiscing when she spotted a familiar green a car. "Chick? Now way he wouldn't still be here!" she asked herself. Breeze pushed her way through the crowds and snuck up behind him. "Hey again!" she whispered.

Chick gasped and spun around to see her. "Breeze!"

"Why are you still here?" she asked him.

"I decided to play hooky," Chick answered.

Breeze laughed, "Ooh I'm telling!" she said.

"You better not," Chick said with a smile.

"Oh and why not?" Breeze asked. "I could call your crew chief right now and tell him where you are."

"No, I'll get in trouble!" Chick said amused.

Breeze pulled out her cell phone and started to dial a number. "Yes can I have the number for Jimmy Cobb...unh-huh it's 678-24..."

"Knock it off!" Chick said as knocked her cell phone on the ground and snuggled up to her.

"Chick..." Breeze said with a laugh.

"I was looking for you, I'm not gonna let McQueen keep me from you," Chick said.

"But you barely know me," Breeze said.

Chick backed up and looked her in the eyes. "Last night when I looked into your eyes I saw everything there is to know about you..."

"That's really sweet but..." Breeze started.

Chick looked down at the cement, "I get it...I always put it on too strong!"

Breeze laughed, "No, I like you, a lot but I don't think it'd work out Chick. Just think about it, we're both racers, we're going to be racing each other on the track every week I can't do that when both of our careers are at stake and when will we ever see each other without going out of the way to?"

Chick sighed, "You don't have to worry about that Breeze," he tried to convince her. "I promise we can make this work."

Breeze smiled, "Your going to try even if I say no aren't you?"

"Yeah pretty much," Chick said with a laugh.

"Ok Chick let's give it a try then," Breeze said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Ok," he said with a exasperated sigh.

"Well there's the Alamo ooh and the wax museum and Ripley's Believe it or..." started a familiar voice.

"Shut up!" snapped Buck as he knocked the map out of Jim's tires. "We're not here to see that crap we're here to find Breeze!"

"Why?" Jim asked giving his friend a puzzled look.

Buck sighed irritated, "Do you think I want her to tell everyone in the racing world that she beat me!"

"I don't see what the big deal is I've beaten you before," Jim said.

"It's not the same!" Buck snapped. "She's a girl, a female!"

Jim shook his fender, "I still don't see what the big deal is I mean..."'

"Just shut up!" Buck snapped.

Jim gave him an angry look then turned his attention to the opposite direction. That's when he spotted the familiar purple and lime green racecar.

"Hey!" Jim said as he nudged Buck with his tire.

"I told you to shut up! And don't touch me!" Buck snapped.

"But Buck..." Jim started.

"Shut up!" Buck snapped.

"Fine! Then I guess you don't need to know that Breeze is over there talking to Chick!" Jim yelled.

"What!" Buck gasped as he turned and looked in that direction. Jim was right there was Breeze and Chick. "What is he doing here and with her?"

"I don't know but god forbid I say anything because you'll just tell me to shut up," Jim said angrily.

Buck sighed, "Forget it!" he said. "I can always talk to Breeze next week at the race, " he said with an evil laugh.

Jim gave him a strange look.

"Alright this is going be awesome race!" Breeze said trying to pump herself up for her first real race of the season.

"Of course it is!" Lightning said. "This is our first race as a team, we're gonna smoke 'em out there!"

Breeze smiled, "You better believe the Rust-eze team is gonna burn up the track!" she said enthusiastically.

"Hey Breeze?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah what is it?" she asked with a smile.

"You...you haven't been hanging around Chick have you?" he asked her.

"Unh..." Breeze stammered shocked. "Why would you say that?" she asked with a nervous laugh.

Lightning scoffed, "Buck was telling me that he saw you two together after that promo we did, but I figured he was lying right?"

Breeze laughed fakely, "Yeah...YEAH! Me hanging out with Chick, come on!"

"Y-yeah...right," Lightning laughed. "

"Hey you two," a voice yelled.

Lightning and Breeze turned to see Doc the blue Hudson hornet approaching them.

"Come on the race is starting I don't need my drivers goofing off before a race," Doc snapped at them.

"Alright," Lightning said.

Breeze nodded.

"Is something wrong?" Doc asked.

"No...NOTHING," Breeze said with a nervous smile.

Doc gave her a strange look.

"She's fine now come on!" Lightning said.

Breeze was shocked that and confused on how Buck found out about her and Chick. Lightning was the last car she wanted to know about her romance with Chick and she didn't want anyone to get angry. But she couldn't concentrate on that now, this was a big deal for her first real race if she could beat Buck and Chick she was in a good spot.

The race had gone smoothly in the beginning there was a wreck behind Breeze a few laps back. One car had bumped the one in front of him and sent two cars off towards the inside wall. Then again it was only lap 127 out of 300. Only falling under caution once was a rare treat and Breeze was anxious for the next wreck to happen and she prayed that she wouldn't be involved in it.

Chick on the other hand could care less about anything but passing Lightning. Once again he was stuck in second and he was getting more aggravated by the second. Then he thought about what Breeze had told him the day they met, "Just keep trying your hardest Chick." "I'm going to try my hardest and I'm going to pass McQueen!" Chick thought angrily.

"There she is..." Buck said with a smirk. He hadn't forgotten how Breeze embarrassed him in front of his friends and more importantly beaten him in a race. "Your racing career's over baby!" he thought as he sped up and made his way closer and closer to Breeze passing car after car. He was serious about silencing Breeze in the back for the first part of the race was part of his plan the entire time.

Another hundred laps flew by and it was down to the last hundred. Buck was underneath Breeze now and he was just waiting for the right moment. The next turn came up and he smirked. Buck sped up and headed towards Breeze making it seem like he had lost control. Jim who had been behind Buck looked away from him with a sad look.

Breeze, who had been planning to pull into pit row looked over at him confused but before she could move out of his way he bumped into her side. Breeze was thrown off and slide to the side smashing into the outside wall in an awkward horizontal position. There were gasps from the crowd as they watched her entire front get crushed. And if that wasn't bad enough a car from behind her who had no where to go after her crash, crashed into her.

"Holy moley! Is that a crash I hope the drivers are ok that looks serious!" the announcer yelled.

"You can say that again! Number 77 has crashed into the outside wall and number 3 has crashed into her! We are definitely under caution!" the other announcer said.

That was the last thing Breeze heard before she completely lost consciousness.

to be continued...

Author's Note: Ok, sorry for the wait, I really really really have been busy! I mean it's total crazy madness right now especially with all the PSAT stuff! Anyways I finally got the chapter up yay! I promise chapter four will not take as long! Oh and I want to thank my reviewers you guys are awesome and thanx for your reviews they make me so happy :) Oh and I have to say one more thing, my friend in advertising class told me this: "Kapricia," she said. "You know how to make small talk?" I was shocked that she'd ask me so I said this, "Can't you just like talk about something you both have in common?" I asked. And she said, "I already tried that but we don't have anything in common." So I said, "Maybe you should try and find someone else." I didn't mean to say it like that but that's how it came out. lol I thought it was funny especially the look on her face! Well ttyl!

Kapricia xoxo