Wahoo! Those reviews keep on friggin coming! I love it! Thank you guys! So, let's start from where we left off, shall we?
On their way back to Radiator Springs from their messed up but wonderful date, Sally and Lightning couldn't keep their minds off of each other. They couldn't stop talking, either.
"You, know, I remember when you first came into town."
"How could anybody forget?"
"Yeah, I'm telling you, you were hitting on me way too much when we first met."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. You were all like 'All you have to do is just stand there and let me look at you.'"
"I was not."
"Oh, and then you were showing off your bolt. You pretty much blinded me."
"Okay, you can stop right there."
They laughed for a bit and started talking all over again. It pretty much a cycle. Talk, laugh. Talk, laugh. That's how it went.
Vroom. "AH!" was all the sudden heard. Both at the same time. You never get that often. Lightning looked at Sally. Sally looked at Lightning.
"Did you hear something?" asked Sally.
"I THINK I did."
They looked over and drove until they saw a light-green 2002 Corvette ZO6 who had crashed into the statue of Stanley. It was ruined. The car was ruined. They couldn't think of something that wasn't ruined, for Pete's sake. All the car was doing was trying to back up and say "Ow, ow ow ow ow," a billion times. The girl had a strong Southern accent.
"That has GOT to hurt," said Sally.
"Should we get Doc?" asked Lightning.
"Oh, yeah."
Lightning and Sally rushed to Doc's office. Chrysler, who was he working on?
"DOC!" Lightning and Sally screamed.
"What do you two want?" asked Doc. "I'm fixing something on Lexie."
"That's Lexie?" asked Sally.
"Heck yeah, it is!" said Lexie. "What are you guys doing here? I'm busy."
"It's the Stanley statue," said Lightning. "Somebody crashed into it. They kind of look like you when you crashed, Doc."
"Nothing can look that bad. Nothing except…" Doc trailed off. What was he saying? They weren't going to find out. "Never mind."
Sally looked at Lightning. "What's he talking about?" she whispered.
"I don't… I don't know," he whispered back. "Well, I might know, but I'm not sure."
Doc, Lightning, and Sally drove out with Lexie going "Hey! What about me? I'm still in here you know! I HAVE to get this stupid stick out of my engine! Hello?" One look made Doc's mind shiver. He looked and didn't want to look at that Corvette ever again. It WAS as bad. "Elle," he whispered to what he thought was himself, but loud enough for Lightning to hear.
"Oh, so now we have a name!" said Lightning. "You DID love her!"
"Lightning, I told you already, she doesn't matter! We… we need to get Mater to tow her into my office."
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By the time that Mater had pulled the girl into the office, the girl was worried she might not make it. Panicking was what she was doing.
"Where am I? What IS this place? What was with the statue? Am I seeing things?"
"Hold it for a bit," said Doc. "What your name?"
"Tessa Carson."
"What happened?"
"Well… Somebody bumped into me, and I guess that ruined my breaks, so they didn't work. And I'm guessing they still don't work," said Tessa, in her very strong accent. "So I ended up losing control, and I crashed."
"Where are you from?"
"Why?"
"I'm trying to get your mind off of the operation."
"OPERATION?"
"Yes, Tessa. Just say where you're from."
"Dallas, Texas."
"Got a family?"
"Nope."
Lightning, Sally, Lexie, and Doc gave her a funny look when she said that.
"Well," said Doc, trying to break the subject. I'm gonna give you new breaks. When you get them, somebody better teach her to drive again." Doc gave a cruel look Lightning. "You can."
"WHAT?" said Lightning. "Come on, Doc, I have a fiancée!"
"You don't have a fiancée. Somebody like you would never settle down."
Sally was a little offended by that. "Doc, that's a little rude to his fiancée, isn't it?" Sally gave Doc a bit of a glare.
Doc got it. He didn't want to cause anymore trouble with that. "Ah, forget it. But you're going to teach that car to drive," Doc said to Lightning. "And if you do it by the time that you get to the Piston race, you might find out who that girl in the picture is."
"You know what, Doc?" said Lightning. "That idea is great. I'll teach her. And then I'll tell everybody about your past."
"Or you could just race me."
"I think that idea is better. Way better."
"I can here you!" screamed Lexie. "You aren't having a race like this without me!"
"And what about me?" asked Sally. "I'm interested. But I'm not a good teacher. Take me out of the bet part of the race, and I'm good."
"Same."
"So, we got Sally and Lexie to join. It's girls against boys," said Lightning. "Let's race."
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The four cars were lined up at the beginning of Willy's Butte. Everybody was watching the race. Mater was cheering for Lightning, Flo and Ramone were rooting for their daughter, Lexie, Red, Sarge, and Fillmore was just there, and who knows who Luigi and Guido were there for? There weren't any Ferrari's there. Tessa watched from the sidelines, wondering who was going to teach her to drive from all this. One thing was for sure. She didn't want that Lexus teaching her. Sheriff was going over the rules.
"There will be only one lap to this race. You will drive around Willy's Butte, and come back. There will be no bumpin', no cheatin', no spittin', no bitin', no road-ragin', no mammon, no oil slicks, no pushin', no shovin', no back-stabbin', no road-hoggin', and no lollygaggin'. (A/N: Check out that long quote!)"
"Question?"
"Yes, Lexie."
"What WILL there be?"
"A new unreleased song by the Veronicars."
"SERIOUSLY?"
"No!"
Lexie pouted. "Party pooper."
"Everybody, start your engines!"
Doc's started up slow, as his always did. Lightning decided to show off to Sally, to make her laugh a bit. A loud VROOM came from his engine. Sally, who did in fact laugh, and Lexie's started out like normal engines would. The race was SO on.
Luigi came up to the racers. "Anybody need a pit stop, today?" he asked in his strong Italian accent.
Dead silence.
"Fine. Are you ready? On your mark! Get ready! One for the money! Two, well actually, four for the show! Three to get ready! And four to… Oh, I can't breathe… GO!"
Everybody made a drive for it. They went as far as they could. At the moment, Lightning was, of course, in front of everybody. But the other cars realized something. Sheriff never said no cutting.
Sally, Doc, and Lexie cut half of the track, making them official winners. Which meant poor Lightning would have to teach Tessa how to drive. How in the world was he supposed to do that? When Lightning got to the finish line, he was furious with Doc. "You're the better driver. You taught ME how to drive. You should teach her."
"Dream on, hot rod," said Doc. "Looks like I won't be telling you about the picture for a while. Now get to work."
Gah ha ha. I'm just gonna keep you guys waiting forever. You'll never find out! Okay, you will. But not for a while. And that Tessa, oh, she'll be important, I'll tell you that much.
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