They nervously walked off of Mater's property and tried to sneak into town. About halfway there, they were surrounded by their friends, demanding to know what they were.
"guys calm down!" Lightning shouted and everyone fell silent, staring at him "Its me, Lightning McQueen, and this is Mater"
"sup"
Everyone stared that them in silence, disbelief on their faces. Finally Sally said
"but stickers, you have a race in three days. You're supposed to be on the interstate by tomorrow afternoon heading to California"
Lightning sighed, pulling a hand through his blonde shaggy hair.
"I know" he rasped tiredly, his mind a ball of utter confusion "I don't know how this happened... but no matter what, I'm getting to that race, and I'm going to win"
There was a raspy chuckle before a shaky voice said
"you're a human, squishy"
Everybody glanced at her for a moment, before turning back to him
"McQueen, you're a human now, man" Fillmore pointed out "that isn't going to happen"
Lightning narrowed his eyes
"oh it will. I promise you that. No matter what, I will win that race. I'm Lightning McQueen, and Im NOT going to back down"
Without another word he turned and stomped away. Mater hurriedly followed him with a worried glance on his face.
"you okay, Lightnin'?" he asked when he had caught up to Lightning's slow jog
Lightning sighed, stopping just in front of Mater's home.
"no Mater" he paused "I'm not..." he sighed again "I'm so confused. Now that I'm... human... I can't race" he looked up at Mater, despair in his blue eyes "Mater... racing is my life. You know that" he looked away and sank to the ground, putting his face in his hands
Mater took a seat beside him and placed a hand on Lightning's shoulder
"Lightnin'?" Lightning looked over at him "I'm going to help you win that race. Okay?"
"how?"
Mater shrugged
"I dunno. We'll train. do some more of that there... uh..."
"jogging?" Lightning supplied
Mater nodded
"yes. joggin'. Thank you. And when you is used to it, we'll work up to running"
Lightning allowed a smile to spread across his lips
"thank you, Mater"
In a surprisingly human gesture Lightning gently put his arms around his friend and pulled him close, resting his chin on Mater's shoulder, unsure what he was doing was even called.
Mater smiled, a huge blush on his cheeks.