Welcome back.

My Works Word Processor has been buggy lately, so there's a good chance what you're reading has been typed more than three times.

I wanted to have this up yesterday, but I found something I'd been hiding in the fridge, so we'll just say I wasn't in the state of mind to be typing…

Anyway, back to what you came to see.

Chapter 2: Secret Loser

"Trapped in a lonely body, I'm losin' control,

Can't show my emotions, and I'm losing my soul,

Could it be that I'm obsessed, with feeding my disease?

Couldn't make it know the hidden things that no one sees.

Yeah, Loser.

I'm a secret loser…"

- Ozzy Osbourne

[][][]

Mordecai stood and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He was surprised by how quick it started to look like a truck again.

The new body kit was installed and primed for paint, as was other areas that they'd redone to get rid of the rust that had begun to pop up. It kinda looked like a reverse cow, with the black paint and the various splotches of gray primer.

The engine, however, looked nothing like the outside. Every thing under the hood was painted red before they put the engine back and it mixed well with the engine's now almost entirely chrome parts.

Skips had rigged up something he called a snorkel. It consisted of a plastic pipe that ran under the fender and connected to what he said was the intake. From out of the fender, it ran along the driver side window and bolted to the a-pillar. Apparently it was for driving through high water. There was a similar pipe in the back that he said was to attach to the muffled.

Skips' was looking over their progress, a pleased expression on his face.

"You finish the brakes?"

Mordecai nodded, "Yeah, just finished them."

Skips' gave one last look over the engine, "We're ready to see if it'll start."

"Really? I thought it was coming along fast, but not that fast."

"That's the beauty of old cars, there's nothing complicated to worry about. Makes'em easier to work on. Sit in the seat and turn the key when I tell you to."

Mordecai sat behind the wheel, checking to make sure the key was in the ignition.

He looked through the window they replaced from the junkyard and wiped a spot of dust away. Without the hood on, he could see the entire engine from the interior.

"Alright, go ahead!"

Mordecai turned the key and the engine began cranking. It took a long time before they received any sign of progress. It began to sputter.

"Give it a little gas."

Mordecai moved his foot over the gas pedal and pushed down about half way.

Suddenly, from the top of the motor a flame spit out, growing steadily bigger. Out of panic, he let go of the gas and stopped cranking.

"No, keep going!"

Mordecai gulped away his fear and turned the key again. As it resumed cranking, the flame disappeared with a sucking sound. Had he not been startled, the sound would have been funny.

Seconds later, the engine rumbled to life.

"Ohhhhhhh!"

Skips laughed, "Well, I didn't think it'd be that easy."

"So what's next?"

Skips reached over and pushed the button for the garage door, "Now we take it for a test drive."

Mordecai gave the truck another look, "Really? It's ready for it?"

"Yeah, just once around the park won't hurt. Actually, if everything goes alright, you could go and take the test next week."

'The movie's this Friday,' he thought.

Mordecai jumped in the passenger seat while Skips took the place behind the wheel. He tapped the gas twice, causing the engine to rev higher. Mordecai felt the nervousness grow inside him. What if there was a problem? What if something went wrong.

"Don't worry, we'll check the brakes first."

Skips reached down and moved the shifter to drive. There was a clunk as the gear engaged and they began rolling out of the garage.

Letting go of the brake pedal, they started to idle forward. He began pumping the pedal and the truck began intermittently jumping.

"Seems fine."

Mordecai laughed nervously then quickly buckled his seat belt.

"Good idea," Skips said as a grin crept across his face.

[[][]]

They sat at the entrance to the campgrounds that had been closed a couple years back. Well, it was closed to everyone except park personnel, and unfortunately, they were…

"Alright, ready to see what she can do?"

Mordecai nodded, not finding his voice.

Skips hit the button for the fog lights and revved the engine, holding down the gas pedal.

From it's full rev, he dropped into drive. The wheel's spun with a flurry of gravel and the front end lifted off the ground as they launched down the trail. They rocketed along, the engine roaring as they reached the first turn.

"Skips, that's a turn ahead."

He kept the pedal down.

"Skips?"

The needle for the speedometer kept climbing.

"Skips!"

Before it was too late, he hit the brakes and cut the wheel, sliding through the corner at an excess of fifty miles an hour. Correcting the wheels, they continued until they came to the clearing where the campers would stay.

"Man was that nerve-wracking!" said Mordecai, believing the drive was over.

Skips chuckled slammed on the throttle while turning the wheel. The truck growled and began to spin in a circle. Eventually, Skips started to turn the wheel back to it's original position, causing their circle to become wider and wider.

"A warning would have been nice," he mumbled while he rubbed his right shoulder.

"You wanna know the best thing about this?"

Mordecai blinked, "There's more?"

Skips pulled the gear for the four wheel drive into low. They idled over to where a large stack trees had been cut down and arranged in a pile.

"No way."

The front tires bumped the lowest log and stopped. Skips increased the pressure on the throttle and it began to climb up the stack.

"We're climbing them?"

Skips nodded, "This truck can do almost anything. We'll need to lower the suspension soon. It's too tall for how fast it is, cornering would be an issue."

Once they reached the top, Skips shifted to park and unbuckled his seatbelt, "Alright, your turn to drive back."

Mordecai leaned out of the window, looking down at the ground from what had to be twenty feet in the air.

"Seriously?!"

[][][]

Mordecai stood in one of the longest lines he'd ever seen. There had to be twenty, maybe thirty people in front of him, yet there was only one worker at the booth, the rest were behind the desk playing cards.

He sighed and used the time to look over his written test. He was worried about his answers for the road signs, but everything else was common sense.

"How about this line?"

Turning, he faced the bored looking owner of the voice, wearing a black t-shirt and baggy camouflage khakis. His hair was black and shaggy, covering most of the upper half of his face.

Mordecai nodded, "Yeah, you'd think they'd open another line or something."

He blinked for a moment and looked him over, "That voice, you wouldn't happen to be Mordecai, would you?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

He laughed, "Man, I seen that show you did. Mordecai and The Rigby's. It was great."

Mordecai sighed on the inside, remembering how embarrassing it was, "Yeah. It was all fake though."

"Yeah, figured that out right away. Still, you've got a great singing voice, and whoever made the guitar tracks were talented."

"That's a long story."

He looked over his shoulder, "Looks like you're up."

The line had disappeared, leaving him to be next.

"Here's my test."

The woman behind the desk took his test and started grading it. After nearly a minute, she stamped it.

"You passed. Barely. Are you ready for the driving portion?"

He nodded, "Yeah."

She gave him a clipboard, "Wait outside by your vehicle for the test giver and fill out the forms.

[][][]

As he filled out the form, he realized how nervous he was. On the way to the DMV, Skips had said it wasn't a good idea to take the test with only two days of practice, but if he was gonna ask Margaret to the movies, he'd need his license today.

"Make and Model."

He couldn't remember what Skips had said it was. If Skips hadn't left while he took his test, he could of helped fill it out.

'It's not a big deal,' he thought.

To be honest, Skips and even Benson had helped him out a lot lately. Way more than he's ever done for them.

'I'll have to find a way to thank them.'

He wrote down, 'Truck' for both questions.

The kid from inside started across the lot and stopped beside Mordecai, "Not bad. Little 'American' for my tastes, but not a bad car."

"Thanks?" Mordecai answered, unsure if it was an insult or not.

He nodded, "Don't worry, it's a compliment, specially coming from me. I'm more into foreign cars."

"Really? What are you driving?"

He pointed across the lot to a large four-door car. The front of it was blue, but the rear-end was yellow and missing a bumper.

"It's that thing."

Mordecai squinted, "Is the seat on the right side?"

"Yeah, hard to get used to, but after awhile it's fun."

"What happened to the bumper?"

At this he sighed, "My dad got rear-ended awhile ago, almost disintegrated everything. The only downside of fiberglass. Talked him out of junking it when I was a kid, and here it sits now."

"Martin! How's it going, Bro-seph?!"

A similarly aged man wearing a DMV uniform walked up and started hitting Martin.

"Wassup, Lyle?! You ready?"

He nodded, "Yeah, hope you're ready to fail."

"Once you're in the car, you get out where I want you too. Whether that's here, or a state over is a different story."

"Whatever," Lyle yelled while taking another swing at him.

Mordecai watched their exchange, doing his best to not laugh. I mean, come on, who says Bro-seph?

"See you around, Mordecai."

Lyle turned to him, "Oh, you got Carl. If you're low on points, ask him if he wants to stop for food."

Mordecai nodded, "Will do."

Lyle jumped in the passenger seat of Martin's car. The engine started and he revved it loudly. It didn't sound anything like the truck. It had a more… tinny, almost metallic rumble to it.

With a screech of tires, it left the lot and sped down the road.

"Mordecai?"

The tester stood behind him, wheezing from his short walk to where he was parked.

Mordecai wondered if he'd even fit in the car.

After checking the lights and mirrors, they left the lot to begin the test. Almost immediately, he started losing points.

"Failure to use turn signal. Abrupt turn. Improper lane change."

He shook his head while he began writing down his mistakes, causing Mordecai to wonder if he really had rushed into the test.

"Do you… wanna stop for some burgers?"

Carl stopped writing and clicked his pen closed.

[][][]

Mordecai parked in the same spot and shut off the engine.

"Well, you passed. This will serve as your temporary license until yours comes in the mail."

He took the paper and looked it over while Carl left. It had all his information, including a black and white picture of himself.

He walked over to where Skips was talking to Martin.

"… I did the engine before I started on the body." Martin said as he slammed the hood.

"How'd you do?"

Mordecai held up the paper, "I don't know, you tell me."

Skips nodded, "Well done. I didn't think you'd get it with only a couple days of driving."

"So, where'd you have to go?"

Looking down, Skips picked up the bags, "I got paint for the truck. We can start this weekend."

"Sounds good."

Martin thumbed through the keys on his ring, "Alright, I'm gonna get out of here. See ya around."

"See ya."

Mordecai waved as sped out of the lot.

"That's gonna be a nice car once he finishes it."

Mordecai started the truck, "It sounds good."

Skips nodded, "They're fast from the factory. That one has to have close to six-hundred horsepower."

"No way. The truck's faster though, right?"

"I don't know, it comes down to the driver. In a side by side race, that car would beat the truck off the line every time, maybe even to the finish. However, it's engine is made to pick up speed quicker, so in a straight drag, the truck could catch up and potentially pass it."

Mordecai revved the engine, "Let's see it do that, though."

[][][]

'Alright, got the tickets, wallet, jacket. Should be everything.'

He looked around the room in case he missed anything. Flipping off the switch, he walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Pop was sitting at the table, reading the newspaper.

Mordecai glanced at the headline, 'Rabid Turkeys Destroy Downtown Greenville.'

Pops noticed him enter and smiled, "Hello, Mordecai."

"Hey, Pops."

He turned back to the paper, "So, where are you off to this fine evening?"

Mordecai grabbed the keys for the truck off the rack hanging on the wall, "Heading to the drive-in. Gonna catch the new zombie movie."

"Oh, how fun! Is Rigby going along?"

Mordecai shook his head, "Nah, him and Thomas are entering a video game competition, so they're practicing tonight."

"I see."

Mordecai walked to the door leading to the garage and stopped, remembering that he'd forgot to thank him, "Oh, Pops, thanks for helping talk your dad into letting me use the old truck."

He waved his hand in the air, "Think nothing of it. It wasn't serving any use to anyone in it's past condition. I still have memories of the days I'd sneak the old jalopy out of the family car-park. I believe it was the third year of the sixties when-"

Mordecai could see this was going to be a long conversation, "See you later, Pops."

He snapped out of his rant, "Oh, alright, see you later. Have fun!"

[][][]

He started the walk to Margaret's door. Every step felt as if it would shatter the world around him. His heartbeat began to speed up and pound in his eardrums. He wondered if he'd be able to go through with it.

Facing the door, he struggled against the nagging voice that was telling him to call it off and go home, the voice that was pointing out the holes in his plan.

He shook away the demons, 'No, it has to work.'

His finger hovered over the doorbell for a moment before pushing it.

The faint voice inside exchanged words with another before footsteps started to the door.

'Here it goes.'

The knob turned and the door opened, however it wasn't Margaret.

"Oh, hey Mordecai."

Mordecai sighed, "Eileen, how's it going?"

"Same as usual… Unfortunately."

"Oh. Is Margaret here?"

Eileen hesitated for a moment, "Yeah, but she's with her new boyfriend, and to tell you the truth it's not a pretty sight."

"Really…"

She nodded, "Afraid so."

Mordecai sighed again, "Oh well, thanks anyway."

"No problem."

Mordecai turned to leave, but stopped before she closed the door.

"Wait."

She pulled it back open and blinked, "Yes?"

Mordecai wrestled with the idea for a moment, "Actually, I have tickets to the zombie flick at the drive in. I was gonna ask Margaret, but… Would you wanna go? Rigby's busy tonight, so it'd end up going to waste."

"Well…" a burst of laughter came from inside the apartment, "Sure, why not. I'll meet you downstairs."

"Alright."

As the door closed, he turned and walked back to the elevator, hands in his pockets, and the unmistakable feeling of defeat emanating from the walls, as if they felt his pain.

'Well another failed plan.'

The elevator dinged as the doors opened and he stepped inside.

'Oh well, the night isn't ruined. I guess I'll lick my wounds and think of something else.'

Alright, got a lot covered in this one. I'll probably get started on the next one right after I upload this, but I don't know when it'll be up.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Last one out, hit the lights.