Apparently, Sheriff found out, this season of the Bachelor would be a little different than the others. The officer didn't know what normally happened, but he found the whole situation rather silly. The first difference was that there were only eight contestants. Usually there were close to twenty when the show began. According to the producers, less contestants would help audience members to distinguish the difference between the girls instead of being overwhelmed by the numbers.

The second difference was the Fillmore was a lot older than most of the other bachelors who had appeared on the show. For the life of him, Sheriff didn't know what they had seen in the hippie. Something about a 'new direction' with 'less drama'. But according to Sally, most of the drama came from the girls themselves. If one girl got more dates than the others, hubcaps would roll and they would argue something terrible.

Then there was live-streaming, which was probably the only reason Sheriff and half of the other residents of Radiator Springs would be watching the show. Not everything would be live-streamed but the introductions and the rose-ceremonies would be live. Apparently live-streaming meant higher stakes and more cars would be drawn in.

All of the town residents had watched the first episode together with the exception of Sarge, Luigi and Guido. They had mysteriously gone out of town, leaving Casa Della tires under Lightning and Mater's control. Sheriff knew that he would end up running the store with the help of Doc. Those two boys just weren't responsible enough to handle a business.

Lightning and Mater were very excited to see the contestants and started chatting excitedly about which one they thought Fillmore would fall in love with.

"I think Lilith," Lightning said eagerly. "I mean, she's got flowers painted on both sides. Fillmore likes that, right?"

"Shooooot, I think Karin likes him," Mater gave his opinion. "Did you see the fancy way which she greeted him?"

Sheriff honestly couldn't care less. He just hoped Fillmore would find someone he could be happy with. Judging by Doc's hmph, he felt the same.

First impressions were important. That's why Fillmore decided that his first date with the ladies would be a group date. It was important to break the ice and clear the air. The producers of the show were quite surprised when instead of taking advantage of the show's budget and going for a helicopter ride, Fillmore asked instead if they could go to a quiet, peaceful field. The producers certainly didn't complain. If the season finished under budget, that would be a plus for them.

Angela, however, did care. As the first female host on the Bachelor, she wanted everything to run perfectly. A meditation session in a field? That sounded boring.

Bill the camera car didn't really care. Natural lighting? Sure, he could work with that. He went ahead with the crew to set up the cameras.

Monday morning found all of the ladies meeting FIllmore in a field just a short driving distance away from the mansion. It was a little bit overcast, but Fillmore thought it was a perfect day for meditating. Less sunshine meant less distraction.

"Hiya, Fillmore!" Li greeted, driving up next to the van as soon as she saw him. "What are we doing today?"

"Morning, Li," Fillmore addressed her then turned towards all of the others. "Today, I thought we'd start of with something simple, something relaxing."

"Relaxing?" Bianca asked, prodding for more information.

"Yes," Fillmore nodded slowly. "Meditation."

The ladies glanced towards each other, a little confused.

"Meditation?" Karin asked.

"What's that?" Everly asked.

"Meditation is a means of transforming the mind," Fillmore took a deep breath.

Claire tilted to the left as she studied the Volkswagen. She wasn't exactly sure what transforming the mind was, but it sounded kind of interesting.

"How do we do that?" She asked.

"You connect with the land," Fillmore hummed. Seeing the confusion around him, he took charge and gave instructions. "First of all, let's all park in a circle, facing towards each other."

The ladies did so, forming a circle that left them about three feet apart from each other. Lilith made sure she was a little bit closer to FIllmore than the others.

"Now," Fillmore glanced around. "Let's relax our tires into the ground, and just settle down."

"What do we do with our minds?" Everly asked. She'd heard about this meditation thing before and it all sounded rather dodgy.

"We're gonna let it elevate to new planes of existence," Fillmore said. The girls glanced at each other, still confused.

"I do not understand," Karin finally spoke up.

"Don't overthink it," Fillmore explained. "Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and just let it happen."

"What are they doing?" Sarge asked Guido. The little forklift was on the Jeep's roof, glancing out through a pair of binoculars.

"They're meditating," Luigi translated as Guido glanced down.

"They're what?" Sarge pushed himself through the bushes and peered out. Sure enough, Fillmore and the ladies were parked in a circle in the field, breathing deeply with their eyes closed. The Jeep reversed, annoyed. He'd been hoping to gather some intel on the enemy, maybe see if some of them were scared of something. But to no avail.

"Bah, Fillmore is so bad at this," Luigi said in disgust as Guido jumped onto his roof and onto the ground. The forklift agreed. Fillmore had eight lovely ladies vying for his attention and all he could do was to take them to a field? There wasn't a single bottle of champagne around!

"Well, we'll just observe them from here," Sarge decided. He hadn't driven out all this way for nothing.

"You mean we're going to stay here and medidate ourselves?" Luigi asked flippantly.

"No," Sarge growled. "We're going to observe."

Guido meanwhile snuck round the bush and glanced around. Maybe there was something here to entertain himself with. He didn't see any sticks lying around, but he did see one of the camera crew. The Chrysler Sebring was muttering into a walkie talkie, his gear completely forgotten. Guido snuck towards him, using his small size as an advantage as he hid behind tree trunks and bushes.

"You observe," Luigi announced. "I am going to sleep."

The Fiat turned around with a flourish and parked himself under a tree facing away from Sarge. The Jeep, happy for the silence, turned back towards the bush. He started flattening part of it with his tire to make a little peep hole.

He'd been struggling for about 5 minutes when he suddenly saw Guido appear on his right. The forklift looked remarkably proud of himself and triumphantly held up a key card. It would get them into the mansion easily.

"Good work, soldier!"

Sarge couldn't be more proud.

The meditation session ended with varying degrees of success. Cheyenne, Claire and Everly fell asleep. Tia used the time to reminisce, something she hadn't had the time to do in a while. Bianca reminisced as well and halfway through started humming an old Opera piece she remembered. Karin listened to her, happy to recognize the familiar tune. Li and Lilith, however, tried their best to transcend onto another level. Lilith did this by sinking so low on her tires her undercarriage nearly touched the ground. Li was the complete opposite and stretched herself up as high as she could.

After an hour Fillmore shook himself, startling everyone out of their reverie. Claire and Everly woke up at the sound while Tia had to nudge Cheyenne with her tire.

They drove back to the mansion and the camera crew followed. It wasn't exactly what any of the ladies would call romantic.

It did, however, break the ice.

They spent the rest of the day by the pool. It dipped down until the water was about two feet deep and was big enough for all the cars to drive into. Claire was the only one really interested and drove in with a weee and a splash.

Li, not a big fan of water, made a wide turn around it. Fillmore noticed.

"What's wrong, L?" he came up beside her.

"What? Wrong? Nothing's wrong!" Li defended, driving quickly towards the bar and grabbing a glass of champagne. Fillmore glanced after her and the two pieces drifted together in his mind. Li didn't seem to like water. They'd have to confront that.

The hippie turned to watch as Lilith drove slowly around the edge of the pool, enjoying the feeling of the water around her tires.

They ended up having great fun as Tia drove into the water hard and fast several times, making waves for Claire to ride on.

"Is this safe?" Karin asked worriedly as Cheyenne plowed into a wave, almost scraping Everly's paint.

"Watch where you're going!" The green truck mumbled, splashing water onto Cheyenne.

"Oh, it's on," Cheyenne was more than ready to recuperate and spun quickly to the side, shoving the water onto Everly.

"It's all in fun, Karin," Fillmore nodded wisely. Bianca came to his other side and offered him a glass of champagne. Tia suddenly stopped and glanced at Fillmore, an idea suddenly in her mind. She plowed into the pool and with a flourish, spun her back tires so that the van was soaked.

Karin and Bianca backed up quickly as Fillmore blinked.

"Get Fillmore!" Claire shouted and tried to copy Tia's maneuver. She was, however, much smaller than the Jeep and only got a little splash on him.

"That's the spirit, man!" Fillmore grinned, suddenly happy. He drove into the water and rocked to the side, causing waves to pool out around him.

Everly and Cheyenne joined forces and using their cargo beds, scooped water on him.

The day ended with a pool that was practically empty and two dry champagne bottles. Several forklifts drove onto the scene, offering towels to the contestants and turning on heat lamps as a chill settled in the air.

"So, Fillmore," Angela asked as two forklifts threw a towel over the van. "How did your first group date go?"

"Just swell, Ang," Fillmore replied, shivering slightly. "Just swell."