Driven to Win

Chapter 12- On the Road Again

Not much to this one. It's just a short filler chapter.

Chapter 12- On the Road Again

"Fudge! What are you still doing in bed?!"

Fudge awoke with a jolt. Luigi was hovering in her doorway.

"We have to leave in half an hour!" he informed her, sounding slightly annoyed, but probably feeling more than slightly annoyed. "Did you not set an alarm?"

The sixteen-year-old rubbed her eyes, pulled on her glasses and reached for her phone. "I thought I did..." Blinking in the bright lights, she checked. "Dammit!" she groaned. "I set it for PM instead of AM again." She did that all the time.

Luigi chuckled. "Well, it is a good thing I came to wake you up."

"Yeah..." She got out of bed and stumbled around, making her father laugh some more. "What would I do without you, Papà?"

Once Fudge had pulled on a Friends T-shirt, pants that looked like jeans, but were really made of a softer material, rainbow flip-flops and the star necklace she got from Lightning, she smiled and pulled on her racing jacket. It felt good to be wearing that again. She hadn't worn it since the day of Lightning's crash.

"This is it!" she murmured to herself softly as she put the jacket on in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection. "We're off on another great adventure!"

After that, she said goodbye to her cat and made her way outside with her stuff. She had a sky blue wheelie suitcase with changes of clothes (including her cheerleading outfit, of course) and toiletries and things like that; a silver and blue backpack with things to do on the long journey to North Carolina like her journal and games and books; and a shoulder bag containing her laptop and the charger for it.

The sun had barely risen over Radiator Springs, but everyone was up. Mack was there too, prompting Fudge to sing "Return of the Mack". The townsfolk were all crowded around Lightning, admiring his new paint job.

"That's quite a spit shine!" Fudge heard Sarge comment.

Sally smiled at her boyfriend. "Welcome back. You look... different."

He grinned. "Obviously."

"Yeah, he shaved his beard!" Fudge joked.

Everyone laughed. They hadn't been laughing a lot lately and it felt good. Fudge was obviously in a good mood, making all those jokes.

"You look ready", Sally added.

At that moment, Fudge let out a loud yawn, making everyone laugh again.

"Not a morning person, are you, Fudge?" Lightning commented.

"Everyone says that."

"Guido, come!" Luigi called out before Guido came past, carrying armfuls of tyres. "Scusi, scusi! Tyres coming through!"

"Go kick those rookies in the trunk!" Lizzie ordered, surprising everyone that she understood what was going on.

Lightning laughed as he headed towards the trailer. "All right. Bye!"

"Go get 'em, tiger!" Flo shouted.

"Catch you on the flip side!" Mater called.

"Look after Jennyfur!" Fudge instructed Sarge and Fillmore, who would be looking after her cat, in addition to running the tyre shop.

"We will!" Sarge promised.

"And stay out of my room!" she added. She hated people being in her room when she wasn't there.