McQueen's Kid

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ

Chapter Three
My blue eyes scanned the newspapers with Ethan's. The front headlines just made my stomach drop. Reading them just seemed unrealistic to me. These past few weeks felt like a nightmare.

Storm's third win while McQueen places fourth.

Fourth win for Storm. Lucky number seven for McQueen.

Storm is unbeatable! McQueen takes fifth!

"God, what's happening?" I whispered as the headlines pounded over and over in my head. Dad hasn't had one win since Storm showed up. At moments like this, I questioned if Natalie was right.

"Stella, I know that earlier this year I said he was going to retire soon, but I didn't mean-"

"I know, Ethan," I replied, cutting him off. "I know what you meant." I softly smiled, looking into his brown eyes. He nodded his head looking down. I lightly tapped his tires, getting him to look at me. He smiled, lightly tapping me back.

"Every week, racers either retire, like Cal Weathers tonight, or are fired to make way for the Next Generation." Natalie interrupted, drawing our attention to the tv at Flo's Café. Everyone turned at look at Dad, who just got home from a race about an hour ago.

"Cal retired?" Sarge questioned. That hit everyone hard. Cal had taken the place of his uncle Strip 'The King' Weathers. Cal was a rookie with Dad for a long time. Him retiring was a huge wake up call.

"Yeah." Dad mumbled. Everyone was silent as this processed through our heads. Cal Weathers, the racer for Dinoco was retiring.

"The only veteran left is my buddy Kachow," Chick smiled, looking into the camera. We looked at Dad, waiting to see what his reaction would be. "Actually, instead of calling him 'Kachow', his name should be 'Caboose' because he's always coming in last!" Chick laughed.

Everyone was silent as we listened to them rattle off more statistics. Dad let out a long sigh and began to drive away, his eyebrows furrowed. We watched him drive towards Willy's Butte, obviously lost in thought. "I'll go talk to him." Mom stated as she drove after him.

"Just leave him alone, Sal," Sheriff replied, making Mom stop in her tracks. "He just needs some time to think." He added. Mom sat there, biting her lower lip. She nodded her head and drove towards the motel instead.

"Man, what's happening to this place?" Ramone mumbled. I glanced at the ground, rubbing my tires slowly. Everything felt bad. Everything felt wrong. This wasn't supposed to be happening.

"Stella, you okay?" Flo asked, driving towards me and Ethan. I jumped, coming out of my thoughts. I nodded my head, looking up at her.

"Yeah, I'm okay, Flo." I replied, though I wasn't sure if I was.

"You sure?" She questioned, looking me over.

"You are looking a little blue." Sheriff added as the town gathered around me to get a look.

"Blue? Look how red she is! She must be runnin' a fever!" Lizzy shouted from the corner.

"Have some of my organic fuel, man. It'll help." Fillmore joined in, a soft smile on his face.

"That freak juice? It'll make her more sick!" Sarge quickly argued, getting into another argument with his best friend.