Greetings! You're at the official launch of Tales from Radiator Springs: Holiday Edition! Most of my oneshot ideas lately have been holiday specials, which is fine, but I didn't want my regular Tales from Radiator Springs becoming overtaken by holiday specials. So, I decided to make them their own separate collection.

To kick things off, here is a oneshot I wrote from Fudge's POV about a holiday I made up called Unity Day. What is Unity Day, you ask? Well, let's read and find out, shall we...?

Unity Day... Or Not

"And we'll be right back with more Chick's Picks with Chick Hicks right after these messages. Don't go anywhere!"

"Well, I'm going somewhere", I muttered, getting to my feet. I don't know why Lightning wanted to watch Chick's show. He hated Chick more than I did.

"Lightyear Tyres are having their big Unity Day sale! We are slashing prices on tyres!"

"Why would a tyre shop have a Unity Day sale?" Uncle Sarge wondered. "Humans don't wear tyres."

"Just any excuse to have a sale", Uncle Ramone replied.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "I forgot Unity Day was coming up!"

"Really?!" everyone asked in surprise.

I smiled sheepishly. "I've been busy." That was true. I'd started my dream career as a human rider in the Piston Cup and I had turned seventeen not too long ago.

As you may have guessed, Unity Day is a very important day for me, like it is for all humans. On July twenty-sixth 1969, humans became legally viewed as equals to vehicles in the United States. They were no longer slaves or legally classed as animals or had to deal with any of the other horrible laws that affected my ancestors. So, Unity Day is now observed on July twenty-sixth to celebrate the bond between humans and vehicles. (Other countries besides America observe Unity Day too, but given that the laws in different countries would've come into effect on different dates, each country celebrates Unity Day on a different date.)

So, why is it important to me specially? Well, my entire family is made up of cars, so I believe I have a stronger bond with cars than most humans (I'm not bragging; it's just true). You know how you might say someone is a man's man or a lady's man? Well, I guess you could say that I'm a car's human.

In fact, I'm so used to being around cars that I still have a hard time accepting physical affection from my fellow humans. That's because I didn't have much of a connection with humans until I was ten and started seeing my therapist, Dr. Snow, but she never touched me. The first human I had a close bond with was Sammy, whom I first met when I was eleven. So, I'm still not exactly comfortable with other humans hugging me or putting an arm around me and stuff like that. Lots of people think that's weird and I guess it is, but that's just the way things are for me, the way they've always been. And hey. Don't think I'm anti-human. I'm not. That would mean I'd have a problem with myself. I've just always felt like I fit in more with cars.

"Well, you're gonna be playing an important part of the celebrations this year, Fudge-O", Lightning reminded me.

"The exhibition!" I recalled excitedly. How could I have forgotten?

Every year, as part of the Unity Day celebrations, there is a racing exhibition, featuring Piston Cup racers and human riders. There were two reasons for this.

One, racing is such a huge part of our culture.

Two, one US president- I can't remember which one- once said that race cars and their human partners were the ultimate display of comradeship between humans and vehicles.

Papà beamed. "I know you are going to be wonderful, Fudge! You always are!"

"Thanks! I hope so!"

Now, I was even more excited than ever for Unity Day! However, if I had known the trouble that was awaiting me over the next couple of weeks, perhaps I wouldn't have been so excited...


It all started the following night at the party after the race. Cruz and I had finished in fifth place. Sure, I was a little disappointed not to win, but we'd had some difficulty during the race (nothing major; just a minor wreck and the checkups that followed put us behind a little while), so I was pretty proud of our fifth place finish. When Cruz and I entered, the first people I saw were three of the four other human riders, with whom I had become pretty good friends (the fourth, Aidan Wormwood, is kind of a jerk). They were all talking and laughing as usual.

I looked at them for a moment. There was Joey Sparks. In front of the cameras, he wasn't much of a talker. Mostly, he kept up an image of the strong, silent type, but when the press weren't around, he was different. He was a great guy with a great sense of humour and doesn't think much of anybody who doesn't. He also has a pretty nice voice; he sounds a bit like James Earl Jones, only not quite as deep. Lots of girls think he's good-looking and he knows it, but he's not a jerk about it. He keeps making jokes about how smart, handsome and irresistible he is. If someone like Jackson Storm or Aidan Wormwood said some of these things, it would come across as smug and slimy. When Joey says them, though, it's just funny.

Felicity "Flick" Turner was there too, looking gorgeous as always. I'm always impressed how chic and put-together she manages to look. Admittedly, I'd much rather be comfortable than fashionable, but I wouldn't know how to dress as well as she does, even if I wanted to. One thing I like about Flick is that even though she's really into fashion, especially shoes, those aren't the most important things in her life. She can see past a pretty face and is as kind, funny and down-to-earth as the rest of us.

Blake Fitzgibbons is the last one. I don't know him quite as well as I know Joey and Flick. He doesn't say much. He's not shy; I know that. I think he just spends a lot of time in his own world (which I get; I'm pretty much the same way). I hope he talks more on the track; otherwise, he wouldn't be much good to his racing partner, Rich Mixon.

So, those are my human friends. Now, I could see the cars approaching as well: Danny Swervez, Ryan "Inside" Laney, Bubba Wheelhouse and Chase Racelott.

"Hey, guys!" Cruz and I called out.

"Hey!" they responded warmly.

"Congratulations, Flick!" we all added. Flick and her racing partner, Cam Spinner, had won the race.

"Thanks!"

"Hey, Fudge!" Joey called out. "You want a Coke?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Pretty soon, we were all talking and laughing. What I really like about these guys is that our friendship is casual and non-committal. Ninety-eight per cent of it is just hanging out, talking, laughing, having a good time. Of course, we have each other's backs when we really need it, but we don't spill our deepest, darkest secrets to one another or depend on each other in a crisis. (If I were going through a really tough time, they'd probably show up and I'd appreciate that, but I wouldn't expect them to.) That's fine with me because it works for all of us. And I still have people I can depend on when I need them.


Anyway, we were just conversing for about twenty minutes before Cam Spinner showed up. After greeting him and congratulating him on winning the race, he exclaimed excitedly, "Guess what!"

"What?" the rest of us asked.

"I just got asked to make a speech before the Unity Day race exhibition! I'm so nervous! I've never really made a big speech like this before."

"That's great!" Danny, Bubba, Chase, Ryan and Cruz told him sincerely.

Not that we weren't happy for him, but we humans had some questions.

"How come they asked you?" Flick wondered.

Cam shrugged. "I guess because I won the race."

Flick frowned. "I wasn't asked to make a speech."

"Nor was I", Blake put in.

"Yeah, me neither", I added.

We all looked at Joey, who shook his head. "Maybe my letter got lost in the mail."

He was trying to make a joke to ease the tension, but nobody, not even Joey himself, felt much like laughing.

"Isn't it weird that none of the humans have been asked to make a Unity Day speech?" Flick quizzed us all.

"Maybe they asked... Aidan", Joey suggested, sounding very melodramatic. (None of us like Aidan very much.)

Well, that got a little laugh out of us.

"You wanna hear what I wrote so far?" Cam asked us.

We all agreed, so he was quick to remind us that this was only the first draft. Then he cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honour and privilege to be speaking here today on Unity Day. I am proud to follow in the tyre tracks of Robert Parker." Robert Parker was a famous car politician at the time. His open friendship with human rights activist Martin Freeman was what led to the law that recognised humans as equals to vehicles. "To hold out my tyre to my human friends..."

His speech went on for quite a while. He seemed to be acting a little too noble and as if Robert Parker was the only one who did anything to make change happen.

"You can't say that!" Flick cut him off, aghast.

"Why not?" Cam questioned, genuinely puzzled.

"Uh... Because you keep going on about Robert Parker and you haven't mentioned Martin Freeman once! What about the sacrifices and hard fights humans went through?"

"Come on! Nothing could have happened without Parker!" Cam countered.

"So, what?!" Joey jumped in. "All the humans who went to prison or got assassinated, fighting for what they believe in just... don't count?!"

"Of course they do! It's just..." It was obvious that Cam wasn't sure how to word what he wanted to say. "They needed a car on their side to make any progress."

"So, humans are nothing without cars?!" Blake joined the conversation, sounding utterly disgusted. "Very nice!"

Uh-oh! I got a sinking feeling in my stomach just then. I knew that there was no way this was going to end well.

"That's not what he was saying at all!" Chase defended Cam. "It was just that a car needed to start accepting humans for change to happen."

"Besides, there were only cars in power at the time", Ryan reminded us.

"Gosh, I wonder why", Joey muttered sarcastically.

"And thank God someone finally started accepting humans!" Flick was also being sarcastic. "After hundreds of years of using them as slaves, torturing them and murdering them! D'you have any idea how many activists were murdered, especially by hit and run?"

"Well, it's not like the humans were perfect angels in those protests!" Chase countered. "There were almost as many car bombs as there were hit and runs!"

"That was justice! Those cars killed hundreds of innocent humans!"

"So, an eye for an eye?" Bubba asked incredulously. "How barbaric is that?!"

"We're getting off the subject!" Flick announced suddenly. "The point is I'm not letting Cam say that! It's exactly the kind of discrimination humans have been fighting against for years!" She yanked the piece of paper out of his tyre and tore it to shreds. Then she tossed the pieces into the air like confetti.

Cruz and I exchanged nervous glances. I mean, sure, Cam's speech could have focused a little more on humans, but I thought Flick was overreacting a little.

"Oh, that was real mature!" Cam scoffed in disgust.

"Wow, Flick!" Bubba added. "I'm sure your ancestors would love to know that after all their sacrifices, you act like an entitled brat!"

Flick's dark eyes flashed with anger. "How dare you!"

"So, fighting discrimination makes all humans entitled brats, does it?!" Joey snapped.

"Not all humans are entitled brats", Danny told him coolly.

"But we know four who are", Ryan finished for him, glaring at us. (That was pretty unfair! I hadn't said anything!) "Especially you, Flick Turner! Tearing up someone else's speech is kind of a spiteful thing to do."

Flick just shrugged and tossed her shiny, dark curls over her shoulder. "Well, I refuse to let him say that stuff on our special day."

Nearly all the cars just about choked. "Your special day?!" they repeated in disbelief.

"I thought Unity Day was about the friendship between vehicles and humans, not just humans", Cruz pointed out diplomatically. Neither she nor I had been involved in the fight; I think she was just as shocked by it as I was.

"Maybe it is", Flick acknowledged, "but this is a very special day to us humans, even if it's not a big deal to you cars."

"That's not true", Cruz corrected her. She was still trying to sound diplomatic and control her temper, but it was clear that she was getting a little annoyed. "Unity Day is very important to me. I'm very grateful for my friendship with humans and I like that there's a day to celebrate it. There are plenty of cars who feel that way."

"Yeah", I agreed softly.

Everyone turned to stare at me and I felt very self-conscious, like I'd forgotten to put clothes on over my underwear or something.

Flick gave me a look of pure disgust. "Come on, Fudge! Be a human!"

What the hell did that mean? For reasons I couldn't explain just then, that comment really got under my skin. I put my hands on my hips and informed her vehemently, "I am a human!"

"She's as human as anyone", Cam added. He did not say this as if it were a compliment.

What were they doing?! I had barely said a word! That's when I realised that not only was this fight cars verses humans, but we were even stood facing each other. So, they'd probably just lumped me with them. I also noticed that even though Cruz hadn't been involved in the fight that much, she hadn't defended me at all when they did that! I thought she was my friend!

"No you're not!" Flick disagreed. "You were adopted and homeschooled by cars! They probably brainwashed you to think like they do!"

Just as Chase scoffed, "Yeah! 'Cause that's what we do! Adopt humans to brainwash them!", Blake made a remark that really shocked me: "Yeah, you're a cyborg!"

Nobody else heard, but I gasped. Cyborg was an offensive term for someone who supposedly looked like a human, but acted like a vehicle (whatever that meant!) or vice versa. Get it? Half human, half machine. It wasn't the first time I'd heard it, but was that how my friends thought of me? I couldn't believe it!

Just as I heard Bubba shout at Flick, "What about you?! Your dad, brother and sister are cars! How come you're not brainwashed, if that's what we do?!" (Like me, Flick is adopted; her mother and brother are humans, but her father and two other siblings are cars), I decided it would be smart to leave.

So, I did. Right before I walked out the door, I saw my friends separate. The humans went one way while the cars went another.


Well, I couldn't leave right away since I'm not allowed to take a taxi by myself at night. So, I messaged Papà, asking him to pick me up. Blake's words echoed in my mind. You're a cyborg. You're a cyborg. You're a cyborg. How dare he!

How did this happen? Even though I didn't know them all that well, I know not one of my friends is a racist. Though, I guess racism wasn't exactly the issue. The issue was different opinions on an event in history. That was nobody's fault; we're all different, but it had caused some pretty unpleasant things to come out.

I felt hurt, sick and confused for reasons I couldn't explain. I knew it went deeper than the fight, but I wasn't sure how so.

Papà knew something was up the second he saw me. "Is something wrong?"

I sighed and told him the whole miserable story.

"So, now, all the cars are mad at me 'cause I'm a human", I concluded (that may have been a slight exaggeration; after all, it's not like they had a personal vendetta against every human alive, but it was, more or less, the truth), "and all the humans are mad at me 'cause they see me as, like, a traitor or something. Blake even called me a cyborg!"

"Oh, Fudgie!" he exclaimed sympathetically. "I am so sorry!"

I sighed again. "It's okay. Well, it's not, but you know what I mean."

He nodded. "I do. You let me know if you wish to talk or if there is anything I can do to help."

"I will. Thanks."

As we drove back to the hotel, I glanced back at the party. I could see that cars were still on one side of the room and vehicles were on the other.

That's when it hit me why I was so bothered by the fight, It was because Blake was right. I was a cyborg, a human raised by cars.

This was cars verses humans.

And I didn't feel like I quite fit in to either world.


"Fudge!" a voice called early the next morning.

I just moaned and tried to go back to sleep.

"Fudge!" the voice cried and I recognised it as Cruz. "Flick is in the hospital!"

"What?!" I exclaimed, horrified, leaping out of bed. I didn't have time to get dressed, so I just threw a hoodie on over my pyjamas.

"Let's go!" Cruz led me out of the room.

"Papà?!" I called.

"I heard. You go!" he replied.

"What happened?" I wanted to know once we were in the elevator.

As it turned out, the fight started up again after I left the party. Only this time, more people were involved and it got physical. Cruz had left by then as well, but she'd heard security had to shut the party down because nobody would stop fighting. After that, on her way home, Flick was the victim of a hit and run!

"Oh, my God!" I breathed. I knew things were serious, but this was far worse than I thought. "Is she okay?"

"I think so", Cruz assured me. "I heard she had a broken leg and some cuts and bruises. The doctors said she won't be able to race for a few weeks, but she'll make a full recovery."

I nodded. "That's..." I trailed off, letting the words die in my throat. I'd been about to say, That's good, but that wasn't true. Of course I was relieved that Flick was going to be all right, but it wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. I changed my next words. "Do they know who did it?"

Cruz shook her hood. "The police are investigating, but they don't know anything yet. Witnesses couldn't see their face, but they know it wasn't a race car. Though, they do think it was someone who was at the party."

"Makes sense", I muttered, unable to think of anything else to say.


On the streets, there were hundreds of humans marching along, waving homemade cardboard signs. I couldn't read them because nobody held them still for more than two seconds. I heard shouting too, but I couldn't decipher that either.

"What's going on?" I wondered.

"Humans are protesting what happened to Flick", Cruz explained. "They want justice."

"I know how they feel", I remarked. Much as she had acted like a jerk the night before, Flick was still my friend and she didn't deserve this.

Cruz nodded in agreement.

"Humans have been treated as inferiors for far too long!" a red-haired woman yelled into a megaphone. "If we don't get justice for Flick Turner, cars will always assault and murder us!"

The crowd of humans cheered loudly.


The protesters blocked traffic, so getting to the hospital took a while. Finally, we made it and found Room 702 where Flick was.

"How is she?" we quizzed her father, retired race car, Axle Turner. He was an avocado green 1970 Plymouth Superbird with the number 47 on his sides in black; stormy grey eyes and Lightyear tyres.

"Should be just fine. Would you like to go in and see her?"

I peered into the room and I could see her. She had one leg in a cast and a black eye. It was also obvious that she'd had stitches in her forehead. She looked miserable, but I couldn't blame her. She'd been through a pretty rough time.

Cam, Bubba, Chase and Ryan were all in there and, unfortunately, I could hear every hateful word out of her mouth.

"Don't pretend to be my friends now! You've made it more than clear what you think of me last night! Get out of here!" Catching sight of me, she added, "And take that cyborg with you!"

Cyborg?! No! Not again! How dare she! I spun on my heel and made a beeline for the elevator. If Flick didn't want to see me, then I didn't want to see her either. I still felt sorry for her, even if she wasn't making that easy.


Things went from bad to worse on the way back to the hotel. Cars had gotten involved in the protest as well. Some were mad, saying that Flick was hardly an innocent victim (how had the whole story gotten out so quickly?). Others were just frustrated because of the traffic. Once again, things got physical. Cars and humans were going at it very aggressively. I was terrified.

"Let's get out of here!" I suggested to Cruz. Since the police were just arriving, I didn't feel like we needed to do anything.

Cruz, who looked just as terrified as I was, was quick to oblige.


I thought one violent protest was shocking enough, but that turned out to merely be the tip of the iceberg. Over the next few days, protesters took to the streets all over the country and even the globe! Protests in New York, London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Rome, Stockholm, Berlin... The list goes on! It felt like across pretty much the entire world, vehicles and humans had turned against each other. Vehicles were harassing humans on the street and vice versa. (Okay. Maybe not every human hated vehicles or vice versa; some cars agreed with the humans, but it sure felt like it was the two species against each other!) It was pretty scary.

Me? I felt like I was taking one for both teams! When I went into Ashgrove with Papà, I felt him yank me backwards with a loud gasp. I was about to ask what was wrong, but then I noticed something whizz past my head and hit the wall behind me. It wasn't until I heard a loud smash that I realised that it was a glass bottle! It had missed me by inches!

I looked around for the culprit. I'm afraid I didn't get a good look, but I saw three cars- one pink, one blue and one green- dart off, laughing hysterically. I hadn't seen their license plates, makes or models.

Later on, while I was in the general store, I saw some human teenagers scrawling across magazine covers with Sharpies. The second they saw me, they raced off, but what they had done failed to escape my attention. My face on the RSN magazine was covered with the word Cyborg. For the second time in as many hours, I felt scared and hurt.

Even my own sister was part of the problem!

"Fudge, what did you and your friends do?!" she demanded. "I just left the doctor's office and some b*tard had stolen the wheels on my bike! Your stupid fight's spread across the whole damn country!"

"I didn't do anything!" I cried defensively.

I hadn't done anything, had I? I mean, I was there when the fight broke out, but I wasn't involved. Not really. I'd barely said a word in the fight. Or maybe the problem was that I didn't do anything. I could've stopped my friends, but I didn't. Maybe it was my fault that all these protests and hostility were going on.

My feelings were all mixed up.

I feared that my family in Radiator Springs would turn against me too. After all, they were cars and I was a human. Though, I should've known that was completely absurd. My family stuck by me, just like they'd always done. They would never hate me for being a human, or for anything else. They agreed that while Flick wasn't exactly innocent, the car who hurt her shouldn't get away with it. They knew that the cars were behaving just as badly as the humans. They were just as concerned about the inter species feud as I was.

It astounded me that a rough copy of Cam's Unity Day speech had escalated into this.

It astounded me even more that a day that was supposed to bring us together was tearing us apart.


I sunk into the leather couch under the air conditioner and read the signs on the walls and headings of the pamphlets. There were pamphlets covering a range of issues like discrimination. That would come in handy right now. My family had had to shield me on the drive there! Fortunately, it worked, but I just couldn't believe that things had gotten to this point! I was just leafing through the pamphlet on discrimination when...

"Fudge!"

I stood. Dr. Snow was ready for me. It was good to see her again. I'd been busy since I started racing, so I hadn't seen her in a while. In fact, I'd only seen her once after I started racing when things got overwhelming, but she looked exactly how I remembered her: dark curly hair and dark eyes; long, flowing outfits; late and disorganised as ever. She's an enormous scatterbrain; she's always leaving things in odd places and then forgetting where they are! I find it kind of funny and she's really nice. She takes my problems seriously, no matter how small, but she's kind of kooky and has a great sense of humour (she often says that humour makes us people).

"Hi!" I greeted her.

I followed Dr. Snow to her office. That was just how I remembered it as well. The walls had photos of all kinds of landscapes and her desk was buried under a mountain of papers and knickknacks she's collected. (One more thing you should know about Dr. Snow: she's done a lot of travelling.)

"So", she began, putting on her big glasses with the light pink frame, "how are you dealing with the protests? Your father tells me this has been very difficult for you."

"Yeah..." I described the harassment I'd received from both humans and vehicles and how I was having nightmares about the whole thing. I also told her about the initial fight that led to this and how I couldn't believe that the whole thing had been blown out of proportion.

Dr. Snow just listened. I knew she was because I've known her since I was ten. Even though I'm not good at reading people, I've seen her long enough to know what she does when she's listening. She nods, purses her lips and hums.

"I'm so sorry to hear that", she told me sympathetically. "You're... You're not upset about your adoption again because of this, are you?"

We'd talked about my adoption a lot over the years. Even though I love my family to bits, it really bothered me that I was abandoned and I wish it didn't.

"Of course not! If anything, I'm more grateful for it."

"How so?" she asked me.

"Well... Because I've got such an accepting group of people. They love me for who I am, not what I am", I repeated the words my family had often used. "Some people just can't..." I trailed off. "Before this all happened, Flick told me I should be a human. I didn't know what that means. I mean... obviously, I know I'm not a car, but now, it's, like... How human am I?"

"So, you feel differently from the rest of your family because you're not a car?"

Something else we'd discussed at great length during the seven years I'd been seeing her. "Yeah."

"But you feel different to other humans because you were adopted by cars?"

"Yeah", I repeated.

"I really don't think you need to worry about what Flick said, Fudge", she assured me with a warm smile. "You're as human as anyone and being adopted by cars can't change that."

"People keep saying that", I acknowledged. "I'm just not sure if-"

I was interrupted by a loud smash. What now?! The window had completely shattered. If I hadn't have ducked, whatever went flying through it would've knocked me out cold. Or a piece of glass might have. I glanced up just in time to see five vehicular teenagers- three boys and two girls- zoom off.

"GO, GO, GO!" I heard one of the boys yell.

"Are you all right?" Dr. Snow quizzed me, lifting her head up.

"Yeah, are you?" That was only half true; physically, I was fine, but mentally, I was extremely shaken up.

"I'm fine", she assured me.

Luckily, only the window was broken. We were both shaken up, but unharmed and there were many breakable items in the room, which all survived, thankfully.

I found the object, which had broken the window: a large, heavy rock. There was a piece of paper attached to it too. I read the paper.

You will never be one of us, you cyborg! Go back to Radiator Springs with the other cyborgs!

I let out a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding. When was this madness going to end?


I told my family about what happened and showed them the note. To say they were shocked would be an understatement.

"Oh, my God! Are you okay?!"

"This has gone too far!"

"This went too far a week ago!"

"Why so much hate, man?"

"I thought it didn't matter whether you were a human or a car", I muttered miserably, staring at my hands. "Now, I'm not so sure. I mean, I know it shouldn't, but I think it does." I sighed. "Well, I guess it really doesn't matter in my case. I'm just a cyborg."

"Fudge!" I jumped at Papà's harsh voice. "Don't you ever say that word again!"

"But it's true!" I insisted.

"You are not a cyborg!" Lightning assured me.

"You're just as human as any other human", Aunt Sally added.

"I don't know..." I muttered. "This whole thing makes me feel like there's something about being a human that I haven't learned. I just can't figure out what it is... Is that weird?"

"Not at all." Papà hugged me. "I felt the same way when I received my green card. I was proud to be an American, but sometimes, I still felt like a foreigner."

Babbo nodded in agreement.

"And I felt that way when I first moved to Radiator Springs. I was so different to the rest of you. I guess everyone feels that way about one thing or another at some point in their lives", Lightning remarked.

"I guess so", I agreed, but just then, that didn't make me feel better.

"But Fudgie", Papà began seriously, looking me deep in the eyes, "always remember that even though you are a human and we are all cars, we are still your family and don't you ever be ashamed of that."

I nodded, equally serious. "I won't." I had a lot of complicated emotions right then, but shame was not one of them.


The conversation ended there because dinner was ready and we all decided to concentrate on our food. It was nice for all of us to just be together, even though we were all quite scared. The only words spoken during the dinner were things like, "Please pass the salad", or, "Could I get some more ketchup?"

After dinner, Cruz and I hung out by the Wheel Well. She'd apologised to me ages ago for not defending me in the fight and I'd never held a grudge over it. She'd been just as afraid as I had been.

For a long time, neither of us spoke. We just stared at the breathtaking view of the sun setting lighting up the valley. Finally, though, Cruz cleared her throat.

"Fudge?" she began, sounding unsure of herself.

"Yeah?"

"Do you feel guilty about what's happened? Not that you should", she added quickly. "You barely said two words and you didn't know this was gonna happen, but..." She trailed off.

"Sort of", I replied honestly. "I know it wasn't my fault, but I still wish there was something I could've done. Sometimes, the fact that I don't feel more guilty makes me feel more guilty."

"I feel the same way, but looking back, I don't know what I could've done differently."

"Me neither", I admitted.

"I'm so glad no one's been killed. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if they had."

I didn't answer. That thought was far too terrifying. Thankfully, there hadn't been any casualties; there had been countless non-life-threatening injuries and scores of arrests, but no deaths.

There was another long silence and Cruz was the one who broke it again.

"Things have got pretty crazy, huh?"

"Crazy doesn't even begin to describe it." I sighed. "I wonder if the Unity Day celebrations will still go ahead."

"Well, I think we need it this year more than ever", Cruz reasoned.

"True", I acknowledged.


"Cruz, Fudge!" a voice exclaimed. "There you are!"

"Mr. McQueen said you'd be here!" another voice chimed in.

I was surprised to see Danny, Bubba, Chase, Ryan, Cam and Blake approach us. We hadn't all been together since... Well, you know. Not only were they all together, but they looked happy too! Something must've happened.

"What's up?" I questioned, trying not to let my surprise show too much.

Cam grinned. "Okay. First thing you should know: Flick is being discharged from the hospital tomorrow."

"All right!" Cruz and I both cheered.

"The doctors made sure she can use the crutches okay", Blake added, "and she needs to take it easy for a while, but she's a lot better."

We nodded. That made sense.

"The other thing you should know..." Cam dragged this out for effect. "The guy who hit her was arrested this afternoon!"

"Really?!" I exclaimed.

"You're kidding!" Cruz gasped.

"It's all over the news", Chase confirmed. "A guy named Brad Simon, a yellow Mustang. He was at the party, through friends of friends."

I shook my head in amazement.

"So, what's happening now?" Cruz wondered.

"Protesters are starting to calm down", Ryan explained. "They're satisfied Simon's been arrested."

"So am I", I agreed.

"Why don't we head back to town?" Bubba suggested. "It's too late and too far to go and see Flick, but we can video chat with her. And Joey. He's there with her."

"Great idea!" we all agreed.

"Yeah, I need to talk to her", Cam put in. "Well, all of you, really. I've got a speech to rewrite and I'm gonna need some help."


So, that's what we did. Flick seemed happier now that the guy who hurt her had been arrested and even happier still when we all promised that once she could walk properly, we'd all go to the mall and each buy her a new pair of shoes.

Then came the apologies. I don't think we would have been so willing to forgive each other if we'd actually meant the things we said. Things like calling me a cyborg were just things said in the heat of the moment because we were angry.

Once that was taken care of, we moved on like the fight never happened. Well, we never talked about it again, anyway, but I knew we could never ever forget it.

Like Cam said, we had a speech to write. With all of us working together, it didn't take long at all. The whole time, I feared that another argument would spring up, but fortunately, that never happened. There was the occasional disagreement, but that's bound to happen and nobody was mean or rude about it.

By the end, we had ourselves a pretty decent speech. I was a little worried it would sound corny and/or preachy, but I tried not to worry too much. Even if it was corny, we all genuinely believed each and every word.


Unity Day at last! I was both excited and nervous. Even though the tension was beginning to ease, things weren't quite back to normal just yet. My friends and I were hoping to clear the air once and for all. Brad Simon's arrest definitely helped matters and on a side note, Sammy's reaction to his arrest caught me off guard.

"Brad Simon?! No way! I went to school with him! He was a..." Here, she let out a slew of inappropriate words and then laughed. "Glad to see he hasn't changed a bit since fifth grade."

Anyway, as per tradition on Unity Day, everyone wore lots of blue (to symbolise unity) and there were yellow roses everywhere (the symbol of friendship).

I was nervous. My friends and I had all gathered beside the podium in the infield at the racetrack. It was nearly time for us to deliver our speech. The President's address was broadcasted live on the Jumbotron and it seemed to be taking forever. I wasn't nervous about making the speech. Public speaking has never bothered me. I was nervous because I hoped our speech would have the right effect on our audience. Everyone else was much more confident than I was.

"All right; we're up!" Cam announced finally.

"Let's do this!" Blake added. He appeared to be nervous too, but that was because of the public speaking aspect.

With pounding hearts, we made our way onto the stage in the following order: Cam, Flick, Danny, Joey, Ryan, Chase, Blake, Bubba, me and Cruz. That was the order in which we planned to speak.

Oh, I just hope this speech works!


"Hello, everyone!" Cam began, clearly nervous. "Welcome to the Unity Day race. This is a very special day, a day for humans and vehicles to come together to celebrate our friendship. We know there hasn't been much unity between humans and vehicles lately, ourselves included."

Flick went on to describe how the whole thing started, concluding with, "We were each proud of our own species, just as we should be."

"We had no idea that things were going to blow out of proportion like they did", Danny admitted sheepishly. "It was kind of scary for us."

"But it's times like this that make us reflect", Joey pointed out.

"Make us think about what's important", Ryan added.

"And what Unity Day means to us", Chase put in.

"And when we reflected on this and remembered the sacrifices both humans and vehicles made for the equality we enjoy today", a nervous Blake read in a monotone, "we realised the true meaning on Unity Day."

"That humans and vehicles are stronger together!" That was Bubba.

It was my turn to read and I spoke as clearly and confidently as I could. "We're all different and the whole point of this day is to celebrate those differences."

"So, here we are, all of us! Together! Celebrating our differences and our friendship!" Cruz concluded.

I swept my gaze over the packed stadium, hoping to see the crowd's reaction. I couldn't see anything at first, but then I saw some humans reaching into their bags for tissues and wiping their eyes. Cars drove over to the humans and hugged them. I thought I could hear some apologies going on. Even though we never got any applause for our speech, we knew that it had the effect we were going for. The singing of the official Unity Day song- a very uplifting tune- was much louder and more heartfelt than I could have ever imagined. I sang along wholeheartedly with my family on one side of me and my closest friends on the other. I felt proud and full of unity.

As usual, there was laughter as many people tried and failed to hit the impossibly high note at the end of the song. So, I knew everything was going to be fine. When the song was over, my friends and I exchanged satisfied smiles. We'd done it. I even heard Joey whisper to Danny, "Don't you just love a happy ending?"


"How's the salad looking?" Aunt Flo questioned.

I looked at it. "Like salad."

Aunt Flo smiled. "I hope it's ready. The chicken's just about done."

It was tradition on Unity Day for humans and vehicles to make dinner together. The tradition came from some cars who protested using humans as slaves, so they helped humans with their chores, like making dinner. Nowadays, it's a symbol of humans and vehicles being equals and sharing in the workload.

I'm not much of a cook, so I helped Uncle Sheriff and Flick make a salad. (Uncle Sheriff's not much of a cook either and Flick needed to sit down with her broken leg.) Aunt Flo, Papà, Babbo and Joey were preparing chicken with this special sauce (the recipe is a secret!). I never knew Joey was so great at cooking, but it turns out he is. Aunt Flo also also set the cherry pie for dessert on the counter to cool. Meanwhile, Mater made sure there was enough ice cream to go with the cherry pie.

Cruz, Fillmore and RJ were whipping up some tofu for those who wouldn't eat meat (the three of them, plus Flick). Uncle Red was boiling eggs for the salad, except for Uncle Fillmore's. Lightning and the younger race cars were busy setting the table with the good china and crystal wineglasses. Blake, Uncle Sarge and Uncle Ramone were putting drinks on the table: Fillmore's organic fuel, wine, oil and some soda for me. Sammy, by everyone's orders, was staying out of the way. She could not set foot in a kitchen without setting off the smoke alarm.

"All right! Everyone, take your seats!" Aunt Flo instructed and we all obeyed.

Once the glasses were full, Lightning pushed his forward.

"I'd like to propose a toast", he began. He shot a teasing smile in Flick's direction. "It wouldn't be inappropriate of me to quote Robert Parker, would it?"

Flick giggled. "Go ahead!"

Lightning cleared his throat. "'Why do we fear what is different? Are we not all different? Do we not all strive to be different? When we can accept and even celebrate our differences, then the world is a much better place.'"

"Hear, hear!" we all hollered.

"And I just wanna say how grateful I am for the unity Martin Freeman and Robert Parker helped create", I jumped in. "Without it, I wouldn't be here right now with this awesome family and group of friends."

Not only that, but I was grateful for how different we all were. Not just in species, but race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and even personality and interests. I couldn't imagine how boring my family and friends would be if we were all exactly alike.

"Hear, hear!" everyone repeated, clinking our cans.

A second later, I heard about five or six gasps.

"What's wrong?" I questioned fearfully.

"Mater's glass is empty!" Aunt Sally informed me.

"I was thirsty!" the tow truck explained.

"But it's bad luck to toast with an empty glass!" Aunt Flo pointed out.

I smiled. I'm not a superstitious person, so I don't believe in that stuff. Besides... "I think we've had all the bad luck we're gonna have for a while."

"Agreed!" humans and vehicles shouted together.

The End

I thought it would be interesting to write about a day that's meant to bring them together actually tearing them apart. I also thought it would be interesting to make Fudge feel like she didn't quite fit in to either side for the reasons mentioned in the fic.

July twenty-sixth was just the first date that came to mind while I was writing this fic, so there's no particular reason for it. By the way, in case it wasn't obvious, Martin Freeman was named after Martin Luther King. I just thought Freeman would be a good last name for a civil rights activist.

Now, I promised you another little bit of in about my top secret upcoming fic. Well, here it is: It will be first person POV with nearly all of the residents of Radiator Springs narrating at least one chapter each.

Now, I'm not a hundred per cent sure, but I might have the next entry in this collection up soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one and will let me know what you think.