Ka-chow! Hi there, fellow Cars fans! Here is my new story, which I'll be working on alongside Tales from Radiator Springs and Vacation Crashers! If you're reading this, then you're probably familiar with my OC, Fudge. If not, she is a human girl, who was born and raised in Radiator Springs (in my fics, humans and vehicles live in the same universe). She was adopted by Luigi and Guido

There's also gonna be a new OC in this one. I realised that although in my fics, I have it as a human and vehicle shared universe, Fudge is the only human OC in the ones I've published. That's part of the reason I decided to put another human OC in this fic. There is another reason, but I don't wanna give it away. :)

Disclaimer: I think you already know, as much as it pains me to say it, that I do not own Cars or Cars 2. So far, all I own in this one is Fudge and this new human OC.

So, I sincerely hope you enjoy...

When Life Gives You Lemons

Chapter 1- McQueen's Back!

"Fudge!" a familiar southern accent called into the ear of the human girl. "FUDGE!"

"Mmmpph..." she mumbled, irritated to find a familiar, rusty, dented, buck-toothed tow truck in front of her. "What?!"

"You done fell asleep!"

Fudge rolled over to face away from Mater. "I was tired..."

Mater rolled her back over. "But we ain't done havin' fun!"

"I am! I'm tired!" Fudge groaned

As much as she wanted to sleep, Fudge did feel sorry for Mater. His best friend, Lightning McQueen, had been away at racing events for several weeks and the tow truck really missed him. Now, Fudge was filling in for him on Mater's many adventures, which was how she ended up in his junkyard for a sleepover. It was a job took a lot out of the eleven-year-old, but it wouldn't have been so bad if Mater would just let her sleep!

"C'mon, Fudge!" Mater shook her again. "We ain't done havin' fun yet!"

"Fine!" she sighed. "What are we doing now?!"

"Mater, no!" Fudge groaned when she realised where they were. The tractor field.

"C'mon, Fudge! Tractor tippin's fun!" the tow truck insisted.

"Mater! I just wanna go to bed!" the human girl in his truck bed, still half asleep, whined.

"But we is gotta have fun!"

"Can't it wait till morning?!"

"No!"

Well, Fudge was just about falling asleep again anyway. She woke up a few seconds later to the loud sound of Mater honking his horn and bolted up immediately.

"I'm awake!" she shouted.

But Mater wasn't paying any attention to her. He was too busy watching, with great glee, the mooing tractor as it tipped over. When it backfired, the tow truck burst out laughing.

"Tractors sure is dumb!" he declared.

"Okay, let's go home", Fudge yawned.

"But we ain't done!" Mater protested. "That was only one tractor!"

"Mater!" Fudge groaned. Personally, as funny as it was, she thought that tractor tipping was cruel and kinda dangerous. Sometimes, she'd be willing to humour him, but not at... What time was it?

"One more!" he promised. "One more!"

Fudge didn't know why she agreed to it when she knew that it would be more than one more (it always was with Mater). But at any rate, she did. There was no way she was getting back to sleep now. So, she got out of Mater's truck bed and laughed with him as one by one, the tractors toppled over.

"See?!" Mater shouted, still hysterical from the latest tractor he'd tipped over. "You love tractor tippin'!"

Fudge just stuck her tongue out at him.

But that was when they'd heard it. That familiar noise that they never wanted to hear while tractor tipping.

"That's Frank!" Mater announced and took off.

"Mater!" Fudge shrieked. "You forgot me!"

He didn't hear her. And the combine harvester was heading straight for her! The human girl tried to run, but Frank was much faster than her. She was pretty fast, but her energy never lasted long and, of course, vehicles are much faster than humans.

"MATER!" she screamed hysterically.

"Grab on!" his voice called from somewhere in front of Fudge as something moved closer to her. It was his tow hook. Fudge obeyed, grabbing hold of it and he reeled her in.

"Thanks, Mater!" she panted gratefully when she got close enough to get up and jump in his truck bed.

But Frank was still after them.

"Mater, hurry!" Fudge yelled.

"We is almost at the fence!" he assured her.

Sure enough, a second later, she could hear Mater hit the wooden fence. Frank still glared at the two as they sped off back to town. They were safe! For now.

Mater was satisfied that tractor tipping had woken Fudge up a little bit. So, they continued with some board games, movies on the portable DVD player that Fudge had brought over and helped get the surprises Mater had for Lightning's return ready. Fudge was sure that Lightning was going to love what Mater had planned. It wasn't long before the sun began to rise and they heard the reveille and the electric guitar across the street.

"WILL YOU TURN THAT DISRESPECTFUL JUNK OFF?!" came Sarge's voice.

"Respect the classics, man!" Fillmore called back. "It's Hendrix!"

Fudge gave a half amused, half annoyed groan. "Every morning!"

"Yeah!" Mater grinned at her.

"Well, we better get over to Flo's."

"Yeah", Mater repeated.

The first thing Fudge did when she arrived at Flo's was run over to her fathers and hug them. Guido and Luigi loved Fudge more than they loved Ferraris and tyres combined (and if you knew them, you'd know that that was really saying something) and she loved them back just as much. They were the ones who had found her mother in labour just outside of town and helped her get to Doc's. And when her mother had abandoned her only hours after her birth, they were the ones who had taken her in and loved her as their own. Even though Fudge had technically been an orphan her entire life, thanks to Luigi and Guido (well, everyone in town, really, but mostly those two), she'd never felt like one. She would always be grateful to them for that.

"Did you have fun last night?" Luigi wanted to know.

She nodded, yawning. "But we stayed up late last night and I'm really tired."

"Do you want to go home and get some sleep?" Luigi asked.

Fudge nodded again.

The eleven-year-old slept for a couple of hours, but woke up to the sound of a big horn blaring. That could only be Mack, Lightning's driver. So, that meant... Fudge leapt out of bed, not caring at all that she was still in pyjamas (nobody else would probably care anyway) and tore outside to find the truck there with his trailer door opening to reveal... Lightning!

Immediately, the whole town began to swarm him. Except for one. Mater was absent. Apparently, he had been called out to tow poor Otis, the Lemon car, into town for the tenth time that month. That was an advantage for everyone else because, with Mater not around, it meant that they all got the chance to greet Lightning (because let's face it; had Mater been there, he'd be first in line!).

"Oh, Lightning!" Luigi exclaimed. "Welcome home!"

"It's good to have you back, honey!" Flo declared.

"Congratulations, man!" Fillmore added.

"Welcome home, soldier!" Sarge greeted him.

"The place wasn't the same without you, son", Sheriff chimed in.

"What?" Lizzie asked, confused. "Did he go somewhere?"

"It's good to be home, everybody!" the now-four-time Piston Cup champion announced to his friends.

Fudge ran to him for a hug. "I missed you!" she informed him.

"Hey, Fudge-O!" Lightning returned the greeting. "I missed you too!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! And I got a surprise for you, remember?"

Fudge did remember. Due to being on the road a lot and attending races, Lightning had missed Fudge's eleventh birthday not too long ago. The human girl had been upset about that until Lightning promised her that he was bringing back a big surprise for her.

"What is it?! What is it?!" she demanded, jumping up and down in anticipation.

Lightning revealed a shiny, dark blue bag. Blue was Fudge's favourite colour. "Open it and you'll find out! Happy late birthday, Fudge!"

So, Fudge took the bag to from him to reveal... a Nintendo Wii!

"You and Mater seem to love playing with the one in my trailer", he explained. "So, I figured you could do with one of your own while I'm away at races."

"Awesome! Thank you!"

"And this is to go with it!" He handed her another wrapped present.

"Wii Sports! Cool!" Fudge exclaimed, holding up the game for everyone else to see. The eleven-year-old gave him the biggest hug she could muster. "Thank you! This is awesome!"

Lightning smiled at her, hugging her back. "No problem, Fudge. I'm glad you like it."

Fudge returned the smile. It had been five years since he first arrived in Radiator Springs. She had been five, going on six, at the time and so, she didn't remember it as well as the other residents. However, she did remember what a colossal jerk he'd been and had witnessed him transform over the week that he was in Radiator Springs. Like everyone else, she was so happy when he decided to make Radiator Springs his permanent home. For more reasons than one.

You see, about six months before Lightning had shown up, a bunch of social workers came to town. They believed that Fudge would be better off growing up in a larger town where she could have more contact with humans. Of course, the townsfolk were devastated, but there was nothing that they could do. On her sixth birthday, she was being transferred to an orphanage in Wisconsin. They needed Radiator Springs back on the map to let her stay, but, of course, everyone thought that that would take a miracle. Nobody expected Lightning McQueen to be that miracle. But he was. He was her miracle.

Fudge was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of another horn. Everyone turned around to see...

"MATER!" Lightning called.

"MCQUEEN!" Mater hollered. He was so excited to see his best friend that he had forgotten all about Otis, who was being bounced up and down and flung all over the place.

"MATER!" Lightning yelled again.

"MCQUEEN!" Mater skidded to a stop, flinging Otis off to the side and sending him spinning into Ramone's. Fudge couldn't help laughing. It was pretty funny.

"McQueen! Welcome back!" the tow truck greeted his best friend as the two bumped tyres repeatedly.

"Mater, it's so good to see you!" Lightning remarked.

"You too, buddy!" Mater responded. "Oh, man! You ain't gonna believe the things I've got planned for us!"

"Boy, these best friend greetings, they get longer every year!" Mack commented.

"I'm so glad Lightning's back!" Fudge proclaimed to the others. "That way, Mater has someone else besides me to annoy!" Then she laughed to show that she was kidding.

"You ready to have some serious fun?" Mater quizzed Lightning.

"Well, actually, I've got something to show you first", Lightning informed him.

"What is it?!" Fudge questioned. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realised that it was probably none of her business, but she was curious.

"Come and see if you want", Lightning offered. "It's not exactly a secret or anything."

"Okay!" Fudge agreed and was about to run off when Guido stopped her, suggesting that he took the bag from her. "Yeah, good idea", she admitted, handing it over.

"Fudge got a present?" Mater asked, sounding a little hurt.

"That's Fudge's birthday present", Lightning explained and Mater seemed to accept that.

"Mater! I got a Wii!" Fudge announced. "It's so cool! Now, we can play whenever we want! Even when Lightning's at races."

Lightning laughed. "That's right. And either later today or tomorrow, I'll come over and help you set it up, Fudge-O. Sound good?"

She nodded. "Okay!" Then she leapt onto Lightning's hood as he and Mater made their way over to what was once Doc Hudson's clinic. Now, it was the Doc Hudson Racing Museum.

It wasn't long before Fudge was standing in the room she was born in eleven years ago, staring at the golden Piston Cup trophy with a sculpture of Doc over the top of the cup part. Everyone in town missed Doc a lot and the human girl was no exception. Plus, she hadn't really dealt with his death all that well and still felt guilty about it. A year on, it was still difficult not seeing the car who had delivered her and been like a grandfather to her every day, but she was healing from it slowly.

"Wow!" Mater exclaimed. "I can't believe they renamed the Piston Cup after our very own Doc Hudson!"

"Me neither", Fudge murmured softly.

Lightning rolled over to a large newspaper clipping with a photo of Doc on it and gazed at it sadly. "I know Doc said these things were just old cups, but... to have someone else win it just didn't feel right, you know?"

There was a pause. Fudge hung her head guiltily, remembering her reaction to Doc's death and thinking about just how much she missed him.

"Well, Doc would've been real proud of you", Mater broke the silence. "That's for sure."

"Yeah", Fudge agreed.

Lightning gave them both a small smile.

"I'm gonna go home now", Fudge announced when the three of them filed out of Doc's old clinic. "I'll see you guys later."

"All right", both cars agreed. "See you later, Fudge."

As Fudge took off down Main Street, Lightning turned back to Mater. "All right, pal. I've been waiting all summer for this. What have you got planned?"

"Ho, ho, ho!" Mater laughed. "You sure you can handle it?"

"Come on. You know who you're talking to? This is Lightning McQueen!" the race car reminded him. "I can handle anything!"

Fudge had overheard him and groaned. "Oh, boy!"

So, there's the first chapter. I didn't wanna just get straight into the movie, so I added some little fillers, but I had little to no ideas for this one. I hope future chapters will be more interesting.

Just so you guys know, I was planning on including Doc's death as a three-part story in Tales From Radiator Springs, so keep an eye out for that. It'll explain how not-so-well Fudge handles his death.

Fun Fact: Despite being based off me, Fudge has a different birthday to me. Her birthday is June 16th. Now, I know what you're thinking and no. Believe it or not, the reason I chose this date has nothing to do with the release of Cars 3. I came up with this birthday back in... 2014, I think it was and I chose June 16th because that's... National Fudge Day! XD

Reviews, anybody? If you give me a review, I'll be your best friend.