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Lightning drove the ATV up next to Mater’s. They were a little too close to the edge of the butte for comfort but Mater seemed completely at ease so he wasn’t going to back down. Besides, this was one of the best places to be in terms of sightseeing. Maybe they were just sightseeing today. Please let them just be sightseeing today.
“Uh, gee, we’re, uh, pretty close to the edge here, huh?” he said in an effort to maybe get Mater to back away from the steep drop.
Instead he let out one of his snort laughs. “We sure are! I mean, look at that drop!”
Mater leaned forward, making the whole four-wheeler pitch slightly and nearly giving Lightning a heart attack.
“Ah, hahaha! Yeah, yeah I’m looking, but don’t you think it’d be a little safer to look at it from maybe a few inches back? I bet the view is even better.” It was times like these that he was forever thankful that his best friend had such an innocent way of seeing things. Mater would probably just think that, yeah, maybe the view was better from further back.
“Aw shoot, yer probably right, but we’re not here to see the sights!”
Oh no. “What are we here for then?”
Mater leaned against his handlebars sending his friend a wicked grin while making revving gestures.
Lightning forced his eyes to look back at the drop. “Oh no.”
“Aww, don’ worry ‘bout it so much! I’ve done this plenty a’ times!” Okay, that made him feel a little better. “If you feel like yer ‘bout to crash then jump, tuck, and roll. Trust me, it’s better to ditch the four-wheeler than it is to deal with all of that coming down after you.” He felt much less better.
“Exactly where on the scale of Sally approval is this?” Lightning asked, hoping maybe Mater could be dissuaded even though he knew it was a lost cause.
“Well we don’t gotta tell miss Sally everything we best buds do, huh?” He leaned over and elbowed Lightning a couple of times, laughing like Sally’s fury was not a completely terrifying experience. It wasn’t that she got angry or loud, it was that she would get back at you tenfold and keep a straight face the whole time. He really didn’t want to see what kind of punishment was in store for him if he showed up with a broken arm and a concussion later today.
Mater waggled his eyebrows a couple times before grasping the handlebars excitedly. “So here’s whatcha gotta do—”
“Other than not die?” Lightning muttered, lining up with his friend before he could convince himself to back out.
“If yer leaning too far back then yeh can’t see where yer goin’ so you gotta lean forward. Makes it feel like we’re goin’ faster that way too! Avoid the cactuses, and halfway down there’s this big rock yeh gotta steer around. It’s pretty obvious though, so just stay focused and yeh’ll be alright. If yer gettin’ some lift don’t hit the brakes or yeh might start rollin’. It flattens out at the end so yeh shouldn’t brake at all until yeh get to the bottom, okay?”
Lightning took a deep breath to steady himself, wondering for an instant whether these would be some of his last moments before punching any worry out of his head to replace with ridiculous confidence. “Yeah, okay. Don’t brake. Avoid the cactuses.”
He glanced at Mater, catching the look of crazed eyes before his friend flipped down the visor on his helmet. “Alright then, best buddy. I’ll see you at the bottom. WWWWWEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!”
With a very Mater-like shout, the large man tipped the ATV over the edge of the cliff, picking up speed like a penny being dropped off the top of the Empire State Building. Lightning gave him a second to put some space between their vehicles before clenching his stomach and revving the motor.
“Here we gggGGGOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
->'v'<-
When the two walked into Flo’s they were both still laughing. Mater had his arm slung over Lightning’s shoulder while the younger man pushed him away with glee. The both of them were covered in red dust and were tracking dirt into the diner.
“Hey there, Flo! A milkshake for mah crazy best friend! Yeh should hear what Lightning did off of Jimmy’s Jump!”
Lightning finally slipped out from under Mater’s arm, punching him lightly in the shoulder with a grin. “I’m the crazy one?! Yeah right! Mater uprooted a cactus and sent it flying! You’re nuts man!”
Mater laughed, snorts decorating the sound as he tried pulling the blond into noogie, only to be dodged once again and settling for trying to knock Lightning down with a shoulder bump. He was retaliated with much less success but the two seemed to be having fun.
“You did what off of Jimmy’s Jump?!”
“Yoooo, is that where you guys have been all day?”
“You two are gonna get yourself hurt doing all those stunts one of these days!”
Flo rolled her eyes, sending a disapproving glance at the tracks they were leaving before meeting them at the counter. “What flavors do you want?”
“Chocolate,” both answered at once, starting up a new round of pushing between the two.
“Alright, alright, just try not to get dirt everywhere, will you?” Flo said, raising an eyebrow at them before moving back to the fridge to get started on their orders.
Lightning looked behind them and saw the trail of red dust. “Uh, oops,” he said with a sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Aw shoot don’ worry ‘bout it buddy! It’s ‘bout supper time anyway so everybody will be coming in soon. We just got things started fer ‘em.”
Lightning snorted. “You try convincing Flo of that and tell me how it goes.”
Mater seemed to give it a thought. “Eehhh, maybe another time.”
The two of them laughed as Ramone and Guido came over to sit by them. “So you guys were at Jimmy’s Jump all day? What, on the ATV’s or somethin’?”
“Exactly!” Mater said excitedly. “McQueen hadn’t been up there so I was showin’ him around.”
“I have now been up and down there,” Lightning said with a smirk.
Guido seemed to catch on and looked over them, as if expecting to find one of them missing a leg. “Tu sei intero?”
“Yeah, it was terrifyin’!” Mater answered with a grin. “But that’s what makes it fun!”
Ramone’s expression was not one that communicated agreement. “You and I have very different ideas of what makes things fun, man.”
“Aww, da’s okay! I’ve got McQueen here to hang with and he’s always up for adventure!”
“Sometimes against my better judgement, but yeah.”
Mater laughed, his whole belly jiggling with the force of it. “Aw c’mon McQueen! Doc’s the town judge, not you!”
The rest of the bar started to laugh as well. Mater always brought a ray of sunshine with him wherever he went and the diner felt a little more comfortable with the boy’s there.
They started recounting the day’s events, much to the awe and slight horror of the patrons of the diner. Miraculously, nothing had been broken, although the wheels on Mater’s ATV would need to be checked for punctures later from the cactus he’d driven over. After the insane jump Lightning had accidentally taken his would probably also need to have the suspension checked. Guido scoffed when they mentioned this and spoke something rapidly in Italian that the boys took to mean he would take care of it.
“Sounds like you two had quite a day,” Flo said when she returned with refills for everyone. She looked between the two of them with amusement as they thanked her. “So tell me, does Sally know what either of you were doing?”
Lightning and Mater exchanged looks that answered the question.
“Uh-huh, so maybe you shouldn’t be telling the whole town about what you were up to?”
Mater snorted. “Aw, miss Sally wouldn’t do nothin’! She knows it’s all in good fun!”
“Mm-hm, which is why she grounded you two after the nail gun incident.”
Lightning scowled. “I wasn’t grounded. I agreed to take things easy for a while after that.”
“Nah, we was grounded,” Mater said, thinking back with a frown. The expression quickly flipped. “Totally worth it though.”
“It so was.”
With another snort of laughter, Mater finally got that noogie in. “And that’s why we’re best buds!”