Chapter 23: The Birthday Bonanza (Part 2)
As soon as the blindfold was off, her eyes widened. She was outside in the sunshine and beautiful blue sky and she was on this big al fresco stage in one of Velo City's most famous spots, Sparkplug Square. About a hundred people gathered around the stage. She recognised several faces at the front of the crowd. There was Sally, Mater, Sarge, Fillmore, Flo, Ramone, Sheriff, Red and Lizzie, of course. Then there was Otis, Bobby Swift, Brick Yardley, the Weathers family, Tex Dinoco, Rusty, Dusty, Mack, Jeff Gorvette, Finn, Holley and Sammy and her Italian relatives.
Then there were dozens of people Fudge had never seen in her entire life. There were even a couple of members of the press she recognised accompanied by forklifts and humans operating cameras while just about everyone else filmed on their phones.
Every single person was wearing a party hat and there were tons of balloons (including shiny helium balloons in the shape of the number 13 and spelling out Fudge's name), happy birthday banners, one reading: FUDGE ROSSI-TOPOLINO BIRTHDAY BONANZA and party blowers everywhere. On top of that, before Fudge could take it all in, there was a loud bang! From either side of the stage, two glitter cannons had gone off, showering Fudge in confetti. Some of the confetti was in the shape of the number 13 as well.
"Happy birthday, Fudge!" the entire crowd yelled in unison.
"Oh, wow!" she exclaimed, shaking her head in amazement.
"Wow indeed!" Lightning laughed, speaking into his microphone, giving Fudge another one. "All these people are here to see you, Fudge-O! Can you believe it?"
"No..." She really couldn't.
"Yeah. Me neither."
"But you are the one who organised all of this", Luigi reminded him expressionlessly. "You started the social media movement to get people here."
"I know I did", he replied, not bothering to hide his annoyance. He handed Luigi a third microphone. "I just never thought it would get this big."
Luigi glared, but said nothing.
Lightning spoke in the microphone yet again. "Now, Fudge-O, you can see we're all wearing party hats. And we got a very special hat for you!" He produced a shiny gold cardboard crown decorated with colourful sequins and even a couple of fake glittery gems.
"I love it!" the birthday girl proclaimed as it was placed on her head.
"The Birthday Queen!" Mater exclaimed, rushing up onto the stage followed by the rest of the RS gang. He didn't have a microphone, but everyone heard him nonetheless.
"And we have something else for you to put on!" Luigi announced. He presented Fudge with a badge. It was a ribbon of dark pink silk with the words BIRTHDAY GIRL in the middle.
"Awesome!" Fudge smiled as Luigi fastened it to her dress. With her new dress, crown, badge and star necklace, she did look very special.
"Ready, everyone?!" Lightning shouted into the microphone. "One, two, three!"
With those words, the entire crowd started to sing, "Happy Birthday" to Fudge. When they were finished, Fudge didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So, she did both. She didn't care about her promise to herself. These were tears of joy. It was different.
"What is you cryin' fer?" Mater wondered, both concerned and confused.
"Because I'm happy!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah?" Lightning ruffled her hair affectionately. "Well, I'm glad."
"Thank you so much!" she managed to choke out, beaming at her race car brother with happy tears streaming down her face. "I love you!"
"I love you too, sweetie." He gave her a kiss. Then he looked back to his best friend. "Now, Mater, would you like to present Fudge with the Birthday Tree?"
"Birthday Tree?" Fudge repeated, curious, excited and confused all rolled into one.
"Yeah!" Mater cried with a huge grin from mirror to mirror.
He brought forward a relatively small tree in a plant pot. Planted into the dirt were several lollipops surrounded by several bits of loose change. Behind those and in front of the tree was a photo frame, which held four small photos of Fudge. One was of Luigi and Guido holding her the day she was born; another one was her on her sixth birthday (the first one Lightning spent with her), blowing out the six candles on a "yummy-yummy" strawberry cheesecake; a third showed the girl on her twelfth birthday the year before, blowing out the candles on another cheesecake. The fourth and final photo was the most recent. It was of Fudge at Flo's on the day she came home from the hospital.
After studying the tree for a couple of seconds, Fudge noticed something. Attached to the branches were little white labels made from card that were hanging on by pieces of string. On the labels, people had written messages in colourful markers and glittery gel pens. Most of them said things like, "Happy birthday, Fudge!", or, "I'm a huge fan!", or, "All the best." A handful even said, "We love you, Fudge!"
"It's like a Christmas tree, but with birthday messages instead of ornaments!" Fudge laughed.
Lightning smiled. "Exactly."
"This is really cool!" she proclaimed, grinning.
"Yeah? You like it?" Sally asked.
"I love it!" Fudge nodded. She looked around at the crowd. "Thanks, guys!" And just as she had done during her knighting ceremony in London two years ago, she could've sworn that she saw Doc there too. She imagined that he was wearing a party hat and smiling just like everyone else. It was a very comforting thought.
"And there are some people who wished they could be here", Lightning went on, "but unfortunately, they can't. So..."
Lightning and the others had set up a projector and a video started up. A whole bunch of the World Grand Prix racers and Fudge's extended family in Italy all wished her a happy birthday. Even her friends and family who were there chimed in in the video. Fudge felt so touched.
"Now, what do you say we fire up this karaoke machine, Fudge?!" Ramone suggested with a wicked grin.
"All right!" she cheered.
"Who here wants to hear Fudge sing?!" Lightning hollered.
The crowd went wild.
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay singing in front of all these people?" Sarge asked.
"It's just a little bit of fun!" Fudge assured him. Truthfully, she was afraid (she'd always been fine with public speaking, but she'd never sang in front of hundreds of people, especially when just about all of them were filming and a dozen or so were members of the press), but she still wanted to give it a shot.
"Besides", Lightning added, laughing, "karaoke isn't about being good. It's about having fun being bad."
"Yeah!" Fudge laughed.
But when the karaoke machine started up, it was, "I'm really gonna do this?"
"You don't have to do it if you don't want to", Lightning told her.
"No, I do!" she assured him. "I'm just a little nervous."
"Well, remember what I told you. It's about having fun being bad. Besides", the race car went on with a grin, "once I get up there and sing, I'm sure you won't sound bad at all."
Fudge giggled. "You're gonna sing?"
"Yeah! I just gotta be careful of my surroundings first because I know everyone's gonna throw whatever they can find at me!"
Fudge laughed. The mental image of that happening was pretty funny.
"We're ready, Fudge!" Ramone called out.
She grinned. "Let's do this!"
"All right, Fudge! Pick a song!" Lightning instructed.
After browsing through the selection, Fudge pressed a button, which made music start up. It was the intro to "Smile" by Uncle Kracker. "I wanna dedicate this song to my family, who have helped me through this tough time."
Fudge started to sing. She wasn't fantastic, but she definitely wasn't terrible either. The RS gang melted a little when they heard the lyrics, knowing that Fudge had dedicated this to them. She was such a sweet kid.
When the song came to an end, the crowd erupted into cheers once more. The birthday girl couldn't stop giggling and she knew for a fact that she was blushing.
"Who's next?!" she questioned, laughing.
Lightning went next. He performed two songs- one of his favourite songs, "Real Gone" by Sheryl Crow and "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (he really had fun with that one!)- and, despite what he said, nobody threw anything at him. In fact, they cheered for him as much as they'd cheered for Fudge.
"Way to go, buddy!" Mater hollered.
Fudge also took great delight in performing "All Star" by Smash Mouth, "Hey Ya" by Outkast and "We R Who We R" by Kesha. A bunch of the others took turns singing a variety of different songs too. Uncle Salvatore, in particular, got wild applause as he performed an opera song (he was a seriously gifted opera singer!). For most of the performances, however, Fudge would boo them teasingly and everyone would laugh and pretend to get insulted.
"She's booin' you!" Rusty informed his brother when they got up on stage to sing.
"No! She's booin' you!" Dusty fired back.
She booed the loudest when Fillmore got up there to sing some Hendrix songs.
"Respect the classics, man!" Fillmore cried, sounding highly insulted.
Sarge nodded and smiled proudly. "You know, I had you trained when you were a toddler, soldier", the Jeep informed Fudge, looking very amused. The hippie van next to him did not.
"What do you mean?" Fudge wondered.
"Every time the hippie played that disrespectful junk, you'd chase him, yelling, 'No! No, Fillmore!' I taught you to do that!"
The others chuckled at the memory; or, in Sally and Lightning's case, the mental image since they hadn't lived in Radiator Springs back then.
"No!" Fudge yelled, cracking everyone up. "No, Fillmore!"
"I remember that!" Luigi proclaimed, laughing. "The only problem was that she yelled at him even when he was not playing Hendrix!" He cuddled Fudge and kissed her. "Whenever we were all over at Flo's, you would just start chasing him around, yelling, 'No! No, Fillmore!'"
The group's laughter continued.
"This is gon' be a piece o' cake fer me!" Mater declared as his song started up. He grinned at Fudge and Lightning. "Ya know, I used to be a rock star!"
"You may have mentioned it!" Lightning responded.
"Yeah! Now, let's see the real Heavy Metal Mater!" Fudge added.
The now-thirteen-year-old didn't think she'd ever laughed so hard in her life. Lightning couldn't help but smile proudly as he watched her laugh. After seeing how unwell, tired and/or upset she was all the time, it was wonderful to see her laughing and not worrying about her problems.
At one point, Sammy came up. "Now, I haven't sung in years, but I thought if I'm gonna start singin' again, it might as well be today!" she announced. She used to sing and play guitar, but hadn't done so since her mother was murdered.
Sammy performed "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. (During the song, Luna nudged Annabella and whispered, "(That should be your song.)") It showed that she hadn't sung in ages. She missed a couple of words and got the timing a little off. Even so, everyone who was there had to agree that she had a beautiful voice.
When she was done, she gave Fudge a quick hug. "Happy birthday, kiddo!" Then she slipped a present into Fudge's hand, making the birthday girl smile.
Just as Fudge was finishing her last song, "So Good" by B.O.B, which she also dedicated to her family, saying that she had never had it so good, Lightning returned to the mike. "All right! I think that's enough karaoke for now! We still have more guests coming and I've just been informed they're only a couple minutes away!"
"Who?" Fudge wondered.
Lightning grinned devilishly. "You'll see..."
Sure enough, about two minutes later, a beep came from Lightning's phone, informing him that he had a text message. He stopped to read it before grinning at Fudge and using the microphone to speak to her. "Hey, Fudge-O! You hungry?"
She shrugged. "I can eat. Why?"
"Hit it!" the stock car yelled.
Fudge didn't know who he was talking to, but the song, "What a Feeling" by Irene Cara started up. Seemingly from nowhere, two blonde human guys in jeans, deep red polo shirts and sneakers appeared, dancing. They were followed by four forklifts. One was dark blue and wore glasses, a black one also wore glasses, there was a red one and the sole female was yellow. They, too, were dancing. All six of them were carrying several boxes of pizza! Everyone began laughing, clapping, cheering and honking their horns. Nobody was louder than Fudge herself.
"All right, everybody!" Lightning McQueen shouted. "Give it up for Billy, Nick, Lyle, Stuart, Yo-Yo and Neha of Pizza Planet!"
The crowd went wild. Especially when the pizza boxes were being handed out and Billy and Nick, the two humans, started flinging slices of pizza into the crowd. Everyone leapt up and trampled on one another to try and catch them. Pretty soon, pepperoni, anchovies, pineapple, sausage and Chrysler knew what else was flying in all directions. Several slices even hit some people in the face! Fudge just laughed hysterically the whole time. She caught Lightning's eye at one point and he just gave her a warm smile, which she did not hesitate to return.
All of a sudden, Nick appeared at the bottom of the stage by Fudge's feet, stretching out his final box of pizza towards her, grinning like a maniac. "Here you go, Fudge! Extra pineapple! Just the way you like it!"
Tentatively, Fudge took the box. "Thanks..." She shot Lightning a horrified look and he cracked up laughing. The human girl breathed a sigh of relief when she opened the box to find a plain cheese pizza with stuffed crust.
"No tip for you, Nick!" Lightning called out, still laughing. "You forgot the pineapple on Fudge's pizza!"
Nick just grinned and danced off with the rest of the pizza delivery team.
Fudge swatted Lightning's door playfully. "Don't even joke about that! Pineapple does not go on pizza!"
"Just eat your pizza, Fudge-O!"
"Well, I'm not gonna say no to that!" she giggled, picking up a slice.
Lightning chuckled softly. "Hey, you know what's weird about pizza?"
"How Dodge Ram delicious it is?"
"Well, yeah", he agreed, "but also, it's a circle, cut into triangles and served in a square box." He knew Fudge was the one who had pointed that out to him, but that was on the day of the accident, which she didn't remember.
So, she mulled over that for a second. "Huh. That is weird."
The pizzas were devoured in no time. Everyone except Fillmore was eating; even Sarge, who normally didn't like pizza was helping himself to a couple of slices. Not only that, but even her Italian family were, even though they, like her dads, thought that Americanised Italian food was an abomination.
"(I hate to admit it, but it is not so bad)", Fudge's uncle Giuseppe conceded.
Her aunt Cecilia nodded. "(Not as good as real pizza, but not bad.)"
Fudge would also feed Hugsy, making everyone smile and prompting those closest to her to plant kisses on her forehead. It was just as the last slices were being polished off that Lightning had another suggestion.
"All right! Time for a group photo!"
A white forklift with a camera on a tripod appeared on the stage, ready for action.
"All right. Not a selfie on a phone", Lightning commented. "A nice photo. On a good, old-fashioned digital camera."
Fudge grinned. "Sounds good to me!"
Immediately, the photographer began positioning people. The RS gang were at the front with Fudge, Lightning, Luigi and Guido front and centre (though Luigi made a point to stay as far away from Lightning as possible). The pizza guys were pretty close to the front as well, posed holding out pizza boxes- even though they were all empty- along with Finn, Holley, Sammy, all of Fudge's Italian relatives and Lightning's racing buddies and behind them was a wild crowd.
"Everybody, smile!" the photographer sang.
"Say, 'Cheese!'" Sally added.
"Pizza!" Billy finished.
"Yeah! Everyone, say, 'Cheese pizza!'" Yo-Yo, the red forklift, laughed.
"Brought to you by Pizza Planet!" the blue forklift, Lyle, chimed in.
"Cheese pizza!" the entire group shouted as the camera clicked.
The photographer studied the photo. "Perfect! Thank you, everyone!"
It was really starting to get dark by then and the party was winding down a little bit, so Lightning decided to take Fudge down into the crowd to start greeting the fans and partygoers she hadn't had a chance to talk to yet. With most of the fans, they greeted them, asked their name, thanked them for coming and got a photo. This made a lot of them very happy.
"I got your letter!" a shiny yellow car exclaimed, so excited that she could barely speak! She thrust a letter at Fudge and Lightning, which turned out to be one of the thank-you letters that they sent out to people who sent cards and presents to Fudge.
"You sent me something?" Fudge asked in amazement. "Thank you so much! I really appreciated all the presents I got. What was your name again?"
"Cruz!" she answered breathlessly. "Cruz Ramirez! I'm such a big fan of both of you! Mr. McQueen, you're the best racer ever! And Fudge, you're just so cool and funny and cute! You know, I wanna be a racer too!"
Lightning smiled. "Well, thank you, Cruz!" he and Fudge chorused. "Thanks for coming out. We really appreciate it."
Cruz couldn't stop giggling, especially while she had her photo taken with Fudge and Lightning.
"Hey!" Fudge cried abruptly as she and her brother weaved through the crowd.
"What?"
She pointed to some helium balloons that kept spinning around and, therefore, were facing backwards. "Those balloons say I'm thirty-one!"
Lightning chuckled. "Well, that won't be for another eighteen years!"
Abruptly and out of nowhere, the two of them found themselves pressed in by the press. Cameras flashed all around them and microphones were being shoved in their faces.
"Fudge! Can we get a few words?!" one of them, a light purple Porsche from the RSN named Amy Winslow, asked.
"Sure", Fudge agreed, giggling a little nervously. She was caught quite off guard, but she'd been working with the cameras and the press and being interviewed since she was six years old. She could handle it.
"What do you make of today's events?!" Antoine, the white Chevrolet Cobalt wanted to know.
"It's just so unbelievable!" She shook her head in astonishment. "I was not expecting this at all! It's... It's just been awesome!"
"A day you won't forget?" Amy questioned.
"Absolutely not! I am never going to forget this!"
After asking Fudge a couple more questions, the press shifted their attention to Lightning.
"McQueen, we spoke to you earlier", Roxanne Petrolski, the bubblegum pink forklift from CCNC began, "but do you have any comments after seeing Fudge's reaction? Did today go how you were expecting it?"
"Definitely!" he confirmed with a big grin. "My goal here was to make Fudge happy and I think it worked! We've all had a lot of fun today- I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life- but nothing here has made me happier than seeing Fudge so happy because Chrysler knows she's deserved it after everything she's been through."
Fudge beamed.
"It looks like this was a lot of work to organise and set up", a local news reporter- a teal sports car named Sarah Marie Carmichael commented, looking around.
McQueen nodded. "Yeah, it was, but it was all worth it. And I'd like to thank the awesome guys from Pizza Planet for helping out." He noticed them coming through, so he called out, "Thanks, guys!"
"Yeah! The pizza was delish!" Fudge informed them.
"Hey, no problem!" Lyle assured him.
"It was our pleasure!" the yellow female forklift, Neha, added.
"Glad we could help!" Nick chimed in.
Stuart, the black forklift's contribution was, "Best day of work ever!"
Everyone laughed.
"Okay!" Luigi called out as he approached the group with Guido and the two of them tried ushering the press away from their daughter. They often acted as part of the security team for Lightning, making sure that the press didn't step out of line when they arrived at races. "That is enough! No more questions for Fudgie! She is done now!"
"Who are you?" Amy wondered.
"We are Fudge's parents!" Luigi responded sternly.
"Really?" Sarah Marie shoved a microphone into Luigi and Guido's faces. "And do you have any comments on how today has gone?"
Surprisingly, Luigi and Guido agreed to talk to the press. Most likely to keep them away from Fudge, though. As Lightning and Fudge left, the latter told the former about her Cal Feathers dream, making him laugh.
After about an hour, Fudge's eyes were starting to droop and it was getting late.
"All right!" Lightning got back on the microphone. "I think it's time we got Fudge back to the hospital. I'd like to thank you all for coming and once again, I'd like to thank the awesome guys at Pizza Planet for helping out today!"
The crowd cheered.
"Happy birthday, Fudge!" he finished up.
"Happy birthday, Fudge!" everyone shouted, making the girl beam.
"All right, let's go." The race car began pushing the human girl through the crowd, which had created a guard of honour for her as she came through.
"Thank you so much!" Fudge leaned over and nuzzled Lightning in the middle of the guard of honour.
"You had fun, Fudge?"
"Yeah! This has been the best day I've had in a long time. Thank you!"
He shrugged modestly. "It's no big deal."
"It is to me!" she insisted.
"Well, I'm glad you had fun."
"You know I love you, right?" Fudge asked.
"Yeah. And you know I love you too, right?"
Fudge smiled. "I sure do!" After the wonderful day she'd had, that was one thing she was sure of.
As Fudge was being loaded into the trailer, she giggled, noticing that the guard of honour was still going for the pizza guys, who were returning to Todd, the Pizza Planet truck.
"Thanks, guys!" she hollered, waving to the crowd as she disappeared from view.
It was no surprise to anybody that Fudge slept all the way back to the hospital. However, it was a surprise when she woke up on her own to the bright lights of the hospital.
"Did you have fun?" Dr. Green questioned with a smile as soon as he saw Fudge.
"Definitely!" she answered.
"Well, we should get you back up to your room now, Miss Fudge." A nurse took over pushing the wheelchair.
"Hey, Fudge?" Flo began as they all journeyed back to the room.
"Yeah?"
"Did you notice anything weird about today, honey?"
Fudge scrunched her face up in thought. She couldn't think of a thing. "No."
"Well, what do people normally get on their birthdays?"
"Presents... Cake..." Fudge trailed off, knowing that that was it. There hadn't been a cake.
"Well, we didn't get you a cake, honey", Flo explained, "but I did make somethin' I think you'll like..."
The door to Fudge's hospital room opened and, to her amazement, there was a gorgeous trifle there waiting for her.
"Ohhh! Yes!" Fudge exclaimed. "It looks delicious! Thank you so much, Flo!"
The ex-show car smiled and shrugged modestly. "No problem, sweet pea. Happy birthday." She gave Fudge a kiss.
"We thought we'd get enough pizza for everyone at the Fudge Rossi-Topolino Birthday Bonanza", Lightning explained. "Then we'd have dessert alone."
Fudge smiled gratefully. "Sounds good to me."
They couldn't have candles in the hospital for safety reasons, but Fudge didn't mind. It wasn't like she really needed to make a wish. Besides, she was terrified of fire. Still, her family sang "Happy Birthday" one more time and insisted that she pretended to blow out the candles, which she did.
"You missed one!" Lightning joked, cracking everyone up.
Fudge rolled her eyes and pretended to blow it out, sticking her tongue out at Lightning.
"Thank you guys so much!" Fudge repeated as the trifle was being served (again, even Sarge had some, to Fudge's surprise and once again, everyone beamed, watching her feed Hugsy). "This has been the best birthday ever! It means so much to me. You know, with..." She trailed off awkwardly.
"You're welcome, sweetie." McQueen kissed her. "It means so much to all of us that you had fun. Hey, I promised you you'd still have a fun day, didn't I?"
"Yeah... You did."
"Yes." Luigi's voice was cold as ice. "I have to admit, you did a very good job today." He looked around at the rest of his friends, his voice warming up a little. "Thank you all so much for doing this."
Fudge felt a pang of hurt at these words. She remembered how unsure of what was going on he'd seemed earlier. Then she remembered how surprised he'd looked at every surprise his daughter had received. And then it dawned on her. Luigi had had nothing to do with any of the day's events. He didn't organise anything for her. She couldn't believe it. It hurt so much. He was her father. And he'd done nothing to help make her day special.
In a flash, before she could get upset at Luigi any more, Fudge remembered the present from Sammy.
"Here it is!" Luigi handed it to her.
"Open it, open it!" Mater cried.
So, she did. The birthday girl began peeling back the wrapping paper and when she unearthed what was hidden underneath, she couldn't believe what she saw...
It was a really old book, but not just any really old book. It was a really old book about the history of Piston Cup and biographies of some of the earliest racers.
"I can't believe it!" Fudge murmured softly. This was a book that she had always really wanted and she knew that it was extremely rare.
"Wow!" Lightning exclaimed, peering at it. "I've always wanted this book, but I've never been able to find it. You're a lucky girl, Fudge-O."
Fudge grinned. "I'll let you read it once I'm done reading it", she promised.
"Thanks, Fudge-O."
When Fudge flipped to the title page, her eyes nearly popped right out of her skull. "No way!" she gasped.
On the title page were the autographs of the Fabulous Hudson Hornet (it must've been really old then), Junior "Midnight" Moon, River Scott and Louise "Barnstormer" Nash in faded ink.
"Wow!" Lightning repeated. "And it's autographed!" He shook his hood in disbelief. "This thing must be worth a fortune! Gosh, she must really care about you to give you that!"
"Yeah... I wonder how she managed to get that."
"She's a secret agent. She must have her ways." Lightning shrugged. "Still, that's a pretty awesome gift!"
Opening the present had given Fudge joy to distract her from her hurt over Luigi's lack of involvement in her birthday. She made a mental note to thank Sammy as soon as she could.
After another hour of talking and laughing with her family, Fudge fell asleep with a huge smile on her face. She was still wearing her crown, badge and necklace.
"Wow, we really wore her out!" Lightning commented with a laugh, stroking her hair.
Sally beamed at him. "You should be proud of yourself, Stickers!" she informed him.
"Yeah, I'd say she forgot about being in pain and sick and unable to walk for awhile, thanks to you", Sarge declared.
"I'll say", Ramone agreed.
"Grazie." Guido smiled. "This mean... so much to Fudgie."
"Well, I guess I do feel a little proud", Lightning proclaimed modestly. As far as the actual day itself was concerned, he was more proud than he'd been of winning any race. The only thing he didn't feel proud of was that he was the reason she was having a tough time to begin with, meaning that she needed cheering up this much. He gave the girl a kiss. "Happy birthday, Fudge-O. I love you. I love you so much."
As the RS family filed out of the room, heading off to chatter about the day's events and start planning their Caribbean trip, they all knew that there would be a lot more challenges, hard times and tears ahead of them. However, they had all forgotten about it for one day and so had Fudge. That was what the whole day had been about and not only had it cheered Fudge up, it had cheered all of them up as well. So, it was safe to say that it was a huge success.
I was actually inspired by an actual event I went to for a celebrity's birthday. That was just people getting together and the Birthday Tree. I added in the karaoke and the pizza bit. The latter was inspired by a scene from one of my favourite movies (besides Cars, of course!). If you've read my other works, I think you can guess it was The Internship! I named the pizza delivery guys after the characters in the movie (and Nick is played by Owen Wilson!). If you read this story on Wattpad, you can watch the scene from the movie.
I assume you all noticed a Cars 3 character make an appearance in this chapter?