Jack and Taylor had their mission – return the First Snowflake. They had already run several blocks from their school when they got to a tall red stop-sign. They stopped, like all kids should when getting to a stop sign. They stopped walking, and they also stopped talking. Really, they just stopped everything.
They were so excited from time freezing, magical kittens, and ancient snowflakes, that they hadn’t even thought about what they should do first. How does someone usually return a magical snowflake? Where is the iciest iceberg in the whole Arctic Circle? How would they get there? And most importantly, where would they get snacks?!
Jack broke the silence first. “I’m hungry,” he said.
“Oh, here!” Taylor sat her backpack on the ground and started digging through it. She brought out a fistful of broken goldfish crackers and teddy graham crumbs and offered it to Jack.
“Blegh! ... No thanks, Taylor,” he said, disgusted but kind.
Taylor shrugged, took a bite of the crumbs, and dumped the rest back in the bottom of her backpack. “For later,” she grinned. Then she took out the snowflake. “I don’t know how to do this, Jack. How do we get there?”
Jack’s face lit up. “What if we had a hot air balloon to take us there? Or a spaceship? Or a teleporting device like from Zelda?!”
Taylor laughed and said, “I wish we had a giant race car that we could drive all the way there!”
Just then, from down the street, they heard a loud rumbling. It got louder. And louder! A bright blue race car came barreling towards them. Then – SCREEEEEECH! – it stopped at the corner, right by the Flynn Twins. The rumbling stopped and out stepped the driver. The driver was wearing a black and white race car suit, complete with a helmet that had a black visor.
Without lifting the visor, the driver said, “Well, what are you two staring at? Hop in! We have a long ways to go and we’re going to race there in style!”
Jack immediately climbed into the car. “Whoa! Taylor come on – this is so cool!”
Taylor wasn’t too sure about the driver behind the dark visor, but something about the icy-blue race car made her think of magic and adventure. So, she got in next to Jack.
“Alright,” said the driver as the car started back up, “buckle up now. This will be one wild ride. Zoom zoom!” The race car turned the corner and started driving north, towards the Arctic. It flew down the street so fast, Jack and Taylor couldn’t help but smile ear to ear. This was so much fun! As they sped on, the world outside the window turned into a blur of houses and street lights.
Once they were out of the city, Taylor noticed something out the window that wasn’t blurry because it was going just as fast. It was another race car – this one was yellow and green. “Oh, another racer!” she said.
“Oh it’s on!” said the driver. “Okay, here we go kids. Hold on tight.” The driver held a tight grip on the steering wheel with one hand and started pressing buttons on a keypad in the console.
Jack hadn’t noticed those buttons before. He loved cool buttons, so he unbuckled and climbed up to the front seat of the car. “Hey, what do these buttons do?” he asked the driver. Before the driver could answer, Jack pressed a bright green button. Immediately, out of the front windshield, he saw the hood of the race car open up and a water cannon sprung up out of it. At the same time, he saw the yellow and green race car pull up beside them.
“Good choice,” the driver said to Jack. “Press it again.”
Jack, with a full-faced grin, smashed the green button and looked out the window. The cannon on the front of the car began to glow and its tank quickly began filling with a bright green ooze. Once it was full, the cannon turned towards the other race car and fired all the ooze, spraying it onto the other car’s windshield and other windows.
The driver of the oozed car couldn’t see anything so the car swerved back and forth before crashing into a giant pile of hay bales by the side of the road.
Jack put his fists in the air and yelled, “That was awesome!! Let’s do it again!” Just then, a red and white race car flew off a ramp and onto the road in front of them. Its trunk opened, revealing an entire family of porcupines covered in steel armor. Quick as a flash, the porcupines jumped out onto the street, curling up into metal, spiky orbs rolling and bouncing towards Taylor, Jack, and the driver.
An armored porcupine slammed into the windshield, leaving a large crack. Another crashed into the ooze cannon and broke it to pieces. As the last porcupine bounced over the car, the driver opened a hatch on the roof of the car, pulled down a ladder and said, “Jack, quick, climb onto the roof!”
Jack scurried up the ladder and onto the roof of the car. “No way! A freeze gun!” Not needing any instructions, he aimed at the red and white car in front of them and let out a shimmering ray of icy-blue light. It took a second, but the red and white car turned to a blue and white block of ice and skidded to a stop as they zoomed past.
Jack let out a “Whoop! Whoop!” and came back down the ladder to his seat. Taylor looked at him and said, “Good job, Jack. And good thing those porcupine cuties were already out so they didn’t freeze! But uh, driver? Where did those other cars come from?”
The driver looked back and said, “Well, we’re in a race car. What’s a race without racers? And I think that’s all of them. We should be getting to the finish line soon enough.”
That set Taylor at ease. But then she thought, “Finish line? We’re nowhere near any icy icebergs.” She did see the ocean in the distance though.
“There it is!” said the driver. Ahead of them, close to the ocean shore, was a large black and white checkered finish line. The racecar was faster than any car the twins had been in and somehow it started going even faster.
When the race car crossed the finish line in a bright blue blur the car came to a quick stop. As if from a video game, the kids heard a loud “Ba-da-ding!” sound, the driver stepped out of the car, and from the clouds floated down a big gold trophy for the racer to hold. Then the driver, the car, and the trophy froze in place like a paused video game.
After a second, the driver and race car faded and disappeared. The twins were shocked but they were getting more used the magic in their adventure. Alone now, they looked around and saw the docks on the edge of the ocean. There were a few ships Jed to the piers, one of them a large, wooden ship like you’d see in pirate movies.
Out of the big wooden ship came several grownups walking towards them. They were big, serious looking, and wore mismatched and sea-worn, ragged clothes. More than one had an eye patch. They were led by a tall woman who stood straight and strong. Unlike the others, her clothes were fancy and clean. She wore a wide hat with a large red feather sticking up on one side and an old, green parrot sat on her shoulder.