The Rain Delay

Raindrop after raindrop fell against the cold, wet pavement. The desolate racetrack was filling up fast with water.

Jimmie Johnson walked through the water. He didn't seem to care that his pants and the bottom of his shoes were getting wet. Jimmie walked towards the trailers. He had no idea what to do during this rain delay; he was bored.

Suddenly, something caught Jimmie's eye. He turned just in time to see someone in a dress run by. The person in the dress stopped, then yelled over, "hey!" He then continued running.

Jimmie turned back around. "No, it can't be." He thought. The person in the dress was a guy! Jimmie ran after him. He followed him back to Terry Labonte's garage, but stopped when he heard voices. He peeked around the corner and saw a table in the center of the room. There were four people around it; Terry Labonte and three men from his pit crew: Jim Long (crew chief), Mike Bumgarner (car chief), and Jason Gay (tire carrier). Jimmie also noticed that there was a deck of cards in the center of the table. Suddenly everyone at the table stopped talking. The man with the dress on entered the room. Jimmie finally recognized him as Brad Pickens, Labonte's 28 year old gas man.

Everyone at the table started laughing. "Where'd you find that dress?" Mike asked.

"I snuck into Harvick's trailer, and it was in the closet," Brad explained, "I'm hoping it's his wife's!"

"I can't believe you actually wore a dress!" Terry exclaimed.

"Hey, I lost the poker game fair and square. When I make a bet, I stand to it." Brad started to tug at the sleeves of his dress. "But I think I've served my time, so I'd like to change out of it now."

"Not so fast!" Jason stopped him, "We have to play another hand to see who has to bring it back."

Brad reluctantly pulled up a chair and sat back at the table. "Brad, at least sit like a girl when you're wearing that!" Mike warned him.

Brad looked down and noticed how he was sitting. He shifted in his seat, and put his legs together. "Okay, deal!"

"Jimmie." Jimmie Johnson heard a voice behind him. He was still standing outside the garage. "Jimmie!" Jeff Gordon repeated. Jimmie turned around...

"Yeah?" he tried to answer quietly.

Jeff Gordon didn't seem to take the hint. "What are you doing?" he asked louder than before.

"I'm just watc..." Jimmie felt a hand on his shoulder before he could finish.

"Hey guys." Terry greeted, "wanna play a game of poker?"

"Sure!" Jeff agreed before Jimmie could warn him.

"How about you, Jimmie?" Jimmie didn't know what to answer. "Yeah, sure I'm in." He finally agreed.

Jimmie followed them inside.

Brad stood up when he saw them come in. "Hey, guys, here to join the party?"

Jimmie turned to see Jeff's reaction to the man in the dress.

Jeff was about to leave. Then he thought about how bored he had been all day, and after all, what's the worst that could happen?

Jim Long looked down at his hand. He didn't even have a small pair, and he was sure that he would have been the one to return the dress. Jim put down his hand and shuffled it back in with the rest of the cards. "Anyone up for a new hand?"

"Yeah." Brad said, "and let's raise the stakes a little."

"What did you have in mind?" Mike asked.

"Whoever loses, has to wear the dress back to Harvick's trailer."

They agreed and dealt out the cards. Brad looked at his hand. "We can still raise the stakes," he smiled.

Everyone looked at him. He leaned down and picked up a plastic bag and slowly pulled the contents out. Jimmie's mouth dropped. It was a pair of red four inch heels!

"There's no way!" Jimmie's eyes widened.

"Yeah." Terry said.

"All right..." Brad started to put them back, "if you're all too chicken."

"Okay." Terry gave in. The others reluctantly agreed, too.

Everyone held their cards in their hands. Slowly, one by one, they revealed their hand to the others.

Jimmie Johnson put down his pair of threes. It was the worst hand so far, and the only one who hadn't gone yet was Jeff Gordon. Jimmie held in his breath as Jeff put down his cards.

"A pair of twos!!!" Jimmie shouted. Jimmie looked over at his car owner and stopped yelling. Jeff looked at him like a lost puppy. "Sorry," Jimmie lowered his head. "I didn't mean it."

"Nevermind." Jeff said. He looked over once again at the sparkling dress and the red heels...

"How you doing in there, Jeffie?" Brad hollered from the other room. Jeff Gordon looked at the full-length mirror in front of him. He wished it wasn't there. The image that reflected back at him was not one he wanted to see. Jeff was wearing a sparkling dress that was still damp from the rain. He held the red four-inch heels in his hand, as he prepared himself to walk into the garage. Slowly he opened the door.

Immediately, Jeff saw a camera flash going off. He also heard the entire room laughing at him, including a red faced Jimmie. "Sorry." Jimmie had to apologize again, "You just look so funny!"

"Wait, wait, he's not even done!" Mike grabbed the heels out of Jeff's hand. "You have to put these on, Cinderella!"

Jeff managed to squeeze his feet into the shoes. He couldn't believe they were making him do this! He didn't know how he was ever going to get out of this one.

"How about one more game before I go?" Jeff asked, as he stumbled his way over to the table.

"I don't think so." Terry said. "You have to wear that thing over there and return it!"

"Okay, okay, but one of you has to go with me." Jeff told them.

"That seems fair." Jim Long said. He knew he never lost at cards.

"All right, but to make it go faster, how 'bout y'all just pick a card, and low card loses." Jeff started shuffling the deck. The others reached into the deck and picked a card. They all held them down so they couldn't see them.

"On the count of three, show your cards." Brad said. Everyone put their card out when Brad reached three.

"Terry!" Everyone started yelling. "You only got a two!"

"I didn't lose, look, Jimmie only got a 1." Terry got all nervous.

"It's an ace." Jimmie started to turn red; he knew he should have never been spying. "Aces are high, right?" He looked around the room to see if anyone was on his side.

"Don't worry, Jimmie. Aces are high. Terry just has to lose gracefully and go with Jeffie." Brad put his arm around Terry's shoulder.

"All right." Terry knew he was defeated. "I'll go." He looked around the garage and saw a mop leaning up against a wall. He twisted off the handle and put the mop on his head. "Okay. I'm ready." Terry's crew just stared at him.

Terry followed Jeff out the door. They started toward Harvick's trailer. "Wait a minute." Mike thought out loud, "What if they don't go? Besides, I don't wanna miss this!" Mike ran out the door after Jeff and Terry. The others followed.

Jeff didn't notice the group of people behind him, and to make matters worse, the rain picked up, and it was now pouring. Jeff just wanted to get this over with as fast as he could. Jeff finally reached Harvick's trailer. He tried the door, hoping it was locked, but it was still open from when Brad stole the dress. Terry stood outside the trailer, claiming to have muddy feet. Jeff walked in alone. He took the heels off and held them. Then he tried to take off the dress. It didn't work. No matter what Jeff tried, the zipper was stuck! He was also dripping muddy water all over Harvick's floor.

Jeff didn't know what to do. He reached his left arm up as high as it could go and struggled to pull down the zipper. He then heard Terry come in to the trailer.

"Hey." Jeff yelled from the other room after Terry wasn't coming. "Can you help me with this?"

Jeff turned around and saw Harvick standing there with his mouth wide open. Five rolls of toilet paper tumbled from Harvick's arms.

"Umm..ummm..." Jeff stuttered and looked down at the floor. Rolls of toilet paper were now unraveling on the carpet.

"What are you doing here?!" Harvick finally asked him, after a long uncomfortable silence. "And who's dress is that?"

Jeff looked down at the dress he was wearing. "I thought it was yours."

"What! Jeff, give me a break! Who put you up to this, Mikey? I have never seen that dress before in my life. Get out of my trailer!"

"Wait..I'll tell you what happened, but please can you help me with this first. The zipper got stuck, and I can't take it off." Jeff shifted the DuPont hat on his head.

"I'd rather not." Harvick looked at him, "How 'bout you get one of your buddies to do it."

"Please! I don't want to wear this. Can't you help me?!" Jeff started trying to pull at the zipper again.

"Fine." Harvick finally gave in. "But stand still." Harvick walked over to Jeff and tried to get the zipper to work.

"Hey boys!" They heard a voice behind them. "Did I come at a bad time?"

Harvick turned around and saw Michael Waltrip. Gordon just stood there with his back to the door. He didn't want to turn around.

But, he didn't have to. Mikey walked over to Gordon and put his arm on his shoulder. "Don't you two make a cute couple." He taunted. "Am I interrupting something? Should I come back later?"

"Why are you here?" Harvick asked Mikey.

"I heard you were planning on doing something to my brother's trailer. I wasn't sure if I believed it until I saw that whole convention outside your trailer." Mikey backed up a little so he could get a better look at Jeff Gordon. "Well, Jeff. What are you all dolled up for? Going to a party?" He then turned back to Harvick as if there was nothing wrong. "Mikey, the zipper is stuck on my dress. Can you unzip it for me?" Jeff asked for help again.

"Sure, no problem." Mikey walked over to Gordon and with a swipe of his hand unzipped the dress. "Though I don't know why you would chose a dress with a broken zipper anyway. And that is not really even the best color on you."

"What is wrong with you people?!" Jeff yelled. "I lost the game okay!" Jeff stormed out of the trailer.

"I knew that would work." Harvick said. "He always was a little too perfect."

Mikey started walking to the door. "That's one down, but we have a lot more work to do today. What are you planning with that toilet paper?"

Harvick started rolling the toilet paper back up. "I was planning on toilet papering your brother's trailer."

"Sounds great, I'm up for it." Mikey started to help him with the toilet paper. "I'm still a little surprised that Terry and his crew helped us. I guess they wanted a little fun today."

"Who's next on the list?" Harvick finished picking up the rolls, and he headed toward the door. Mikey followed.

They started to walk by the trailer when they saw a head peeking out from the corner.

"Maybe him." Mikey said.

Jimmie Johnson went back behind the corner. He wondered what they were talking about.