Too Fast For His Own Good

Too Fast For His Own Good is the thirty-fifth episode of Sodor High School: Thomas and Friends Tales.
==Synopsis==
Discovering Rosie's new look, James becomes convinced she's trying to imitate him.
==Plot==
The morning after the trip to Ulfstead, Thomas, Percy and Emily head to Ffarquhar Station for its fifth annual railfest, featuring a gathering of small or lightweight locomotives from around Sodor, and even the Mainland. Percy shows his knowledge of Terrier engines like Waddon, telling Emily that he learned them from their friend Stepney, who turns out to be in attendance and greets Thomas and Percy. Stepney is a guest at the railfest where he talks about the history of his engine and occasionally moving it. When he notices Emily, he asks the boys who's the lucky guy that got a beautiful girlfriend, embarrassing Emily and Thomas as a result. Percy fills him in on the two's mutual attraction and he apologizes for making a scene before properly himself as Stepney Stroudley; Emily remarks that's the same name as William Stroudley, the man who designed the class of engines like the one Stepney's named after, and he says that's why his father named him as such.
Just then, the four teenagers hear Toby shouting on a nearby road, where someone races past him on a motorbike at high speeds. Everyone guesses that the driver is James, who just obtained his motorbike license and got his new bike. As he proceeds to boast, Stepney heads back to his engine as he knows James well enough that continuing to talk to his friends will be impossible. Thomas warns James that his boasting will get him in trouble just like when he entered Sodor's first dirt bike competition on an American bike with weak brakes from too much practice; his brakes stopped working and Thomas tried and failed to stop him before he crashed in a farmer's field. Although shuddering from the memory, James points out the bikes aren't the same and he's gotten better in riding them, so he won't be in a situation like that again and will be the fastest redhead on Sodor (or at least in the Ffarquhar area). Thomas points out that Rosie's a redhead but when James scoffs at this since Rosie has pink hair, Thomas informs him that she updated her appearance, but James believes Thomas is just pulling his leg. A foreman soon tells James to move his bike as he's blocking the engines trying to move, so he leaves. Thomas says that James is in for a shock next time he sees Rosie, and Emily takes a liking to his cheekiness in saying that, to her mental surprise.
As James drives on denying that Rosie's a redhead now, he stops at a set of lights next to a girl on an American motorbike. He doesn't know who she is until she speaks, recognizing Rosie's voice and following after her when the light turns green. Stopping at a supply shop for the restoration, James sees Rosie remove her helmet, revealing her new hairstyle. When Rosie asks James what he thinks of her new look, he accuses her of copying her, to which she points out how different they look (and a passerby snarking that Rosie's cute compared to James, earning his ire.) After calming down, James learns of Rosie's new job before she goes into the supply shop to pick up what she needs, mentioning that Brad ordered her motorbike months ago so she'd travel better, and it arrived just this morning. James comes up with the idea of a race to Ulfstead and speeds off before Rosie is ready, leaving her momentarily in the dust before she follows.
For a while James keeps an early lead, but is shocked when Rosie passes him. After a short distance, James opened the throttle and speeds past re-taking the lead. When Rosie spots a set of lights coming up, she warns James but when he tries slowing down, he continues speeding. Worse comes to follow; the Stanier's car is turning onto the same street, and Henry and his mother see James approaching fast and not stopping. At the last second, James finally stops with a small gap between the car and his bike's front wheels: Henry tells him to be more careful as his mother drives away.
James backs up to the crosswalk where Rosie's waiting and tells him something might be wrong with his brakes. James brushes it off thinking Rosie's just being a sore loser, but she says she doesn't care about the race and tells him to go to Victor's shop for a checkover. James doesn't take it seriously but goes anyway while Rosie continues on to Ulfstead Castle, wondering why James would ignore good advice.
While getting back to Ffarquhar, James slows to a perfect stop at another set of red lights, unaware of the liquid dropping out of his bike. When he reaches Victor's shop, he doesn't skid and proclaims Rosie was wrong and his bike is fine, so he leaves to challenge her to a rematch, not seeing the puddle of brake fluid where he stopped, but Victor does.
Meanwhile Rosie drives back towards Ulfstead since she's finished her day's work. She comes across James waiting to pick up where they left off with their race, but she asks if he went to Victor's shop. James says he did, but doesn't specify that he went in; oblivious to this, Rosie agrees to one more race back to the Ffarquhar railfest. They take off with neither noticing that James is losing brake fluid until James finds that he can't stop when approaching a set of red lights at the bottom of a hill. He races through traffic as Rosie follws him, James unable to slow down when the throttle jams.
At Ffarquhar, Stepney tells Thomas, Emily, and Percy about his daring escape from a rundown building slated for demolition when his father hears something. Stepney climbs on his father's engine and spots James racing towards town with Rosie trying to catch him. Even though she caught up to him, there's nothing she can do to stop him, so James ends up crashing into the station's wall. Thomas, Emily, and Percy rush to help him while Stepney calls 911.
Within the hour, James was taken to Ffarquhar Hospital and has his left arm and left leg put in casts on top of having cuts and bruises. His friends check in on him and tell him the crash could've been enough to kill him, with Rosie chewing him out for not jumping off his bike when his brakes started to fail. Rosie then wonders how James' brakes failed if he had Victor check on them, leading to James sheepishly admitting he never went into Victor's shop after assuming he skidded over water during their first race. Thomas makes a call to Victor and learns about the puddle of brake fluid, to which Emily lambasts James for ignoring Rosie's advice and not just getting his brakes fixed. James apologizes to Rosie and is told his parents are outside ready to hear what happened, so his friends take their leave, but Rosie throws him a bone and says that for a time, he has proven he was the fastest redhead on Sodor.
Afterwards, James' parents punish him for his recklessness by making him give up his motorbike license for a full year, and not allowing him anywhere near motorbikes for the duration of that time.
==Characters==
* Thomas 
* Emily 
* Percy 
* Rosie 
* James 
* Victor 
* Kevin 
* Stepney (Debut)
* Mrs. Stanier (Debut)
* Mr. Stroudly (Debut)
* Toby (cameo)
* The Hughes family
** Mr. Hughes (mentioned)
** Mrs. Hughes (mentioned)
* Brad (mentioned)
* George (mentioned)
==Cast==
==Trivia==
* This episode's plot is inspired by the television series' twenty-first season episode, "The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor".
* At one point, Percy quotes a verse from "James the Really Splendid Engine".
==Goofs==
* It's said in "Rail Fight!" that James' Father is deceased, but he is said to appear here. This is either a continuity error, a retcon or his mother remarried.
** It's later revealed his mother remarried at some point, rendering this error moot.
Category:Thomas and Friends
Category:Sodor High School
Category:Episodes
Category:Fan Fiction