Alrighty. You all remember Kenneth Tucker, correct? My middle school shop teacher who I changed the name of for It's Called SHOP Class, Not Home Ec!? I thought so. He's back, and he's better than ever.

Daniel's not creepy; he's actually a badass and it's amazing.

Anyway, lovethatignites was driving us home the other day and of COURSE we thought of this beauty. So here it is. Happy 2017! Here's to praying sincerely it goes well! x3

Quick little note: this OT3-verse (Andi/Daniel/Mia), so the line about "Mia's best friend" refers to Andi. Also, there's a WHOLE lotta shit within this verse that you guys don't know about and I'm not willing to explain.

It had become increasingly obvious that Iridium High School was the shittiest private school ever.

It wasn't enough that Kenneth Tucker had been given the duty of teaching shop, health, math, social studies, and science as a substitute as well as being the guidance counselor and swim and track coach – and BASICALLY EVERYTHING ELSE – he now had taken on the role of driver's education instructor, too. And that wasn't even the biggest show of IHS's cheapness: there was no designated vehicle for the class, so whatever teachers they recruited had a passenger side brake pedal installed into their car.

In short, Tucker had no qualms stating that this school sucked.

Several teachers had been given a list of students to teach the class, and Tucker, who was so well-versed in everything, could actually give them their real test. And, because the now-senior class had been so destructive and blowed so badly their previous years, the curriculum had absolutely no space for driver's ed until now. Half the teachers were teaching sophomores, while Tucker was one of the lucky ones to get the seniors.

Among the fellow teachers who shared this pain was Tucker's colleague, Claire Jones, the woman he subbed for in science. She hated their students almost as much as he did, and yet she had been assigned some relatively normal people like Heather B, Gigantor Joshua, and that loud, angry male who stanned Sabrina Carpenter and always wanted to know Sebastian's last name. (Like anyone knew that.) Tucker himself, for no rhyme or reason apparently, had been assigned his least favorite students. He had slowly begun to hate Tuesdays, for that was the day he taught – and he didn't say this lightly – his worst pupils:

Daniel and Emma.

/

The first drive was rather quiet, save for Daniel's quiet snorts from the backseat whenever Emma did something wrong.

It was common knowledge they had dated for awhile – two years in actuality, but half that time they weren't really dating – and were now, at the most, acquaintances. With this information, Tucker hadn't been prepared for Daniel to laugh at her. He expected utter silence. Instead, there was Miler chortling in the back which caused Emma to tighten her grip on the steering wheel – which only made Tucker notice the singed handprints even more from the day before. What had Rueda been doing?

/

The second drive, Daniel went first.

He was actually a very good driver. He was calm and collected, and paid attention to Tucker's instructions. Of course, this was only due to him needing this life skill. In literally any other class he taught, Miler either stared blankly at the wall or whispered loudly to Andi in a very unapologetic manner.

Tucker was giving him good marks and only a few things to fix, and then he had the boy pull over so Emma could have her turn. This time, Daniel was even less discreet in his amusement. Along with laughing a tiny bit louder than the previous lesson (which wasn't necessary; no one was talking and Emma could hear him just fine) he had now started taking pictures of her, even zooming in on her face.

Tucker had yelled at him once to quiet down, which only made Emma jump in her seat and Miler laugh louder. But hey, so far this was the least confusing lesson Tucker had. The other day Charlie Greene had actually started crying to Mia over her best friend not paying him any attention.

And then Emma had hit a speed bump too quickly and Daniel was doubling over and Tucker wasn't so sure he liked Tuesdays anymore.

/

By the fifth drive, Emma was ready to retaliate.

Since there was nothing to find amusing by Daniel's driving, she had to improvise. Disregarding Tucker's rule of no eating in the (re: his) car, despite the fact he had six bags of chips hidden within the vehicle, not including the trunk, Emma brought in a bottle of Gatorade, chewy gummy bears, and a large bag of Lays. She chewed the food loudly in the backseat and tried to gargle as much of the drink as she could without choking, except her plan failed hugely. Daniel showed no immediate reaction other than a growing smile as he stayed focused on the road, and Tucker had thrown two pens at Emma by the end of the drive. Noisy eaters were one of his pet peeves – another, these students.

/

Tucker had had a particularly rough day with Gigi and her and Sebastian's tech buddy Jeremy, full of so much gossip that wasn't exactly legal that he knew his next lesson would put him on edge even more than usual.

His students got to drive twice a week (less for convenience and more because they were all so bad) and he took out four total delinquents each day. Tuesdays and Fridays were Gigi and Jeremy in the morning shift, then Emma and Daniel in the afternoon. For the most part, this was his quietest day as Diego and Sebastian were always directly before and there was something wrong with that Rueda.

So naturally, Tucker knew his afternoon would be very distasteful.

There was more talking than usual. Each time Daniel snorted and pretended to muffle it just to get under Emma's skin, because they ALL knew he didn't really care, she would say something along the lines of, "You're so childish," "Why can't you grow up," "Really? Pig noises?"

After a louder-than-normal snort from Miler, Emma laughed herself. "I should have known you'd be this dumb; you still didn't understand the freaking quadratic equation after an entire month."

Daniel shifted in his seat and the material made an odd noise underneath his weight, causing Tucker's facial features to contort. "Oh, well, I'm sorry, Emma. I don't make it my duty to learn useless things; I've always tried to leave that to you, if you haven't noticed."

Tucker had let their banter slide so far, but he wasn't expecting Daniel to have such a snappy comeback. He turned to Emma, whose jaw had dropped and her face was heating up.

"You mean useless things like your birthday?" Emma gnashed her teeth together hotly, knuckles turning white against the steering wheel. Finding that one insult wasn't enough, she added, "Don't think I didn't notice your little Twilight on Ice one-year anniversary was early and was actually on my birthday."

Tucker shifted in his seat and looked at Daniel from between the two seats. "Miler, you took a girl to Twilight on Ice on her birthday, and not even for her birthday?"

Daniel shrugged nonchalantly. "Not my fault her birth date is unmemorable."

Emma scoffed, but her still-bright skin tone showed she was bothered. "Oh, of course. My bad my birth wasn't a joke, Mr. April First."

Daniel put his hands together like he was ready to school her. "See, that wasn't even funny–"

"Okay," Tucker cut in, holding out his clipboard like it would silence them. "Enough of this. Alonso, drive. Miler – just shut up."

Emma muttered, "Finally," while Daniel made a point to show he wasn't affected by unbuckling his seat belt and lying down vertically across the entire backseat. His knees stuck up behind Tucker's headrest.

/

A few more drives had passed uneventfully for the most part. Each time they bantered, each time Tucker shut them up.

It was a rainy day, which had already put a damper on the usually-welcomed Friday, and it seemed that this affected Daniel's and Emma's already awful moods.

Daniel's gangly legs were sprawled across the backseat and one foot was pressing into the center of Emma's seat persistently each time they made a turn. Tucker had directed them to take a back road today in hopes of it being easier than a busy road in the rain, but this only provided more twists and more opportunities for them to be annoying.

Emma's hair was back in a tight bun done quickly with a hair tie and her clothes weren't exactly the uniform. She'd managed to grab the same colors as IHS, but none had the school emblem on them and Tucker decided not to mention the fact that this wasn't allowed and that her father was the principal. She clearly wasn't having a good day, and if he had to endure Daniel Miller not only in a school setting but a moving vehicle, then he'd be pretty pissed as well.

They had just begun to move over a relatively small bridge when Daniel laughed – no snort, no chuckle, just a full-out laugh that echoed and bounced off the walls of the enclosed space and left Tucker noticing that Miler had actually been laughing during their lessons. That kid never laughed before.

Emma gripped the steering wheel tighter and her elbows pointed out further. "What, exactly, are you laughing at, Daniel?" she grumbled, blowing a strand of hair that fell out of her bun away from her face.

Daniel sat up more in his seat and laughed again. "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how your boyfriend of two years is getting hit on by a gay man and you just have to deal with it."

Tucker felt his eyebrows rise on his forehead before they relaxed again. He was talking about Rueda. No question. But that certainly explained Alonso's bad mood today; Miler's appeared to have no reason other than to be a dickwad.

Emma pressed down on the gas pedal a tiny bit and Tucker contemplated writing this down. "Well it's not like I haven't dealt with gay men before, having dated one myself. And we've been together one year."

Daniel snorted, completely ignoring the jab at his sexuality (which wasn't true, proven long ago by Gigi after extensive research). "Yeah, like you weren't dating Jax in tenth grade."

Tucker tapped his pencil against his clipboard. "How does any of this pertain to driver's ed, Miler?"

Emma clenched her teeth. "I wasn't, unfortunately. I was still involved with your dumb ass."

By this point, Tucker couldn't care less about swearing in his car.

Daniel kicked her seat, causing the car to lurch forward for a second. "I think we all know you were dating him then."

"I was not!"

Daniel leaned up between the seats and looked at Tucker. "It's funny, she actually sounds defensive."

Emma lifted a hand from the steering wheel in a 'what the heck' motion. "Because I am! I wasn't dating Jax!"

"Pfft, you were totally cheating."

It occurred to Tucker that if Daniel was aware he'd been cheated on in sophomore year (which he totally had been) then he probably shouldn't be fine with it. Then again, these two were absolute imbeciles when it came to literally anything, so it wasn't too shocking.

Emma stomped on the brake pedal for a moment and the car stumbled through the execution. It fully dawned on Tucker that if they ruined his car, Francisco definitely wouldn't have the money to cover the costs. "I was dating you and you were a doof, but I wasn't cheating!"

"Yeah, because sneaking around and then flirting with Jax in front of me wasn't cheating."

Finally she growled and asked, "How's it cheating if you knew?!"

Tucker suppressed a chuckle. What was wrong with these kids? And then the laugh died in his throat. These kids would soon be able to vote. Oh, Lord.

Daniel repositioned himself comfortably in his seat and crossed his legs, giving his right easy access to kick Emma's seat once again. "Because we hadn't broken up at that point. I define dating two people at the same time as cheating," he calmly explained, tapping the back of her seat at random words.

She rolled her eyes and grumbled. "Yeah, because you're so innocent, lying to me about Mia!"

"How's it lying if you knew?"

"Oh, well you can just–"

"Alonso, pull over!" Tucker ordered, effectively cutting their argument short once again. "Miler's turn."

Daniel just shrugged and didn't even acknowledge the mispronunciation of his last name, just quietly filed out of the backseat and took over the wheel like any other lesson.

Emma had her arms crossed and her feet – tattered Converses today – rested on the back of the center console but still out of Daniel's reach.

Tucker wasn't sure who to give bad points to today. Emma wasn't really an unacceptable driver, Miler just happened to bring the worst out of her. He settled for deducting ten out the twenty possible points from each student. Seemed fair.

/

The next drive could only end badly, Tucker assumed correctly: the interstate lesson.

It wasn't like Emma always started out driving first, because Daniel was bound to bother her either way: she just needed more work. Daniel had had a field day when Tucker announced that. So now she was at the wheel, and they had actually made it to the interstate before shit started up again, as usual.

All Miler had said was, "You look weird when you drive," and Emma was OFF.

"Seriously? Well you look weird all the time! Have you even seen pictures of your hair from tenth grade?!"

Tucker coughed into his elbow.

Daniel snorted. "Have you seen your hair right now? Cool it with the waves, everyone knows you haven't liked the beach since Mia and I made out there."

Emma's eyes weren't on the road anymore and instead in the rearview mirror, glaring daggers at her ex-boyfriend. "I happen to have no problem with the beach, seeing as it was there I realized you were a douche."

Daniel opened his mouth to either make a retort or agree within a considerable range – Tucker could see both – but Tucker held up his hands and quickly said, "Quit it! You need to focus, or else we'll crash, alright? So calm down."

Emma's eyes went back to the road and Daniel relaxed in his seat, arms crossed.

For three seconds.

And then: "Ya know, it's your fault I could never get it up."

Emma abandoned all safety precautions and common sense as she literally stood up in her seat and turned around, yelling. "Oh, YA KNOW WHAT–"

A long blast of someone's horn sounded just as Tucker had to frantically grab at the steering wheel and direct them towards an exit as quickly as possible. Never could he have known this lesson would be this bad. Bad, sure, but insulting Alonso's arousal ability and standing in a moving vehicle while abandoning the wheel? What the fuck?

/

It had seemed like forever, but test day had finally arrived for Daniel and Emma.

Tucker might have found their "little" spats entertaining from time to time, but he was beyond overjoyed for them to set foot out of his car and never get back in. Finally, he could gather up all of his chips from their hiding spots.

Emma went first, as usual. He had considered whether he should tell them to shut up and take this test seriously, but decided they'd do whatever they wanted anyway. They knew this was the test, and they'd act accordingly.

Daniel had appeared to have reverted back to slightly-annoying but mostly-quiet Miler in the backseat today, and his long legs were sitting in the center console just behind the gear shift. Tucker had accidentally set his left arm down on them more than once, and let's just say that was a terrifying experience.

Daniel had been coughing every once in awhile, but now he cleared his throat, long and low, and Emma shifted her attention to him and turned in her seat. "What the hell, Daniel? This is my test!"

Tucker groaned and put a big X by her name. "And you just failed."

Emma whipped to look at him, and still not the road. "What?"

Tucker angrily jabbed his finger at the air towards the windshield. "You're not keeping your eyes on the road, Alonso! Safety hazard! Gosh, pull over and get out of the car so Miler can fail his test already."

Emma begrudgingly did as he said, shock still written all over her face. She had seriously just failed because Daniel couldn't be bothered to be professional for one. Day.

As soon as Daniel sat down and got adjusted in the front seat, Emma started up with his familiar annoyances, except much louder. She cracked her knuckles, snorted so hard she needed to blow her nose, and kicked his seat several times.

Tucker's right eye was twitching, but he didn't say anything because neither did Miler. He sat there; smiling simply at the road and never took his eyes off it.

They were only halfway through his test when Emma was so infuriated she sat up straight and growled. "Gah, how can you even stand being this annoying?!"

Daniel quirked his head and replied, "I'm used to your crap, Emma, this isn't new."

Emma most likely would have rioted right then if Tucker hadn't put a huge check mark next to Daniel's name and said loudly, "You passed!"

Emma's eyes got big and she questioned, "Are you for real?!"

Under other circumstances, Daniel immediately running over a patch of shrubs growing by the side of the road right after would have been cause for Tucker to revoke the passing of his driver's test. Instead, nothing happened, and soon he had Daniel pull back into Iridium High's parking lot.

Mia was waiting by the back entrance despite it not being her driving day, and, like a good girlfriend, sauntered over to where Daniel was climbing out of the car. "Well?"

Daniel smiled widely at his girlfriend and threw his arms out. "I passed!"

Mia grinned up at him through her bangs and allowed him to pick her up off her feet in a warm hug, her black ripped jeans-covered legs wrapping themselves around his torso as she hugged him back. "That's great!" she exclaimed, pulling back just enough in his arms to give him a long, passionate kiss.

Emma, who had climbed out of the car and was now just watching this scene with Tucker, crossed her arms and let her jaw drop. "What the fuck."

Mrs. Jones, of course, happened to have pulled in from the road with that Sebastian-inquiring guy and Heather B, and heard her comment. "Detention, Ms. Alonso," she sighed audibly, running a hand through her hair as she got out of her vehicle. "How'd it go, Ken?" she asked, paying attention to her colleague.

Tucker tapped the top of his car and laughed. "Miler passed for once."

Claire's surprise showed in her eyes. "Wow. Impressive."

Emma waved an arm around, flabbergasted. "No one's going to yell at them for making out on school grounds?!"

Mia and Daniel were still going at it, and Tucker lifted one shoulder in an 'oh well' gesture. "We can't expect that to be an easy accomplishment for him, as you didn't help him get it up. I'll see you next week, Alonso." And inside he went, glad to at least be free of one student, even if he had been his source of amusement for the past few months.

This was actually my favorite piece to write, so please review!