Hello (: OMG it was mid-year exams this week… So intense. So much studying and stuff. Uh. Anyway, now it's over… I just have to wait for results. Yay. So. Much. Fun. Anyway, I decided to do two songfics for Eyes Open by Taylor Swift, one kinda comical and one more serious. This is the comical one and it's about Bex. And her driver's test. So yeah… you can sort of imagine the outcome ;) Got the idea when I was sitting, eyes squeezed shut in the passenger's seat as my mum jerked the steering wheel. Hehe (: Hope you like (:
Disclaimer: Non-owner
Eyes Open by Taylor Swift
Everybody's waiting
Everybody's watching
Even when you're sleeping
Keep your ey-eyes open
"Bex!" Grant yells, clinging onto the armrest as if it was his life. And it probably was.
"Yeah?" I said, looking over at him, his face all white and petrified. He pales even more.
"Doesn't matter," he says, his eyes widening, "BEX, EYES ON THE ROAD!" I look forward again to find myself on the wrong side of the road. I swear and whip the car back to the right side, a car honking angrily behind us. I grin to myself. Oh yeah, my kind of driving.
"Um, Bex?" Grant sounds uncertain and a little sick. Hmm, I wonder what's wrong?
"Yeah sweetie?"
"Can we pull over for a bit?"
"Why?"
"Oh nothing much baby, I just feel a little sick," I glance over at Grant and sure enough, his face is tinged with green. I jump, is he even thinking about puking in my car?
"Pulling over!" I shriek, yanking the steering wheel to the side, slamming the brake and the accelerator at the same time. We screech to a stop at the curb in the midst of many, many honks and I push Grant out of the car, hard. He stumbles out and lands on the footpath, breathing heavily.
"What's the matter? Are you feeling sick baby?" I wonder what's the matter with him, the burger went down the wrong way?
"Ah, nothing much Bex," he says, colour slowly returning to his cheeks. He smiles nervously and eyes the car.
"Hey Bex, when did you say you were taking your driver's test again?" I think back to last week when I had signed up at the local driver's place, acing the test.
"Next week I think," I say smiling. He pales again. I frown at him.
"What's the matter?"
"Uh, nothing really," he mumbles and wipes his hand across his forehead.
"But, um, Bex? Maybe you should get a teacher, so, you know, you make sure you pass," I smile at him evilly.
"Are you volunteering?" Grant pales even more, his normally tanned skin looking white.
"Sor-ry, Bex," he stammers, "um, I've got lots of paperwork to catch up on at Langley, won't be available this week," he gulps, watching me with fear in his eyes.
"Ok," I shrug. He smiles faintly at me.
"I'll just have to find someone else to teach me," I glanced down at Grant and could've sworn I heard him whisper 'God save their souls.' But before I could ask him, he was standing up.
"You ok now Grant?" He nods, but eyes the car.
"Okay, get in!" I smile happily at him and jump into the driver's seat. Grant takes a deep breath and gingerly stepped into the car.
The tricky thing
Is yesterday we were just children
Playing soldiers
Just pretending
"Thanks for coming Cammie," I say sarcastically as I eye Cammie, who's standing on the footpath, nervously staring at the car.
"Do I have to? You're probably going to kill me," Cammie folds her arms across her chest, and stares at me. I sigh and get out of the car.
"Look Cammie, I need to pass this test and Grant seems to think I need a teacher, so of course I came to you, my very best friend who incidentally also passed her test," I give her a British puppy eye look and I can see her melting. I smile at her sweetly. Now time for my trump card.
"Look Cammie," my accent getting stronger as I smirk at her, "if you don't get in this car, I will tell everyone about that time during the first year of Gallagher," she gasps. I can see the horror on her face.
"You wouldn't!"
"Yeah, I would."
"Screw you Baxter."
"Right back at ya, Morgan." Cammie glares at me and reluctantly straps herself in. She then closes her eyes and murmurs something.
"What are you saying?" I eye her warily.
"Just praying I won't die today," she answers, before I promptly slap her on the arm. She glares at me.
"You better be nice to me Cammie," I grin at her slyly, "or we may be popping into the hospital," Cammie takes a deep breath and takes a pill from her handbag. I see 'motion sickness pills' on the label.
"I'm ready," Cammie grips the seat before glancing at me, "please don't kill us."
"No promises there Cammie."
…
We had been going ok so far, no one was dead yet. Cammie was looking a little pale, but at least she wasn't green yet. I swerved to another lane, narrowly missing a black car behind us. A long honk rang out; I was beginning to get used to the noise of angry drivers.
"Ok Bex, try not to swerve so much, you're not allowed to do that on the road," Cammie's biting her lip and looks ahead.
"What? But then it wouldn't be fun!" I protest. Cammie sighs. So I drive on one lane. But I swerve a lot on that one lane. Suddenly I remember something.
"Hey Cammie, remember that time when we stalked Josh's rubbish bin?" I laughed and my hand slipped a little on the steering wheel. Cammie didn't answer. Her eyes were squeezed shut.
"Remember when I was driving and I blew up a tyre? That was fun!" I'm laughing and Cammie is trying not to smile. She opens her eyes and her in an instant, her eyes have widened.
"BEX! HANDS ON THE WHEELS!" She screams as I realise that I had let go of the steering wheel. I grab it and swerve onto the next lane. Whoops. It's a habit now.
Cammie's breathing deeply as I make our way back to her house. I ease into her driveway, almost knocking over her mail box. Cammie jumps out before the car's even stopped.
"Same time tomorrow?" I ask hopefully. Cammie looks petrified.
"Um, sorry Bex, I'm busy," Cammie tugs her hair nervously, "um, meeting my mom," I shrug.
"Oh!" I look up. Cam looks a little excited, but also a bit mischievous.
"I just remembered! Zach's free tomorrow! I'll send him over to teach you," Cammie smiles at me, looking relieved.
"Ok," I grin happily. Another teacher!
"Bye!" Cammie waves and hurries into the house. I just laugh and reverse out of her driveway, knocking over her mailbox in the process.
Dreaming dreams with happy endings
In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords
But now we've stepped into a cruel world
Where everybody stands and keeps score
"Ok Bex, so, Cammie has forced me to come teach you how to drive," Zach straps himself in and smirks at me. I slap his arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" Zach rubs his arm.
"That was for smirking in my car. My car doesn't appreciate smirking." Zach glares at me. I smile sweetly back.
"Ok, just drive," Zach grumbles, running a hand through his hair. I smile.
"You said it, not me," I grin, and step onto the accelerator. We zoom off, flying down the road. Zach swears loudly in Farsi.
"What the hell? What are you doing?" He yells, gripping the seat.
"I'm driving Goode, what do you think I'm doing?" I yell back, glancing over at him. He waves me away.
"Don't look at me, LOOK AT THE ROAD!" Sheesh, why does everyone say that to me? I turn back to the road and roll my eyes.
"Can we," Zach gulps, "go a little slower?" Sighing, I loosen my foot a little. Zach relaxes a little.
"Jeez women, who taught you how to drive?"
"Hmm, my grandma I think."
"She drives like that?"
"Yeah Zachy. Got a problem with that?"
"No Bex."
"Good."
"Hey when did you say your driving test was going to be?" Zach glances over; I wonder why people ask me that?
"Monday," I say casually, Zach stares at me.
"Monday, as in 2 days from now Monday?" Zach stares at me if I'm crazy.
"Yeah," I look at him if he's demented or something, "do you know another Monday?" Zach's still looking at me as if I'm crazy. I glare at him. Immediately he looks at the road.
The rest of the car ride was silent apart from the occasional "BEX! THERE'S A TREE THERE!" or a "BEX! YOU'RE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!" and even a "BEX, THERE'S A CAT UP AHEAD! DON'T KILL IT!" I pulled up at Cammie and Zach's house again. Zach leaps out towards Cammie, who's waiting by the front door. She walks down and smirks at Zach.
"How was it honey?" She asks innocently. Zach glares at her. She smiles sweetly back.
"Hey, at least you're not dead yet," Zach looks reassured at that.
"Is anyone hurt? I brought the First Aid kit out," Cammie holds out the box towards Zach.
"Good God Cammie, do you have any non-crazy friends?"
"Does it look like it?"
Zach considers it.
"No probably not," he turns and starts to head towards the door with Cammie. The he turns.
"Hey Baxter," I look up from the car, "you almost killed me 32 times. Try not to kill the instructor, will you?" Zach shakes his head before walking inside.
"Only 32 times?" I mutter to myself. "Wow, I must be getting slack."
Everybody's waiting for you to breakdown
Everybody's watching to see the fallout
Even when you're sleeping, sleeping
Keep your ey-eyes open
I woke up that morning to the shrill ringing of my phone. I groaned and picked up.
"Hello?" I asked, in my most threatening, Bex-like voice.
"Are you up?" Macey's voice rang back. I grimaced.
"What do you think? Am I talking to you right now McHenry?" I snapped, pulling my duvet over my head.
"Funny," said Macey sarcastically, "I would've thought you actually wanted to go to your driving test after all your lessons," I swore. Really loud.
"Language Baxter!" Macey yelled into the phone. I didn't even respond, I was too busy groping around my closet, trying to locate the closest pair of clean jeans.
"Anyway, the gang and I are meeting you at the driving place in an hour, 'kay?" Macey sounded cheerful, and a voice in the background mumbled. Macey laughed.
"Oh and Cammie wants to know whether to bring the extensive first aid kit or the normal first aid kit?" And with that, she hung up. Glaring at my phone I jumped into the shower and blasted on the shower. About 15 minutes later, I was sitting at the table eating cereal.
"Bex?" A voice called out. I snapped up. Why is someone in my house? I stood next to the door and jumped the intruder. He groaned and rolled over. Grant stared up at me.
"Baby, it's me," he managed to choke out, my arms around his neck. I let go and sighed.
"Sorry Grant," I took a sip of coffee, "a bit nervous today." Grant rubbed his neck and tried to smile.
"No worries babe," he said, leaning in to kiss me. I smiled against him, just what I needed.
"Now, my British Bombshell," Grant sat down onto the chair opposite, "what side of the road do you drive on?" I rolled my eyes.
"The left," Grant looked petrified and opened his mouth. Whoops.
"The right," I said, biting my lip. Grant closed his mouth and fingered his hair.
"Uh, just drive slower than you usually do and you should be fine," he leaned over and pressed his lips against my forehead, "and don't panic," I looked up at him.
"Don't panic," I repeated.
"Good," he said, squeezing my hand.
"Let's go."
So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard
Every lesson forms a new scar
They never thought you'd make it this far
But turn around, oh they've surrounded you
I pull up at the centre. I turn towards Grant. I take a deep breath. He nods at me encouragingly. I smile shakily and get out of the car. I notice that he wipes a bead of sweat off his forehead. We walk in.
The first thing we see is colour. Lots and lots of colour. Everyone jumps out, screaming. Cammie rushes towards me.
"Surprise!" She squeals, grabbing my hand, "do you like it?" I look around in amazement. The whole driver's centre was cover with balloons and streamers and all our friends stood in the middle, beaming at me.
"Wow," I say, blinking and feeling a huge grin come over my face, "you guys didn't have to do this!" Everyone laughs and comes closer.
"Of course we did," Jonas says, holding Liz's hand, "you're having your drivers test!" I beam at everyone. Zach smirks and mumbles something like 'and it may be the last time we see you or the driving instructor'. I whirl on him.
"What did you just say Zachy?"
"Nothing Bex."
"That's what I thought," I turn back to the girls. They're all beaming and Cammie pulls out a box.
"From us," she announces, pointing from her, to Macey to Liz.
"We saw it when you and Zach were driving and we thought, BEX!" Liz squeals, smiling so widely. I open the box. Inside I found a charm bracelet, with different charms on it.
"Oh girls! You shouldn't have!" I slip it on and admire it; it's all silver and sparkly with 4 charms on it.
"Ok so this one is when we first all met each other," Macey explains, pointing to the charm of a combat boot, "of when I first came." We smile at each other.
"This one," Cammie sighs a little, "is when we had our first exchange with," she glances over her shoulder and jerks her thumb in the guy's direction, "them." I laugh at the tiny silver charm that looked exactly like to bugs we had planted in the guy's bedroom.
"This is graduation," Liz says, pointing at the graduation hat, "and that is the first day at the CIA," it was a little charm of a pair of spy-like sunglasses and I couldn't help but crack a smile. Grant and the guys walk towards us.
"And this," Grant pulls out another charm, "is from us boys," he hands over the charm. I gasp. It's a mini replica of my car! Name-plate and all!
"Thanks guys!" I exclaim, giving Grant a hug.
"You haven't even read the back yet," Zach smirks. I turn it over and on it says,
Keep your Eyes Open
I smack Zach's arm, knowing that the cheeky words had been his. He just laughs.
"Bex Baxter?" A driving instructor comes up to our little party. I swallow hard. Everyone turns towards me. Then suddenly all the advice comes rushing towards me.
"Remember, RIGHT side of the road."
"Go slow okay? Not many people drive at your speed."
"Just focus on the road, don't get distracted."
"Eyes on the ROAD, Baxter."
I take a deep breath and walk with the instructor.
Keep your feet ready
Heartbeat steady
Keep your eyes open
Keep your aim locked
The night goes dark
Keep your eyes open
"Okay, if I can just get you to fill this form out Miss Baxter then we can go," the guy handed me a clipboard with a form on it. I glanced at his nametag. 'Bob'. Huh.
"Thank you," I smiled politely at him, my many years of C&A coming in hand. I looked down at the form. I quickly filled it out and handed it back. He took it and glanced at it quickly. He looked up and led me outside.
"Let's go," he said, leading me to a car.
I took one last despairing look at the driver's centre and got in the car.
…
Seatbelt- check
Mirrors- check
Gear-check
Doors- check
I took a deep breath and glanced at 'Bob.'
"Whenever you're ready," he said, smiling encouraging. I clutched the steering wheel, taking deep breaths. I slowly moved the car forward. I was doing okay; nothing had been hit yet.
I focused on the road, keeping my eyes locked on the road ahead. My heart was beating furiously but I could almost feel Mr Solomon glaring at me so I calmed it down with my inner spy skills.
"Uh, Miss Baxter?" I snapped up, realising that the car had been inching closer and closer to the other lane. I jerked the steering wheel back. The instructor swallowed.
"Sorry," I managed to quip as I continued watching the road. It took me a while to realise that I had been going at my normal speed. I winced and loosened my foot a little off the accelerator. The instructor breathed a sigh of relief.
"Make a turn here please," the instructor said, and I hurriedly turned. He turned a little green. Whoops. I was driving on the wrong side of the road again. I hurriedly jerked the steering wheel to the right.
It was silent for a while and only when I glanced over at the instructor did I realise why. He had fainted. I bit my lip and jerked the wheel a little. He instantly woke up. He straightened his shirt and blinked.
"Strange… I can't really remember the last few minutes," he muttered to himself. I snapped alert. He couldn't remember. That meant if I drove good from now to the end… Yes. I took a deep breath and imagined driving like a person that's has never driven before. Slow and steady.
"Pull over here please Miss," I took a deep breath and pulled over. Miraculously, no one died. The instructor looked at his notes.
"Pretty good I think Miss Baxter, just remember turning doesn't need to be as violent, but apart from that, you passed," I sat in shock.
I passed?
Keep your ey-eyes open
I bounced into the driver's centre, beaming. Everyone stood up and rushed towards me the moment I entered the room. I grinned. The girls screamed.
"You passed!" They hugged me and jumped up and down alongside me. The guys seemed a little shocked, as if they didn't expect me to have passed.
"H-how?" Jonas spluttered. I smiled a little.
"Uh, the instructor may have fainted a little…." I trailed of, smiling lightly. They gaped at me.
"What?"
Everyone shook they're head. We went back into celebration mode. Then Zach smirked. And I knew he was going to say something.
"So Bex," he spun my car keys around his finger, "did you keep your eyes open?" I snatched the keys from him and smirked right back.
"Why yes, yes I did."
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