Chapter 6 – The Jeep - Revised

As we walked Jacob pointed to each of the houses we passed. The one next to his was occupied by Seth and Leah; Seth not quite old enough to get his own house. The house next to that was empty waiting for Seth to turn 16 so he could move into it. After that was Jared's and after that was Emma and Paul's house. Jacob explained that because Paul and Emma were a couple, they were allowed to stay in the same home.

Set close to the road was Burdette's home which looked warm and inviting even from the outside. We walked a little further and came into view of my dark blue Jeep. I opened the trunk and pulled out my backpack and purse and Jacob grabbed my luggage bag and my pillow.

"Were you planning on going somewhere if...?" asked Jacob, eyeing the backpack which was lumpy in places because it was so crammed full of stuff.

"I planned on going to stay with my godmother for the summer if this didn't work out; I thought she would be able to cheer me up," I said, a slight blush creeping up my face.

I locked the trunk and turned to walk back towards Jacob's house when he said

"What happened to your tail lights?"

I turned around, "Oh, umm, my ex… he uh, used my Jeep for batting practice," I said, an icy feeling spreading through my body even though the weather, and I, were abnormally warm.

"I can fix them for you if you want," he said still studying the tail end of the Jeep, "He must have been really pissed," he said looking at me now out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, he was," I said under my breath.

"Well, start 'er up and we can drive it into my garage," he said opening the back door of the Jeep and putting the luggage and pillow on the bench seat.

"Your garage?" I said looking around and only now noticing the garage that was half-hidden by trees.

It was big enough to hold at least four cars and one of the doors was already open.

"Alright," I said dumping my stuff in the back seat and closing the door, "Hop in."

I hopped up into the driver's seat and turned on the Jeep as Jacob climbed into the passenger's seat.

"Just go right over the grass," said Jacob, a slight smile on his face, "Tear it up if you like."

I smiled, this would be fun. I threw the Jeep into drive and put my foot to the floor. We flew over the small embankment and over the first 10 feet of grass. I drove all the way into the center of the yard in front of the garage and then turned the wheel all the way to the left sending us into a perfect donut. Jacob whooped and threw his hands in the air. I laughed and pulled out of the donut sharply. I threw her into reverse and started expertly driving around backward at top speed and then slammed on the brakes, the headlights facing the entrance to the garage.

"That," Jacob said, "Was great! Who taught you to drive like that?"

I laughed, "That would be my dad; he took me off-roading all the time as a kid and then taught me to do all his tricks when I got my license."

I put the Jeep in drive and pulled into the garage and got out.

"We should strap Paul into the car with you next time! He hates it when Emma goes anywhere beyond 70 even on the back roads," he laughed, stuffing books back into my purse which had come undone while we were doing donuts.

He handed me the purse and backpack and then grabbed the pillow and suitcase again. We started our walk back to the house still talking about off-road tricks and the best places he had been to drive over 100. I couldn't help but think that if I had this much fun every day I was going to love living here.