Well, the next day was much less emotional. Or at least, their emotions were kept inside, and weren't spilling out over the place, and everyone was altogether happier. It seems easier to temporarily forget about your troubles when you are vacation.
"Rise and shine little surfers! Today you all are going to hit the road. And I don't mean that literally. I mean that you are going to start driving!" Charlie screamed as he walked down the hallway from his room to the living room.
Ginny woke up from the sound of Charlie's shouts and mumbled to Hermione, who was sleeping in the top bunk, "Why do we have to drive in the morning? I'd much rather cruise the streets at noon."
"Oh, just get up. We're lucky that he's letting us use his car. My parents have a car and they've never even let me back the car out of the driveway." Hermione said, much too cheerfully for that hour of the morning.
The boys didn't wake up quite as promptly as Ginny and Hermione. Ginny decided to start blasting the radio right outside their door after it had been thirty minutes and they weren't showing any signs of waking.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when Charlie had managed to gather them all around his car. It wasn't as bad as they had been expecting. It needed a paint job, but what car didn't? Anyway, it was a light blue Volvo station wagon. "I got his car because I can fit my surfboards in it. I wish I had a Woodie, though. Now those things are cool. All the old surfers had them." Charlie said, as he ran his hand along the roof. "No, but I put quite an engine in this thing. Now don't get me wrong, it's still a heavy car, but I think it can move right next to those little Beemers on the freeway. Although, on hills, don't expect to go over twenty. 'Cause this baby ain't gonna top that."
Harry shot a very confused over to Ron, who was looking fascinated at Charlie's nonsensical car talk.
"Anyway, why don't you all sit in the car, while I drive around a bit, just so you can see how it's done." Charlie said as he turned the key to unlock the door. This car had come before those little clickers that unlock it for you.
Ron raced around the car, eager to get the front seat. He almost tripped over some loose junk in the garage on his way, "You know, Ron, next time just yell 'shotgun' then you don't have to run." Charlie explained. They all were settled in their seatbelts very quickly; Ginny got stuck in the back middle seat because she was youngest.
"Ok, um, first you open the garage door." Charlie was saying everything as he did it.
"Then you put the car in reverse. You do this because you wan to go backwards. Reverse means backwards. Got that? It's very important."
They all said that they understood.
"Good now you take your foot off the brake. That is the bigger one. You only use your right foot. Unless, do we have any left footers?"
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Never mind. It doesn't really matter."
It took a very long time for them to leave the drive way. Charlie realized that he had forgotten to show them how to put the key in the ignition.
"Now that we've reached a main road, you need to make sure that you have pre-programmed the radio. If you already have your favorite stations on easy to push buttons, then you can concentrate on the road instead of pressing the seek button. This way, all you have to do is press 1, 2, 3, and so on to hear the music that you want to play."
Harry nodded at this. He had never thought of that, but it was a very important part of driving.
"Ok, you see the stop sign? Now they will always be red. I once saw a yellow on once, but it turned out that it meant something else. Anyway, everyone says that you have to stop at these all the time, but really, if the intersection is empty and you don't see any cops, you can just slowly roll past them. This way you can remain a cautious driver and not lose momentum."
"Are you sure that's legal?" Hermione asked.
"Well, no I'm not positive that its legal, but it sure is a lot faster." Charlie answered.
Charlie drove around for about a half hour before he stopped in a high school parking lot. It was empty because it was summer, so it was the perfect place to practice driving.
"Me first!" said Ron
He and Charlie switched places.
Ron put the key in the ignition, just as Charlie had shown him. He then turned on the radio, and made sure that it was programmed to good stations. The he started to drive.
Ron drove all over the parking spaces. He tried to fit the car in one once, but then he gave up and decided to just do some donuts.
As he was completing his fifth and final circle, Ginny was starting to complain of queasiness, the radio started to play a new song. It was catchy, it was upbeat. It was definitely muggle music because the station was muggle.
"Ron, turn it up." Ginny asked.
Ron did as she asked.
They listened to the rest of the song as Ron practiced parking again.
"That was Jeremy Titan singing his hit song, 'You Rock.'" Said the voice over the radio.
"Wow, he sounds hot." Ginny said.
"How can you tell?! You just heard one song!" Asked Harry, a little peeved at Jeremy what's-his-face for making such an infectious song.
"Well I don't really know. But most pop stars are good looking. Not too many ugly people make it big in this business." Ginny said matter-of-factly.
"But you don't have to be pretty to be a good singer." Hermione said.
"But you have to be pretty to get paid to sing" Ginny said, again sounding like the authority on music. "Anyway, I'd like to meet him. Harry, do you think you could arrange that when we go to L.A.?"
"No! I don't know any celebrities! Besides, that Quibbler article was crap, remember? What about Dean?' Harry asked, annoyed, but he wasn't getting emotional, remember that today is not an emotional day.
"Geez, just to meet him. I'm allowed a celebrity crush." Ginny said, wondering why Harry all of sudden cared about her relationships. She then pretended to look out the window on Hermione's side, but she was really making sure her hair looked pretty in the glass reflection. She didn't know why she cared all of a sudden about her appearance, maybe it was Harry's sudden mention of her boyfriend, she thought.
"Hey, Gin, Harry's a celebrity!" Ron called from the driver's seat. He still hadn't gotten the whole car in between the lines of the parking space.
"Ohhhhhh. You're funny Ron." Ginny said, succeeding at sounding very calm and sarcastic.
Harry was a little embarrassed and Ginny didn't want to admit to herself that she was turning a little pink, too. How could he still make her blush? Didn't she make herself stop that a few years ago? She thought that it must be the heat in the car. She reached over Hermione to roll open the window. Anyway, nobody noticed Harry and Ginny's pink faces as this was the moment that Ron finally fit the car in the parking space.
"Wahoooo! Yes! Take that you stinking parking space! Who da man? Who da man? Oh! Yeah that's me!" Ron was very enthusiastic over his triumphant driving.
"Great job, Ron! It looks like next time you will be ready to try parallel!" Charlie said.
Ron's face fell only slightly, "Alright, Hermione, it's your turn!"
The rest of the day was more fun than you'd imagine. They all took turns driving round the parking lot, and then around the town. No freeways yet. But when the windows are down, and the car radio is blasting over the sound of the wind, the car is zipping along a road with the best ocean view imaginable, no too many things seem important enough to worry about.
They stopped for lunch at In-n-Out Burger. They had never tasted such a good burger anywhere in England. Charlie said that there wasn't a better place in California either.
As they sped away from In-n-Out, Hermione was at the window seat with her arm hanging out of the window and her hand moving along with rushing wind. Ginny was yelling over the wind and radio to tell Charlie to change the station until he found one that was playing Jeremy Titan and Ron was sitting next to her yelling at Charlie to listen to anything but that. It was Harry's turn to drive and he found that being behind the wheel was almost as exhilarating as Quidditch. Not nearly as fun, but it was still an adventure trying to not get pulled over; Charlie hadn't given them drivers licenses yet, nor had he really given them many useful legal driving tips.
"Wow, you four did great today! No crashes so far!" Charlie said, beaming at his little driving students.
"Thanks, Dude! I really thought I was in for it back at that red light, but I realized that it meant 'stop' just in time, didn't I?" Ron said proudly.
"Yeah, you sure did. Hey, is that the first time you ever called someone 'Dude'?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah," Ron said.
"Well I'm proud to be the first."
They drove home and got their bathing suits on again, not to surf this time, but just to play in the ocean and get used to the waves.
The four of the suppressed the urge to giggle as they saw each other in bathing suits again. They didn't know why. It wasn't really funny; it just was so different from Hogwarts robes that it was like seeing different people. Harry's bathing suit was still the ugliest of the bunch, but Ron was still too scrawny to look great in his, but he was starting to look more relaxed in it. In fact, Ron's new confident smile made the lack of muscles seem less important. Hermione was looking tanner than she did yesterday, but Ginny was as alluringly pale as ever.
It was a lot of fun to let the
waves wash over them. After being in the
car all day, they really needed to feel the refreshing wideness of the ocean.
Dinner was grilled cheese sandwiches; it was the only thing Charlie felt like making. Besides, grilled cheese after an ocean swim is really good.
But they all went to bed very excited because the next day Charlie had promised to take them to Los Angeles.