This is a sneak peek for a new short story that I have written for Doctor Who. All details about it will be revealed at the end.
Photo #67: Take the Wheel!
Eadlyn remembers the story of the next photo all too well and if she were to be dramatic about it, she would say that it was the worst (barely) ten minutes of her life.
To give a little context, Ahren and Eadlyn were two teenagers who were bored out of their minds. Then the following thought occurred to them at the same time: why don't they attempt to drive. Every other teenager their age was learning to drive and even though they didn't have to learn, they just wanted to experience it. Besides, their late paternal grandmother made their father learn so they might as well learn just for the sake of it.
The only problem at the beginning was that nobody was willing and available to teach them. Some were actually busy with their duties whereas others merely said they were since they didn't want to be stuck in the passenger seat of two inexperienced drivers. (Looking back and at the photo on the wall, Eadlyn now understands why the maids decided to redo their polishing job on all the furniture in the entire palace).
The savior of the hour was surprisingly Lady Brice. For someone so petite and orderly, it shocked the twins how she could sort out even the most chaotic situation and not misplace one single hair on her head.
-o-
"Ahren..." Kaden and Osten whine as they follow their older brother around.
"We need a third player," Kaden states.
"And dad's too busy doing King stuff," Osten adds.
Then another round of begging ensues. Ahren sighs. He can't say no to his little brothers simply because they're his little brothers, but he had prior commitments to tend to first.
"Give me an hour," Ahren says.
Kaden and Osten cheer as they run off to their toy cars. Ahren laughs to himself, figuring that this will be useful for two reasons: to give himself some time to actually learn and drive and car, and so his brothers could use this as a warmup before he beats them as racing toy cars.
"Ahren," Maxon calls before he could make it outside. He passes his son his camera. "Make sure you capture that moment for me."
"Will do," Ahren replies.
Ahren walks out the palace doors and skips down the steps to find Eadlyn standing on the cobblestone pathway. She turns around and smiles as her twin approaching her. Both of them are excited and a bit nervous for this since driving a car looks easy. (Little do they know the truth behind being the driver).
Lady Brice pulls up in front of them and stops the car. She takes a moment before stepping out of the driver's seat and straightening her pencil skirt. There was nothing casual about this woman: her outfit consisted of a business skirt and heels with a blazer. Even Eadlyn showed up to this in jeans. In Brice's defense, the twins have never seen this woman wearing anything not made for an office (and Brice was doing this on her lunch break since nobody else in the entire palace wanted to be in this position).
"I swear, neither of you better get a scratch on this," Bruce says, looking at the twins individually and more than once. "This is my personal car, not some rental or one that's been sitting in the palace garage for who-knows-how-long. Got that?"
Ahren and Eadlyn nod at the simple instructions: don't ruin Lady Brice's car.
"Good, now, who's going first?" Brice asks.
"I'll go," Eadlyn volunteers.
Brice opens her arm to the driver's seat. As Eadlyn makes her way over, Brice walks around the car to sit in the passenger's seat as Ahren sits in the back. The doors close and lock as they all buckle their seatbelts. Eadlyn smiles through her excited nerves as Brice takes a breath and pushes her hair behind her ears.
"Okay, this is how you drive," Brice says, beginning her explanation.
Both the twins listen thoroughly as Brice explains every small detail about the different parts of the car (even down to how the radio worked) and how to physically drive it. Brice thrives out of the questions they ask her. Ahren seems to have more questions and that worries Eadlyn a little since she's the one in front of the wheel so she expected to have the most questions out of the bunch.
"You ready?" Brice asks.
It takes Eadlyn a second to process that Brice was talking to her but she nods anyways. That response came automatically. Eadlyn figures that she'll just go with it and hope for the best. Besides, how bad could this really go?
Eadlyn lightly pushes the gas pedal and jumps a little when the car starts moving. Ahren gives a mini applause as Brice dons her praise for her good job. Brice instructs how to take a turn and instead of going slowly and gently, Eadlyn turns the wheel more than show should and the small amount of panic causes her to put more force on the gas pedal.
"We're going to die!" Ahren yells, flying back in his seat.
"Quit being melodramatic, we're not going to die!" Brice yells back.
Eadlyn starts to panic at the words being said that causes the car to move faster. Ahren takes a picture of a frazzled Eadlyn and a calm Brice sitting in the front seats to remember his last moments as a living boy.
"Really?!" Brice yells, trying to get order back in the car.
"It's in case there's some conspiracy on how I die!" Ahren yells back.
"You are being no help!"
"I don't know how to be a help."
As they argue, they're not really helping Eadlyn who gets more overwhelmed. If anything, they should've been helping her since she's the one who has control of the motorized vehicle they're all sitting in.
"Lady Brice, take the wheel!" Eadlyn panics, letting go of the wheel.
Or not.
Eadlyn screams, throwing her hands up to cover her face. Brice, remaining calm and collected during all this chaos, immediately unbuckles her own seatbelt and stretches forwards to grab onto the steering wheel, slightly lying on Eadlyn's lap. Once Brice has a bit of control of the car, she takes one hand off and uses it to push Eadlyn's leg down so it presses on the brake pedal. The car comes to a screeching stop, all three of them swearing that they could smell the rubber from the tires.
"We're alive!" Eadlyn gasps.
"Well..." Brice mutters, brushing her hair back with her hands. "Good first attempt, Eadlyn. Ahren, you want your turn?"
The two women turn around and see that Ahren isn't in the car anymore. They look out the window and see Ahren is already outside, running to play with Osten and Kaden with their toy cars. They can't blame him though: toy cars are much safer than the real thing.
Just know that I barely know what a car is so don't come to this chapter hoping to gain wisdom on how to drive.
Here is the story info: (it's a Doctor Who fic)
River, Take the Wheel! - Teenagers River Song and John Smith reconnect after not seeing each other for a long time and try to figure out the truth behind each other all while trying to escape the cops. (Teenage AU) (River x Eleven short story)
! Remember to vote on the poll on my page for the Selection one-shot you want to see first!
Stay Tuned - "I think all this violin needs is a little tuning..."
