"GOOD GRAVY, LOLA PEREZ, YOU'RE GOING TO FLIPPIN' KILL ME!" Jenny screeched, hanging onto the oh-poop handle as tightly as she could as Lola performed her usual shenanigans behind the wheel.
"Calm down, Jen, you're going to have an aneurism or something," Lola calmly informed her, a pleasant grin on her face as she spoke over the radio that was blasting some obnoxious pop music. It was no wonder that Lola couldn't drive, Jenny couldn't help but acknowledge. That music was so loud that the blonde couldn't even hear herself think, much less drive anywhere safely.
"You're going to kill me! Not to mention all of the other poor people on this road with us! You're going too fast, and you nearly ran over the man in that car!" Jenny yelled, and Lola just offered her one of those giant, bedazzling grins that she always used to get herself out or into whatever she wanted.
"Lighten up a bit! You'll live longer!" Lola informed her loudly, but the blonde noticed that her best friend did slow down a bit as she drove. Jenny ever so carefully and very hesitantly let go of the handle above the door, keeping her eye on Lola's driving the entire time.
They were currently off to the mall in the city, and Lola, the great soul that she was, had taken it upon herself to pick up Jenny from her house. Jenny had insisted that she could drive them, but Lola was surprisingly more stubborn than Jenny about this topic and had practically dragged her to her car and dumped her in it. Of course, it helped that Jenny was only five feet tall as opposed to Lola's advantageous five-foot-four that allowed her to tower over the blonde.
"So, Jen?! How are you feeling about your first trip to the mall?!" Jenny's best friend questioned over the radio, and Jenny was suddenly tempted to reach down and turn the radio off.
So, following her immediate impulses, the blonde reached over in an attempt to tap the button that would shut off Lola's car. Lola immediately snatched Jenny's hand in her own, keeping her from taking away the loud music.
"Hey! My car, my rules!" Lola announced, and Jenny sighed as Lola let her go. Jenny straightened a bit in her seat, trying to smooth down her a bit too poofy shirt that Lola had insisted that she wear.
Lola had been insisting a lot of different things for Jenny, but so had Jenny for Lola. Between the both of them, they were doing well and were learning from one another. Lola was learning not to be quite so reckless and such a mess, and Jenny was learning to not quite be such a stick in the mud. They both had successfully kept most of their original personalities, and they were just refining the rough edges at this point.
Jenny just wished that Lola would hone her rough edge that was her driving.
"Well?" Lola questioned, and the blonde looked over at her, trying to remember what the brunette had said to her earlier.
"The mall?" Lola added, clarifying her statement as she subtly reminded Jenny. Jenny's eyes widened in remembrance.
"Oh… I guess I'm excited," Jenny responded, putting on a large grin as she attempted to muster some sort of enthusiasm about what they were about to go do. It was not that Jenny didn't want to go with Lola or wouldn't enjoy her trip with Lola. She loved Lola, and the Latina was honestly the best friend that the blonde had ever had.
It was just that she wasn't so sure about all of the people and all of the unwanted attention that could be paid to her. Especially since Lola had dressed her like this.
"What?!" Lola asked loudly, trying to hear Jenny over the radio as the singer hit a high note.
"I said I'm excited!" Jenny raised her voice, and Lola furrowed her brow. Jenny rolled her eyes and gestured at the radio. Lola looked down at it, and after a moment of nodding her head to the beat, she turned it off.
Jenny relished the sound of silence that immediately filled the car.
"You're what now?" Lola inquired, her voice significantly less amplified as she spoke normally. Jenny rolled her eyes, repeating the same sentence for a third time.
"As your gateway to the world of big girls, I'm so glad to hear that you're hyped," Lola informed her genuinely, and Jenny stared at her offendedly.
"I am a big girl," Jenny told her, and Lola looked at her sweetly before patting the blonde's head condescendingly.
"Sure, girlfriend. You just keep telling yourself that," Lola reassuringly spoke, and Jenny found that it really annoyed her. However, it soon dawned upon Jenny that Lola was paying way too much attention to her instead of the road. Jenny instinctually looked at what was in front of them, and she screamed as Lola started to run off the side of the road.
"LOLA!" Jenny screeched, and Lola looked in front of her. She didn't even look surprised as she carefully checked her driving and brought herself back into the proper lane. Jenny hung on tightly to the armrest and the oh-poop handle- which she seemed to be coming to know very well as a result of the Latina's driving- as she mentally went over her calmness checklist in her mind, shutting her eyes.
"Let me guess what you're doing: going over the list," Lola immediately pointed out, and Jenny reopened her eyes with an annoyed expression. Sometimes the fact that Lola seemed to know what she was doing when she was doing it really annoyed the blonde.
"How do you know?" Jenny challenged, and Lola just raised an eyebrow.
"I know you, Jenny," Lola shortly replied with a slight shrug. Jenny kept a tight hold on the handle as she made sure she didn't get slung out the windshield or whatever could happen without proper tethering to the vehicle. Jenny growled under her breath as she mentally slandered Lola's name.
"And I know that you're now thinking of all of the possible words that you could call me without cursing," Lola told her, and Jenny looked at her quickly, begrudgingly acknowledging that Lola was actually infinitely more perceptive than she seemed at times.
"Just keep your eyes on the road, would you?" Jenny questioned, and Lola smirked at her before turning on the radio, blasting that same music as loud as her Jeep would allow.
"Oh, I love this song! It's my T-Swizzy!" Lola cried before joining in wholeheartedly, her voice ringing loudly in the small, enclosed space inside the car. Jenny just stared at her as if she had lost her mind, Lola bobbing her head to the music as she got into the beat that Jenny assumed was supposed to be Taylor Swift.
"Knew he was a killer, first time that I saw him! Wonder how many girls he had left and left haunted!" Lola sang joyously, and Jenny gaped at the Latina.
Everything was rolling smoothly now, and Jenny couldn't help but absentmindedly wonder if Lola was actually able to concentrate on her driving better when she had that darned radio going louder than anything that Jenny had heard before.
However, as soon as Lola nearly ran over the car in front of them, Jenny decided that Lola couldn't drive no matter what state that the music was currently in. Jenny jumped as Lola suddenly slowed, and she glared at the brunette.
"Okay. I'm driving!" Jenny proclaimed, and Lola's eyes went wide as she gaped at the blonde. Lola furrowed her brow offendedly as she immediately started to protest Jenny's statement.
"What?! Dude, this is my-"
"Just do it!" Jenny commanded and Lola sighed as she pulled over slowly and very much against her will.
As soon as Lola stopped, Jenny opened her door and started to get out. With a groan, Lola mirrored her actions and followed along.
"Good grief, you're going to get yourself a ticket if you keep driving like this. Honestly!" Jenny cried as she passed Lola while rounding the front of the Jeep.
"And are you going to drive at snail pace or turtle today?" Lola questioned, full of sarcasm as she took a jab at Jenny's driving. Jenny didn't take her seriously, knowing that the girl was just sore about having to let Jenny drive the Latina's own vehicle.
"We're driving at normal person speeds instead of raving lunatic speed," the blonde informed her as they both got into the Jeep. Jenny immediately turned off the music, and Lola pouted, but they both started to buckle up. Jenny raised an eyebrow at the fact that Lola had actually used her seat belt, and if her confused glance cast in the blonde's direction was any indicator, it was as a result of pure habit.
"What?" Lola asked, and Jenny shook her head, pulled from her thoughts as she carefully and calmly put the car in drive. Lola eyed the more practical girl curiously as Jenny drove onto the road at her easy pace.
"You know, honestly, it surprises me that you actually buckle your seat belt," Jenny told the brunette, and Lola grinned at the blonde in a way that to most normal people would be sweet and reassuring. But Jenny knew better. She knew that smile was a pure chaos at its finest.
"Of course I do. After you get pulled over five times just for your seat belt, you start to embrace Jenny Parker," Lola teased, and Jenny just sighed softly, trying to cover up her smile at Lola's terminology for safety. "Jenny Parker" had been added to Lola's language- yes, Lola had her own language, and one wouldn't believe how many thingamabobs, doohickeys, and dinglehoppers that she had in her kitchen- and Jenny's name had been used as a substitute for safe or safety.
"I worry about you sometimes," Jenny expressed, smiling barely as she kept her eyes on the road firmly, never looking at the brunette. However, out of her peripheral vision, she could see Lola's face light up in one of those few and far between genuine smiles that managed to break through that swaggering mask of confidence.
"Well, it's good to know that somebody cares about little ol' me," Lola told the blonde offhandedly, her voice accidentally expressing the emotion that she usually tried so hard to keep at bay. With that admission, Jenny knew that she had gained Lola's trust undoubtedly, and it warmed Jenny's heart greatly.
Jenny continued along, the two in a comfortable silence. But before long, she heard Lola sigh as she shifted in her seat. Jenny immediately was aware of what Lola's issue was, but Jenny decided she'd humor her.
"What?" Jenny questioned, despite knowing what the Latina was going to say before she actually voiced her thoughts.
"Well, it's just that… Could I possibly suggest that you shift the gear up from sloth to turtle?" Lola questioned, and Jenny laughed humorlessly.
"Ha, ha, I forgot how to laugh."
"Jen, seriously. I think you need to go a little faster than thirty. This is a highway," Lola informed her, and Jenny just smiled with tight lips.
"I'm aware of that. And I'm not going thirty, I'm going thirty-eight," Jenny corrected, and Lola just huffed in exasperation, and Jenny knew that her best friend was wishing she'd start speeding as Lola normally did.
"C'mon, Jenny, that is two miles away from forty. Just two itty, bitty miles away. You could just press down on the gas pedal ever so slightly," Lola instructed, and Jenny raised an eyebrow, completely unimpressed with Lola's supposedly sweet explaining that she was doing.
"Just a little harder, Jen, you can do it," Lola encouraged, and Jenny rolled her eyes as she just barely pressed on the gas.
"Oh, look! It's now thirty-nine!" Lola grinned widely, offering Jenny two much-too-enthused thumbs-ups. Jenny couldn't help but chuckle at her antics, and Lola offered her a giant smile, enjoying the fact that she had made the blonde laugh.
"This is really ridiculous," Jenny informed the Latina, and Lola just relaxed in the car seat, closing her eyes as she smiled in satisfaction at the fact that she had managed to increase Jenny's speed by one mile per hour.
"I have literally just marked that off my bucket list," Lola informed the blonde, and Jenny snorted at her.
"You aren't serious."
"I'm more serious than your driving issues," Lola told Jenny without a single bit of insincerity in her voice. Jenny couldn't help but look in the brunette's direction, and she somewhat surprisedly noted that Lola didn't have any signs of joking on her face.
"No… Really?"
"Definitely. This is a very serious situation, Jen. I have actually managed to make you go faster," Lola announced.
"It was one mile per hour faster."
"Every inch is a mile with you," Lola wittily shot back, and Jenny just shook her head at her best friend.
"You act like I'm hard to get along with."
"Not hard to get along with, just hard to convince and teach," Lola clarified, and Jenny noted the teasing grin on her face as the brunette relaxed in the passenger seat.
They kept driving for a few more moments, and Jenny remained at that stubborn pace, insisting on keeping what she considered a safe speed. Lola looked behind them, and Jenny didn't bother asking her why, knowing that Lola would no doubt inform her in just a few moments. Lola never failed to talk.
"Uh, Jen? I think you need to pull over," Lola told the blonde, and Jenny looked in the rearview mirror to see why Lola seemed so apprehensive. It was then that she spotted the police motorcycle behind them.
"What? The police?! Why are they behind me? What did I do?!" Jenny demanded, freaking out as she held onto the steering wheel tightly.
"Pull over, Jenny," Lola instructed calmly, a hand on Jenny's arm as she tried to get the blonde to calm down from her nigh panic attack that she was having.
Jenny complied, carefully moving off the road as she stopped. Jenny was breathing hard, watching the policeman as he got off of the motorcycle. She couldn't believe that she, Jenny Parker, had actually gotten pulled over by a police officer. This was never supposed to happen. Jenny had never planned for something like this. She was completely unprepared.
"Jenny, Jenny," Lola called, grabbing the back of the blonde's neck gently with her hand. Jenny looked at her quickly and she met Lola's surprisingly calm and reassuring gaze. It was an odd look for the brunette, but Jenny found it very relaxing to her strained nerves.
"Calm down, okay? You're going to be fine. It's just a cop," Lola assured her, and Jenny nodded slowly, listening to what her best and only friend had to say.
They looked in the mirror and saw that the man was getting closer. Neither one of them could tell how old he was, and they could only see that he was thin and somewhat muscular. Lola offered Jenny a small grin.
"Hey, don't worry, if it's Chris, I'll be sure to try to get you off the hook," Lola reassured, and Jenny just stared at Lola, completely a nervous wreck.
The man finally approached the window, and Jenny rolled it down, scared to death of whatever the man could say to her. He removed his sunglasses, and Lola immediately knew that it certainly wasn't Chris.
"Ma'am, do you know why I've pulled you over?"
"No, sir, no, I don't know," Jenny nervously stuttered, worried as she watched him.
"Good answer," Lola whispered, and Jenny mentally scolded the other girl for saying anything. The cop's gaze shifted slightly from Jenny's as he shot a look toward Lola. However, he didn't say anything to her, instead choosing to address Jenny's answer.
"Well, you do know that the speed limit on this highway is fifty-five miles per hour?" he questioned, and Jenny nodded wholeheartedly.
"Yes, sir, of course! I was going less than that, I'm sure," Jenny informed him, and she could've sworn she saw the slightest bits of a smile on his face as he eyed her.
"That's just it. You were going too slow for this road," the policeman informed her, and Lola leaned her arm on the armrest of her Jeep, watching the exchange with great interest.
"Wh- too slow?" Jenny questioned, completely dumbfounded. She didn't know that one could get pulled over for going too slow.
"Yes, ma'am."
"But that's not a thing! Is that a thing?" Jenny asked, looking over at Lola uncertainly, and Lola didn't respond, just looking at the both of them.
"It is, I assure you. Could I see your driver's license, please?" the cop asked, and Jenny wasted no time in fishing it out of her purse that was resting just behind her seat.
"Thank you. I'll be right back," he informed her before leaving.
As he left, Jenny leaned her head back against the headrest as she just reeled. Lola hadn't spoken a single word throughout the entire ordeal, and it wasn't helping Jenny's nervousness. However, it told her that the Latina obviously had something on her mind that was not good, if her slight smirk was anything to go by.
The cop came back before Jenny could ask Lola anything about it, and he returned her driver's license.
"You have no blemishes on your driver's record. It's impressive," he complimented kindly, and Jenny nodded, clenching the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.
"Can we keep it stainless?" Jenny asked hopefully, and the policeman gave her a long and hard look. He finally eyed her somewhat softly as he sighed deeply.
"Well, I'm going to give you a written warning. Which won't go on your record," he informed her, and Jenny sighed deeply in relief as she closed her eyes. He gave her a piece of paper.
"Thank you so much, sir…"
"You're welcome. You have a nice day and try to drive just a bit faster, ma'am," he instructed, and he put on his sunglasses with a raise of his eyebrow.
"Huh. I don't tell people that every day," he spoke under his breath, turning and starting to go back to his car.
"Thank you, sir!" Jenny called, and he raised a hand in a wave. Jenny allowed a grin to curve onto her face as she held the paper in her fingers tightly in relief.
After a few moments, they were off again, and Lola still wasn't saying anything. However, as the grin grew on the other girl's face, Jenny could practically hear her best friend's thoughts.
"Hey, Jenny?"
"What?"
"Hey, Jenny?"
"What, Lola?"
"You know what just happened?" Lola questioned, and Jenny rolled her eyes in exasperation as she tried to ensure that she went at about fifty miles per hour. It was still five less than the limit, but at least it wasn't sixteen less than the speed limit.
"Say it. Just say it," Jenny told her, and Lola exhibited all of her teeth in a huge smile.
"You got pulled over for being a Jenny Parker!" Lola cried, falling into laughter as she fully enjoyed the situation.
"Lola-"
"You got a ticket for going too slow!"
"It was a warning."
"Still, it was written down!" Lola laughed joyously, and Jenny just huffed in response to the other girl, not liking that Lola finally had something official to pick on her for in regard to her driving. Lola reclined in the passenger seat, closing her eyes in happiness.
"Can't we forget it?"
"Oh, ho, ho… I am never letting this go, Jen."
"Okay. Well, would it be a good time for me to bring up the fact that you've gotten six tickets last month speeding, four of which I was present for?"
"That's rather unnecessary," Lola replied somewhat sourly, and Jenny moved her head in an "I-told-you-so" sort of motion.
"Let's agree to forget, okay, then?" Jenny suggested.
"Okay," Lola agreed.
They were quiet for a moment, but Lola finally spoke up again.
"Turtle."
"Lunatic."
A/N: Wow! My first Adventures in Babysitting fanfic! I hope you all enjoyed! It was a bit of a change from my usual Descendants fanfiction, but I hope it was good all the same. :)
So, this story came about for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I saw so few fanfiction for these two as friends, and I wanted to see some friendship fluff between these two. I don't ship them as any more than friends, so I thought that maybe there were some others out there who felt the same way I did. This is how this fanfic was born.
Please let me know what you guys thought! Until the next fanfic!
