As we left Port Angeles, Marie chatted about the movie, asking me more of what I thought and telling both her grandmother and me her favorite parts.
Not to be left out of that, Mrs. Burke joined in as well. Apparently I wasn't the only one who found the scene with the jet ski's on harbour to be hilarious.
We had been driving for about thirty minutes, in the rare cloudless sky the moon was reflecting off of Lake Crescent as we drove down Highway 104. It's a long windy stretch of road with very few street lights and sharp curves.
Emmett loves taking the jeep on it to test the suspension out, I'm personally waiting for him to end up in the lake.
With the lake still in view, Mrs. Burke carefully navigated the dangerous stretch, I looked over at Marie as she was about to ask me a question when I heard a tire pop and felt the car shudder right underneath me.
Thankfully Mrs. Burke wasn't going very fast so she maintained control. Marie let out a yelp and clung to my jacket as Mrs. Burke weaved a bit, before bringing the car to a stop on the shoulder…with a nice view of the lake.
"Are you both all right?"
"Yes," I replied, looking over at Marie, she was shaking so badly I thought she was having a seizure and her teeth were chattering so bad I could barely understand her.
"Wh…wh…what….h…h…happened?"
"Must have run something over; it feels like we have a flat, don't worry sweetheart." Mrs. Burke replied, she stepped carefully out of the car and walked to the rear to check her tires. I didn't need to check, I knew it was the driver side rear right near my seat. I pushed open the door and peeked out, Mrs. Burke was examining the tire "completely flat." She sighed, digging out her cell phone from her oversized handbag. "Luckily we have AAA, I'll just buzz them."
I looked at my watch, if I know roadside services, they usually take hours, I can change a tire in the time it would take for Mrs. Burke to call and speak with a human let alone in the time it would take a tow service to get out here to change the tire.
"Mrs. Burke, do you have a spare tire?" I asked, sliding out of the backseat.
She looked at me with an eyebrow raised
"Of course"
"and a jack?"
Mrs. Burke nodded, she pressed a button on the keys and popped open the trunk, inside sat a spare tire, a jack, and all the necessary tools to change a tire. None of which looked like it had ever left it's compartment.
"Never been used, my son isn't exactly mechanically minded." She joked, getting a smile out of Marie who was still shaking as she poked her head out of car to watch.
Careful to maintain a strictly human charade, I pretended to struggle with the tire and the tools.
"Chris you know how to change a tire?" Marie asked, her eyes wide, she slowly slid out and moved closer to her grandmother.
"Yea,"
"Pretty handy having you around," Mrs. Burke replied with a knowing smile
"I like working with cars. My sister and I are actually rebuilding a '68 mustang." I explained, lifting the car with the jack I went to work carefully removing the lug-nuts.
The whole thing would have normally taken a minute, maybe two, even faster if I had the electric drill but because I had to go human speed, it took me a few extra minutes to change the tire, one of those extra few minutes being the stupid jack.
Anytime we have to change a tire, we just lift the car up by hand, while the other changes the tire. Or if Rose and I both need to get under the car in a hurry and Emmett happens to be around he lifts it for us. It was so tedious to have to do this the human way.
I sighed with relief as I finally finished; I carefully lifted the old tire into the trunk and joined Marie in the backseat.
"Thank you for doing that Chris," Mrs. Burke said handing me a napkin to wipe the grease from my hands, not that it mattered it was all over my jeans as well as water stains. I was going to get it from Rosalie and Alice when I got home.
"Anytime, glad I could help." I replied. Marie gave me a grateful smile and held out what was left of her bag of sour patch kids, I shook my head and grinned "no thanks, sour patch kids and grease do not a tasty combination make."
She began laughing at that and went back to staring out the window, while I began to relax with the knowledge that my first date was nearly over, I had survived it and knowing I had survived it made me comfortable with more outs…especially with Marie in the future.
Carlisle was waiting for us when Mrs. Burke pulled down Thomas Street and onto the Burke's drive, his black Mercedes parked behind the Burke's other car. I followed Marie and Mrs. Burke inside to find Carlisle sitting in the living room with the Burkes.
"Ah how was the date?" Mr. Burke called, a wide grin on his face, out of the corner of my eye I saw Marie turn that impressive shade of red again
"Dad!" she hissed shaking her head at him.
"Sorry kiddo." He replied. Carlisle stood up and set the coffee cup he had been holding down on the table.
"Thank you for the delicious coffee Anna." He turned to Mrs. Burke "and thank you again for taking Chris out"
"We all had fun tonight didn't we?" Mrs. Burke replied with a grin "great food, excellent movie, and two wonderful dates." She paused and patted my shoulder "and it is thanks to Chris we made it home before midnight," she looked at Mr. Burke "your tire hit a nail or something, we would've been waiting two hours for the auto-club, but Chris was able to change the tire in a jiff."
I saw Mr. Burke's eyes go wide at the mention of his car getting flat.
"Thank you Chris" he said, holding out his hand to me, I took a deep breath and shook his hand, thankful that it was steadily getting colder outside and therefore explained the coldness of my hands.
"Come on Chris," Carlisle said, putting a hand on my shoulder as we bid our goodbyes and thanks to the Burkes before moving out to the Mercedes parked in the half moon drive. Once inside and on our way I sighed with relief and leaned back into the thick leather material. "So, did you have fun?" Carlisle asked, a knowing smile on his face.
I nodded
"Yeah…minus the dinner it was fun"
"What did you end up ordering?"
"Cream of Spinach soup, though the waitress spent our entire meal trying to get me to eat more than just soup, the Burkes are going to have rolls to spare for a while." I paused and looked at my father "how did the meeting go?" I asked, wincing a bit.
"Fine actually. You are an excellent student who more than applies himself. Your Mrs. Brown has been talking to the English teachers at the high school about making sure you are in senior level English classes next year, actually she has made arrangements so that your entire English class will be taking the senior level. And your French teacher is still convinced that it is because of Esme and I that you speak French so well and blasted us with it when we entered her room, that in itself made for a very amusing meeting."
I raised an eyebrow
"but?" I asked, profiling the coming sentence
"But." Carlisle paused sighing "that Jones character he really has it in for you hm?"
"I told you so, I have no idea what I did," I replied "I've tried to figure it out since day one."
"He told us that you smart off whenever you are asked a question, trying to show off to your classmates"
I stared at my father
"Seriously?" I asked, he nodded "I don't try to be a smart a-"
"Chris,"
"Sorry." I paused "I don't try to be that, he's constantly trying to prove to a bunch of eighth graders that he is smarter than them."
"Just tell me you do not try to bait him."
"Course I don't, but when he asks me a question I give him the answer…he just doesn't like the fact that I know the answers to questions he's sure no one but he can answer." I paused "and not once have I corrected him on a fact, though he's given me plenty of opportunities to do so. Did I mention that he actually told our class that it was because of the TITANIC that President Wilson got the US involved in the First World War….the Titanic Dad, I'm not sure but I think the iceberg beat the German's to it. Even Anthony and Craig, who don't do anything in class and have made it perfectly clear they think history is stupid, even they knew that it wasn't the Titanic, Craig even tried to correct Jones, but he ignored him."
Carlisle sighed at that one.
"He also says you are still spacing out in class and he feels insulted by that."
"Oops," I replied, thinking my answer to that one over as we began the trip down our own winding drive.
"Just try to look like you are paying attention in his class Chris, you only have a few more months to go and then you'll be free of Mr. Jones."
I crossed my arms against my chest
"Unless he decides to teach high school," I pointed out
"I personally don't see that one happening Chris. Mr. Jones strikes me as the type of person who prefers to stay in their safe niche."
I nodded
"Yeah, he doesn't want to teach anything above eighth grade 'cause he's afraid he'll find students who do know more than he does. He knows younger kids wont stand up to him, but a junior or senior just might." I paused "he's a glorified bully with teaching credentials… which I'd love to examine to make sure their not forgeries."
"Christian," Carlisle said shaking his head as he parked the Mercedes next to Esme's Audi.
"What, I cant be the only one whose curious 'bout that." I paused and grinned at my father "for one thing, I know for a fact you were questioning that tonight." I finished, following Carlisle through the garage and into the house
"I reserve the right to remain silent," he answered, returning my grin and patting my shoulder, "oh, and speaking of remaining silent, you might want to run to your room, if Rosalie, Alice, or Esme see you like that it will not be pretty."
"We got a flat!" I exclaimed "it was either change the tire myself or wait hours for their auto service to come."
"I understand that Chris," Carlisle smiled knowingly "your sisters on the other hand, you know they tend to be less understanding when it comes to clothing."
"Chris, Chris, Chris!" I heard Rosalie calling as she and Alice ran to greet us in the living room "how did it g-" she stopped short and stared at me.
"Christian Aiden Cullen!" Alice scolded
"It's genetic…" Rosalie groaned "it's genetically factored into the entire male population. Where there is mud, dirt, or grease, no matter how minuscule they will find it, and virtually roll around in it!"
"At least it happened after dinner," Alice replied.
I winced as Esme came from her office and stopped short as well, she stared at me wide eyed for a few moments.
"Upstairs, out of those NOW." She ordered pointing
"If we wash them now we'll get the stain out." Alice promised
Rolling my eyes I quickly ran upstairs, eager to escape my sisters…and their clothing obsession.