Lynn yells through the megaphone attached to her bike, "C'mon! I've seen more hustle at a retirement home! Move it, slowpoke!"
Violet struggles to keep up as she runs after her trainer on the bike. Elena warned her that Lynn would push her further than she's ever been pushed, and she assumed that years of fitness classes would have prepared her whatever regiment her trainer had in store for her, but Violet feels her body ready to give out. They've been at this for months, but her body still doesn't feel like it's acclimated to the workout.
This week, they've gone swimming, climbed trees, and now she's doing a five mile run; Violet can feel herself ready to keel over, meanwhile Lynn looks as though she can go for another round.
'Get results. You're doing this to get results,' she reminds herself as she looks at Lynn, who has stopped in front of her house.
"Is that all you got?! I wanna see some hustle out of you!" she yells.
Violet pushes herself to run the last few yards and she crashes against her front door. Her heart is racing, her legs feel like jelly, and she feels as if her sides are getting stabbed repeatedly. As she catches her breath, Violet takes whatever little strength she has left in her body to fish out her house keys in her pocket.
Lynn, who is running in place, comments, "That was a good workout. Same time Friday?"
Violet glares at Lynn. She is definitely not in the mood to do this again Friday, "How about I call you, instead?"
"Hey, we agreed that we would workout three times a week."
"And we've done that, for months," Violet says between her teeth. "One day isn't going to be the end of the world. You can give my slot to anyone that wants a last minute session."
She knows that Lynn has a few clients, but how many are willing to take on an extra session during the week is a different story. Some of them are on the older side trying to stay fit after their doctors' recommendation, and others are young and hopeful to achieve her results. However, if their workouts are as intense as the ones that Violet has been dealing with, no one is going to want to take that extra slot.
Lynn isn't so sure, "Fine, but don't dilly-dally this weekend, if not then this whole day was a waste."
"Are you done?"
Lynn looks at her watch, "Yeah, alright, I think I may have time for a run myself before I have to pick up Victor. Can I leave my bike here?"
"No."
Even months later, Violet still isn't too fond of her trainer. They're only putting up with one another because of this business relationship, and are no closer to each other than they were at the start, at least on Violet's end.
"Fine, I'll head out. See you next week."
Violet doesn't bother to watch Lynn as she bikes away. As soon as the door is open, she stumbles forward and crashes onto her couch. That was the workout from hell. Nope, even the devil isn't as insane as Lynn. When she hired Lynn, she was anticipating a slower start, and eventual results that matched her trainer, but after months, it doesn't feel like she's any closer. Okay, she is definitely more fit than she was before, but there isn't much of a point if she spends most of her free time recuperating from the training sessions.
It makes her wonder how she is able to keep her other clients. Some of them have been around for almost the same length of time and none of them seem to complain of aches, not that she has cared to ask.
Lynn runs home as fast as she can. Practice is over for the day, but there's plenty of sunshine left until the sun sets and she plans on getting a driving lesson in. For the last couple of weeks, her parents have been putting off her lessons due to work, things to do around the house, and her own busy schedule, which doesn't grant her too much free time either. However, after putting it off for so long, she's going to get a lesson from her parents.
As the house comes into view, Lynn picks up the pace. She kicks the door open and announces her arrival so that her parents can hear her, "Mom! Dad! I'm home! Can we go driving?"
Rita, who is watching her from the dining room, tells her, "Sure, but wash up a bit, you're still a bit dirty from practice." Lynn heads upstairs. Rita notices her daughter drop her duffel bag onto the floor before running upstairs, "Lynn!"
She doesn't come back down.
Rita sighs as she picks up the duffel bag and moves it out of the way before someone trips on it, "Sixteen-years-old and I still need to remind her," she sighs, but she doesn't dwell. She knows that Lynn is excited about getting behind the wheel of Vanzilla, though she doesn't know what the excuse is every other day of the year.
Lynn runs down the stairs, "Ready?"
Rita looks at her daughter. It's impossible to miss her excitement, and she's happy to see Lynn through this new milestone. Over the years, she has given lessons to her older sisters and there were some mishaps, particularly from Leni, but after four daughters, she thinks that she has found the best way to teach her other children how to drive any vehicle.
Okay, Rita doesn't think that Lynn will ever get behind the wheel of a plane or semi, but she never knows, maybe there's budding interest that no one knows about.
Rita walks towards the keys and tosses them at her daughter, "Okay, Lynn, are you ready?"
"Heck yeah!" she says as she catches the keys and runs out to Vanzilla with Rita close behind.
Lynn buckles up and immediately honks on the horn, startling her mother, "The horn works!"
While Rita buckles herself in, Lynn taps her fingers on the steering wheel, running out of patience. With so many kids in the house, it's hard to get an hour of driving time with either parent and she's going to make the most of it, unsure of when she'll get another chance for a quick lesson.
Lynn turns the key in the ignition, and before Rita is able to say anything to start the lesson, she immediately backs out of the driveway, startling her poor mother.
The students in the cafeteria chat away as they eat their lunches, but in a corner table sits Noah, who is trying to help his girlfriend study for her upcoming written exam. He personally thinks that she's more than ready for the written exam, but she insists on studying every question as though it is new information.
Noah looks up from the driver's ed booklet and asks Elena, "When you see or hear an emergency vehicle approaching from any direction, you must…"
"Pull over to the right side of the road," she answers. "C'mon give me a harder one."
"It's not a hard test, Elena. Any idiot can pass it. It's just common sense questions."
"Then how come you only answered enough to barely pass."
"I said any idiot," he answers back with a smile. Noah sets the booklet down and looks Elena in the eye, "C'mon! It's been long enough. I wanna actually be able to use my lunch time to eat, not study."
Elena grabs the book and begins to read over some of the highlighted sections, "I wanna be sure that I'm prepared. I don't want to take more than one try."
"How many more hours do you need?"
"Four more, and one at night. My dad said that he was going to teach me this weekend."
Noah takes the book back from her, "Then you can study then. One night hour on Friday, one on Saturday, two daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday each. Now you'll have plenty of time to study on the weekend, and we can actually relax until we have to go back to class."
She looks over at him.
Elena can tell that he's getting frustrated, but she doesn't have much time to study at home without one of her brothers getting noisy. Then there's also her friends who call her, wanting to hang out or chat. At least at school, she can ignore the noise of the cafeteria to an extent and get some studying done. However, she can feel Noah's eyes on her, hoping that she'll stop so that they can hang out before having to go back to their respective classes.
She sighs, "Alright," she says, putting the book down, while also unaware of who was looking over at the two.
Hours later, during her free period, Elena sits in front of Dr. Lopez's office, waiting for the door to open. She pulls out her phone and looks at the time. She could be using this time to study her driving manual, hang out with Noah, or even get ahead on her homework, instead, she's using her time to talk to the school psychologist. She doesn't think that she needs these sessions any more, and it might be time to stop.
Dr. Lopez opens the door and welcomes Elena in.
She takes a seat and taps her fingers on the edge of the armrest, trying to think of the best way to tell Dr. Lopez that she no longer wants to end these sessions. She has been attending the sessions for some time, and while she did need somebody to talk to about her parents' issues at the time, things have been going more smoothly to the point that she thinks she's fine.
Dr. Lopez looks at the girl. She can tell that something's on her mind, "How are you doing today?"
"I'm fine," she answers. "Things are going well, my birthday is coming up, I'm learning to drive, my parents are doing better, Noah's fine too."
"That's nice."
There's an awkward silence.
Usually Elena leads these sessions, describing how things have been since the last session, but she doesn't know what else to say. At least it confirms what she's been thinking - she doesn't need these sessions anymore.
"I think I'd like to stop coming now."
Dr. Lopez nods her head, "I understand."
Elena sighs in relief, happy to get that off her chest.
As she gets up and grabs her bag, Dr. Lopez casually says, "I sort of wish that you said something earlier so that another student could have gotten this session time, but that's okay."
Elena feels bad. She takes her seat and tries to think of something to say.
Dr. Lopez looks at the teen's body language. It's unfortunate that Dr. Lopez had to resort to such a thing, but it is something that's been on her mind for a while. Elena clearly doesn't notice the behavior, but that little comment of hers confirms what she's been thinking. During their time together, she noticed this behavior from her, how Elena puts what she wants on the backburner, how she says what others want to hear, and puts other people before herself.
While she can commend the teen for trying to be diplomatic, it does her no good if she constantly has to be the one to give up something to make others happy.
"Do you often do that? Say something and then take it back if the other person becomes bothered."
Elena has no idea where this came from, and in a defensive tone, says, "I don't do that."
Dr. Lopez looks at her, "Weren't you about to leave because you didn't need these sessions?"
The teen looks down at the ground, afraid to admit that that did just happen. She came in earlier with the thought of being done, but here comes the doctor opening up a can of worms that she didn't even know about.
The woman looks over. She can see that Elena is upset to hear that, but doesn't want to make a scene or anything, "I know that it wasn't ideal, but sometimes, whenever I walk around the school I take notice of some of my patients. In the cafeteria, you wanted to keep studying, but you stopped because Noah wanted to stop, right?"
"That's different!"
"How come?"
Elena stays quiet as she tries to think of a good reason, "We don't get to spend a lot of time together," she quietly says, "We don't have any classes, and he works after school. Lunch is one of the few times we can spend time with one another."
"I understand that relationships can be tough, but that driver's test is important to you, right?"
Elena nods her head.
"And you wanted to be prepared?"
Again, she nods her head.
"But you stopped because he wasn't happy."
She sighs. She knows that she does this, but it doesn't sound great to hear it out loud from her school psychologist.
"I want you to learn to say no more often whenever someone wants you to do something that you don't want to do or tries to guilt you into anything."
Elena takes a deep breath, figuring that there may not be many opportunities for that to happen, but regardless, she nods her head, "Okay."
"Now, I know that you said that you didn't want to continue these sessions, but I hope that you'll at least come by to let me know how things go this week. After that, we can end no more sessions."
"Thank you."
Rita stares at the cup in her hands as her husband stares at the fridge trying to think of what he should make for dinner. It has been hours since she took Lynn for her driving lesson, but she can't stop shaking. She isn't going to say that it was easy giving driving lessons to the other girls, between Lori being tempted by the noises coming from her phone, Luna insisting that she drives better with music so loud that she can't hear her parents, Luan trying to drive with one hand on the wheel and Mr. Coconuts in the other, and of course Leni, but she's a different story. Lynn, on the other hand, is a different sort of beast.
"I swear Lynn, I can't stop shaking. It's been over four hours since I took her driving and I can't stop shaking. People need more than just seatbelts and airbags to keep them safe in cars."
"LJ crashed Vanzilla?!"
"No-"
He sighs, "Oh thank goodness. Well, she couldn't have been that bad, remember the fire hydrant/paperboy/nun incident?"
She nods.
Yes, she remembers Leni being a danger on the road too, but at least it wasn't a game to her. Lynn seems to be mentally challenging other drivers to races, she swerves over manholes regardless of their location, and tries to cut in front of any driver, no matter how small the gap.
Nope, no matter how much Lynn begs, she is going to need a lot more time before she's ready to let her daughter out on the road again.
He can see that she still isn't at peace, "How about I take her driving? Is there anything I should know?"
"The Lord's prayer."
He is confused, but regardless, he is going to look at this in a positive light.
"Wait!" Rita calls out to him, "If anything happens, I want you to know that I love you and that you are the best thing that's ever happened to me."
He's confused, but regardless returns the sweet words back to her.
Lynn Sr. calls out to his daughter and offers her a chance to drive him to the grocery store so that they can pick up something for dinner. Lynn gladly runs downstairs and takes the keys from the hook.
It puts him at ease to see her so happy to get behind the wheel, so he follows after her so they can complete their quick errand.
About half an hour later, Lynn Sr. walks into the living room, while Lynn carries the bags in. He tries to put on a brave face, waiting for her to place the bags in the kitchen. He thanks her for her help, but before she is able to ask when to expect dinner, he tells her that she's free to relax until he calls out for the family. As soon as she's out of sight, he stumbles into his bedroom. He closes the door so that no one can see him and he crawls into bed, laying in the fetal position, hyperventilating as he recalls what occurred during the lesson.
His wife wasn't kidding, LJ is a danger when you add thousands of pounds of steel and high speed.
Rita walks into the bedroom, "Honey, are you okay?"
He quietly nods his head, but she can tell that he is definitely not okay.
"How was the lesson?" she asks, as if she didn't know the answer.
As he trembles, he describes how driving with his daughter went, "I-It was like a-a-a high-speed heart attack. I'm pretty sure she took a few years off my life. I mean, just backing out of the driveway," he stops himself, feeling his heart race at the memory.
It was exactly as Rita described, but it was worse because he was actually in the passenger seat. Nope, as much as his daughter wants to drive, she is going to have to wait it out a bit longer until both of them are ready to get in Vanzilla with her again.
"Do we agree that LJ can't get her license yet?"
Rita slowly nods her head. It's not the best solution, but until she learns that driving isn't a game, they aren't going to feel comfortable with letting their sixteen-year-old out on the open road.
"Yes."
Francisco happily walks around his bedroom getting ready to take Elena out for her driving lesson. So far, her lessons have been going great - she's attentive, doesn't speed, and clearly has been studying what she should do in emergency situations. A part of him thought that she would have been a little overwhelmed, and she sort of is, especially whenever they hit areas with higher speed limits and when he asked her to change her own tire, but it isn't like those sort of things aren't avoidable. Either way, all that's left is this weekend and she'll be ready to take her test and get out on the open road.
"Look at you all happy with a pep in your step, well your dragged step."
"Ha!" he says sarcastically. Francisco looks through his closet, "We should be gone for a few hours today, and then tomorrow, Elena will officially be done and she can get her big birthday surprise."
"You're a little happier than usual, I thought that you would be freaking out and not wanting her to drive and grow up or something."
He nods his head. He knows that he doesn't have the best history when it comes to Elena growing up. He wondered if it was because he's slowly coming to terms that it's going to happen regardless, or because this has mostly been his thing with her. Most times, he had to let Caroline take the reins since they saw each other more, but he insisted that driving be what he teaches their daughter, and Caroline eventually agreed.
"Well it doesn't matter. What does matter is that she learns to drive and learns to take care of her car." Francisco quickly glances out their bedroom door. "Do you think she knows?"
Lynn shakes her head, "Nope."
"Good. After today's lesson, I'm gonna take her to a lot and get her opinion on what kind of car she'll want."
Lynn looks up at the ceiling, "I'm guessing a sensible sedan, but still something a teenager would want to drive, four-doors, automatic, about five years old at the most, and really good gas mileage."
Francisco turns towards her, "Did she tell you that?"
She shakes her head, "No, I thought that that's what you want for her. I'm pretty sure she's thought about it, but hasn't decided entirely on what she wants."
"Well, we're only going to one lot today. If we can squeeze in another one, we'll take a look, see what she's interested in, and you know, play a little hardball with those salesmen. Hopefully, it won't break our bank too badly."
"Why don't you take her to Noah's dad's lot? I'm sure he can get you a good deal without much of a hassle."
"I'm sure, but I wanted us to pick out the car without his input. If he's working today, then he'll want to hang around us and might talk her into something that she doesn't need."
Lynn snickers, "That's every salesman's job, and if Noah doesn't do it some stranger will, and they're going to put you through the wringer."
Francisco understands that. He knows that he'll have to be ruthless to get her a good car at a good price. Though he's not planning on buying a car right away. He's hoping that if he gets a feeling on what Elena might want, he and Lynn can go to a dealership and she can negotiate an excellent price for the car.
"What if you get a junker? You might have to wait until Lana is free to fix it, but it'll definitely be cheaper."
It wouldn't be the worst idea, and he's sure that Lana will give them a reasonable rate despite her current value, however, Francisco shakes his head, "Maybe, but I don't want her to wait too long, and want her to look excited when we show it to her."
"Alright, but if you change your mind, I'll call Lana for a favor."
"Deal."
A knock at the door grabs their attention, "Dad, are you ready to go?"
"I'll be right there. Just give me a minute."
He quickly finishes getting changed and heads out the door to meet Elena. Francisco hands her the keys, which she happily accepts before getting into the driver's side of the truck. He smiles softly at how things have changed since her first driving lesson. She was visibly scared at the thought of driving around in a big truck, but he managed to convince her that it's a good idea to practice on it.
"What do you think of a scenic tour of Royal Woods?"
"Didn't we do that last week?"
"That was Fern Valley," he corrects her, "but we can do that again if you want?"
Elena hesitates, "How about Lake Angelus?"
Francisco thinks about it. They don't usually go out too far, but he isn't going to say no if Elena wants to be bold today, "Sure. Let's go."
After driving around for about an hour, Francisco's phone begins to ring. As he pulls the phone out of his pocket, he looks over at Elena, "It's probably Lynn wanting takeout," he jokes. "We might have to stop somewhere, but at least you can practice turning in tight corners."
That's what he says, though Elena is constantly worried about causing any sort of damage to the truck, especially since they haven't practiced going through a drive-thru.
He looks at the caller ID, it's his tenants, "Hello…yes…right…when did it start?"
Elena glances over at him. She can tell by the tone in his voice that he isn't thrilled or that he's likely going to cut the lesson short to deal with the problem. She figures that he might force her to go back home, and while they can finish their lesson tomorrow, she doesn't want to squeeze in so many hours into one day.
Francisco hangs up and asks, "Let's head home."
That isn't what she wants to hear. If he takes his truck, then the lesson is over until he gets back, and she has no idea when that might be, "Dad, no. You said that we were going to practice."
"I know that, but I can't just let my tenants sit around waiting while their kitchen is flooding. Look, you can drive me home so that I can get my toolbox, drive me to the rental house, and I'll try to fix everything as quickly as I can. Does that sound good?"
She sighs. She doesn't want to wait around, but at least it's better than being stuck sitting at home frustrated, "Fine…"
Francisco looks over at his daughter, he knows that she's disappointed, but hopefully, his tenants are exaggerating, and he can fix everything before it gets late.
After quickly swinging by the house, Elena parks in the driveway of the rental house and watches as her dad walks into the house. She turns off the truck and stares at the front door. She's afraid to pull out her phone or to stare at the clock on the dashboard, fearful of how much time will pass.
Minutes go by and her dad still doesn't come out of the door.
She's tempted to head inside and see what is going on or how she can help, but she knows that she's no good with home repairs, so she'll probably get in the way. Elena taps her fingers on the steering wheel, waiting and waiting. When she gets sick of sitting in the driver's seat, she steps out of the truck and walks to the end of the driveway and back. She walks towards the front door, tempted to knock on it and see what is going on, but instead, she takes a seat on the steps, pulls out her phone and begins to text her friends. Most of them are good for a quick chat, but every time she messages someone, she glances over at the time, and feels frustrated at how slowly time is passing. She stops messaging them, and heads back to the truck to wait.
When she hears the front door open, Elena notices her dad walking out. Almost an hour passed, and it's getting dark now. Aside from the quick trip to Lake Angelus, she didn't get to do much, leaving her to try to make up her hours tomorrow, much to her frustration.
Francisco heads back to the truck, "Hey, sorry about keeping you waiting."
She quietly sighs, "It's fine…" she says, as she stares forward at the road ahead.
He's surprised, not used to her sounding so frustrated. Today wasn't ideal. He didn't want her to miss out on today, but he couldn't leave his tenants to deal with the water issue. Francisco figures that he might be able to cheer her up. With a straight face, he gives her directions, pretending that he is leading her down an alternate path home. As the dealership comes into view, he looks over, hoping to see a reaction from her.
"Turn right, here on Forestdale, and take the first left."
Elena does as she's told, and she realizes where her dad wants to take her. She sees all the cars lined up at the dealership - all shiny with bold prices on the windshield and signs for deals if they buy today.
She can see the smile on his face, "Now, we're only here to look, but I figure that before we go home, we can see if anything here catches your eye. If not, we can go to another dealership tomorrow, you know, really get a feel for what you want for your first car."
Her first car.
She can't deny that she hasn't been thinking about what sort of car she would want. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, the thought has been occupying her mind more than ever, especially after her grandpa called her up one day and asked her about it. Without hesitation, they started talking, and he even gave her suggestions on reliable cars that are easy to maintain. So, the thought of her dad buying her a car didn't occur to her and she didn't want to bother him since he already has a lot on his plate financially.
Elena bites her bottom lip, unsure of how to break the news to him, "Umm…"
"C'mon before they close," he says.
Before he steps out of the truck, Elena tells, "Umm… Dad," she starts.
He turns around.
"Grandpa Jacob is already buying me my first car."
"What?"
She nervously nods her head. She can feel an obvious tension from him, but she figures that there's no point in hiding it now, "He called me a little after summer vacation started and asked me what sort of car I wanted."
Francisco turns his head towards the cars, not wanting his daughter to look him in the eye. He's furious at Jacob for taking this from him. He didn't tell anyone that he wanted to give Elena a car for her birthday so that he can surprise her, but also just in case Jacob tried to one-up him if he heard about it, and regardless, he does so anyway.
Elena notices him hand ball up into a tight fist, she can tell that he's angry as he quietly stares forward, "Dad, are you okay?"
He quickly answers, "It's fine."
She can tell that he's holding back, so she asks, "You know, you can tell me if anything is bothering you."
Francisco keeps his gaze at the cars in front of him, and he quietly repeats himself, "It's fine. Let's go pick up something for dinner at Beefcarver's."
Rita calls out to her kids from downstairs, "Kids! Let's go! We're going to be late!"
It's the first day back to school and like every year, it's a hassle to get the kids out the door. After three months away, they're accustomed to sleeping in a little later, staying up later, sitting in front of the tv, but now they've got to get back to their routine.
The kids slowly walk down the stairs, dreading going back to school, except for Lynn, who tries to run down between her slowpoke siblings. Rita watches as her daughter quickly runs into the dining room and scarfs down her breakfast, surprised that she's happy about the first day of school.
Lynn gulps down her juice, thanks her dad for the meal and runs towards the front door. Rita notices where her daughter's gaze is locked on, and she immediately tries to beat her. The sixteen-year-old tries to grab the keys from the hook, but Rita quickly takes them before her daughter gets her hands on them.
"Hey!"
Rita keeps a tight grip on Vanzilla's key as she tries not to look her daughter in the eye, "C'mon, kids! We've got to get going."
The siblings begin to scarf down their breakfast, and run towards the van.
Lynn looks at her mom. She angrily crosses, "C'mon! Why can't I drive? You can be in the passenger seat," she pleads.
All summer, her parents have been putting off her driving lessons, now school is about to start and she still hasn't gotten her license. It was bad enough that she failed her tests, but her parents are barely willing to let her practice anymore.
Rita looks down at her daughter. She can tell how badly Lynn wants this, but even with the few rare lessons they give her, Lynn still isn't learning and she is still a danger on the road, "How about after school?"
"But I have practice after school."
"Sorry, but after school or nothing."
Lynn groans and stomps towards Vanzilla.
It isn't nice, but during the last lesson, she and Lynn noticed that their daughter still wasn't making progress, instead it felt like she was getting worse due to her frustration. She had a short fuse with any driver that 'wronged' her, which unfortunately also extended to the police, and after that little encounter, her driving privileges were revoked until school started.
It felt like such a long way away then.
As Rita drives towards the high school, Lynn stares out the window. Rita can see that she's not happy, but she and Lynn had to be stern with her, and they'll keep doing so until she learns that driving isn't a game.
Rita pulls up in front of the high school. The high schoolers get out, bidding their mom goodbye, except for Lynn, who doesn't say much to her mom as she walks into the school. Rita sighs and leaves to drop off the rest of the kids.
Lynn continues going through the motions for the rest of the day, ignoring her teachers and lessons, as she tries to think about how she is going to get a chance to drive again. She can't skip practice, and she can probably run home, but soon her parents are going to get busy with the rest of her siblings, so if she doesn't get their attention before everybody else, she loses today.
'There's always the weekend,' she thinks, but that's too far away. Plus, if her sisters ask to borrow Vanzilla, then she's going to have to wait for them to get back and that could take hours.
Lynn grips her hair in frustration, trying to outwit nine other siblings to get a few minutes with Mom and Dad is hard, 'How does Stinkoln do it?!' she wonders.
Margo calls out to Lynn, who is still sitting at her desk, lost in thought, "Lynn! Let's go, we have volleyball practice." Lynn doesn't move, and that surprises Margo. She waves her hand in from her friend's face, "Earth to Lynn, are you there?"
Lynn looks over at her friend, then back at the clock, wondering where the time went. It felt like just a minute ago she was eating in the cafeteria with her friends, and now school is over.
She looks over at Margo,"Yeah, just kinda zoned out for a bit."
"C'mon, we're gonna be late."
Lynn runs after Margo and they head over to the gym for practice. Once she steps onto the volleyball court, her mind goes blank. She doesn't think about driving or trying to get her parents' attention, just the white ball whenever it comes towards her.
When the coach blows the final whistle, Lynn is brought back to reality and remembers that she wants to get home to catch her parents before they get occupied with something else. Lynn runs to the locker room to get changed, but as the chatter of her teammates echoes through the room, she stops for a second to listen to her teammates talk about practice, classes, and the possibility of getting their first cars.
Now Lynn knows that Vanzilla is going to be her first car, but listening to her teammates talk about their already acquired licenses frustrates her. She knows for a fact that her friends all got their licenses, and never mind that most of them are older so all last school year, she excitedly congratulated them, waiting for it to be her turn, but it never came. She's failed the test, but worse, her parents aren't letting her drive much. Aside from Leni, her older sisters didn't struggle on tests or get told by their parents that they'll go for a drive later only for it to get postponed.
"What about you, Lynn?" asks a teammate.
Francisco passes by the locker rooms and can hear the girls' echoed yells, then the familiar sound of a snapped towel.
He can hear a girl scream, "I'm gonna get you, Loud!" Followed by Lynn's laughs. Rather than continue towards the parking lot, Francisco decides to wait for his friend. He can hear some laughs, and surprisingly, a little roughhousing, which he blames on Lynn.
"Oh c'mon! It wasn't that bad," Lynn says with a smile on her face as she and Margo run out of the locker room.
"She tripped over Paula's crutch and landed in the basket full of dirty towels."
"Well she shouldn't have challenged someone with such admirable towel skills."
Margo rolls her eyes knowing that Lynn won't care that she technically challenged their teammate. She notices Francisco leaning against the wall, waving towards them to get their attention.
Margo calls out to him, "Hey Francisco, what are you doing here?"
"I was checking out cross country, see if I wanted to join the team."
"Did you?"
Francisco shakes his head, "Probably not. I'll just try to get ready for hockey instead," he says as the three walk out of the school. The three approach the parking lot, and Francisco offers to the girls, "Do you want a ride?"
Without hesitation, Margo says, "Sure."
Lynn watches as her two friends walk towards Francisco's truck. He's lucky. Margo's lucky. Both of them got their licenses on their first go, and here she is straggling behind hoping for one ding-dang opportunity to get back on the road. She should be happy since she can get home faster than if she walked, but it's late and her parents will probably try to postpone her lesson, again.
Then she gets an idea.
"Hey," she starts, "do you mind if I drive?"
Francisco looks over at her. His brother is trusting him with the truck and expects him to get home immediately after practice without any problems. Though, it isn't like he isn't already going to be a little late after dropping off his friends.
He shakes his head. No, he can't just let Lynn drive just because she asks.
He's about to say no, but then he looks at her eyes. They're begging him to let her drive. Francisco quietly stares at her, unable to say anything.
Then, in what sounded like a sweet voice, Lynn asks him again, "Do you mind if I drive?"
Without a second thought, Francisco hands over the keys and she happily takes them, thanking him before walking to the driver's side.
"What the heck just happened?"
Margo doesn't answer and instead giggles as she gets in the back seat.
On Sunday, Elena looks at her driving log. She still needs another hour of daytime driving and a few more minutes of nighttime driving to complete the requirements. However, she doesn't want to keep driving around with her dad. Ever since last night, he's been quiet and a bit awkward around her. She knows that there's something wrong with him, but he refuses to say anything.
She taps her pencil on her desk trying to think of what else she could do. She figures that she can probably get her mom or Andrew to help her, but they don't always have time to take her out for a driving lesson.
'Maybe I could ask…' she looks over her shoulder and notices Lynn whistling as she takes the laundry hamper to the garage.
She knows that Lynn isn't the best driver, but she is an adult and that's all that matters.
Elena calls out to her, "Hey, Lynn, can I ask you something?"
She turns around, "Yeah, what's up?"
"I was hoping that you could take me on a driving lesson."
Lynn is surprised. For weeks, Elena and Francisco have been going on drives and up until last night it felt like the two were happily enjoying their time together. Lynn tried to get Francisco to say something about what happened, but he stubbornly refused.
When everyone fell asleep, she checked the truck or tried to look for some sort of scratch or damage to the truck, but she found nothing. She thought that maybe Elena wasn't interested in the car that he was going to buy her, or that she was too indecisive to pick one out, or that maybe they did run into Noah. However, none of those reasons made much sense, so she decided to let Francisco stay mad a bit until he cooled down.
"Are you sure? Wouldn't you prefer your dad?"
She sighs, "I don't think he wants to go driving today…"
Lynn definitely noticed that last night. Ever since they came back, he's been quiet and she could sense that he was in a bad mood. She tried asking him about it, but at best all he could do was mumble and Lynn didn't feel like forcing him to open up.
"Alright, let's see what you got."
Elean shows Lynn her driving log. Every minute seems to be carefully cataloged as if she is carrying around a stopwatch whenever she gets in the car.
"Dang you're honest," says Lynn. "Why don't you just round up. It's not like they're going to check."
"I want to have the actual experience and I don't want to risk it."
"What, you think that someone is checking all the cameras on the street lights? Thinking 'who is that in the driver's seat?' They're not Elena De Los Reyes. Tell the Secretary of State."
Elena doesn't appreciate the joke, "Lynn, just let me do it my way," she says snatching the log away from her, "I want to be honest on this log, and get this dang paperwork over with, with as little problems as possible."
She's surprised by Elena's response. Normally, the teen can go along with her silliness, but this weekend, she's been behaving a little differently.
"Jeez, what's eating you?"
Elena sighs, "I want to be done with driving before my birthday. Mom and Andrew can't always help and this is my last weekend. Can you help me or not?"
Without hesitation, Lynn nods her head, "Yeah, let's go."
Margo and Francisco hold onto the handles as tight as they can. They want to scream, but their yells feel trapped in their throats. Neither one has ever been in the car with Lynn as the driver and they're both quietly in agreement that if they survive, they probably won't get in a car with her any time soon.
"Lynn! School zone!"
"It's five o'clock. Those rules don't apply."
"Pretend!" they both yell at her.
Lynn turns her head towards Margo in the backseat and scoffs, "It's just the middle school. If they haven't learned how to look both ways before crossing the street, they have it coming."
If they weren't panicking, they would have pointed out the irony to Lynn. There were plenty of instances that they remember of her running around while getting in the way of oncoming traffic without looking where she was going. They're sure that it will only fall on deaf ears, but they both knew that the other was thinking it.
"Keep your eyes on the road!" begs Francisco.
Lynn immediately turns around, "Right!"
A traffic light comes into view. The two passengers can see that the light is yellow. They know that Lynn should slow down, but both of them know what she's really going to do.
Lynn speeds past the light as it changes from yellow to red.
The two look over at her, she seems unphased by everything around her. They sort of wonder if the idea of a cop pulling them over for running a red light is even crossing her mind, or any idea for that matter, until Lynn honks at a car in front of them.
"Hurry up!" she yells at the other driver. "The speed limit is thirty, not," she pauses as she looks at the speedometer, and realizes that she's driving twenty miles over the speed limit.
Lynn realizes that the car in front of her isn't going to speed up and she doesn't have time to gently slow down, so she slams on the brakes, sending all three forward, only to be saved by their seatbelts.
All three groan at the sudden shock.
Margo and Francisco are happy that they're still, but they dread knowing that they're still a few blocks away from Lynn's house. They hope that the brief incident will stick with Lynn and she'll be a more cautious driver, but with the car in front of them about to turn, they know that that's not going to happen.
Immediately the two are proven right as Lynn steps on the gas. Those few blocks feel like an eternity as they drives around the drivers. Apparently, those comics did have a point about going so fast the time slows down. Heck, there was a moment that it felt like Lynn took a turn and two of the wheels lost contact with the pavement.
When Lynn turns onto her street and the two feel a wave of gratitude that they were able to survive this terrible ordeal. All Lynn has to do is make it a few more houses and they can finally get their heart rates back in the recommended range.
Lynn speeds down the street. They're almost sure that she's going to miss her own house, and the sound of squealing tires begins to alarm them, until she swerves and stops the truck by the driveway.
Francisco and Margo stumble out of the truck, happy to be back on still land. They're both panting, trying to get their heart rates back to normal, but they can't forget what transpired. They assumed that Lynn was failing the written portion of the test or maybe ran over one too many cones, but now they know why she still hasn't gotten her license.
"That was fun," she tells them as she hands the keys back to Francisco. "Thanks for letting me drive," she tells him with a smile.
Francisco tries to answer back, but he can barely get a grunt out after what transpired.
"We'll see you tomorrow," says Margo.
The two quietly try to catch their breath while Lynn heads into her house. When they're alone, Margo looks over at him, "Maybe next time, think with your head and don't let her drive your truck."
"I did," he shyly admits.
Elena looks over to Dutch from the front door. She would much prefer to drive her dad's truck than the rusted old car sitting in the driveway. It constantly breaks down, the dashboard isn't reliable, and every time that her dad is able to fix something, another problem arises elsewhere.
Nope, she would in a million times prefer waiting on getting her license than getting behind the wheel of Dutch.
Lynn opens the front door, "Alright, Francisco is going to take Vic, so we can go."
Elena looks over at Lynn, who seemingly doesn't notice how slowly she's walking towards the driver's side of the car.
"C'mon! Time's a wastin'. You want to get all your hours in today, right?"
"Yeah, but can't we go in Dad's truck or something?"
"No, he said that he's going to run some errands, and you do not want to have a fussy six-month-old while trying to fix a car on the side of the road."
"But-" starts Elena, but stops trying when Lynn gets in the car. It isn't any better for them to get stuck with the old jalopy either; neither of them know how to fix cars that well in the event of an emergency, and she doesn't want to risk a breakdown.
Elena makes another attempt, "Lynn-"
Lynn slams the passenger side door shut and Elena sighs, knowing that she isn't going to be able to convince Lynn to use the truck.
The teen gets in the car and sinks a bit in the non-upholstered seat. She moves the seat back a bit so that she can comfortably control the vehicle and carefully pulls out of the driveway. Unlike the truck, which sounds smooth as it's driven down the street, Dutch is a lot noisier and she isn't sure if she should voice her concerns to Lynn. She hasn't driven her own car much since Victor was born, but with winter right around the corner, there are probably some issues that should be addressed.
"Is Dutch doing alright?"
"Yeah, it always sounds like this."
"Shouldn't you replace the car? I mean, you've owned it for years."
"No way!" she immediately says, "I'm not getting rid of Dutch, we've been through too much together."
Elena never pictured Lynn to be the sympathetic type especially over an old vehicle. Though it does explain why she and her dad keep sinking money on a near-inoperable car.
Lynn looks around at the streets, and she notices a weird feeling. She tries to lean over to look at the speedometer, but she can't see it well enough, "You know that you can go faster, right?"
"I'm going speed limit."
In a stunned tone, Lynn says, "Really? Man, this feels slow. I bet I could run faster than this."
Elena doesn't know what to say, so she settles for, "Could you?"
She thinks for a minute, "No… but it sure feels like I could."
The two quietly sit. There isn't much going on in the neighborhood and Elena keeps driving a few blocks in both directions. Francisco mentioned that they drove out to Lake Angelus yesterday, so it isn't like she's afraid of covering long distances.
"You know we can go further, right?"
"No, I'm good."
"So are you planning anything for your birthday?"
"Not really. After my birthday last year, I didn't really want to do anything too big."
"Are you kidding? You're turning sixteen! That's another big birthday, you should do something."
Elena chuckles, "No, I think that after last year, my family is going for the big present route."
"They could have done both."
"I told them that I was fine with only a present. Besides, I know my mom and Andrew, they are not the types to go nuts and spend a lot of money on something. Especially since I said I didn't want a big party again."
Lynn nods her head, "Do you know what they're getting you?"
"No, but my grandparents are getting me a car."
Lynn looks over at Elena, "They are?"
"Yeah, they said so months ago, and it's why Dad is being weird. I know that he's upset about it, but I sort of wish he would admit it. I get it's not ideal, but he's not in the best spot financially to buy a new car. Between Victor, you having a different job, the jewelry from my birthday last year plus the payment plan, he's better off. I'd rather let my grandparents get me a new car since I don't have to worry about their finances."
Hearing that isn't great, and worse is that Elena thinks that. Lynn knows their finances could be better, but whether she knows it or not, she's wounding her dad's pride and causing a bigger rift between him and her grandfather. She didn't see the excited look on Francisco's face as he planned the purchase with her, or how much he had to convince Caroline to let him be her driving teacher, no, she didn't see any of it. Instead, all she saw were the driving lessons in a big, red truck and trips around the Detroit area.
Lynn doesn't want her to feel bad. She thinks that she's doing her dad a favor by having Jacob bear the brunt of a car purchase. However, telling her that she's not isn't going to make things better. Elena will be upset and probably try to fix it because of what she said, and chances are Francisco will know that it'll be out of pity rather than out of actual desire.
That isn't what Lynn wants to force her to do, even if her gut is telling her so.
"How about we stop around the corner for a pop? I think the new owners are having a sale or something."
"What do you think?"
A stifled smile and brief nod are enough to say that this is the car, but they have to get past the salesman.
"Remember, always look like you're ready to walk away or they won't budge when we try to negotiate."
"Are we really going to get it this time?"
"Yes, but you can't look desperate, so stare at a picture or something until we finish negotiating."
"Alright."
The salesman walks into the room, "So I talked to my manager, and he thinks that fifteen hundred below sticker price is more than fair."
"Fair?" the three turn, "You can do better than that. Eighteen hundred and you throw in the weatherproof floor mats."
The two stare off at one another.
The salesman counters, "Sixteen fifty."
"Plus, the weatherproof floor mats?"
The salesman nods.
"What do you think?"
Francisco offers the salesman his hand, "I think we got a deal."
"Great!"
"So can I get my keys?" asks Victor.
"Hold on there, junior, we still need to fill out some paperwork."
Both Lynn and Victor groan.
"How about you two go and admire the car while I do this?"
Victor takes his dad's offer and excitedly grunts as he runs towards his new used car.
From his seat, Francisco laughs.
"What's so funny?" asks Lynn.
"You know he's excited when that little grunt comes out."
Lynn looks over at her husband, "You had to show him that old home improvement show, didn't you?"
With a smile on his face, Francisco answers, "Is it so wrong to share something with my son?"
I definitely wasn't planning on taking this long with this chapter, but unfortunately, I didn't have as much free time at home and at work to write as I normally have, so for that, I apologize.
As for the flash forward, I wasn't planning on it, but I thought why not? Show a glimpse past where the story is intended to end, maybe something deep, or something more lighthearted like this chapter. Though if they do continue, they'll be a little more detailed, this time it was only because I thought that it would be more fun to be surprised by something new.
Anyway, thank you all for reading, and see you next time.