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Chapter Thirty
Point of View: Narrator

Zoe's last drive of the day had been with George. She felt like she'd had bookends. Except at least George had gotten to actually drive the car, unlike her morning headache.

When she got home that night, exhausted and sore, she found Kayla sitting in the kitchen, pouring over a book of sheet music, her hair clutched in her hands and humming the tune under her breath. Kayla had gotten a part in a musical play and she'd been practicing all week for the first rehearsal the next day. She looked up as Zoe came into the room and grabbed a bottle of cranberry juice from the fridge and the Advil from the counter next to the sink.

"Long day?" Kayla asked as Zoe poured three Advils into her hand.

"Yes," answered Zoe.

Kayla laughed, "How did your drive with Nick Carter go?" They'd been laughing about the fact that Zoe was going to be driving with him ever since Stacey had first stopped by the office to proposition her. Nick's rehabilitation driving sessions had quickly become the running joke of the household, and when Zoe had left that morning, Kayla had told her to 'make sure she quit playing games and let him have it his way'.

Zoe's smirk crossed her face. "He didn't drive."

"He didn't show?" Kayla asked, perplexed.

Zoe laughed, "No. I picked him up. He got in the car, and he kept swearing and forgetting basic pre-drive stuff, like adjusting the mirrors and putting on the seatbelt, and he got frustrated and let off a string of curses like he was a sailor." She smiled, "So... I canceled the drive."

Kayla burst into laughter, "Oh my God, Aunt Zoe, you cancelled it because he was cussing?" Tears were leaking out of Kayla's eyes. "Seriously?"

Zoe laughed, "Yes."

Kayla wrapped her arms around her stomach, "That is so classic. Oh my God, I am so Twittering that." She leaped up and ran out of the room, presumably to go get her Blackberry.

Zoe smirked to herself, popped the Advils into her mouth and swallowed them with half the bottle of cranberry juice, remembering the expression on Nick Carter's face when she'd backed away down his driveway.



"She cancelled the drive because I cursed too much," Nick exclaimed to Brian later that night. They were standing on the back patio. Brian was grilling chicken. He, Baylee and Leighanne had gone to look at various houses they were potentially going to rent and had been gone all day. It wasn't until evening that Nick, who had fumed and boiled all day while playing Call of Duty 5, got to vent his feelings about the stupid douche of a driving instructor he'd been stuck with.

Brian, instead of getting angry with Nick, though, laughed. "I can't believe you quoted Jeff Dunham," he said, shaking his head.

"It's true, though," Nick said, "Dude, you should've heard it. When she started that thing up, it was like a gnat. I'm so serious. He was not even a little big exaggerating that bit at all."

Brian's face turned red from laughing. "I'm just -- I'm just picturing you," he said, "Sitting in a Prius."

"Go on, laugh it up," Nick said, shaking his head, "Laugh it up, go on."

"At least it's not a VW Beetle," he pointed out, his nose flaring. "Like those ones with the little flower vase on the wheel?"

Nick laughed, "That I would've seriously told her to enjoy the free money and cancelled myself," he answered. "At least the Prius is black. It's at least a little manly."

Brian snorted, "That's what male ballet people say about their black leotards, Nick," he said.

"C'mon! Let me have that it's not a 'spark-a-layyy' color at least will you? I got to drive it, it's not like I got a choice, unless I install an instructor's brake on my Camaro." His eyes flashed, "Hey! I could install an instructor's brake on the Camaro."

This made Brian laugh even harder. "Oh that would be classic."

Nick sighed, "I just can't believe she cancelled because I swore," he said.

Brian smirked, "So stop swearing."

"It's like habit," Nick answered, "I don't even hear it when I do it. Maybe I have that one disease? The one that makes you swear spontaneously?" he laughed, "Think I can get Dr. Haseltine to write me a note saying I do?"

Brian smiled, "I highly doubt it, Nick."