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Chapter Four
Point of View: Narrator

Zoe Sinclaire was forty-seven years old. She'd never married, and liked it that way. She lived in a big house with her niece, Kayla Martin, and her cat, Pepper. Everyday, she risked her life.

The car slammed to a stop, three feet over the white stop line. "I'm pretty sure I said to LIGHTLY EASE onto the break," she said sternly, adjusting herself and marking "stop line?!" on her clipboard.

Her student turned scarlet. "Sorry Ms. Sinclaire," she muttered as the boys in the backseat snickered loudly.

Zoe turned to face them. "Both of you best shut your mouths," she said, "You'll be driving next, and last I knew you, Cody, weren't doing too hot with merging, and you, Luke, blew through a stop sign on 4th two days ago." Both boys shut up. "That's better." She faced forward again and watched the light turn from red to green.

Hoooooonk!

"You can go, Sara," she said gently.

"Oh God I'm such a ditz!" the girl cried, frantic, clinging to the wheel with both her hands.

"Eight and four, Sara," Zoe reminded her, as she punched the gas pedal and the car lurched forward, knocking Cody and Luke forward. Cody tightened his seatbelt strap across his chest.

Zoe sighed. She'd had the worst bunch of students in the history of driver's ed this year. It seemed like absolutely none of them knew anything about driving - which, yeah, it was her job to teach them that, but most of the time kids came with at least an inkling of the rules of the road from watching their parents drive.

Apparently life was not so in California.

Zoe had only somewhat recently moved out from her quiet life in the northeast to the city. Her niece, Kayla, who she was guardian of, had a dream to become a singer, and Zoe was going to do whatever she could to help Kayla earn that dream. The problem was that nobody ever got discovered in the boondocks of Maine. So away Zoe and Kayla had gone to the land of discovery -- California.

The second problem was that Zoe's job tripled in levels of danger by moving across the coast.

"CROSSWALK!" she yelled, slamming on her instructor's brake. The car screeched to a stop, just as a kid on a bike went flying by without looking.

"Oh God I suck," wailed Sara.



Zoe brought home chinese food that night because she already knew she didn't want to cook dinner. Kayla was watching American Idol Rewind on the reality TV channel. They were replaying the season Kelly Clarkson won.

"Egg foo yong?" Zoe asked, lowering Kayla's favorite in front of her.

"Oh God yeah!" Kayla grabbed the plate Zoe offered her and quickly started gobbling up the food. "Quick come watch, Kelly's gonna win!"

"How many times have you watched this?" Zoe laughed, sitting down beside Kayla with a cardboard carton of pork fried rice, swimming in duck sauce. She rested her crutches against the arm of the sofa.

"Sooo many times," Kayla said.

"Too many times is more like it," laughed Zoe. "You should watch something else for a change."

"Shhh," Kayla waved her fork at Zoe as the announcement was being made.

Zoe tuned out the TV, thinking instead about tomorrow's long schedule. She had twelve hours on the road with the kids and she wasn't looking forward to it. She sighed and pushed the rice around at the bottom of the container, staring at it.

Kayla muted the TV, "You okay Aunt Zoe?" she asked.

"I'm just tired, that's all," Zoe answered thoughtfully. "It's been a long day. You know, I had this student today that didn't know what I meant when I said to put the car in neutral."

Kayla laughed, "What a moron."

"Yeah," Zoe laughed, too. "He was a trooper, though. He kept trying to drive on the highway in second gear and got really pissed when it wouldn't go over thirty miles an hour."

Kayla shook her head, "I think people's IQs are lower here, Aunt Zoe."

Zoe laughed, "I'm starting to, too."