Magnitude

Law of the Land

    5 years earlier....

    Drool slowly rolled out of the teenage boy's lips, whose head was resting on his arms, which were folded on top of his desk. He clearly was one of those boys to avoid when driving in the future. This particular driver's education class held 20 kids who could only think about which car they wanted, and all their plans of places to drive to. In the middle of the row in the back sat Holly, a bright student who wanted to learn to drive right away.

     A few of Holly's older friends had given her bits and pieces of advice on what to do to pass Mr. Wilson's class, and how to drive properly. Today however, was a particularly boring lecture on safe driving. Everyone already knew to not drive drunk and to drive carefully in bad weather conditions, etc. She almost wanted to join the boy who was sleeping right in front of her.

      Suddenly a folded piece of paper bounced off her head, surprising her and making her fully aware. The paper had fallen to the side, right in between her and the cute boy next to her, who went by the name of Peter. He too had noticed it there and looked into Holly's eyes with an evil gleam. She quickly grabbed at it, with Peter's hand barely brushing hers before retracting his arm back and chuckling softly as he turned to face the teacher. She stared at him for a second longer, surprised that he actually was aware of her existence. Recovering, Holly sat back in her seat with the paper clutched in her hand. Looking two desks up and one to the right, sat a very  curly haired redhead. She quickly glanced back at Holly, and Holly held up the piece of paper she retrieved. Acknowledging with a nod, the girl turned her head back up. Holly was completely curious as to what the paper said, so quietly and slowly she started unfolding it.

     Written in bright pink with neat girly handwriting, the note said, 'OMG! Billy is drooling so nastily! Mr. Wilson sounds like a robot. And what is up with Jayna's hair?! It's like a bird nest!'

     After reading this, Holly smirked and reached into her backpack for her signature light blue pen. She peered up at the girl sitting at the very front with brown hair that made her look like she had been electrocuted, and then threw her hair in a bun on top of her head. Giggling at what Whitney said, she replied right under her friend's note saying, 'Ha I am so glad I can't see his drool! But I sure want to sleep now too! And Mr. Wilson sounds more like a talkative Eeyore. As for Jayna's hair, got a vacancy for two in there?'

      She folded back up the note the same way that her friend had folded it, and looked up at Mr. Wilson. When his back finally turned, Holly chucked the note. Good thing her aim was good, because it bounced right off the red head's shoulder and landed to the side. Immediately, her friend bent over to grab it, making a loud scraping sound with her chair.

       "Miss Child, do you have something to say?" Mr. Wilson turned, staring directly at Whitney, who was still partially bent over with the paper in her hand.

        "No sir, I just dropped my pencil. I'm sorry." She replied back instantly, while secretly grabbing her pencil and pulling a very big smile. Apparently it was good enough to convince Mr. WIlson, because he turned back around and picked up the lesson again. Whitney looked back at Holly with a guilty but relieved look, and Holly just shook her head in amazement.

       Suddenly there was a tapping on Holly's shoulder, and she turned to find Peter leaning in and motioning for her to come closer. As she leaned towards him, he whispered, "Wow she's good. Instant recovery!"

          Holly then whispered back, "No kidding! Good thing she wasn't caught!"

        "Doing what? Passing notes? Man you guys are old school!" Peter jokingly retorted before going back to his position of staying focused in class. Holly slowly went back to sitting straight and pretending to pay attention, but her mind was fluttering because Peter actually talked to her!

        The bell suddenly rang as many chairs started pulling away from their desks and backpacks being zipped open, and then Mr. Wilson spoke up. "Hold up class! I want you all to write a page, double-spaced research paper, about specific driving laws in Utah. I am meaning rules and regulations that pertain to Utah, that may not be in some other states. Thank you class, have a nice day." Everyone in class rose and rushed to the door for their next class. Holly took her time putting her stuff away, seeing that Peter was also being slow.

        When Peter was finished packing up, he looked at Holly and flashed his handsome smile at her and said, "Hey see ya later!" and with that, grabbed his bag and headed out. Holly kept replaying his smile in her mind, until she saw a hand waving in front of her face. Whitney's face then came into focus, and Holly realized that she was still in her driver's ed class.

       "Why are you just sitting here looking like an idiot? I waited outside of the classroom thinking you were right behind, and I come in here and you're staring off into lala land. Oh by the way, are we going out for lunch or not?"

       "Hey sorry Whitney! It's just, Peter finally said something to me!" Whitney's green eyes went wide and smiled, and then she motioned for Holly to carry on. "Oh it was just simple words, but finally he said something to me after sitting next to him for a term and a half! And no to the lunch, Kimmy doesn't have her car today, and I really don't want to walk in the snow."

        It was the middle of November, but winter has come early for Salt Lake City. Snow had covered the ground in a blanket of white, and was very cold. The two sophomore girls usually rode with their older friends out for lunch, or just walked down the street to some of the fast food places.

        "Hey so what about that assignment in Driver's Ed?" Holly asked while sitting in the lunch room of the school cafeteria.

        "Psh, I do not have time for that! I have to memorize that monologue for Ms. Babcock's class. I still can only remember the first line." Whitney retorted. She grabbed her burger and started shoving it in her face, not a care in the world if anyone saw her.

        "Shoot! I forgot about that. You would think a theatre class would not be so hard! Anyways I'll just use my brother's old handbook and just copy some laws down." Holly said while she took a chug of her chocolate milk. The one good thing about school lunch was the good chocolate milk.

       "Ummm....let me see. Some laws of Utah....I have no clue what is different about Utah and the drivers besides that they suck, and the weather changes more in a day than a girl in a week?"

       After laughing for a second, Holly replied, "Well talking specifically like when you get in an accident, and the legal driving ages and what not..."

      "Who cares?! Just teach us to drive! Anyways, pull out your monologue and let's study!" Whitney said as the laws of driving passed over their mind.