The Hockey Player (Matt Sturniolo)

That's It

Aurora's POV

After a silent ride, Dan and I arrived home to a surprise. And not a good one. "What is that?" I mumbled and pressed my nose to the window.

We leaned back and saw a tow truck backing out of our driveway. Mom and Dad stood on the sidewalk. With an arm over her shoulder, he waved goodbye to the driver. Mom shook her head and frowned.

Dan snorted at the metal sitting where his car usually parked. "I think it used to be a car?"

"Or the biggest, ugliest garden gnome" I laughed.

He gave me an impressed look. "Guess I have to park in the street now"

Our doors were open an inch when we heard Dad's voice. "Dan! Aurora! Come see our new addition"

"What is it?" I stared at the frame of a car, that had no windows, doors or tires. Its colour was best described as rust. Why was it here?

"Dan!" Dad bounced on his feet. "I got us a project car"

"A what?" I looked away from the 'car' to Dan's confused face. Good. If his hands were busy, he'd have less opportunity to punch people. This wasn't a weekend project.

"Your Dad got a project car" Mom said in a dry voice, making me laugh. She frowned and met my eyes.

"But you sell cars for a living, not work on them" I stared at him. "How did you get it?"

"A customer brought it for a trade in" He smiled, like we had a new brother or sister. "The dealership couldn't take it, but the customer left it behind"

"Can't imagine why" I laughed at the annoyance on my Mom's face. She furrowed her eyebrows and scowled.

"With all your school events, Aurora" Dad tried to blame his spending on me. "We could use another car"

Wait a minute. This junk was for me? I needed a car, and used a fine one, but not this. "Do you know how to build a car from....this?"

"Not that much of one" Dan rubbed her eyes and scratched the back of his neck. "Or little, technically"

The urge to burst out laughing pitched my shoulders, but I just snorted. "Can you sell it for scrap?"

"That's an improvement" he mumbled. "There's probably mice living under the hood"

"Okay. Good luck with...this" I hit his arm and walked across the yard. "Guess we know what you're doing until we graduate"

"Can't wait" he groaned, making me smiled wider. I couldn't have written a-

"You're helping, Aurora!" Dad called.

Hard pass.

"Too bad" I said, with fake disappointment in my voice. "I already have a job. But Dan's free on Saturday's now that you won't let him go to parties" Hopefully, he wouldn't want to anymore after I talked to him, but he begged to be teased.

Dad smiled. "It'll be yours when it's done"

I stopped in my tracks. Nope. Absolutely nope. Not that I cared what a car looked like, but I didn't trust it wasn't a deathtrap. Dan and Dad probably wouldn't be finished by the time I graduated, but I looked at Mom. "Mom"

"I can't" she sighed, linking arms with me. "I can't on this one. He called  after the tow truck had picked it up"

"Mom" I whined. "There's no way it's a dependable car"

"Trust me" she squeezed my arm. "They'll get bored in a month. Now, I need to call the HOA since I can't imagine they'll be happy with this"

She was right. The Home Owners Association wasn't happy with Dad's 'project' propped up on cement blocks in our driveway. They gave him a day to move it into the garage. I went inside while Mom and Dad talked about how he had to clean and remove his old junk so Dan could move around in the garage.