I'm Still Sadie

2 Tool 4 Skool

2 TOOL 4 SKOOL

My heart leapt up to my throat as I waited by that car with the student driver stickers on it. This was where I was supposed to be, right? Right?

I waited for about ten minutes before anyone showed up, all while kicking at some loose pebbles and pieces of gravel in the parking lot. A man with a button down shirt and clipboard cleared his throat, and a girl with an upturned nose appeared behind him.

My jaw fell to the ground. That girl...looked so familiar, but in the worst sense. She looked like Brandi Schumann, my sworn enemy and limbo-contest-fame-taker-awayer. I couldn't pry my eyes off of her.

The teacher tapped his fingers on his clipboard. "Are you going to keep staring, kiddo? I don't have all day."

"Yes," I mumbled out.

He lifted his eyebrow behind his clipboard.

"I mean, no?"

"Good. Now you'll drive first today since Dana started last time. Alright?"

I didn't get to answer before he was chucking some car keys in my direction. My hands fumbled with them, threatening to drop them to the parking lot.

I heard a sigh. "Any day now, kiddo."

Getting a grip on myself and the keys, I opened my door. Dana was still in my mind: she just looked too much like Brandi.

With a slight smile, I started to do all of the things my parents and Nell did before they drove, like adjusting my mirrors and the seat. That was soon done, so I put the key into the ignition and beamed as the car roared to life.

"Ease it," called the driving teacher who was hardly inside the car. "Don't start the engine until all your passengers are buckled up."

Reluctantly, I killed the engine and fastened my seatbelt. And as the teacher clicked his own, I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel.

I felt my eyebrows dance up my forehead. "Now?"

"Does everyone have their belt on? Are you being a safe, cautious, and courteous driver?"

Glancing his direction, I concluded that the both of us were fastened up. That just left that Brandi look alike in the backseat: Dana.

We made eye contact in the rear view mirror. "You done?"

She tugged a strand of hair from inside her mouth, and I was too revolted to look away. It was like a train wreck: just too horrific to tear your eyes from. My jaw fell to the floor.

"I'm ready now." And then she smiled, revealing a gap between her two front teeth. Just like Brandi had. I guessed that evil could be found anywhere, including wherever the hell this suburban high school was.

"Kiddo," the teacher scolded. I ripped my eyes away from Dana in the rear view mirror, just in time to feel some saliva spray from his mouth. "It's now or never."

Right. I couldn't let myself get distracted by people in my mirror; it was driving time. I had been pumped for this ever since Nell had gotten her license a few months prior. It was now my time.