Sophomore Year || Parenthood Series, Book One || WATTYS 2018

Chapter Forty-Seven

SOUNDTRACK: "White Rabbit" - Jefferson Starship

"Watch out for the mailbox!" Shannon shouted from the backseat.

Kate overcompensated and let out a shriek as she fishtailed the car on the road. "You know, shouting at me will only make me more nervous!"

"The light's red!" Jared said, pointing out of the windshield. "Stop!"

She slammed her foot on the brake pedal, causing the car to come to a screeching halt and Shannon to faceplant into the back of Jared's head rest. She was breathing heavily, gripping the steering wheel tightly. An air of tension filled the car.

"Okay," Jared started when the light turned green. "Gently press down on the accelerator," he instructed, hands braced on the dashboard in front of him. "Like you're trying not to crush an egg."

She nodded and followed his instructions. And sure enough, the car eased forward. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"And to brake, ease into it. Don't slam your foot down," Jared said. He caught a glimpse of Shannon in the back. "Put your damn seatbelt on, Shan!"

"I think I've got whiplash," Shannon grumbled, rubbing the side of his face.

"It's your own damn fault," Jared replied.

Shannon rolled his eyes but buckled himself in. Both men had been teaching Kate how to drive for the past two hours and it had certainly been an education for her. Her driving test was scheduled a short time from then and she wanted to get in all the practice she could. Unfortunately for her, being taught by Jared and Shannon was about as helpful as being taught by the Three Stooges.

"Turn signal," Jared said. "We need to get over to take this next right. So merge lanes."

Kate looked in her right side mirror to see if there was a car there and turned her indicator on. She slowly crossed the white dashed line.

"Are you gonna pick a lane or just drive down the middle of the road?" Shannon asked.

Kate veered harshly to the right, garnering several honks from other cars behind her.

"Slow down," Jared said.

She turned smoothly onto another road, much to Jared's surprise. "I can only go in a circle in the parking lot at home," she explained.

Both men laughed. "Pull into this lot," Jared told her. "I'll drive back. I don't want you going through the hills yet."

She obeyed and switched places with Jared and he drove them back home, dropping Shannon off at his place on the way. Kate wasn't really sure if Shannon just wanted to tag along or if he thought he had some type of useful information to pass on to her. He hadn't been much help, shouting at her from the backseat, so she decided he must have wanted to see the chaos for himself.

~~~

The sun had long since gone down and the lights in the Compound illuminated several feet of ground through the windows. Jared had the house to himself for the first time in a long time. Kate was spending the night at Olivia's house and he had sent Shayla home early. As he walked through the halls, he looked at some of the pictures he had hung on the walls. One of Rachel caught his eye.

He had often wondered what it was about her that he was drawn to. For the life of him, he couldn't really place her definitively in his mind. He took the picture down and shuffled to his room. He sat on the bed as he looked at her picture and thought back to the night he met her. Nick had asked how much he could remember at their last session and Jared had only come up with vague details, like her black dress and that her red hair had been up off of her neck.