He was ready.
The model spread across the back seat at an angle; dipping from its high position on Layla's car booster to the floor. But it didn't matter; because he knew from endless gluing and sticking sessions that everything would stay intact.
"Drive," Luke instructed. He was sitting in the middle, knuckles white from gripping onto the polystyrene base. "I want to get there at least ten minutes before they do the introductions."
Victoria flung the street map at Nathan and pushed a foot into the pedal. For a moment, the car seemed to be suspended in midair before squealing into action and rocketing off down the road; small wheels spinning so furiously that they looked in danger of rolling off.
But they didn't, and the houses blurred into one long stretch of brickwork as they sped on.
And on, and on.
Luke's nerves weren't helped by the indignant honking of cars close behind them, swerving to the curb to let them through.
"Layla," Victoria hissed, "do your window up and keep your head inside the car!"
Layla reluctantly settled back into her seat. "That man was saying something," she insisted. "To you. There in the green van!"
"Yeah, and I didn't want to hear him!" Victoria made a rude gesture at the man, who was windmilling his arms around and speaking angrily.
"We didn't even get in his way," Abby remarked. "It was the woman in front!"
Victoria took a sudden left turn. "Some people are just embarrassing," she said as Nathan gripped hold of the wheel; narrowly avoiding an old lady with a Zimmer frame.
"Watch out," the back seat chorused, wide eyed.
The old lady was glancing around wildly, but they were already gone. Spinning across pedestrian crossings and through roundabouts, and set to arrive at least half an hour early.
"That's a good thing," said Luke. "Early means keen, and teachers like that."
Nathan squinted at the map. "This shortcut seems a bit dodgy. Did you mean to go right back there?"
Victoria didn't say anything.
"Weren't we supposed to cross that way?" Nathan pointed at a private road doubtfully.
The car kept on driving, but slower now. Victoria turned up the music with one immaculately manicured hand.
"There!" Layla exclaimed.
A familiar building stretched out in front of them; the neat brickwork and framed certificates giving off that universal sense of foreboding.
"School!" Abby and Luke seized either end of the model's base in relief.
"Don't question my sense of direction," Victoria told them, confidence restored. "Now, if it's alright, I'm going to wait in the car and practice reciting until the competition is done."
Nathan swung Layla out of her booster seat. "See you later," he called to her. Luke was already hobbling towards the doors as best he could, with the solar system clamped in his vice-like grip.
Inside the hall, everything was beginning.
But inside the car, everything had already begun.
"A poem," Victoria declared to her reflection in the car mirror, "by Victoria Fairfield. Exploring the themes of love within family, and lessons learnt over a lifetime."
ŞİMDİ OKUDUĞUN
Family Togetherness
Genel KurguWhat is a family? "A family is a close-knit unit of kin that strives to love, care and work with its members as a team." That's what the dictionary says. But a dictionary is just a book, and what does a book know about real life? In Number Four Mapl...
