Retrouvaille [2] Scott McCall

Chapter 16: Dreamcatchers

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Lydia was driving to pick up Luna and Kira with Malia sitting next to her in the passenger seat with some low music playing. Lydia had just pulled into Kira's neighborhood. She pulled into the driveway and honked her horn to signal Luna and Kira. Moments later the two girls came out of Kira's house and got into the backseat of Lydia's car. "Are we ready to go to the mall?" Luna asks Lydia who shakes her head. "Nope," she says taking her seat belt off. She turns to Malia. "You're going to drive."

"What?!" Malia, Luna and Kira exclaimed.

"You heard me. C'mon." She then got out of the car. Malia blew at the front fringes of her hairline stress fully but got her seat belt off to to get out of the car herself. Once Lydia and Malia got out of the car, Luna and Kira both looked at each other with a worried glance.

Malia got into the driver's seat as Lydia went to sit in the passenger seat. Luna scooted closer to Lydia. "Hey, Lydia. Are you sure about this?" "Yes," Lydia told her sternly.  Luna shrugged her shoulder and sat back in her seat. "Okay, let's get going," Kira said, trying not to sound nervous as she felt. "Just put your hands on the wheel at 10:00 and 2:00." 

Malia moved to do just that. Lydia shook her head. "Actually, the recommended position is now 9:00 and 3:00. Prevents you from breaking your thumbs when the air bag is deployed." "Mine would heal," Malia said bluntly. Lydia gave her a look before moving to adjust her hands. "Just move your hands, and start it up. We don't want to be late."

For the first few minutes, the drive seemed to go quite smoothly. Malia managed to get them out of Kira's neighborhood without much incident. Though when they got to the main roads, that's when things got interesting to say the least. Lydia was giving her directions but Malia was barely starting to register her voice.

Seeing the dark and lonely road, Malia found her grip on the wheel tightening. She blinked and, for a second, found herself on a different road but it had a similar setting. She blinked again to find that she was making the car zig zag through the street, unable to stay in a single lane.

"Malia," Kira said as she gripped her seat hard to steady herself. "You're heading off the road." Malia gasped and tightened her grip on the wheel even more when there was a sudden beeping noise. "What is that? What is beeping?" "The car's telling you not to run into the tree," Lydia told her. "Turn the wheel. Malia! And try to stay on the actual road," Luna advised her.

Malia just managed to turn them away from hitting a tree and got them back onto the road. But, she had gotten so flustered that she was starting to drive them in circles. "Malia? Uh, this is called a U-turn." Luna asked after the third circle. "What? You said turn the wheel." "Maybe you should press a little harder on the gas-" Lydia said, gripping the headrest of her seat.

Malia then sped the car up as they turned. "Whoa!" Luna and Kira exclaimed as they held onto each other as Malia made a sharp turn and got them to be somewhat straight again as they headed back down the road.