the A side - Driving Lessons

Life, Achievement/ Win

Kidd drives the V.Punk for the first time - Kidd -14 in Reposed Rebellions    

He's 14, sitting in Killer's truck after school. The senior started driving them both to high school this year, in his ancient yellow Datsun 620 lil'Huster, and Kidd feels like the coolest freshmen on campus walking out of the senior's parking lot every morning. The lot's nearly empty now, most everyone's gone home. Killer'd tossed him his keys in the hall earlier in the day. Detention again most likely.   Usually the school tried to make them serve those over lunch - knowing that the massively rural portion of kids couldn't exactly wait around after hours. But you could only eat lunch so many times in the detention room before it was clear other measures needed to be taken. Kidd was just hoping Killer hasn't gotten himself expelled again, which would put him back on riding the school bus at oh-god in the morning.   Killer was Kidd's closest neighbor, living about a mile or so up the dirt road from him, and the only one Kidd knew whose folks still sent him to public school instead of homeschooling. Kidd could get up and walk the fifteen minutes to Killer's and have his neighbor drive him the hour to school. Or he could get his stepdad to drive him to the single light in town for the bus, and sit on it for the next three hours as it wove in and out of the back roads for 40 odd kids scattered across the deepest parts of the back country.   Kidd's mom had outright hugged Killer a few weeks before classes started when he'd stopped by to drop of some mail that had been misdelivered, and had offered to drive Kidd in - seeing as they were going to the same place now after all. Kidd had been mortified by his mother's reaction, and Killer had turned so red he'd matched the woman's hair.   He was just as red in the face now, but instead of embarrassed, Killer just looked pissed. Kidd watched him as Killer stood there in front of the truck hood, just seething. He opened to door as Killer came stalking over to the passenger side, "why, what-"   "Move over."   Kidd looked at him dumbfounded, "Wait man, you can't leave me here!"   "No. Move over. You're driving."   The panic of thinking he was getting kick out morphed quickly into the panic of driving, "The fuck? I don't know how to drive!"   "Unless you want me to wrap us around a tree, fucking move."   Kidd slid across the truck bench until he was behind the wheel, heart in his throat. Killer threw his bag into the bed of the truck before taking Kidd's usual spot, slamming the door behind him.   Killer seethed in place, Kidd staring at him worriedly. "Well, fucking start her!"   Kidd slid the keys into place, but the engine just cried at him when he tried to turn the ignition. He flinched, waiting for Killer to yell at him for it.   Instead, Killer leaned forward until his head was practically on his knees.   "Killer?"   "Right foot on the break - that's the middle pedal," taking a heavy breath, Killer spoke, voice a forced calm, "and take her out of gear."   Kidd glanced down at the three pedals. He was aware of the pedals, and of shifting; he'd been watching Killer do it all year for crying out loud. It wasn't new, he just never had even sat behind the wheel of Killer's truck before, much less been trusted to drive her. He pressed down on the middle pedal.   "Using your right foot?" Killer asked without looking when he did. Kidd nodded, turning to look at the stick shift. It was all the way to the lower far right - reverse. His hand was noticeably shaking as he gripped the stick, and it slide easy up into neutral. The car rolled ever so slightly, and Kidd tried to press harder on the break.   "Start her again." Killer's voice was still muffled.   "Killer - "   "Turn the key, Kidd."   The engine roared alive this time.   "Left foot to the clutch - put her all the way down."   Killer took a deep breath, and sat up just a little, looking at Kidd and then at the gear stick under his hand. "First gear, top left. Feel the pathways the stick has. Always start driving in first." Kidd pulled the stick to him until it caught, then pushed up.   "Feet stay where they are. Keep the clutch in. When you're driving she'll tell you when to go to second, pull the stick all the way down. Try it now."   Kidd moved the stick to second.   "Third is back to the middle, then up."   Kidd second guessed where the middle was, but then he could feel the groove and slid the gear to third.   "Fourth is straight down like second was" Killer sounded distant, the anger simmered down for later as he coached Kidd though the motions.   "And fifth it back to the middle, right all the way to me and up."   Kidd shifted up to fifth. It was harder to do without looking, and he had to watch to make sure that he had it correct.   "We're not going above third. I don't care if it takes all night. Okay?"   Kidd nodded.   "Put her in first."   The stick went back to the middle, then Kidd pulled it to him and pushed up. "Think of each gear as giving you another 10 miles an hour. It's not prefect, roads and weather will change that. but .. 1st under 10, yeah?"   "Okay" Kidd said, hating how small his voice was.   "You can do this."