Sarah V. & Wade | Thursday Afternoon

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Sarah and Wade do some practical driving lessons in an empty parking lot.


"Okay," Wade said, settling into the passenger's side of the car and buckling up. "Just get a feel for the car for a little while. When you're comfortable, we'll try some other stuff." He'd driven them to an empty parking lot, then switched places with Sarah so she could drive. "Left is brake, right is gas, your lights are on the left - you twist that handle thing forward, windshield wipers are on the right - push that handle down to turn them on. Any other questions?"

Sarah clicked her own seatbelt back into place and nodded. "Alright, feel the car, gotcha." She gripped the steering wheel with both of her hands, then quickly rearranged them so they were in the proper 10 and 2 positions. Looking around at the dashboard and moving her feet to lightly feel where the pedals where, Sarah shook her head. "Nope, I don't think so." Her grip tightened on the wheel a little more. "So I should just... you know?" She wasn't going to say go for fear of her powers taking over and launching the car forward accidentally.

"In this car, the shifter's down in the center. So you'll have to push down on the brake to keep the car from moving forward, depress this little button on the shifter with your thumb, and pull it back until it's level with the D, which stands for 'drive,'" Wade said, pointing at all the important parts he was naming. "You can see on the dashboard there the places where, once the car's on, there'll be lights. The letters there correspond to whatever you've got the shifter on. R for reverse, N for neutral, D for drive - there's other drives, obviously, but we're going to ignore those for the time being. They're not terribly important. So crank the engine, push down on the break and hold it, shift the shifter, and then slowly let off the brake. You should start to inch forward without actually hitting the gas - that's fine. The car's supposed to do that."

"D, drive, ok. That makes sense!" She pushed her foot down very hard on the brake and tentatively reached out to grab the shifter with her right hand. The car may not have been started but better safe than sorry in her book. Sarah looked to where Wade was pointing on the dashboard as he spoke about the letters that'd appear. "O... ok. Here goes." Taking a deep breath, she moved her right hand back onto the keys and gently turned them, starting the car. Her foot remained hard on the brake, and once the engine was running she moved her hand back to the shifter. Looking at Wade, she bit her lip a little then exhaled and slowly, carefully, deliberately moved the stick until it was in D. The car crawled forward ever so slowly as she cautiously let her foot off of the brake. "Ohmygod we're moving."

Wade grinned despite himself. "Yeah, we're totally moving. You can take your hand off the shifter and put it back on the steering wheel and just coast or a minute if you want to. You're going to wanna be careful when you hit the gas, though. Take it slow and easy - there's nothing and nobody to hit in the parking lot, so we're good."

"Ok, coasting. Coasting sounds nice and easy." Sarah returned her hands to a death grip onto the wheel. She had no intention of hitting the gas any time soon, and when she did she'd only give it the lightest of touches, just in case. "That's good, I don't want to hit anything." She still bit her lip and looked around nervously, just to make sure nothing had changed and that there were no newly arrived vehicles on the parking lot that she might strike by accident. "We're good. We're good."

"We are totally good," Wade agreed, leaning back in his seat and falling into a relaxed sort of slouch. "Try not to tense up so much, it'll be easier for you to turn and stuff if you can move more easily." And, if they accidentally did hit something, she'd be less likely to sustain an injury if she wasn't wound up tight like a spring. "Tell me about your family - you've got a sister, right?"

Sarah tried to relax, loosening her grip a little bit on Wade's advice. "Oh, ok, how's this?" She hadn't changed all that much but she did lean over slightly, looking over at Wade for his approval for a nanosecond before turning her attention back to the road. "I do, she's my twin, actually. Jess." The end of the parking lot was coming up so Sarah turned the wheel around, causing the car to slowly turn around back to the way they'd just came. "How about you, do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Nope, just me," Wade said, smiling. He didn't want to think about what his home life would have been like if he'd had to look out for a younger sibling. Things with his father would've ended a whole hell of a lot faster, he guessed. But then, everything probably would've been different. Blinking a bit to clear his brain, he nodded slowly and said, "That's great - keep your hands steady. Jerky motions make for an uncomfortable ride. Are you and Jess identical?"

Straightening the wheel as she came out of the turn, Sarah grinned as she realized they hadn't flipped the car over onto its side or anything equally as disastrous. "Hey, I made a turn!" It was the smallest of minor victories but she was practically beaming at her success. "We are, I guess, genetically anyway. I mean, we like different things, we're not identical identical, but by the textbook definition, yup." She shrugged, it was always one of those things that had bugged them both growing up - assuming they were the same in every single way. That wasn't what Wade was doing though so it was ok. "I miss her, but we talk on the phone a lot and e-mail and all that good stuff."

"Yeah, I didn't think you'd both have the same favorite color or whatever. Just identical versus fraternal," Wade said, laughing a little. "And it'd good you're keeping in touch. I'd guess it'd be weird, being away from somebody who'd been around for your whole life. And that turn was awesome - do this turn up there the same way and then we'll try it with you hitting the gas just a little, alright?"

She smiled and chuckled a little herself. "Well, we did growing up, actually, but that's just a coincidence." Sarah nodded, still keeping her eyes fixed ahead of her. "It does feel kinda funny sometimes but, well. We're growing up, almost done high school now, we've gotta be apart at some time, right?" They'd never be isolated or estranged, she hoped, but they both knew they couldn't always be living together for the rest of their lives. It had been much more difficult the first time she'd left home for Xavier's, but Sarah was coping much better with it now. She grinned widely at his compliment. "Really? Thanks! Ok, I will!" She pressed a littler more firmly on the gas pedal at his encouragement, getting more confident as they went on.

Wade nodded. "You guys'll want to go to college and stuff after high school - you sister hasn't manifested? I don't know how the x-gene works in identical twins. Come to think of it, I don't really know how it works in fraternal twins. Huh." That was something to think about. He offered Sarah a smile. "Nice and easy on the turn - excellent."

Sarah shook her head in the negative. "Nope, not unless she has since our last phone call a few days ago." It was something that had been on her mind lately, though, wondering if her sister actually did have a power that just hadn't manifested yet, or if she would never develop one. If they were truly identical then she must have some kind of mutation, mustn't she? Or was she the only one who had been mutated somehow? It was over her head, at any rate. "I don't know how it works either, it's confusing. But whatever will be will be I guess, huh?" She glanced over for a nanosecond and smiled back at him, then started the turn, pressing the gas a little more as they went through it. "I think I'm getting the hang of it!"

"You're doing great, kid," Wade said, nodding. "Keep it up and you'll be on the roads in no time." He couldn't help grinning as he leaned back, resting his head on the headrest, keeping his eyes on the parking lot as they drove round and round.