ic [IC] [Open] Driving Him Through a Wall

[olopi]

GM

 

 

Saturday, April 29th, 2017

10:04 AM

Claremont Academy Parking Lot, Freedom City

 

It was a day of some importance. A few weeks back the school’s staff had announced that there’d be school-funded driving lessons happening soon. And today was the first day of them. The instructor was no unknown, Jeremy Joseph, a stunt man and licensed driving instructor. Why exactly he had been chosen was the subject of many a rumour around the academy, but most had some suspicion.

 

The lessons were scheduled to start at 10:30, but Joseph arrived at the parking lot a fair amount of time earlier. He was driving a fairly average looking car, most likely second hand. Two seats, not very spacious. But its brakes certainly seemed to work well, as he stopped on the empty lot, and got out of the car, to meet the few teens that had already arrived.

 

“Good Morning. I hope you’ve all read the theory I provided. We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started as soon as possible. “

[Chimeric]

Annie shifted back and forth on her two feet, a conscientious and disciplined teen she was waiting patiently when the stunt driver Jeremy Joseph arrived early. She had heard rumors in the past week following up to this bright Saturday morning, often it felt like the ongoings and intentions of the Academy staff were an enigmatic thing. She knew better than to pry with her abilities, she wasn’t the first mind reader Claremont had charitably sheltered and schooled. And an abuse of her abilities to satisfy her selfish curiosity would be… looked down upon to say the least.

 

She herself believed, that the rumors of Claremont hiring a stunt driver was at least an informal acknowledgement and support of some of the Academy’s students engagement in vigilante night lives. Her grey and red sweater’s long sleeves covered up a purple bruise on her forearm. The mark was the result of slowing an armed robber’s bullet from the speed of a penetrating death to a cruel punch, a split second before making him surrender to the police that were en route.

 

She held her arm firmly hoping that the bruise would go away under her grasp, it was painful. She regularly thanked God that it was her wholesome duty as ArchAngel to protect Freedom City, other wise she might be given in to the insanity of it all. She hoped she could stay awake and pay attention, she needed to learn to drive which is why she rose herself from her room and her personal pit of exhaustion, but she had no idea what reading materials Jeremy was referring to. Her eyes were surrounded by fatigue and her body weary from fighting a club fire after the armed robbery into the early hours of the morning.

 

Annie pushed a lock of brown hair behind a pale ear and watched Jeremy Joseph with some curiosity and with her usual measure of wariness.

Edited April 28, 2017 by Chimeric

[Heritage]

A tall pretty blonde soon joined them; she wore a pair of Nikes, gray sweats and a blue and gold Claremont hoodie. Her hair was up and a pair of black plastic-framed glasses perched on her nose.

 

"Hi, I'm Casey," she said as much to Annie as she did to their instructor; always with the new faces here! "No one said anything about reading, but I'd be happy to catch up; I read pretty fast." She'd meant to do this years ago, but was happy to ger to it better late than never.

[Chimeric]

Annie shifted on her feet slightly with her arms still crossed so she was facing the newcomer Casey. It was hard to not be struck by her effortless social skills and better than charming looks. Annie blinked at Casey with a mixture of curiosity and envy, but she then quickly recomposed herself to summon up a margin of her hidden courage.

 

“hi…”  She broke her crossed armed “social defense barrier” with a gentle wave and subtly bit her lip. Although Annie was taller than Casey she presented herself in a way as to occupy less space.

 

“I’m Annie.” And then she did something even braver, she stuck her hand out abruptly in between the two of them before Casey could fill the divide between them with hers.

 

What does she mean she can read pretty fast…? Annie thought, because she had already formed a few less than favorable assumptions about the pretty blonde haired teenager. In part to ease her low opinion of herself and in part from cultural stereotypes. Annie figured Casey was at Claremont for a reason but also assumed that it wasn’t for her intelligence. Unbeknownst to her Casey’s reading ability was from an altogether different source.

[Heritage]

"Hi, nice to meet you, Annie," said Casey with a warm smile as she returned the handshake, and wow was she strong! It wasn't just muscle mass, though you could feel that pretty clearly; it was more like a surge of power you could feel just beneath her skin, kind of like if you laid your hand on the hood of a sports car while it was idling. She made a cringey face and shifted her feet a bit. "I've got to admit, I'm kind of nervous about this; I mean, I have a pilot's license, but everyone says that driving a car is much harder, which kind of blows my mind. You have to be aware of every other driver on the road!"

[EternalPhoenix]

Naomi had come to the class, as well. She’d read the theory Mr. Joseph had given out. As a LA girl, she needed this. Driving was everything. Still, she had lacked confidence that she could do it. But as a rule, the official parts of the internet didn’t lie. She could learn how, even if it’d be a bit harder for her than others. So, she was here. There was another new student (they seemed to get another one or two every semester) getting along with one of the seniors. Naomi thought her name was Casey, maybe? She walked up beside the two and snapped her fingers to get their attention. She held up the introduction page of her notepad. She’d rewritten it since she’d burned the previous notepad after that one thing she was NOT going to think about right now. [Hello. I’m Naomi. I’m deaf and can’t talk, but if you face me I can read your lips.]

[olopi]

GM

 

“Well, if one of you’s read it, it probably didn’t get lost. You must’ve missed it. Good thing that I brought a few copies. I’m not allowed to let you drive before you’ve read that.”

 

He took a short pause to better muster Casey, then continued onwards. “But if you already have a pilot’s license, this shouldn’t be that difficult. “ Before turning back to face the crowd as a whole. “But remember, you’ll still have to do a proper test. The Academy can only offer training. “ He paused for a second, before doing his best to repeat what he’d just said in ASL. He didn’t seem to be too proficient in it, but he had some basic understanding.

 

Afterwards, he walked back to his car, and grabbed a stack of sheets from the trunk, handing one to each of the girls. “This is all the theory, again. Just so nobody can say they haven’t seen it. I’ll see if anybody else arrives, otherwise we can start as soon as you’ve finished reading. “

 

 

[Chimeric]

Wow, she’s strong.

Annie nodded along with Casey’s concerns. Although the absurdity of what she said quickly sunk in, Annie was not used to Claremont students or their wide range of talents yet.

 

“Wait! Did you say you have a pilots license? How did you get one of those? Aren’t you my age?” 

Annie asked a spitfire of questions dumbfounded, she was trying to wrap her head around Casey. She wished she would keep any other reasons why she was better than Annie to herself. When a snap of someone’s fingers caused her to turn around abruptly.

 

“Uhm, That was rude!” She stated matter of factly at Naomi, her usual shyness cut away by abrupt irritation, she appeared exhausted and on edge. She then proceeded to read the notepad Naomi was holding up and turned a kind of reddish pink color.

 

“Oh-my-god-I-am-so-sorry. I didn’t know you were deaf. Can you understand me?” She spoke with speed and shame, stumbling around her attempt to socialize with Naomi. It might be apparent to Naomi, that Annie had never spoken to a deaf person before. Annie took the stack of sheets from Jeremy Joseph, she looked down at them frustrated.

Edited May 9, 2017 by Chimeric

[Heritage]

"You can have one as young as sixteen," Casey explained.  "The main thing is to know someone who flies and have the time to log the hours; oh, well, and have access to plane, obviously, which, you know, not everyone has..." She trailed off at the end, suddenly aware of what she must sound like: another rich white girl who's daddy probably bought her a pony for her sweet sixteen. Her cheeks got a little pink, and her natural golden glow even seemed to dim a bit.

 

Once Naomi showed up, Casey brightened considerably and waved before awkwardly signing 'Hi. I. Am. C.A.S.E.Y', which pretty much exhausted her ASL vocabulary. There had been a few students who signed during her time and Claremont, and she kept meaning to take the ASL class the Scouts offered; she knew a few girls who had the badge, and she felt Miracle Girl should know how to sign, too. The blonde powerhouse did her best to position herself so that Naomi could read her lips, but still felt natural to talk with Annie.

 

Casey took the paper Mr. Joseph handed her, and then her eyes did a sort of terrifying spastic dance as she read it and reread it a few times in the blink of an eye. "Okay, well, yeah; you only have to worry about movement in two directions instead of three, and instead of using the radio, it's all about signalling. That makes sense."

Edited May 17, 2017 by Heritage

[EternalPhoenix]

<I read it too, teacher.> Naomi signed back to Mr. Joseph. She was slow and careful, not for her own sake, but for his. She kept it simple for his sake, as well. She was entirely fluent by this stage of her life. She nodded at the new girl. She flipped to a clean page and wrote. [I know. It’s so weird, right? But it’s been my life for a while now. What’s your name?] Casey’s sloppy ASL clued Naomi in right away to her total rookie status. She smiled impishly, amused at Casey’s ineptitude but pleased she’d even tried, and then wrote more. [I can teach you, if you want. It’d be nice to have someone new to talk to.]