Junior Year Box Set

She had invited me, but we had agreed that her dad would probably not appreciate our circumventing his forced separation of the two of us. I missed my feisty surfer-girl friend.

◊◊◊

I drove the Charger to Pam’s. It felt a little weird that Tami didn’t drive me, but I didn’t want her leaving to affect my feelings about driving this car. She had carted me around most of the summer in it, and I think she liked driving it more than I did. Before I could knock, Pam’s dad Cal opened the door and stepped outside.

“Show me your new car,” Cal said as an excuse to talk to me alone.

I tossed him the keys.

“Why don’t you take me for a ride?” I asked, and he smiled at the double meaning.

We got in, and he started the Charger. Cal grinned when he heard the throaty rumble of the monster 707-horsepower supercharged HEMI V8 Hellcat engine. Range Sports had partnered with Dodge and tricked the car out. They had it custom painted orange and blue, our school colors, and put my number 11 on the hood. I’d received the first one off the production line. Over the summer they had introduced the Range Sports version in different markets where professional athletes received cars to promote their product. Sandy said sales were brisk, and Dodge was happy with the results.

Cal drove us over to the state road that ran through town and opened it up. I shook my head when the flashing blue lights came on behind us. Cal had the grace to look embarrassed. I grinned when I saw it was Billy, my friend on the police force. He eyed the car as he walked up.

“Hey, Cal, you know how fast you were going?” Billy asked.

You’ve got to love a small town where everyone knows who you are.

“Not exactly,” Cal confessed.

“You were doing seventy-two in a forty-five speed zone. Three more miles-per-hour and you would have hit the magic number of thirty miles-per-hour over the speed limit.”

“Should we go back and try again so we can win the prize?” I asked.

Cal gave me a dirty look, but Billy laughed.

“You know, David, if you let me drive this beast, I might be inclined to let Cal off with a warning,” Billy offered.

“I wouldn’t try to bribe you,” I began, but Cal jumped in.

“Yes, David will let you drive his car,” he told Billy and then turned to me. “I don’t need my insurance rates going through the roof. Plus, I have two teenage girls on my policy, one of whom you seem to want to take out later today.”

“We could call it a safety check if that would make you feel better,” Billy reasoned.

I gave him permission, and we were soon back on the state road. Billy had a lead foot. I laughed out loud when we saw another set of blue lights flashing; a County Sheriff had spotted us. It seemed my car was a magnet for speeding tickets. How Tami managed to go the whole summer and not get a single ticket, I’ll never know.

“Well, look what we have here,” the County Sheriff said. “Let me guess, safety check?”

“Hey, Bob. I had to make sure David wasn’t going to kill himself in this thing,” Billy said.

“Did you feel safe the way Billy was driving?” the County Sheriff asked me.

“I did tighten my seatbelt up a bit,” I admitted.

“I’m thinking the county might need to do its own safety check.”

Billy called shotgun, so Cal and I had to sit in the back. After another death-defying ride, we arrived back at the County Sheriff’s car. I wanted pictures, so I had Cal stand between the two police officers next to my car. They thought it would be funny if they had me ‘assume the position’ over the hood of my car, and took turns frisking me while the other took pictures with my phone.

After we dropped off the County Sheriff and Billy, Cal drove us toward his home. I had a huge grin on my face. Billy had forgotten to give Cal a warning.

“I better not hear a peep about what happened today,” Cal said as he scowled at me.

I don’t know what he was thinking. I had been busy posting the photos on my social media account and sending out notices. His phone rang, and being totally irresponsible, Cal answered it while he drove.

“What do you mean, what am I doing? Uh huh,” Cal said and gave me a hard look.

I gave him my most angelic face, which never seemed to work. Cal hung up, and my phone rang. I said, “Answer,” and the call went through my Bluetooth to the car speakers.

“David, do I need to come get you?” Mom asked.

“No, Cal was driving,” I said, and saw him cringe as he was thrown to the wolves.

“They were only doing a safety check on David’s car,” Cal assured my mom.

“Sure they were. You two stay out of trouble,” Mom warned, and then hung up.

“That went well,” Cal said.

“Oh, she’s not done with us. Mom was just making sure we weren’t in any real trouble. We’ll be hearing about today for years to come,” I predicted.

“I’m just glad Cora didn’t see the pictures,” he moaned.

“Not so fast. Devin ‘liked’ my post,” I told him.

His phone began to ring. I grabbed it out of his hand, went to his settings and allowed the car to answer it.

“Hey, Daddy,” Cora’s voice said over the car speakers.