My Senior Year of Awesome Read Online Free PDF Page B

achievement stuff and stick to passing Calculus,” Jana says.
    “After auditions. We can’t give up without even trying.” But I bury my face in one of Jana’s fluffy pink pillows, hiding an eye twitch that fires up every time I think about singing in public.

Fill It In – Random List #1
    Ten Reasons Why Sadie Matthews Will Never Pass Her Driver’s License Exam
     
    1. I freak out when I’m behind the wheel. I have trouble remembering which button turns on the headlights. The windshield wipers swish. Then I have to cover my idiocy by pretending to see raindrops.
    2. I live within walking distance of my school, a food store, and Abercrombie. Where else could I possibly need to go?
    3. All my friends (except Jana) drive.
    4. If I learn how to drive, I may have to look at colleges.
    5. If I pass my driver’s test, I can’t take Driver’s Ed classes anymore. And let me tell you, if you saw my instructor you would want to fail as much as possible.
    6. I’m pretty sure I would somehow damage any vehicle under my control, which means I would soon be back to not driving again, anyway.
    7. What would happen if I hit the accelerator instead of the brake like those senior citizens on the news, and end up in somebody’s dining room? Totally awkward.
    8. When going on dates, the guy should always pick up the girl at her house, according to my mom. If I can’t drive, it’s not even an option. Unless I go all clandestine and walk myself to the movie theater for a secret romantic interlude.
    9. If I focus too much on driving, I won’t have time to help Jana complete our awesome achievements list. Which is still totally blank.
    10. I can’t log any practice time because Mom refuses to hand over the keys to her car until she’s saved up enough money for new brakes and tires. She’s been saving for three years now.

Chapter Five
     
     
    The sound of a plow scraping asphalt jostles me awake. A glance out the window tells me that well over a foot of snow blanketed Harmony last night.
    I maneuver around the piles of clothes, books, and college mail to retrieve my phone and unplug the charger. Cell in hand, I stretch my arms wide and try to encourage my eyes to remain open. When I hear a ding, I check for a cancellation text, but instead find a message from Jana telling me to meet her in town in an hour. Shoot. Driver’s ed is on.
    I shimmy into my faded weekend jeans and a loose sweater. My apartment is dark, except for a sliver of light poking between the gap in our curtains. Mom’s probably sleeping off last night’s drink specials. Deciding to skip breakfast, I twist an elastic band into my unwashed hair and tug on a pair of tall boots before venturing into the frozen waves of winter slush coating the sidewalks.
    Clumps of gray snow litter the roadways, kicked out from under the tires of careless drivers speeding by as if it’s a warm summer day. I head for Starbucks, where Jana waits, shivering in her faux fur-trimmed parka. Even though it’s an early Saturday morning, the town teems with legal-types filtering in and out of the nearby courthouse; silver-haired judges dressed in three-piece suits, young lawyers in khakis, and blue-haired document runners with nose rings, pedaling their bikes between traffic lanes.
    Together, we take stock of the long coffee line, and, after a joint sigh, decide to skip our pre-Driver’s-Ed lattes.
    “Hate Driver’s Ed,” Jana grumbles. We’d both failed our permit tests (because we took them without bothering to study first) and consequently were required to sit through the school’s sponsored driver’s education classes. But, when it comes to studying for Driver’s Ed, Jana and I follow our own academic standards.
    Matthews/Rodriguez Driver’s Ed Principle Number One: We refuse to study for Driver’s Ed because the class is on Saturdays. Saturday! You know, the WEEKEND . Outside the government’s mandated parameters for education.
    Matthews/Rodriguez Driver’s Ed Principle