At the end of my first day at Pinewood, I breathed a relieved sigh as I got into my car. The students I had met were wonderful, eager to learn and very cheerful and the staff were lovely and welcoming. I'd struck up a sort of friendship with Nick, the other new teacher, and the school's piano teacher, Aaron Michaelson. But now, I only had a few minutes to get across town to pick up Nathaniel from school.
I backed my car out of the parking spot and turned it in the direction of the exit. I was almost out of the carpark when I noticed Nick standing by the gate, frowning down at his phone. There was nobody behind me so I slowed to a stop and rolled down the passenger window, leaning over to talk to him.
"You okay, Nick?"
"Hm?" He looked up in surprise, smiling when he recognised me. "Oh, yeah. I'm just waiting for my wife to pick me up. She's caught in traffic somewhere."
"Do you want me to give you a ride anywhere? I've got to pick up my son but then I can drop you somewhere."
"I'll be okay. She'll be here soon." I glanced up at the sky where dark clouds were forming overhead.
"I don't think she'll get here before it starts to rain. I couldn't leave you knowing you're getting practically drowned." He laughed a little and looked up at the sky too before checking his phone again.
"Dammit."
"What?"
"I may have to take you up on the offer, if it still stands. She says there's an accident and the roads are completely blocked. She wouldn't be able to get here for another half an hour."
"Of course. Hop in." I unlocked the door for him and he climbed into the passenger seat. By now, another car was coming up behind me so I put the car back into drive and turned onto the road.
"Thanks, Charlie. You know, not many people would offer a ride to someone they just met."
"I've met you twice now. Plus we're going to be seeing a lot more of each other in the coming months, maybe years." I pointed out. We were coming to a stop sign and I slowed again, checking the roads were clear before turning.
"Fair enough." He fell silent for a second, just watching the road. "You're probably wondering why I didn't drive myself."
"Kind of. But I wasn't going to ask. Everyone has their thing."
"No, it's fine. My car is in the shop. Some idiot ran into the back of me a few days back and I had to get the back bumper replaced. And unfortunately for me, today was the best day to get it done."
"Oh no. Unlucky. You didn't get hurt?"
"No. I wasn't moving. I was at a stoplight and the person two cars back didn't brake in time so they shunted the car in front of them into the back of me."
"Nasty."
"Mm. It freaked me out, though. Because Abby was in the backseat."
"Abby's your daughter, right?"
"Yeah. If they'd gone too much harder, they might have done some real damage and she could have gotten hurt."
"Oh, my heart does flips at the thought of my kids getting hurt. It's the worst feeling in the world."
"I know what you mean." I could see Nathaniel's school in the distance and started looking for a spot to pull over.
"My son's school is just here. He should be out already. I'll just give him a call."
"Sure go ahead. I'm just going to text Imogen." As I called Nathaniel using the phone connected to the car, Nick pulled his own phone out of his pocket and typed out something to his wife.
