Joyride

Prologue

'Congratulations, you passed,' the middle-aged woman drones in a deadpan voice. I grimace a smile.

'Thank you...' I trail off as I squint at the nametag pinned to the woman's fluffy pink cardigan. 'Joy.'

Joy, who ironically, is anything but a joy to converse with, rolls her eyes and slaps a thick spiral bound document onto the counter between us.

'Here's your logbook. You'll need a-hundred and twenty hours and twelve months of driving before you can take your provisional test.'

My face grows cold. 'One hundred and twenty hours?'

'Sign here,' ignoring me, Joy taps a finger on another document for me to sign. Gritting my teeth, I scrawl my signature out.

'Are you sure that's right? Surely this is some kind of mistake–'

'And here.' Joy interrupts me again, tapping another empty rectangle on the forms.

'My dad is way too busy to teach me–'

'Read out loud please,' she points at an eye test poster on the wall behind her. I rattle off the letters and again Joy interrupts me.

'That's enough.'

'I don't understand, how am I supposed to–'

'Thank you Billie, we'll be seeing you in twelve months,' Joy slides my shiny new license across the counter and swivels away in her rolley chair.

'Number thirty-two!' Joy shouts over the crowd.

Regrettably, it seems Joy has won this battle, and I concede, retreating to the waiting room. Dad, spotting me, rises from his chair and leads us out to the carpark. The hot air hits me like a wave. February is usually the last month of summer before we lead into autumn, but the heat seems to have persisted this year. It's mid-March and still sweltering.

'How'd you go?'

'I passed, yay...' I can't fake the smile on my face and I imagine I must look very disappointed, but if dad notices, he doesn't let on.

'Knew you could do it,' he leans in for a side-hug and I grimace another smile.

'Sorry I have to drop and run,' he fishes his keys out of his pocket and unlocks the door. 'Do you want some money for breakfast?'

'I already ate,' I mumble. The car is even hotter inside than outside, and I feel sweat stick me to the hot leather seats. A cool drop of sweat drips down my back and I know I'm already going to have sweat patches on my shirt. Dad blasts the air conditioning but the car is so old it can only push around the hot air. I rest my chin on my fist as I watch the outside flash past.

Getting my licence was my first step to genuine freedom. Ever since mum left... I've been striving for my own independence. Now with dad working over seventy hours each week to get his new business up and running, my driver's licence was even more important than ever.

'Hey dad?'

'What's up? Not anything too big is it?' Dad sighs. 'I'm just gonna be honest, today is already a disaster. Tom just called me while you were doing your test and apparently the printers are already jammed. We have an investor coming in today.' He sighs, shaking his head.

'It's just...' my teeth gnaw at my bottom lip. 'I need to get my hours in for my driving, now that I'm a learner and all. Do you think maybe on the weekend you could teach me to–'

'Billie, I'm sorry, I just don't have the time for that right now.' Sparing a glance across at him, he glares ahead at the road. 'I'd give you some money for driving lessons, but–'

'Oh, no, no, that's okay dad. I can probably figure something out...'

'You know what you should try?' his face lights up. 'I bet you could make good money tutoring!'

'Oh yeah, that's a good idea...' I don't have the heart to tell dad that the tutors making big money are tutoring students my age. I imagine there's no one in my area willing to take on a tutor the same age as their child.

'Great, let me know if you need any help setting that up,' he shoots a smile in my direction and pulls up to the kerb at my school. 'Here we are. Oh! I won't be home until late tonight, so make yourself something for dinner. Can you put something aside for me? Thanks Billie, I'll see you later.'

I watch from the footpath as dad zooms away in his little car before sighing and walking into school. I'm late because of my driving test, but I have a free period this morning so I can sign myself in without dad. The school is quiet and I don't see any teachers roaming the hallways so standing at my locker I pull out my phone and search for local driving schools. Blissfully cool breezes brush past me.

'Eighty dollars for one hour?' I almost drop my phone in shock.

I quickly run the maths in my head. The most I will earn in an hour would be somewhere around fifteen dollars. It would take over five hours to pay for just one lesson. And one hundred and twenty hours of lessons would cost... my eyes bulge as the numbers max out. It will cost over nine thousand dollars. And if I were to finish up my hours in twelve months, that would be approximately two hours per week, leaving me to work at least ten hours a week working to cover it. How would I be able to study?

'It's just not possible...'