#driver's ed

“We’re ready to start the day!”, Tribbie said with enthusiasm, trying to reduce the awkwardness they all felt. In response, the driving instructor rolled his eyes and dryly stated: “Let’s get this over with… We’ve got a lotta things to do today. Whoever has the most driving experience, get in the driver’s seat.” Without another word, he went over to the passenger’s side of his car and climbed inside, slamming the door without a care in the world. Not expecting the exam to start right there in the school’s parking lot, the three of them just stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment. “Guess that means we’ll do it!”, Tribbie offered up once again in her trademark odd way of speaking, “It only makes sense that the oldest of us would take the reins of driving this car first.” The other two Tribios siblings looked at her and nodded in agreement, having no objections to her proactive support for them.

She then proceeded to cheerfully get into the driver’s seat, while Trianne and Trinnon awkwardly sat in the back seat in anticipation for what would happen next. The moment Tribbie adjusted herself to get more comfortable and started to put on her seatbelt, the driving instructor looked at her and shook his head in disapproval. He clicked his tongue and took out a clipboard while correcting, “No, no. You have to look outside the windows and check your blind spots first, then adjust your seat and rearview mirror so you can get a clear view from all angles, and then you put on your seatbelt.”, quite rudely. Despite not doing these things himself, he seemed quite serious about them being part of the test. Tribbie wanted to protest, but she didn’t want to get a bad grade, so she reluctantly did as he instructed. She checked all the blind spots, noticing Trianne giggling at her silently and Trinnon looking away in second hand embarrassment out of the corner of her eyes, and made sure her seat and mirrors looked good. It took a few minutes, since she and her sisters were short and her feet still barely reached the pedals. Finally, she put on her seatbelt and breathed a sigh of relief, being glad she could finally get the driving actually underway.

Then, without any guidance from the so-called instructor, she put the transmission into reverse and backed out with surprising skill. She proceeded to drive out of the parking lot and onto the main road, away from the school. The whole time, the car was steady, she was focused, and no big issues arose. Perhaps this wasn’t too surprising, considering her leadership skills and personality. The other two were pleased as well, finally calming down after all that occurred before. Oddly enough, the driving instructor didn’t say anything, just scribbling on the clipboard and seeming content with Tribbie’s driving skills.

About ten minutes into the drive, the peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by the instructor finally giving another command. “Stop and park here. We’ll switch drivers now.”, he ordered while pointing at an empty parking space in front of a large department store downtown. Comprehending this, Tribbie slowed the car down and did as he said, parking and stopping with no issues. As she got out, Trinnon decided to take the initiative, wanting to get her part over with already. She hopped out of her seat and Tribbie winked at her in support as she passed her by, something she took with much gratitude silently.

When Trinnon got in the driver’s seat and did the same beginning steps as her sister, her typical anxious feelings began to creep up as the driving instructor stared at her intensely with a blank expression. Trying to shake it off, she tried to shift the transmission into reverse, when she felt a slap on her hand. “You wanna tear up my car’s transmission?", he asked her mockingly, “You have $5,000 on you? Didn’t think so… Wait until the car is completely still and put your foot on the brake first.” She whimpered quietly before nodding and doing as he said. She was already feeling pretty scared, but she wanted to pass and do her best, so she tried to remain focused.

Unfortunately for her, she was already struggling with doing basic driving actions when compared to Tribbie. She didn’t know how to grab and turn the steering wheel efficiently, stay in the lanes perfectly, keep a consistent speed when slowing down and speeding up, when to turn on the blinkers, or worst of all, how much pressure to put on each pedal and when to use them. Despite these inconsistencies and imperfections, she was very careful and took safety on the road quite seriously, never going over the speed limit and being aware of her surroundings at all times.

Sadly, this didn’t deter the driving instructor from making sarcastic comments that made fun of her. He would write some comment on his clipboard and insultingly state, “Zero out of ten. Worst turning I’ve ever seen.”, in a deadpan manner. Or he would adjust the rearview mirror to point onto Trinnon’s face so he could watch her eyeline and control her with: “Stop avoiding my gaze, that makes you weak and a bad driver.” She didn’t like looking into people's eyes, especially someone as rude and overbearing as him. She grew increasingly uncomfortable with him doing that the whole time, and it ironically distracted her from driving. And he’d micromanage everything she did, such as critiquing her for turning on the blinkers too late and not being within twenty-five feet of the stop sign, even though she wasn’t a human metric system that could see that. Regardless, she could sense the silent support of her siblings and that's all that mattered to her. She may struggle when driving, but at least she was making progress slowly but steadily.

After about fifteen minutes of intense and subpar driving, the instructor told Trinnon to pull into a grocery store’s parking lot. Confused by this, she hesitated for a second before she proceeded to swerve into the destination, almost hitting another parked car in the process. Her heart racing, she parked and stopped the car somewhat decently, relaxing once it was over. But when she turned to look at the driving instructor out of curiosity on what was going on, he got out of the car and began to walk towards the grocery store’s entrance without saying a single word for an explanation. Dumbfounded, Trianne leaned forward and stared at his fading figure in the distance. “Is this really happening!? He can’t be serious… What ‘bout our driving credits!?”, she exclaimed as he vanished inside the building. Tribbie patted her shoulder and sympathetically replied, “It will be alright. We are sure this will all work out, in the end!”, trying to lighten the mood. Taking a deep breath and gripping the steering wheel tightly, Trinnon sighed and quietly remarked: “W-We hope so…”

Once ten minutes passed of confounding waiting, their driving instructor exited the building, carrying a couple bags of food-related groceries in them. Trianne just gaped at the sight, feeling shocked that he really did waste their time just to get groceries. He went around to the car’s trunk and opened it, shutting it after a few seconds once he finished placing the bags inside. When he got back inside the car and was sitting in the passenger’s seat, he took out his clipboard and resumed the exam as if nothing ever happened.

Then, without a second of hesitation, he instructed Trinnon to pull out of the store’s property and follow his directions to go someplace else. Still driving the car shakily, she obliged and steered the car back onto the road, where she followed his every command to turn on certain roads and the like. After another twenty minutes, they all arrived at a small suburban house. The instructor stepped out of the car once more, and the trio collectively realized that it was his house after seeing him take out keys. He spent the next few minutes getting the bags out of the car and taking them inside the property, where he then exited and locked the door before sitting back down in the car with the clipboard again. The absurdity of what just transpired made them all go silent, even the talkative Trianne didn’t know what to say. What a day this has been for them so far…

Sensing their shock, the instructor then told them to switch drivers yet again. At this, Trianne perked up and smiled widely, feeling thrilled to finally get her turn. Trinnon wiped her brow and got out, stretching her legs and glad to be out of his judgmental gaze for the time being. As they switched places, Trianne galloped with glee. “This is gonna be so much fun!”, she exasperated, “We’ll definitely be riding the west wind when I’m drivin’!” She liked to get childish and play pretend when she did something, so her two sisters were used to it. The driving instructor, however, simply shook his head in disapproval. At what, nobody knows, they never do.

In contrast to the other triplets, Trianne’s driving was a little more… reckless, to put it kindly. She often swerved, went over the speed limit, passed other cars illegally, didn’t use her mirrors or blinkers, and even ran stop signs occasionally. It gave the instructor a headache, to say the least, since he was literally clutching his head in pain as he futilely tried to tell her to be more careful. Still, she was careful enough as to not get in too much danger or pulled over by the police. She lightly broke most of the driving laws yet nearly every other driver around her did the same, showing how most don’t care about road safety!

For over an hour and a half, she just drove and drove wherever she felt like, having a sense of freedom and adventure that the others simply didn’t have, knowing how to make the most out of a stressful situation like that. The car was pretty far out from the school at that point, over one hundred miles away and through a vast wooded rural town. Up until that moment, the driving instructor remained pretty professional, aside from his sarcastic insults. So, when the car passed an old cemetery that was in the town they were driving through, no one thought anything of it until he pointed at it and started speaking. “That cemetery right there is where my wife is buried after she was murdered.”, he said with a straight face and neutral tone with no further elaboration. Trianne took her eyes off the road for a second to stare in horror at him, completely unsure of how to react to something like that. No further comments came, so the rest of them just went silent and awkwardly tried to forget about it.

On the return trip back to the school, about halfway there, Trianne was driving more calmly now and going over a long interstate overpass. At the same time, Trinnon was sitting in the back seat and she stretched her legs, which were starting to cramp after being bent for so long. That’s when she suddenly felt her left shoe being caught on something. A thick white mist then began filling the interior of the car as it neared the end of the bridge. Shocked by this, she looked down at her shoes and saw that the laces on the left one got caught on a fire extinguisher that was hidden under the driver’s seat, setting it off. She had no idea about this and she blushed in anxiety. The driving instructor scrambled to see through the fog while Trianne tried to pull over somewhere safe and roll down the windows. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually, she stopped and parked the car on a gravel road near what appeared to be some sort of abandoned ranch. And as they all got out of the car, Trinnon could only say one thing very quietly: “W-We’re… s-so sorry…”

The next half hour or so was a real doozy. The driving instructor spent a fair amount of time cleaning up the mess inside of the car and disposing of the fire extinguisher. He then proceeded to call their mother on the phone while she was at work, explaining everything in great detail and negatively side-eyeing them the whole time. The trio couldn’t make out much of the conversation, other than him notably saying, “Never, in all my years of doing this, have I ever seen anything as crazy as this.”, with an exaggerated deadpan voice. While that was happening, the Tribios siblings were conversing about the incident. “That was pretty rad, Trinnon!”, Trianne complimented with an energetic demeanor, “Didn’t know ya had a mean streak within ya!” She then giggled and punched her shoulder playfully while Tribbie smiled next to her. Trinnon was still shaken up from what happened and felt a little bad about derailing the exam and inadvertently causing all this chaos. However, as they all began to get back in the car to leave, she smiled and chuckled very softly to herself, glad the day wasn’t as boring as it was earlier.

The driving instructor made them switch drivers, explicitly forbidding Trinnon from driving at the moment. Tribbie took the wheel again as she finished the return trip that was interrupted earlier by the fire extinguisher mishap. No one said anything the entire time, figuring that it might prevent further accidents. Once they all got about five minutes away from the school, the instructor ordered Tribbie to park in what appeared to be an empty parking lot located behind a rival school, oddly enough.

Again, like clockwork, the drivers switched, Trinnon being allowed to take the wheel that time. And perhaps predictably, she was only allowed to make laps around the small space, turn out onto the main road from one of the exits on either side, and park before backing out and repeating in that order. This was the instructor's roundabout way of making her practice and get better while not endangering them too much. While the little routine wasn’t exactly hard, even for an amateur like Trinnon, it was rather boring instead. Just the same minute long cycle repeated over and over again. It was already mid afternoon when this all occurred, so not many people were on the small road for her to worry about. Eventually, she got so used to it, she stopped paying attention and the reflexes all became second nature. The "training" worked, but at the cost of her focus, the most important part of driving…

For nearly two hours, she did this mind-numbing task. She looked over at the driving instructor occasionally and saw that he looked tired, like he was about to fall asleep. In fact, it felt like everyone was sleepy. Possibly because of this, he finally broke the monotony and told her to park and change drivers once more. Trianne took the position and he ordered her down a set amount of directions, leading them all somewhere. They all collectively prayed that it wasn’t anywhere weird again, but one could never tell when it came to what their insane instructor thought of on a regular basis.

Over fifteen minutes later, the car stopped at the local McDonald’s, leading to some of the triples being excited, skeptical, and nervous at the same time concurrently. Once again, the driving instructor exited the vehicle and began to walk towards the entrance, not saying a word. Not wanting to sit in a hot car the whole time he was in there, the three sisters reluctantly got out and followed behind into the building. Inside, they saw him order a Big Mac and nothing else, not getting them anything (whether it was out of cruelty or not having enough money is still a great mystery). When he got his order after a few minutes, he made a show out of eating it slowly in front of their faces, mocking them with the savory of the greasy fast food. The whole time, they just sat at a nearby table, staring at him with pleading eyes and too exhausted from everything to speak to even each other like they usually would. It was torture, all of it, and they wondered when this long day would actually end and they would get the rest they truly deserved, not caring about the grade or permit anymore…

The driving instructor then nonchalantly got up from his seat and walked back to the car, the Tribios triplets following suit. Trianne took the wheel and was finally allowed to go back to the school under his guidance, and she hoped that meant the suffering was almost over at last. Turns out, however, a series of traffic cones were sitting in the school’s back parking lot that were designed for a specific test. The driver was supposed to weave the car in between them back and forth without hitting them, and it acted as the final test. Which meant that at least a while was left stuck doing all that boring stuff, much to everyone’s (instructor included) dismay.

Since Trianne was driving, she did the test first. And while she went a little fast and nearly hit a few cones, she did well. After a few rounds, the driving instructor made Tribbie do it all next. She ended up doing the best, with her speed and steering being absolutely perfect, as expected. When it was Trinnon’s turn a few minutes later, she started to shake and felt like she was being singled out for being nervous and inexperienced compared to her sisters. This anxiety turned out to be true, as she bumped a few of the cones and had to back the car up a couple of times to successfully turn around each cone she came across. It took a while to make just one round, and the instructor made her keep doing it until she could do it with no mistakes, never letting her stop even for a break…

As the hours passed, even he seemed to get bored, and he began to talk about his life and interests, mainly about how he liked comic books and superheroes. Things took a strange turn when he suddenly went on a bizarre tangent about how he won an award for an essay he wrote in high school on why “Twilight” was the worst novel ever written. “That book is so terrible, even the teenagers it was targeted towards, like my younger self, thought it was garbage.”, he ranted. The uninterested passengers felt nothing at all, being too tired to care about how strange it was. He just kept talking on and on for a while after that, acting like he was the most interesting person ever, to the bane of everyone else present. It felt like the day would never end at that point, even though the sun was getting closer to setting on the horizon.

Somehow, over three hours of this nonsense passed. Everyone went silent after a while and Trinnon was so focused on driving that she didn’t see that everyone else was asleep, with the driving instructor snoring particularly loudly while leaning his head back against the seat and Trianne and Tribbie laying on each other’s shoulders, napping peacefully. Despite these unusual circumstances, Trinnon still felt the need to focus and continue doing what she’s been doing, wanting to pass as much as possible. This turned out to be a mistake, as the longer the silence from the others sleeping went on, the more uncomfortable and awkward she felt. That tension was the most unbearable and strange thing she had ever felt in her life up to that point and likely long after. This odd reverie of sorts was at last disrupted when she rammed straight into a cone and knocked it over before braking hard. The whiplash jolted all of them awake at once and when the instructor realized what just happened, he sighed and decided to just end the exam there, clearly frustrated and wanting to go home just as much as them.

A little while later, it was almost 6 PM and the sun was setting. The driving instructor picked up the cones, put them away, and parked his car back in its usual spot while he finished filling out his evaluation papers. Meanwhile, the Tribios sisters were standing off to the side, conversing happily now that the end was in sight. “Whew… What a day, we are all sooo tired…!”, Tribbie stated loudly, “But at least it’s over with now. I’m sure we all did great and will pass with flying colors!” Trianne nodded and pumped her fist while replying, “You said it! It was all pretty boring, but the chaos made it all worth it. Even if it sucked a lotta the time, we’ll definitely laugh about it one day!”, in an excited tone. Trinnon, despite still being shaken up from the last couple parts that singled her out and failing at the end, still managed to crack a smile and follow up with: "Maybe you're right… No matter the result, we shall stick together and be good at what we always do.” The others nodded at her statement, feeling glad they were still the same after all that strain they faced the whole day.

Right at six on the dot, their mother arrived to come pick them up and they finally learned the results of the day’s practical exams. They all somehow passed… with a C! Tribbie got no notes and perfect marks. Trianne was told just to be a little more careful on the evaluation sheet. As for poor Trinnon, she was told to practice a lot and maintain eye contact with others, something that was insensitive to how she was. Regardless, they were all just happy to be done and have their permits at last. On the way home, they laughed about all that happened and how odd the driving instructor was, but mostly how funny it was that Trinnon set off the fire extinguisher in the back of the car by accident. The teasing from her sisters and mother aside, she was happy she didn’t fail, still confused on why she didn’t. Who knows, maybe he was sick of it all as well? Now, it was something they could look back on and mock for how strange it was for so many bad things to happen in one day. But they had to put that aside for now, since the license exam was still in the way. Hopefully, that one will actually be normal and not endangeringly illegal!