1

Daniel thought he’d get a few months off from Memorial High School once school let out for the summer after freshman year. But if he wanted to learn how to drive, he’d have to tough out a few more weeks in his least favorite building with his least favorite teacher. Despite his lack of talent for teaching something as simple as dodgeball, Coach Falcone was in charge of teaching summer sessions of Driver’s Ed. Still, it wasn’t all bad.

As luck would have it, Trisha, his best friend Charlie’s girlfriend, was in the same class as him. Charlie had gotten his license a few of months ago, but Daniel and Trisha still had another couple months to go. So now they were in the back of the classroom, while a low-budget DVD paraded the aftermath of various teen car accidents across the screen. A droning voice-over explained the causes of each wreck: “Texting while driving can kill. Eating nachos while driving can kill. Too many friends in the car can kill.”

Daniel had a healthy appreciation for how dangerous driving could be, but he felt that class time might have been better spent if Falcone had actually bothered to teach them anything. So far, on days when they didn’t watch a cautionary video, they just had silent reading time to go through the Four Wheels and You textbook before taking quizzes that Falcone never seemed to get around to grading.

Just before the muggy heat of the packed classroom managed to put him to sleep, Trisha got Daniel’s attention by tapping her pencil on his desk. “Hey, Daniel,” she whispered.

Falcone was wrapped up in a copy of 10,000 Easy Crosswords! at his desk up front, and the coast seemed clear for a little conversation. “What’s up?”

“So you know how this has been the worst summer ever?” she said, jerking her chin toward the video.

Daniel sighed. “I dunno if I’d go that far—” he started. Falcone let out a loud shush from the front of the room without looking up from his puzzle.

The two sat in silence for a few moments, watching a wailing teenager say that she never should have tried to put mustard on a sandwich while driving. “No sports, no parties,” Trisha listed as Daniel nodded along, “no scandals, no new kids to try to figure out. It’s been a total bust.”

Daniel agreed—and he was having an even worse time than Trisha, although he’d never tell her that. At least she had Charlie. They let Daniel tag along to the Valley Vu for the free movies and popcorn Charlie got for working there as a ticket taker. But he could only be the third wheel to his best friend and his girlfriend so many times.

“You don’t have to remind me,” Daniel whispered.

“I do if I want to convince you to come to the best party ever,” Trisha responded slyly.

This woke Daniel up a little bit.

“My cousin knows this kid with a huge house out in Mountain Glen . . .” Trisha began, and Daniel immediately thought of a million reasons why this would never work. Mountain Glen was almost 40 miles away. Even if he could convince his parents to give them a ride, they would insist on meeting the host’s parents. Daniel couldn’t tolerate that level of embarrassment, no matter how cool the party at the end of the tunnel was.

He was about to mention some of these issues when their conversation was interrupted by Falcone. “Listen up lady and gentleman in the back, I know you might think this whole thing is a big joke, but your parents won’t when they’re peeling you off the side of the road. So if you could please pay attention to the video, I won’t have to dock today’s classroom hours and force you to make them up over the weekend.”

Falcone wasn’t exactly a man of action, but he also wasn’t one for idle threats once he got moving. “Later,” Daniel whispered once Falcone had settled back in. Although he was skeptical about this party, he was also intrigued at the possibility of an adventure. Who knows, Daniel thought. Maybe this party really is going to be a turning point in my summer.