A Late Start

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

It was 6:45. My alarm's piercing screech awoke me from the greatest dream. Thoroughly annoyed I slammed the snooze on my alarm and attempted to reenter my dream. But it was no use; It had slipped from my mind, and I was awake. I lay there with just my thoughts of how the day might go today. The blankets were heavy on me and warm. I was in no mood to go to school let alone even make the slightest movement. However, I pushed through the exhaustion and began to get up. As I opened my eyes a flood of light made its way around a nearby building and poured into my room. Shielding my eyes from the bright light, I stepped my feet onto the cold wood floor and made my way over to my closet. As I began to dress myself I remembered I needed to go pick up Will to drive him to school.

Will had moved in down the street a few months ago. To save money and gas we started carpooling after he had moved in. We had always been good acquaintances, but as we got to know each other more and more, we realized that we were very similar. Before long we had become extremely good friends.

With one glance at the clock, I realized that I was already running late. I hurriedly got ready and sprinted out of the house. Pulling up to Will's house, I could see him standing outside waiting for me.

"Where were you!?"

"Sorry, I overslept," I explained. "Don't worry we'll get there on time."

"We better. I am not about to get detention because you felt like sleeping in."

I was not nervous. I knew that I could get to school in time. I would just need to drive a bit faster than usual. As we merged onto the freeway, I saw a familiar car a little further down the road. I quickly sped my way up to the car. When I pulled up next to the car, my assumptions were confirmed. It was our friends Paul and Steve. They had obviously been running late also. Will, deeply concentrated in finishing his homework, hadn't noticed yet. As I looked back at their car, something seemed different. Then I realized what it was. It was so obvious; Paul was driving.

"Will, look! Paul is driving Steve's car."

As he saw, he immediately joined me in laughter. It's not that Paul was a bad driver. He simply did not drive on normal occasions. Paul had always wanted to learn to drive, but since he was usually spending the majority of his time with the three of us, he never had time to practice. He must have finally convinced Steve to let him practice during their carpool. However, since they were running late, it seemed odd that he would let him begin his practice today.

As we drove onward, the traffic grew increasingly heavy. I was beginning to get worried that we weren't going to make it to school in time.

Will turned to me and said, "I don't think we will ma..."

KABOOM!!

About a mile ahead of us, something had crashed into the freeway. Our car and all other cars around us immediately lost power and slowed to a stop. Paul, as a new driver, was flustered and didn't hit his brakes in time to stop Steve's car from smashing into the person in front of him. It just so happened that Paul had been driving behind me. Our cars came together like two puzzle pieces. I quickly jumped out of my car to inspect the damage. I wasn't so much angry as I was in shock. I pulled out my phone to try to call someone to help us. However, like our car and every other electronic or mechanical device, it had lost power.

"I'm so sorry. Don't worry I will pay to fix the cars." Paul reassured us.

"it's