Do you get distracted when you’re driving?
Do your friends laugh and push each other in the back seat when you’re in the thick of the traffic with horns blasting because the lights went green and you didn’t notice?
Do they eat, drop stuff and squeal when the meat in their burger breaks through the bag and lands on their lap?
Do they have the music so loud that, although you love it, you just can’t think?
Driving with my friends in the car was doing my head in, I couldn’t concentrate. So, this was how I got around it. It might sound lame, but I typed up a list of car rules and handed it to them, and they all stared back at me as if they had taken a mouth full of off milk.
Rule one: no squealing – if you squeal and muck around while I am driving, I will pull over, and I will let you out. I sounded like my mum.
Rule two: no stuffing your face in my car – if you eat in my car, come around at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning and wash it with me.
Rule three: please keep the sound down – if you can’t, wear headphones.
I stopped at rule three because I didn’t want to lose my friends.
At the end of the note, I wrote: I really love you guys, and I never want you to get hurt when I’m driving.
And guess what happened?
Kelly, my best friend, hugged me. Jeremy gave me a push, which really meant that he was okay with the rules, and Suzi came around to my house at 10 a.m. and helped wash the car.
I learned that if you talk to your friends, and share your fears, they will listen.
So, don’t stress.
Drive confidently, and you’ll get there safely.
Have fun.
By Bella. M