1.25 Gear Shift

"Good morning, Mr. Parker." 

"Have fun at school, Naomi." 

Sometimes she wonders if such a thing is possible. 

But she at least she has some friends at school. 

"Hi Brianne!" Naomi says cheerfully, sprinting from the bus. 

"Hey. I haven't seen that bitch Anita yet," Brianne says, squinting her eyes as she scans the crowd. 

"Brianne, I told you to drop it," Naomi whines pleadingly. 

"No one yells at my friends, Naomi! Besides, she really pisses me off. She sent me a message on Simstagram asking me to 'distance myself from Bob'. We had one scene in drama class together! One!" 

Naomi fidgets with her skirt, "Don't get into a fight, Brianne. It's just bad manners... you're supposed to rise above it, like a lady." 

Brianne snorts, "Just because your family lives in the Victorian era doesn't mean I follow your weirdass code. I bet Anita doesn't either." 

Naomi picks at her nails worriedly. Brianne is always getting into trouble with teachers for "attitude". 

Brianne's expression softens and she places a shoulder on Naomi's shoulder, "Don't worry, Naomi. I can look out for myself. But who's going to look after you if you're too afraid to even raise your voice?" 

"You do it enough for both of us." 

Brianne grins, "You're damn right I do." 

Naomi giggles. School doesn't seem so bad with Brianne watching her back. 

At home Sage gets up at 10, a very normal occurrence on her days off, or on the rare days where she works just her scheduled hours. 

She crinkles her nose at Naomi's abandoned breakfast plate. First it's the plate... 

Then it's the laundry... 

If Naomi continues like this, she'll end up just like her grandmother- messy, senile... Sage's hands tremble as she closes the washing machine. 

Sage will have to reinforce the household chores. She shakes her head. No, more than that; she needs to make Naomi aware that she won't be around forever. Mother can't always be around to do the laundry and wash the dishes... 

Naomi's just too dependent on her. That needs to change. 

***

"Do you understand, Naomi?" Sage finishes their talk on cleanliness. 

Naomi nods meekly. She was in a hurry to school that morning and simply forgot to clean up after herself, but if dirty dishes and unwashed laundry can really lead to, "pandemonium and dementia", Naomi can understand why her mother's so upset. 

"Good. Now, finish up your homework. I have a surprise for you." 

***

"Naomi, you know you can drive a little faster, yes?" 

Naomi, petrified, can't even bring herself to tear her eyes away from the road long enough to meet Sage's critical gaze, "Um... but there's no one around and I don't know how to change gears..." 

"Are you talking back, Naomi?" 

"N-no..." 

"Well, then press down on the clutch... yes, now shift to two..." 

Naomi follows her mother's instructions, her hand shaking as she preforms the gear shift. 

"Now let up on the clutch." Sage's eyebrow shoots up, "No, Naomi not like that, that's far too slow. Faster!" 

"But, mom-," 

"Do what I say, young lady!" 

"I'm trying!" 

"LET IT UP NOW, NAOMI." 

The car screeches to a halt. 

"Well, the car has stopped in the middle of the street. You do realize that you could've gotten not just you and your passengers but other drivers killed over your mistakes?" 

Naomi looks down, tears in her eyes. "Yes, mother..." 

Sage stares grimly at the road. "Start the car." 

***

"No, no, no! Naomi, when the car makes that awful noise, what does it mean?" Sage is nearly at the end of her rope. 

"To change gears," Naomi answers, her voice barely audible. 

"So tell me why you're still on the second gear?!" 

"Because I'm too scared to go faster!"

"Too scared!? It's a car, Naomi, not a rabid dog for God's sake!" When Naomi begins to sniffle and cry, Sage sighs. "Pull over." 

They're near the outskirts of town and besides the two of them, it's dead quiet. Under different circumstances, it could be nice to be near the woods on a cool evening. Unfortunately Sage just isn't having it. 

"What the hell was that?!" Sage explodes, "I ask you to preform a simple task and you're scared? Changing from gear two to gear three won't kill you." 

"I haven't driven before," Naomi shoots back, "I don't know how to change gears! It's hard!" 

Sage scoffs, "Hard? You know what's hard? Being trapped in one area of the city because you can't drive. Who's going to want to employ you if you can't make the commute? Biking to and from school is fine for now, but not every company has a car pool, Naomi. Aren't you ashamed of yourself, just going to school and then sitting at home doing nothing until bed time?" 

"I-," 

"Have you even thought of a plan for after high school? What are you good at Naomi? You'll have to tell me because I have no idea!" 

The sentence hangs in the air between them for a few moments. Naomi tries very hard to fight the tears, but they spill out of her eyes and onto her face. She looks down in mute horror and wipes away at them furiously. 

"Naomi, please. I'm just being honest with you. It's my job as a good parent to be honest with you. You're very bright, but only skills and hard work will make that useful, and driving is an important skill to have as an adult. Don't you want to be independent someday?" 

Naomi looks up, tears streaked down her cheeks. She doesn't see any hatred in her mother's eyes, just worry and frustration. 

"I...yes, I want to, mother."

Sage smiles, "Good, now let's go home. Remember to shift into third gear, okay?" 

Naomi looks at the car worriedly, but takes a deep breath. Her mother's right; she'll have to drive someday. Trying to shake off the pit of dread deep in her stomach, Naomi follows her mother into the car, more or less ready to drive them home. 

After another huge headache, a screaming match, and lots of stalling, the pair does make it home just in time for bed. It's Saturday the next morning, meaning Naomi has plenty of time to do her chores. She goes through the house methodically, sweeping, dusting, and filing things away. She wipes sweat off of her forehead as she puts the kitchen's garbage in the outside bin. She's just glad that it's over. 

Just as well; her phone rings. She looks at the window to see if her mother's watching, then picks up the phone. 

"Hi Calvin, how are you?" she greets. 

"Eh, kind of... bored. I wanted to know if you could hang out today, catch a movie or something." Though she can't see him, the disinterest in his tone brings the mental image of him picking at his nails half-heartedly. 

"Um... I should ask my mother. But she doesn't want me with boys..." 

"Huh? But you stayed over last time, right? And had me at your house that one time? Why would she care about you going to the movies?" 

Naomi shuffles uncomfortably, "Well... she might not know about those particular...incidents..." 

Calvin laughs, catching Naomi off guard, "Aw, so you lied to spend time with me... but you can't go to prom without her permission? You're so weird, Naomi." 

Naomi blushes furiously, "Yeah, I guess so. Maybe you could find someone less weird to go with, sorry..." she means for it to come out angrily, but her tone is too apologetic. Calvin sighs. 

"Look, whatever. Show up or not, lie to your mom or not. I'll be in front of the school by 2, meet me there if you can daaaaare to be seen with a boy." Calvin hangs up and Naomi winces. She looks between her phone and the house. 

Well, if all of her chores are done... and her mother leaves for work in an hour... she could just go out for a bike ride, right? And it would be rude to see Calvin coincidentally and not talk to him right? 

Right? 

Right. 

"Hey, have you eaten yet? I'm starving," Calvin greets, friendly and smiling. 

Naomi quirks an eyebrow, "Yes, actually." Realizing that she sounds rude, she backpedals, "But I wouldn't mind stopping at the diner, or getting something from the supermarket if you haven't..." 

Calvin sighs, "Oh never mind, it's no big deal. Look, some of my friends are here to meet us for the movie, we have to go to the back and get them." 

Naomi nods and smiles, "Oh, cool! Yeah, let's get them!" 

Calvin doesn't seem to think that this is cool. He actually is starving, but Naomi's total people pleasing hedges have completely put him off actually eating. Maybe some of his other friends will be hungry too... 

Brianne stops in her tracks when she sees the pair. 

"Naomi?" 

Naomi looks up and waves, "Hi, Brianne! What're you doing here?" 

Calvin's scowl deepens, "If you want to chit-chat here go ahead, I'm getting my friends." 

"Hey, don't talk to her like that-," Brianne begins an angry tirade, only for Naomi to wave her hands frantically at her to stop. 

"It's ok, Brianne! I'll text you later, ok?" 

Brianne has a scowl of her own as Naomi runs after Calvin. 

What the hell does she see in that asshole? She shakes her head in disgust. 

***

After the movie with Calvin's gaggle of friends, in which Naomi could finally connect some names to faces of kids she didn't study with, they end up at the cemetery. 

"Hey I bet you're too scared to go in there by yourself," one of them started teasing Calvin. 

"Pfft, some creepy old crypt?" he had said, "Not worth my time." 

"How about your girlfriend, then? She looks like she fits right in!" 

Although they laughed at her (and she along with them) and at Calvin's denial of any romantic relationship, Naomi found herself wondering what it was like on the inside. After a series of goodbyes, Naomi stayed behind the group and looked at the outside of the building. 

A single poster is stuck to the door. 

Vacancy: Mausoleum Manager. Part time, 15 hrs. weekly.

A light bulb goes off in her head. What better way to show she can be independent by having her own job? 

And so she walks bravely inside the tomb. 

It takes until she gets home at 5:30 for her actions to sink in. 

Did she just seriously agree to work at a graveyard!? 

At night!? 

What is her mother going to think? 

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AN: As you might be able to tell, I hate driving manual cars! They are actually the worst. Why doesn't Simnation use automatic cars??