A New Cullen Sister

Chapter 28

"Just ease the clutch out a little bit and hit the accelerator. Not too quickly, nice and slow," guided Carlisle.

It was Sunday morning and he was teaching Amelia to drive. She and Rosalie had spent the first part of the morning going through the ins and outs of the car. She had learned how to change a tyre - not that she had the physical strength at present to even attempt it – and had been given a basic crash course in engine parts and what to look out for when one of those parts malfunctioned.

Carlisle had now taken over the task of teaching Amelia, as Esme had started panicking that they would crash into a tree or something. It was unlikely to occur, as they were a good hundred yards from the nearest tree, but nevertheless, Esme's mothering instincts had kicked into overdrive so Jasper had taken her hunting.

"Like that?" queried Amelia, as the car slowly started moving.

"Pull the clutch out all the way and hit the accelerator now."

Amelia did as she was told and soon they were driving along the driveway.

"Clutch in, and go into second gear," instructed Carlisle, the picture of ease. He was surprisingly relaxed about the whole ordeal, Amelia reckoned that if he wasn't so restrained, he'd probably be resting his feet on the dashboard, with his hands entwined around his head and taking a nap. He had however had his doubts about a manual transmission. It was tiring to drive one for someone with Amelia's health impairments – most of them drove automatic transmissions - but she was stubborn and determined to learn in a manual.

"You're doing great, Amelia," he encouraged, smiling tenderly at his daughter who held the steering wheel in a death grip, knuckles turning white.

"Thanks Dad," she replied, eyes focused on the road in front of her.

"Just relax your grip on the steering wheel. If you were one of us, you'd have broken it immediately. And keep cruising at this speed," he chuckled. Amelia loosened her grip on the steering wheel, giggling quietly. In spite of her death grip, she was quite at ease and appeared to be very comfortable with driving. All of his other children had struggled with driving as they had been so tense. At first he had attributed it to their strength – one push too hard on the brake would probably break right through the base of the car and their feet would contact the road beneath them. Amelia was different. She was too weak to even climb up a flight of stairs without a rest, let alone even dream of braking that hard. It made him realise a bitter truth – his daughter was too familiar with a car. She'd driven before.

"So, who taught you to drive?" he questioned. He heard the upwards tick in his daughter's heart – was it fear? Surprise? Predictably, Amelia slammed on the brakes, pulled up the handbrake and put the car in neutral, something he hadn't taught her to do just yet. She switched off the ignition, put the car back into first gear and ran her hands over her face. She glanced at him and rested her head on the steering wheel.

"How did you know?"

"You're too familiar with a car. You just put the car in neutral before you turned it off, then put it back into gear so as to avoid the car rolling down the incline. I never told you to do that."

"One of my better foster homes was on a farm, so I learned to drive a tractor at around, I don't know, 6 or 7? Supervised of course, my foster dad sat me on his lap and let me get the hang on steering. Sometimes he'd let me sit on his lap when he drove in his car along the driveway as well – it was very long, flat and straight for the record – and let me change the gears for him. I couldn't reach the pedal so he'd clutch in for me and then I would change the gear for him. He was always very kind to me," Amelia smiled at the memory.