June 22: What D'You Think of Getting Lost?: Pheddie&Prewetts

[Kyra Thatcher]

English countryside 🚗▶︎
City in the rear view
And nothing in the distance
We laugh at all the talk
What do you think of getting lost?
What do you think of you and me?

Honestly, these boys were hopeless.

That said, however - Kyra couldn't think of a better way to spend a summer Saturday than driving into the countryside with Phoebe, Fabian, and Eddie. (Ed or Edgar, nowadays, as if graduating had turned him into an adult.) She'd cranked the radio up, switching stations every so often as they got out of range, and with the music on, the windows down, and the great company in with her...things were good. For the past few years, it hadn't truly felt like summer until the Bones' (and with them, the Prewetts) were back from their boarding school. But here they all were, the canoodling couple in the backseat of her sister's car, Gideon in the back with them giving them the perfect cover for getting extra cozy, Fabian up in the front with her, beating her every once and a while to changing the song. 

Because, yes - the hopeless nature of these blokes.

For all their fancy schooling, they were entirely lacking in actual real-world skills. She'd been absolutely floored when, year after year, they refused to take the time to learn to drive. Going to have your chauffeur take care of you your whole life? It went beyond her understanding - she'd been too eager to learn once she'd been old enough! It gave her the freedom she needed (well, managed freedom, since she hadn't a car of her own yet), a place to blast music without complaints from anyone, a way to just go and explore. The blokes would learn to love it too, Kyra was sure. And so she'd taken them out of their suburban town, not pulling over to the side of the road until they were well out of any sort of traffic. The slow country roads would serve them well today, and Kyra was more than excited to get down to business.

Turning to Fabian with a smirk of challenge, she turned the radio down a touch and asked, "What d'you say, finally ready to give this a try? You're going to have to do everything I say, though - swear on something, my sister would kill me if anything happened to the car." She swept her windblown hair out of her face and eyed him, seriously as she could. It wasn't Kyra's fault, really, that that meant it was more flirty than anything - they hadn't seen each other in nearly a year, was she supposed to not appreciate how well he'd grown up in that time?

That would just be rude.

[Fabian Prewett]

No matter how many excuses they had come up with over the years, Phoebe and Kyra hadn’t stopped asking them to learn how to drive. They had no need to learn how to drive one of these muggle contraptions, not when they could apparate wherever they needed to go. But seeing as their secret magic school and abilities were well, secret, they couldn’t exactly just say that. So when this opportunity presented itself, he had no valid reason to say no. Maybe it would even be fun, to drive this piece of metal. Kyra and Phoebe certainly enjoyed driving, and he had to admit that road trips were fun. Especially when the company was so appealing. Edgar was cozy in the backseat with his long-time girl, and Fabian was quite pleased to be able to enjoy the view of the country and the view of Kyra.

”Relax, it’s not like I’m going to get behind the wheel of the car and cause it to explode,” he remarked as he matched her smirk, giving her a wiggle of his eyebrows. ”But if it’ll make you feel better, I swear on my life I will do my best to follow your instructions.” He left her with a wink as he climbed out of the car, tapping on the hood with his fingers as he switched places with her. If he could figure out how to twist his body through time and space, driving a muggle vehicle couldn’t be that hard. ”Okay, what do I do now?”

[Edgar Bones]

It was good to be a Hogwarts graduate.

In just a few days, he and Phoebe were moving in together; she'd be heading to university, he'd start training to become a "police officer." Life was finally taking off, but Ed was glad for these lazy days between moving back from Hogwarts and moving to London. Pretty soon they'd be hellishly busy, again, but at least the girl he had his arm around would, well, actually be around every day. Two years of long distance hadn't been easy, but they'd done it, and were now going to get their reward.

Well - not today, but soon. Today was all about an "essential life skill" that he and the twins had "missed." One day the lies about their lives could be cleared up. But, again - not today. Kyra spent a leisurely time getting them out of Barking, and while she and Fabian fought for control over the radio, he was content to lie low in the backseat with Pheebs. After alternating between enjoying the views and laughing at their friends' subtlety for what felt like an hour, Phoebe's best friend pulled over and entered into serious negotiations with Fabs. 

Ed let out a boom of a laugh at his mate's commentary - Could if you wanted to. - but as soon as both Fabian and Kyra were out of the car, quickly turned to his girlfriend to whisper, "Have you told her yet?" Because, speaking of explosions - Kyra hadn't yet handed his arse to him about Phoebe moving in with him instead of her. "Gid, not a word about Phoebe and my place unless she's let Kyra in, all right?"

[Phoebe Bones]

It was fantastic to be done with school, and even better for Edgar to be in the same boat. She’d been waiting for the day they would be done with the distance for far too long, and she was quite content in the backseat of the car with him. Kyra was a sport, letting the two of them have the backseat like this - but her best friend seemed to be enjoying Fabians company enough to ignore any kisses she snuck in when she could. Soon enough they would have their own place (and no one was coming over for at least a few days if she had her way), and they’d begin a new sort of normal. Her parents were still upset over the whole thing, hardly even giving her a proper goodbye when she’d left the house this morning. It had been easier to just have Kyra pick her up at the Bones house, considering Kyra wasn’t going to take the news well at all.

She smirked as Kyra and Fabian both got out of the cat, shaking her head at Edgar, “Well Mum and Dad took it just swimmingly, thought I’d wait until later today to tell her.” Her friends were getting situated in ther new seats, and she leaned forward to tease Fabian. “We want to get home in one piece, if you don’t mind.”

[Kyra Thatcher]

"I dunno, crazier things have happened," Kyra returned with cheek, but gladly took the solemn oath that was given. She wouldn't have pushed this if she wasn't confident in Phoebe and her abilities to teach the blokes how to drive safely, surely nothing disastrous would happen. She scooted out of the driver's seat and around the bonnet of the beloved car they went, Edgar's laughter disrupting the otherwise quiet countryside. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, getting into the passenger side and having Fabian take the wheel, and Phoebe's tease was welcome. Kyra turned the radio off completely, a tragedy that would have to be excused for the sake of focus, and leaned over to point between his legs. Super helping the focus - "The three pedals there, yeah? Clutch, brake, accelerator. One foot is in charge of the clutch, the other is in charge of the remaining two. Push the clutch all the way down to the floor, and reach over here."

She returned to her seat and tapped the gear shift, rather enjoying having him learn from her experience. "Practice shifting through the gears - you'll have to change gear when changing speed, can sort of tell when by listening to the engine, have to get in tune with the machine. But don't want your eyes on this while you're doing it, then they're not on the road, so - get to know 'em. Eddie, are you listening? I can't believe you lot thought you could be coppers without driving. Well, with all that polo, you fancy buggers, guess you could be those on the horses," she reasoned, turning in her seat while Fabian practiced to exchange a look with Pheebs. Of all the useless talents they'd honed over their years at that posh boarding school, perhaps the ability to stay on horseback would come in handy. 

"Okay, how're you feeling? Ready to move?" After gaining his agreement, Kyra made a bit of a show of belting into the seat and gripping the inner door handle, speaking through the process as he acted and the car came to life. "Shift into neutral with your foot on the brake, other on the clutch, all the way down still...shift into first and ease off both...practice putting the clutch in and out to see what it does, okay?"

(ooc: so i’ve never driven stick in my life and am using this guide and also this lmao, please excuse errors XD)

[Gideon Prewett]

Sometimes he wondered how he got himself into these positions. Quite literally. Gideon felt that it should have been impossible to fit both Ed and Pheobe and himself in the back seat of this unusually small automobile, but they had managed it. At the low low cost of a numb left leg on his part. He had sacrificed more for a bit of fun with his friends so it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. Still… “Try not to break it. I'd like to get home today.” He shot his twin a grin in the mirror posted to the glass up front as he and Kyra climbed out to switch places. 

Edgar quickly caught his attention and Gideon's eyebrows shot up at his demand. He held up both hands, as best as possible in his current position. “Silent as the grave mate.” He promised, sending Pheb’s a reassuring smile. He learned long ago to stay out of any secrets between the girls. Or the girls and his brothers, or between his brothers, or practically anything that did not involve him directly. Which was, nearly everything. Silence was his superpower. One of them at least. Silence, keeping secrets, contorting his ankle to fit his foot under the seat, the list was extensive. Ah, pretending to play polo, pretending so much around muggles, that could be a superpower. He smiled at Kyra’s comment but didn’t spur the conversation further. He actually didn't like that superpower, lying kind of sucked.

Instead, he paid very close attention to the directions she was doling out, in true Kyra fashion, too quickly to write down. Luckily, he did pretty well with remembering. “One on the break, one on the clutch…” he muttered under his breath, trying to strain forward to see the aforementioned pedals. "Shift into first, ease off."  First...gear, that's right, he remembered hearing that. Gears. How many gears were there? Maybe there was a manual he could read for this, and perhaps he wasn’t brave enough to try driving Liz’s car just yet. For a muggle, she was a little scary. He didn't want to be the one to muck up her car, better be Fabian. 

[Fabian Prewett]

He definitely could do this, he was sure of it. He’d learned magic for years, surely something like driving a car wouldn’t be the thing to stump him. He and his brothers had already been accepted into the Auror training program, and if he could get into that, he could drive. Luckily, he was not the only one who had gotten roped into doing this, as Gideon and Edgar were both going to be learning today. He shot a grin back to his brother before he got out of the car, and rolled his eyes at Phoebe’s tease once he was settled in the driver's seat. He was soon listening intently as Kyra pointed out three pedals, committing them to his memory. Clutch, brake, accelerator. He could remember that, it seemed easy enough. The new problem was what exactly each one did, although he thought he could figure out the last two. Thankfully, Kyra was explaining what the clutch was for, and he pushed it all the way down as he was told. Then she was pointing out the thing in between them that he always saw her moving when they were driving. It was for shifting through gears, apparently, and he desperately wanted to pretend he knew exactly what that meant.

He did as he was told, staring at the stick shift. There were numbers on it, and the letter R, and while he was all for a good joke about horses and polo and being coppers, he wondered what they all meant as he cycled through them. “What’s the R for?” he asked, avoiding pulling the stick shift into that position. He didn’t really want to explode the car, and that meant not breaking it before they even started. Maybe he should have paid slightly more attention to what Kyra and Phoebe did while they were driving over the years. Some of it probably should have been self-explanatory, he could guess that one shifted in number order starting from 1 and working your way up. Maybe he didn’t know about muggle life, but he could at least count. And while it was possible that Edgar was not paying attention, Fabian could hear Gideon muttering the instructions under his breath. But he followed what he was told, pushing in on the clutch a couple of times before he attempted to switch into first gear and go forward. Instead, the car engine died, and Fabian looked at Kyra in a panic, “Tell me I did not just break this car.”

[Edgar Bones]

Ed had the sense to look rightfully abashed at Gideon’s immediate assurance, and reached around Phoebe to clap his knee in thanks. On one hand, he knew he needn’t have worried about Gid letting the kneazle out of the bag - his mate was always careful around the muggles, and likely wouldn't have brought up anything about his and Phoebe's move, even if he and Fabs were talking about theirs, or Kyra talking about hers - but after Phoebe's parents let them know how they felt about the arrangement…he was a bit on edge. As much as he and Pheebs were confident about taking this step, their parents had all kinds of feelings about it. Which they were entitled to, he reminded himself - but they knew he wasn't messing around, they knew he wanted nothing more than for it to be him and Phoebe together til the end, what had he done to not earn their trust?

His parents, admittedly, knew more of the full picture than the Adkins family did. But even so - Ed had been faithful and committed to their daughter since their first kiss, and even couples who got to spend years together, seeing each other day, couldn’t all say the same. They were young, their whole lives ahead of them - but he knew how he felt, and Phoebe did too. This wasn't a rushed decision, this wasn't for anyone else. He’d continue to stand his ground as long as Phoebe kept choosing him. This was for their future, and everyone would be eating their words soon, he knew it.

Including Kyra and Liz, if they had anything to say about it.

Ha! If.

Hand returning to Phoebe's leg, he gave her a squeeze and nodded. "Good idea, love." He wasn't sure if she'd want him present for this one, or if it would be better just with her and Kyra, but there wasn’t time to ask before their friends returned. He grinned at Fabs in the mirror, and the wizard looked only a tad green as the blonde took to instructions at a run. He did his best to follow along, undoing the belt so he could rise and look around as much as he could, but when Kyra did up her belt, he wasted no time in following suit. "Don't worry, Fabs," he encouraged with a wry grin, "we've always got the horses." Of all the lies of their "posh" boarding school, polo was one of the funniest to him, seeing as the closest they'd come to riding horses was sneaking into the hippogriff enclosure and earning a flight. The car grumbled to life, and Edgar let out a whoop that turned out to be ill-fated. Instead of getting them moving, Fabs had done something to cause the opposite, and he looked to his girlfriend to make sense of it. Even if Liz's car was broken, what use would their magic be in fixing it, since they wouldn't know what was wrong? Had they just stranded themselves out of town with no way back that didn't involve memory modification? "It's fine," he declared, not knowing nearly as much, and reached over the head of the seat to ruffle the ruffled bloke's hair.