No Alternative: Day 9

Word Count: 54,019

Summary of Events:

Drake and his dad got into another argument over their conflicting desires for Drake's future — this time away from his mom — that ended when his mom came into the room, as Drake didn't want to upset her again. As instigated by Hayden, Drake met with him and Rhys to discuss a plan of action to get Drake out of the cooking program his parents had enrolled him into and into an aviation program like he wanted to be . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Okay, and we also need to get contact information for the school, whether it’s to get them to transfer programs or seek to cancel,” Hayden said.

“If we can get money refunded by telling them in advance that I’m not coming,” Drake said. “Aren’t secondary schools non-refundable in everything?”

“They do call them college dropouts, not refund beneficiaries,” Rhys replied.

“It’d be nice to find out if they might give some money back because of the circumstances,” Hayden said. “Wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Drake agreed. “Seeing as I’m not sure where I’m going to get the remaining cash to buy that Malibu so I don’t have to get all these rides around to places.”

“How much do you need?” Hayden asked.

“Eight hundred minimum,” Drake replied. “I got two hundred for the Cavalier from the junk guy, which, added to my thousand dollars in savings, makes twelve hundred out of two thousand, which is the minimum amount I want to pay for the car.”

“You mean you’d be willing to pay more?” Hayden asked.

“It’s a five-year-old car,” Drake replied. “It’s in good shape and I can connect my phone with Bluetooth and listen to whatever I want.”

“Oh, well I guess that’s always good,” Hayden said.

“I also won’t have to get it inspected in order to buy it, and it shouldn’t need repairs — especially not major ones — anytime soon,” Drake said.

“All the better for using to get away,” Rhys said. “Maybe I see why your parents don’t want to give money to it.”

“What do you mean?” Drake asked.

“I’ll bet they gave you the Cavalier because it was so unreliable that you wouldn’t be able to go far in it, meaning you wouldn’t be able to run away on them,” Rhys replied. “So they’re opposed to the Malibu because it’s reliable enough that you could drive somewhere even as far away as the other end of Canada without it dying on you.”

“I’m pretty sure that could be considered abuse,” Hayden said.

Drake considered quipping about how abuse wasn’t beyond Mom and Dad — or, at least Dad — but he didn’t. He knew his friends knew he was being restricted, but he doubted that they knew how far it went, seeing as he wore the foundation to cover up the bruises whenever he left the house, which meant that he even wore it to school and elsewhere when he saw his friends, thus they didn’t know that he was regularly slapped, punched, and even hit on the face with pots and pans.

“They enrolled him into a cooking program without telling him,” Rhys said. “And you’re surprised they wouldn’t want him to own a reliable car?”

“I guess that’s true too, isn’t it?” Hayden mused.

“I think we should specifically look — if pilot’s licenses are a provincial thing — for flying schools in the area of Nanaimo,” Rhys said.

“Why?” Drake asked.

“Then you can stay with Calder’s parents,” Rhys replied. “He said you could stay with them.”