The Checklist || Álvaro Morata

II

I went to her house the next day, helping myself in through the kitchen door which Mrs. Martínez always left open for me to come in. Ever since I met her, her house always seemed to smell like incense, which was peculiar since I never saw any of it burning away in her home. I passed by her brother's room, waving hello to Nicolás who nodded and went back to typing away on his laptop. He was 16, 2 years younger than her and famous for being the 'bad boy' in his class. In reality, I think the guy wouldn't be able to hurt a fly, but hey- it got him the girls, popularity, reputation, and all those other meaningless things everyone cares about when they're 16.

Carolina was laying on her bed, arms stretched out and stuffed cow covering her face. She didn't turn around or acknowledge me as I came in, so I assumed she still hadn't noticed. Taking my chance, I snuck up on her and started tickling her stomach whilst growling at her like I was some Monster's Inc employee. 

In a split second, she sat up and started screaming as well, squirming away from me. When she saw it was me, she grabbed her stuffed cow and started smacking me on the head with it.

"You idiot! I thought someone had broken in!" She kept hitting me until I caught hold of the cow and threw it across the room, chuckling at her still wide eyes. 

"Well, the only thing I've ever killed was that frog we had to dissect in science a few years ago, and I passed out, so I think you're safe."

She rolled her eyes, brushing her hair back from her face with her hands. She then stood up from the bed, walking over to her desk and handing me her notebook. 

I opened it to the list, and burst out laughing when I read what was below skydiving. 

"What?" Carolina looked beyond pissed, arms crossed in front of her and eyebrows raised in defiance. 

"You want me to teach you how to drive?"

"Well, I don't see anything wrong or unrealistic about that."

"Ok, first of all, where the hell am I gonna get a car? Mine's in the workshop until God knows when, and I doubt your parents are going to lend you one of theirs."

A smug look took over her face, "Actually, Elena said she'd lend me her car anytime I wanted."

"Elena's car isn't even-" I let out an exasperated breath. "Elena's car is synchronic. I have no fucking idea how to drive stick."

Carolina stared back at me with the same amount of determination in her eyes, "Well, learn, then teach me."

"You're not giving up on this one, are you?"

"Nope," she gave me a taunting smile. "So you better figure something out."

Sighing, I took my phone out of my pocket, "Fine. I'll call Marc."

-

To my relief, Marc did have a car that we could borrow. It was a Sunday, so after picking the old Corolla up from his house (he only lived about 15 minutes away from Carolina) I drove up to a supermarket which had a large parking lot and was closed on Sundays. 

Luckily, the parking lot was open, and there were only 3 cars in the whole thing. I turned off the ignition and told Carolina to get in the driver's seat. She was practically jumping up and down from excitement, and I couldn't help but smile when I saw her biting her bottom lip, trying to contain her emotion. 

"Alright, so first things first, you gotta check all your mirrors-" 

"Yeah, yeah. They're good," she said as she waved her hands around in annoyance.