Claire grinned. "I swear, only you guys are brave enough to ride with me."
Really?
Shirley looked unconvinced. "My dad's been driving for decades. We went on a family vacation last year and even then, he wasn't as chill behind the wheel as you are."
Sophia agreed. "My mom has kind of a wild streak, right? But even she's a super safe driver."
"I think Claire's driving is wild but steady. It actually makes me feel really safe," Sophia said.
Len chimed in. "There are so many guys in my family, and they're all drivers, but not
a single one can handle a car like you do, Claire."
Claire laughed. “I'll take that as a compliment."
From the passenger seat, Shirley kept handing Claire snacks.
Claire wasn't the least bit distracted. No matter what snack Shirley handed her, Claire kept the car perfectly stable.
At one point, a car tried to speed up and cut in front of them, almost causing a huge crash. Claire didn't even flinch. She just handled the wheel like it was nothing and got them safely out of the way.
Everyone else wasn't so lucky, and suddenly it was a traffic disaster behind them.
Claire's car was the only one that made it through untouched. Even the cops showed up looking surprised.
Thanks to Claire dodging the wreck, the cars behind her only had minor dents, but the ones up front were destroyed.
Ambulances kept arriving and people were getting carted away one after another.
People with just a few scratches started crowding around, desperate to see who the hero driver was.
Most of them guessed she'd be some seasoned pro.
Then a young girl climbed out of the car, and nobody could find the words to respond.
After they took her statement, an officer gave Claire a thumbs-up.
“Dodging that pileup takes some serious driving skill. You must have incredible reflexes and sharp instincts."
Claire just smiled, a little embarrassed. "Thank you, but honestly, it was just survival instinct."
She didn't just save herself. Claire had instantly flicked on the hazard lights and warned everyone behind her too.
Her reactions were lightning-fast.
"If the person who caused all this mess could react like you, we wouldn't be dealing with this on the highway," the officer sighed.
This kind of thing always made the cops' jobs tougher.
At that point, they didn't even know how badly people were hurt.
The highway was a parking lot now. There was nowhere to go until the mess was cleared.
Once the police got busy, a few shaken drivers from the back came over to talk to Claire.
"You're something else," one of them said, giving her a big thumbs-up. If you hadn't turned on your hazards, I would've smashed right into that mess."
"It's so late. Everyone gets tired driving at night, and sometimes your reaction time just isn't there. Did you get special training or something? asked another driver.
He looked like he'd seen his share of emergencies. Turned out, he used to drive in
the army.
They did extra training for situations like this.
The way Claire handled the car just didn't seem like something a regular person could do.
But looking at her, she was way too young to have been in the military.
"No, nothing like that,” Claire said and shook her head. "I just like driving fast. I guess it helped my reflexes."
One woman driver, who'd just stopped shaking after the close call, joined them. She couldn't stop gushing over Claire.
After a moment she studied Claire's face. “Wait... you look so familiar. Were you the IMO gold medalist this year?"
"Your name is Claire, right?"
Claire didn't expect anyone to recognize her.
"Yeah, that's me," she replied with a grin.
The woman
excitabbed Claire's hand in Fannie's classmate."
excitement. "I can't believe it's really
you! I'm I saw
her interviewTM
"That's how I recognized you."