Chapter 1-Troubles with Tyler

"Go faster, Clinton!" her friend Laurie Matthies exclaimed from the passenger seat.
"If I go any faster," Lindsay replied, "I'll probably end up getting pulled over and it will be YOUR fault!" she added with exclamation.

Seventeen-year old's Lindsay Clinton and her best friend Laurie Matthies were speeding down a residental street. Lindsay was anxious to get home so she could check the mail and see if she had received any "good news" from the colleges she was applying to in the mail. So far she'd applied to The University of California in Los Angeles, California State University in the cities of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge and Sacramento, San Francisco State University and finally San Diego Sate University but she really had her heart set on The University of California at Northridge since they had a really great psychology program she wanted to go into and was hoping against hope that she would get accepted.

Laurie turned around to look at her and said: "Are you obessing about the college check again?"
Lindsay shrugged as if to say "so what?" Laurie sighed. "Well, I'm kind of getting sick of it. Well, okay, I AM getting sick of it." and laughed playfully.
"Well," Lindsay replied "It's not my problem you don't try as hard in school as I do."
"No wonder I was kicked off the basketball team."
"If you would of tried harder to uphold your grades you wouldn't of been kicked off."
Laurie considered this. "I probably would of quit anyways." she replied "too much pressure."
"You mean a lack of effort?" Lindsay put it.
From the corner of her eye, Lindsay could see Laurie trying not to smile as if she was proud of gettting kicked off.
"I have an image to uphold you know." she retorted to Lindsay.
"Yeah, well I have an image too." Lindsay replied back adjusting her big black sunglasses on her face.

Lindsay was just getting ready to turn onto her street of Robinson when "Standing Still" by Jewel started playing on her cell phone.
"Hey, Laur, could you hand me my phone, please?"
"Sure." Laurie replied as she picked up Lindsay's purse off the floor in front of her and fished the phone out for her.
"What does it say?" Lindsay asked quickly glancing over at Laurie.
"It says RHLS." Laurie read from the screen.
Tires went squealing and the white Nissan Maxima Lindsay was driving came to a complete stop.
"Did you say RHLS?" Lindsay asked.
"Yes." Laurie replied.
"OH MY GOD!!!" Lindsay blurted out!!! "TYLER!!!!" she exclaimed.
"What about Tyler?"
"We forgot to pick him up from school!!!!"
Laurie looked just about as shocked as Lindsay did when she finally put the two and two together. "OH MY GOD!!!" she gasped her tiny hand covering her mouth.
"My mom's going to kill me" Lindsay shrieked as she put the car into drive, did an illegal u-turn at the intersection and drove like a manaic toward the direction of the school.
"Call them back and tell them were coming." Lindsay instruced Laurie.
"Okay," Laurie replied flipping the phone back open and going thru the contacts list to find RHLS.
"It's ringing."
"Just pretend you're me and tell the secretary or whoever that we're on our way."
"''kay"
As Lindsay contracted on avoiding a possible accident she could her Laurie on the phone speaking with someone.
"Yes, she confirmed a minute later. You did forget to pick Tyler up from school you goober!" then she burst into laughter.
"It's not funny!" Lindsay replied "I don't know what came over me. I usually don't forget things like this."
"Don't freak out now!" Laurie replied still laughing over the incident.

At last, Riveria Hall Lutheran School came into view and Lindsay pulled up and stopped right in front of the front doors of 330 Palos Verdes Boulevard she looked toward the doors but didn't see Tyler anywhere.
"I hope I don't have to get out and go into the school and get him." Lindsay remarked as she tilted her seat back and waited for seven-year old Tyler to emerge. She just happened to glance in the backseat and it reminded her what a disaster it was!
"Hey, Laur! Help me get this backseat organized." Lindsay instructed. "Push everything thats behind my seat to your side of the seat so Tyler has room to set." Then the girls got busy pushing stuff like backpacks, basketballs, a duffel bag and a pair of basketball cleats to the right side of the car directly behind Laurie's seat. When they were finished, Lindsay turned around back in her seat just in time to see Tyler emerge from the school. His face was red as if he'd been crying (which he probably was Lindsay figured) wearing jeans and a blue and white striped shirt.
"No school uniform today?" Laurie commented as Tyler with his blue backpack bouncing off his shoulders came to that car and started to pull on Laurie's door handle.
"NOOOO!!!" Lindsay cried from inside the car "Come to my side!!!!" she shouted thru the window. Laurie oh so helpfully rolled down the window so Lindsay's voice magnified in volume.
"Oh don't make a big deal out of it Linds." and before she knew it Laurie was opening her door tilting her seat forward so Tyler could crawl through the mess they'd just made to get over to the left side of the car where there was a clear space for him to sit down.
"Oh my god." Lindsay muttered to herself putting her head in her hands as Tyler managed to safely crawl his way to the clear spot that was waiting for him behind Lindsay's seat.
"I'm sorry I was late picking you up from school." Lindsay said as she watched Tyler get comfortable thru the rearview mirror. "How was school today?" she continued as she started to drive off.
"Okay." he answered back "I'm hungry."
"Okay, I'll get you a snack when we get home." Lindsay replied concertrating on the traffic all around her. "Do you have any homework this weekend?"
Laurie burst into laughter. "Homework?" she asked. "Can a first grader really have that much homework?"
"They really pile it on these days. Not like when we were in school." Lindsay replied. "We had it so easy."
"Yes." Tyler called from the backseat.
"What do you have?" Lindsay asked.
Before Tyler could respond, Laurie interupted him.
"Hey! I know!" she exclaimed. "Let's stop at Dairy Queen and get some ice cream!"
Lindsay was caught off guard. "Wha...." she started to say.
"Don't worry. I'll pay." Laurie offered as she reached for her purse on the floor and pulled out a twenty.
"Tyler?" Lindsay called to the backseat. "Do you want to stop at Dairy Queen?" she asked.
"YES!" he replied excitedly.
Lindsay continued to drive until she came upon the Dairy Queen on Hawthorne Boulevard. She made a right turn and drove thru the parking lot unitl she came upon the lines of cars waiting thru the drive thru. Sighing, she said outloud, "Why do so many people have to have the same idea all at once sometimes." As she put her car into drive and pulled up one space ahead.
"Cause," Laurie replied it's after school and they all want ice cream."
"But we didnt' have school today." Lindsay reminded her.
"Yes, but Tyler did." Laurie replied as she turned around to glance at him in the backseat. His curly brown hair was going in five different directions, it was so messy.
He grinned at her. "I want an an M&M blizzard!" he called loudly from the backseat.
"Okay." Lindsay replied from up front. "I got your order down." she said as she pulled up another space.
As they approached the menu, Lindsay complated what she was going to get. They had just went out for lunch a couple of hours ago so she wasn't very hungry for ice cream and neither was Laurie.
"Geez...what are we going to get?" she asked Laurie.
"How about if we split a large fry?" Laurie replied.
"Okay." Lindsay replied "That's fine with me."
As Lindsay pulled up to the drive thru menu-FINALLY and begin to place their order, Tyler announced that he had to go to the bathroom.
"oh my god." Lindsay said under her breath.
She quickly snapped her head back and told him to be quiet. Then after she completed the order and was told to pull around she asked Tyler just how bad he had to go and if he could wait till they got home. She craned her neck around as she talking to him only to see Tyler squirming in his seat.
"I can't hold it any longer." he said starting to cry.
"Hold on." Lindsay replied. She looked to her left and saw an empty parking space but that certainly wasn't going to do any good. She couldn't just put her car in reverse and glide right over there, there was someone right on her ass. She certainly couldn't get out either, not without her car door hitting the side of the building. They were stuck. Unless......
"Hey Laurie, could you do me a favor?" Lindsay asked. Laurie lost in thought and glancing out the window aimlessly turned to look and Lindsay. 
"What?" she asked.
"LINDSAY!" Tyler hollered from the backseat.
"Please take Tyler to the bathroom before he has an accident." Lindsay instructed.
Laurie opened her door and got out but before she could tilt the seat forward to let an anxious Tyler out, they both heard a faint voice go "Oh-oh" from the backseat.
"Ummm...."Laurie stated. "I think it's a little too late."
Lindsay whirled around to face Tyler and saw that his jeans were soaked with urine.
"Tyler Cassidy Clinton!!!!" she yelled a little more loudly than she wanted to.
Tyler burst into tears. "It was an accident!" he sobbed.
"I can't believe you just peed all over the seat!" she yelled. "Your seven years old for god's sake!" she added.
That made Tyler cry even harder. She could hear Laurie comforting him from the backseat. Lindsay whired around and saw that Laurie had her arm around Tyler and was telling him that it was okay.
"It was just an accident." Laurie piped up from the backseat. "Don't be so hard on him."
"Oh my god!" Lindsay exclaimed as she finally reached the drive-thru window."It's one thing to wet the bed but it's a completely different thing to have an accident in the middle of the day." she went on.  "Plus now my seat's ruined."  she added
"I'm sure it will come out." Laurie said patiently. "Besides we need to clean this car anyways." she added looking to the right of her and seeing the duffel bag, basketball, etc. sitting beside her. "I'll help you clean it when we get back to your house." she added.
Thank god she had the window rolled down already Lindsay thought as she annoyingly handed over the twenty dollar bill that Laurie had given her. She was starting to get a headache but she couldn't tell if it was from the stress or the stench that she could smell from the backseat or a combination of both.
"Here are your items miss." the college guy at the dirve thru announced that immediatly got Lindsay out of her funk. She took the blizzard and the bag of fries and drove off all the while forgetting to thank the guy  for her order. She stopped before pulling out into the street and handed Tyler the wet wipes that she got out of the glove box and and his blizzard.
"Wipe your hands GOOD before you start eating." she added haistly. Tyler's cries and now subsided from all out sobbing to sniffles as he took the blizzard from his sister.
"Here." Lindsay said as she tossed the bag of fries to Laurie.
"Don't you want some?" Laurie asked.
"No." Lindsay replied as she  pulled out into the busy street in front of her. "I've all of a suddent lost my appetite.