01_-_The_Alchemyst

CHAPTER TEN
“So let me get this straight,” Josh Newman said, trying to keep his
voice perfectly level, “you don’t know how to drive? Neither of you?”
Josh and Sophie were sitting in the front seats of the SUV Scatty had
borrowed from one of her martial arts students. Josh was driving, and his
sister had a map on her lap. Nicholas Flamel and Scathach were sitting in the
back.
“Never learned,” Nicholas Flamel said, with an expressive shrug.
“Never had the time,” Scatty said shortly.
“But Nicholas told us you’re more than two thousand years old,” Sophie
said, looking at the girl.
“Two thousand five hundred and seventeen, as you humani measure time
with your current calendar,” Scatty mumbled. She looked into Flamel’s clear
eyes. “And how old do I look?”
“Not a day over seventeen,” he said quickly.
“Couldn’t you have found time to learn how to drive?” Sophie
persisted. She’d wanted to learn how to drive since she was ten. One of the
reasons the twins had taken summer jobs this year, rather than go on the dig
with their parents, was to get the money for a car of their own.
Scathach shrugged, an irritated twitch of her shoulders. “I’ve been
meaning to, but I’ve been busy,” she protested.
“You do know,” Josh said to no one in particular, “that I’m not supposed
to be driving without a licensed driver with me.”
“We’re nearly fifteen and a half and we can both drive,” Sophie said.
“Well, sort of,” she added.