Chapter 5 (Part 2)

“Car F8762R, please pull over to the right,” a raucous voice travelled to our ears nearly blasting off our eardrums. In a moment of panic and fright, Richard released his footing on the accelerator and pulled the steering wheel to the left. “What’s… that?” Richard stammered.
The wailing of the sirens coming from behind told me that we had been spotted by the traffic police. “Police! Quick, move to the right!” I ordered. But apparently, Richard didn’t hear my order. The cars were now just a metre away from us!
Bang!
Two humongous airbags inflated from the front, keeping both Richard and Derek in their seats and not flying out of the window. I wasn’t as fortunate, my forehead banged into the bag of the leather seat and bit my tongue – real hard. Violet was still comfortably seated at the same area only looking a little distraught from the experience. After all, she did buckle up her seat belt – another one of her many safety precautions to take when sitting in a car. Yah, that is the price I paid for not buckling up my seat belt, especially when someone with wholly no driving experience was taking us on a road trip. I cast a distressed look at Violet as blood gushed out from my tongue.
Gross. Violet shook her head helplessly, muttering something under her breath, something like ‘see Jennison, I told you to buckle up’. Guess the old Chinese saying ‘don’t listen old man’s words, eat regret in front of your eyes’ (warning: this is a direct translation from the Chinese saying so please do not follow it) is true. I was starting to regret my actions. Only, I couldn’t, considering the fact that two police officers were heading our way with summons in their hands. If I was still in the condition to talk, I would probably scoff a sarcastic remark like, ‘great’, but all I could spit out was ‘ate’ and a little bit of blood. I had planned out a whole speech of lies and deceits for this very purpose only to know that I’m in no condition to talk and probably need to go to a nearby clinic to get stitches.
As the policemen approached, I could see their face being contorted with astonishment and disbelief. Who wouldn’t if they realised that it was a bunch of twelve year olds who were driving a BMW instead of a licensed adult? Violet unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. All I did was seize as many tissues I could find and stuff them in my mouth gingerly, then bolt out of the car as fast as I could. “Teenagers, the source of all the trouble,” I could faintly hear one of the policemen remark. It wasn’t our fault that Brian was kidnapped either, not that any of us cared much. Right now, all I had to concentrate on was to apply pressure on my tongue and stop the bleed. “eathe in, eathe ou,” I muttered trying to pronounce the words as clearly as feasible (which made me sound like I had a block nose), in an attempt to calm my agitated and apprehensive self down.
“What are you teenagers doing here? Do you have a driving license?” the other policemen beseeched as I shot him a bloody yet goofy smile. “Answer me!” he warned, in a firm tone. “If you think about it logically, obviously no, considering the fact that we are only twelve,” Violet replied in a no fuss manner. “Then I’m afraid I am going to need to haul you four kids in for questioning and call up your parents to inform them,” the policeman uttered as he whipped out his handkerchief to wipe the trickle of cold sweat off is face. “And who does this car belong to? I believe his or her parents would be glad upon seeing their car having a beautiful dent on the sparkly bumper,” he added with a hint of sarcasm. Without hesitation, we pointed towards Richard. “Hey!” Richard scoffed, his eyes narrowed into a slit. “So I guess I’ll have to tell your parents about it first,” he said glancing at Richard. “You might want to consider calling in the tow truck first though,” Derek piped in hopefully. In perfect synchrony, we turned our gaze towards him, giving him a cold glare. Sensing the sudden change in the ambience, Derek excused, “The car might cause a traffic congestion.”
Violet shot me a praying glance saying ‘get me out of this mess’. I gave her a brief nod, I wasn’t about to do nothing. I was on the point of speaking when I suddenly remembered that I had a wounded tongue and hesitated. Perhaps I should just do nothing. Violet stared at me and gave me a hard kick in the shins, a kick which was meant as a cue to start talking.
“I’m af aid you can’t do iat, (I’m afraid you can’t do that)” I babbled, “Ou arents are o erseas. (Our parents are overseas.)” The policemen’s face darkened a little but continued to implore, “Then I would have to tell your teachers or guardians.” “You could call ou coun e lor ough, (our counsellor though) is num er is his, (his number is this)” I added before scribbling the professor’s number on the summons.
“In that case, we are going to bring you to the police station where you can tell us what you kids were up to,” he grumbled with a fake toothy smile and ushered us into the back of the police car. Fortunately, all four of us were pretty slim and managed to squeeze in without much difficulty. And as the traffic police car headed towards the station, Derek popped another of his ridiculous questions, “Erm… if it isn’t too much trouble, could you guys like tune the radio over there to station 93.3 FM and turn up the volume?”