A

    First, you ought to know that I’m “only” fourteen. My mother points this out often. I can make my own decisions when I’m old enough to vote, she says. Second, I should tell you that she’s right — I’m not always responsible. I sometimes take the prize for grade-A dork（呆子）. Take last weekend for instance. I was staying at Dad’s, and I decided it was time I learned to drive. It was Sunday morning, 7 A.M., and I hadn’t slept well. I’d been up thinking about an argument, which I’ll tell you about in a minute. Well, nobody was up yet in the neighborhood, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to back the car out of the garage and drive around the block. But Dad has a clutch（离合器）car. The “R” on the shift handle was up on the left side, right next to first gear（档位）. I guess you can guess the rest.

    Dad’s always been understanding. He didn’t say, “Okay, little Miss Know-It-All, you can just spend the rest of the year paying this off,” which is what Mom would have said. Instead, Dad worried about what might have happened to me. And that made me feel more guilty than anything. I think he’d be a better number-one caregiver, but I can’t say things like that to Mom. To her, I have to say, “But Mom, Dad’s place is closer to school. I could ride my bike,” to which she replies, “Amy Lynn, you don’t own a bike. Remember? You left it in the yard, and it was stolen. And you haven’t got the patience to earn the money to replace it.”