With gas at $3.25 a gallon, why isn't it OK to take the bus?

Younger Daughter and Youngest Son are both in high school now and Youngest Son figures his school isn't too far out of Younger Daughter's way, and therefore Younger Daughter should chauffeur him to school each morning.

Younger Daughter, meanwhile, doesn't mind the idea so much... since she'd be given a daily opportunity to cruise the parking lot of Youngest Son's all-boys Catholic school on her way to her own all-girls Catholic school. After all, prom is only nine months away. And Homecoming is in two weeks!!!!

(It's difficult to render the shriek of a teenage girl in print, isn't it?)

The only one who has real reservations about this plan is me.

Younger Daughter can't take the bus because she has Orchestra class that meets at 7:00am -- before school. And the bus doesn't get there before 7:20 -- and sometimes not until 7:40, barely enough time to make it to the first class period of the day.

That Younger Daughter has been engaged a feud with the Orchestra director for the past two years is of no moment in these discussions: Long Suffering Spouse and I both agreed that Younger Daughter could drop Orchestra this year -- but Younger Daughter wants to 'stick it out.'

"Why?" we ask. Why be in a situation which is unpleasant? Younger Daughter plays the trumpet -- but she doesn't take it that seriously. She practices guitar (for which she receives no academic credit) an hour or more a day, perfectly happy to play songs by ear -- with the guitar upside down and backwards -- and she's become quite good at it.

But she won't take her trumpet home to practice without a court order. And maybe not even then.

This same trumpet that we paid a king's ransom for just a couple of years ago.

But I digress.

(And I weep softly.)

She actually plays the trumpet well, too (I have heard her on rare occasions, so I'm not just being Dad), but nothing will make a music teacher madder than a student who doesn't practice except a student who doesn't practice but does well anyway.

The teacher, in such cases, believes (probably with good reason) that the student would do even better with practice.

In any event, the unpleasant feelings between the music director and Younger Daughter got so intense last year that the school counselor got involved.

But Younger Daughter says she is determined to finish Orchestra this year.

And, finally, it occurs to me why she is so determined: I have to let her drive if she continues in Orchestra.

If she quits, she thinks I'd make her take the bus.

She's right, too.

I am nervous about her driving every day. I drove with her while she was accumulating the hours necessary to take the driver's exam. She hasn't driven that much since getting her license -- preempted by my health and then by older siblings home for the Summer. And though we're driving with her again (even Long Suffering Spouse has taken a couple of turns in the passenger seat) and Younger Daughter really isn't doing badly... well, the car is too new and I am too old to let her drive every day.

It's not that she's a bad driver... it's just that she's inexperienced. She may not react in time or react properly when some truly bad driver does something stupid. That wouldn't be her fault... but we'd have a problem just the same.

Besides, I have a vivid imagination.

Too vivid, really, for my own good.

Would taking the bus really be so uncool if the kids actually paid for the gas?

Just asking....