A Gremlin of a car

How can I make this better?  Suggestions?

Andy told Ami to warm up the car and back it out of the garage while he put his boots on.  It was almost as obvious a ploy as her father’s tie shopping, but she headed for the door anyway.  She wandered around the side of the house to the garage and fumbled with the keys.  She remembered the black key was the one for the garage.  She couldn’t remember the color of the car key until she heaved the heavy garage door out of the way.  Green… it was definitely the green one.  In the middle of the garage surrounded by tool cases, work benches and boxes was an old restored emerald green Gremlin.  Ami laughed out loud and climbed into the car, tossing her bag in the back.  It roared to life without much assistance, and the gears moved more smoothly than anything Ami’s dad ever drove.  She backed out to the street and pulled up in front of the house.  She moved around to the passenger seat as Andy came down the front steps.

When he climbed in, he popped open the glove box and pulled out a driver’s manual from the DMV.  “I expect you to pass the test on your birthday, so study up.”  Ami nodded as he continued.  “You can drive up here on the dirt roads, because they’re still private land.  You can’t drive in town until you get your license.”

That was a lot more than Ami had expected.  It also gave her something to puzzle over, but she’d think about that later.

The drive down the hill in the daylight was beautiful, with green trees giving way to a view of the ice-carved mountains surrounding the deep blue bay waters.  Just on the outskirts of town, Andy turned right on a street named “Guardian Way.”  They passed the backs of a line of businesses on one side and cheap apartments on the other.  After about 6 blocks, the street veered to the right and upward into the hills.  Up ahead the road ended in a large parking lot surrounded by well manicured trees and shrubs.  Buildings were barely visible though the foliage.  Only a few scattered cars were parked here, all of them what Ami would call vintage.  There was a gorgeous black and chrome Skylark.

Ami snagged her tote out of the back, and followed the only sidewalk through the trees.  As she passed under the leaves, the campus spread out in front of her.  The main building was a huge log construction, surrounded by four slightly shorter wood frame buildings.  There was a ball field on the far left and the confines of an ice rink on the far right, with basketball hoops on either end.  Above the main building flew three flags: the stars and stripes, the Alaskan big dipper, and a blue triangular flag with a silver gargoyle.

Andy was watching her carefully.  “So what’ya think?”

She blinked and then shrugged.  “I didn’t know you guys were shuffling me off to college early.  It isn’t Hogwarts, but it’ll do.”

Andy laughed.  “It isn’t quite college either.  There is a college prep program if you’re interested though.  Talk it over with Mr. Cochran.  He’ll be your advisor this year.”  They walked toward the first building on the right.  The Library and the Admin Offices took up the first floor of the Language Arts Building.