But my everyday lifestyle is not something that I enjoy. Sure, soccer is my all time favorite sport, and I look forward to seeing my friends at school, but I'm growing up all too quickly and I'd like to experience life while I can still enjoy it.
Tonight's homework was even more pointless than usual. As I attempted to solve a rather difficult math problem dealing with polygons, the phone on my nightstand began to ring. Grateful for the distraction, I slammed my blue Geometry notebook shut, pushed my chair out from under the desk, and went to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Marie?" the voice on the other end asked.
My mood immediately brightened as I recognized the deep voice of my best friend Chris, who was a senior. "Chris! Hey!" I greeted him buoyantly. "What are you up to?"
"I just got back from the guys lacrosse game," he told me breathlessly. It did not surprise me. Chris was always at some kind of school related function.
"Did we win? We better have." I knew that our school's boys' lacrosse team played the number one team in the state tonight and that everyone thought we'd lose for sure, seeing as Central High's team was undefeated so far and we, lowly Memorial High, were never ranked above fifth.
"Hell yeah! We slaughtered them!" Chris cried cheerfully. "I'm on my way out to a huge party that the team is throwing. Want to come?"
My heart raced as I heard the word party. This was the opportunity that I had been waiting for. It was a chance to break out of my drear lifestyle.
Just as I was about to heartily take him up on his offer, a virtually insurmountable obstacle loomed in my mind. My parents.
"I'd really like to..." I began to say.
Chris cut me off. "Great! I'll pick you up in fifteen minutes!"
"No, wait!" I frantically protested, but it was too late. Chris had hung up. He was probably jumping into his beat up Chevy pickup truck at that very moment. I had no choice but to go downstairs and ask my parents if I could go.
"It's too late," they'd say with stern parental looks etched on their faces. "You have homework."
The fact that it was Friday night would not aid me in the least. My parents have this absurd rule that all homework, excluding projects and reports, gets done the day that it is assigned, never on the weekend. They actually go through my backpack and agenda, reading over every assignment I have been give like I'm in fifth grade again. After I finish all of my work, they again check it over, this time making sure that I have completed everything.
From underneath my disappointment, determination began to slowly surface. It wasn't fair. Other kids had Friday night to do whatever they wanted to do, I thought fiercely. The least I can do is argue my case and hope that they'll sympathize and let me go, just this once.
With my newfound confidence, I set out downstairs, prepared to face the worst.
What I wound up facing was a note.
Puzzled at the empty kitchen I discovered when I marched in prepared for battle, I searched high and low for a clue that would enlighten me to my parents' disappearance.
The note was held to the refrigerator by a bright green, frog shaped magnet. I snatched the note off of the fridge viciously, causing the happy faced frog to plummet to the floor. Feverishly I began to read it over.
"Marie," I read aloud, "we've gone to a party at dad's work. Be back late - after one. Love, Mom." Calmly I set the note down on the white counter top and stuck the frog magnet back on the fridge. Then my excitement got the best of me and my enthusiasm burst out. "Yes!" I screamed to an empty house. "This is great!"
My mind was working at an accelerated pace. Now I could get the change that I wanted in my life, plus the added thrill of sneaking out and getting back in undetected. With some preplanned timing I could go to the party, come home, finish my Geometry and go to bed without my parents ever realizing that I had left the house.
I glanced over at the clock above the stove. Its glowing red numbers read 9:33 p.m. Chris would be coming any minute now. Humming happily, I threw on a pair of shoes and grabbed the spare key from its lonely hook on the laundry room wall.
Just as I finished locking the back door, the doorbell at the front door rang and I rushed to answer it. Chris stood waiting for me on the front porch. "Ready?" he asked with a grin. His casual tone of voice pushed the doubts that had begun to slink into my mind away.
"Of course. I have to be back before one though," I told him as we began walking to his pickup.
"No problem," he assured me confidently. "I didn't plan on staying later than that either."
Satisfied that I could have a night of fun without my parents finding out, I climbed into his truck and prepared to have the time of my life.
The party was amazing. About half of my school showed up to celebrate the underdog style defeat of the defending state champions. All of the members of the boys' lacrosse team were treated as if they were heroes. With triumphant and smug grins, they strutted about the party like gods.
Chris and I had the time of our lives, dancing, eating, and joking with all of our friends, most of which were surprised to see me thre, at a party of all places. I soon found out through the "reliable" gossip that my friends tossed around like popcorn that I was the envy of every senior girl at the party. I guess that they couldn't accept that I was a sophomore at the party with a fairly popular senior.
When 12:30 rolled around we could barely drag ourselves away from the excitement of the party. I know that we both would have stayed there all night if we could have, but I did not want to risk more than I already had. As we cruised home on the empty streets, Chris and I chatted amicably about the party and the team's chances of winning in the state championship, which was only a few weeks away. Unlike most of my friends, Chris was an exceptional driver, and I did not worry when he looked away from the road to meet my gaze.
As we drove through a deserted intersection, that's what he did as I began telling him about the senior girls' spite towards me. His eyes sparkled as he chuckled merrily at their foolishness, then looked back at the road again. In one second the goofy grin that stretched from ear to ear o his face disappeared and was replaced with a look of horror. From out of nowhere, a speeding car had approached the intersection on our left and had run the red light. It was heading straight for us on a collision course at break neck speed.
In a panic, Chris slammed on the brakes and wrenched the wheel sharply to the right as he vainly tried to avoid the inevitable impact.
I vaguely remember seeing the car behind us brake abruptyl in the rear view mirror. This was just supposed to be my one night out, my adventure, I thought hopelessly as the sound of the speeding car careening into Chris's beloved pickup filled my head. A sickening crunch was the last thing I heard.
"Two Killed in Late Night Crash"
Late last night, two Memorial High students, Chris Long, 18, and Marie Silvers, 16, were killed when their pickup truck was struck from the side by Richard Falcy, 22. Falcy was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident.
According to witness Sarah Parker, Falcy ran a red light, striking Long and Silvers from the left. She said that Long attempted to swerve out of the car's path at the last moment. "It was as if he didn't see it coming. I didn't see it until the last minute myself," she recalls.
The impact caused Long's truck to roll over onto its top and slide into a nearby guardrail. The guardrail collapsed and the truck tumbled down the slope.
The teens, on their way home from a party, were both pronounced dead at the scene.
Both teens were well known at Memorial High and were considered to be among the top students in their respective classes. Long held a position in the Senior Board and ran cross country in the fall. He had been accepted to the University of North Carolina and was planning to be a communications major. Silvers has been on the distinguished honors list nearly every marking period since she began her freshman year. She had just earned a spot on Memorial's number one varsity soccer team this year and was promising to become an outstanding goalkeeper.
Falcy revieved minor injuries, including a fractured rib and broken arm. He has been arrested and charged for inattentive driving, driving under the influence, and vehicular manslaughter.
Memorial services for Long and Silvers will be held on Wednesday night.
But you can't.