I open my eyes slowly, coming out of the dream state we know as �sleep�. It was bright, though, too bright. It should be 6:00 AM, the sun should just now be peeking out from the horizon�yet it was not. Golden fingers of sunlight slid through the gaps in my mini blinds and fell into my room, illuminating all dust and particles in its path. It was pleasantly warm, but it should not be. It should not be light at all.
I turn my head to the left, where my alarm clock sat. The brightness in the room made the large, red numbers extremely difficult to read. I squinted. 12:00. 12:00. 12:00. It repeats itself like a crazed parrot.
I slap my palm to my forehead. �Aw, crap��
I sit up slowly and gaze around, pulling my legs up toward me and using my arms to push myself up. I walk slowly to my doorway and peer down the hall, looking into my parents bedroom. The door is ajar. As I feared, my maniacal stepfather (who will, from now on, be known as �Noel�) is still immersed deeply in slumber. The blanket lies half off him, showing his ghostlike left butt cheek, revealing that he does, in fact, sleep in the nude. This in itself would have stopped me from waking him, though I don�t think I would have, regardless.
I walked back into my room, which will thusly be known as �the lair� and collapsed onto my bed. The time on Noel�s battery-powered clock had read 10:31. On a normal day, Noel would, in fact, be up in less than half an hour, getting ready to cruise off to his little salary job on Main Street.
So, what to do? I passed the time by laying on my bed and twiddling my thumbs, waiting�waiting for that dreadful alarm clock to go off. And it did.
Buzz, Buzz, Buzz�the parrot-like screech of the alarm clock resounded through the house. I sat stock still, listening�Buzz, Buzz, Buzz�it continued.
At this moment, I felt a seething rage boil up in me. Throughout my life, he had been on my back incessantly about �getting up to my alarm clock� and �Not turning it off fast enough� He didn�t even come close to following his own guidelines.
I heard a smack sound as he slapped the �off� button on his alarm clock. I heard him groan. The rickety bed squeaked loudly as he rolled off and thudded to the floor.
I panicked.
I didn�t, couldn�t, move. I waited as his footsteps thudded down the hall�sounding so close I was sure he was going to walk into my room and see me sitting there, dumbfounded and scared. But he didn�t. I heard him thud down our stairs into the living room.
I breathed again. I tried to figure out my situation. Okay� I thought I can do this. I can do this without getting caught�I�ll just have to be clever. I stood up and slowly, slowly walked across my floor. Every time I took a step I winced, expecting him to hear me and come thundering back upstairs. I reached out and closed the door gently.
Good, now that�s done�I did a 360 and surveyed my room. Feeling a bit more at ease now, I slowly put my backpack and shoes in my closet where he wouldn�t see them. Then�I crawled under my bed, and waited. It was then that I heard the stream of curses drifting up from downstairs�
�MY LIGHTER! WHERE IS MY LIGHTER! AHH! WHERE IS MY LIGHTER!!�
Whoa, since when did he have THAT in him. That�s kind of scary�I wonder what else he does when no one�s here? I dragged some of my boxes down to form a kind of barricade around myself.
Time passed slowly, SO slowly�11:15, 11:23, 11:34�and finally, he left. I heard his junk car noisily back down the driveway and zoom off down the street. I was alone.
I crawled out from under my bed slowly, and stood up. So, what now�? I spent the first hour just sitting on my bed, quaking in my boots.
I am going to get caught, I just know it, I thought. There�s no way I can pull this off! I began to think of all the horrible things they would do for me for cutting school. Grounded for a month, probably. Maybe they would shoot and mangle me. I�d rather have that than get grounded for that long. I leaned back against the wall and began thumping my head monotonously against it. I�m going to get caught�going to get caught�going to get caught�I drifted off into a fitful sleep.
What is that noise? I opened my eyes slowly, coming out of my dream state. There was a noise�like a car without a muffler. I glanced at my clock. It was 3:25 P.M. Then, the sound registered. With a sickening realization, I realized that Noel was here. Noel had come home early.
I flew into action. I dashed to my closet and slipped my shoes on. I grabbed my backpack and ran down the hall to my parents bedroom. The window in the room was old, and the screen had gone long ago. I dropped the pack and hefted up the window. Peering down, I realized what a long drop it was to the patio. It was ten feet, at least
This is going to hurt�I heard the door open. I glanced back over my shoulder. I threw my backpack over the edge. Then I stopped. How should I jump this thing?
Footsteps on the stairs.
Oh god�all thoughts of hesitation instantly departed.
The footsteps, closer.
I vaulted over the edge�it must have been mere milliseconds before Noel entered the hall. For a sickening moment, I fell. Then my ankles exploded. Or seemed too, at least. I went down onto my hands and knees.
I heard Noel�s voice drift down from the house, �What the�why is the window open?�
MOVE! I threw myself at the back wall under my parent�s window, now hidden by the large overhang that loomed over our patio door. There was silence as, I would imagine, Noel was peering out of the window. Shortly, I heard the sliding sound that announced my window closing. I waited a few more moments, making sure that he was no longer watching, and waiting for some of the pain in my ankle to subside. I tested it, rolling it around. It didn�t seem to be broken, just sprained.
I slowly stood. A fresh wave of pain slammed into me, and I went down on one knee again. In the end I half dragged myself across the patio. Our back door was pane, any moment Noel could walk into the kitchen and see me there, helpless.
A few minutes later, I leaned against the side of the house, breathing hard. After a while, I found I could walk, limp, rather, slowly. I stood and limped around to the front of the house. At that moment, my bus pulled up into my street. I watched my two friends step down onto the pavement and begin to walk in the direction of their houses. I longed to walk up to one of them and tell them what I had accomplished, but I stayed put.
Then it hit me. I had done it. I had actually cut school without being caught. In my mind, that was a great accomplishment. I grinned. Slowly I limped up to the front door�and went in. Immediately, Noel began to go off at me for leaving my window open all day, but in my head, I was smiling.