Ditching School: A Christmas Story
By Shanna, age 17, California
Have you ever gotten up in the morning and decided you didn't want to go to school? What about the week before Christmas? As much as we all think this sometimes, how many times have you ever acted on it, suddenly making a decision to ditch? Not to be bored you called and planned it with another friend. The worst part was running and hiding all day, hoping and praying you could get away with it, and then walking through your front door without being attacked at the door. What if you got caught by your mother 10 minutes into ditching, just down the street from your house?
One day I had my mind set that school the next day was somewhere I did not want to be. So like a normal teenager I planned out where I would go and whom I would be with. Putting my plan into action I woke up and acted like everything was normal, trying to recite things I do every morning, just so my mom would not be suspicious and think something was out of the ordinary. So I got dressed and walked to the bus stop like normal. That's where my best friends and I met up. Originally we were going to go to my house and stay there the whole day since my mom never comes home on her lunch break, leaving us safely out of view, but my step-dad ended up catching food poisoning the night before and stayed home. So we changed our scheme.
We planned to go to the beach and hang out, ducking and dodging cops willing to take us to school, then head back to my friend's house after everyone left. After millions of prank calls on her cell phones her mother never left. So after debating it while sitting at the bus stop we decided to go back to my house ... which was when my death call arrived.
My mom had called my cell phone. Scared, I pretended I was in the bathroom. When she asked me where I was I told her at school. Just then she drove right past the bus stop where I was sitting and stopped. Scared, we took off running, which was when my mom called my cell phone again.
Deathly afraid and definitely defeated I stopped running and answered. My mom told me to walk back to the car or she would beat me in front of traffic. With my legs shaking and heart beating fast I turned around and walked back. Caught, I was taken to school, and my punishment was no presents for Christmas. The other horrible punishment: nothing electronic was to touch my hands.
As terrible as this experience was, when I awoke on Christmas morning I saw a nicely wrapped box with my name attached to it. Happily I unwrapped it until, to my surprise, I saw what was inside. I had literally received a box of coal for Christmas.
I have not missed a day of school since. Guess that's a lesson learned, huh?
