I decided not to tell my parents. They didn’t need to know since this was totally out of character for me. I could hide it. Really, it was for only a few days. My older sister told me I was making a mistake. In retrospect the way it turned out, I should’ve listened to her. 

Let me tell you my story :

Friday afternoon right before school ended, I walked out of Principal G’s office.  He’s known me for years and we have a cool relationship. He let me slide a few times when I did some bone-headed high school stuff. Nothing serious so he always let me go with a warning. 

This time I was a real chuckle-head. This one was more serious. I mean, what idiot lights a firecracker in the boys room trash? Duh… I did. The “posse” dared me. Can’t turn down a dare from your buddies. Right? Right!

Besides, how was I to know Principal G. was wandering the hallway at that particular moment? Dumb luck? Or just plain dumb? Probably more of the latter.

I was caught red-handed. After lighting the firecrackers I ran out of the bathroom and bumped into G. just as the firecrackers went off. No denying it was me. There was no one else around. The posse bolted and left me high and dry. Some friends, huh? 

Like I was saying, I walked out of G’s office, low spirited, dejected, cuz I held in the sweaty palm of my hand a- 

   NOTICE FOR SUSPENSION 

Yup. Suspended for the next three days for setting off a firecracker on school property. I shoved the notice in my backpack, hopped on the school bus and went home. 

Even though I decided not to tell my parents about the suspension, I still felt guilty about it all weekend. A couple of times I almost spilled the beans to the folks, but chickened out. I figured I could play it cool and get away with not telling them. 

When Monday morning rolled around… I got up, showered, dressed, had a little breakfast and the old man drove me to school, like normal. As soon as he disappeared down the block, I hightailed it out of there and walked to my older brother's apartment, figuring I could hang there for the day.

It was working out fine, me and him playing video games, drinking soda and eating chips. Then, Becky, his girlfriend came over and I had to exit because they needed to do “boyfriend and girlfriend” things and there was no room for me! 

I was pissed at my brother for this. So without him knowing, I swiped his car keys. I’ll use your car, bro, while you and Becky boink your brains out.

There were two problems here. One, I was only fifteen, and two, I never drove a car, you know, a real car. Only drove’m in video games. I figured that it can’t be all too hard, my dopey brother drives!

So off I went driving super slow at the beginning. “This is a piece of cake”, I said to myself. I was doing pretty good. Then my confidence and ego started to climb. Suddenly I was driving myself around town. 

I drove past the Wash’m Up Laundry, Taco Rocco’s, and Pizza Prime when I found myself a block away from my high school. Why I decided to drive near the school I’ll never know. I slowed the car down, real slow as I got closer to school. I’m crawling along when I spot Principle G. standing by the curb. I think he saw me. I mean he had to see me, I think. So I duck my head down. Real low almost under the steering wheel. 

Bad move because I couldn’t see anything except the car floor and my sneakers. Ugh, before I knew it, I side swiped the back of the school bus, real slow but I still hit it. Jeez, what a dope, right? Wrong. I made it worse by driving away, which I later find out was called a hit and run.

I drove straight to my brother's apartment, left the car, gave him the keys and ran home, you know, like in the movie, Ferris Bueller. Except when I got home, everything wasn’t cool like it was for Ferris. For me there was a cop car in my driveway and my mom standing with him, waiting for me.

BUSTED

Principle G. did see me behind the wheel of the car and see me hit the bus. After I drove away, he called my mom, and the cops. He had to make the calls. This time he couldn’t help me with only a warning.

The cop was my Uncle Joey. After what seemed like forever sitting in the back of the squad car… Uncle Joey did that on purpose to scare the crap out of me, (it worked), I had to finish my three day suspension in school this time. I was also grounded for a month and had to pay for my brothers car repairs.

Thinking back on this mess, I guess I made the wrong decision! Should’ve listened to sis.