The slippery slope (my story animated)

The Jock or The Nerd?

My mother died in a car accident when I was at a young age. She was visiting a relative and despite many attempts to dissuade her from travelling in the snowstorm, she didn't listen. She didn't make it anywhere near the house. I didn't really know her very well at that age so I didn't remember what she was like. Though I still missed the feeling of having a mother's touch, my father did everything he could to fill in the space my mother left behind after the car accident. He gave up his multi-million dollar house for a mansion to be closer to me. Despite his best intentions, I still found the attention a little overbearing. That's an understatement: It was downright overbearing to the core.

He would constantly worry about my safety and once, he made me wear a helmet and protective gear when I was out playing in the neighbourhood park. Everyone laughed at me and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I looked like an astronaut. It was humiliating. Another time, my favourite nanny was immediately fired because I had fallen off my bed when I was dead asleep. Being a young child with a childish mindset, I decided to run away from home. I wrote a note in my best handwriting and stuck it onto a vase near the door. It wrote, 'Don't come looking for me.'

Obviously, the first place I wanted to visit with my new profound freedom was the playground and when I finally sat atop the peak of the slide, I could breathe in the fresh night air without seeing the bars of the protective gear in front of my face. However, before I could even reach the base of the slide, police sirens started from a persistent mewling to a full-on roar. Police cars were parked all around the playground. Of course, Dad came running over with literal tears in his eyes. He had done exactly what I told him not to do. I couldn't lose my freedom just yet so when Dad took me into a bone-crushing hug, I kicked and screamed.

"Who is he? Help me!"

We were brought to the police station and the entire time I was just devoting my attention to the lollipop I was handed by one of the officers to keep me occupied. Maybe if I wasn't so preoccupied with the addicting strawberry flavour, I'd have realised how much Dad treasured me, especially with Mom gone. I was too young to realise that anyway. After the tedious paperwork, Dad had to show to prove he was my parent, the situation was resolved.

As one could expect, growing up in such a strict household really caused Dad and I to have constant friction in our relationship. We always fought and the main reason was always my lack of freedom. However, as I grew up, I became smarter in the way I kept things from him. I even managed to join the cheerleading team in high school without him knowing. I always tied up my long blond hair in a high ponytail. I was basically nearly a mirror image of all the tall girls in the cheerleading team with similar pretty bodies. Like how everyone in the team was popular in school, I was no different.

One day, Jake, one of the boys from the jocks, invited me to a party at his house at 11pm. I agreed despite knowing that Dad would not allow me to step anywhere outside the house without someone accompanying me. That night, I waited for Dad to fall asleep and then snuck out of the house through my window. I landed on the soft grass quietly and ran off. I did feel a shred of guilt but Dad wouldn't know, right? What he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.

The party was a blast and I got to know Jake a lot more too. He was pretty cute and it seemed as if he never took off that baseball cap of his. We might have shared a kiss or two and it was fantastic. By the time I came home, it was already 3 am. The cicadas fluttered their wings creating an orchestra of sounds while the stars twinkled in merriment, reflecting the joy I shared from my night of freedom.

It didn't last of course.

While I was walking across my lawn, I tripped over something. When I looked back, it looked like a body. Was it Dad? My heart froze and restarted in a frenzy. I could come up with an excuse quickly enough. The torchlight of my phone switched on and illuminated the face of the person I tripped over.