Anarchy

Chapter 3: The Sentence

I woke up today feeling surprisingly calm considering my impending doom. Last night, after I came back from Jamie's, I found my dad passed out in one of the lounge chairs in the living room, snoring; he fell asleep waiting for me. Typical.

I spent the rest of the night holed up in my room, eating popcorn and watching youtube videos of pandas. Productive, I know.

Sitting up, I looked at my alarm clock. It's 7am. Great.

Rolling over, I try to fall back asleep--7 is wayyy too early for a Sunday.

...

...

Okay I'm going to start counting sheep.

...1

...2

Nevermind this is boring and I already know it's not going to work. Why is it sheep anyways? Why can't it be dancing hotdogs?

That would be funny.

Getting up, I decide to go for a morning swim. There's a pond around the back of the house and there's just something magical about diving into a dirty pool of water filled with frogs and fish. Just kidding.

But it is refreshing.

Changing into a swimsuit and grabbing a towel, I make my way down the stairs, careful to step in all the right places to avoid creaking so as not to wake up my dad. When you sneak out as much as I do, you learn a lot about squeaky stairs.

I make my way through the kitchen to the backdoor. Twisting the knob ever so slowly, I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. Snapping my head in that direction, I realize it's just a bird hopping across the window ledge above the sink. Phew. Turning the handle the rest of the way, I open the door and step out.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Crap.

To my left, I see dad rocking on our porch swing with a hot cup of coffee in his hands.

"Uh, swimming"

This time it's actually the truth...I have used this as an excuse before.

"Not quite yet. First we need to talk."  Ughhhh.

"Can we talk later? I have an important date with some frogs."

"The frogs can wait. Sheriff Hopkins called this morning." He motioned for me to sit down next to him. I sulked over, huffing as I sat down. "He found a place in Maine for you to stay over the summer. You'll be working in a marina, helping with boat maintenance."

Hmm..boats...maybe I'll meet some pirates? But then again, I'd be working. Ew.

"And you're okay with that? Isn't that child labor or something?"

Dad exhaled, running his hand over his face in defeat. He looked worn down; he normally looks tired because of his odd work hours, but today, his eyes had lost that joie de vivre they usually held.

"I really don't know what else to do. You're almost 18 and yet you are constantly breaking rules and getting in trouble. I shouldn't have the principal and the sheriff on speed-dial, for goodness sakes."

This would probably be a bad time to tell him I have a few more pranks up my sleeve.

He continued.

"I know I haven't been there for you as much as I'd like to be because of work, but I didn't realize how much it would affect your behavior."

"Dad, I'm sorry. I--  it's just--" ugh why is it so hard to justify my actions? It all seems to make sense in the moment. "Dad please don't send me to Maine."