And Then We Danced

Chaos

'Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from concealing this part of my story.'

My eyes greedily read over sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, of Gulliver's Travels, the old classic that I've always wanted to read, but never actually pushed myself to look into.

I'm glad this is the book that Maddie decided to sneak to me, let alone any book at all. I don't think my impatient mind would have been able to sit through a copy of a twenty-first century novel right now. Most of the time, I read books out of pure adrenaline, trying to finish it and find out how it ends as fast as I can. But this book was different. Instead of making my heart race, it was keeping me... grounded. I didn't want to rush into it, I wanted to take in each and every word and actually relate to what I was reading. I was captivated by this book, and I never wanted it to end.

My school work sat in a neat pile at the top of my desk, completed and somewhat understood. As soon as I had finished with my last lesson of the day, I had ripped open the hardback copy, and I literally mean ripped, as in accidentally tearing the first page.

I had panicked at first, but after five minutes of trying to piece the page back together, I let it go and accepted the fact that it was a hopeless case. I felt kinda bad for slightly ruining it, but I could always buy her a new copy if she cared that much about it anyways.

"Mr. Morris?", Mrs Toshney's voice loudly whispered, tearing me away from the words that I had been living in for the last two hours.

I looked up and found her staring at me through her round glasses, gesturing for me to come up to front of the classroom/mailroom.

Crap.

She must have finally saw the book that I had been trying so hard to hide. Well, I hadn't really been trying to hide it at all, unless resting it on my knees counted. But in my defense, I didn't think she would be able to see it in my hands with her poor eyesight.

I nervously got up from my desk, stuffing my work and the book into my empty back pack. Best case scenario, she confiscates my stuff and lets me sit back down. Worst case scenario, she calls Mr. Fray. He had told her to call him if I caused any more problems, maybe she actually decided to take him up on his offer.

I stopped about two feet away from the desk, not quite sure how close I was supposed to get, and put on my best poker face. Maybe if she saw that I wasn't as nervous as I actually was, she wouldn't think I was doing anything wrong.

She leaned across her desk, trying to make up for the space I was keeping between us. "I just called you up to tell you that you're free to go", she loudly whispered.

What?

"Um, isn't there still like, an hour left?", I asked, slightly confused. Although there wasn't a clock in here, I had always been able to keep track of time, give or take a few minutes. How could I be an entire hour off?

"Yes dear, but I'm letting you off early", she smiled. "I know why your here, and I also know it wasn't completely your fault. I had a huge part in it, and I don't think its fair that you got all the punishment. I was going to let you go earlier, but Mr. Fray would have sent you right back. But now that schools let out, there's really nothing he can do", she happily explained, leaning back in her chair.

"Are you serious?", I asked, totally forgetting to keep my voice low.

"Of course I am, sweetheart. Just go down the hall and take a right, then a left and you'll find the front entrance. Now get out of here before I change my mind", she smiled.

"I... thank you", I said, meaning it. She was completely ignoring school policy, just so I could get out of detention early.

She nodded her head in response, and I quickly walked over to the door and opened it as quietly as possible.