The One and Only Time I Ditched School…

     

    On my way to school one morning during my eighth grade year I ran into two friends walking the opposite way.  They said they were ditching school and invited me to come along.  I figured why not I had been sick the day before so the school would never know.

     We left our neighborhood and had walked about two miles when my friends suggested we hop on the bus for the remainder of our journey.  Having a father who is a bus driver I was scared.

      “What if it’s my Daddy’s bus?” I asked

      “What are the odds of that actually happening?”  One of my friends replied.

      Thinking it through for a brief moment I agreed with her just as the bus came to a stop.  The doors opened and sure enough my Daddy was at the wheel staring down at us.  The three of us couldn’t move at first then I yelled, “Run!”  My friends quickly followed behind me.  Then I saw Cortez Park and screamed, “Follow me to the park he can’t drive the bus through the park!”

      We made it to the center of the rather large park all gasping for air.  Once I caught my breath I uttered, “I knew it would be my Daddy’s bus I just knew it.  He’s going to kill me.”

      We ran, then walked, then ran some more until we finally made it to my friend’s boyfriend’s house.  We got a ride back home several hours later.  I threw out the outfit I was wearing and went home.  It seemed like an eternity until my Daddy got home that night.

      When he finally walked through the door I was terrified of what would happen next.  He asked how my day was and what I learned in school that day.  I made up a story about my day.  Then he looked down at me and said, “That’s funny because I saw you about to get on my bus.”  I denied it saying, "It must have been the girl down the street, everyone thinks we look alike."  

      “I know what my own daughter looks like,” he replied.

      “It wasn’t me Daddy,” I said before I could stop myself.

      “Well I’m going to call the school tomorrow to find out if you were there,” he stated with a look in his eyes that terrified me.

      My cocky teenage mouth blurted, “Go ahead I was there.”

      I cried myself to sleep that night unknowing if he was really going to call the school.  The whole next day I walked around like a zombie fearing what he was going to do to me. 

      That night when he got home he was furious with me.  Not because I ditched school but because I had disrespected him by lying to his face.  My punishment was harsh but I definitely deserved it.  The part that hurt the most was the mixture of sadness and disappointment in his eyes.

      To this day I do not lie if anything I’m too honest and often I tell on myself because the look I saw on my Daddy’s face that day I never wanted to see again.

©2014 Lysa Wilds