Chapter Five

I did it! I graduated from high school! Can you be this excited and this scared at the same time? Can you die from it? I managed to end up back on the honor roll at the end when it counted, though at times I let my grades slip and it was a close call. I know Grams would be proud.

When I turned 18, my friends threw a surprise party for me. We danced like fools, and stuffed ourselves with cake, and generally acted like kids who know they won't be kids much longer and are determined to make the most of it. The cake was so beautiful I almost didn't want to blow out the candles.

 

 

Alas, in some lives the pleasure is ironically short-lived, and the troubles many. Some people just lead way too dramatic lives, I guess. Who decides that, anyway? Who doles out the drama and the peace, and decides how much of each we're to get? Sometimes I wonder a bit wistfully what life is like for the normal kids, who just go to school and come home and don't ever have to deal with clogged toilets and bills and self doubt and ... and ... and I think I'm just feeling sorry for myself.

That very night, just as I was drifting off into a dream about my lovely party and how Demarco looked at me with those chocolate brown eyes (melting chocolate), a burglar broke in and started ransacking my place.

I leaped from bed, heart in my throat. In that tiny one-room shack, there was no place to hide, and no place to run but out the door to an empty countryside. The funny thing was, something snapped inside me when she took my easel. I could have stood aside and counted myself lucky to be unharmed, for anything but that. A simple, inanimate frame of wood it is, but nonetheless the staunch friend of my childhood; my comfort, my relief, my joy, and hopefully my livelihood. Replaceable with great ease and little cost. But I saw red, and I charged out the door right after her, intending to do all in my might to delay her getaway long enough for the police to arrive.

About the time I was realizing what a stupid plan that was, a police car arrived, slicing the darkness with a welcome red light. Quite a fight ensued, but wiry as she was, the thief was no match for Sunset Valley's Finest.

Before he left, the policeman checked my place and assured me that everything was safe. He returned all the stolen items and advised me to invest in a burglar alarm. It was five in the morning by the time things calmed down, and I dropped back into bed thoroughly exhausted but feeling safe again.

What a birthday.