Carnival Rides

01: Deep shit

I kicked my feet back and forth as I tried to patiently wait for my name to be called. Only, I wasn't a patient person. I was a hella pissed off person. It was the last day of school and I obviously stayed home because why the hell would I show up? So, as I'm peacefully sleeping in my bed, dreaming about the stuff I'd do this summer, the home phone rings and I wake up. Then I debated whether or not I would go downstairs to answer it and my decision was no because whoever called woke me up. And then the phone rings again and I realize that it could be an important call so as a nice civilized person, I get out of my bed and run downstairs, trying my best not to slip and fall because of my socks which I have to wear because my feet get crazy cold in the morning, summer or not.

"Hello?" I say, trying to sound polite and not at all angry that this person woke me up.

"Ella?"

AND HOLY SHIT JUST SHOOT ME DOWN BECAUSE EVEN WHEN I'M NOT AT SCHOOL, MRS. LINCOLN - THE PRINCIPAL - JUST SOMEHOW FINDS A WAY TO RUIN MY LIFE.

"Oh, good-morning Mrs. Lincoln, is there a problem?" I ask. If there is, please don't bother telling me because I DON'T CARE.

"Yes, there is. I need you to meet me in my office where I'll discuss further details."

"Mrs. Lincoln," I began, "Is there anyway my mo-"

"No, Ella. This concerns you and you're the only person that can fix your own problem. I'll be waiting." AND THEN SHE JUST HUNG UP.

So I run upstairs, brush my teeth, brush my hair, throw on some sweatpants and a sweater because I didn't even care enough to find a nice shirt and ran out the door and to my school because it wasn't even that far and the faster I got there, the faster I'd get out and be able to return to my bed.

And now here I am, in the principal's office, trying to patiently wait for my name to be called. Leave it to me to somehow get in trouble even when I'm not at school.

"Ella Selkirk?" the secretary asked. I got up. "You can go in now."

Fun.

I knocked on the door and after two seconds, it opened. "Come in and take a seat," Mrs. Lincoln said.

I did as I was told.

"After summer break, you're going to be a senior. Happy to leave this school, am I right?"

Ha. First thing you've ever been right about. I nodded.

"But have you gone over the requirements for you to graduate?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, "or have you forgotten?"

Now I was hella confused.

"I'm sorry, but where is this going?" I asked.

"You need 48 hours of community service to be able to graduate and you have none. So now, you're going to have to get those hours in before you graduate. But, senior year isn't going to be all rainbows and free time even though you're going to get free periods. There will be more work, applications to be sent out, and a whole bunch of tests and exams to do. So where will you get 48 hours of your time to do community service? I do not know. Which means, if you want to graduate, you're going to have to get your hours in during summer break."

Yeah um hold that thought, let me just look around for a gun.

WHAT THE HELL. I WAS IN SOME DEEP SHIT. JUST LIKE IMAGINE DEEP SHIT AND THEN IMAGINE ME IN IT BECAUSE THAT WAS THE SITUATION RIGHT NOW.

OKAY ELLA JUST BE CALM. JUST SPEAK CALMLY AND SLOWLY.

"How - I - I don't know where to go - I -"

"I know you don't know, Ella. You're always confused and I know that because I've known you for 3 years. I know how you operate and how you think," WOAH hold up, creepy much???"and because I do want you out of this school, I decided I'd help you out. I'm sure you know about the carnival that sets up on Pine Ave every summer because well everybody knows about it. So I called them and I asked them if they were looking for any volunteers and they said no because usually high school kids are very immature and get distracted by their phones easily while doing work so I told them that you are a very responsible young lady and that you don't really have friends to text so they agreed for you to volunteer at the rides.

Since you need 48 hours, you'll volunteer for a week and 5 days, putting in 4 hours. They said from 6-10 pm."

It took me about 3 minutes to actually take in all of this information. 1) Mrs. Lincoln said that I don't have friends, 2) I'm volunteering at a carnival that people from this stupid ass school go to and 3) It's only going to be 12 days of summer break gone so it's kind of worth it?

Time to be fake and get the hell out of here.

I smiled, "Thank you so much Mrs. Lincoln. I honestly don't know what I would've done if you hadn't kept track of my community service hours sheet without me knowing... and thank you for talking to them. I'll gladly go."

"Great," she smiled, "you start tomorrow. If you have questions, don't ask me. You can just go to their website and get their email. Now, you can leave, and oh - send in the next student."

I smiled once more and then got up and walked out the door. And as I sent in the next student and left the office and begun walking home, I realized that after these 12 days, I'd finally have that requirement for graduation done and I wouldn't have to worry about anything else. I'd be able to snuggle up in my bed and watch tv shows on Netflix and I would be able to sleep in every single day. No boyfriend to waste time on and no group of friends to get caught up in drama with.

Ha.

If only I had known that somebody - actually Mrs. Lincoln - was trying to ruin my summer by forgetting to give me that one little piece of information that I should've known from the start.