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I woke to Mom yelling at me that I was going to be late if I didn’t get up and hurry. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I stood up and looked out at the bright morning through my window. The woods at the edge of the lawn still seemed dark and shadowy.
Mom had already been to the store, and there was cereal and milk on the table. As I poured myself a bowl, I heard her say, “I’m going to give you a ride to school today.”
“Am I that late?” I asked, pulling out my phone to check the time. It was only 7:50 am.
“No,” she said. “School hasn’t started yet, but I’m going to meet your teacher before I head to work.”
“Oh,” I said, shoveling in a mouthful of crunchy cereal. As I put the flip phone back in my pocket, I noticed it had only charged to about twenty percent. That wasn’t going to last all day.
“I’ll pick you up today after school too,” she added, “but only today. You’ll have to walk from now on.”
I nodded as I took another bite. “Any chance I can get a bike? Most of the kids around here ride bikes everywhere.”
Mom was putting papers into her work backpack. “This week’s probably too busy, but maybe next week sometime,” she said without looking over. “I’m sure we can manage a bike now.”
* * *
I climbed into the family car, and mom backed out of the driveway onto the tree-lined street. We drove away down the road, and I stared out the window at the passing trees and spread-out houses. Suddenly we were surrounded by forests on both sides of the road as it curved around to the left. Then we took a right turn and crossed a small bridge before the trees opened up again and I saw more houses.
We weaved in and out of neighborhoods and wooded places and took several more turns. I was pretty confused about what direction we had come. There were so many trees, and everywhere looked the same.
Finally, I saw the school ahead.
Mom slowed down as we entered the school zone area and we stopped at a crosswalk. A group of kids on bikes rode by.
“Hey aren’t those your friends?” asked Mom, and I realized it was Hailey, Zach, Brent and Emily, with a few other kids. Zach looked over and saw me, then said something to Brent. They all glanced over and started laughing.
Haily didn’t wave as she passed by.
I ducked lower in my seat, and stared out the side window.
