I’M OUT OF HERE

The next thing that happened was something I’d thought about a million times in sixth grade but never actually did. I walked right out the front door of the school in the middle of the day and just kept walking.

I didn’t care if I got in trouble. I didn’t care if I got kicked out of Cathedral. I didn’t care about any of it anymore. I just wanted one thing.

O-U-T.

“Where are we headed?” Leo asked.

“Home,” I said.

“It’s going to be suspicious if you show up too early,” he said.

“Well, duh,” I said.

Besides, I didn’t mean Killarney Avenue.

I walked past my usual stop for the number 23 bus and kept going. Then I passed another bus stop, and another, and another. Nobody even looked twice at me, even though I was supposed to be in school. I guess that’s one of the good things about living in a city.

It felt good to walk too. It gave me time to think—and to figure out exactly what my plan was going to be.

By the time I finally got all the way to Grandma’s house, it was right around my usual time for getting back from school. That was good. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself, in case I got stuck here for a little while.

Because as far as I was concerned, I was just passing through.