This One Time in High School...

A few posts back I mentioned that I was suspended from high school for two days. Not my proudest moment. You can find the little tidbit here: Terri Clark, I Wanna Do It All Too

So here's the story...

It was the annual FFA/SSS Lock-In at our high school. I was a senior hanging out with my guy friends, since none of my girl friends were able to attend. I blame those girls for my downfall.

The night was spent playing Halo in the Agriculture room, until Kory got mad at me for not being able to kill enough animated war lords, or whatever. I couldn't handle two toggles at once, give me a break! I grew up playing NES, Sega, and N64 - My Yoshi could do laps around you in Bowser's Castle, so stop yelling at me for running around in circles with my gun in the air!

Before I get too far with my story, let me describe the guys that walked the lonely hall with me to the principal's office at 5:00am :

Mitch - my boyfriend at the time. A junior.
Kyle - Senior. Mitch's cousin.
Gary - Senior. Strong football player.

We were all good students and we all have never been in trouble before. I belonged to SSS, as did Mitch. SSS stands for Students Supporting Students. Our group is about making good decisions to lead a healthy and happy life. I was the president. Ironic.

Kyle and Gary belonged to FFA. It used to stand for Future Farmers of America. Now I don't think it stands for anything, but you get the idea.

So the night progressed and I played Scrabble with Mr. Fred (the chaperon for the night and adviser for FFA), and a couple other students. The boys kept busy in the computer lab playing poker or something.

But then that got boring, so I joined the guys again and played online poker. Later, we moved to the gym and played half-court lightning, 3 pointer lightning, and then regular free-throw lightning. The gym emptied (since it was around 3:00am) and Kyle and I started a game of badminton. We volleyed the birdie back and forth when all of a sudden things got interesting.

This is where the story gets fuzzy...someone (either Gary or Scott-who you don't know about because he didn't take part) said, "Hey Kinsey, you know how to get above the locker rooms right? We should go up there."

"Sure!" I said without thinking. I mean, hello, I've been up for almost 24 hours. I'm past the point of making smart decisions. Did you know that someone who has stayed up as long as I have is almost as dangerous a driver as a drunk person?? Well, now you know.

So Mitch, Kyle, Gary, and I went to the laundry room and found the crawl space that leads above the girl's and boy's locker rooms. I've been up there before with some friends during high school (doing nothing but innocent things - HONESTLY! I swear. We were immature, but not stupid. My friends and I would go up there after school and talk about how we would leave a keepsake time box and fill it with our pictures and other memorabilia) so I knew how to enter.

It's a small opening in the ceiling, so Scott couldn't come up with us. The boys hoisted me up first and then Kyle, then Gary, then Mitch. I warned the boys to stay along the brick path and Kyle and I made it to the girl's side.

Then it happened. My heart stopped beating when I heard Gary say, "Oh shit!" That mixed with the sound of drywall breaking didn't mix well. Gary's foot went through the ceiling of the girl's locker room. Unfortunately, there were two girls in there screaming as they watched this gigantic foot hanging in front of them. Obviously, Gary didn't stay on the brick path.

I jumped down through the closet in the locker room. Kyle followed. Mitch escaped the way we entered, and Gary finally made it down. The piece of ceiling drywall hung there like a hangnail.

Gary quieted the screaming girls down, but it was too late. Students started pouring in the locker room. We panicked, but got them all out. What were we going to do??? I thought we could tape it back up with white athletic tape. We tried, and failed.

We decided that I needed to tell Mr. Fred what happened. We would lie instead of tell him we were up in the ceiling, because that would be much better and he will never find out. Ugh, boy were we wrong.

The worst part was our lie: "Ummm, Mr. Fred. I was in the locker room walking to the bathroom, and um, well, the ceiling, the ceiling just fell. Yeah, it just fell," I told my blank-faced teacher.

"Show me," he said.

So I did. I knew he didn't believe me. My stomach was in knots!!! After he excused me from the locker room I went off with Kyle and Gary to the computer lab. Mitch went to the gym.

Mr. Fred caught up with me in the hallway as I went to the bathroom (for real this time) and said, "Do you think I have stupid written on my forehead?"

"No," I whimpered then broke down and cried. Apparently Mitch told him the truth. Which is what we should've done in the first place. Then I told him the truth. Mr. Fred called my SSS adviser and then the principal.

Our principal had to come in at 5:00am and gave each of us two out of school suspensions. We also had to pay for the damages done to the girl's locker room ceiling, and do janitorial community service after school. It sucked. Big time.

The funny thing about it (besides the obvious funny incident of Gary's foot going through the ceiling) was that my SSS adviser mentioned to Kyle earlier that night that he reminded her of Bender from The Breakfast Club. Although it was Gary's foot that went through the ceiling and not Kyle's, the comparison was uncanny. If you've been living under a rock and aren't familiar with The Breakfast Club Bender falls through the ceiling. Now go watch the movie.

And when we walked down the quiet hallway, the four of us, we sort of felt like the group from The Breakfast Club. It was a little comforting.