Bit down at the moment for things non-writing related, so I shall not bore you. Instead, I will live up to my obligations. This is a short story I wrote my freshman year of college, off the prompt that asked me to begin a story with "The hallway was silent."
The hallway was silent, and that was what put me on edge. Had the corridor been filled with the usual rush of people, I might have been easier. But as it was, I could hear my own heartbeat as I slunk down the hall, trying to get to my destination as quickly as possible.
In the movies, people always have really cool moves- they roll across a hallway or do back handsprings over motion detectors. I, on the other hand, can barely even walk down the hallway without tripping over my own feet. Anyway, I didn’t have time for fancy moves- I was on a mission. I was here to get… my English homework.
Okay, I know I built that up, but this was seriously important. We had been working on a paper in class, and so many people were trying to print theirs out at once that I didn’t have time to get mine. Then, of course, I completely forgot about it at the end of the day. The paper was due tomorrow, worth twenty percent of our grade, so I needed that paper.
‘But Julianna,’ you are burning to ask, ‘Why, in this age of e-mail, didn’t you just send it to yourself?’ I have one thing to say to you: shut up. I was busy, okay? I was working on my paper (and maybe playing around with the photobooth on the computer) and I didn’t get a chance to send it to myself. That’s why I’m here, poised at the classroom door, bobby pin in hand.
In the movies, the person doing the breaking in always sticks the bobby pin in the keyhole, jiggles a little bit, and voila! But it wasn’t until I had inserted the bobby pin into the lock that I realised my error- the keyholes in movies are always those old-fashioned ones. This was a brand new, tiny lock in the middle of a handle. I made to pull the bobby pin out, but it wouldn’t budge. Now Mrs. James has a straightened-out hair clip poking from her door. I think she’ll like it.
As I tried to pull the pin free, the door came open. Oh… it was unlocked the whole time. I slipped in and looked around furtively. In and out quickly, Julianna. Do not get distracted by that book you wanted to borrow. Just get the paper and get out.
I saw the printer out of the corner of my eye. Paper was resting in the tray. I dashed over and grabbed it. My paper! Yes! It was as I was making sure all of the pages were there that I heard a shuffling outside the door. Crap… crap… How could I escape?
My eyes fell on the window. The windows at my school are not easy to get out of, but it was either get away or stay here and get caught. So I opened the window as far as it would go and squeezed through, falling to the ground underneath it. A graceless getaway, but a getaway nonetheless.
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