players sat. Hmmm. If I could drag one of them over here, maybe I could prop it up on top of the fence and shinny my way over.
I left my duffel bag by the fence and trotted over to the bench. It was probably fifteen feet long and made of aluminum with wooden legs. Still, it was heavy, and I had to turn it upside down and drag it the hundred yards or so back to the fence. Not so easy when you’ve got a probably sprained wrist and are extremely sore from having to do gym for the first time in years. Finally I managed to wrestle it up on its end and tip it toward the fence. The legs on that end of the bench hooked over the top of the fence, and bingo, I had a ramp.
Now I just needed to climb it. It was steep and the aluminum was slippery. I shifted my duffel around so it was on my back again, then started up the bench and immediately slipped back down. I tried again, with the same result. This was hard! Sometimes you just can’t escape from a boarding school.
This called for desperate action. I could see only one way to make it over. I backed up and took a running startstraight up the bench. I almost stumbled near the top, but I pushed harder with my legs and gave myself a boost. I flew off the end of the bench, and the next thing I knew I was soaring through the air.
I didn’t land perfectly, but it was better than I did coming down off the ledge. My wrist hit the ground again and I yelped in pain. But I was over!
I stood up and looked around the woods. There were creepy-looking Wizard of Oz trees all over this forest, and it was very dark. Dark like the kind of woods that Jamie Lee Curtis runs through in the Halloween movies when she’s being chased by the evil Michael Myers. I glanced back at the school and the bench lying on the fence. In the morning, they would know for sure this was how I had escaped, but I planned to be long gone by then. I took a deep breath and looked at the woods again.
What I was really doing was stalling. I don’t like woods. I’m not a woods person. Bad things happen in woods. Any episode of Scooby-Doo will tell you that. And this, as I’ve said, was a particularly scary-looking wood. I don’t know what kind of trees they were, but they were thick and overgrown and the branches hung low to the ground. Branches that would undoubtedly reach out andgrab you as you walked by.
I decided to follow the fence for as long as I could and keep the school in sight. Since eventually I’d be back around to the front of the school and in sight of the guardhouse, I was going to have to cut into the woods at some point. But I’d worry about that later.
I started along the fencerow and was about fifty yards from where I’d jumped it when I found a gate. An unlocked gate. A totally and completely unlocked, open-me-up-and-walk-right-through-me gate. I hadn’t noticed it in the darkness. So I’d nearly broken my neck and killed myself twice for no good reason. I bet that stupid door I saw back at the building was wide open too. Stupid school! It almost made me want to go back and wake Mr. Kim up and give him a stern lecture about security. This school was supposed to be full of “bad seeds” like me! How could he go around leaving things open all the time?
I kept walking along the fence, but before I got back to the front of the school I ran into a problem: an enormous ravine. From the fence it led away into the woods. The side where I stood had a more gentle slope down, but the opposite side went almost straight up. It lookedmuch too steep to climb.
I could go back through the gate, try the front entrance, and hope the guard was asleep. Or I could try to follow this ravine into the woods and cut back around to the road. I didn’t like option B, but I’d already been at this for an hour and I was going to lose a lot of time if I went back.
So I scrambled down the side of the ravine and headed into the woods. This was a strange and twisty ravine. It twisted around and cut back and forth and led
I left my duffel bag by the fence and trotted over to the bench. It was probably fifteen feet long and made of aluminum with wooden legs. Still, it was heavy, and I had to turn it upside down and drag it the hundred yards or so back to the fence. Not so easy when you’ve got a probably sprained wrist and are extremely sore from having to do gym for the first time in years. Finally I managed to wrestle it up on its end and tip it toward the fence. The legs on that end of the bench hooked over the top of the fence, and bingo, I had a ramp.
Now I just needed to climb it. It was steep and the aluminum was slippery. I shifted my duffel around so it was on my back again, then started up the bench and immediately slipped back down. I tried again, with the same result. This was hard! Sometimes you just can’t escape from a boarding school.
This called for desperate action. I could see only one way to make it over. I backed up and took a running startstraight up the bench. I almost stumbled near the top, but I pushed harder with my legs and gave myself a boost. I flew off the end of the bench, and the next thing I knew I was soaring through the air.
I didn’t land perfectly, but it was better than I did coming down off the ledge. My wrist hit the ground again and I yelped in pain. But I was over!
I stood up and looked around the woods. There were creepy-looking Wizard of Oz trees all over this forest, and it was very dark. Dark like the kind of woods that Jamie Lee Curtis runs through in the Halloween movies when she’s being chased by the evil Michael Myers. I glanced back at the school and the bench lying on the fence. In the morning, they would know for sure this was how I had escaped, but I planned to be long gone by then. I took a deep breath and looked at the woods again.
What I was really doing was stalling. I don’t like woods. I’m not a woods person. Bad things happen in woods. Any episode of Scooby-Doo will tell you that. And this, as I’ve said, was a particularly scary-looking wood. I don’t know what kind of trees they were, but they were thick and overgrown and the branches hung low to the ground. Branches that would undoubtedly reach out andgrab you as you walked by.
I decided to follow the fence for as long as I could and keep the school in sight. Since eventually I’d be back around to the front of the school and in sight of the guardhouse, I was going to have to cut into the woods at some point. But I’d worry about that later.
I started along the fencerow and was about fifty yards from where I’d jumped it when I found a gate. An unlocked gate. A totally and completely unlocked, open-me-up-and-walk-right-through-me gate. I hadn’t noticed it in the darkness. So I’d nearly broken my neck and killed myself twice for no good reason. I bet that stupid door I saw back at the building was wide open too. Stupid school! It almost made me want to go back and wake Mr. Kim up and give him a stern lecture about security. This school was supposed to be full of “bad seeds” like me! How could he go around leaving things open all the time?
I kept walking along the fence, but before I got back to the front of the school I ran into a problem: an enormous ravine. From the fence it led away into the woods. The side where I stood had a more gentle slope down, but the opposite side went almost straight up. It lookedmuch too steep to climb.
I could go back through the gate, try the front entrance, and hope the guard was asleep. Or I could try to follow this ravine into the woods and cut back around to the road. I didn’t like option B, but I’d already been at this for an hour and I was going to lose a lot of time if I went back.
So I scrambled down the side of the ravine and headed into the woods. This was a strange and twisty ravine. It twisted around and cut back and forth and led
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