On a Full Moon

8

I was grateful to my mother for leaving me alone for the rest of that night. I desperately needed the space to think about everything-the wolves, me destroying one of the school's lunch tables, and bullying Jared. He was a disgusting person, but I shouldn't have done what I did. I just couldn't stand seeing him hurt my friend! I had to do something, even if it was wrong. But hopefully some good would come out of it and he would quit harassing those previously bullied by him, along with everyone else.

I woke up the next morning feeling a lot less miserable. The guilt of exacting revenge on Jared had faded into a slightly more triumphant feeling. I wasn't jumping in glee for emasculating Jared in front of the entire senior population in the cafeteria, but once I got the chance to think about what I had done, I believed I had done more good than bad.

Everything was going okay...except for the fact that I got suspended. It was only for the rest of that week, but still, I had grown up my whole life being the good girl that always did as told. If not, my mom would beat me with the wooden spoon. So getting into trouble wasn't the best feeling. But Christmas was around the corner. That put me in a slightly better mood, especially since my mom made a huge batch of gingerbread-men cookies. I snatched up a couple along with a mug of steaming coffee and took a seat in the living room.

All of my sisters were at school, excluding Petunia. She sat in her playpen, shoving her stuffed elephant into her mouth while giggling up at the television. SpongeBob's high-pitched, annoying voice filled the confines of the living room. It wasn't as bad as watching Yo Gabba Gabba, so I sat back and enjoyed my breakfast and the crazy antics of SpongeBob and his pals.

Technically I was grounded by order of my mother, but since I was the golden child, she was pretty slack about it. I wasn't one to sneak out of the house to go meet boys or anything crazy like that. The only punishment my mother had ordered upon me was that I was not allowed to use my car. The windshield finally got fixed after a dispute with the insurance company, and so I was disappointed that I didn't get to break it in. But I figured that if that was the only punishment my parents were going to give me, I might as well take it.

For a few good hours I sat quietly in the living room with my baby sister. Sunflower the cat was plopped happily on my lap, greedily accepting the affection I gave to her. If gone uninterrupted, Petunia could sit and watch the television pretty much the whole day. She absolutely adored SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer. Neither of the two shows piqued my interest, but if it meant that there was one less small child I had to deal with, then I would do whatever it took to keep it that way.

My eyes wistfully drifted over to my car keys, which were thrown lazily onto the coffee table in front of the couch. It was so nice outside. The sun was hanging gloriously in the sky, birds were chirping and twittering in the cement birdbaths, and the woods seemed to be clear of any canine activity. It was perfect windows-down driving weather. If only I had another way of transportation that didn't involve me driving.

A few seconds after that thought had struck me, the doorbell rang. I checked on Petunia to make sure she was preoccupied with the television before dashing to the front door. After checking the peephole, I yanked it open to a grinning Naomi.

"Thank God you're here!" I told her. "I was going nuts watching SpongeBob. Let's go."

Naomi looked confused but turned around anyhow and strutted to her rickety car. I quickly threw on a jacket and scribbled down a note to let my mother know where I had disappeared to, making it clear that I was not driving and completely obeying her rules. I did not want a run-in with the wooden spoon. I slapped the post-it onto the fridge before placing Petunia in her playpen upstairs and rushing outside to Naomi's piece-of-crap Bug.