Waiting

I sighed asI looked at the stars. Three weeks. Just three weeks, I thought I can make it that long... I hope! My name's Jamie and I'm fifteen years old. I was sitting on the garage roof,my favorite place to be after discovering it whenI was eight.I found that ifI walked along the ledge belowmy window sill,I could jump onto the big tree in the yard and from there jump to the roof.I have never shown it to anyone and it ismy one place to get away from the world.

I was thinking aboutmy sweet sixteen which was, bymy count, exactly 23 days from tonight. Why does life always involve waiting?I asked myself, Waiting on lines, waiting for a doctor's visit, waiting for Christmas! God, I'm sick of waiting!Why can't the world just move a little faster! Grr!

The sun's coming up. Better pretend I've been asleep all night or mom's going to freak.I sighed again asI got up. My mom was starting to suspect thatI was sneaking out to go to parties at night becauseI was always tired.I made sureI ruffledmy hair to look likeI was asleep all night and put makeup on to hide the bags undermy eyes. ThenI got into bed to wait formy mom to wake up.

* * *

Forgot to shut the window? What a stupid,stupid mistake! I thought after being lectured and grounded for "sneaking out". Inmy haste to feign sleep,I had forgot to close the window andmy mom had connected it, wrongly, to the idea thatI was sneaking out.

I decided to givemy mother what she thought I was doing.I was going to really, for the first time, sneak out.