Student Publishing Program ::

Phillip Rauscher

Prison Break

My brother and I got into a fight. He thought it was my turn to take a shower first before going to summer camp, but it was really his. Today, we were supposed to go to a water park, but obvious reasons, such as being grounded by my mom, prevented that. My mom had long since gone to work and left us with our German babysitter, who sat in her room on the phone, speaking loudly in her ugly language. I was totally convinced it was going to positively be the most boring day of my life. It was dreadfully boring. Imprisoned in a room with nothing to do, and no one to talk to. Soon, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to find a way to make the best of my abysmal situation. I left my tiny room and knocked gently on my brother’s door, hoping he would respond and we’d be able to do something to pass the time. Luckily, he answered and we soon resolved the pointless feud. I had hoped we could build something out of Lego’s, but he had a better idea. He planned to sneak out of the house via the roof, put on his rollerblades and skate into town for some lunch. This was a daunting task, but without any better ideas myself, I accepted, and joined him.

Once we had gotten dressed and met back up in my brother’s room, I watched nervously as he opened the window, removed the screen, and climbed out onto a narrow one-and-a-half foot, steeply slanted piece of roofing below. I was left alone in the room, hearing my brother’s urgings, “Come on Phil! Let’s go!” in a whispered tone of voice. I took a deep breath, steeled my resolve and carefully stepped out onto the roof in nothing but my socks which were instantly soaked by the water on the roof from last night’s rain. I glanced down dismally and dreadfully at the brick patio twenty feet below. This was not a good time to slip. I began to follow my brother along the narrow spit of rooftop in short sideways steps with my back up against a wall until we reached a larger, flatter stretch of rooftop. But now came the hard part. We had to jump one story down onto a stone path. Since he was a spectacular athlete, he landed without any trouble, but I was scared for my life. I started to hyperventilate and panicked like a little first grader, instead of the third grade student I was. But when my brother encouraged me, I simply jumped. However I scraped my back on the gutter, landed awkwardly and fell down in a heap onto my head. I got up with a lump on my head and an aching back, but I ignored the throbbing pain and followed my brother. We then slowly entered the garage, strapped on our rollerblades and started skating.

Now the chase was on. We had no idea how long it would be before our babysitter noticed our absence. He led and I followed. For five hundred yards we skated like demons fleeing a holy man. We slowed down when we got to the busy streets of downtown and worked our way towards the bagel shop, where we enjoyed plain bagels with cream cheese with what little money we had. After eating and talking, we strapped our blades back on and lethargically and unwillingly headed home, only to return to our boring rooms with nothing to do. But we had no time to relax; we suddenly came to the realization that technically we were missing children and had to race home as fast as we could. We reached out house, opened the garage door and sneaked inside as quiet as mice, praying that we would not be caught and punished for sneaking out. We breathed a sigh of relief as we saw that our babysitter was still on the phone, conversing with some relative in German. We silently crept up the stairs, where we separated and I sneaked noiselessly back into my room, satisfied with our adventure. As I sat on my bed, I thought, this day wasn’t so bad after all. I was totally convinced that this was the least boring day of my life.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS, LHS CLASS OF 2009 EDITION]