Take the Shortcut!

Adam ran down the shortcut, hoping he'd make it to school before the first bell. Winding through back alleys, Adam kept turning on to new alleys, until finally he came out onto the road in front of his school. Not even thinking to look for any traffic, Adam began to head across the road, when suddenly he heard a truck horn honking. Adam tried to move, but found himself frozen to the spot, and only jumped out of the way at the last second. The truck had swerved to miss Adam, causing the back to pop open. As Adam turned to look back at the truck he saw a barrel that the truck was carrying fall out. The barrel crashed against the ground, causing the top to burst off, and a liquid it was carrying to fly everywhere, including on Adam. Covered from head to toe, Adam stood dumbfounded at his horrible luck, when he heard, "Hey Kid, don't move!" Of course when Adam heard that, he took off running the way he came, afraid of the trouble he thought he was in.

Adam ran all the way home without looking back, and only when he was through the front door did he even stop to catch his breath. When suddenly, "What are you doing home? You're supposed to be at scho...WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" Adam's mom exclaimed, just realizing how messy he was.

"Just leave me alone Mom!"

"Ok," his Mom said, turning and leaving.

Jeez, can't even do anything in this house with out getting the third degree, Adam thought to himself. Adam ran upstairs, got undressed and jumped in the shower. It was only after he got out, that he realized that there weren’t any towels in the bathroom. “Mom, will you bring a towel please,” Adam yelled out. No answer. Adam walked over opened the door and yelled out again, “Hey Mom, can you bring me a towel.”

Adam closed the door and waited for his Mom to come upstairs with the towel. He was getting ready to just go out and grab one himself, when the door swung open. “Here is the towel you asked for,” his Mom said.

Trying to cover himself up, “Jeez Mom, can‘t you knock,” Adam said, quickly grabbing the towel and closing the door. Adam quickly dried off, and wrapped the towel around his waist. He opened the door to head to his room, and was shocked to find his Mom still standing there. “What do you want?” he asked.

“I was waiting to see if there was anything else you needed me to do,” his Mom replied.

“No! Why don‘t you just go watch TV or something if you don‘t have anything to do.”

“Ok,” his Mom answered.

Weird was not a strong enough word to describe the way his Mom seemed to be acting, but Adam continued on to his room without giving it a second thought. He quickly got dressed, and headed back downstairs. He had begun to gather up his things when he noticed his Mom watching TV. “Jeez Mom, you just going to do everything I say. I mean, I‘d swear if I said ‘Jump up and down on one foot’ you‘d start doing it.” After stuffing the rest off his belongings in his backpack, he headed toward the door, and was almost gone, when he noticed it. There was his Mom, jumping up and down on one foot.