THERE WAS THIS BOY...

 

I’m a rule-follower … by nurture? by nature? … who knows? Always have been. I’d see people in school who were just the opposite. Or somewhere in the middle. I always wondered, how could they get away with that? Or, how could they bear to face the consequences. And then…

At the time, many of my classes were designated as Innovation. Patterned after college, each week we’d have one large group lecture, two classroom-sized sessions, and two days designed for self-study. One year, my social studies lecture was divided in two halves; one before lunch and one after.

He sorta looked like this guy but not :)

It was during that time that I liked a boy, he liked me, and I liked that he liked me. You guessed it. I signed in for the first half of social studies, went to lunch, and chose to take a second lunch with him. Everybody did that from time to time without getting caught. That day, for the first time, the teacher had us sign in again after lunch.

I had two choices: face detention or tell my parents (who would find out anyway). Because I’d always been such a rule follower, my parents agreed to cover for me. This time. (“I’m so sorry, but I totally forgot to excuse Jody during the day for a doctor’s appointment.”)

I loved my parents. I loved that they loved me. But I didn’t love that I’d made them lie.

As for the boy…
It wasn’t long before he broke up with me. That next week, he was walking through the halls, hand in hand with another girl.

Lesson learned from all that? For me, none really. It simply solidified the fact that rule-breaking falls outside my comfort zone.
And so, it only follows that I still don’t break the rules.
Well, not much.

The main characters in Jody Feldman’s books tend to be rule-followers, dealing with the trail of lies and wrongdoings by others. Except, well, there is Travis in THE SEVENTH LEVEL, and Tess in NO WAY HOME, and Marlowe in THE AFTER PARTY (under submission), and Bex in Jody’s work-in-progress. Okay. So maybe they aren't.