Every day, when I get up and leave World Geography for a drink because I’m bored and can’t sit still that long, I walk past that fire alarm.
It tempts me. Its sits there on the wall in the hallway, all innocent and sweet, waiting- just waiting! - for something to get lit up so that it can do its job. Well, I have news for that fire alarm- I have a job, too. Only, my job is to sit in class and take notes. Notes, notes, notes. I don’t actually learn anything, of course, but that’s not my job, now is it. There’s a difference between me and that fire alarm- it’s content.
Well, I’m not. I’m not content, I’m not happy! Which is why, every day, as I walk past that fire alarm, I think What would happen if I pulled it?
Would I run away, or would I just stand there, so happy that I’d finally done it? Where would I go? The water fountains, or the bathrooms probably. I wonder… can they track which alarm gets pulled? Do they have cameras? Probably. Would my agenda be enough to back me up? Probably not.
Which is why I’ll probably never pull that fire alarm- probably because I’m too much like everyone else stuck in this messed-up place. Scared to make a little noise. I wish someone would, though. I wish someone would make some noise! Look, if some idiot came along and decided to chuck a brick through that big plate glass window at the front of the school, I would be so happy. I would dance on the shards. And I would know that they were a similar idiot to me, the girl who’s almost pulled the fire alarm a million times.
You know, some days, I come really close. I’ve had my hand on it. I’ve rubbed my thumb over the word ALARM, but I always, always walk away. I don’t know why. Well, I do know why. Just scared, I guess, and- well- God forbid anyone figure out I’m losing it here! God forbid anyone figure out that I’m slowly going insane, stuck in this awful place with all the notes, and this horrible routine where I walk past that damn fire alarm every day, getting closer, and closer, and finally… walking away.
I’m always going to walk away.