durtbagz: flake-off friday

so as i mentioned in an earlier post, fridays are going to be days that i don't write about work. chances are good i'll still be working, but let's pretend for now that i'm not.
i recently made a birthday present for one of my best and oldest girlfriends who turned 30 a couple of months back. one piece of the package was a journal that i partially filled with memories of us growing up, starting when we were 8 years old and continuing through the present. it totally jogged my memory and i started thinking of other funny stories that have made up my life so far.
this story takes place my senior year of high school. something you should know about me is that i was a good kid in high school. i can probably count on one hand the number of times i drank (it might be two hands). i was home by my curfew 99.99% of the time and my curfew was earlier than everyone else i knew. i got good grades. i played on two athletic teams. basically, i did what i was told to or supposed to do pretty much all the time, fearing the wrath of my parents if i didn't. my senior year i had a writing assignment in my AP english class. let it be known that english was one of my favorite subjects and i was good at it so this assignment wasn't a big deal. however, during this time, i also had about 10 other things going on and kept putting it off and putting it off, which was unlike me. i'm not a procrastinator. about two days before it's due, i'm talking to a girlfriend of mine who was in her freshman year of college at a school not too far away. i mentioned something about this paper and she said that she had just written a similar one for one of her classes and asked if i wanted it. i had never done anything like this before, but for some reason, this fact made it seem okay if i did it once, my senior year. so i get her paper, regurgitate it and turn it in.
a few weeks go by and i forget about it. one afternoon, my teacher announces that she has entered a few of her students papers in the city-wide writing competition among high school seniors. immediately, i get a sinking feeling because i know that this is murphy's law kicking me in the gut again. every time i had tried to do something i wasn't supposed to do in the past, i'd been caught. lying to my parents, coming home late, sneaking out, whatever, didn't matter. i ALWAYS got caught. as my teacher began rattling off the students names that were selected, i hear mine, which i already knew was coming. however, i being to realize that this is not that big of a deal. so my english class thinks i'm smart and my teacher is impressed. whatever, not a big deal. i'll just wait it out until the competition is over and then all will be forgotten. when the teacher is finished, the class is over and we all separate for the last period of the day. while we're walking out, one of my friends asks me what i wrote about. and i can't remember. i make up something and we part ways. at the end of the day, we have school-wide afternoon announcements that are read by every teacher in each class. the last announcement is a big congrats to our senior ap students who were selected to participate in the competition, complete with our names. okay, so all of my teachers now know and my friends do to. my parents still don't and that's all i really care about.
the next week my teacher announces the winners from the competition. she reads them off starting with fifth place and finishing with the winner of each category. i'm not paying much attention, as i'm thrilled that it's finally over and i've made it through without a scratch. she reaches the last category (no idea what it was) and suddenly i hear my name. the last one. the winner. of every freaking paper in the entire senior student body in the whole city, my fake paper wins. everyone is clapping and i start laughing. hard. i don't know what else to do. i manage to come off as just really excited, but in reality, i am just amazed at my dumb luck. and glad that it's over with.
that afternoon, i get home and my mom is there. she happened to volunteer in the office that day and someone mentioned the competition, minus the win, to her. so she asks me about it and i tell her my paper was selected for it. she looks at me, asking when i'll find out the results. i reply that they are already completed. she keeps looking at me and finally i quietly admit that i won. i say it so oddly that she just stands there looking at me. after a minute or so, that laughing starts again. and i can't stop it. fully knowing something is up, she just says, 'what?'. 'it's not my paper,' i confess. i come clean about the whole thing, laughing throughout because i'm about to get in serious trouble. after i'm done, she's silent, just staring at me. then she starts laughing and neither one of us can stop. crying, hard, silent laughter. finally, when we catch our breath, i ask if i'm in trouble. she replies with, 'i think you already got yours.' agreed.