A Strict Parent Makes A Sneaky Child

Okay, so it’s 4 p.m. on a school day. I should be going home, I know. But, my best friends Sophia, Emma, and Ava just invited me out!

“It’s just a little white lie,” Sophia said. “Come on, tell your mom that you have a club or something to go to. Just hang out with us for one hour, it’s not like we’re gonna do drugs or anything Mia.”

I wish I could go! With different programs and work to go to, I get home late, even on the weekends. Therefore, there’s not much time that I’m at home and I don’t get much time to hang out with my friends either because of our schedules always clashing.

For some reason, they think that I wanna distance myself from them, or that I’m too busy for them. But that’s not true! In reality, it’s just because I have a strict mom so I can’t really go out as often as I would like to. I don’t blame her, I mean, I’m her youngest child so she’s probably afraid of letting the little bird go. Plus, it’s tough now since it’s the middle of Fall, and daylight savings are kicking in, because everything is getting darker.

I’m basically in a pickle. Nothing I would do could satisfy everyone in the situation. An option could be lying to my mom and hanging out, or not being able to do something outside of school with my friends. It’s like having an angel and a devil on my shoulders. At that very moment, the devil is more persuasive.

So, what am I gonna do?

Oh no, my mom just texted me!

“Honey, where are you?” she questioned.

What do I do now? Casually say, hey mom, nothing, I actually lied to you and am hanging out with my friends. I can’t say that because we all know how that sounds.

I tossed my phone over to Ava and told her to respond for me. She told me that I wasn’t going to like what she was gonna say.

I was a bit concerned honestly. Like, what could she say? Oh, she said she would’ve been honest with my mom and simply say that I’m hanging out with her.

Well, in that case, NOPE. I quickly took the phone back because doing that would be equivalent to me asking my mom to be punished. Instead, I just told her that there were a lot of things to discuss at the club meeting today.

I know, lying is bad, and trust me, did I feel horrible. Even though they’re called little white lies, it doesn’t make them okay, but somehow, I just kept allowing them escape my mouth.  

Well, since I already decided to do this, I should just give it my all and not have regrets while hanging out. If I want to feel regretful, that would be something to save for my midnight wonders.

We all decided to go to Chinatown and it was honestly so fun. We explored little shops even though we bought nothing, ate some noodles from Terakawa Ramen, and even got some ice cream because the cold doesn’t bother us. Okay, that’s a lie, it was freezing, but we still ate ice cream! Suddenly, I looked at my phone and boom, it was 5:30 already.

This day was the most I’ve laughed this week, taking the stress from home and school off of my shoulders, temporarily at least. It’s time for me to start heading home, so my friends walked to me the bus stop.

As soon as we got there, I heard a riiiiing riiiiing riiiiing and without even looking at the caller ID, I could already tell that it was my mom summoning me.

“Mia, where are you? Tell your teachers that you can’t stay too long!”

My mind was saying "Uhhh, my teachers wouldn’t keep me this long", but what actually came out of my mouth was,”Oh, hi mom, I’m at the bus stop now. I’ll be home soon!”

Emma smiled at me and shook her head. I said to her, “Oh, the things I do for you guys, but I love you guys anyways.”

Later, I arrived home to a very worried mom. She was just relieved that I made it home alive. You know what, I think the devil’s done his deeds today and the angel wants her part. I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I told my mom to pinky promise to not be mad about what I was going to say next.

She hesitantly stuck out her pinky and as soon our pinkies collided, I blurted out the truth. I could definitely tell she wasn’t happy, but she couldn’t be mad after seeing how happy I was afterwards. She wasn’t as upset as I thought she would be, I guess she understood where I was coming from.