Silent Treatment

We sat in silence for what seemed like hours. Or days even. My mom and I sat outside of the probation offricers office. One of my friends sat inside of the office, and my appointment was next. I was the last one in our group. Complete silence, with only the tick-tocking of the cloack and the traffic outside on the busy street could be heard. "Well, I hope you learned your lesson." My mom suddenly burst out, startling me. She didn't look up from the magazine she was reading. But she was right. I definately had learned my lesson. What I had learned was that the next time, my friends and I were going to have to be sneakier when we wanted to party. How stupid it was of us to think that we wouldn't get caught drinking in the park. Cops drive past the park multiple times every night, and last Friday was no exception. Finally, the door opened and my friend and his parents stepped out. The probation officer stepped out and said, "Allright, Ms. Parker, I'm ready for you." My mom and I rose out of our chairs and we walked into the dark office. It had no windows, and only the ceiling light lit up the room. "Please, have a seat." She smiled at us as we sat down onto her stiff wooden chairs in front of her desk. There were three chairs, and one remained empty between me and my mom. The third was probably supposed to be for the other parent. But I had no idea who my father was. I'm not even sure if my mom did. The probation officer started talking about my charges. And one of my sentencing requirments was that I had fifty hours of community service. So for the next six Saturday mornings I would be stuck doing community service. And every Monday I had to come back to her office to "check in" and talk about how everything was going. Great, I thought, this is sure going to suck. Finally when she was done, we made our way toward the door. "Allright then!" she said, too cheerfully, as I was walking out, "You stay out of trouble now!" Yeah right, I thought to myself, with a smirk on my face. I just won't get caught next time.