The next few days of school blurred together,
every morning i'd walk down to the first grade hall and wait to be called into the classroom, and then, when the final student was called, a teacher would walk me down to the principals office, I'd get paddled, and then walked down to class where i'd sit alone in a chair until dismissal. The one difference being, after the incident on the first day, I was no longer allowed to ride the bus home with the other kids. The 1980's were a decade where parents for some reason were losing their children left and right, and the Allen county school system did not want to be responsible for another dead child being found dismembered in a random creek.
After dismissal i was ushered into the gymnasium with some of the first graders gym class. I am not sure what glitch in school funding accounted for this, but rather than dodge ball and basketball, the kids were instructed in the finer arts of fitness via a Richard Simmons "sweating to the oldies" video tape. I laughed watching the little man in even smaller shorts prance around the television surrounded by fat women in bright pastel shirts. But like most kids, rather than joining in, i decided that anything else would be a better way to occupy my time.
That anything else consisted of watching the first grade girls playing hand clapping games, and practicing on the wall hoping that one day they'd allow me to join in. Eventually i mustered up the courage to stand just outside their circle. They were all so pretty, some of them wore matching dresses and the coolest light up sneakers. The white girls had glowing long hair, and the black girls had amazing braids with beautiful bows and barrettes. I looked down at my hand me down blue jeans and shoes that i had gotten from my uncle and as one girl called out to me "hey Kindergarten, you want a turn" i just turned around and walked out of the gym.
The lunch shuffle of the second graders allowed me to sneak out the front door. I then ran across the street behind some houses and used my "ninja skills" to dart across the street again and into the woods on the opposite side of the school. There I created my own world. On some days i was a kid trapped on a deserted island, others I was an Lakota "Indian" roaming the forest building tipi's and hunting buffalo. But most days, I was Wendy, the girl who had escaped the world of adults to never never land, I lived among the fairies and the lost boys fighting pirates; never growing old, free from the tyranny of the grown up world.
I stayed relatively close to the school building so that i could listen out for the dismissal bells. When they rang, I'd race to the bus area, which when the school let out was too chaotic for anyone to notice the girl who'd mysteriously appear in the crowd. I'd Board buss 435B and ride with to the stop at my aunts apartment complex. I'd get out with my cousins, and run to go play with our friends at our new clubhouse (the area around a dumpster where old furniture from evicted residents were tossed) and we'd play there until dinner time.
The plan was perfect. Each day, I have a grand adventure in neverland. Because i never got home before my mother, there was always someone at my aunts house to protect me. I never worried about getting caught, because i honestly didn't believe i was doing anything wrong, after all.... they made me go to kindergarten, and as a kindergarten i wasn't supposed to be in school after 12. Unfortunately the school didnt see it that way.
