It was the morning of finals, and no matter how terrifying that seemed, it began like any other day. It was a crisp morning, the air thick with promise of a good day. As I packed my bag to go to school, I had an idea. A few weeks prior my mom had dropped me off at Hot Topic and I had secretly purchased a mini skirt, it was leather and covered in zippers, if my mom had known that I had purchased this forbidden item, she would undoubtedly have lost her mind. I secretly packed the skirt into my bag and threw on a tank top to layer underneath my crop top, which my mom told me I had to do if I ever left the house in a shirt that showed any midriff. 

I slammed my mom’s car door and ducked inside the school bathroom, taking off my tank top underneath my crop top and changing from jeans into my leather skirt, and putting on a pair or ripped tights that my mom compared to the wardrobe certain characters from “pretty woman” wore. I put the clothes I had changed out of into my locker and went about my day. 

The day continued incredibly normally, until the fire alarm began to blare. The hallways filled with smoke and we rushed outside onto the field. The terror began to set in as hours passed and we still remained on the field. As we finally trickled back into the building and were allowed to return to our final class the reality of the situation set in, my locker was just barely inside the zone of lockers that we weren’t inside to go to and inside it was the clothes I had worn to school, my mom would be there to pick me up from school in an hour and I had no plan for how I was going to be able to get my clothes. 

I decided in that moment, that I wasn’t going to be able to get my clothing and when my mom got to school I walked to her car with my head up, knowing full well that I was probably going to be in a lot of trouble as soon as the car door shut behind me. 

The look on my mom’s face was one of shock and terror, there was not one aspect of my outfit that she was okay with besides the shoes, which she bought me. 

When the day is done the moral of the story remains, don’t change into an outfit at school because you never know when the school’s going to catch on fire.