Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like you read too much? Maybe it’s when you’re driving around and see a place that you think looks exactly like Middle Earth. Or maybe it’s when you look at someone and you realize that they look exactly like William Herondale from The Infernal Devices (*swoon*). I myself realized a few days ago that yes, I do indeed read way, way too much.
I’m sitting in my room doing my homework while listening to Korean rap music (yes, really). My bedroom door is shut all the way, because I’m like that. I am on a particularly difficult math problem and I just can’t get it. Suddenly, a sound like that of a thousand screaming mandrakes fills my room. I jump up from the floor and cover my ears. But the sound only seems to get louder. I scream out for my mom, my dad, my brother, anyone! I can’t even hear myself calling out to them because the piercing sound is so loud in my head. Then all of sudden, a light bulb goes off in head. I know why that sound is reverberating throughout the whole world. It’s the zombie apocalypse!
Understandably, this revelation makes me more panicked than relieved. I wonder why the zombies haven’t knocked my door down and come to eat me. I come to the realization that I need to pen my door and face whatever is out there, rather than hide out in my room. I need to see if my family is okay. I couldn’t bear it if any one of them were even slightly injured. I reach my hand out and grip the doorknob. I steel myself for desolation and devastation. Instead, what greets me when I finally turn the doorknob is a wall of smoke. My eyes sting and tears begin to run down my face. No, no, NO! No one in my family can be hurt. They HAVE to be okay. As I walk forward, I see a form materializing in from of me. I put my hands up to protect myself from the rouge zombie. I open my eyes wider to see how close the zombie is and to gauge when to attack. What I see next has me taking a step back in shock and surprise. It isn’t a zombie. It’s my mom standing on top of a chair.
Five minutes later, I have the whole story. The sound that sparked all this? It was the smoke alarm going off when my mom burned some oil while cooking. #Ireadtoomuch.
Pranshu A. is a member of the Teen Board.
