Free Sworn by Emma Knight

tried to run its events back in her mind. She felt upset that she’d worried and disobeyed her parents, but on the other hand, she felt her curfew was too early, and they were being too hard on her. Compared to most of the girls in her grade she had the earliest curfew and the most rules.
    Thinking about this upset Rachel, and whenever Rachel felt upset she liked to write in her diary to get her thoughts out. She reached for her diary, and then suddenly remembered she had forgotten to write in it last night. This was the one thing Rachel was strict with herself about: she never wanted a day a to go by without documenting it.
    Rachel opened a page, backdated it, and wrote about her crazy first night out with the girls.
    When she finished writing, she locked it up. If her parents ever saw this entry, she knew they would be pissed.
    The time was 10:15am and Rachel’s stomach began to growl. She was a little nervous to face her parents but knew she couldn’t stay in her room all day. As she headed into the kitchen, her parents were sitting there, still in their pajamas, reading the New York Times and drinking coffee. They looked up at her but didn’t say anything. Their stares made her feel guilty all over again.
    Rachel’s parents sat there quietly and Rachel could tell they were still mad. She went over to the cupboard to get out the Golden Grahams, some milk from the fridge and then sat quietly across from them at the kitchen table. The room was still, and nobody said anything.
    She felt torn; she desperately wanted to tell her parents the truth, but feared their response. She wished she could have a more open relationship with them, but they were so overprotective, she figured it was best to shelter them from the truth.
    As she tilted the bowl back to sip the remaining drops of milk into her mouth her dad finally spoke.
    “Don’t forget: no TV, or radio today -- and don’t even think about going out with your friends tonight. You are grounded until Monday morning.”
    “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” Rachel said, trying to be sympathetic.
    She thought about her punishment and realized they had forgotten to take away her cell phone away. Usually, when they grounded her, her cell it is the first thing they held hostage.
    Before they could remember Rachel cleared her dishes, put away the cereal and milk and headed upstairs. If she sat there any longer she was sure they would have remembered her cell.
    Rachel unplugged her cell phone, charging on her nightstand, and looked at it.
    1 New Message:
    Hoping it was Rob texting about their date tonight, Rachel opened the phone.
    Dana: Hey Rach, went to the movies last night, we missed you.
    Reading this, Rachel felt sad. She remembered how simple her life was back in Pennsylvania. She rarely got in trouble, and hanging out with her friends never turned into a crazy ordeal either. She wished she could be back with her old friends now, doing the fun things she used to do: but now she was thrust into this different world she knew little about.
    Rachel didn’t feel up to rehashing her whole night over a text message, but she didn’t want to be rude and not text back, even though Dana had been remiss about contacting Rachel the past few days.
    Rachel: Hey! Sounds so fun, wish I could have been there, I went out, too. Let’s chat later.
     
    Rachel had hoped that Dana’s text was Rob texting her instead. She was anxious for Rob to text her about the party, but she also didn’t know how she would respond. Could she really tell him that she had been grounded for staying out past her 11pm curfew? She couldn’t bear to do that. She knew that if she told anyone that she was grounded, her friends would think she was lame. Not to mention, they would hate her parents, and Rachel didn’t want that.
    Rachel pondered her options. She had to find a way to get to Jordan’s party and to see Rob, but she didn’t see how that would ever fly with her parents. Rachel knew if she tried to