Cutting School

I once cut freshman year of high school, not the first time I'd ever skipped school but definitely memorable. I took my bike out about 10 minutes after the bus to high school had left and rode down past the grade school to the little country store. I can't remember it's name, but we used to go there after grade school for bags of penny candy. I bought a bunch of junk like ho-ho's and coke and candy bars. I rode farther out into Shamong to where there were dense little parcels of forest between the corn fields. I snuck up someones driveway and pedalled as far as I could, I stashed my bike in a bramble thicket and spent the entire morning wandering around this little mossy clearing deep under some heavy trees that had a small creek running by.
Reading was my favorite hobby so I leaned against a tree and pulled one of the three books I had checked out of the library the previous day. I read all three that day, sci-fi fantasy novels that I don't recall the name or author. I was engrossed though and read and ate throughout the day. Finally when inactivity could be restrained no longer I packed up and got my bike out. In all my planning though I never thought to bring a clock, I didn't own a watch back then so when I pulled out on this little driveway I had no idea what time it was. Unfortunate for me a man was standing there just getting out of his truck, and he shouted "hey!" I'm no stranger to being caught doing wrong so I ducked my head and pedaled like mad, It was about a block over now out in the open when the man pulled out behind me dirt and stones flying everywhere as he roared after me. I pulled around the little shamong municipal building , circling it as he pulled into the parking lot then taking off back up the same road I had just been chased down. I flew back up his driveway, not looking back and could hear his tires crunch the gravel not too far behind me. I rode straight into the woods pulling straight through some of the thickets of brambles almost crying in fear and the man screamed out curses behind me. I jumped off my bike in the creek and pulled it after me up the creek under the low branches and tangle. I was sobbing for breath and the man was shouting terrible things he'd do to me before the police got there. I was terrified and just kept charging through. I was bleeding and crying and my clothes were ripped by the time I made it out the other side of that little forest. I headed straight for home and luckily it was after 3 so I was almost home free. I told my mom I was in another fight at school, which she believed looking at me, but she was a little worried I might have been fighting girls since I was so ripped up. I told her we were just out back fighting in the woods behind school and she never said another word about it. Last year (15years later) While visiting my brother in NJ I drove past that same spot. The municipal building was still there, but the little patch of woods was a gas station and a Laundromat.