It was a couple days later that I made my first step in the wrong direction. Well, no, that's not quite true. Everything could have gone just fine from that point on, if I hadn't been such an idiot. But that was the first step down a long road to... well, I won't skip ahead.

I'd already passed the first exam for both of my Tuesday-Thursday classes and this was the first day of class afterward; we wouldn't be getting our exams back yet, but we wouldn't be covering much in the way of new material either. Besides, I was already one chapter ahead in both classes.

So, naturally, I decided to skip class. I don't want to give the impression that this was a regular thing for me, it wasn't. But that day I decided I was going to stay home and reward myself for all the hard work I'd put into passing both exams; I was pretty sure I'd made at least a 90 on both.

By the time I rolled out of bed, Bill was already gone and his dishes in the sink. I didn't bother getting dressed, just a t-shirt and boxers, poured a bowl of cereal, and sat down on the couch to play some video games.

Not two minutes later, Sara wandered out of her room, hair a tangled mess and a sleepy expression on her face. Her panties were green and covered in cartoon frogs; did she only have the one nightshirt though?

"Could you turn it down? I'm trying to sleep."

"What are you doing home? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

She paused and glanced to the left, then mumbled something about school being canceled today. Having been her age and having had younger siblings, I knew immediately she was lying, but it wasn't any of my business so I didn't call her on it. Still...

"Well, good. I'd hate it if you were skipping school so much. It's not good for you."

She shrugged and turned to go back to her room. I felt kind of sorry for her, since she always shut herself up in there, she didn't seem to have any friends at her new school, and her brother barely acknowledged her existence. Hell, he barely acknowledged my existence. I guess it was his way of coping with the loss of his parents. But still, I felt bad for her. So...

"You shouldn't sleep all day. It's not healthy. Why don't you join me? I've got plenty of two-player games. I'll even let you pick something."

There. Right there. That was it. Harmless on its own, but if I hadn't made that decision, if I hadn't acted on that emotion, none of this would have happened.

Who am I kidding.