The thought was as scary as it was liberating. She could always pick up her things and run back to the sidewalk and continue on to her car and pretend that this had never happened. She could forget this one incident of rule breaking and just go on with life as if nothing had happened. She could. If she wanted to.
But I don’t want to. I don’t want to go back into the preordained life designated for me from the powers that be. She wanted to strike out and break even more rules. Not just KEEP OFF THE GRASS, but everything. I want to eat ice cream for breakfast, stop going to my yoga class three times a week, start listening to Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne, even if my mother decreed their music to be of the Devil’s variety, but most of all, I want drop out of school to go to the beauty college down the road. Would that really be that bad, if I didn’t do exactly as they all planned for me? Would they really disown me if I ended up doing little old ladies’ hair in Hoboken, and be none the worse for it? I could even marry a man that didn’t make forty billion dollars a year as a doctor or lawyer; hell, I could marry a woman if I wanted.

They can’t stop me. I am unstoppable.
“Hey! Hey, kid! What are you doing there?”
The sharp voice broke into her thoughts. She glanced up at the familiar navy blue uniform of a policeman, waving the flash light in her eyes.
“I’m–I’m–”
What am I doing?

“It doesn’t matter. You need to stop it. Is that your car?” He was in his mid-forties, she guessed with a thinning hairline and sunken eyes. His face was lined with wrinkles, and somehow Jane had a sinking suspicion that he had never done anything wild in his life.
She nodded numbly. Her eyes focused in on the gun on his hip. I may be feeling all wild and crazy, but I’m not stupid. She tried to convey her thoughts through her eyes.
“Then I suggest you get in it and go home. There are a lot of crazy people out at this time of night,” his tone implied that she may very well be one of those crazy people.
Without saying anything, Plain Jane came to stand on the blacktop before the man. No, not Plain Jane, she realized silently, Plain Jane is dead. It’s just Jane now. And I’m not afraid…not anymore.

“Didn’t you see the sign?” he demanded in his most threatening tone. He pointed the flashlight toward the KEEP OFF THE GRASS sign. “We have rules for a reason, young lady.”
The spirit, the same spirit that compelled her to break the rule in the first place, seemed to take control of her. She turned and hefting her backpack, sweater and sneakers she strolled across the grass to her waiting car.
“What a stupid rule,” she said over her shoulder. “It’s just grass.”