A False Alarm

So, I figured that it would be in keeping with my new year's resolution to write a post about the exciting events of yesterday.

The ski team had just come back from our first day on the slopes (oh yeah, did I mention that I'm an assistant coach of the ski team? yeah.), and everyone was getting their skis out of the busses, milling around. I was holding an enormous drill, used to drill the gates back into place when they get knocked over. Since I was freezing from standing out on the slopes, my fingers and toes numb, and since the drill weighed about 5 pounds, I was getting tired of holding it. I asked John, the head coach, what I should do with it. "Oh, just put it up with all the other ski stuff," he said. I wandered over to the Maintenance Barn, in whose attic all the ski stuff was stored. As I opened the door, I realized I didn't actually know how to get up there. I flagged down one of the captains, a senior girl with whom I had hit it off. "How do I get up to where all the stuff is stored?" I asked. She hefted her skis onto one shoulder, and told me to follow her. We walked through a small door into a completely dark stairwell. It was pitch black; I couldn't see a thing. "Hey, where's the light switch?" I asked. "It's somewhere on the right," my companion replied.

"I can't find it!"
"It's on the right! I know it's on the right, just turn on the light!"

I groped around in the dark until my numb fingers felt a box. Assuming that this was the light switch, I pulled down.

It was not the light switch.

It was the fire alarm.

Needless to say, the stairwell erupted with flashing lights and the blare of the alarm. I couldn't believe it; I'd actually pulled the fire alarm!! I ran out of the barn with the senior girl, laughing hysterically as the entire team ran over to see what had happened. Once everyone had, the whole team was laughing and talking, asking what I had done. The phrase "Ploy did it!" rippled quickly through the group, and I realized that the entire school would know what had happened within half an hour.

It was then that the embarrassment sunk in. The fire truck appeared, the firefighters told that it had been an accident, and everyone dispersed. I made my way slowly home, dreading dinner. Sure enough, the moment I walked in the door, a student in my house ran up to me, "Ploy, is it true you pulled the fire alarm?!" and then ran back to her friends, laughing. The dean of students and the head of operations came over the poke some fun at me too, and my skin got a bit thicker. Of course, there was nothing I could do but laugh it off, and honestly, it is funny as hell.

So, last night, I made sure that no one at CA will forget me anytime soon. ;)