It was the last day of the second grade! I was sad to leave my teacher, but really excited to go to the pool, the beach, Cape Cod - but I was most excited to start the third grade! Even though there were happy things ahead of me, I was very sad because my friend was leaving for the whole summer! I said my last goodbye to my teacher, and ran over to my parents to pick me up. Earlier that day, I had discussed going over to my friend's house with two of my good friends at school, one of them being the friend that was leaving. I decided to ask my mom if I could go to my friend's house. "Can I please go to my friend's house today?" I begged her. "Pretty please with a cherry on top?" "Okay," my mom agreed. I squealed happily with my friends. I walked home with my friend's babysitter and we had lunch at my friend's house.

I didn't have lunch at school because I got a half day on the last day of school. I was excited to eat because it was the first time I had been to that particular friend's house! I ate a delicious bagel with my two friends and then we went up to my friend's bedroom. I explored her room, and we talked and laughed. We went into her closet where she kept her dolls that she didn't play with anymore and we talked and laughed some more. Then, one of my friends suggested, "Want to go on the trampoline?" "Ooh, there's a trampoline?" I said excitedly. I love trampolines! "Yeah," my other friend said. "Let's go!" The three of us slid our shoes on and walked outside. There was a big trampoline in my friend's backyard! We went in and my friend asked, "Do you want to play a trampoline game?" "Ooh, yeah!" I said. "Let's play Dead Man!" "Sure!" my friends said. 

My friend lay down in the middle of the trampoline, closed her eyes, and my other friend and I chanted, "Dead man, dead man, come alive! Come alive when we count to five! One, two, three, four, five! Dead man, dead man, come alive!" The friend that was pretending to be the dead man stood up, eyes still closed, and started chasing me! "Eek!" I yelled, and I bounced away from her. I ran so fast I almost slipped in my socks! Luckily, I caught myself before I did. To catch myself, I started running closer and closer to the trampoline net. Finally, I got so close to the net that my left earring got caught! Not realizing it was caught, I ran a small distance, and I yanked my earring out of my ear, ripping my earlobe! Oh no!

I stopped running, my heart hammering against my ribs. I was holding my left ear. I started crying. My friend that was playing the dead man opened her eyes and my other friend stopped trying to run away from her. They looked at me with concerned expressions on their faces. "What happened, Lilah?" they asked. I took my hand off of my ear with trembling hands. I looked down at my hand, and I saw that they were bloody from touching my ear! I shrieked. "It's okay, Lilah, it's not bleeding," my friend said. My other friend leaned in and whispered a little too loudly in her ear, "But it is!" My friend's babysitter was outside and on the phone. It took a few moments before she saw me standing there, on the trampoline, my left ear ripped and bleeding.

She hung up immediately and opened the trampoline net so I could come out, my two friends walking worriedly behind me. When we got inside the house, I sat down on my friend's couch and my friend's babysitter got me an ice pack in a napkin. Sobbing into my hands, I thought, Not again! I know what you're thinking. Not again? Let me bring you back to when I was in kindergarten.

I was at my friend from kindergarten's house and there was a bouncy house set up in her backyard. I went inside and started jumping, having the time of my life.