So at midnight I was awoken this evening by a very rude and obnoxious noise. I recognized my fire alarm at once and thought, "dear gosh, WHAT did Jericka do NOW?!" So I sat up and realize I could hear it in the hallway outside as well. I was quite stumped and mildly confused for a moment when I recalled my sister complaining of false fire alarms. With a heavy sigh I got up and answered Jericka's frantic cries, 'Yes, I'm alright.' and decided I had to pee before I did anything.

So I grabbed my housecoat and cellphone and told Jericka to grab her keys - I couldn't find mine - and the two of us grumpily and sleepily made our way downstairs. We joined the forming group of people and stood around in the cold for a good ten minutes before my very smart roommate piped up, "hey, did anyone CALL the fire department? We're not attached to the system..." another woman said, "oh right!" and she called them. I was wondering where the fire trucks were - even for a false alarm - it had been a while. It wasn't until a family came out talking about smoke that we realized that there actually WAS a fire.

Well shit. All our stuff and animals are still inside. We couldn't leave since our wallets were on the kitchen table. Not to mention our house remained unlocked.

As it turns out, an apartment on OUR floor went up in flames tonight. The house was so smokey that the people couldn't get out of and were trapped on the balcony. They said they could jump if they had to but, obviously, would rather not. Finally the fire trucks came screaming in. There were five of them and more police cars than I can remember counting.

Jericka and I walked across the parking lot to get a better look at what was going on and decided I should probably call my parents (they leave for Hawaii tomorrow. I couldn't let them get away without something exciting happening, hehe). While on the phone we bumped in to a girl and her son. We chatted with her and people who lived in another building. I got a blanket out of my car for the little boy, and the building across the street let us sit in their foyer! Yay!

My dad came to pick us up and we dashed between the flashing lights, and a guy with a fancey-schmancey camera took pictures of the three of us from every angle. I didn't know whether I should look at him and smile or not, hahaha. Apparently he lived in another one of the buildings. I think Jericka should date him. I don't know his name, though...

We went to my parents place and the two of us played Scrabble in the guest room... I drew ALL the vowels. There was a time when I had four i's at one time. Bah!

Anyway, it was a little past six am when I finally got back to the apartment. Needless to say I called in to work and said, "There was a fire, I didn't get any sleep." Sounds legit, yes? Hah!

THE END.

PS It smells funny on our floor D=