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At first I thought something must've happened to the car when Grandpa slammed on the brakes, but when I looked at the dashboard, I realized we were out of GAS. Rodrick used the car last night when he went to work, and of COURSE he didn't refuel it. Grandpa saw a sign ahead that said there was a service station a mile up the road, and he told me he was gonna walk there and bring back a can of gas so we could get home. I wanted to go WITH him, but the said I should stay in the car so it didn't get towed by the highway department. I didn't feel great about the whole idea, but I figured it was the only choice I had.

Grandpa headed off on foot, and I waited for what must've been an HOUR. I was starting to get a little worried, and then I looked up at the rearview mirror and saw something in the distance. A group of people were walking toward the car along the side of the road. At first I was excited, because I thought they might be able to HELP. But when I saw their orange jumpsuits, I FROZE. It was the community service gang, and they were coming my way. When they got closer, I saw that one of them was that guy BILLY. I thought about making a run for it, but I didn't want to take my chances out in the open.

I did the only other thing I could think of, which was to lock the doors and HIDE. There aren't a whole lot of good hiding places in a CAR, though, so the best I could do was get down underneath the dashboard and stay really still. Then I held my breath and prayed. It took FOREVER for those guys to get to the car, and when they finally DID, they decided it was a good place to take their lunch break.

Eventually the community service crew finished eating and moved on. But they left a huge mess, which just goes to show, they weren't taking their highway cleanup duties too seriously. Once I was sure they were gone, I got back up. But BOTH of my legs had fallen asleep from being in such an awkward position for that long, so I grabbed the handle on the center console to pull myself up. But the handle MOVED, and when it did, so did the CAR.

I had accidentally shifted the car into NEUTRAL, and it started to roll FORWARD. The car was picking up speed, so I stepped on the brake. But it locked up, and the car just kept going. I was afraid I was gonna roll out into traffic and get hit. Then I saw GRANDPA walking toward me in the breakdown lane, and I PANICKED.

I jerked the steering wheel left and just BARELY missed Grandpa. The problem was, the car rolled right into a DITCH. And that's where it stayed until Mom came two hours later with the towing company. If I had to do it all over again, I would've just left that toothpaste cap in the drain. Monday. I BEGGED Mom not to tell Dad what happened to the car when he got home.