It is wrong to boast but in the beginning my plan was perfect. I had a small fever, I didn't feel like going to school, and I had a cunning idea to use my sickness to stay home for a couple of days. At first it was working well. I talked from deep in my throat so it sounded like I’d lost my voice, and pretended to cough, making them very loud so my parents could hear them from the other side of the house. I stayed in bed under so many covers that I started to sweat and I ate less food, so it looked like my stomach hurt so much that I’d lost my appetite. 
It worked perfectly for the first few days: my parents looked sorry and did some tasks for me (like getting water when I asked) and I got to choose the TV show. But most importantly, I got to stay home. In the morning, when they left for work, I would wait for 30 minutes to make sure they did not forget anything and turn back. I would jump out of bed and grab my phone from a hiding spot. I would then get back into the bed so it was still warm—my parents would never know I even left for a second. In the middle of the day, when my mom or dad would come home to check on me, I would hide the phone and pretend I was barely awake, barely holding onto my very existence, and put on a small show of coughing and moaning. They would ask me questions like, “Are you hungry?” or “What is wrong?” to which I would respond, “I feel like my belly is turning into acid,” or I would simply start to moan and grumble and say, “Everything.” Once they would leave to get back to work, I would get the phone back in my hands and start to watch Netflix and YouTube, or start playing Clash of Clans.  
To get out of school you need to know how to pull off a big lie. First there are two main concepts that you need to know: The best lies are the ones with a small amount of truth—in this case I had a little flu. Second, the hardest and most important person to convince is yourself. This is achieved with practice and skill. You convince yourself by staying in character and acting sick, even if no one is watching. Make sure that you leave “evidence” (tissues, sprawled blankets, etc.) of the lie behind—it will help to create a setting where you can believe the lie. But the hardest of it all is to avoid thinking about how to lie; one has to develop an instinct to pretend or it won't work.
After a couple days in bed, I got a little bored. I had watched so much TV and played so many games that I had nothing to do. I would look up and try to make my eyes follow a fan blade going round and round. I would get the remote and press the buttons in order, pressing 01, 02, 03 all the way to a hundred.
I started wanting to go back to school. It might sound crazy but it is true—I got so bored that I wanted to go back. Also, Finals Week was just about to start. So, one day I planned to go back the next day. I pretended to get a little less sick throughout the day so it seemed like I was getting better. I coughed less and started speaking normally—just in a whisper so no one could tell my voice was completely regular again. I got out of bed every now and then and even went down to the dinner table. I went to bed shortly after dinner so it still looked like I was not completely better. When I got in bed, my last thought was, I’m going to get back to school and be done with the sickness and act as if it almost never happened. I will come back the day before finals start, ace my tests and enjoy ski week. That night is when everything went wrong.  
The last puzzle piece refused to fit. In the middle of the night I woke up coughing louder than before, louder than I could even scream. It shook my body like an earthquake. My head felt like it just got hit with a scalding iron. Even with all this pain, all I could think was, put your face out the window. I barely got there before I started to vomit a lake of partially digested food and blood. My coughing woke my whole family up—my older sister scowled before stomping back into her room muttering, “I was sleeping.” My two younger brothers were confused and tired saying, “Is it already time for school?” While my mother came up to me and said, “Poor you, are you okay?” as she patted my back and tried to calm me down. My father got up and got me a bucket to barf in and, after getting everyone else back to bed, he joined my mom in her efforts to calm me down.
After an hour or so of pain and a few dozen Advil, I went back to bed, only to wake up the next morning feeling the same. I had little to no energy; I couldn't even stand without falling backwards i.e. no chance of going back the day before finals or even the rest of the week. I continued to barf out everything that went in my body, including water. Even without covers on I was laying in a pool of my own sweat.
In the coming days I felt like crap. I stayed in bed in all week, and I did absolutely nothing because even thinking hurt. I had a lot of anxiety because I was missing school work and, as a result of missing finals, had basically flunked all my classes. Luckily, I went to an alternative school that is credit-based so I couldn't completely fail. Nonetheless, I was feeling pretty horrible and all the missing work only made my sickness worse.
All in all, my plan exploded in my face. It was kind of like a placebo effect: I thought something was true so it came true. I was sick and miserable with nothing to do. I was hungry all the time because I hardly ate because everything went straight out. I was bored and wanted to move, but whenever I tried I blacked out and ended up back in bed. I was in pain with all the constant headaches and stomachaches. During all this I lost 20 pounds and was basically all bone and skin. I was miserable, and the worst of it was that it would all probably have been avoidable if I just hadn't pretended to be sick. My perfect plan had broken into millions of pieces of lies and vomit-inducing pain.
About a week later I was feeling better and (ironically) that is when I got to the doctors. I got and X-ray and a couple other tests just to find out it was a very strong strain of the flu, one with all the symptoms of pneumonia. About three days after that visit, I went back to school to be bombarded with missing work and questions of “Where have you been?” and “I thought you were dead.” Luckily my school let me take all of the finals and I ended up not failing.
Well, at least I missed Winter Dance.