The Act of Heroism at One in the Morning

The homework on my screen is boring me as I stare mindlessly at the 880 words of my Essay #5. The music blaring in my ears from my headphones covers up the noise I would normally hear otherwise. I'm talking to Dan on instant messenger and I'm about ready to print this essay off for school in the morning. Faintly I hear this annoying noise. It sounds like perhaps a car alarm at first. But then I remove my headphones from my ears and sit up in my chair to hear a little better. I'm intriguied. What is this noise? I put the earbuds on the counter and stand up out of my chair. Making my way to the door, I slip my hand on the cool silver doorknob and pull towards me. The door opens and the sound increases dreadfully. It's loud and it hurts my ears. But I instantly know what the sound is.
It's that annoying noise when the cover gets pulled off the fire alarm, but the alarm hasn't actually been pulled. I know the noise because one time at a track practice a kid bumped into the plastic protective cover and we thought we were busted. It turns out that if you just put the plastic cover back in place, the sounds stops. I knew what I had to do.
I stick my head out of my door and am greeted with annoyed voices of the other hall residents. "Seriously?" some ask in frustration, while others just stare at the other random heads popped out of half open doors. The obvious discontent is easily seen on their tired and groggy faces. "Do we have to get out?" I hear others voice in concern. I step out into the hallway and the blue carpet feels warm against my bare feet. It's much different than the cold tile floor in my dorm room. I walk calmly down the hall and over to where the fire alarm sits mounted on the wall. I smirk a little to myself as I raise both of my little nine year old girl sized hands to the plastic cover. It's cold to the touch, but I firmly grasp it and manuver it into it's rightful spot on the wall, protecting the pull alarm. Suddenly the noise stops.
"You're welcome," I shout down the hallway to the other residents. I get some waves and some smiles. Crisis averted. I walk back to my room and can hear Brittany uttering tired complaints about how ridiculous it is that someone would do that. I laugh to myself - a quite little chuckle. It's time for rest now, time for sleep. And if that fire alarm goes off again, perhaps someone else can go be a hero. They know how to fix it now.