Home Alone

This passage is about a girl who is afraid to stay home alone.

Lexile Level: 1080L

Categories: Adventure

Her mother would be gone for only a few hours, Ella reminded herself, as she tried to concentrate on her social studies homework. There was no reason to be nervous. Ella had assured her mother that she would be fine on her own, and that her mother should trust her to be responsible. She had meant every word, but now she wondered if being alone in their apartment at night was such a good idea. Every noise seemed magnified in her mother's absence. Ella turned up the television's volume so that she would not hear every scrape of the tree branch against the window, but ominous sounds invaded her imagination regardless of her efforts to stay calm. She silently recited her mother's cell phone number over and over to herself. As she told herself for the hundredth time that everything was fine, Ella heard what sounded like the front door opening very quietly.