A List of Best Intentions

Midnight at Mal-Wart was a perfect time for nightlife.

It was also a great time not to get caught by security.

So, therefore, it was the ideal time to do number twenty, which was to power through the aisles of Mal-Wart in shopping carts.

I had drunk about a full case of Fountain Dew throughout the whole day, keeping myself caffeinated. I was pumped for this.

I specifically invited Cody and Stephanie to join me in my epic journey in the supermarket, ‘cause I knew nobody else would be able to put up with me at 12:30 in the morning.

So, we had it all planned out. Stephanie drove us there (she had her license) and when we came in, for a couple of minutes we just roamed around.

Then, we got evasive.

Avoiding security guards and cashiers, we split up and started pulling cereal boxes off the shelves and jars off the racks, carefully placing them on the floor in arranged patterns – road boundaries.

With the shelves naked, practically, we met up back in the clothing section.

“You ready, homies?” I grinned.

Stephanie bit her lip and smiled. “Totally.”

Cody put his hands on his hips. “Are we getting our carts and doing this?”

The pit of nerves in my stomach rustled up into anxiety even more. I clapped and rubbed my hands together and motioned to the outside, where they kept the carts. “Yep. Let’s get a few.”

As we walked out to take our picks, and we came back inside to make sure it was all clear, my excitement grew. It was going perfectly. My hands were shaking at my tension, though the anxiety in my blood could only be a positive thing.

I looked over at Cody and Stephanie and said, “Let’s go.”

They nodded, knowing what we had to do.

We stood at the decided start point and took a quick look around for cashiers. When the coast was clear, I yelled the code word:

“Banana!”

And we hit the ground running. We scuttled with our carts straight ahead of us, through the main aisle to build up speed.

I leaped onto the foot railing of my cart and just coasted, gliding forward with my stomach fluttering, a grin was permanently plastered to my face. Cody and Stephanie were laughing alongside me, hooting and hollering.

I nearly skidded into the wall of Cap’n Crunch ahead, but I turned on a dime and was cascading down the cereal aisle.

“You asswipe, slow down!” Cody yelled.

I threw down a bunch of boxes to obstruct his path and ended up causing a huge racket. I didn’t give a crap about security guards, though, and powered on regardless.

“Who’s your daddy?!” I yelled, laughing so hard I could barely see.

While I was staring back at Cody, Stephanie zoomed up and skidded into me. I tumbled backward and flew off my cart and into the pile of cereal boxes; I screamed but quickly regained control.

“Booyah!” Stephanie laughed, speeding off with Cody trailing behind her.

I jumped back up and followed them through the curve that led us into the next aisle – coffee and other stuff. (When I was a little kid, I called it the “Smell Good Aisle.” Just sayin’.) All of a sudden, we heard a big “HEY!” come from before us. At the end of this aisle stood a big guy in a trucker cap with his arms in legs in a fighter stance.

Cody screeched to a stop, and I went on with my tongue hangin’ out like a dog’s in wind, and yelled, “Try me, old man!”

The worker didn’t flinch. Cody and Stephanie slowed down, though I motioned for them to speed up. Stephanie stepped on it with a gleam in her eye, and while Cody hesitated, he shrugged and joined in.

And the three of us charged at the cashier with all our might, unafraid, not backing down.

I yelped a victory screech and felt my nerves drop. The guy hopped out of the way at the last moment, freeing us to go to the next aisle.

The race was still up and running and we rocketed through with laughter echoing throughout the store. We were cruisin’ at the two employees waiting for us at the end of this one, and Stephanie grabbed a jar of peanut butter off the shelf to throw it at one of them. It hit him square in the eye and he doubled over in pain; she burst into hysterical laughter.

The other worker stood back gaping in horror without doing anything.

“Let’s go!” I ushered to Cody and Steph.

We flew out of the aisle and straight toward the frozen food; cool air blasted us as we raced parallel to the line of lunch meats. It was a straightaway that allowed us to pick up speed.

I ran and glided ahead on my cart, feeling hella confident until I felt a package of meat pelt me in the back of my head. I whirled around and saw Cody snickering his ass off, speeding up and catching up to me.

“Oh no you didn’t!” I shouted.

The three of us rounded the curve of the frozen section to approach the finish line. By then, the floor was littered with salami and hamburger and the three workers were running after us.

“Try us!” Stephanie giggled.

God, I dunno what had gotten into her since we started talkin’, but she was awesome.

It was neck and neck between Cody and I, and the decided finish point was nearing. He had his jaw wired shut in concentration, while I was just pushing my cart to the limit.

“Whoo!” I whooped. I felt like flying.

Stephanie powered up behind us with the biggest grin ever on her face, and we passed the end point.

Cody went on past us and ended up purposely crashing into one of the cash registers. It took me a bit off-guard because of his usual quietness, but it was mad sweet nonetheless.

“You three are in major trouble!” the trucker-hat-clerk screamed, out of breath and scrambling up to the scene.

“Who cares?!” I laughed, flipping all three of them the dirty bird. I wasn’t one of those dudes who pickets capitalism and hates big corporations and stuff, but at the time it seemed like a fun idea.

Cody flipped his hair back and hollered, “Suck it!”

Stephanie was red in the face from laughing so hard.

We bolted out of the store with our hopes fulfilled for the night. I’d done exactly what I wanted to do, and even if I’d been eternally forbidden from Mal-Wart after they caught up to us in the parking lot, I didn’t care.

Now, let me flash forward to the present tense, when I’m writing this now in 2010. That little part of my list was a complete asshole move, now that I have time to think back on it. What kind of brat goes into a store and purposely wrecks the place, leaving innocent retail workers to clean it up? I kinda hate myself for pulling that crap. It wasn’t even the fact that I got banned from the place; there were other grocery stores I’ve been shopping out since it happened. They only banned me to keep the police outta the whole shebang, and really, I’m kinda glad they didn’t go any further.

There’s stuff I sure ain’t proud of. I’m not gonna use that whole “Oh, I was fifteen,” excuse, ‘cause I was grown-up enough to know right from wrong, and I sure knew when I was putting myself in danger. I knew what I was doing when I jumped across that gap and got a broken wrist; I knew that sneaking out was a horrible thing to do. I know I had some dumb ideas here, and nowadays I can’t hide behind my list. You gotta own up to the dumb things you do eventually, and even though I didn’t really wanna relive such a rude event, I figured it was necessary in the scheme of things. I’m not gonna try and keep stuff outta the story just ‘cause I’m embarrassed to think about it.

And that being said, I never did tell my parents that I was banned from Mal-Wart for life. I just didn’t go grocery shopping with ‘em anymore, and I turned out alright.

(…They still don’t know.)

~~~~~

The next day was pretty boring; I was stuck doing actual homework for school, since Cody didn’t feel up to comin’ over and hanging out, and thus, I sunk further into my boredom.

Suddenly, I got a phone call.

I jumped up from the couch and raced over to the phone, grabbing it and greeting, “Hello?”

“Kevin! I got huge news!” Keisha gasped.

“Keisha? What’s up?” I asked, leaning against the counter. “What happened?”

She squealed and giggled. “I’m gonna sing for WROE! The radio station!”

“Are…are you tripping?” I stuttered. WROE was our local pop station and had some of the biggest stars do sets. Why would they want a nobody? (I ain’t saying it was a bad thing, though!)

“No! ‘Cause I was talkin’ with Alyssa at the show a month back, and she said she knew one of the DJs. And so she told me she could hook me up with something, so I said yeah, ‘cause I didn’t think it’d be real. But it was!” she gushed.

I was pretty much rendered speechless.

“Kevin? You still there?” Keisha asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” I coughed, grinning. “But…WROE? Holy crap!”

“I know!”

“This is crazy!”

She hooted. “I know! I’m gon’ be singin’ Sunday afternoon, and then they’re gonna interview me!”

“What’re you gonna sing?”

Keisha sighed and stammered. “I…I’m not sure, just yet. I’m outta covers, but I don’t…I’m terrible at writing.”

“You need inspiration for that kinda stuff, but you could do a pop cover for tomorrow.”

“What song, though?” she asked.

“Whatever shivers your timbers, I guess. It’s up to you. Is Jackie gonna be there?” I added.

“Yeah. She said she stickin’ with me, which is great,” she smiled. “She says she gonna play piano for me, ‘cause she knows all them songs.”

Instinctively, I beamed. “I just wish you good luck. ‘Cause you really deserve all this and it’s awesome that someone’s pickin’ you up.”

“I owe it to you and Cody, ‘cause ya’ll two spread the word about me. You’re the nicest boys I ever met.”

“Aw…it was nothin’…”

I spoke the truth. It was just something I wanted to do – help a kid get famous. That kid just happened to be Keisha, and I had no clue how fulfilling it’d be. It had worked out perfectly, and I guess that was that.

I had crossed off “Help Someone Get Famous” after the gig, but then at that moment I wished I could go back in time and uncross it. ‘Cause after going on WROE, I had a feeling she’d be a million times more known than she already was.

~~~~~

3:20 PM was the time she told us she’d be on the radio.

So Cody hung out at my place until then while we had my boombox tuned to WROE; he was just as excited as I was, if not more. I wasn’t surprised by that.

We sat in my room for hours, just reading comics and playing video games. We got bored eventually, but both of us knew in our hearts that it would be so worth it in the end.

“Okay, we’ve got TLC, Madonna, and LFO coming up after the commercial break,” one DJ said (DJ Jazzy Jack, to be exact). “And then we’ve got a treat for you – we got Keisha Simpson, the seventeen-year-old prodigy singer from Tanglewood, Georgia, singing for us.”

Cody and I looked at each other and smiled, knowing she was about to rock the house.

We braved through the commercials and the songs they played to hold us over, anxiety pricking at our spines.

The time came, finally.

“And we have here, in this studio, Tanglewood’s own Keisha Simpson!” another DJ cheered, clapping.

“Thank you,” Keisha spoke, her smooth voice flittering through the airwaves. “I’m so happy to be here.”

“Well, we’re glad to have you! What song are you singing for us?”

“I’m doing my favorite song right now,” Keisha told us. “’You Get What You Give’ by New Radicals.”

My heart skipped a beat. I loved that song, and she ended up doing it beautifully.

Jackie, I think, was playing the piano, and started off light. Then the melody swooped into the verse, and Keisha’s voice was finally heard where it was meant to be. It sounded perfect.

Though it was a cover, she had something that made it sound so awesomely original. To this day I’m not totally sure what it was. She could’ve released it as a single and had us all fooled – released it not as a cover, as an original. I’d have believed her.

Cody stared into space. I can’t say I wasn’t too, but he had his mouth on the floor. I let sleeping dogs lie.

Keisha’s voice was good as ever. And there wasn’t a doubt in my soul that I had finally, finally, accomplished something huge – the most important goal on my list to that point.

When the song was over, the DJs gave her a round of applause; I resisted the urge to start clapping myself.

“Wow…Keisha, that was…amazing,” one of them gushed. “That was beautiful.”

She laughed, and though I couldn’t see it, I’m sure she was blushing. “Thank you, thank you.”

The other DJ was still clapping. “Your voice is just…wow. Are you sure you’re not signed to anyone? Have you played anywhere big yet?”

“Well, a couple of weeks ago I sang as an opener for a band at my school, I Am You Are,” she told them. “But no, I never sang outside school.”

“I’m glad we had you on and found you, Keisha,” the other DJ said.

“Actually, these two boys were the ones who found me,” she corrected. “Cody and Kevin. They saw me singin’ at a thing we had for school, and…yeah.”

Cody and I grinned at each other, completely shocked at the shout-out she’d given us.

“I actually owe a lot to them,” she continued. I began to turn red. “They’re one of the reasons I’m here right now. And if they’re listening, I want to thank them.”

“You’re really talented, Keisha. You should have a record deal,” a DJ said.

She giggled. “You’re too kind.”

“Seriously, though, you need one. And I’m not gonna promise anything, but we could send this tape to some companies if you want us to.”

I gasped and sat up straight. Cody said, “Yes!”

“Maybe, but right now, I’m not sure…I’ve got school to deal with,” Keisha said.

Cody sighed and smiled dreamily at the radio.

I elbowed him. “You like her. Admit it.”

He blushed and bit his lip. “Noooo, I have nothing to admit…”

“Alright, well, Keisha…we really hope we can have you here again. And let us know if you change your mind about the record deal. We have connections,” the other DJ told her.

“I’ll definitely consider it,” she said.

I certainly hoped she did. Ultimately, it was her choice – and I was just sort of her unofficial manager at that time. And no matter what she did, I had to respect her choice, even if I disagreed with it. I still respect it as I write this.

Cody buried his head in his hands as another commercial break rolled by. I patted his back.

“You know, Kev, what if I…what if I did like her?” he asked quietly.

I grinned. “Then I’d tell her. She wouldn’t kill you or nothin’.”

“I never said I did like her, just…um…”

“You totally freakin’ do!” I snorted.

He grunted and pushed my shoulder. “Shut up…”

“Better tell her before she gets famous!”

Cody shut up real fast. That kid…