Short Story-

It’s funny how a seemingly insignificant event can have such a big impact on your views about life. I experienced one of these events on the first of June, 2011. I had originally thought it would be a regular day that would soon blur together with all the other days as I awaited the end of the school year. But this day I soon realized would become a day upon which I looked back on with great amusement at my own foolishness and an even greater insight on the lesson I learned that day.

It was Tuesday, which meant it was pizza night at my house. The pizzeria around the corner had a two-for-one deal that my mother could never pass up. So there we were in the foyer of the pizza place waiting for our order to be ready. The sweet aroma of delicious tomato sauce upon freshly baked bread all decked with savory melted cheese became too much for me. I asked my mother if I could walk next door to CVS and get something. Surprisingly my mother pulled out her wallet and gave me five buck. She told me to buy whatever I wanted.

‘Five dollars…, what to do with five whole dollars?’ I pondered, a little sarcastically, what I would buy as I stepped through the doors of CVS; a blast of cold air-conditioned air hit me. Being the fourteen year old girl that I am, I made a bee line for the magazine aisle. I glanced over the magazines when I came across what my friend like the call “The Bible”; it was the newest edition of Seventeen Magazine. So of course I decided to buy it, I was on my way to the checkout when something caught my eye.

What’s this? I thought. A Special-Edition Seventeen Summer Catalog! I looked down at my other magazine, which somehow now looked less appealing. I grabbed both magazines and held them up for comparison. While the Special-Edition magazine was a great deal smaller than the normal magazine, they both had an incredibly pretty girl with too much makeup on, on the front page, and they both promised new fashion ideas for the summer. ‘What to do, what to do?’ I thought ‘Five dollars. Could it be possible to buy both for only five dollars?’ I felt it was worth a try. And with the two magazines in my hands I headed straight for the checkout line, only to find that there was only one cashier with seven more people waiting in line. By this time my mom should have gotten the pizzas, and she was probably already waiting outside for me which meant I had to hurry. I noticed the self-checkout was empty so I headed over there.

The mechanical voice welcomed me to the self-checkout, and told me to begin scanning my items. I scanned the normal Seventeen magazine first, $2.49. Alright here comes the moment of truth, this special edition magazine had to be about $2 for my plan to work. I scanned it. $4.99. Shoot! Cancel, cancel, cancel! I looked around desperately for the cancel button, when I found it I pushed it multiple times in fast succession. But wait, I read what the button actually says ‘Press for help and cancel’ Help? I don’t want help I just want to cancel the stupid order. The mechanical voice spoke again completely unaware of my internal melt down. “Please continue scanning items or select you method of payment”

‘I can’t believe I pushed that button’ I thought ‘I don’t want someone to come help me. That would mean I would actually have to talk to them. I am way to socially awkward for that kind of contact. I needed to get out of there and fast.’ The mechanical voice was still yelling at me and I feared that soon someone would notice me. I looked at the cashier; he didn’t seem to have noticed anything yet, I glanced at the people waiting in line and they too were completely oblivious to me. So being as inconspicuous as possible I slip the two magazines from the counter and walk away. I head back to the magazine aisle and place the magazines exactly where I found them, then I all but ran out the doors.

I saw my mother’s car parked right out front, I jumped in the car and slammed the door closed behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief. My mother just looked at me strangely.

“So what did you get?” She asked me.

“Oh, nothing”