Light of my Life

Mario Kart

A smile sprouted onto my lips and I looked up at Jordan dissolving into the crowd, before pulling my backpack tighter onto my shoulders and walking quickly out into the fresh, cool air. Down the brick steps I went, and then out to where Alex was leaning on a cab, his baseball hat pushed down onto his head and sunglasses covering is eyes, grinning at me.

"Perfect timing, my class just finished." I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, after looking around for any photographers.

We got into the taxi and were off.

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I peeled fluffy layers of hot pink cotton candy off of a white paper cone and stuffed them into my mouth, leaning against a claw machine. Alex pressed his forehead to the glass in concentration, slowly moving the dial around, trying to pull out a stuffed panda.

"You don't have to get it for me you know. I said I forgave you for the mess of miscommunication last week," I laughed, licking my sticky fingers, which made them even stickier. He smiled, not breaking his focus.

"Maybe I just want to give you a stuffed panda for the sake of giving you a stuffed panda."

"Well whatever the reason, you've wasted quite a lot of money on it."

He threw his hands up angrily when the claw closed and moved back up, and in red letters, the words 'Uh Oh!' appeared on a screen in the machine. "I could go get a stuffed animal from the store across the street for two dollars!" He fumbled over his words, his eyebrows furrowed.

I chuckled and pulled him away from the box. "That's what makes it fun, and that's how they make money. You have to really work to earn it. It takes luck and concentration. The reward is much more satisfying. Let me try." I gave him my cotton candy cone, and he began eating it right off of the stick, not as graceful as my pulling and stuffing strategy.

I fished around in my pocket for fifty cents, and pulled out two quarters, sliding them into the payment slot. The machine made a sound effect, and then a whirring noise, and everything on the control panel lit up in neon colors. Alex observed excessively, soaking in my posture and strategy.

I moved the claw around, positioning it a little farther back than I thought the panda appeared, and then I pressed the enormous red button that had "GO!" written on it in white puffy letters. The claw sank down into the depths of the animal pit, and I watched as it latched onto the panda's head, and pulled it up soundly, bringing it over to the chute, and dropping it in.

I turned to Alex proudly, and held up my new stuffed animal. He stared in shock for a second, and then it transformed into admiration. "How are you so good at that?"

"My brother worked in an arcade in high school. I got a lot of free tokens and practice," I shrugged. I felt a sinking sensation in my chest, and then shook it off, stuffing the animal into my backpack.

"That was incredible! but now I feel bad, because I didn't get it for you."

"If it means that much to you, I'll pretend you got it for me yourself. You almost did once or twice. It's the thought that counts," I laughed. He smirked and snatched up my tacky hand to hold and we walked through the noisy and dimly lit arcade with the outer space carpeting.

"I think I warmed up the machine for you, or maybe it was your sticky fingers."

I laughed, let go of his hand and rubbed mine on my jeans. "Yeah, cotton candy is the worst."

He threw away the now empty cone in a trash can as we neared it. Then he turned and smiled at me excitedly. "Let's go play whack-a-mole!" We raced around the colorful maze of machines and the kids shouting and lugging bucketfuls of tickets. Whack-a-mole had a much longer line than anticipated, so we settled for the one next to it, Dance Dance Revolution.

"Alright, so controlled movements." I advised. He nodded solemnly, rolling up his navy blue shirt sleeves.

"Control."

The game started and whatever I had just said flew out of both of our minds. We danced like lunatics, our feet flying around like helicopter blades. Sweat ran down the sides of our heads and the backs of our necks. The music blasted from the speakers, and the screen lit up with arrows directing us to place our feet on different colored squares on the ground.

We lasted for quite a long time. We go to level 12 in the game, and then finally all of our strikes had been used. The machine shut down and faded red tickets began pouring out of the slot. My eyes widened at the sight. They weren't stopping. Piles and piles of tickets continued to slide out, and our score flashed across the game screen.

"1456" along with the words "New record!" I turned to Alex excitedly, and he gave me an exhausted high five. He leaned against the silver railing behind us, breathing heavily.

"Good job, Laurie."

"You too." I couldn't wipe the big smile off of my face. The tickets finally stopped coming out, and so I ripped them off of the machine, and held them like an armful of blankets. They poured over and piled so high I could rest my chin on the stack. Alex helped me carry them over to the counting machine, where we began to feed them in.

"What are we going to get at the prize counter?" He inquired. I shrugged.

"Well I got a panda, so I think that it's your turn to pick something out."

We left the arcade at eleven o'clock in a bumble bee yellow taxi. My panda stuffed into my backpack, his Jimmy Neutron, ladybug red watch strapped around his wrist, and a Lego Batmobile set under his arm.