East Chapel Academy

Chapter 19- Nia

"Uh, yeah," he scratched the back of his neck. "I can change it if you want. We have plenty of records."

"No, I like it. You Make My Dreams is actually one of my favorites," I told him.

"A girl with taste," he smiled. "Do you want to check out some of the others we have."

"Sure," I shrugged. I walked around the counter. I thought their collection of records was all only on the shelves, but crates of records sat on the floor and on a small desk hidden behind the counter.

I started flipping through the crate that sat on the desk. "This is an amazing collection, it must have taken the owners years to get all of these."

"These are mine actually," said Thomas. "And my Dad's. He owns the place. He runs the place when he's not traveling for his other job."

"Oh, what does he do when he's not here?"

"He's a movie producer, so he has to be on set sometimes."

"Anything I've ever seen?"

He leaned on the counter. "Maybe, have you seen any Marvel stuff?"

"Of course, I have, who hasn't?" It seems like there's a new superhero movie coming out every week.

"He's produced a few of those, and some action stuff, but he likes to stick to the nerdy stuff," he explained. "But he'll produce a music documentary every once in awhile."

"That sounds like a cool job." Thomas's dad owns a comic book store and produces movies, and Marcus's mom runs a lifestyle blog, and my grandma manages a grocery store....nice.

My hands stopped on an old Earth, Wind, and Fire album. I pulled it out of the crate, "Is this yours or your Dad's?"

"That would be mine," he said. His collection had an uncanny resemblance to my grandmother's.

"Do you mind if I put it on?" I asked. "I really like this one."

"Go ahead," he encouraged me. Gently I removed the large Hall and Oates record from the player and placed it back in its sleeve. I placed the Earth, Wind, and Fire record on the turntable. Listening to the sounds of the music play as the record began to spin.

"The girl at the record store gives me weird looks," he said pulling a stool up for me. "I think she's silently judging me."

I had an idea of who he was talking about. "What does she look like?"

"Septum piercing. Shaved head. Always wearing a leather jacket." It's definitely Maya, I'm sure of it. She can't hide her emotions, and she's pretty judgmental when it comes to others music taste. Music is her thing. She wants to pick songs for movies and TV. "Do you know her?"

"Uh, maybe." I sat down. Thomas had his composition book laid open, its pages covered in permanent marker drawings. There was one of two people, a girl and a boy, standing in front of a store front. "I like this one." I told him pointing at the image.

"I just started working on it. I still need to color it," he said picking up his black marker, and making the girls hair bigger. "I'm thinking about doing a series called, Mall People."

"And what do these mall people do?"

"They shop," he said, "And at night they turn into mannequins."

"So Night at the Museum, but in reverse?"

"It's a work in progress," he stated staring down at the page. He looked over at me, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose. "Do you like PacMan?"