"Why are we at a toy store?," Carter asks me.
He opens the door for me, which concluded in the rolling of the eyes.
"It's way too boring at the suite, so I need something to entertain me if I have nothing to do," I tell him.
I go straight to the board games aisle. There is usually a bunch of fun games there.
A section of puzzles caught my eye.
"I haven't done a puzzle since I lived at my old house," I gush.
I look through the many themed boxes. The name Thomas Kinkade popped out. It was the all too familiar Disney collection.
"I've been wanting to do this for ages! I see pictures of this online all the time!," I exclaim.
I try to reach and grab the box, but I was a little too short. Instead, Carter gets it down for me. I take the box carefully from his hold. It was magnificent! I admired the images shown. There was Peter Pan, Lion King, Princess and the Frog, and the Jungle Book. The Peter Pan one is my favorite picture.
"You're still a big fan of Disney?," Carter asks with a playful scoff.
"Yes... of course. There is absolute no way why I should stop liking Disney. It's universal! Everyone loves Disney! Do you not like Disney movies? If you don't, then no fear. I'll help you in watching some movies. I have so many DVDs. We can watch Peter Pan, or Mulan, or Aladdin, or 101 Dalmations. If you like Disney and Pixar movies more, then we can watch those movies. I have all the Toy Stories, there's Finding Nemo, OH and Wall-E!"
"Okay! Okay! You can show me a movie, only if you stop talking about it all," he interrupts.
"YES! I'm thinking maybe Hercules! I did watch it already, but it's my favorite. Ooo I'm excited now! Have you-"
"Lena!" He shouted.
I look at him and give an apologetic look, "sorry."
I continue down the aisle to find more stuff. All they had left was board games, but I need another person to play with, since there are no one-person games. It's not like dad is going to play anyway. I would ask Carter to, but I don't want to bother him.
I sigh and go to another aisle. It was filled with Barbie dolls and Action figures. I was going to hurry and go to another aisle, but Carter stops to look around. He looks through a bunch of Marvel characters like Spiderman, Wolverine, Hulk, and Thor. After he fiddles with the packaging, he moves on to the DC figures, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Flash.
I just stand and watch as he closely observes all the toys. I could almost imagine him being a kid again.
I decide to go ahead and go to the next aisle. I didn't think it would be a problem at all, but when Carter shows up with a scared expression, I realize I was wrong.
"Tell me next time, before you wander off," he demands.
"I only went a couple of aisles down."
"Still, I am your bodyguard. You can't leave my side," he states. He'll probably get fired if he lost me somewhere.
"I understand. I'm sorry," I apologize.
I go back to looking through the Legos. There was a lot of different buildings, but I chose the Disney Princess one. It was starting to be a hassle carrying my shopping bags, and the boxes. Before I was able to ask, Carter takes the puzzle and Legos into his arms.
"Thanks," I say.
We go to the sports section, and I pick out a mini golf set that comes with a roll out course. I add it to Carter's collection in his arms with a smile.
"Don't you think this is enough?," He begs more than asking.
"Okay, after one more thing."
I go back to the board game aisle, and grab Jenga. Now, I realize that I can force Carter to play with me, since he has to follow me around everywhere.
"Okay, let's go," I say.
We go to the front of the store to pay at the register. Carter gratefully puts down the toys onto the conveyer belt.
The lady at the register looks at Carter's suit with an odd expression. She is probably wondering why he is at a toy store, with almost 99° degrees outside, wearing a tux.
The total of the objects come out to be $80. I pull out my credit card, and pay for everything. Carter grabs all the bags, and we both walk out.
Carter does a quick scan around the area. When he looks back at me, I know we are okay.
"I think I am done shopping for now," I announce.
"Great, let's get going," He pushes.
I walk on ahead back to the car. Carter paces behind me still holding some bags.
In the parking lot, Carter whispers, "Wait, stop."
I obey and stop walking. He was probably scanning the area again.
"Pretend to tie your shoe," he whispers again.
I slowly kneel down and fix my shoelaces, which I don't get why I have to. I admit I started to get a little scared, cause I have a feeling Carter saw someone here. Someone could've been waiting for us to get out.
"Okay, we have to run to the car on a count of three." He informs.
"What?!"
"One."
Ugh, I seriously hate running.
"Two."
Not again.
"Three."
In a blink of an eye, Carter grabs my hand and sprints towards our vehicle.
Off in the distance, I could hear shouts. I was too frightened to look, and instead, I try to run faster. It happens so fast, that I could barely process anything. It's like learning the new units back in Pre-Cal.
We make it to the car. Carter unlocks the doors and toss our bags into the back seats. I quickly get into the passenger seat, and Carter takes the wheel.
This gives me a chance to look around. Oddly enough, I don't see anyone following us. There wasn't anyone in the parking lot except actual shoppers with bags.
Then, about five rows down, I could see people flooding inside a van.
Carter starts the car the same time that van does.
"Seatbelt on?" Carter asks.
I throw over the seatbelt and buckle it.
"Okay, hang on." he says.
He reverses out the parking lot, and drives towards the exit. I could see the van coming our way. Carter picks up the speed on the road.
It's official, we are in a car chase. I can cross this off my bucket list.
It wasn't at all how I expected it. In movies, some exciting, adrenaline music starts playing. Instead, the radio plays Taylor Swift's Shake it Off. There also wasn't any gunshots. I couldn't hear the bad guys reactions, so it was just us driving really fast.
However, Carter was straight on movie quality. He has this look of determination, and fire burning in his eyes. His straight face was serious, and not at all scared. He was the perfect image of a bodyguard.
I was too scared to say anything, that it might distract Carter's driving. We were dangerously going pass the speed limit, and was passing up a lot of cars. Is this even legal?
"Shake it off, Shake it off"
The van was still trailing behind us.
In one quick motion, the car spins a 180, and we were heading towards the van, but in another lane. Carter took a left into another street, and a right into another. It was really confusing, and made me a little dizzy.
"I think we lost them, there was starting traffic behind us," he says making no sense at all. I nod pretending I understand.
Surprisingly, after driving the speed limit for six minutes, the van never showed up.
Carter drove back to the hotel with a relaxed face.
"That was crazy," I breathe out.
"Not so exciting with Taylor Swift," Carter jokes. At least it's over for now.
We grab everything in the car garage, and go up to the suite. It was like nothing happened.
Carter uses his card to open the door. Dad wasn't here yet, so I guessed he was still with the investigators.
I go to my room to drop off my bags with new clothes. Then, I join Carter in the living room.
"Mr.Owens says they'll be back in a couple of hours," Carter informs.
"Alright," I respond.
Carter shuffles through the room to check if everything is in order. I ignore him, and unpack all of the toys. Looking through all of them, I decide to wait until later.
I haven't forgotten that Carter is allowing me to make him watch a Disney movie. I put on Netflix, and the first thing that shows up is Hercules. It is saved into my list, so it's the first thing that appears.
"Everything is alright," Carter mentions.
I get up to look through the cupboards. I know I didn't bring popcorn, but I hoped that my dad did.
Unfortunately, there was none.
"What are you looking for?," Carter asks.
"Popcorn for the movie," I say pointing into the living room.
I double check, but there really wasn't any. Sighing, I go out of the kitchen.
"No popcorn? I guess we can't watch the movie now. Oh darn," he teases.
"No! We are still watching it," I order.
Usually, I prefer popcorn with a movie, but since I haven't done that in a while, there was no reason to not watch Hercules.
Carter groans and plops himself onto the couch, "Fine, let's get this over with."
I laugh a little, and join him on the couch. I grab the remote and press start.
"This is my all time favorite movie," I make sure to tell Carter.
"I kno-"
"Sh! It's starting."