“Jack and Charlie”

Jack and Charlie, the kings of animals and everything else. My neighbors and my friends, their houses had a party every time I went there. If you had something, they had it better. 2 corgis, 2 hamsters, a cat, and a couple of chickens, and they always had friends or cousins over. Their house was a jungle, jumping into the dark closet filled with stuffed animals and the dogs chasing you in. They would always have the newest things and the most random things. Their house was a little messy, but how can you have a messy house if everything had value, everywhere you look, behind the couch would be some new interesting things. They weren’t spoiled either, they respected all of their things, and I’m lucky for them to share their things.

“James and his Cousin”

It was finally summer and my cousin, James and his cousin were visiting our house from Hong Kong. They are both younger than me and my family but we still have a good time. We decided it would be a good idea to ride bikes out in the park next to my house. I rode my old bike while James and his cousin rode my new e-bike together, James in the back, and his cousin sitting at the front. As we headed into the park they launched away, flying through the grass past all the dogs and their owners on their peaceful walk. I slowly trailed behind them and watched them fly over every bump and weave through the trees.

They started doing zig-zags through the grass, the zig-zags we have done on our bikes. Their zig-zags, however, started to become a little faster and a little crazier until they reached a bump and both tumbled down. The headlight of that white bike was bent and a few degrees to the left, and except for James’s bloody shin, they were both alright. I called over their parents and they took them back home.

“No Need for Shoes”

Finally picked up my new button-up and some slick black pants. All but shoes, “too expensive, unnecessary”. My first school dance and I will be wearing my everyday running shoes. I scoured the garage in search of any formal shoes, shoes from my dad, or even gender-neutral shoes from my sisters. I couldn’t find anything so I had to stick to my running shoes. The next day was the day of the dance, I got dressed in my black button-up and my loose pants. I stood over my old shoes knowing that was my only option. 

I walked to the line to enter the dance and saw my friends on the other side. I was worried people were already starting to judge me but I scanned my ID and entered in. I greeted my friends and we all headed straight for the foosball table. We played almost an hour since there wasn’t much else to do. We all had a lot of fun and at the end of the night, I had completely forgotten I was wearing old, everyday shoes.

“Pick and Choose”

Growing up I’ve always been asked one question and realistically everyone has been asked this one question.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

If I had to pick and choose, what would I want to be? I could be a professional racecar driver, racing as a Formula One driver. For Redbull, sliding through the curves of Monaco overtaking Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Maybe I could be at the top of endurance racing at Le Mans racing for Porsche. If I could have things all my own I’d have a surplus of money, driving in my own Porsche. Maybe I’d become a LEGO master builder, chill, creating sets that thousands of people would enjoy, and having my creations to myself. If I could pick and choose, I’d be seeing myself battling it out in Wimbledon becoming the tennis pro I will probably never reach. I could start a band and become rock stars with my friends and play with my favorite bands. Or maybe I’ll be a famous singer like Bruno Mars. But realistically, I wish to be an Aerospace Engineer, or I’ll just be a mechanical engineer, or working at McDonalds.

“Fortune Teller”

In the last few days of the carnival, we picked the coldest day, the worst day, a day without many people. Me and my friends can in without triple-layed jackets, covered in fabric. We bought the 60-ticket deal. That would be enough for four rides and a small carnival game. We all bought a hot dog for ourselves to eat on the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel was huge, especially for the size of this small carnival, there was no way the Ferris wheel actually held up its weight, it seemed like magic. We went on two more rides which almost made us all throw up and decided to take a break and go to a carnival game. We were looking at the ring toss game however, my friend spotted a fortune teller at the corner of the festival. 

“You can’t win, but, you don’t lose anything!”

We agreed to head over. I entered the tent first and was spooked to see the teller standing in the corner of the tent staring into the wall. He flicked his head at me and said “Welcome!” we gave him our tickets and wanted our fortune told as a group. Out of his ancient deck of cards, he pulls…

“The Burning Building, mmm, you boys are in for some good luck coming very soon”

We all look at each other questioning his fortune-telling.

“That’s it! Thank you!” he exclaims, pushing us out of his tent.

We are all surprised and we assume we all got scammed. Now we had 23 tickets, just enough for The Zipper we ran over since the carnival was closing soon and quickly reserved our seats. The ride was going crazy and we were flipping all over the place when suddenly the ride stopped. Had it broken down? We all look around confused thinking about the burning building the teller pulled. When suddenly we heard our names called from the raffle stand, I guess we got our luck after all!