Picture This...

Picture this, you’re standing outside Tower Records. You’re standing in the dark, you hear an alarm go off. You walk over to a huge cinder block pillar and stand behind it. Your two friends walked in a different direction to smoke cigarettes. In your pocket, there’s a cellophane wrapped CD case, and inside the CD case is ‘Tears For Fears’. You see someone staring at you with a cigarette in his hand. He’s sitting on a bench. You crouch down and put the CD in a nearby bush. You walk over to your friends, but then grabbed by the man who had the cigarette.1

“Get off the property right now! You’re banned from here, go!”2

You start walking and you’re friends are saying, “Dude! What did you do?” They burn out their cigarettes. One of them says to you, “Hey? Is that your mom?”3

You turn around and see your mom talking to the man who caught you red-handed. You start walking toward them, taking out your wallet and flashing a twenty dollar bill. 4

“Hey! I’ll pay for it!” you offer.5

“It’s too late,” the man said, “you’re so lucky that we caught you instead of the security guards. Don’t you realize if you got caught, we would’ve charged you five-hundred dollars, a misdemeanor that would go on your records, and you’d be put in jail for theft? If you come back here again, it’ll be trespassing and we’ll call the police.”6

You look at your mom who has a surprised and disappointed look on her face. Your friends are talking behind you and you get into the car. Your friends are still talking, and you’re sitting there, silent, with heat rising off your face. Every so often, you look your mother who is expressionless. You feel tears behind your eyes but you hold them back.7

You get to your friends house and drop them off. Your mother wants to tell one of friends’ mom that they got banned for something they didn’t do. You say good-bye and get into the car once more. 8

"I saw you put that CD into the bushes,” your mom says, “I’m very disappointed."9

Your mom started driving away, and you’re in complete silence. You kept thinking to yourself, “was she spying on me? Did she think I was really gonna do something with those two?”10

You get home and go straight to your room. You lay in bed for forty-five minutes trying to see if you could fall asleep. Not a bit sleepy, so you just lay there. Your cat climbs on the bed with you. You pet her, and she starts purring. She climbs onto your stomach and falls asleep. She wakes up about five minutes later and gets up. So do you, and you turn on your computer. You look for a game to play but you can’t find one, so you open Encarta so you can finish your history homework. Your mother walks into your room.11

“I’ve figured out your punishment,” she says, “no internet for 2 weeks.”12

“That’s it?” you say, confused.13

“What? You want more?”14

“No,” you say, shaking your head.15

“You do realize that if you got caught by the police, you’d be in jail, and I wouldn’t bail you out, right?16

“Yeah,” you close your eyes hard. 17

“Weren’t you scared?” she asks.18

“No, I wasn’t. I didn’t even know that guy worked there. He was sitting there when we arrived. He wasn’t wearing his tag or anything.”19

Your mom just stands there, eyes glaring at you. You wish you could start everything over, but then you realized, you can’t.20

You walk into the living room and turn on the TV. You watch South Park until you fall asleep. Your mom tells you to wake up and go to bed.21

The next morning you wake up at seven a.m. because you have Saturday School. You get out of bed and go into the bathroom. You stare at yourself in the mirror for a good five minutes. You put on a red t-shirt, black pants, and black Converse. You head off to your high school. Your mom drives you there and says, "I’m going to go with you."22

"Why?" you respond, "It’s not like I’m gonna ditch or anything. I don’t want to get suspended."23

You get out of the car and speed walk to your locker. Your mom is very close by catching up with you. 24

“Why the hell are you following me? I’m not ten-years-old! It’s not like I’m gonna steal a library book! Just because last night didn’t go very well, it doesn’t mean I have to be followed and spied on. I know this high school better than you. You don’t have to come.”25

You start walking fast up the ramp for the handi-capped and got to portable 628. Your mom, of course, catches up to you and says, “Wow, this is a big campus.”26

You walk into the room. There are many people, but you spot your other friend, Cameron, and sit in the desk next to his. You told him everything that happened the night before.27

“Holy crap! Are you kidding me?! I wouldn’t have done that!”28

You laugh, of course, because it’s Cameron. “It was my first attempt in 6 months,” you tell him.29

You’re sitting in Saturday School and you take out a piece of paper and a pen. You title the paper and start with this sentence:30

"Picture this, you’re standing outside Tower Records..."31

~ The End ~32