This is what Happens when you Recycle

“How did you get the key to the city?” Shade asked me, staring at a giant, golden key in my arms. My arms felt like they were going to fall off! We were standing at the Plaza of the city. The residents of the city were forced to stay in their houses, so that I could have fun. I actually ordered for everyone to be trapped in their houses until I was done with my fun. I made sure Shade stayed with me, since he was my best friend. I shrugged.1

“I have no clue.” I answered, remembering that one minute I was sleeping and the next, I was holding a key. It was like a silly joke, or maybe someone is doing this to me on purpose. As if someone was watching me as entertainment! What if I’m in a story? A silly story for children’s entertainment because they have nothing better to do than waste their life on reading! Wait a minute…what’s the chance of that anyways? “I do remember throwing an empty can of soda in the recycling bin at school yesterday. Maybe the mayor is proud of me or something. Who cares? Let’s go do something.” I said running off, remembering that I wasn’t a Sonic character and ended up running as fast as a snail could slide. I stopped running and looked back at Shade. He was giving me a long stare, his arms crossed across his chest. I sighed and thought of something fun to do.2

The whole Valley was mine for this day. What could I do? I can’t waste my time on this. Every second counts this day. I need to do something that I can’t do every day, or any day. I snapped my fingers, grabbed Shade’s hand, and skipped to the supermarket. 3

“Seriously?” Shade asked as I rode on the Merry-go-‘Round in front of the supermarket. I sat on a demented-looking white horse, not sure which end was the head or not. That means its head must look like an *bunny*. “Let’s do something we both can enjoy.” He said with a grin. My face flushed a deep red. This is what happens when a teenager goes through that stage in life where everything sounds wrong in a perverted way. “Not that you dork!” he said pulling me off the “fun” ride. 4

He pulled me to the entrance of the freeway. 5

“How often do you get to walk in an empty, closed-up freeway?” he asked me. I groaned, not wanting to run. This is the trouble of having a Track-Star of our Middle School as a friend. “I heard a rumor of a dead body nearby! Let’s go find it.” He advised, grabbed my hand.6

“I don’t wanna see a dead body, you sicko. I’m hungry. Let’s go to IN-N-OUT I bet making those hamburgers are easier than it looks.” I advised. Shade tried to run away, wanting to experience staring down at a dead body, heaven knows why in a perverted way, but I had the key and I was in charge. The fast-food restaurant wasn’t far from where we were. It took less than ten minutes to get there. We entered the empty place and entered the kitchen behind the counter. “I found the meat. How to we make the hamburger?” I asked Shade. He was juggling a few, peeled potatoes. 7

“Um…” he said, giving it a long thought, dropping all five potatoes. 8

“There goes our french-fries.” I said, picking up the potatoes and hiding them in the corner of the counter. That gave me an idea. Shade knew what I was thinking too because he grabbed a couple of long knives and we began chopping the potatoes like there was no tomorrow. we chopped them and squished them, turning it into mashed potatoes. We put it into a bucket and filled the bucket with a ton of water. To keep it watery until tomorrow, hopefully. Shade found two more buckets and we filled those up with mushy meat and the second bucket with ketchup and mustard.9

“I am the King of Pranks. You can be my servant. Go fetch me a cup of water servant!” Shade said after setting the buckets on top of the slightly opened doors, making sure to leave the exiting door free from a bucket, so that we could leave unharmed. I grinned, grabbing a plastic cup but filling it with water I found in the sink. I could see little things swirling in the water. I gave him the water. “Thank-you servant. Oh wait, you’re my servant. I don’t have to thank you!” he said taking a big gulp of water, then immediately spitting it out. “What the hell is this?!” he asked me, wiping his tongue on his sleeve. I shrugged.10

“I honestly don’t know.” I replied. He threw the rest of the water from the cup on my shirt. I knew I shouldn’t mess with him; then again it was the funniest thing I’ve seen this week.11

We then walked to the mall. Shade, that nerd, found the control room and turned on all the lights and music, don’t forget the escalators. 12

“Let’s race.” He said as we arrived at the escalators. “I’ll go Up the DOWN escalator and you will go DOWN the UP escalator. Whoever reaches the other side first wins.” He said, forcing me onto an escalator that led me to the second floor. What could possibly go wrong? We started the race, which wasn’t as easy as it sounded. It was very hard; the fact that you always had to make sure you didn’t trip. If I tripped I could have fallen off the escalator and to the first floor! I didn’t though. We were still in the race, being side-by-side in the middle of the escalators. “You’re not gonna win against the King.” He said slapping my hand away from the moving railing of the escalator. I tripped and flipped over and ended up on his escalator. “You’re cheating!”13

“I am not cheating!” I answered back as I sat on a step of his escalator. He jumped over the railings and onto my escalator, soon reaching the second floor. “You’re the cheater around here! Let’s see how to can cheat by meeting me at See’s Candy on the first floor.” I said hopping up to my feet and running away, hearing Shade’s steady footsteps coming down the escalator. We arrived at the chocolate store and ran behind the counter, grabbing all the chocolate we could get.14

“Oh dark chocolate how I love you so.” Shade said, stuffing pieces of dark-chocolate into his mouth. He must have been a big weirdo for even liking dark-chocolate. Everyone knows milk-chocolate is better than dark-chocolate. I think people who like dark-chocolate and people who like white-chocolate are raciest! If you like milky-chocolate, then you believe everyone is equal in every possible way. Except I am better than everyone else, but everyone knows that.15

“Let’s go steal clothes.” I suggested.16

“Hm. I don’t wanna.” Shade said without giving it much thought. “Let’s go to the sports store. Maybe they have that skateboard I’ve always wanted for free but could never get because it was never free.” He suggested with a bit of sarcasm to his own remark. 17

“But you can get me a ring!” I said taking his arm and pulling him to the nearest jewelry store. KAY. Every kiss begins with K. Every kick begins with K. every teenage boy begins with Stupid. Well, most of them anyways. “A ring to represent our friendship. It can be silver with diamonds. Let’s go.” I said pulled him. he was stronger than me and pushed me away.18

“I know I’m the most handsome boy on the face of this planet but I already told you that I will not marry you and let you lock me up in the closet for your un-needed desires towards me.” he said jokingly. I grinned.19

“I thought you loved uncontainable, uncontrollable, unstable, unsafe fun!” I said. It was an inside joke to us, then again everything was a joke to us, even life itself.20

“Your such a perv.” He said with a jokingly disgusted look on his face. I could see his left eye twitching. I must have gone too far. It wasn’t because of that. A big grin ended up on his face. “I’ve always wanted to do something here in the mall-”21

I stood up, holding my hands in front of me for protection. “Everything I just said was just a joke. I’m not going that far with you. We’re just friends.” I said. he chuckled and pulled me away. The sad part was that I didn’t get clothes or jewelry. The cool part was that we got to collect coins from the fountain, and then I pushed Shade into the fountain. I stole most of his coins, feeling like I was in a Mario game.22

After exploring the whole city, and stealing a few snacks from some stores, we always loved to eat but it wasn’t like we were unhealthy, we arrived to my house.23

“We still have five hours left. What do you want to do?” he asked me. I gave it a long thought, a bunch of gummy bears in my mouth. I chewed them up and swallowed.24

“Wanna play Smash Brawl?”25

“That sounds way for fun than anything we did today.” He said as we entered my house and spent the rest of the day playing video games. To this very day, I never regretted that day.26

I still wonder where that gold key went. I remember holding it but it disappeared when I was at the market. I learned that setting bucket of undesired things at IN-N-OUT isn’t good and will ruin your innocent reputation.27

You know what else I learned? This is a story! I knew it. I am trapped in a world of nothingness. I am re-living the same story over and over and over again. Wait until I find a way out. On the meantime, sleep with your eyes open. Maybe one day I’ll randomly get the key to YOUR city too! 28