hey, hey, hey hello I'm here

‘Billabong Mall’, the sign quoted.

“Fi-na-lly!” I sang out, staring out at the pouring rain, the hail balls starting to fall outside my window.

We approached the shiny new mall, me feeling excited and a line of the ‘This Is Great’ feeling crawled across my body.

“Zara, have parking kharma.” My dad shouted out to me, looking around hopefully.

I pictured the perfect spot, right in front of the mall, right next to the doorways…

“Found it!” a happy voice suddenly snapped me out of my thoughts.

Yes, of course I was right. The parking spot stood in front of me, like a reserved spot at a ‘one of a kind’ theater performance. I absolutely adore theater, and ‘one of a kind’ was the company that had a stage, right here in Concord, Massachusetts.

“Zara, hop out,” Dad called to me.

I pulled my backpack on to my back and hopped out on to the sidewalk. I pulled up my purple sweatshirt, and the fuzzy hood felt cozy, warm, and good on my head.

“D-d-dad!” I called out, shivering, and watching my breath, because it was so cold that I could see the air coming out of me, like a pump. He grabbed my hand, and his warm hands felt comforting. Not that I was sad or anything. We jogged to the door, he opened it up, and we went inside.

“Much better,” I sighed, because the warm air inside the mall was much better then outside.

“Tell me about it.” My very understanding dad nodded in agreement.

“Where to?” asked Dad

I pointed to a store that had tie-dye leggings in the front. It looked interesting. We carefully made our way through the crowd, and pushed the door open. I know tie-dye leggings weren’t much like school clothes, but what the heck? I had style. And what else is shopping for? Not to buy strait legged beige pants, to make you feel like you are in a torture chamber, but to amplify your style.

“Dad, wait a sec.” He was looking at this men’s coat, a stylish striped coat with a zigzagged trim along the rim of the pocket.

“Dad, I am just going to ask the manager something, okay?”

“Yup, sure. Whatever you want.” He replied, not even paying attention.

“Yes, of course, wait. Zara, what do you want to do?”

“I said I am just going to ask the manager something, okay?”

“Yes, okay.” He FINALLY replied.

I slid over to where the manager was, and questioned, “Excuse me, mister. Um, could I try on those leggings, by chance?” I pointed to the window, were my treasure was standing perfectly.

“Of course.” He sat up from his chair and rolled the ladder over by its wheels.

He climbed up and pulled down the leggings from the display rack. “You’re in luck, miss. This is the last pair.”

I grinned, and it looked like my new article of clothing was smiling back at me.

“So you know, miss, they are on sale and the price is $6.99.”
Whoa! Some luck I had here. In the corner of my eye, I saw some pale yellow corduroy pants that came with a loop-to-loop green belt. I swung the leggings over my shoulder and ran fast to rack 7, where the pants were. I examined the pants briefly, and from the start I knew I loved them. I carefully picked prize possession number two up and swung it over my left shoulder. Dad was walking to me, keeping his eye on the wonderful antique items they had in Grenage Antiques & Clothes. What an unusual unique name for a store!

I skittered to the dressing room. I chose room three, after all, that was my lucky number. I pulled up the leggings, a perfect math to my skin tight black shirt with red lines. Nice fit, slim, my body type. Found it, I thought. Found the one! I eyed a purple t-shirt that had blue dots on it and went to the rack. I pick up the pants, and saw another t-shirt, all black with a red rim. I was really elated!

“Cool, Zara girl. Let’s go to a few more stores, then let’s head on home. Mom will love the stuff, girl and there’s a surprise story for you that she wrote! We can stop at Bell & Bays Café for a hot cocoa and a Rice Krispy. Sound good, Zar?” Dad loved the clothes; especially the leggings. He said the spidery touch was quite unique and he loved the colors.

“Sounds awesome, dad!”

We headed for the cash register, and while we did dad said how much I deserved these clothes, all the babysitting I did and the volunteering at the animal shelter.

“$27. 81, please.” The register man told us. When he packaged the bags, something looked suspicious. He secretly put something else in the bag, who knows what. Well, I wouldn’t let that ruin my day.

We left the store, and as I peeked into my bag, there was a black and yellow headband in there!!! It was the Guiness Worlds Records book best headband invented! I leaned with glee. This day, I thought, well, its one of a kind. That just kept on going in my head. One of a kind, one of a kind, one of a kind…