Shafan's trip to the Mall

Shafan spent her summer working at the ice cream shop at in the strip mall. She wanted to earn enough money for a new laptop, since her last one was on it’s last legs and her dad had decided that she was old enough to buy one for herself.

Spending the summer working in  the only ice cream shop in town meant seeing a lot of her fellow classmates. The biggest repeat customers were Fedora and her friends. They came almost everyday and  would order their ice cream and sit at one of the tables outside and talk very loudly. It was very distracting.

But now that summer was over and she had earned enough for a laptop and something extra if she wanted she was going to mall to get said laptop and something extra. If she wanted.

In front of the mall in the city, which was an hours drive from broad Meadows, she said goodbye to her dad, who told her to be waiting in the food court at three o’clock, which was three hours from then.

Then she was on her own.

Half of Shafan liked the mall, the joyful atmosphere, the smell of fresh baked pretzels, and french fries that always made her hungry as soon as she entered. But the other half thought it was too crowded, loud, and just too much work. That half almost always won over.

And yet again as Shafan walked towards the electronics store she couldn’t help but start counting down until three when she could leave. Why again did she think that going to the mall was a good idea?

Good thing she already knew what she wanted as she walked into the Apple store and it didn’t take long for someone to come up to her and ask if she needed help. She told them what she wanted and then they proceeded to try to sell her just about everything else.

She tried not to get too annoyed, she knew he was just doing his job but gosh couldn’t they just give her what she wanted and let her go?

After saying no to everything they offered she finally paid and left the store, feeling proud of her first ever big purchase. And relieved to be out of the store. But she still had another two and a half hours to go until her dad would be here.

“Might as well get a pretzel,” She said to herself. At the pretzel stand she recognizes some of the popular people from school. Shafan tried not to be a judgmental person, and she usually isn’t, but these people seemed pretty snobby.

Luckily they didn’t seem to notice her and were walking away with their pretzels when one of them stopped, the short indian girl who’s name started with a T.

Shafan didn’t pay attention to them as she ordered a salted pretzel with cheese sauce, her favorite. But when she turned to walk away they were right in front of her.

She jumped and tried not to scream, instead she let out a little squeak. They were looking at her weird, and she wondered if she had done something wrong.

“Hi,” the indian one said. “You go to A.L. High right?”

Shafan nodded.

“Oh, cool,” she said, “I’m Tamarai as you might already know.”

Shafan nodded, “I’m Shafan.”

“Oh, beautiful,” she paused and smiled a little, she then proceeded to rustle in her bag for for something, which was revealed to be a little royal blue notebook when she pulled it out. She opened it up and looked at Shafan.

“How do you spell that?” she asked.

“Uhm, S H A F A N,” Shafan said.

“Ooohhh, nice,” Tamarai said writing something down quickly then putting the book back in her bag.

“Back to the point,” the girl Tamarai was with said, sounding annoyed. Shafan recognized her as DaeRi, the one who she heard multiple people gossiping about at the ice cream shop. Apparently she had done something crazy and rude over the summer and now everyone suspected that she would be kicked out of the popular trio.

Yeah, working in the only ice cream place in town also helped you stay in touch with the latest gossip.

“Oh, hehe,” Tamarai said, “we were just wondering if you happened to have heard any gossip about DaeRi?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Shafan said. She wasn’t gonna lie.

Tamarai frowned, “Oh.”

“Well, then, bye,” DaeRi said, grabbing Tamarai’s arm and pulling her away. Tamarai quickly said bye and waved, then walked along with DaeRi. Shafan stood there feeling very confused. What was that all about?

Shruggin that whole thing off Shafan sat at the nearest bench and ate her pretzel while people watching.

When she was done she was sad to see that she still had two more hours. What had she originally planned to do this whole time?

Shop around, she guessed.

“Might as well,” she mumbled to herself. She stood up and wandered the mall and looked in the shop windows. Occasionally she would enter a store and look through the clothes or whatever it sold.

The only things she bought were a pair of cute socks with bunny’s on it, a oversized sweater with a realistic bunny printed on it, and some bunny earrings. Yeah, she had a thing for bunnies.

Finally it was three and she was waiting at the food court sipping some sweet tea and nibbling on a chocolate muffin. She was relieved to see her dad walking over to her. She almost ran, but stopped herself, up to him and gave him a hug.

“Ready to leave already?” he asked, “I was gonna get something to eat.”

“Oh,” she said, “that’s fine.”

“I supposed you already ate?” he asked.

“Yep,” she said, holding up her muffin and sweet tea, “in the process of finishing these.”

“Alright go find us a table,” her dad said.

“Okay,” she said. She found a table and waited for her dad to come back with his food. As they ate he asked her about her purchases and if she had a good time.

She showed him the laptop and the bunny stuff and told him that it had been great. Then she told him about the run in with the girls from her school, laughing now at how strange the encounter was.

When they finished their food they left the mall and drove home. Shafan thought about how the trip to the mall hadn’t ended up too bad, but she was probably never gonna go back. She can just buy stuff online.