The next day was Monday, that meant a few thing. One it meant that my sister had a fresh list of chores that needed to be done by the end of the week. Beside each chore there stood a little dollar sign followed by a number. It also meant I was one more day closer to starting school. Soon those endless days of exploring would come to a end, and once more I’ll find myself chained to a desk.

Beside the chores, my sister wanted me to run down to the local supermarket and pick up a few odds and ends. Being something of a night owl, it was well into the morning before I had woken up enough to peddle my bike down the cobblestone paved street to Sunflower. Sunflower is a chain of small grocery stores that operated mainly in Mississippi and in some Northern Louisiana parishes.

But too Benton, Sunflower was more than just a store.. It was almost ingrained into the social fabric of the town. It was like Friday Night high school football and going to church or Mass on Sunday morning. It was something the local’s did without question. It was also the only full line grocery store in town.

So with that in mind, its no surprise that the small parking lot was filled to the brim with cars. And really that should come to no surprise with only a fortnight of the Summer holiday left. The inside of the store was equally packed as shopper paced up and down the isles, scanning the shelves for the best deals and marked down items.

For half a hour I pushed the shopping cart up and down the narrow aisles, picking up the odds and ends my sister had written down on a piece of notebook paper. I even added a few of my own, since I did have my own pocket money. Money earned by countless hours of doing chores around the house and yard.

Anyway I was just about to put a bag of coffee into the basket when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a women, a tall, slender women wearing a floral print dress and white sandals. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back in a high ponytail. Standing beside her was a sully looking girl around my age. She wore a pink blouse and a blue jean skirt. I offered them a small wave.

“Oh.” The women said taking a deep breath. “Hello Madeline! Fancy seeing you here.” She said twisting her lip into a small smile. “Doing a little shopping too.” She inquired as she peered toward my basket that held a small collection of items. Mostly canned goods, with a few dollar bagged veggies. The prized pick was two “USDA Choice” Steaks the butcher had picked out for me. My sister wanted steak tonight.

“Yes ma’am.” I said smiling a little as I peered into her basket. A deep blush colored my cheeks as I noticed that in her basket there could be seen a dozen or so catering tins of plain applesauce and a four tins of vanilla pudding. A box of green food coloring was resting on top of the tin.

“Oh!” She said as she noticed me peering down into her basket. “Just doing a little shopping for the church. You know since for slime vote this coming Sunday. Your already in the lead darling.” She said with a wink. “I hope you like the taste of apples.” And with that she turned toward the sully looking girl who was giving me the stink eye.

“Have you meet my daughter?” She said pulling the girl who was now checking her phone for text in front of her. “She going to be in the 10th grade this year.. So she one year in font of you. But your going to the same church and then the same school and you’ll both be taking conformation classes together with Fr. Brown..” She said trying to make her point.

The girl looked up from her phone, offered me a scowl and returned to her texting.

“Come on darling say something.” Her mother said with a small smile. She then peered toward me and in a friendly tone of voice said. “We’ll I’ll leave you girls to catch up. Cindy, I’ll by the meat counter when you finish visiting with your friend.”

Once the women was away, the girl turned to me and in a very hostile tone of voice said to me.

“List here..” She said sliding her phone into her purse. “You might be fooling some people, but you can’t fool me. You think your so clever and sweet..” She locked her eyes with me.

I opened my mouth to speak, for it felt like a ton of bricks had fallen down on my head.

“Don’t bother.. Just shut you mouth and listen. I’m watching you bitch. I’m prefect next year, and I’ll be keeping my eyes on you. One step out of line, and I’m going to bury your ass. Listen to me, keep your bitchy little freshman hands away from Matthew. He’s mine..” With that she smiled and walked away, twitching as she did so.

My eyes watched her walk away. I took a deep breath and twisted my hands around the handle of the shopping cart. Some people.. Some people you had to keep at arm's length, some people you had to hold a little closer so you could keep your eye on. Closing my eyes and calming my speeding heart, I took a deep breath and then in a raised tone of voice said.

“Wow, looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!” And with that I resumed my shopping. Once I had checked most of the items off my list, I made my way to the front. Still fuming a little after my talk with the girl, I kind of just tossed the items onto the belt. The checker a senior in high school only just rolled her eyes at my display of anger. Quickly she passed the barcode of each item under the scanner and sent them down the rolling belt where the bagger was waiting to sack them up.

“Hey Madeline.” A voice called out to me, that voice snapped me out of my fuming and caused me to turn around and face it. A sudden blush colored my cheeks as I peered toward the source of the voice. Standing there, dressed in a white button down shirt with brown buttons. The shirt was tucked into the waistline of a set of clearly pressed Khaki trousers, black leather work shoes rounded out the look. The whole suit of clothing gave him a clean, neat and professional appearance. And that caused my cheeks to blush and my heart to skip a few beats.

“Hey there.. Matthew.” I said blushing as my eyes watched him place the bags into the shopping cart. Part of me wanted to strike up a conversation, ask him about the weather, his folks, maybe the newest anime movie playing in Ridgeland or Madison. But he was busy.. Busy bagging my order.

“Okay.” The checker said taking a deep breath. As she pressed a key on the check stand. “Your total comes to One hundred dollars and sixteen cents Would that be cash, check or credit?” She said taking a deep breath as she peered toward.

“Check..” I said as I handed her a blank check written by my sister. She sent the check through some feeder and it came back out all filled in nice and neat. She then placed the check in her drawer and handed me a sales slip.

“Thank you for shopping with Sunflower. You have a good…” She paused and then with a small smile written across her lips she said to me. “May the Odds ever be in your favor.”

“Sure..” I pocketing the sale slip and walking down to get my basket.

“I’ll take these out to your car.” Matthew said smiling as he took my basket into his hand and wrapped his fingers around it.

“Matt..” My voice trailed. “I don’t have a car, I have a bike.. I bike from place to place.” I was a little dumbfounded.

“Okay.” He said still smiling. “I’ll still load them up for you.” He said pushing the basket out of the sliding door and into the blistering hot parking lot.

“Boys!” I said huffing as I folded my arms across my chest and tossed my ponytail to the side.

“Go easy on the boy.” A older, gray haired checker said to me. She was smiling ear to ear. “Young Matthew is always talking about you. Always talking about how pretty you are and how wonderful your hair smells. He right smitten with you. So go easy on the boy.” She said with a wink.

I nodded my head and started to follow behind Matthew. Taking a deep breath I walked over to him and placed two dollars in his hand. He had just finished loading up my order in the basket.

“Thank you.” He said slipping the two dollars into his pocket. “So, what do you think of this slime vote? I saw Mrs. Henderson and her daughter a few minutes ago. Had a whole buggy full of applesauce and vanilla pudding tins. Something like sixty dollars worth. Was chilling having to load all that up in there car.” He said leaning over the buggy and looking into my eyes. “Figured one of us will be getting it don’t you come the Sabbath? Gotta put a note up.. Hate for you get slimed by default because I had to work you know.” He said in deep country accent.

I simply nodded my head. The new found information the women inside had told me was still being processed through my brain. It had never dawned on me.. That a boy would ever like me enough to talk about me? That made my cheeks burn. Once seated on the bike seat, I took another breath, turned around and smiled toward Matthew.

“See you Sunday?” I asked with a small smile.

“I’ll see you.. Maddie!” He said returning my smile with one of his own. We then waved each other goodbye and there are episode ends.