kings for 5 minutes | Teen Ink

kings for 5 minutes

March 23, 2021
By sparky12314134, Tampa, Florida
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sparky12314134, Tampa, Florida
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English 
3rd period  
 
So there we were, face to face with our parents our brains shut down not being able to mumble so much as a word as we were being scolded at by our parents. Why where we getting yelled at? The short answer:  spending Alot of money, how much exactly at the time we didn’t know we just knew it was a lot more than the $40 we had to play games at the arcade that day, 260 dollars more to be exact. As our parents continued to yell, we remembered the fun time we had that day and swallowed the last little bit of pride we had left only to get served with a plate of chocolate covered “guilt.” I sat down next to my cousin feeling the soft red colored chair in the cruise lobby that gave us a comforting feeling that repelled the feeling of guilt in our stomach. Now I know what you're thinking… how did  two 12-year-old boys spend so much money without noticing? Well, your guess is as good as ours, but to explain how this all happened we go back to the beginning…. 
 
It was June 24th, 2019 at precisely 7AM the time me and my cousin had concluded we were going to meet, right outside our rooms to go eat and start our last day of early. When we both come out off our rooms we say “Hey” and continue to talk as we walk down the hall to the elevator.  
“What are we going to do today?” said Jose as he pushes the button to call the elevator down. 
Since I had just woken up, I did not know what to say because I was not paying much attention anyway. I said, “I don’t know yet we will figure it out after lunch.” Ding the elevator alerts us of its presence and we walk in. The doors open and suddenly our nostrils are attacked by an army of smells all coming from the cafeteria. We do as we have been doing this past week, he grabs the food and I look for a table then meet him back in line. I stroll over to the tables to pick out the best one to eat breakfast at, finally I find one by the window looking out at a clear blue sea. As I get back in line I ask, “What did I miss?”  

He responds with a bland “Nothing really” as we move forward one spot in line and it's our turn to order our omelet, “What are you going to have on your tortilla?” He asked me with a brief pause before ordering his food. 

“I'll have everything” I tell as I usually do most of the time. We waited and watched the chef crack the eggs and throw in a bunch of things I probobly couldn’t tell you the names of . We get our food, continue around the breakfast bar, and grab our food. When we finally make it to our table and sit down, we begin to brainstorm possibilities for today's activities. “Basketball?’’ I say taking a bite out of my toast.  

“Naw it's too windy” he responds half paying attention half lost looking at the sea. “we should stick to indoors today”. We argued back and forth on what to do until we were finally done with our food.it was windy that day and you could tell whenever you jumped or did a quick motion it felt as if you were being picked up and played with by the wind's powerful hands. The boat was also rocking a lot that day, so we all felt seasick you know that feeling where your body feels like somethings wrong, but you do not know what yes well that was us. We finally decided that we were going to go to the arcade but first we needed to make a pitstop by our parents and get some money. We found our parents in the lobby as usual drinking a cup of coffee.  

We walked up to our parents to ask for money to play games and my mom responded with “Wait till we finish our coffee” so we walked over to the bar that is nearby and asked for a soda. The bartender served us 2 ice cold cokes with tones of ice, so it was extra cold but not that much liquid so the satisfaction with the gaseous liquid went by fast. When we return to our parents they are done and getting up so we all collectively walked to the arcade to get a card to play but then were met with disappointment when it says we must purchase the cards in the lobby. So, we all shuffle back and then the group breaks up Jose and I go with my mom to get the card at the front desk and the rest of the group said there going to the pool.  
When we approach the deck a guy with a red suit on looking very fancy ask my mom “How my I help you today.” 

And she responds with “ Just getting them a couple points to go spend at the arcade” and continues to talk with the man. We do not really tune in much on the conversation, but we hear “Just 40 dollars will be fine” she pays and hands the card to us along with “Remember once it’s done come meet us by the pool.” and with that we were on our way. 
We walk to the arcade like any other kid would be full of energy and hope of winning something or a challenging competition between cousins. We hope to be in the elevator and go up to the 3rd floor. As I walk out, I see the arcade from afar and ask Jose “what should we do first?”  

As we were walking, he says, “I don’t know maybe air hockey?”   

I say, “Sure but are you really that desperate to lose” and we start a conversation as to whose better insult by insult slowly getting worse and our patience slowly melting away like a cone of ice cream on a hot summer day. When we reached the arcade, it was entering back into the freezer all insults aside and just played. After a couple games of air hockey, we move to the infamous claw machine a trap with sharp claws waiting for its victim to come into its grasp for it to pounce. But this one was not like the others. This one actually picked up the object it grabbed. So now that we found this new discovery, I declare a new challenge “let's see who can get the most things with the remaining points we have” little did we know the points would never run out...  
But us being us and not understanding that we played for hours... and hours we continued to waist 2 points and 2 points and 2points until the whole machine was out of stuff to give then when that happened, Jose finally said, “Ok we should do something else now’’ and picked up all our stuff. 
“I agree” I say grabbing my stuff and heading towards the door. 
“I'm just surprised the money lasted us that long” he says as he walks to the door too. When we came out of that arcade, we felt like kings with all the gold a king would hope for. Our booty ranging from stuffed animals to watches and gadgets we were loaded. But as we head back were stopped by our parents who to our surprise attitude was just a tad different than ours, we were happy and excited like a baby with a popsicle well they looked more like we took their popsicle. 

Now staring at us like we were criminals charged of a great crime my mom says, “do you have any idea how much money you’ve wasted” and So, there we were faced to face with our parents our brains shut down not being able to, mumble so much as a word as we are being scolded at by our parents. Why where we getting yelled at? The short answer: spending Alot of money, how much exactly at the time we did not know we just knew it was a lot more than the 40 dollars we had to play games at the arcade that day, 260 dollars more to be exact. As our parents continued to yell, we remembered the fun time we had that day and swallowed the last little bit of pride we had left only to get served with a plate of chocolate covered “guilt.” I sat down next to my cousin feeling the soft red colored chair in the cruise lobby that gave us a comforting feeling that repelled the feeling of guilt in our stomach. Now I know what you are thinking… how do two 12-year-old boys spend so much money without noticing. Well, the thing is that the points they bought for us had run out about 2 hours ago but the thing the front desk forgot to mention was that once that happened it was going to start to charge the card for what we bought. Now covered in guilt we go to the front desk and my mom asked the fancy suited guy “Who can I talk to for a refund” and so they get the manager out and explain our whole story. There was a lot of back and forth arguing but the power of 2 Hispanic moms combined overwhelmed the poor guy and he returned our money but long story short the money was returned, and everyone was happy, so this story really does have a happy ending. 
 
The end  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



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