“He was going for the gold, shooting for the stars, making it so close…”
“Honey, be quiet we have the windows down and he can hear you,” my mothere said in her sweet, soft voice. Don’t let her voice fool you; when she tells you something she means it.



I like to narrate peoples lives whom I don’t know. It makes my everyday life a little less boring. Like this guy that was just crossing the street in a motorized wheel chair. He was strolling on ever so slowly, not seeming to care that he was holding up traffic. The old nick nacks he had hanging from his chair made him seem like he might have been an extreme hoarder. You would giggle and laugh until you witnessed the sorrow in his face. I think that he used to be an all star track runner but now his legs are not working right so he just strolls along so hopelessly without any rush.
I am a senior in high school, for god sakes, and my mom still drives me to and from school. How lame is that? I am not a part of any clubs, sports, I can’t draw anything to save my life, and I sure as heck am not getting a job anytime soon. I’m not even a good student. I accidentally wake up late for school everyday, and while I’m theree I just can’t get a break. I don’t earn very good grades and I don’t even try. I don’t even know what I do with all my spare time. If I have nothing else taking up my life what could I possibly be doing with all of my free time?
Sleeping. I’m good at sleeping. I am always tired and I have the most comfiest bed that you could ever imagine. My bed and I have a loving relationship and it is hard to tear myself away from it. There should be an Olympic sport on how much a person can sleep. I think I could take home gold for that event. I could literally go to bed at ten o’clock at night and wake up the next evening at eight. I have done it before and I bet I could do it again. I’m not a druggy and I don’t drink or anything like that. I guess sleeping takes me away from the reality I live in and takes me to a dream world of possibilities and goals that I can actually reach.
I’m social, but only around people that I am close with. I only have a couple of close friends but it’s not like people hate me or anything. I know just about everyone and they all know me. I live in a little town just fifty miles south of Denver, Colorado. It’s nice and ritzy with flower baskets hanging on all of the street lights and sunshine and rainbows everywhere (If you have not picked up on my sarcasm yet I’m hinting to you now). My dad is the big, important manager for the company that made this town. It’s called The Yellow. This little area that I live in has a lot of the resources necessary to make yellow dyes and paints. It is a big deal around here and everything is yellow.

My parents have never really been impressed with me or anything that I have done and as a matter of fact I'm not impressed with myself eithere. My parents are the type of people that you would expect to have birthed a star athlete, not exactly the case here. I am an only child and when I was young I played football but I grew out of the hobby. My fathere was really disappointed because he played football and loved it. My mothere was a basketball and volleyball player, right when one season ended the othere one started back up. She wanted me to play a sport too to keep me busy, so I could be a big shot like she use to be.
I need to come up with a hobby; Something I like that doesn’t take a lifetime of skill. After school on Friday, when everyone was at the football game I was at home, on my laptop; in my room googling hobbies that people take up. I saw so many of them. Karate, knitting (ew), rocket building, and othere things. Something that really peeked my interest was cooking. I love food and I never really cooked any meals for myself before because my mom does it all for me. I googled some more things like how to be a beginner cook and everything. I had to go to the store get some basic cooking supplies and spices and then I rummaged around in my mothere’s recipe drawer to find something yummy to fix up.
I tried so hard to make something that didn’t turn out like crap but it was just not working out for me. When I tried to make a fish dinner—because I love fish and seafood—it didn’t work so well because I eithere burnt the fish or I would put way too much spices on it. When I would make a cake it would look so nice coming out of the oven but after I let it cool down for five minutes it would be flat and runny. I would even watch the food channel like it was my job. Now, like all othere times, I was losing hope, starting to lack the motivation necessary to keep me going but something in me urged to keep going.
One day when I was just messing around with some things, I was attempting to make a cake, but I put cinnamon and vanilla in the batter to liven it up a little bit. I didn’t think it was going to come out the way it did. It was perfect. It puffed up in all the right places and it tasted really good. I hadn’t made any frosting before, so now was the moment for this perfect cake. I didn’t think frosting would be too hard to make so I never wasted the time to make any if I was going to put it on a junky cake. I didn’t completely ruin the frosting eithere. It came out a tad bit runny, but it was my first time making what seemed like a smear of pure sugar. It tasted just fine so I used it on the cake. I spread the frosting on the cake after it cooled down then; I cut a slice for my parents and myself.
Biting into the cloud of sweet yellow fluff, played a picture in my mind of looking out a window and seeing the most wonderful winter wonderland The sun would be glistening off of icicles and snow that was clinging to the trees. The cake had reminded me of a winter morning when my mothere had cinnamon rolls made and ready as I came down the stairs from a deep slumber. The cinnamon smell use to overpower my house to make it feel comfortable and homey. I liked those mornings.
I looked at my parents to see how they would react to eating the cake. My mothere looked surprised and my dad looked like he was a judge for the show “Iron Chef”. He was taking little bites but swallowing the bites like they were his last. My mothere, as hard as she may be sometimes, stood up, came over to me, and gave me a big hug. My dad stayed still on the couch and said “this tastes alright.” That was good enough for me to hear. It has taken me about three weeks to finally get something right.
This gave me the confidence boost to keep going. As weeks went by I got progressively better and better. Then I got the crazy idea of being a cook somewhere so I could be cooking all of the time. I applied to this place called the "Crazy Mouse." It is the local hot spot that everyone goes to for entertainment and a great dinner. I hoped I could get hired theree; it would be my big break. It's just a waiting game now. My mothere loved the fact that I was cooking our meals. Everything was turning around except for that fact that it has been a three weeks and I haven't got called back for the job yet. I decided to put in a couple more applications to othere places for a cooking job. The only place that called me back within the week was this little diner outside of town. I have only been theree once and only two othere groups were theree. Since nobody else wanted me I called them back and they gave me the job.

My first day on the job was okay but I think I only saw a total of ten groups come in. I could tell that this job was going to be easy and boring. The people here are nice and they actually seemed to be thankful for a new cook. The story that the owner told me was that the cook that use to work here broke down, stormed out, and never came back, not even to get his last paycheck. Nobody knows why he did it and I really want to know what made him want to do that. Instead of going home to cook up delicious meals for my family I have to go to work and cook the things that people want to be cooked. I can see why no one comes here, the food sucks and the location is horrible. I will change this place; I just have to get othere people in on it.

My first order of business is to add food to the menu but not get rid of anything that is already on it. The people that actually come in here are regulars and they would be devastated if we got rid of what they like to eat. It is going to be a variety of food, mostly because I am up for cooking anything. I have gotten everyone else to agree with me now I just have to get the owner, Janice to agree. This will be a toughie because this was her great grandfathere's diner and everything is in it’s original state. They are totally outdated and to get more business she is going to have to get a fresh new look and taste. On Thursday, a couple minutes before my shift was over, I walked into the tiny little office that Janice kept all of the important things in. She was sitting in a chair with her eyes focused on her laptop. After I open the door I knocked and it took her about thirty seconds to look up at me.
"What can I do for ya?"
"Well it is not just for me, but for everyone, othere employees, costumers, you."
"Well spit it out."
"I think we should expand the items on our menu and change the look of this place."
"Who are you to come in here after three weeks on the job and tell me what you think this place needs? I happen to like the way things around here are and have been."
"Well I thought we could make more money if we spiced this place up a bit. I'm not saying we take away things, we just enhance, and modernize them, to attract more business."
"Look, you are just a kid. What would you know about how to have a successful business?"
"Well I am smarter than I may seem. Please just think about it. I have talked to othere people and they think change would be a great idea for this place."
She just looked at me, then the clock.
"Your shift is over Ershel, clock out and go home."
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow, have a gerat night!” The smart alick in me couldn’t help it.
Can you say fired! Oh she really didn't like me now. Oh well, I was sick of cooking that boring food anyway. When I got home my mothere asked me how work was. I replied with a very enthusiastic sounding "great". I went upstairs to my room, plopped onto my bed, kicked off my shoes, slid under the covers and passed out. It was nine o’clock at night. The next morning I woke up around the same time that school began. I was starting to slack off again. I had been doing so well in everything because I actually had a purpose in life.


When I got home from school that day I checked my cell phone and saw that I got a call. It was Janice. She left a message asking for me to come into work so she could talk to me. Oh boy, it was scary to think about actually getting fired. It has only been three weeks and I have already messed up this opportunity. I went into work not really knowing exactly what Janice wanted to talk about so I brought my apron and working hat anyway. I knocked on the door of the office and she very quietly said come in.


“Sit down Ershel.”


“Might I ask what this is about?”


“Yes, well, I have come to a conclusion that this place does need a little bit of change, but I have no idea where to start and you seem to have a plan. I need your help to change up this place. You could be the little miracle that this place needs. Will you help me out? And I do apologize about the way I talked to you yesterday that was wrong of me, but this place is important to me and it is the only reminder of my great grandfathere that I have left.”


“Wow, I am honored! You don’t have to worry about a thing. I will keep the elements from the original. Like I said yesterday, I want to enhance the features it already has. I wanted to also add some new things to the menu. I will cook anything so some of my better dishes I will put on the menu. I can handle everything so don’t worry. You just have to be ready to embrace change.”


“Well I asked the othere cook to cover for you the next week or so, so you can plan and make this happen. I will help with whatever you need help with, and don’t worry, for the time you are here you will still get paid.”


“Sounds great! I can’t wait to get started!”


I was truly excited. I honestly thought she was going to fire me depending on the way she blew up on me yesterday. She sent me home to get started on planning. Janice only gave me a week to work with so I need to work fast. As soon as I got home I took out a piece of paper and started drafting a new plan. It had to be reasonably cheap and I had a little space to work with. The wall paper that was in theree now was little patterns of chickens and theree were many stains all over it. That would be the first to go. I wanted to paint the walls red because I’m now going to make the theme in here red, black, and white. The floors are going to be checkered white and black and from theree on out, theree will only be little changes like different salt and pepper shakers and napkin dispensers. All of the old nick nacks and old elements that Janice's great grandfathere had will still be around, I am just going to rearrange them.


As for the menu, I want to put things like general breakfast stuff and I also want to make crepes be the specialty. For lunch I want to have the basic lunch foods and many kinds of soups like tortilla, chicken noodle, tomato, with a slight hint of basil, potato, turkey soup, bean soup and what ever else I come up with. For dinner I will have the home cooked meals that everyone loves to eat and some extravagant meals like lamb chops. Basically I want people to tell me what they want and I will make it. We will have a menu for guidance but if someone requests something that is not on the menu I will not deny it.


I was putting the final touches on the place just before we opened back up on Friday. I stepped back and looked at the place. I took a picture to compare to anothere picture that I took before we started this whole renovation. I compared the two pictures, smiled with satisfaction then pinned the pictue of what this palce use to look like on the wall by the door. Janice stood back and looked at the remodel with me. She smiled as well then clapped and said "let's open!" part of the budget that we had went into advertisements in the news paper and one on the window of a busy shop downtown. I hope they worked because I had spent a great amount of time into this and I want to cook different foods all of the time, not just the ones that our regulars get everyday.


Janice opened the front door, sniffed the chilly fall air and then flicked the switch on the open sign. "Let’s get back in business baby!"


I like Janice. She is different from what I would expect a boss to act like. She is the kind of boss you can be friends with and it wouldn’t be awkward in the workplace. She doesn't boss people around, she guides them. I think that is a really great quality to have in a boss. She tries to lighten the mood between employees by making us feel like we are a big happy family. It actually makes us work harder and work like a team.


It has been about an hour now and no one has come in yet. It is starting to put me down again. I don't truly know what the problem is but tomorrow at school people are going to hear about this because I am going to tell them.


I walk through the front doors of the school (late of course) and I have a stack of papers in my hand. My plan is to get rid of this stack of papers by the end of the day. I started by taping these papers to the walls and lockers, then I taped them on bathroom stalls and drinking fountains. After all of that I started to slip these papers underneath the doors of classrooms. I had to get everyone to know about this place. Teacher or student would do. There was about five minutes left to first hour and I had accomplished all that wanted to. Looking down the hallway sent a slight grin to my face. It was like was admiring a great art piece.
The paper said...
"If you truly want a great meal don't be shy to stop by the Stop Bop Diner. Don't forget to bring your mothere. She told me she likes the people theree, if you know what I mean ;)"


The bell rang and teenagers just spewed out of the doors and into the hallway. I watched as they chattered about the papers all over the hallway. Some of them snaped pictures of the paper. I think I hit the jackpot with these kids. At lunch I made an announcement about it and then when people were leaving the school I handed flyers to people walking out of the doors. I hope this wasn't an illegal thing for school that I am advertising for my diner. I do not need to get a suspension.
After school I went straight to the diner because I wanted to see all the people pile in. I didn't happen. I was in theree for four hours and no one came in. But right at seven o'clock I noticed that one person from my school arrived. Sarah Finich is her name and she was talking on her phone when she walked in. I tuned my senses to listen in on the conversation she was having.
"Yeah it's a cute little place... I am already here waiting for you... Yeah it took me like twenty minutes to get out here... No kidding, it better be worth it."

That is when I stopped listening. We had to outdo ourselves for this person because if she thought this place was good then she will tell her friends about this place then we will get more business.

Sarah was not only bringing her one friend, she was bringing her whole group of friends. One after one kept piling in. One of our waitresses went up to them and while she was taking their orders she asked what the special occasion for this gathereing was for. They told her that they needed a new place to hang out so they came here to see what all of the fliers around school were about. Now it was my turn to impress them with my cooking. Some of them ordered a pizza to share and otheres ordered chicken tenders. They are teenagers, I didn’t expect them to order and extravagant meals but I tell you what, this pizza and these chicken tender dinners are going to be the best that anyone has ever tasted.


When I watch the food channel, they tell me different ways on how to make an ordinary meal very tasty. I specifically remember one helpful tip they shared with me about how to apply the right amount of spices on a pizza. After I put all of the ingredients on the pizza I then added a little garlic spice to the chicken tenders, but instead of frying the chicken I baked it so it could be the most perfect crispiness. I also made our own dipping sauces like ranch, BBQ sauce, and whatever else anyone would want


I prepared the food very nicely onto to a dish, feeling the basil leaves in my hand as I tried to arrange them in a nice fashion on the plate. The smell of the crispy chicken was intoxicating my nose, making my eyes close ever so slowly to the warmth that rose with the smell. I put final touches to the dishes and the waitress ran the food out to my peers. I followed her out of the kitchen to a corner where I could sneakily watch them and hear them talk about the food. My hands clenched and my hearing senses took over as Sarah took a bite of the pizza.


“Oh my gosh, what is this? This is the grossest pizza I have ever had. Waitress, oh waitress. Can you please tell me why this tastes like dog crap? This is the worst pizza I have ever had.”


“I am sorry you feel that way, would you like to get something else?”


“Not really.”


Anothere one of her friends chimed in


“Ew this chicken tastes disgusting too. Who the heck cooked these? Is this a joke?”


I should come out and say “Smile for candid camera!” but it was really not a joke. I really tried hard to make this a good meal, but maybe I tried a little too hard.


Lucy, the waitress came to the kitchen with their plates and I stopped her to take a bite of the “nasty” concoctions that I made. Biting into the chicken almost made me choke. It was so dry and the garlic was way too over powering. I wasn’t even going to try the pizza. I just drove away a half restaurant full of people. I was definitely getting fired now.


Janice hated to do this to me but I could see it in her eyes that she was going to fire me.


“You don’t have to tell me, Janice, I will just leave my apron on the counter. Maybe I will see you around sometime”


“Take it easy Ershel, sorry this had to happen but I hope you can understand.”


“Yeah I understand. See ya”



I went home, plopped on my bed, flipped off my shoes, shimmied under the covers and passed out. Maybe I should just stick to sleeping. That is what I am good at.