Make it Big, Nevada

Laser Tag Loser

"My hair," I moaned again.
"It's okay! It doesn't look..." Mandi trailed off in the end, probably not believing her own lie.
"I think I know what we can do!" She clapped excitedly. Yeah, heard that one before.
"You think so?"
"Yeah!" She nodded. "I saw this hairbrush in the prize room! We can fix the rat's nest you call hair!"
Okay, offense not taken!
"Eww Mandi! Rat's nest? That's gross! It's not that bad, is it?" I stared her in the eyes, hard, trying to see if she was lying to me. But luckily, Mandi was Mandi, and she told the truth.
"Yeah, it does look bad. We need that hairbrush!" Her green eyes met mine for a second and then quickly fluttered away to the pool. She suddenly shoved me out of the way.
"Ow! Calm down! What are you doing?" I demanded, shaking out of her grasp.
"Turn left, 3 o'clock," she said quietly.
"Which way is that?" I whisper yelled.
Mandi chuckled. "Don't know, just heard it in the movies! But look over at the boats! It's Lance Leiman! I thought you wouldn't want him to see you like," she waved her arms in my direction, "this."
I stood there dumbfounded until she yanked me into the bowling alley, out of view.
"He almost saw me like this! Now I need that hairbrush!" I said.
Lance Leiman almost saw my "rat's nest" hair! I would have never be able to show my face ever again.
We ran into the prize room for the hairbrush. I noticed it towards the top, hanging. I about puked when I saw how many tickets it costed. Two-thousand tickets for a hairbrush?
"Excuse me?" Mandi said to a blonde dude on his phone behind the counter. He looked up at her. Immediate horror fled through me. That was Jackson, my older sister's ex boyfriend! Let's just say our families weren't on best terms with each other.
"Oh hi, Nevada. Mandi," he said, no enthusiasm what so ever.
"Is that hairbrush really two-thousand tickets?" Mandi asked.
He slowly turned and gazed at the brush. "Nah, it's supposed to say five-hundred."
"Oh good! I need this thing! Can you hold it while I get some tickets and-"
"Actually," Jackson interrupted," it is two-thousand." That little jerk!
"But-"
"You know," he cut through again, " I need a hairbrush too. Maybe I'll save it for you until 3:00, but if you don't get it, I'll have to take it for you."
3:00? That was an hour and a half! I couldn't get two-thousand tickets in that short time frame! I glared at him, hoping my face was doing all the talking to him I wanted to say.
"It sounds fair," Mandi lied.
"Deal then. I'll see you in a little, then? Maybe?" He stuck his hand out for a hand shake.
"Yeah."
With that, we stalked away.
"Let's do laser tag!" I suggested.
Mandi shook her head no right away. "Or not," I sighed.
"Why don't we split up?" She asked.
That wasn't a terrible idea, actually. If I win laser tag I would get 1,000 tickets, and Mandi could win some more with her arcade games. We agreed on that and left.
I got in the semi-long line for the laser tag. I marveled at the complete "generosity" Jackson had shown me in the prize room. He did that to be mean to me; and I knew he thought it was funny. I just thought he reacted extremely immature about the whole breakup between him and my sister. I don't blame her though- he proposed to her when she was sixteen! She told him to slow down and he took that as a breakup call. I'm glad they're done with, though. He was a bad influence for her.
I scratched my head and remembered that I looked like the relative of a pig. I did a quick inspection of the room to make sure Lance wasn't in sight. I really wanted him to think highly of me. He was definitely the hub- bub of the grade. I wondered if he thought I was nice. What if he didn't even know I existed? No way, I assured myself. Everyone knew me: Nevada Brooks the dancer. Dance? I totally forgot I had dance later today!
The line shuffled into the dark enclosure for laser tag. Everyone put on the big vests and laser guns. Everyone kept looking at me. I must have looked pretty awesome in the gear. One guy asked me if I wanted a "smaller vest". I don't know what his problem was.
Once everyone was ready to go, we were lead into the dark arena. Little lights lit up ramps and walls so you wouldn't trip and die. The voice recording of someone talking in an intense tone reminded us of the rules.
"On your marks, get set,...GO!" It boomed. We all ran into the shadows. Cheesy action music began playing now. I heard a snicker and I whipped around to see a boy about three yards away hiding behind a pole. I crouched down low and pointed my gun at him. I pulled the trigger, expecting his lights on his vest to glow but my gun just scolded me, " Please use both hands at all times when firing."
"Shhhh!" I told it.
PEEWWW! I looked down to see my vest glowing red.
"You've been hit," my reminded me. I jumped to my feet and took off. I wove in and out of the random walls, ducking for cover whenever possible. I lit up again, and I grew even more aggravated. I knew I wasn't winning. That hairbrush wasn't going to be mine anytime soon.

I began to pant, so I tried to calm down a little. I found a nice corner with a wall and a little hole in it. I sat down, and to my convenience the hole was the perfect height.
My gun and I waited for my first victim. An older girl walked out into my view and I grinned. I yanked the trigger back and she was hit. She spun around, looking for me, but didn't see me. She tried to run but I hit her one more time!
Those tactics worked on a lot of people. It made me very happy. I thought I might even win. The voice recording told us we had one minute left. I was ready for anything! That, however, is when I was discovered.
"There's that little brat that kept shooting us!" A guy shouted to his friend when he noticed me. 'Run!' I shrieked with my mind.
I frantically scrambled behind another block. I was literally shaking. 'You don't understand! I need to win this!' I thought. I dove under another wall, and kept running.
"Ten seconds," annoying voice reminded us.
I flipped around and saw the boys were still chasing me. From predator to prey I went. Somehow their aim was not as keen as I thought it was,and they kept missing me. They wouldn't give up the chase though! At this point I began to start screaming.
"Ahhhhh! Stop it!" I whinned.
"You're gonna pay, little girl!" One of them yelled.
"Please, I need to win this!"
"So do I!" He mocked.
"Time is now up!"
The whole room lit up with fluorescent lights again and our gear deactivated.
I stuck my tongue out proudly at the nasty teens. They returned the favor.
The score board made my day. I won! I got the tickets!
"Here you go," a worker handed me the think stack of tickets.
"See y'all later you laser tag losers!" I teased and skidattled out of there.