It was that time of the day again, the worst time of your life, the period before lunch. As I watched the hands on the clock, it seemed as though they were not moving at all. It was 11:15 a.m. and it seemed as though the big hand would never move down, to its friendly and welcoming downstairs neighbor, the four. The teacher was talking to the class, but I wasn’t listening. The only thing I could think about at that moment was where I would be going for lunch next period. The decision that had to be made in an instant seemed to be the most important decision in your life. In the midst of my daydreaming I hadn’t realized that everyone had begun to stand up and was walking out the door. Startled, I sprang up from my chair, stuffed my things into my backpack, and darted out the door.
As usual I walked down a few rooms to Joey and Jon’s academic lab. There I found Jon and Joey, already talking about where to go for lunch. I joined them, listening in on their conversation.
“I don’t feel like going to Carlos,” Joey said, “We just ate there yesterday for lunch.”
Jon replied, “Whatever, I don’t care.”
“What about Mark Pi’s?” I suggested, “We haven’t eaten there for a while.” Jon and Joey pondered this for a second.
“Sounds good,” they replied.
Just as we turned around to drop off our backpacks in the lunch room Connor came sprinting over.
“Where are you guys going for lunch?” he asked, out of breath.
“Mark Pi’s,” Joey replied, “Want to come with us?”
“Yeah, sure,” Connor replied, “I’m going to head over and get a table. I will get a table for five, in case Kegan wants to come.” Connor pushed open the hallway door, in his usual rush to get to lunch.
As we walked into the lunch room Kegan walked up to us, with his usual spunk and swagger.
“Hey guys!” he said, “Where are you going for lunch?”
We replied, “Mark Pi’s, want to come?”
Kegan said, “Sure, let’s go!”
We walked out the door and were hit by that Tuesday’s cold November air. As we exited the alley and began to turn the corner towards the crosswalk that led a path to Fair Oaks mall across the street, Jon said “Hey, look, there’s Connor.” Sure enough there was Connor, walking through the parking lot, heading towards Mark Pi’s.
Outside of Mark Pi’s sat an obese homeless woman. When we walked up to the door she asked us, “Could you buy me some food, please?” Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough money to buy food for ourselves and her.
Joey answered her, “Maybe.” We opened the door, instantly devoured by darkness. We walked down the dark hallway, leading to the counter and the main dining area. As we passed the counter and scanned the area for Connor, we saw him waving from a table, located in the left corner of the restaurant. As we approached Connor, Kegan asked “Is Mickey our waiter?”
Connor replied, “Yes.”
After dining at Mark Pi’s multiple times prior, the people at the counter already knew we preferred Mickey as our waiter. We all sat down at the table; moments later we were greeted by Mickey, our favorite waiter.
“Hey guys, how are you doing today?”
We replied in unison, “Good!”
Mickey took out his notepad. “Can I start you guys out with some drinks?” Mickey asked.
I replied, “Could I get a coke, please?” Connor ordered a cherry coke while Joey, Jon, and Kegan asked for water.
After Mickey had brought out our drinks he asked, “What can I get you guys to eat today?”
Kegan ordered teriyaki chicken, Jon ordered chicken fried rice, Joey and I ordered chicken lo mien, and when it was Connor’s turn to order Mickey asked “Chicken fried rice, all white meat, and no veggies?”
Connor nodded. Mickey already knew Connor’s order, due to our common appearance at the restaurant. After Mickey had wrote down our order, he walked back to the kitchen. While we waited for our food to arrive we talked about our upcoming health test next period. Moments later our food had arrived.
“Hey, Mickey,” Kegan said, “There is a homeless lady sitting outside asking for food.”
Mickey replied, “Not again,” he said with a sigh “I’ll go call the cops. That’s the third time this week.”
After we had eaten our food Mickey brought out our checks and fortune cookies. We paid for our food and took our fortune cookies. We all opened our fortune cookies, cracking the shells in half, taking out the contents of the cookie, a small piece of paper with fortunes printed on them.
Kegan read his fortune, “Yourself and others around you shall stumble come across a great fortune, lucky numbers: 1, 12, 20, 44, 29, 53, learn Chinese, error, cuo.”
We each read our fortunes out loud; after everyone had read their fortunes the looks on our faces went from anxious to looks of confusion.
“Did anybody else notice that we all got the same fortunes?” Jon asked. We all nodded our heads in agreement.
Mickey returned to our table with our change, “Here you go guys,” Mickey said.
“Hey, Mickey, we all just got the same exact fortune, isn’t that crazy?” Kegan asked.
“That’s weird. You should play those numbers in the lottery, last time that happened those people won the lottery.” Mickey replied.
We left the restaurant, walking by as the police attempted to apprehend the obese and homeless woman. As we walked back to school everyone had a sort of a look of pondering on their faces. We reached the crosswalk, and as we were waiting to cross, “Do you think we should do that?” I asked.
“Do what?” Joey replied.
“Play our lucky numbers in the lottery,” I answered. Everyone pondered this for a moment.
“I think it would be a good idea. What do we have to lose?” Kegan replied. Everyone nodded in approval.
“Let’s do it. We can each put in one dollar and my mom will buy the ticket for us.” I said. Everyone handed over there money and we finished our short walk back to school, thinking about what would happen if we won the lottery.
That night after school my mom drove me to a nearby gas station. My mom and I walked up to the counter, we purchased a ticket with the numbers we had received from our fortune cookies. We walked out the door. I held the ticket tight in my hands, anxious to discover whether or not we had won. That night I went home, putting the ticket into my backpack.
The next morning I walked into the lunch room, completely forgetting about the lottery ticket. As I walked into the lunch room Kegan, Connor, Jon, and Joey all rushed up to me, I could see the excitement on their faces.
“We won, we won!” they all yelled in unison. I was in a state of complete awe and disbelief.
“We won?” I asked.
“Yes, Yes!” they all yelled.
I could not believe our luck, yesterday we were regular high school students, and the next day we are billionaires!
That day for lunch we ran to Mark Pi’s, excited to share our good luck with Mickey. We ran into the restaurant, soon becoming the center of attention.
“Where is Mickey?” we all asked.
“He is in the kitchen, I can get him if…” replied the lady at the counter, but we weren’t listening. We all ran back to the kitchen, accidently knocking over a waiter carrying a large tray of food. Finally we saw Mickey, preparing to serve food, a large tray on his shoulder.
“We won, we won!” we all yelled. Mickey dropped the food, noodles and rice scattering all over the floor.
“No you didn’t!” Mickey replied.
“Yes!” we all yelled. We then started jumping around the kitchen, thrilled at our new found fortune.
?
Ten Years Later…
After we won the lottery we each split up the money equally between the six of us. Joey attended college and got his degree in sports management. He is currently the manager of the New York Yankees baseball team. Jon went on the business school and purchased one of the largest technology companies in the world, Apple. Kegan later started to experiment with different hair care products, and founded one of the largest lines of hair care products. His company is famous for their motto “Go from Cyrus, to Beiber, in only two weeks!” Connor went on to found one of the largest Chinese food companies ever, the companies name was, “Ray’s Rice,” and their specialty is (If you can’t guess) Chicken fried rice, all white meat, and no veggies. Mickey went on to create and lead a new academy, “Mickey’s Waiter and Waitress Academy.” As for myself, I felt bad for the homeless woman who got arrested so I later bailed her out of jail and started up a local homeless shelter. In later years I was awarded the key to the city by the mayor of Columbus. Even though we have all took different routes in life, we still meet once a year on the first Tuesday of November, to talk about our new lives, and to recount on that day that changed our lives forever.