The Talent Show

The weekend was drawing to an end. At least mine was. The youth rally I was attending lasted from Friday night until Sunday morning, but due to my dad's work schedule, we had to leave Saturday night. But even though there were only 2 hours left in that weekend for me, there was still one more event I could attend: the talent show.

     I had always wanted to compete in a talent show and was planing on competing in this one (especially after I heard that this one had cash prizes). So I headed over to the campus' gymnasium to audition. I was planing on playing the famous "Linus and Lucy" song from A Charlie Brown Christmas on piano.

 I had my music books in hand and just found relief from the biting January air when I saw it. The gymnasium, it was utterly gigantic. The room was larger than my house and the entire floor was lined with chairs. There must have been room for at least three hundred people. I turned to one of the judges conducting the auditions and asked, "Are you expecting all those chairs to be full tonight?"

     "Are you kidding?" He replied, "We usually have so many people at this thing that people have to stand in the lobby."

     With that, my eyes widened and my mouth became dry. There was a snowball's chance in Hell that I would preform in front of, what could end up to be, over 300 people. $25 wasn't worth it. "I'm out." I said as I walked off the stage. I felt a little weird about running away from this chance to be in a talent show, but it wasn't the only thing I would be running away from that night.

     As I walked out into the lobby I caught a glimpse of Kayla speaking with an older, grey haired man who she had introduced to me as her church's pastor. I didn't think anything of it and went on. That is, I didn't thing anything of it then, but five minutes later Kayla comes running up to me. "Nash!" She said, "My pastor hasn't talked to you, has he?"

     "No." I replied."

     "Good! If you see him, don't believe a word he says!" She said and ran away again. I was a little more than confused, but I didn't press the subject any further.

     It finally came time for the talent show and my dad and I were lucky enough to find seats. What the judge said about there being a lot of people was right. The place was packed. In the stirring commotion of people, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see Kayla's pastor. "You're Nash, right?" He asked.

     "Um, yeah. . ." I reply.

     "Come with me real quick." He then led me to where Kayla was sitting. He points at her with a mischievous grin on his face and says, "This girl has a huge crush on you!" Kayla hid her face in her arms and I could feel my face turning red. The whole room fell silent (mainly because the talent show was starting, but I didn't know that) and it felt like everyone was staring at me. Without a word, I turned and quickly walked back to my seat. As embarrassing as that was, a small part of me was elated to hear that Kayla liked me. It was great to know that my crush was not entirely one sided.

     After the talent show, it was time for me to leave. I went over to say goodbye to Kayla and she said, "Sorry if my pastor embarrassed you or anything."

     "Oh, it was no big deal. It was actually kind of funny." I lied.

     "You know, he was just kidding, right?" She said, "What he said wasn't true."

     "Oh, yeah. I knew that. Ha ha!" I said as a little part of my soul died.

     "Promise you'll be here in May for the next youth rally, will you?"

     "I promise," I said, "I swear it by the Popcorn Kernel of Truth." But the Popcorn Kernel of Truth, as it seems, only works once. It has seemingly the opposite effect after the first use because, due to appendicitis, I never made it to the May youth rally and she never made it the next January. I wouldn't see her again for over a year. And when I did see her, I regretted very much walking away that night. . .

"Miriam"

Throughout life, I have picked up many different nick-names. Some better than others. I've been known by such names as: Red (because my favorite color is red), Harrison (I have no idea why people called me that), Nash Potatoes (I will kill anyone who calls me that. I'm looking at you +Bailey Mills ), Nashie-poo (again, no idea), Retardud Cheez (classic case of mistaken identity), Mr. Awesome (I seriously got some people to call me that), and the Sex Hammer! (Okay, I admit. No one has ever called me that last one. But I'm working on it!) But one nick-name I cherished above all others. Only one person could call me that name and it was as embarrassing as hell, but it was my favorite. The name was Miriam and Kayla was the only person who could call me that.

     It wasn't too long after the lunch where I reunited with Kayla. All of  us (the kids at the youth rally) gathered in a large building in the center of Sunnydale Adventist Academy. There were roughly 100 of us all together, so the staff divided us all up into 10 groups of 10 (give or take a couple). Our groups were decided by the color that was on our name tags. If you name tag was dark blue like mine, you were in the Dark Blue Group. The Youth Leader stood up in front of everyone and began calling out the names of the group leaders. Once they were picked, we were to join up as a group and set out on some afternoon group activities.

     I was walking over to join my group when I saw someone else walking up as well. It was Kayla. She was also in the Dark Blue Group. My 14-year-old mind, that delusionally believed in fate, went nuts. There was no way it was an accident that we ended up in the same group just minutes after "accidentally" meeting her in the lunch line. I was convinced. We were meant to be together forever. As stupid as that sounds, at fourteen I actually believed it.

     It was here that I gained the aforementioned nick-name. One of our many group activities was a group exercise dubbed "Picture Perfect". In this exercise, we were given a Biblical scene and as a group we had to arrange ourselves in such a way that we resembled that scene. Then they would take our picture. Our scene happened to be "Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea". As soon as she heard what the scene was, Kayla jumped up and yelled, "I call Moses! I want to be Moses."

      So I turned to her and said, "Well, if you're Moses, then I call his sister!"

     She turned and looked at me, then she said, "Okay, Miriam." And that's the name she called me ever since.

     I hated that nick-name, but I loved it when she called me that. I would never let anyone else call me Miriam, but she could all she wanted. It was both my favorite and least favorite nick-name of all time. But I'll still kick your ass if you call me Nash Potatoes.

The All-Powerful Popcorn Kernel of Truth

I said goodbye to "Muffins" (as I called her) after that weekend at Camp Heritage. Even though we swore on the Popcorn Kernel of Truth to see each other again, no matter the cost, I feared it was a oath I would not be able to keep. But that popcorn kernel had a strange magic about it. A magic that would bind you to your word. . .

     It was almost a year later in January when I took a trip to Sunny-dale Adventist Academy for a youth revival weekend. I had all but forgotten about The Girl in the Blue Hoodie, that is until day two of that weekend. I was standing in line at the lunch buffet that Saturday behind a girl I had taken notice of earlier that day. I was thinking about trying to talk to her, but where would I begin with that? I tried to think of how I could start a conversation with the girl ahead of me, and then it hit me. I tapped her (giggity) on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, but you look uncannily familiar. Have we met before?"

     She turned around and said, "Hi, Nash."

     As she turned to her friend and whispered about how she was right and how she knew it was me and that her friend owed her ten bucks now, her identity hit me like a truck load of bricks. She did look familiar and I now knew why. The girl standing in front of me was the Girl in the Blue Hoodie, only now she had forsaken the blue hoodie for a white, puffy coat with fur fringe around the hood. She had died her hair blond and cut it shorter. I couldn't believe it was her. Just like that, everything I felt for her when I first met her came flooding back. I stood shocked, not knowing what to say. All I could think of was, "The Popcorn Kernel of Truth. . . It worked."

     That got her to laugh and it eased my nerves a little. I could tell that this was going to be a great weekend. . .

Competition

It's official. I'm no longer an eighteen-year-old guy who has never dated! What happened? I turned nineteen. . . And I got a date! She's a really great girl and I hope it goes somewhere. But before I get to that story, I must continue the story of how I became the person I needed to become before I could get to that point.

     Today I'm talking about competition. Not just any kind of competition, but competition between friends. Between friends, over women.

     As mentioned last week, my friend Tommy and I met a girl named Kayla. The Girl in the Blue Hoodie. I instantly fell for her, but what I didn't know was, Tommy did too. On our way back to our cabin, Tommy turned to me and said, "Do you like her."

     "Of course," I replied, "she seems like a great person."

     "No, I mean like, 'like-like.'"

     "Those annoying monsters from the Legend of Zelda?" I returned, being coy.

     "You know what I mean!" He snapped.

     I thought for a minute. I remembered what my experience with Erin and the Beatles had taught me. You've got to hide your love away. Even if you also have to hide it from you friends. They'll just be dill-holes anyway. "No. . ." I lied.

     "Well, if you did, I know you your competition would be. . ."

     "Who?" I said, trying to sound less than interested.

     "I can't tell you." He said, mimicking my coyness "I promised."

     "It's you."

     The dumbfounded look on his face confirmed my suspicion. My friend had just become my new arch nemesis and the ball was now in my court. "In that case, I do know who your competition is. . ."

     "Who?!" He asked desperately.

     "You know that guy who was wearing yellow Mizzou hoodie?"

     "Yes!"

     "Well, it's definitely not him."

      This conversation lasted almost all night and resumed again in the morning. He'd ask me if it was one certain person, and then I'd say no. It was almost time to go home on the last day when he finally said, "It's you isn't it! You lied!"

     "Yeah." I said, and got in my parent's car.

     "'Yeah', what?" my dad asked as we began our three hour drive home.

     "Nothing. . ."

     You know, I never saw Tommy again. I was the only one of us to hold true to the Popcorn Kernel of Truth. But in the end, it didn't really matter. Life has a way of throwing you curve balls that you never expect or see coming. I let my crush on Kayla get in the way of what might have been a good friendship. A friendship ruined by a crush that wouldn't last. . .