It wasn't exactly the end of summer, but during the first week of August Bergenline Avenue turned into an outside mall. The vendors from 80^th street all the way down to 1^st street would bring out their products on the sidewalks and with it are deep, deep discounts. It was actually a sidewalk sale to end all sidewalk sales.

I just wanted to hang out and go to Julio’s for a slice of pizza heaven.  Sam would go to pick out whatever clothes, accessories and shoes she could afford for the next season and for the beginning of school. I’m not that meticulous about what I wear or how I look. I have been like this since as long as I could remember. I suppose I’ll stay like this forever . . .  I don’t know. I just reach inside my closet and if it’s clean and doesn't smell (that bad) it’s a winner.  But obviously it’s a big thing for other girls. Some girls even go dressed to school like they were going to a night club versus a high school.

“Are we doing this or what?” Sam asked me from downstairs one Saturday afternoon that we decided to go to Bergenline to do some shopping. She spent the night and we didn't go to sleep until around 4am, so we stayed in bed until mom came in and opened all the blinds in the bedroom.

“Such a beautiful day!” mom said. This made us get up quickly.

“I’m going!” I shouted from my bedroom. I finally ran down the stairs in what I thought was the hippest thing I could find in my closet.

“Oh my gosh, what are you wearing?” Sam asked me with her forehead wrinkled and disgust in her face.

“What, it’s a ‘Hello Kitty’ t-shirt! I answered. ‘Hello Kitty’ is an icon of my generation and I’m not afraid to show it.

“And what do you have going on down here?” Sam asked dangling her long fingers from one hand down around my feet area.

“Hello Kitty sneakers,” I said kind of bashfully.

“And what did you have going on in this area of your face lips?” Sam said pointing to my lips. “They’re the same color as your t-shirt…pink!”

“Well, they match!”

“Go upstairs, change your shirt and sneaker to something else, oh let’s say, something your own age group; wipe off the pink lipstick, unless you’re going to the circus to interview for a clown position.”

“That bad.”

“Yeah.”

So I came downstairs with my regular outfit of jeans, a t-shirt and my converse sneakers.

“Very ordinary, but at least you look human,” Sam said to me. “Who are these people on your t-shirt? Are they in the circus too?”

“No, it’s a band called ‘KISS’! My dad gave it to me! And if you have a problem with it, you’re gonna have to take it up with him!”

“Okie dokie,” was Sam’s response to my fit.

On the other hand, Sam was perfectly coordinated from head to toe. She had a purple sheer top with a delicate egg shell color lace around the collar, a darker purple short skirt, white tights and puffy pink socks with white and black Sketchers. Her hair, although short, was tied up into two little pigtails with pink and purple thing-a-magiges dangling down to her neck. In contrast with her strawberry blond hair, the pink and purple looked kind of cool. My brown hair would make it look dull and boring.

“Mom, we’re leaving!” I shouted to my mom.

“Okay dear, have fun!” she answered back. She was so busy cleaning she wouldn't have even noticed that I left if I didn't say anything.

I lived right down the block from Bergenline Ave., right around 80^th street.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Sam.

“No,” she answered. “Your mom’s pancakes filled me up this morning.”

“Yeah, they were good,” I said.

“Well,” Sam continued, “let’s start over at one of my favorite stores, the Army and Navy store.”

“Okay, as long as we don’t go to the Thrift Store.”

“Oh, we’ll go there . . .  later.” Great.

We pick up some refreshments in Mikes Ice Cream and Soda Shop and continued to go on our merry way. So we finally arrived to the store. “What exactly are you looking for?” I asked as I sipped through the straw of the bottle of my root beer.

“I’m not exactly looking for anything specific, just looking to see if anything would catch my eye,” she said. “Let’s go outside and see what they have on the sales rack.”

I don’t particularly like shopping. I feel that I could do other better things then look at shirts, pants, hats, shoes…

“Don’t move,” Sam told me sucking in some air.

“Why?’

“Let me look, don’t move,” she whispered to me while peeking around me.

“Okay, what is it, a fly, a bee, a bear… what?”

“An Andy!”

“A what?’

“Oh, he’s crossing the street… and headed this way!”

“Oh, oh, what do I do?”

“You do nothing,” Sam replied sharply. “We’re shopping. That’s all.”

“Okay, okay, we’re shopping, you’re right, we’re shopping,” I needed to keep on saying that to myself again and again. Just act normal, just act normal.

“Oh, Tyler is with him, he’s cute,” Sam said delightfully. “Oh and you may want to finish that root beer you've been nursing the last 30 minutes.”

“Oh, yeah.” So I took the few last swigs and one last long slurp. Sluuuuuurrrrrrrp!

“Well, hello,” Andy said peaking over a rack of 40% off jackets. “Did you enjoy your drink?”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

“Hi, Andy, Tyler, Steven,” Sam said to the 3 boys while she was pushing me around the rack away from people. “We’re just shopping, looking for new cloths for school, right Nina?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Did you guys just get here?” Andy asked.

“Aha,” I answered.

“What are you guys up to?” Sam asked.

“Going to shoot some hoops at the park,” Tyler answered.

“Finding a lot of good sales?’ Andy asked me.

“Yup,” I lamely answered.

“Are you on a one syllable word kick or something?” Andy asked me with a little chuckle in his voice.

“No!” I answered. Crap!

“Like your t-shirt Nina,” Tyler said. “My parents have their vinyl albums.” He said it with a little of a smirk. Like if he was sooooooo cool!

“That’s kind of a cool t-shirt, dude, it shows she has some… character,” Andy said in my defense.

I couldn't think of anything to say, “Yea!” Gosh!

“Well, okay girls, we gotta get going, see you later,” Andy finally said with a little wink my way and they left.

“What-is-the-matter-with-you?” Sam told me with her teeth gritted.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” I said quickly.

“Oh, now you come up with a full sentence and with words containing more the one syllable!”

“I know, I know,” I said desperately.

“You had a chance to talk to Andy, and what do you do?”

“I got, I got… nervous.”

“Come on, let’s just keep on shopping,” Sam told me. “Maybe by the time school starts Andy won’t remember this.”

“Hey!” I shouted at her.

We went to a few other clothing stores and Sam finally found some things that she liked.

“Aren't you going to buy anything, anything at all?”

“No,” I answered.

“Yes, you are. We’re gonna buy something that you really need.”

Then we entered a pharmacy store. “What are we getting here that I need so bad?” I asked.

“A spine!”

“No, really.”

“Lipstick!”

“Lipstick?” We were standing in front of the cosmetic section of the pharmacy with a gazillion different, eyeliners, mascaras, lip liners, face powders, councilors, fake eyelashes, blushes, eyebrow pencils, foundations, eye shadows, and of course lipsticks.   

“Yes, normal lipstick!” Sam responded. “Give me your arm.”

“What are you gonna do with my arm?”

“Will you just give me your hand,” Sam said yanking my hand towards her. “It’s called a leap of faith.” She started taking out lipstick and check them next to my skin. “Hmmmm.”

“What?”

“I’m just checking for skin color.”

“Okay?”

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you this?”

“My mom doesn’t really wear a lot of makeup,” I answered. “She believes in nature beauty.”

“Well, so do I, but sometime even nature needs some help,” she answered me while still checking out colors. “Okay, I like this color. You’re white, but not pasty, so I think you need a little of color and this lip liner will give your lips a nice shape.”

“K?”

“Are you stuck again on one syllable words?”

“Ha, ha, ha,” I responded.

“Seriously?” Sam opened the boxes and outlined my lips with the lip liner and applied the lipstick. “Okay, now look in the mirror.”

“Wow. That kind of looks real nice.” My lips came alive. It’s like someone gave it a complete makeover. For the first time in my life I looked in a mirror and I saw something. . . pretty.

“Ya like.”

“Yeah!”

“Well, who knows, maybe this will be the beginning of a new Nina.”

“A new Nina?”

“Sure, first your face, and then your hair, then your. . .”

 “Hey, hey, let’s stick to lips first!”

“Whatever.”

“Uuuuh, how about this one,” I said grabbing another lipstick on the shelf.

“Oh you have to be kidding me Nina!”

“What, I just want to try it,” I said while looking at the lipstick. The name on the label was ‘Blood Red’ and it was exactly that. . .blood red.

“Wow, that looks, well, it looks. . .scary,” Sam said to me while covering her mouth.

I looked at myself in the mirror and pouted my lips.

“Sexy,” I said.

“Yeah, sexy would not be the word I would use to describe that color.”

“What, I like it.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Of course I am.”

So, I started walking over to the checkout counter to pay for my items.

“Wait, wait, where are you going with that lipstick on your lips?”

“Ah, come on, let’s have some fun with people. And anyway, it’s my lips not yours!” I said passing the perfume counter and the bath soap section.

“Aren’t you afraid that we’ll run into anyone we know?”

“I ran into Andy already, how much worse can it get? Besides, he said he was going to the park, and what are the odds that I would run into him twice in one day!” Then I went around the ropes by the checkout counter to get in line.

“I guess you’re right,” Sam said to me.

“Of course I’m right, I don’t have that kind of luck,” I said as I was walking backwards facing Sam and…Bang!

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I said banging right into the person in front of us on line.

“So we meet again!” OMG! Can this be happening to me again?

“Hi Andy,” I said. Andy was at the checkout counter getting a bottle of water.

“Getting some ah. . .makeup?”

“Don’t say yeah, make up a full sentence,” Sam whispered in my ears.

“Yes, we came in to buy some lip...”

“Lipstick, yeah, I can see that,” Andy finished my sentence. “Very…interesting.”

“Thanks,” I answered as I felt my face turn redder then my lipstick.

“All right ladies, are we gonna purchase anything today?” the clerk said to me. He was a big, chunky young man, with a few strands of blond hair hanging on to dear life on his head, one crooked ear and really bad teeth.

“Oh, yes, this please,” I responded as I placed the lipstick and lip liner on the counter.

“All right, see you later,” Andy said, “going back to the courts.” And he was gone.

“I can’t believe this happened to me! Tell me the truth, does this lipstick look that bad?” I asked Sam.

“I like it,” the man behind the counter said with a smile that exposed two teeth he was missing on the side of his mouth. I lowered my eyes not to look at him as he gave me my change and left without saying a word.

“Does that answer your question,” Sam said quietly.

Eye roll, head shake.

“Well, at least you handled that a lot better than the last meeting,” Sam told me as we were walking out of the store.

I took the back of my hand and wiped the lipstick off my lips, but instead it just smeared on my face even more. “My luck . . . twice in one day!”

“Nina you really need to take that off, it’s smearing all over your face.”

“Great!”

So, we went into a few more stores and I went into the first public bathroom to scrub off the lipstick.

“How’s that?” I asked Sam.

“A little better, but…”

“But what?”

“Never mind, just remember to get a chisel when you get home.”

“Chisel, check.” Super!

After that we decided to call it a day and went to get some pizza made to perfection at Julio’s. When we walked in the pizzeria, Julio was on the phone, “Julio’s pizzeria, we bake ‘um, you take ‘um!”

“We would like 2 slices with pepperoni and 2 Cokes please,” I said.

“Just water for me,” Sam said.

“One Coke and one water, please.”

“Okey dokey, a few minutes ah,” he said with his half English half Italian accent. He gave us our drinks in larger then big cups with straws inside paper wrappers and we went to sit down in a booth.

“I’m gonna sit with my back to the window, I kind of don’t want to see Andy again today,” I told Sam.

“Girl, I think you've seen Andy today more then you've ever did before in one day!”

“Yeah, I think your right,” I responded. “Now, if I could only keep a conversation going with him, I would be moving ahead!”

We both laughed. Then I picked up my straw in my drink, took a napkin, started cutting a few pieces off the napkin, put it in my mouth, and shoved small wet pieces of paper in my straw.

Thuuuuuuug! Right on Sam’s forehead.

“Bulls-eye!” I yelled.

“Oh you di-in’t!” Sam answered. She went ahead and took her straw and started to do the same thing. Thuuuuuuuuug!

“Oh, yeahhh baby, how you like me now!” she exclaimed.

So of course, I had to go ahead and send her back another spite ball. “Hey, check this out! Johnny taught me. It’s not a spit ball, it’s a snot ball!”

I took the straw, loaded it up with a wet piece of napkin and instead of putting in my mouth to shoot the paper out, I put it in one of my nose nostrils and blew.

Thuuuuuuuuuuuug!  Right on her cheek!

“Ahhhhhhhhhg! That’s disgusting!” She tried doing the same thing, but her nostrils were too small and she couldn't pull enough air through her nose to catapult the paper.

“Crap!” she yelled. I kept on flinging snot balls at her. Good thing Sam was a good sport. She just sat there and laughed and tried to deflect the balls. She just continued to laugh, and laugh . . until she stopped laughing. I kept on flinging snot balls, and she kept receiving them, but this time she wasn’t laughing. She sat there with a bewildered look on her face.  Her eyes got kind of glassy and it looked like she was staring into space.

“Pizza pies are a reedy!” Julio shouted. Thinking it was ours I stopped, turned around and looked over to the counter. There were 3 guys picking up a couple of pizza boxes. Then I saw who they were as they past our booth…Andy, Tyler and Steven.

“Nice snot balls shooting!” Andy said as he opened the door and left.

I was paralyzed. I wished the earth would just open up and swallow me.

“Was that who I thought it was?” I asked. Sam was as perplexed as I was.

“Yes, I, I, I saw them.”

“You saw them, when?”

“When they came out of the bathroom!” she continued with arms bouncing up and down fast out of frustration. “They sat at the stools by the window, but I didn't see their faces and I didn't pay much attention to them!”

“You didn't pay much attention to them?”

“No, I, I didn't recognize them…I, I was too busy deflecting your snot balls!”

“What kind of excuse is that?”

“It’s the truth!”

“I can’t believe this happened to me 3 times today! How long were they there? Maybe they didn't see that much!”

“Oh no they were there for a while. Quietly sitting there waiting for their pies,” Sam said. “I didn't notice them until you sent a snot ball in my hair and I was taking it out and I focused in their direction.”

“Were they looking at us?”

“No.”

“Oh, good.”

“They were looking at you!”

“Aaaahhhhhgggg! I cannot believe this, I cannot believe this! I wasn't throwing regular juvenile spit balls, oh no, no, no, not me, I was throwing gigantic retarded snot balls!” I slammed my head on the table then covered it with my arms.

“It’s not that bad Nina,” Sam said as she patted my head.

“Oh, how so?” I said slightly lifting my head.

“At least they found it funny,” she said with a sincere smile on her face.

I looked up at her, my eyes red and my nose runny. “Oh, and you think that’ll make me feel better.”

“Pizza up,” Julio said with two plates of delicious pepperoni pizza in front of us. He looked at me and just dropped them down the table. He turned around and said something in Italian, maybe something like “American girl are so silly”.

“Here, Nina, have some pizza, you’ll feel better,” Sam said cheerfully.

I sat up enthusiastically. “Oh, pizza, yes, that’ll take away all my problems and embarrassing moments of the day.”

“Would you like some garlic or pepper on your pizza?” Sam asked.

“No thank you, but can you please pass the cyanide and shaker full of broken glass.”

The walk back home was quiet. I swear, if Sam would have let me, I would have put a paper bag on my head until we got home.

“How was your shopping spree today, dear?” my mom asked.

“Awful,” I responded.

“Didn't you buy anything?”

“No.”

“Well, why not?”

“Because I didn't feel like it,” I said with a little bite.

“Actually she bought some really nice lipstick,” Sam chimed in.

“Oh how nice, well let me see,” my mother said.

“What’s there to see, the color is bloodshot like my eyes!”

“What’s eating you?” my mom finally asked.

“Look, I don’t want to talk about it…I’m going to bed,” I said as I stormed up the stairs.

“Mrs. Martin,” I heard Sam said to mom before I slammed my door closed. “If you give me a ride home, I’ll tell you what that’s all about.”

“Sounds like a great idea Samantha.”

So an hour later, after I took a bath, changed my cloths, rested for a while, had a pint of ice cream. . .chocolate . . . with chocolate syrup . . . and whip cream. . . and a cherry on top (we didn't have any cherries so I went with a pickle. . . didn't taste that bad), I felt better. Hey, this experience took a lot out of me, don’t judge!

After my mom dropped Sam off at her house, she came upstairs to my room. I was in bed with my earphones on listening to some music with my dog sleeping by my side and my head covered with a pillow. I was hoping that the lack of oxygen will make me forget what happened today.

“Honey, are you okay?” my mom said as she knocked.

Although I was listening to some tunes, it wasn't that loud. “Com’ in mom,” I said. I took my ear phones off and my pillow off my head.

“Honey, Sam told me what happened,” she said while pushing my hair back with her hands. “You have such pretty hair.”

“I’m ugly!”

“No you’re not.”

“Well, then I’m ordinary.”

“Do you like you?”

“What?”

“Are you happy with who you are, and how you treat other people?”

“Well, yeah, I guess so.”

“So that’s all that matters. Look, you’re going to live with yourself longer than any other person you meet. So the first person in the world that you have to like … is you.”

“But Andy and…”

“But Andy, but Andy,” my mom continued. “Nina, Andy is only one of the many boys and men you’re going to meet. Just take it as a pop quiz.”

“A pop quiz?”

“Sure, before you take a test, your teacher will give you a quiz to prepare you for the big test, right?”

“Yeah, most of the time.”

“It’s better that the teacher gives you this little quiz so it can prepare you for the big one. So consider Andy as a quiz preparing you for the big one. But you’ll have many quizzes and perhaps make-up tests, and plenty of homework before you can pass the big test.”

“Marriage.”

“That’s right, honey, marriage. But don’t forget to learn from these little tests, so you can be totally prepared for the big end of the year test.”

“I guess you’re right mom. And I am happy with myself, but…”

“But…?”

“I just feel that I can do better.”

“Oh Nina,” mom said with a chuckle stroking my hair. “Everyone feels they could improve on their life, that’s natural. But believe me when I tell you, someone out there one day is going to like you for who you are…Nina Marie Martin. And it’s going to be fantastic.”

“Really, snot balls and all?” I said with a grin.

“Snot ball and all…well Nina really, snot balls, not spit balls?”

“I know, that was a little immature of me.”

“I think you’re hanging out with too many young kids!”

“No I’m hanging out with too many immature Johnny’s is my problem.”

So we both laughed as she hugged me. “Say, I’m going to adventure and make a cherry cheese cake, wanna help?”

“Sure. Hey by the way where is dad and Ian.”

“Have no idea, they left this afternoon and haven’t come back yet.”

We went downstairs to the kitchen to start the cheesecake when Dad, Ian and Johnny walked in the house.

“Lucy, I’m hoooome!” dad said in a sotto Spanish/Desi Arnaz accent.

“Look what we got mom!” Johnny said very enthusiastically.

“That’s my line,” Ian said dragging the words.

“Oh, well let’s see, where is it?” mom said.

“It’s outside, come and look!” dad said.

We went outside, and both my mom and I did a, huh! sound.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s a chopper!”

“A what?”

“A helicopter…a miniature one of course.”

“Yeah, dad didn't want to splurge for the real thing!” Ian said.

“Oh, yes, I would think that would have been too much,” my mom finally said.

“Why a helicopter?” I asked.

“Why not,” my dad said. “Isn't it a beaut! I got it for a really good price.”

“Well, that’s nice, so what do you do with it?” my mom asked.

“You fly it!” So my dad grabbed the controller and the thing went straight up, then it started to swerve and fly to the right and fly to the left and bounce up and down in the air real hard. “You need some time to get a little control of the thing!”

“Obviously.” I said.

“Well, that’s nice honey, Nina and I will be inside making a cheesecake!”

“Okay hon!”

My mom put her arms around me as we walked into the house. “Boys and their toys,” she whispered to me. We made it inside the house when we heard a loud CRASH! and when we ran to the front window, dad was looking down at his new possession in horror as it sat on the sidewalk in 100 pieces while Johnny and Ian were hysterically laughing. Then my dad’s face went from horror to disappointment to mad. I don’t read lips, but I think dad was cursing at the broken contraption. It was sure a sight to see.

My mother and I ordered Chinese food.

“Did you order the ribs with bone?” my dad ask mom.

“Yes, honey, I ordered the ribs with bone.”

“And did you order the little things with the cream inside?” asked dad.

“Yes, honey, I ordered the little things with the cream inside.”

“And did you order the…”

“Rick! Sit down, grab a chopstick and eat!”

We all sat at the table with at least 8 open containers, making a mess and picking at each container with our chop sticks.

“Chinese food doesn't taste like Chinese food without chop sticks,” dad said.

“Amen to that,” Ian said.

After everything was cleaned up mom served the cheese cake in the dining room and we all played a nice long game of Monopoly. At the end of 3 hours, Johnny had more property and money than any of us.

“Oh you had to cheat,” I said.

“I know he cheated,” Ian said.

“Did not,” Johnny said in his defence. “I’m just good at finance and business.”

“It’s paper money,” I told him.

“I know, just the same.”

My parents stayed up to watch the late late news and I went to bed after that. No playing video games for me tonight. I had to take care of the Dr. Bonnelly’s kids tomorrow morning for a few hours and I needed my beauty rest.

I stayed in bed thinking about what mom told me today. And I am happy with the person that I am. But, yeah, I kind of like to see a little bit of change with myself. I vow to pay better attention to my wardrobe, shoes and accessories. And I will start taking better care of my hair, skin and nails. Tomorrow . . . Next week . . . The beginning of the school year. Well, maybe someday.