Catch a Glimmer of Your Star

Fried Noodles

At the street junction where Sunny and Basil left the school grounds, Sunny unexpectedly turned down the sidewalk instead of crossing the junction.

"Where are you going?" Basil asked.

"I don't wanna go home yet," Sunny replied, a mischievous curl of his lips. "Let's go to the mall instead."

Basil raised both eyes in surprise. "The mall? Why?"

"Why not? Looks like a lot of people go there after school."

They'd only glimpsed sections of the mall over the past couple of weeks, mainly window shopping. Basil figured that the mall was a huge place, a sprawling shopping center with loads of clothing stores, tool shops, furniture shops, tech emporiums, gaming stores, grocery stores, and food courts. It was like Faraway Plaza magnified a hundred times or more.

"Do you need to buy something?" Basil asked.

Sunny smiled. "Nope, let's just hang out."

Basil raised his eyes with surprise. He didn't expect Sunny to want to go to the mall with him. Perhaps this was just a temporary fling; maybe once Sunny made some more friends he'd go to the mall with them instead.

In any case, Basil was more concerned about what Mrs. S would think if they swerved off to the mall instead of going straight back home after school. "Shouldn't we go back home first so your mom doesn't worry about us?"

Sunny's smile grew a little wider. "I called my mom and told her we'd get back home a little later today." He fished out a new cell phone from his pocket.

Right, Sunny's mom recently bought him a new phone.

"Oh," Basil spoke, "you planned all along on going to the mall with me today?"

"Yup."

Ummm. Not what I thought you planned to do after school, at least not with me.

I guess if it's just to hang out, it's fine.

"Ah...okay, mall then," Basil conceded.

Basil followed after Sunny as they walked down the street towards one of the many mall entrances spread throughout the city blocks. He saw crowds of students from their high school making the mall their destination too, and wondered if he'd catch sight of Marie or another familiar face in here.

The jam packed crowds inside the mall, no doubt contributed by more than a few back to school shoppers, gave Basil an uneasy claustrophobic feeling. He preferred wide open green spaces, but figured that in a way the mall had its own appeal. To some, the rampant consumerism offered by the promise of sales discounts, the glitter of expensive brands, and the promise of fashionable new clothes must be a paradise.

Basil didn't take Sunny to be that kind of person. And he was right.

They were lost on what to really do in the mall and just wandered about without a destination in mind. The Sunny that Basil knew from back in the day would've balked at the thought of hanging out here and would've done anything to stay home instead. He didn't understand what caused the sudden change in Sunny's personality.

Well, everything different about Sunny that he'd seen recently, he attributed that to the impact of having stayed completely inside his house for four years. Anyone would want to go out, hang out, and get some fresh air after that ordeal.

"Hey, look, a book store," Sunny pointed out.

"Oh, sure, but, ummm, do you want to go to Hobbeez first?"

Basil wasn't aware that Hobbeez was a franchise, but the rather obvious letters painted bright orange hanging above the store to the right of the bookstore clarified that matter.