Pageant Question: What makes you a person of character?

The Summit Park Mall surged and flowed like a circulatory system, dislodging blood vessels into the capillaries of The Limited, The Gap, Merry-Go-Round and McCrory's.  Fresh into their teens and fresh into the big leagues of high school, Ann and Louise stalked the mall to see and be seen and not to buy.  Usually, not even to speak to anyone else, but to gawk and play with their new-found desire to be "cool".  A stop in the arcade was mandatory, followed by a pair of cookies from The Cookie Company, window shopping, and delving into the dark recesses of Spencer's Gifts.

Spencer's was one of the darkest stores at the Summit, and it got even darker in the back, lit only with blacklight.  The fuzzy, fluorescent posters glowed, tiger's eyes gleaming and psychedelic skulls leering.  Ann and Louise would spend a lot of time giggling over the "naughty" items also stocked in the back, like fuzzy handcuffs, boxed lingerie, and books offering sex tips.  The risque greeting cards were also fascinating, including the new line of real photographs of fat or ancient men and women.

Trying to figure out why anyone would want the numbers "420" on a bumper sticker, Louise was interrupted by Ann.  "Come on, Lou.  Let's go."

"Okay," she replied, letting Ann drag her out of the store.

Ann pulled her to a bench a few stores down, and smiled, propping her purse in her la.

"What?" asked Louise.  "Why do you look so smug?"

"These," said Ann, drawing a pair of white sunglasses from her bag, the tags still hanging from the ear piece.

"You shoplifted?  Ann?  What are you, nuts?"

Ann tried to shush her friend.  "Yeah, so keep it down!"

Louise closed her mouth and crossed her arms.  "No."

"No?  No, what?"

"No, Ann, you are not shoplifting.  You are putting those back.  Now."

Ann had the decency to look scared.  "But... I could be caught!"

"You will not shoplift."  Louise stood, pulling Ann up by the sleeve.  "Now put it back."

There was no argument.  Louise marched Ann back to Spencer's and watched while she disappeared into the store, dropping the white sunglasses back into the pile.  She returned without incident.  "There.  Happy?"

"Yes," smiled Louise.  "I am.  You aren't a shoplifter, Ann.  And you don't even need those!  You have a good pair of sunglasses on top of your head!"

52

Corey leaned back in his ergonomic, minimalist office chair and gazed at the computer screen without seeing. He had read the message, as clear as the black font on green. Terri was in trouble.

His hacker friend Terri was always getting in too deep. She was good, but the government was catching up, tech-wise. Even if she was beautiful, this was starting to get to be too much to put up with. After all, he had his position at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the most prestigious law firm in New York, to consider.

The forward-thinking firm had hired Corey as their computer consultant three years ago, long before anyone else, and he was not about to lose his extremely lucrative job. His 1000 square foot loft apartment, unheard of for someone his age, was well stocked with the latest in computer equipment, parts and pieces. Corey was developing computer programs on the side and was even on the verge of creating a gigantic hard drive--an entire megabyte.

Corey slipped back into his signature red high top Reebok's and began shut down procedures. Terri was quite beautiful.