Page 47 of Hellcat Barbies: Imani
“Aww. Thank you, sweetie.”
He smiles and I step over to him. We checkout at the counter then exit the shop. My ride is parked a few spaces down. As soon as we are inside, he turns to me.
“What time I go to school in the morning?” he asks.
“Seven-thirty. We’ll leave around seven.”
“So, what time I got to get up?”
“Early. Enough time to get ready and eat something.”
“My cereal?” he asks.
“Your cereal or any of that other stuff we got,” I tell him.
I barely cook. When I do, I run into the store and pick up what I need. Full blown grocery shopping isn’t my thing at all. Last night, with his iPad, we placed an online pick-up order. I needed to make sure that he has the things that he likes so I let him load the cart. He shocked me though because he didn’t go overboard. At his age, if given that opportunity, my lil ass would have bugged out on candy and bullshit but not him. He picked a lot of fruits, cereals, and them frozen peanut butter and jelly shits, all varieties.
“Daddy?”
“What’s up?” I ask.
“I need a bookbag,” he says.
Fuck!I forgot all about his actual school shit. I focused so much on what he was going to eat before and after school, on his clothes and shoes, that I forgot all about his backpack and that big ass list of supplies that was in Little Einstein’s welcome folder.
“Shit,” I utter then shake my head. “We need that and your supplies.” I shake my damn head again then make the next left to head to The Shops at the Falls.
“I want a Marvin, the alien one,” he says.
“Who is Marvin, the alien?”
“You don’t know who that is?” he asks, sounding almost appalled.
I glance at him and he’s looking at me like I’m crazy as hell. Apparently, I should no who the fuck Marvin is.
“We’ll see what they have. If we can’t find it, you can get something else and I’ll look for Marvin online. You just need one for tomorrow. That’s cool?”
“Yeah,” he says, sounding less than cool. He really wants the Marvin one. Hopefully, we can find one.
About twenty minutes later, we are pulling up to the Shops. Parking here is a fucking nightmare and I hate it. They offer valet but I don’t like other people in my shit. I can kick myself for not remembering the book bag or supplies when we were here last week.
It takes about five minutes but I luck up on a park. Before getting out, I look up Little Einsteins and find the school supply list for first grade on the website. The shit is long as hell and half of the shit makes no damn sense.
Why the hell does a six-year-old need markers for the teacher’s white board and four packs of post it notes? Am I buying for the teacher or him? The fuck.
Since it’s back to school season, backpacks, school uniforms, and shoes seem to flood a majority of the store displays and windows. DJ and I search about five stores before he spots the bookbag with Marvin, the alien. Excitedly, he rushes to the rack and puts the bookbag on.
“I guess this is it?” I ask as I examine the colorful bookbag with the black alien on it. Something about it looks a little familiar. While pinching it to get a better look, I ask, “I know this. Where is he from?”
“Space Jams,” he announces.
“The list says a lunch box too. See if you like any of these,” I tell him. Next to the racks of bookbags are more racks filled with so many options for lunch boxes. With his Space Jam bookbag on his back, he checks the lunch boxes on the first two racks, one by one. When he moves to the third rack, I step in. “What are you looking for?”
“One with Marvin,” he says so I join in the search.
We don’t find one that exactly matches his bookbag but we do find one with a few of the Space Jam characters on it, including Marvin. That satisfies DJ so, he holds it as we walk to the counter to check out.
“Do you need a bag?” the sista at the register asks DJ.
