Casey Novak stood in front of the doors, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. Through the doors she saw it. The silver, limited edition Buzz Lightyear action figure. Only one hundred in stock. Casey's twelve-year-old niece, Lena, had started begging her for one as soon as she had seen it in the catalogue. Casey would come home to circled advertisements, messages and even cooked dinner in exchange for Buzz Lightyear.
She checked her watch. Fifteen minutes until show time. She looked around and saw others just like her-reading their watches and clutching their catalogues, probably with their hearts racing too. One girl even looked up and smiled, nervously, at her. She smiled back.
"Hi Casey!" a singsong voice yelled behind her. She then turned back in shock to see the smiling, arrogant form of one Trevor Langan. She rolled her eyes.
"Hi Trevor," she replied curtly.
"So Casey, what are you here for?" he asked.
"Buzz Lightyear." she droned.
"Oh. Me too." he chirped.
They both stopped dead and the moment was lost. They turned to look at each other, their eyes daring the other to go further.
"Game on, bitch." he hissed.
"Oh, you bet your ass." she confirmed.
They both turned back and looked at the doors. A shop assistant, dressed as an elf, took a key from his pocket and began to open the door. Casey tensed up and flexed her muscles. As the doors slid open she was off and racing. Until...
The girl who had smiled at her dropped a shopping bag. Casey slid, on the shopping bag, along the floor and then fell on her bum. She cried out in pain and Trevor ran over to see how she was doing. "Are you okay, Casey?" he asked, holding back a laugh and helping her to her feet.
"Yeah, I am. Just bruised my pride." She replied, only slightly grateful for the help in getting up.
They both then turned to look at the once abundant pile of Buzz Lightyears. There was one left. They both leapt for it. "Mine!" They screamed in unison. Grabbing it, they realised that they both had a hold on it.
"Casey. Let go of the Buzz," Trevor said calmly and firmly, tightening his grip on the toy.
"No!" Casey almost laughed at the absurdity of the request and pulled the box back towards her.
"Casey," he warned her.
"Trevor," she spat.
Trevor pulled the toy towards him and Casey tightened her grip. "No! That's MY Buzz Lightyear!" Giving him the evil eye she moved her hand upwards to break the box free from his grip. She ran as fast as she could to the registers with Trevor hot on her tail.
Twenty metres to the register he jumped on top of her, knocking her to the ground. He tore the Buzz Lightyear from her hand and ran. Casey put her leg out and tripped him over. They were back to where they started. Both with a grip on the box.
They stared at each other with an evil glare. Punching and kicking they fought, swearing and shouting, for the one and only Buzz Lightyear doll.
Over in the corner Olivia stood, laughing. She thanked God that she offered to cover her friend Lara's security shift that night. This brawl was the funniest thing that she had seen in years.
She stepped back to lean against the wall and almost tripped over a box on the floor. She looked down to see one silver-limited-edition-Buzz Lightyear. She looked back up. A conundrum. Should she hand it to them or not? An evil grin spread across her face. Nope. She'd wait to see who won.
Meanwhile, on the floor, the brawl had escalated out of proportion. Trevor had fistfuls of Casey's hair in his hands, while she had a nice grip on his arm and was twisting it in a Chinese burn. Onlookers had gathered around the fighting pair yelling encouragement. Kathy Stabler was even in the crowd, screaming at Casey to kick Trevor in the nuts!
A little boy stood in the back of the crowd, tears rolling down his face. He wondered why these adults were squabbling like kids.
He looked down at the Buzz Lightyear that he was holding. Did he really need it if it meant that two other people were being hurt because of it?
He ran through the crowd screaming "Stop! Don't fight!"
Casey and Trevor stopped dead, still in fighting position and looked at the boy.
"Please don't fight!" the boy pleaded with them, "You can have my Buzz Lightyear! Just don't fight!"
The two adults looked at each other and shook their heads. "Trevor. I'm sorry. You can have the Buzz Lightyear." Casey said, standing up and offering him the Buzz Lightyear.
"Thanks!" Trevor replied, smiling and running towards the registers.
"Barstard." Casey said under her breath.
The boy tugged at her sleeve. "Excuse me! You can have my Buzz if you want, Miss."
She looked down at him and the doll. "Oh no! I could never take your toy! Thankyou though …..." she stopped, not knowing the child's name.
"Peter!" The boy quipped.
"Well thankyou very much Peter! Your mother should be grateful to have a kid like you." She ruffled his hair and watched him run off to his mum.
"Nice swing." She heard a voice behind her. She turned around and saw Olivia dressed in a security guard uniform, laughing and holding a Buzz Lightyear figurine.
"Bitch!" Casey cried, realising Olivia had witnessed the whole fight.
Olivia held out the toy. "Surprise!"
Casey snatched the figurine. "You really are a piece of work." She said shaking her head.
"You're too kind," Olivia laughed, and guided Casey towards the registers.