“Woah, cool!” the redhead exclaimed. “She’s good!”
Melanie worked the machine, firing ball after ball up at the hoop until the buzzer sounded and the guard came back up to stop the balls from rolling down any more. She looked up at the scoreboard for the first time and saw that she had set a new high score. The brief moment of pride she felt quickly washed away as she noticed the ring of young boys and girls who had formed around her. These, she realized, were the intended players of the game.
“You gonna play again?” another kid, this one a mousy-haired girl, asked.
“Yeah, I have to get my niece those tickets I promised her,” Melanie lied.
It felt bad lying to a group of kids, but the long string of tickets hanging from the machine’s dispenser brought a new smile to her lips. There wer
