We’d taken two more turns each when Carol said, “And please, don’t ride on Stan’s cart. He has work to do, and if he gives you all rides, he can’t get it done.” She seemed to glance in my direction.
My cheeks went hot. I wasn’t used to being scolded. I was a rule follower.
Seth leaned over, took the pen out of my hand, and whispered, “That doesn’t apply to us.”
“I think it was only said for us,” I replied.
“Stan loves us. I can’t give up the cart.”
I held back a laugh and kept my gaze on Carol. I didn’t want to get scolded twice today.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seth fill in the remaining squares on his hand. “Oh, look at that. I won.”
I pursed my lips, grabbed the pen, pulled his hand toward me, and lined through the game. At the top I wrote, Maddie rules.
It wasn’t until I was done with my modifications that I noticed I had put Seth’s hand on my knee in order to write. Now my cheeks were more than pink.
“Did you have a question back there, Maddie?” Carol asked, and every single head in the four rows in front of us turned back to look.
I pushed Seth’s hand off my knee and crossed my legs. “No, I’m good. I won’t ride on Stan’s cart.”
“We were past Stan’s cart,” Carol said.
“Oh, right. I’m sorry.”
She smiled and said, “I’d like you all to review your paperwork on file and make sure your personal information doesn’t need to be updated. I’ve had trouble getting ahold of a couple of you with the numbers provided.” She put a file box up on the table. “That’s all for now. Thanks so much for all you do.”
Chairs scraped the floor as people stood and moved toward the front of the room to look over paperwork.
“This is why you should always sit in front,” I said to Seth. “Now there’s a line.”
“You sit in front?”
“Most of the time.”
“But in the front it’s impossible for you to draw hearts on my hand.”
I let out a small gasp before I realized he was joking. “Yeah, yeah.”
I got in the line. I thought Seth would join me, but when I looked back he was talking and laughing with a girl named Rachel. She had red hair, the cutest freckles, and bright green eyes. I didn’t really know her well, but she lived in the next town over and was always getting assigned to Monkey Row. Seth was the friendliest guy ever. His easygoing personality seemed to attract everyone to him. It didn’t surprise me that I wasn’t his only friend here.
Louis and Hunter, two guys I rarely worked with, walked over and began talking to the guy in front of me. They eventually joined the line, nearly stepping on my foot. I tripped backward before I regained my balance, but they didn’t seem to notice.
“Maddie!”
I looked behind me to see Seth wave and then point at the exit. I pointed at the box waiting on the table. He shook his head and yelled, “My info is right!”
I waved, not wanting to yell across the room. But others didn’t care because a handful of people in line called out, “Bye, Seth.” He waved again and he left. I didn’t see Rachel anywhere. I wondered if they’d left together.
Louis and Hunter were talking now and I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but they weren’t trying to keep their voices down either. “Did you see that someone from Tustin won the Powerball Saturday?” Louis asked.
The Powerball jackpot. I’d forgotten all about that. My ticket was still tucked in my jeans in my dirty clothes basket, useless because I never registered it, or did whatever I was supposed to do. I wondered if I could register it for the next drawing. I also wondered if I knew the winner. Tustin wasn’t a huge city, but in Southern California, cities bled together. Tustin ran into Santa Ana, which ran into Westminster, which ran into Anaheim and then Los Angeles. Sometimes it all felt like one big city.
“Who won?” Hunter asked.
“They’re not sure yet, the person hasn’t come forward.”
“What do you mean hasn’t come forward?” I blurted out.
Louis turned toward me. “What?”
“Don’t they tell people when they win? Don’t people register their tickets or something?”
“No. If you win, you have to go to them,” Hunter said.
“To who?”
He shrugged like my questions were getting bothersome. “I don’t know. The lottery people I guess. I’ve never won.”
“Ninety-nine percent of the world hasn’t. You’d be more likely … ” I trailed off. They didn’t need to know the random facts that were floating around in my head.
“Which store sold the ticket?” Hunter asked.
The two of them turned their backs on me again. “The Mini-mart on Mitchell and Red Hill,” Louis said.
My heart skipped a beat. That was where I’d gotten mine. “Did you say Mitchell and Red Hill?” I asked to their backs.
“Yes,” Louis said, again turning to face me. “Why?”
I took in the long line in front of me waiting for the paperwork and stumbled back a step. “I have to … I … will you tell Carol I had to go? I’ll check my paperwork next time. I think it’s right, anyway.”
“Sure,” Louis said. “What’s your name again?”
“Maddie,” I said, and then I fled.
My laundry basket wasn’t in my closet. The blood drained from my face, leaving it numb. “Mom! Have you seen my laundry?” I called down the hall.
“I started a load!”
“No. No no no no no.” I raced to the laundry room and lifted the lid of the already running washing machine. Whites. There were whites inside. I yanked open the door on the dryer. It was empty. I spun in a full circle, panicked.
“I’m sorry. I know you hate it when I do your laundry but I needed filler for half a load,” Mom said, standing in the doorway.
“No, it’s not that. Where are the darks?”
“What are you looking for?” She was wearing her scrubs, which meant she was probably seconds away from heading to work.
“The jeans I wore last night.”
She pointed to my laundry basket sitting behind me. Relief poured through me and I sorted through the basket until I found my jeans.
“They’re not dirty after all?” Mom asked as I tucked them under my arm and rushed back to my room.
“Nope.”
I heard her laughing to herself as I pulled my bedroom door shut behind me. I searched one pocket and then the other until I found the ticket. It was a bit crumpled but still completely legible. I powered up my laptop and was too nervous to sit in the chair but paced back and forth in front of my desk until the screen lit up.
I pulled up Google and stared at the blank bar, wondering what I should enter. I typed in “Powerball numbers.” A list dating back years came up. I entered last night’s date, followed by “Powerball.” The site came up in the results and I clicked on it. Then I was staring at the numbers drawn the night before.
The first number was 2. My ticket said 2 first as well. My heart was pounding in my throat now. The next number matched as well—15. My eyes went blurry for a moment and I blinked hard, clearing them. 23. 75. 33. All matched. There was one number left on the site. A red ball. The Powerball, it was called. It was a 7. Lucky number seven. I took a deep breath and looked at my ticket. 7. All six numbers matched.
I checked them again and then a third time, just to make sure. Was this really happening? Had I just won fifty million dollars? This felt like some sort of joke. I checked the heading of the site again—Powerball. And my ticket heading, same.
I won the lottery. I just won fifty million dollars.
A scream that started in my belly and traveled up my throat burst from my mouth. I almost didn’t recognize it as my own. It was a scream of pure joy.
“Maddie?” My mom was at my door, her shoes now on but untied. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
I jumped up and down, happy yelps coming out of my mouth.
She must’ve realized this was a celebration of sorts because her worried look disappeared, replaced by a smile. “What’s gotten into you? Oh!” She clasped her hands together. “Did you get into UCLA?” She jumped a couple times before I shook my head no. Then her jumping stopped. “This isn’t about college?”