Locked Down In Target

Every Wednesdays , our dorm parents would take us to target trips. On November 9th, I had the most awkward story in my life.

It didn't feel like any other regular day when I woke up. I had a target gift card worth of a  100,000 dollars on my desk. On the top of the cover of the card, it said to chosen one. I though it would not be mine so I asked my roommate Gabriel, and he said that he has never gotten a gift card from target. At the end of the day , I took my card with my, and inside, i was like " Sweet, free money ! I can get anything I want and do not even have to pay !"

As I walked inside, the card started to glow in my hand. I was getting really scared but inside I was telling myself " Stop being a child A.K , you are seventeen years old , your little cousin doesn't even believe in stories like that !" So i tried to enjoy my time, I started shopping.I got into shopping too much, i forgot that i was suppose to be back at 7.30 , while i was still shopping in 8.00 o'clock.

Suddenly, I thought that I should check if they called me, but my phone was shut down and it would not turn on. I was telling my self that I should go and pay for the items I am buying, then call my house parents. When I went to the checkout counter, the cashiers weren't there. Suddenly, I heard a sound of a computer is turning on. Every computer in the checkout counter were turned on. I was getting really scared. Then, I heard a thick voice talking to me through the computer. It said "Atakan , you are the chosen one, you must finish this job, everything is based on you, you must save the future of Target. I was confused, and i tried to talk to the computer. "How i am suppose to do that? " Computer talked to me back as I was shocked by everything happening around me. " You are chosen from your accomplishments that you have done lately when you were  playing football. Today is a day to determine whether Target stays alive forever, or there will be no Target in the USA." It sounded really cool to me, but I wasn't quite sure who was in the team. Computer also mentioned that he will give me 20 players.

I walked to the bakery section, and there was a little red box attached on the wall said " Hit to open up the football field. As I hit the button, there was a big gap, everything in the store fell in there, and the stadium raised. I was suddenly on the standing at the entrance of the field. I looked behind, computer said " Go get them AK,this is your game ! " I was confused after he said that because I didn't know who I was suppose to get! As I walked back to our locker room, I was shocked and happy as well because Vince Wilfork, Dwight Freeney, Ray Lewis, Cam Newton,Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Brandon Jennings, Ndamukong Suh and other famous players were in my team. As I walked in, they all came up to me and acted like they knew me before. Everybody was greeting me, telling me that this game is all about me and I should lead the team as I always. We had red and white jerses on which represented the color of target. I was checking out the locker room, and I saw a jersey hanging which had my name written on it. I sat down, starting to gear up and a big fat man with big speakers and a playbook came up to me and started to talk to me. "Son, this might be the last game of our life, for the name of big Target , we need to win this game against Wallmart, ohh I cannot even stand them ! " He gave me the playbook band and I started to dress up. After getting dressed , Coach gave us a little inspiring speech, then we had a team praying. After that , everybody looked at me , and they said "It's all on you brother " , and I raised my helmet and cried "This might be the last 60 minutes of our life, so we play like it, every down, we will not go 100%, we will go 120 % !, lets bring it in, TARGET ON THREE, TARGET ON THREE, ONE... TWO...THREE! "Everybody screamed "TARGET ! " We went out of the locker room, started to waiting in the tunnel. The narrator started to announce everybody by one. I was suddenly  the last person left. Out of nowhere, the lights went off and they started to have fireworks, flames , all kind of things. The narrator said " Our captain, from Turkey, ATAKAN KESKIN ! " I started to run on the field. Everybody was up and clapping. I jogged to the sideline, started to wait for coin toss with Ray Lewis and Cam Newton. We were the "three captains" of the team. After the team of Wallmart walked into the field, we went for the coin toss. Referee asked me " Sir, Heads or Tails ? " Something inside of me said " Heads always wins" , so I made my choice for heads. Referee flipped the coin, it was heads . He asked me" Would you like to kick or receive? " I looked at Ray , and he told me to kick it first and it is a good idea to get the ball at the second half.

First quarter went horrible. We were down by 14-0. Cam threw 2 interceptions, I had a fumble which was recovered by Patrick Willis from Walmart. Ray was having trouble tackling, basically we were going down. During half-time , I talked to myself and I said " AK, if you were chosen to win this game, you must follow what you have to do and execute what your coaches say and lead this team. " I fired up myself and now I was ready. 3rd quarter started , we get the ball. Coach made a play action call but I told Cam to change the play by calling a run game audible . He asked me if I was sure and I shook my had with a confidence. First play , tight flex right, 25 counter. I was so mad at the situation, I just ran like crazy and picked up 64 yards. Now we had 16 yards to score. The crowd was going crazy. Second play, coach wanted to have quick slants (which is a quick throw to the slot receiver) after a big play. As Jeff (who is the center) was about to snap the ball, I realized the "Tampa 2" cover. I screamed to Cam and said "Check Tampa 2 Cam ! " After he realized the went for a screen pass instead of a regular pass play. As I get the ball , I juked 2 of the linebackers and scored an easy touchdown. 14-7. We kicked the ball as we started to 4th quarter. I told Ray, " Now it is your time to shine , lets go ! " And he did. He intercepted the ball in the end zone as they were at the 15 yard line and brought the ball all the way down to the 48 yard line. Offense went back again. First play , 28 option. I picked about 6 yards. Then we passed it to Julio Jones for 25 yards. Now we had only 15 yards to score. Coach said "Lets give the ball to AK and let him score it. We had a play action pass , fake it to the fullback and pass it to me . But Cam did not realize the coverage, me neither. I caught the ball on about 2 yard line and as I turned, a big crushing hit by James Harrison. I started to have black spots, everything. I did not even know where I was. After 2 plays  I sat at the bench, It was 4th and one. I told coach I said, give me the ball coach , let me score. Coached looked at me and said "Let's go, we are running I pro right, 21 belly, let's go AK , finish these Walmart boys." As I was walking to the field, crowd went crazy. Everybody was cheering for me. 4th and 1 , on the 6 yard line. As I heard Cam said " Set, Hut ! ", I pushed myself to the end zone. There were about 20 people on me, some of them trying to get the ball, some of them trying to protect me. As the refs opened up the big pile, I was in the end zone ! TOUCHDOWN ! The score was 13-14. 19 seconds left on the clock. Coaches were debating if they should go for 2 or just kick a PAT. I huddled the team around me and told them, " Do you want to finish these boys right now? " Everybody screamed " Yes sir! " and I said " Let's go then ! " I told coach that we need to go for 2  and we did. It was a quick throw to Reggie Wayne and he caught it . 15-14 , we won the Shopping Bowl ! I was so happy and felt like I have been playing for Target for awhile. I was chosen as the MVP of the Shopping Bowl. As I received my award, it had a little button on it which said " Hit it to go back to normal" I accidentally hit it and I ended up at the cashier's desk trying to pay what I have bought. As I gave my gift card to him, I heard a deep voice saying "Thank you" As I raised my head, I saw Ray . He looked at me with a smile and made a shush sign. As I looked around , I saw everybody in the team working there. I walked off the building and went in my car. As I turned on the radio , It was talking about Target winning the Shopping Bowl. I smiled and enjoyed being famous.

H.Atakan Keskin