“Hey! I saw it first! That’s mine!”

The lady in the green sweater elbowed the young man with the polo shirt in the ribs, and grabbed the last rice cooker off of the shelf. Over in the next aisle, three middle-aged women were tugging at a fleece sweater, and on the floor was a Checkmart employee crawling amidst the carnage, trying desperately to radio in for help.

Janice had seen her fair share of Black Fridays in her lifetime, but this one was by far the worst. Still, she needed to get that PLUSH-E toy for her little sister - she’d promised. So despite all the fighting, clawing, arguing, and name-calling going on, she braced herself and stepped into the Checkmart, expecting the worst.

She didn’t have to wait long to be proven right.

Right away, a tall man with a shopping cart rammed her in the hip. Janice crumpled to the ground and groaned.

So this was how it was going to be.

“It’s nothing personal,” the man announced. “All’s fair in love and war.”

As quickly as he had appeared, the man had now vanished, and a million other frantic shoppers had taken his place. I can barely see past these peoples’ shoulders, Janice thought, so how am I supposed to find that darn toy?

Still, she soldiered on.

The supermarket roared with the frantic energy of a Live-Aid concert. Everywhere Janice looked, people were latching on to each other and tearing at products that they probably didn’t even need. Black Friday brought out the worst in people, Janice thought. At this rate, was there even a chance there would be any PLUSH-E toys left? Only one way to find out.

Luckily, Janice managed to make it through three waves of people and into the toy aisle. There, she saw it - the glistening Bo-Bo the Rabbit toy by PLUSH-E that Jennifer had been begging for for her birthday all this while. Why did Jennifer’s birthday have to be in December? There were only two left on the shelf - that is, until a stray hand snatched the penultimate one up - and Janice knew that she had to act fast before the final one was gone for good.

Squeezing her way in between what looked to be two seniors yanking at a broomstick, Janice found herself a mere two feet away from Bo-Bo. Mustering all the strength in her body, she squirmed past a punk-rock-outfitted youngster with gauged ears and landed on the floor, the toy just within arm’s reach. Using her other hand to drag herself closer to her goal, Janice stretched her right hand out and…

A little boy in suspenders took it.

“No!” Janice exclaimed.

“Mine! Mine!” The boy retorted.

Janice clamored up to her feet. This couldn’t be happening. She had been SO close. What was it going to take to get this toy out of this boy’s grasp?

“Look, I’ll trade you for, uh… this!” Janice found another toy on the shelf and held it up to the boy’s face, but judging from his expression, it was definitely of much lesser significance. He shook his head profusely, hugging Bo-Bo even closer to his little chest.

“What is it that you want, huh? Candy? You want money?” Janice reached into her pocket and fished out a $10 bill and held it up in front of the boy’s face. “Just tell me what you want in exchange for Bo-Bo. Please, it’s very important to me.”

“No trade! Me want Bo-Bo!” The boy screamed, adding even more volume to what was already a cacophony of sounds.

As the boy turned on his heels and started to walk away, Janice gritted her teeth. The words of the tall man echoed in her head:

“It’s nothing personal. All’s fair in love and war.”

“Hey! Kid!” She yelled.

The little boy turned around, defiantly.

Janice grabbed the Bo-Bo toy and punched the boy square in his face, sending him flying into the chaotic stream of strangers, sans Bo-Bo.

Janice looked down at her victory spoil and reflected on what she had to become in order to do right by her sister. Did she do the right thing? Definitely not. Was this going to come back to bite her in the ass? Definitely. Was it all worth it?

The birthday party was next Wednesday. She prayed that the little boy wasn’t one of Jennifer’s friends.