Realest of the Fake

Chapter One

I ran my fingers over my hair. "What to buy?" I muttered to myself.

There was a cookies and cream flavor, and there was a strawberry one. On one hand, I seriously loved strawberry ice cream, but on the other, I had never tried CAC before, though it looked really good. "Stick with the same, familiar one, or choose the new flavor?" I said aloud.

Finally, I decided with a strange streak of daring to chose cookies and cream.

"Strawberry?" The worker said, not even bothering to check as she entered the data in.

"No, actually, cookies and cream," I said, smiling slightly.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she said, "Cookies and cream?"

"I needed a change," I replied.

"Of course you needed a different kind! Brooke, you've been getting strawberry for over six months now," Emma said, her face breaking into a smile.

"It wasn't that long," I protested, but only half-heartedly.

"You're right, it was longer," she replied.

"Fine, you win," I sighed loudly.

I opened my purse, searching for my wallet as Emma talked. "I missed you, Brooke! We haven't met in what, since yesterday?"

I rolled my eyes. Always the drama queen. "Wait a second," I said, still searching for my wallet. "I can't find something."

I gestured for the other customers to go ahead of me. Emma looked questioningly at me, but she started weighing and checking out the other person's frozen yogurt all the same.

After five minutes of clearing out my purse, I had to admit that my wallet was not in it. "No, no, no," I said frantically. When all the customers had cleared out, I went back over to Emma and said, "I don't have my wallet with me."

"You're joking, right?" She said, but one look at my face told her otherwise.

"You know what?" she said firmly, looking at my melting FroYo. "I'll buy it for you."

"You don't have to," I protested, but Emma waved it off.

"I do have to," she replied. "It'll be wasting food anyway."

"Well..." I started to weaken.

"That's settled, then," she said loudly, pulling out a five dollar bill. "Enjoy the FroYo!"

I sat down on a chair and ate the FroYo, but I didn't enjoy it. It tasted really great, but I was too worried about the wallet to fully enjoy the yogurt, and ten minutes later I said goodbye to Emma and walked home.

When I unlocked the door to my house, my parents came walking down. "Brooke, dear," my mother began. "We're going to go somewhere for a few days tomorrow, and we need you to take care of your sister."

I groaned inside my head, but plastered a smile on my face all the same. "What will I get?" I said sweetly.

Hey, there's no such thing as free lunch. My parents were going to have to deal with it.

"One hundred dollars," my father offered.

"Two hundred," I said back. What? My sister's a menace. I deserve a lot.

"One hundred twenty."

"One hundred fifty," I said, trying to fight the urge to stick out my tongue.

"Deal," my mother interrupted before my father could argue some more.

"I want the money now," I said to them firmly. This was necessary, because every time my parents went somewhere they would promise me something, only to 'forget'.