The Sticky Fingered Candy Thief

Everyone comes to at least one point in their lives when they've finally reached their limit of being able to handle something. Maybe it's standing up to someone that's been bullying them, or it could be from that kid kicking the back of your seat on the airplane. Or possibly just an annoying person following you around in school. Whatever or whoever it is, we all reach our max and finally snap.

When that happens, things either end really good, or really badly.

I was yet to find out how mine would turn out. I know it may sound silly, but my snapping point was when someone stole my pack of Sour Patch Kids from right underneath my nose for the fifth time that week. I know it may not sound serious, but I love my candy. Those things are my lifeline to keeping my sanity, helping to keep myself distracted from all the insanity in this world with it's sour, yet sweet flavor.

My parents had just moved us here from Florida to the sunny beaches of California, uprooting me from my life and forcing me to deal with a big move on my last year of high school. It wouldn't be so bad if the people in this school didn't treat me like I had the plague.

It wasn't the way I looked that had them keeping their distance, it was the rumors that had followed me from my old school that kept them away. I'll admit, trying to run over the principle after coating his car in caulking foam hadn't been my finest moment, but that didn't mean I was a bad person. I was just very original with my ideals of payback.

It was like appearance was everything for these kids, and they couldn't risk being spotted with someone like me, who according to them, would make them look like total losers.

Who cares what they thought anyway? I wasn't going to be in school much longer and would be moving on with my life soon enough.

First thing first, I had to catch the thief that kept stealing my candy. Whoever it was obviously thought they could mess with the bad girl and get away with it.

They should know better.

I knew just how to catch the culprit. I had found an old phone while doing some unpacking and turned the GPS on. Then, removing the candy from their box, I replaced them with the phone.

When the thief took my Sour Patch Kids, I would be able to easily track whoever it was with my cell phone and hunt them down. I would have to act fast though, because once they found the phone, they would ditch the phone and disappear into the crowd. I seriously doubted the trick would work again if I failed.

I sat down on the wall outside the school, setting my food out on the wall beside me, making sure I could still see the Sour Patch Kids from the corner of my eye.

Now it was just watching and waiting.

I ran my fingers through my reddish-brown hair, sweeping my long bangs to one side and away from my gray eyes so I could see more clearly. Snatching up a slice of pizza, I took a bite, hoping that I looked like I was acting normal. I just needed to look distracted enough for the thief to make their move.

Couples were scattered across the grounds. Love buzzing in the air like a swarm of gnats beating at your eyeballs with over-exaggerated gestures of their affection for each other. It would be a lot worse tomorrow, which would be Valentine's day.

Yay.

To me, it was just another day of having to put up with people. Maybe I would skip and try to avoid all it, just stay home all day, stuffing my face with candy and watching movies alone, just the way I liked it.

I reach back down for another slice of pizza, only to spot that the Sour Patch Kids box had vanished.

While I had been pretending to be nonchalant, I had missed the thief taking the box.