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'.
"We'll put it on your credit card," she said.
"Fine," I grouched, walking up to my room.
I looked around my room for at least twenty minutes, but I still couldn't find my wallet. And what's more, my credit card was also in the wallet. I seriously wanted to buy this dress, but apparently I wouldn't be able to until I found my wallet.
It didn't help when Adrianna came barging in, squealing, "Brooke! BROOKE!"
"What?"
Adrianna was only two years younger, and yet she acted completed immature, barging in and sticking a cell phone in my face. She was obsessed with a game called 'Flappy Bird'. Although I liked it too, I was horrible, and Anna wasn't much better. However, my high score had been fifty three, and so far no one had been able to beat it.
"I REACHED LEVEL FIFTY FOUR!" She shouted gleefully. "I BEAT YOU! I BEAT YOU!"
Waving the IPhone around, she narrowly missing my lamp, and I ducked to avoid it.
"It's only a game," I rolled my eyes.
"No it's not! And you know that I get a Hershey's bar of chocolate," she said, smirking smugly.
"You're fifteen, get your own!"
"Too lazy," Adrianna shrugged.
"There's a CVS Pharmacy two feet away," I said, gesturing out the window.
"It's getting dark," she complained.
"It's four o'clock, Anna!" I shouted in fustration.
"You still owe me a chocolate bar," she smirked again.
"Ugh! Fine," I said. "If only to get you to stop bothering me."
I was about to go downstairs when I realized that I had roughly jammed my last chocolate bar in my wallet, to eat for later.
And of course, my wallet was gone.
"I'm out," I said roughly to Adrianna, pushing past her to go back into my room.
She stopped skipping and said, "What do you mean, you're out?"
"What do you think it means?"
Not waiting for a reply, I walked back into my room and closed the door on her face.
__________________
Two hours later, I was sweating. My wallet was nowhere to be found, and I had no idea where it was.
"No, no, no, no, no," I repeated to myself. My parents would kill me if they knew I had been so irresponsible, and I couldn't get any homework done because I couldn't concentrate. I had only scribbled down six or seven words on my English essay, and Adrianna wouldn't stop bugging me. Finally, I gave up.
With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone and called Emma. "It's an emergency..." I said after she replied.
"What kind?"
"I still can't find my wallet," I explained. "And I'm getting really worried- I seriously have no idea where it could be."
"Maybe your sister is hiding it?" Emma suggested.
I shook my head, even though I knew she couldn't see me. "No, she isn't."
"I don't know..."
"Help me look for it," I begged.
So that was how I found myself putting up flyers everywhere, with the help of Emma Holve.
After putting on thousands of flyers all over the town, I retired with Emma to eat some more Froyo.
"That's another five bucks you owe me now," Emma teased as I ate cookies and cream.
"I know, I know, I'll pay you back soon," I said.
My savings- in cash- were also in my wallet, so unfortunately I was still unable to cough up some cash.
When we finished, we got up and left, walking around the mall as Emma browsed for clothes. As she was checking out a blue top, I said, "So what's this about Logan?"
"Who?" She asked innocently.
"Logan, the boy you like!"
"Oh, that Logan," she said, feigning surprise. "Nothing much."
"Oh, come on."
Emma wasn't ugly- she had brown, smooth hair and soft brown eyes. And I knew for a fact that twenty three boys in our school had a crush on her.
"Well..." she paused. "LOGAN ASKED ME OUT!"
The people around us looked at her, but she kept squealing anyway. "He said that I was pretty, too!"
Out of the twenty three boys, Logan was her greatest admirer, so I just smiled as she talked on and on about how he was so handsome.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder as Emma was discussing with me about Logan's hands, which she said were 'long and slender'.
"Yes?" I said distractedly.
"Are you the one with the missing wallet? Brooke?"
I turned, seeing a gorgeous, brown haired boy looking at me. His eyebrow was raised as he held out a brown wallet.
Emma gasped, and my mouth dropped open.
Alec Whitley was standing before me, a smirk playing on his lips.
He was the school's biggest player- the one who broke people's hearts. Alec was the worst of the worst, and he made you think he actually cared about you- straight until he dumped you. Why did I know this? Because all this happened to Emma. He was the reason she never showed interest in boys.
You could never tell with Alec.
"Brooke," I heard Emma murmur. "Brooke."
Alec was still standing there, holding my wallet, but after two minutes of standing there, he started looking less impressive and more stupid.
I blinked. "Oh, um, yes?" I asked Alec, trying to maintain a casual air.
"I've got your wallet," he said, slightly impatiently.
"Good," I said. Then, clearing my throat, I said, "Erm... can I have it now?"
"It's yours," he said, shurgging and tossing it at me.
"Thanks," I said awkwardly. Then I remembered offering an award to who found my wallet, and I said, "Um, here."
Digging through my wallet, I pulled out a twenty dollar bill and tried to give it to him. "You do know that I could have taken anything I wanted from it?" He said, not moving and raising his eyebrow.
The thought had definitely not occurred to me, and I hastily opened it wider, counting the dollar bills until I was satisfied everything was in there.
"Well, you didn't," I shrugged, mentally checking off everything I owned. "Here. Take it."
He eyed the money in my hand before snatching it away. "By the way," he called as he left the shop. "Who said I didn't take anything else?"
My eyes widened and I searched through my wallet again. "Credit card," I muttered. "Driver's license."
Then I cursed. "That little sneak!"
Emma leaned forwards, looking concerned. "So he did take your money?"
"No," I said bitterly. "He ate my chocolate bar!"
Emma and I hurried out the shop too, just in time to see Alec leave the mall. He climbed onto a red motorcycle, the wind sweeping his hair to the side.
And sure enough, he turned around and gave me a wink, lifting a crumpled Hershey wrapper in my direction, sort of like a salute, before riding off into the distance, the motorcycle giving a distant roar.