High School Troubles

Oh gosh, oh gosh. Where the heck is she?

I began to panic, looking frantically around the mall. I steadied myself, closed my eyes, and took a long, deep breath.

Okay, she has to still be in the mall. I'll start around Claire's then.

But before I could even move, a low and raspy voice spoke,

"Excuse me, miss?" I jumped around in half fright and surprise. My eyes were greeted by a tall and burly officer.

"Y--" I cleared my throat and tried to sound more confident. "Yes, officer? Is there something wrong?"

"Yes, actually. If you could follow me, miss. I just need to ask you something that just went on in the mall."

"I, well, I," I stuttered, frozen by what he had just said. He knows. "Actually, sir, uh, officer, I was just going to be on my way--"

"Please, ma'am." And with that, his large hand grasped my shoulder, escorting me to who knows where. No going back here. My heart beat in my throat, and I breathed unsteadily. Feeling sick to my stomach, the officer pulled me into a room with another officer sitting at a desk, and a girl seated in a chair across from us.

It was Jen.

"If you could take a seat there." The man behind the desk indicated to a chair next to Jen. The man was rather skinny, but tall and muscular. I walked to the seat the officer had pointed out to me, using all of my strength to prevent me from crying.

I knew it! I knew I shouldn't have done this. If I hadn't been so keen on getting Kassie in trouble...

The burly officer left, leaving just the other officer, Jen, and me in the room. The one officer spoke up, "I'll take it you know each other?" The man had a thick New York accent. Neither of us acknowledged him, so he continued, "Here we have a video of . . . some people. . . here in Claire's just a few moments ago."

He started to play the tape. It showed Jen and me, and every step we took throughout our plan. "And if you look here real close," he pointed to where I had stood and put merchandise into Kassie's bag, "you can see a person dropping unpaid for items into an employe's purse. Earlier, before we pulled up this video, we believed said employee stole these things, resulting in her termination just a few moments ago." Grief overtook me as I watched myself frame Kassie for stealing. "Said employee insisted that it was all a misunderstanding, and so now we, for the person's sake, had decided to check things over. And then we found this video."

The officer sat back, paused the video, and pursed his lips, staring at both of us. "The employee then sighted both you--" he looked at me "--and you--" he looked at Jen "walking around the mall, specifically near Claire's. The employee, as obvious, has asked me to question you two on what happened. The employee believes you both sabotaged her job. Would you confess to that right now if that was you?"

I didn't dare look at Jen. But I didn't want to confess right now if Jen already had a plan... Wait, no. No more plans! That's it! I don't need anymore trouble.

"Yes," I blurted out. Would I regret this later? "I did." Let's see if Jen confesses for herself. I looked over at her, disregarding the officer's surprised look. She was looking down at her hands in her lap.

"So did I." Jen looked up. She wasn't even on the verge of tears, as I had just been, am still am now. I was shocked, but pleased with her honesty. Maybe we would just slide through this easily?

The officer tried to wipe the astonished look on his face. He then said, "Okay, well, thank you for your honesty. Was there anyone else involved?" Jen and I both shook our heads.

The officer drew in a breath, gave us a stern look, and said, "Well, you're going to have to call your parents down here."