After Annie had paid for her cosmetics, she followed her friends out of the store. Connie and Sabine got out safely. Annie was stopped by the guard.
"You got anything you haven't paid?" the guard asked with seeming disinterest.
"No," Annie replied.
"Uh huh." The guard narrowed her eyes. "Mind if I check your handbag?"
Annie opened her handbag for the guard to inspect. When prompted, she also opened her shopping bags and showed her receipts. "You going to check my bra too?" she asked with a hint of sourness.
"No, you can't hide nothing there," the guard said as she dismissed the little girl with a wave of her hand.
One of the benefits of being flat-chested! Annie rolled her eyes up as she walked away.
"Way to go, Annie!" Connie congratulated excitedly when the little girl met up with her friends, "Where did you hide it?"
"Hide what?" Annie asked innocently.
"Whatever it is you got from the drugstore."
Annie opened one of her shopping bags. "Here."
Connie looked at the cream and lipstick in the bag. "Oh, but didn't the guard see those? How did you get her to let you go?"
"I got this," Annie replied sharply as she pulled out the receipt.
Connie took the piece of paper and read it. "It has today's date, the exact purchases... this is a genuine receipt!" She stared at Annie. "You mean you actually bought it!?"
Annie pinched the receipt back. "Yeah, that's how you take things out of a shop, isn't it?"
"But, Annie, you..." Connie's bewildered expression changed to one of disinterest. "No, never mind." She turned away and leaned against a nearby railing. She looked down and watched the teenage shoppers passing below.
Annie, however, turned back to stare at the drugstore, where the guard was interrogating yet another teenager. The shop was familiar. The guard was familiar. Then she remembered.
She had shoplifted at that store before! Twice, in fact. That was why the guard had stopped her. And Connie expected her to shoplift!?
What sort of a person had she been? Annie was beginning to suspect that she had not been a very good little girl in the past. What other unpleasant secrets could she have, waiting to surface?
Connie looked to her shorter friend. "Annie, let's go get something to eat," she suggested.
"Okay, where?"
The redhead pointed downstairs. "Fast food?"
Annie went to the railing and looked down to the level below. She spotted a fast-food outlet where many, many teenagers were gathering for lunch. "Maybe not. It's too crowded in the mall. What about the park outside? I saw street vendors on the way here."
Connie also saw the crowd. "I think you're right," she agreed.
***
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