RICHKIDS

＂ Ｄｉｒｔｙ Ｌｉｔｔｌｅ Ｓｅｃｒｅｔｓ ＂

Erika was livid.

She was livid, appalled, but most of all, embarrassed. The eyes that laid on her disapprovingly were those of her peers, their parents, and even worse; her father's co workers. Word was definitely going to get back that Daddy's perfect little girl was a shoplifter.

Erika had tried to pay the cashier off. She was certain the woman was a peasant disguised in Armani but to her surprise, the woman was actually a lucky lotto winner.

So reluctantly, Erika sat down in a plastic chair at the very front of the store, waiting for the inevitable arrival of the police. While the wait was turning out to be long and agonizing, Paisely only made it worse as she insisted to wait with her.

"Okay, so maybe I went a little too far but you always said when someone does you wrong, get back at them harder so thats what I did," the blonde rambled on. "Aren't you proud of me? I mean, I think I did even better than you."

Erika rolled her eyes, anxiously playing with the strap of her purse. She was intent on drowning out Paisely's voice - and the other, much louder voice in her head singing, 'Karma'.

"Wasn't I clever?" Paisely gushed.

So maybe Erika should have suspected her stunt would come back around. However, she'd done plenty of messed up things before and Karma had seemed to ignore her. She'd thought she was invincible.

'Suck it up, Erika, loser mentality isn't you.'

So when the police arrived, Erika's slightly terrified demeanor was replaced with her usual, cool, collected, bored posture. She sat up straight, eyes wandering to things she wanted to buy when this ordeal was over.

The police, to her dismay, were two women; the first was tall and lean with short, chin-length blonde hair and the other was much shorter in contrast, her hair red and unruly as if she needed a trip to the salon ASAP.

Erika was suddenly even more aware of the stares she was receiving from the customers as she stood up to face the police.

The former peasant cashier came rushing over, the leggings in one arm. "Thats her, thats the shoplifter."

"The one and only." Erika said icily, not even faltering. She sized up the women, looking for any flaws, anything she could use to her advantage - and thats when she noticed the blonde woman's name tag; Officer Wells.

She cocked her head to the side. "Officer Wells? As in Lindsey Wells?"

The woman frowned. "Yes, thats my daughter."

The light bulb quickly turned on in Erika's head. Alabaster Preparatory School was education for the elite. Elite as in rich, beautiful and privileged. If a student wasn't those things then they were the few lucky peasants that got in on a wretched and despised scholarship. There was no way a cop could afford the tuition  - 56,000 dollars a year to be exact - especially if they're a single mother on top of that.

However, Erika had to give props to Lindsey for hiding it so well.

"The leggings in all cost about four grand." The cashier said, unaware of the dots being connected.

Paisely was confused too, as usual. She was still faking a worried pout, her hands reaching out to comfort Erika who moved away.

"It's be a shame if word got out that your daughter is not indeed the daughter of a rich banker but a low income cop." That was all that needed to be said.

Erika left Barneys a free woman - and with a forever pondering Paisely.

"See? You came out okay, no harm done, right?" She asked more nervous than before.