Claire landed face-first onto her bed and rolled onto her back. She was very angry with her mother.
"It's just not fair," she muttered. After about a minute, Claire's little brother, Todd banged on her door. She opened the door and groaned.
"What?" she yelled.
"Mom made ribs for dinner," Todd said holding onto a rib bone and eating the meat off it.
The way he said it sounded like, "Mahmade reebs fah dinnah".
Claire opened the door even wider to find barbeque handprints on her door from Todd's knocking.
"Gross," she said. "I don't want anything to do with mom right now." Todd closed the door and left.
Claire sat back on her bed. Her stomach growled and remembered that she only had an apple for lunch.
She did not want to go downstairs to eat. If she had a cell phone, she would text Massie to bring her some food from her house. Claire knew that she had to go downstairs eventually.
Back at the Block estate, Massie felt sick to her stomach. She put Bean down and carefully looked at the transactions. Thousands of dollars went off the account. Massie refreshed the page again. More money had been removed. Massie looked around her room for her mother's credit card. She just could not fine it. Massie rushed down the stairs.
"Mom, I think you need to see something!" Massie yelled.
Massie mother walked up the stairs.
"What's the matter?" she said. Massie looked pale. She did not know how she would tell her mother. What would happen to her life?
"Mom, I think I lost your credit card, at the mall," Massie said. Her eyes looked watery.
"Cancel it!" Massie's mother said.
Massie rushed to the computer and tried to cancel it. It would not work.
"Mom, it's not working," Massie said. She paced around her room.
Massie's mom put her head in her hands.
"We are losing so much money," she said in a firm voice. "Why did you use my credit card in the first place?" she asked.
"I had to go to the mall to buy new makeup. I was going to pay you back," Massie explained.
Her mom sighed. "We need to call your father. Our lives might be changing. We could lose the house, and the Lyons will not have a place to stay! See what you have done?" she yelled.
Massie pictured what it would be like to be poor. It was ugly.
"Mom, I'm sorry. Maybe we will be able to pay the money by the end of the month," Massie said hopefully. Massie did not want to be poor. She would be happy with being for six months than buy clothes from the thrift store.