Okay, here is…Chapter Six! Enjoy!

My Life Isn't Always Perfect, But Sometimes, It Can Seem Like It

Chapter Six

At the exact stroke of midnight, my Scout clock glow-in-the-dark alarm clock, which was buried under my covers, went off. I had set it in vibrate before I went to bed, so it didn't sing Good Morning, Dear God, like it usually does. But its little wings were beating like mad against my stomach.

I jackknifed up in bed. My pajama top was cold and wet next to my skin. I'd be having a terrible dream. Naked Guatemalan kids were skating tiny circles around me like I was some kind of Maypole. They were wrapping and unwrapping me with big rolls of duct tape. Their skates were so noisy, and Principal Obermeyer was there too. She kept yelling and shining this bright light in my eyes.

I shivered and squeezed myself. I hadn't had a nightmare about Principal Obermeyer for a long time. I used to have them a lot in first grade after she'd talk in assembly with her big boomy voice.

I looked over at Beth. She was sleeping on her back with her hair fanned out perfect. Not a single tangle, I bet.

I shoved back the rats in my hair. I remembered why I'd set the alarm. I had a plan. I was either going to kill Beth in her sleep and hope Mom wouldn't mind, or I was going to get up and take back the money Beth stole from the treasury.

I slipped out of the covers nice and quiet and tiptoed over. She had her mouth open just a tiny bit. Some kid at camp told me you could drown in one mouthful of water if you were asleep.

"STOP STARING AT ME, FREAK!" Beth yelled, rearing up.

I nearly jumped out of my flannels. "GOD, Beth! Shut up! You'll wake Mom-"

"I don't CARE! What the heck are you doing?" she grabbed my arm hard and pulled me toward her.

I tried to wrench away. She grabbed my collar and pulled. It tore right across.

"Look what you did!" I cried. "You ripped it. Mom is going to kill you. These are my new ones and they were eleven ninety-nine."

She shoved me away with both hands. "Get away from me, freak."

"No!" I said, coming back at her. "I want to know what you did with the treasury money. I swear, Beth-if you don't give it back right now, I am going to tell Mom! And where WERE you after school?"

Mom came to the doorway, the hall light framing her. "It's MIDNIGHT! What is going on in here?"

"Sorry, Mom." Beth said. "Esme is really worried about her Discovery Project so I was trying to get her mind off it. I told her this hilarious joke and the punch line was kind of loud. And then I was telling her how worried I was today when I couldn't find her after school."

"You couldn't find ME?" I sputtered, "You're the one who left Scouts early. I stayed there and waited for fifteen whole minutes!"

"Well," she said, shrugging, "I just left Scouts for a minute so I could call Mom about going home with Phil, and then when I got back I couldn't find you, I went to our special place hoping you'd be there, but you weren't."

"What special place?" I asked.

"The flagpole, silly, where else?" she said, coming over and smoothing over my covers. I swear, if they ever make a movie about the Garden of Eden, they can hire Beth to be the serpent's voice. "Esme, what did I tell you on your first day at St. Dominic's, when you were so hysterical about starting school?"

"I was not hysterical," I huffed.

"REMEMBER? I told you that if you ever got lost or scared, just go to the flagpole and wait. It's the highest point for blocks. You can see it from almost everywhere. I'll always come for you there." She looked up at Mom, "I was just sure she'd be there today."

Mom guided Beth back to her bed and pulled the covers over her. "Get to sleep, both of you." She said in her stern coach voice. And then it softened a little bit as she turned out the light. "Good night, girls, good dreams."

A little late for that, I thought.

"'Night, Mom." We said in unison.

I sat up to punch my pillow into shape, and it crackled. I reached underneath. My hand closed around a small cellophane bag. Ahhh, chocolate bridge mix. My favorite thing in the whole galaxy.

When Grandpa was alive, he used to hide candy for Beth and me under our pillows. After he died, it kept showing up. I guess Mom wanted us to feel that he was still with us. She must have snuck in after I fell asleep. I shoved a big handful into my mouth, not caring that I already brushed my teeth. Candy, especially chocolate, always made me feel better about everything.

"Could ya gimme a break?" Beth said, sitting up and glaring at me. Now that Mom was gone, she was back to using her regular mean voice. "You sound like you're chewing up concrete over there. I'm trying to sleep."

I bolted up and spit back at her, bits of chewed-up almond flying all over. "I don't know how you plan on sleeping when we are both about ready to be carted off to jail!"

"Don't be so dramatic, Esme. They're not going to send us to jail. I'll put the twenty dollars back next week, and well, you are going to have to tell Sister Lucille that you lost the rest-because I didn't take it."

"I did NOT lose our money! It was there last Friday when I counted it, and NO one, except you, had the key until today."

"Well, doesn't Sister Lucille have a key?"

"Of course she does! But she wouldn't take any out without telling me."

"Maybe she's trying to frame you." Beth suggested, trying to cover a yawn.

I turned my head and stared at Beth, "Swear to me-on Grandpa's grave-that you only took twenty dollars out."

She sighed and turned away, rolling onto her side, "I already told you. I'm not swearing on anybody's grave. That's so wack!"

I got out of bed and went over to the door and closed it so Mom wouldn't hear us. I grabbed Beth's backpack from the desk and ripped open the zipper.

Beth leapt up, grabbed it away from me, and knuckle-socked me hard in the arm.

I had to bite my lip to keep from yelling. I tried to rub the pain out. "Fine! Then look at me in the eye and tell me you only took twenty dollars-swear it on Dad's life."

She grabbed my shoulders, "I SAID I took twenty dollars. I needed it for a big library fine. I lost a very expensive book. I didn't want to ask Mom for it because she'd have a fit. You know how she's always talking about how broke we are. I'll put it back as soon as I can."

"But you can't just take money like that, Beth! And besides, how are you going to pay it back, anyhow?"

"It's not stealing, Esme." She sighed and put her hand on her hip. She tried to hook my hair around my ear but I whipped my head away. "Look," she said, "Mom pays our Scout dues, right?"

"So?" I said.

"Well, I'm just temporarily borrowing the money back that our mother paid the treasury so I can pay back the library without getting her all upset. I've got a plan to get the twenty back. So just chill, will you? The library gets what they want, Mom doesn't get her undies in a wad, and no one finds out-"

"So how are you going to get the twenty dollars?" I asked.

Beth ticked off on her fingers. "I'm selling my science project to this kid I know how goes to public school. He is a total moron and can't come up with his own. Then Holly is going to buy my old Rollerblades-and I'm doing some hair extensions for Kiera's cousin, who is fifteen."

"Why couldn't you just got the money from all those things first, then paid the library? Why did you have to take it out of the treasury?"

"Because the librarian sent a note to Mr. Constantino about it and it was totally embarrassing. I promised him I'd pay it off today. I couldn't let him down." She said, twirling a long lock of her white hair.

I changed the subject quick. I didn't want Beth to go off into Ga-Ga Land thinking about Mr. Constantino. Her eyes would turn into spinning hearts. "Think, Beth! Did you give the keys to anyone else? Like even for a sec?"

"Oh, sure! I passed them around during study hall and invited everyone to go help themselves to your precious little cash box."

"I'm serious! Did anyone go with you to the closet? Did you take Phil?"

"No! I made her stand outside and guard the door because Charles Evanson kept following me around with that disgusting lunchbox all day."

"So both of them knew you went in there?" I asked, aghast.

"Well, yeah! But they didn't have the keys, so they certainly couldn't have gotten to the cash."

"Where were the keys all afternoon before you gave them back to me?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't tape them to my stomach, that's for sure. I put them on my key ring so I wouldn't lose them."

Which dangles off the back of her backpack, along with her pep club bells and a tiny stuffed talking kangaroo. Anybody with a brain as big as an acorn could have gotten those keys. This didn't exactly narrow the search down.

It was a whole hour later before I finally fell into a deep sleep, my jaw propped open by a giant piece of chocolate bridge mix.

Sorry this took forever to upload for you guys. I guess with being sick I didn't really feel like writing, although I was up inside and moving all day. I could've wrote, I guess, up in my room. But…I didn't really want too, I guess. For the oddest reason I felt like CLEANING. How weird is that? Very weird, knowing me. Oh, well, it's up now, so, it's up and done. Hopefully chapter seven gets wrote quicker!

Another little note for everyone: I think I'm going to do a sequel to this once it's finished, and it shall be called: Lucky Things That Have Happened To Me Since I Nearly Got Hit By Lightening. Hope you guys will read it!