Bleed by Laurie Faria Stolarz Page A

it’s already been opened. There are six Twinkies left. I take three of them so that the box looks sort of full. Then I seize the long sleeve of Doritos and take out two bags, still leaving a few up the sleeve. I giggle at my lame little joke. I’m dying to take a stack of the Pringles, but since the can isn’t open, it’d be way too risky. I tell this to myself, and yet I can’t seem to move, like maybe there’s a chance. Maybe Mom will just think someone else opened it.
    I think about tearing the silver seal off just enough and then gluing it back on when I’m done. I’m sure Dad has a glue stick in his desk. Or maybe Mom might just think the can was opened by someone in the grocery store. We’ve both seen the trails of hungry shoppers leaving empty cookie and chip packages between two-liter bottles of Coke. I’ll take just a small stack. It’ll be perfect. No one will notice.
    I take the can out, and my hands are too full. I need to put my stuff down. Maybe on the bottom step of the staircase. I make my way toward it, my arms full of all my delectable treats, and then I hear something. At the front door. Through the tiny square windows at the top, I can see the screen door swing open.
    They’re home!
    My heart squeezes so tight I can barely breathe. I can’t even move. My throat feels like it’s closing up, filling with Nutty Buddy ice cream.
    “Sadie!” Nina shouts, throwing the front door open, then closed. She looks at the snacks in my hands and then turns back around to lock the door. “RUN! Upstairs. Now! They’re coming!”
    I run upstairs as fast as I can, crushing my snack treasures into my chest, feeling like some wicked vampire with long yellowy nails and teeth is going to plant those nails right into my back and then suck the blood right out of me if I don’t go quick enough.
    I make it into my room, kick the door shut, stash the treasures under my bed, and then hide in my closet, in the back, under my nest of Hello Kitty winter covers, my protective cloak of armor. I pull at my eyelash hairs one by one, until I’m able to catch my breath.
    Maybe my ally Nina will be able to clean up the snack room before anyone else sees it. Maybe Mom and her evil assistant Ginger are having one of their heart-to-hearts outside, and that’s why Nina came in first. They still have to unpack the car, and that takes time. With each thought I feel a little better. My heart is able to unclench. But then my bedroom door is thrown open, the heavy wood slamming against the wall, probably making another mark.
    “SADIE!” Mom yells.
    I scrunch up ball-tight under the armor and make sure my head is covered completely. I hear my treasures, the bags of Doritos, being thrown across my room, that familiar crinkle sound.
    “Sadie!” she yells again. I can tell she’s right outside the closet door now. “I know you’re in there. Come out NOW! Or I’ll make you come out.”
    I don’t do anything. I can’t. My chest is going in and out so fast it’s hard to breathe.
    “Fine!” She slides the door open so that it slams into the pocket like one of Dad’s eight balls. She grabs my arm, covered in armor. “Take your thumb out of your mouth. You’re not a baby anymore.”
    I think I’m going to faint, but then I cry out—one long, loud wail.
    She pulls me to my feet. I hold the armor to my face for as long as I can before she tugs it away. But still I don’t look at her. I’m just crying and my foot starts hurting. She pulled too hard.
    “You are grounded!” she shouts. I can hear the clench of her venomous teeth. “No playing with friends. No going to the park. No TV. No snacks.”
    “NO!” I cry back.
    “I want you to go into the kitchen NOW and put the freezer back the way you found it. Did you eat anything?”
    “No!”
    “Are you lying to me?”
    “No!”
    “If you’re lying to me, I’ll know. Everyone will know tonight when you go weigh in. They’re going to be so disappointed in you.”
    I