A couple days later, Madeline found herself back in the mall. After she entered, she immediately went to one of her favorite stores which was called "Golden Paradise". She roamed around inside the store, just looking at the items. She had no intention in buying anything; just looking.
"Do you need any help?" a female, blonde employee went up to her, noticing her idle roaming.
"No," Madeline answered, quietly.
"Well, if you do need help, just ask." She walked away to go back behind the counter with the other employees.
Madeline continued to look around until she spotted a sparkly, gold top that dazzled in her eyes. She took it from the hanger and approached the counter, which had no lines.
"I'd like to put this on layaway, please," she demanded, nicely.
As the other female employee picked it up, Madeline noticed the tag, hanging down from the collar of the shirt.
Two dollars and thirty-five cents? she thought. I could pay for that. But I don't have my wallet. But I did stash my credit card in the pouch inside my purse.
She unsnapped her purse and got out the credit card from the unzipped pouch on the inside. "Wait!" she shouted before the employee was about to turn away. "I changed my mind. I'll just pay for it."
"Okay," the employee replied. She took the sweater off the hanger and laid it down.
Madeline swiped the credit card into the machine and started typing. This is a total emergency, she thought.
The employee handed Madeline the bag with her sweater in it. "Here you go."
"Thank you," Madeline smiled.
"Ooh! We're giving out some accessories each worth five dollars. Would you like to purchase some?"
Madeline took a pause to think about it. She then answered, "Sure. Why not?"
The woman squatted down behind the counter and stood up, placing a round rack of jewelry on top. "Pick out what you like."
"Well, I'll take half of them!" Madeline chuckled.
An hour later, in the middle of the mall, Madeline typed into her touch-screen cellphone with five shopping bags hanging from her arm. She then pressed her phone against her ear, waiting for an answer. Soon, Lizzie picked up:
"Hello?"
"I've done a terrible thing," Madeline said in a guttural voice.
"What do you mean, Maddie?"
"I just bought, like... twenty-something items."
"Oh, so you have money?"
"Yeah... my dad's. I used the credit card."
"The one you're supposed to use for emergencies?"
"What other credit card I'm gonna use?!"
"Okay, okay. Why did you use the credit card?"
"Well, the sparkly top that I bought was an emergency. And the blue jeans that I bought can be considered as an emergency."
"You have a billion clothes. Those are not emergencies."
"They can be! I can wear the sparkly top when I'm doing a test to blind off the cheaters who sit behind me. That can be an emergency because cheating is academic dishonesty."
"Madeline, you are much more smarter than this."
"I know! I bought, like, twenty rings and some I don't even like. But I paid for it."
"I don't care. Just return all of your items and you won't get in trouble."
"Alright. I'll try."
"Don't try. Just do."
"Fine. I'll try to do it."
"No! Don't try; just do."
"Okay, I'm going to try to see if I can do it."
"No! You-- Just return your freakin' clothes."
"Alright. I'll try to return them."
"Yeah, right, okay. Bye, Maddie."
"Bye, Doll."
Lizzie hung up.
"I'm keeping the shoes, though," Madeline said to herself.
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