Page 12 of My Worst Pucking Enemy

I feel as if the sun is beaming down just on me.

We finish our dogs and fries, and as we do, a loud guy with a belly hanging over his shorts starts berating the hot dog vendor.

“Do you even speak English?” he yells at the vendor. The vendor shrugs and turns to serve another customer.

“Hello! I’m talking to you.” Belly-guy stamps his foot.

I narrow my eyes. I don’t want to start something with Summer right there, but I also hate bullies.

“I need to throw my trash away,” she says, and leaps to her feet. She hurries over to the trash can, throws away napkins and empty containers, and almost bumps into Mr. Loud and Obnoxious. I leap to my feet in case he says anything. Nobody messes with a kid on my watch. I’ll lay a dude out; I swear I will.

He just gives her a dirty look and strolls off.

As Summer and I walk in the opposite direction, she suddenly has a huge, mischievous grin on her face.

“What’s that all about?” I ask her, puzzled. “You look very happy all of a sudden. Or is it gas?”

She glances around, as if to see if anyone’s watching. Then she shoves her hand in her pocket and pulls out a leather wallet. It doesn’t look anything like the kind of wallet that she would have. It’s also got cash bulging out of it. It takes me a moment to figure it out.

She picked the jerk’s pocket.

“Oh my God,” I say, eyes widening in astonishment. I take the wallet and turn it over in my hand. “Wow. You have real talent.”

She looks at me with surprise. “I do?”

“Heck yeah. I could never do that.” I shake my head. “Seriously, you’re a true magician. You are an expert at sleight of hand. He never saw it coming.”

“Well, it takes a lot of practice. Don’t tell Dominique I said that,” she adds hastily. Dominique is her case worker.

“I won’t.”

She chews her lower lip. “I thought you might yell at me for taking it.”

I shake my head. “I will not yell at you, and I will not get mad. I promised that, and I meant it.”

“So you’re cool with this? We can split whatever’s in there?” she says hopefully.

“Unfortunately, no. Come with me.” I jog down the walkway until I catch up with Mr. Jerky McButtface and shove his wallet at him.

“Excuse me, you dropped your wallet. The hot dog vendor found it and handed it to me. Of course, I could hardly understand a word he said, since he doesn’t speak English.” I give him the most hostile smile I’ve ever smile.

“Uhh... thank... What?” He takes the wallet and looks at me in confusion, and Summer and I walk off laughing. She throws her arm around my waist. She’s like the little sister I never had. She is so freaking cute, in an Oliver Twist kind of way. Or more like the Artful Dodger.

“Okay,” I say to her. “You have got to show me how you do that. Steal my wallet.”

Summer smirks at me. “I already did.”

“You what?” I take a step back. “You did not.” I fish around in my purse.

There is no wallet in my purse.

Summer holds my wallet out to me. “Practice makes perfect,” she snickers.

I burst into laughter and shake my head ruefully. “You’re good,” I tell her. “Really, really good. You seriously could be a professional magician.”

“I’ll think about it. I was going to be an animal doctor, but then I found out you have to take math classes.” She makes a barfing noise.

“You like animals? My sister has a dog. If you like, we can visit him sometime.”

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