Kate Has 8 Lives
Kate slammed the door shut of her apartment and used the spare key to lock it up. She ran out and felt the wind whip across her face as she took a smell of the smoke condensed air and coughed. Just her average neighborhood. She dug her hands in her black hoodie pocket for warmth and felt the stinging and the numbness of the cold start to fade from her palms.
When she sat on the steps of her house a rusty old car pulled on top of her driveway and dropped life-time friend Amato off. He smiled at Kate wearing his usual: black hoodie plus a baggy pair of jeans.
“Eh Amato.” Amato’s older brother, Philippe called out in a thick Mexican accent, resting one of his hands on the steering wheel and started to back up from the driveway as he shouted out the window.
“Don’t forget mom wants you at home by seven; you still got crap to do, so don’t try to get away from it, bro.” Philippe spat out the car window and began chewing with his mouth wide open. He sped away fast before Amato had a chance to say anything. The rusted pile of junk kept going faster and faster until it completely left sight.
Amato walked over with his hands in his pockets and a wide smile on his face. Kate let Amato give her the secret shake. She followed along and twisted her hand side to side and pounded his fist hard and felt the pain as she hit it, but it was the kind of pain she enjoyed to have, because it showed her he was dedicated in the shake.
She felt all the coldness leave her body, and knew it was time to start walking with her childhood and forever friend. A gust of wind blew a series of trees to the side along with Kate’s dark brown waves of hair. Amato looked over at her and shot her a mega watt smile, and she got to see again his perfectly straight teeth that looked so white against his dark skin.
“So Kate, we heading to the corner store to grab some snacks?” He asked as they bumped arms again and again when they walked.
“You know I don’t have any cash Amato, and neither do you,” she sighed. It frustrated her that her pockets were always empty when she left the apartment.
“Not if we just take it.”
Kate looked over at Amato. It felt so good to see him again. That was all she felt.
“Got big enough pockets?” She laughed.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” He practically hollered. Kate hid her big toothy smile.
“Does your brother steal?” Kate tried to ask as non-nosy as she could.
“Ahh, I don’t know, and I really don’t care. He has a job, so I don’t see why he would.” Amato exhaled loud as a big puff of cold air left his mouth.
“Oh, okay.”
Amato was Kate's friend since 4th grade. He was Mexican, so he had a smooth tan complexion, black scruffy hair and big sparkly light brown eyes. He was gorgeous, and Kate knew that, but whenever it crossed her mind she pushed it out...He was her friend, she couldn't develop those kind of feeling for him. Not by a long shot.
They kept walking, both their heads facing the sidewalk in deep thought. When they didn’t talk, it was never awkward. They have been friends for so long that they knew what they were both thinking, and just examining the ground and cool February atmosphere, such as the blowing trees and the chimneys on houses, and people arriving at there apartments giving there loved ones hugs and greetings. Seattle was cool as always, and hopefully rain wasn't in the forecast soon.
Kate couldn’t help think about the first time she ever stole something. She was nine, so it was 5 years ago. Her grandma brought her to “ToysRus” to “window shop”, a stupid term her granny would use when she didn’t have any cash to afford toys or clothes when they got to the mall.
Kate was in her Barbie stage, so she collected as many dolls as she could, mostly the ones her mom would find on clearance. When they got to the store, Kate had her eye on a new Barbie clothing line, and found the most gorgeous little dress. It was laced up on the top, and a part of the new spring collection.
She begged her grandma and was on the verge of throwing a fit, but her “Grandma Deloris” still refused to bring out her wallet and look for money. That is when Kate started to pull her long hair and stomp.. Everyone in the store started staring.
So her Grandma turned around and began to look at the clothing, ignoring Kate’s tantrum…So Kate did the unthinkable, and grabbed the box and started to scrape the bar codes and rip the tags off. She stuffed the box in her purple jacket, and tapped her grandmas shoulder.
“What do you want now?” She angrily spat.
“Granny, let's go. I’m bored.” Kate whined.
“Fine, let's head to the car. You are so ungrateful sometimes Kathleen.”
So her grandma grabbed her and Kate started to skip ahead. Her grandmas arm tightened on Kates the more she skipped ahead, but little Kate learned to ignore it. When they almost reached the door, the Barbie box fell out of her pocket and one of the employees immediately rushed over in shock, grabbed Kate’s arm lightly as her grandmas quickly let go, and picked up the box in "awe".
“Excuse me little lady, you weren’t trying to steal this, were you? I just want to let you know stealing is a very, very, very bad thing.” He babied on.
Kate became distracted by his zits and bushy black eyebrows. The peach fuzz on his chin looked almost unreal, and his hair was completely oiled and combed to the side, but suddenly she came into focus about what was going on and gulped loudly. She put on her best baby voice, just to make it so he found complete innocence in her.
“I’m super sorry mister, I didn’t mean to. I was going to ask my granny, but I forgot.” To make the manipulation more irresistible, she sniffled and wiped her small nose with the back of her hand.
“Oh, it’s okay, I’ll let you off the hook sweetheart, just make sure to always pay, okay?”, He further babied.
“I will.” She smiled.. But little did he know, once you get off the hook, you further learn how to always “get off the hook”.
Kate grew up, and stealing wasn’t something she was taught enough not to do, so it became like a drug, and she used every trick in the book, growing up older and older. No more dolls, it now meant business. She was not little Kate anymore, or good little Kate for that matter. She developed in many ways, but the only thing she worked on was her criminal acts.
She ripped tags, stuffed her pockets, opened packages and so much more…She got better and better, and before she knew it, she was a thief.. A no good thief.
Since Kate was out so much, she never did her homework or take time to study. Kate’s grades rocketed down fast, A, B, C then D. She left her house every chance she could, and Amato started to join in on her robbery. This was the third time stealing with Amato, and still considered a thrill.
“Eh Kate, how is home?” Amato started.
“Well, Ginger has been coughing up a storm. I think our apartments cleanliness finally got to her.”
“Ahh, I hope the poor cats okay.” He pouted.
“Well she is getting old, at this point it could mean anything.” she stated as she look up ahead to the Asian market.
After awhile of talking and crossing streets, they finally made it to the small Asian market.
The opened the door and a small bell rung. A small Asian woman wearing a load or make-up peeked over and seemed excited to finally have customers.
The market looked the same. Rows of cheap shelves stacked with chips and scratched up fridges with saran wrap covering the broken glass, full of old energy drinks and de-carbonated sodas. They both knew their eyes were on the candy.
Kate walked over and Amato played cool. He went over the manager and started to ask her questions about the food. He layed his arms on the counter and smiled picking up key-chains set on the front counter and looking at them as if he was interested.
“So, do the jalapeño chips actually taste like jalapeño?” He tried to distract. He put the pink panda key-chain down and put his fist in his cheeks.
“I don’t know, you want some chips?” She shouted in a thick Chinese accent. She grabbed a of container jalapeno pringles and set them on the counter. Her long orange nails were the half the size as the pringle container in front of Amato. The lady was completely unaware of Kate in the back stuffing her pockets.
“What about the ranch? I heard those are good.” He added. He put his hand behind his back and signaled Kate to hurry up as she stuffed cherry flavored air-heads in her pocket. She carefully pulled out each box and tipped them over in her hoodie pockets.
“What do you want from me?” The lady became impatient. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms and Amato knew they were running out of time.
That was when it happened, Kate grabbed Amato’s arm and they immediately rushed to the door. The alarm went off and the manager jumped over the desk and started to chase after them out the door.
They were frantically running as the women was chasing them. Kate's legs pounded against the cement as tears set in the corners of her eyes from the wind whipping in her face.
“You stupid kids! Come back now or I will call the police!” The manager screamed running out of breath.
“Run! Run Kate! Run!”, Amato exclaimed.
Kate ran so fast she felt her legs begin to shake. The air-heads she stole began the fly out of her pocket, one by one, she could hear all that she worked for just slowly drop against the ground where it did not belong. She past a row of trees and began to run through a wide road.
That is when it hit her.. And it wasn’t a thought.. It was a red pick-up truck. A huge pain had come over her hips.
“KAAAATEE!” She heard Amato cry out.
Everything went black…
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Chapter 2 coming soon! Please review! -Curly
I really liked your story, it had a goos cliff hanger at the end. It really made me want to find out what happened to Kate. The beginning was also a hook, which some people find hard to do, you did it every well, though. 
but still just at editing stage - good effort so far
