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Hannah Foster didn’t like stealing, okay?? It was a necessity.
She knew just as well as her interdimensional best friend or her big sister that stealing is bad, but all three of them knew that if they didn’t steal, they wouldn’t survive. So Webby eventually stopped trying to deter Hannah.
The eleven year old was just about to buy a small slurpee so it didn’t seem like she was leaving empty-handed, readjusting her backpack on her shoulders, when she noticed the stand of pastries and assorted sugary treats, and well… One more thing couldn’t hurt to steal, right?
“Webby, eye out please…” She whispered quietly, not thinking to check if the goddess was still present as she closed in on the snack cakes stand. She reached forward to grab onto a roll of six mini powdered donuts and started to shove them into the inside pocket of her jacket when a hand caught her wrist.
“What do you think you’re doing, little girl??” The store manager asks, glaring down at Hannah, and she freezes. A couple curse words Lex made her promise to never repeat immediately flash in her mind. She begs Webby for help internally, but the being is gone from this plane, she suspected. Why does everything always have to go poorly for the Foster sisters?!
“ I said ‘What do you think you’re doing?’” The manager repeated. “It wasn’t rhetorical, brat.”
Hannah felt like she was about to cry. It was less about what she thought she was doing, now it’s all about what she thinks she’s gonna do to get herself out of this. Her eyes flicker to the only person in her line of sight, a teenage boy with ear-length black hair that couldn’t have been any older than her sister, wrapped in leather, a flannel around his waist, and a singular leather glove. The boy catches her eye and immediately drops the bag of chips he was holding to move closer.
“Hey!” The boy exclaimed to the adult. “Getcha mitts off my sister!”
The store manager snapped around to look at the boy, who walked around him to stand behind Hannah with a gloved hand on her shoulder. The shopkeeper takes the package from Hannah.
“ Your sister , young man, was shoplifting,” he says, then does a double-take between the two. “Your sister?” He repeated unsurely. “Not much resemblance.”
The boy glared at him. “Yeah! We’re both adopted! What, ya think adopted siblin’s aren’t real siblin’s?!”
“No! No, I didn’t mean to insinuate that, I just-”
“And now he’s sayin’
I’m
stupid for misinterpretin’ him!” He cards a hand through his hair in disbelief and drops it to sigh. “Ya know what?? You seem like ya having a rough day; I won’t judge ya for it. We got off on the wrong foot, ya see?” He extends his hand that wasn’t on Hannah’s shoulder. “I’m Ethan, this is my little sister. Introduce yourself, Lil’ Boss.”
Hannah looks up at the boy- Ethan- and he smiles encouragingly. “I- I’m Hannah…” She tells the man quietly.
“She’s a timid little thing,” Ethan shakes her shoulder gently.
The manager accepts Ethan’s handshake, introducing himself as well. “I should have you both know that shoplifting is very much against store policy.”
“Oh, I know, but she’s little; she doesn’t know it’s wrong yet,” Ethan waves dismissively. “I’ll be sure to tell our Ma and Pop about this and get it all straightened out… I’ll buy the donuts for her, don’t worry, but only if she promises to never try to take somethin’ without payin’ for it again, ‘kay Hannah?” He asked her pointedly.
Hannah nodded. “Yes, Ethan…”
The shop manager shrugs off the interaction, handing the teen the package of donuts, and returning to stocking the shelves with product a few aisles away, seemingly fine with the little girl now having some supervision. The boy turned to stand between her and the Hostess display case and smiled concernedly at her.
“How old are ya, Hannah?” He asked quietly enough that the man couldn’t overhear.
“Eleven?”
“That’s cool. You’re gonna be a teenager soon? It’s really fun. I’m seventeen, so take it from me. Are ya here with anyone?”
“My sister’s outside…”
Ethan nods. “Can I buy you two some sodas?”
Hannah hesitates to say yes, and Ethan smiles.
“It’s okay, I'm good for it. I get paid for workin’ at my dad’s shop. Do ya like cars?”
Hannah shrugs in a more-or-less way.
“Eh, that’s fine,” he said, guiding her over to the soda machine. “I got this ol’ jalopy I’m gonna fix up, then I can go and see the sights…” He tells her wistfully. Hannah grabs two small soda cups, which Ethan trades out in her hands for the larger ones. She smiled softly in silent appreciation and poured her and Lex some drinks. The boy gets himself a large Diet Coke. Ethan took her over to the checkout with her packet of donuts, three sodas, and the bag of chips he was looking at earlier. He added that he wanted a three dollar scratcher, sliding over a card that, even at Hannah’s age, she knew is a fake ID.
Upon leaving the store and passing the windows, Ethan let Hannah lead him to wherever her sister was lurking, and Hannah reached for the packet of donuts in his hands still.
“Thank you, Ethan…” She said quietly, squeezing her hands a couple times in silent asking for him to hand her the treats.
He grinned. “These aren’t for ya?” He said. “I bought ‘em, so they’re mine.” When he saw her expression droop sadly, he went for the punchline and shifted his soda, chips, donuts, and scratcher to one hand and reached into his pocket. “ These are for ya.” He says, presenting her with three packages of powdered donuts, and her eyes light up as she snatches from them. He laughs in delight from her excitement. “ That’s how ya shoplift, Hannah.” He added and pocketed his scratcher and donuts.
They round a corner and he sees there’s a girl sitting on the table at an outdoor seating area out front of the Subway next door. She sat hunched over, shrouded in a jacket about three sizes too big for her as she blew smoke from the cigarette in her hand. She looked like she hadn’t slept in three days and Ethan’s black boots stopped dead in their tracks as he was presented with the most beautiful gal he’d ever seen. The girl looked up to see her little sister and smiled before her eyes settled on the treats in her hands and her eyes widened in horror.
“Banana, we agreed on one small soda to split- did you have enough money to pay for all that?”
“She didn’t have to,” Ethan quickly defended. “I bought it for her. For you two.” Hannah nodded in agreement and held out Lex’s Coke.
She eyed the boy uncertainly, not accepting the soda just yet. “We don’t do handouts.”
“Not a handout,” he assured her. “Hannah here got herself caught stealin’ some donuts, so I told the guy I was her brother to save her ass. Buying drinks and snacks was to add to it, and I figured it’d just be rude not to buy something for the sister I was told about.”
Lex thought for a moment, looking the boy over, and smirked. She took one last drag of her cigarette before tossing the rest on the ground and getting up to stomp it out with her busted-up combat boot. She’s a whole head shorter than me , Ethan realized. Nice.
“Then welcome to the family, I guess,” she shook Ethan’s free hand. “I’m Lex.”
“Ethan…” He introduces, hoping the dreamy tone he hears in his voice is not actually there. “I-it’s a pleasure to meet you dolls… I was just showing Hannah the art of stealing donuts…”
Lex smirks in amusement at the boy, and turns to her sister, taking her soda. “You needed a lesson in shoplifting?”
“It’s good to review the basics…” Hannah said shyly, and took off her backpack, zipping it open to reveal their groceries for the week. Ethan can see a loaf of bread, a small tub of margarine, a carton of milk, and a dozen eggs, among other things. His jaw drops in shock.
“Maybe we could teach you a thing or two,” the elder sister teases him, nudging his shoulder with hers.
“I bet ya could…” He admitted, and Lex tried to bite back a genuine grin.
“Pays to be trailer park trash.”
“Conning eligible young men out of a couple sodas? I guess it does.”
Lex raises an eyebrow at him. “‘Eligible?’” She repeats. “Is that to imply you’re single?” She looks him up and down with interest and he huffs in embarrassment.
“Maybe,” he says quietly and sees her smirk grow. She took a sip from the straw of her soda, maintaining eye contact with the boy.
“I wanna see what you won on your scratcher,” Hannah piped up, pulling them both away from the moment- could that be called a moment?? Ethan thought it felt pretty momentous, if that’s how that word could be used.
“Right! Good thinkin’, Hannah Banana.” He pulled the scratcher from his pocket as he sat down at the table, the Foster sisters standing on either side of him to watch. He pulled out a small set of screwdrivers from his pocket and used the tiniest one to scrape away at the scratch-off ink and play the game, muttering ‘Big money!’ the whole time.
“Scrape at the whole thing, then look to see if you got anything,” Lex instructed.
“I can see what I won if I just scratch off enough,” he tells the girl, and finally he’s done with the ticket. “I won… Fifteen bucks. I usually win, ten bucks more than that.”
“Ah, forgot to warn you. We’re bad luck.”
“Bad luck,” Hannah agreed.
Ethan shrugged. “Oh well. Fifteen bucks is still alright.”
Maybe Lex has bad luck ‘cause God gave her too pretty of a face and had to even it out, Ethan thought absentmindedly, then was immediately glad he didn’t say that out loud.
“So, Ethan, Mister Shoplifter Expert, what’s your story?” Lex asked, taking her seat back on the table- on, being the keyword, not at.
As he was about to tell the two girls a little about himself when his cracked hand-me-down cellphone began to play his ringtone from his pocket. He pulled it out to see his dad calling, and he winces. “Just a second, it’s my dad. I gotta take this…” He held up a single finger as he answered the call. “Hey, Pop… Yeah, I got the chips, I just got caught up with a couple friends.” He winks to the girls and they both smile at him. “I got three mini donuts with your name on ‘em, by the way… How do I know these friends? Oh, ya know, it's Lex and Hannah,” he says as if he talked about the girls all the time. “We usedta drink outta the same bottle! We go way back.” The girls snicker and Ethan continues.
“You remember me talkin’ about Lex, I tells ya about how she’s the dame with the pretty face?” He glances up at Lex with a smile and she blushes, trying to disguise the way her eyes opened wide in shock. He listens to something his dad says and laughs. “Yeah, I’ll let ‘er know I’m a big palooka.” He rolls his eyes and does a little slashing movement at his neck to the girls as if to insinuate he’s not that stupid. Hannah tries not to laugh audibly at his shenanigans.
“I really gotta be back at the shop already?” He asked. “I just sat down, Pop…” He sighs. “Okay, I’ll be back in ten, I guess…” He hangs up the phone and shoves it back into his pocket, sighing.
“You have to go?” Hannah asked.
“Sadly, yeah,” Ethan says, drawing some design into the leftover scratch-off ink in the lottery ticket. “He’s the big cheese, gotta listen to the guy.”
“You seem close,” Lex says with a small smile.
“He’s all I got since my Ma gave us the clean sneak,” Ethan rolled his eyes. “Good guy. And being in the family business means I get paid alright too.”
“What kinda shop?”
“Automobiles,” he replied. “Ever heard of Tony Green’s Body-Shop?”
Lex shook her head. “We can’t afford a car right now… I just got a job to try to save up.”
Ethan hummed. “Well, I guess if you two ever come in with that car you’ll get, you’ll get a family discount, eh? Here.” He stands and hands Lex the scratcher face-down, pocketing the tiny screwdriver.
“Wha- why are you giving us fifteen bucks for nothing?”
He grinned. “Use it for groceries or something. It’s fifteen because of you , so it’s your dough.”
“Because of me??” She repeated.
“You said yourself,” he pulls his keys out of his pocket and grabs his food from the store, beginning to walk away. “You’re my bad luck charm!”
Lex tried not to smile, and God, does he wish she would. Hannah waves to him and he waved back. “Seeya ‘round, Ethan Green,” Lex says and waves as well.
“See me around? Just gimme a ring.” He said and Lex was confused until she remembered he sketched something onto the lottery ticket. She turns it over and scoffs in disbelief. This boy had the gall to give her his number scribbled poorly into the ink.
“Slick!” She calls after him and he only grins to the two girls before disappearing back around the corner where the majority of the parking lot was.
Lex fanned herself slightly with the ticket. “That weirdo gave me his number,” she tells her sister.
“Will you not call him?”
“Oh, I’m gonna call him. He was hot.”
The two laugh together and Lex pockets the ticket for later.
Ethan Green, huh?
Lex thinks.
I’ll have to get a car sooner than I thought…