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TL;DR: Best friend played me all along, stole my stencils then got in BIG trouble.

A little background. So when I was little (think 2nd, 3rd grade in early 90's), I had a "best friend" we'll call Karen. Now, I didn't come from a "well-to-do family" but I was smart enough to be skipped ahead a grade, so I was the youngest in my class. My mom was a waitress and my dad was a warehouse laborer, and they made too much money for me to be put into the school lunch program, but their debts and bills made it so I had PB&J everyday. I was a self-sustained kid most of the time and while I woke up on my own every morning and got myself together (even made my own lunch if my mom was too tired to remember), my mom made sure to watch me walk to the corner before I waved and began the longer than a mile walk to school. I was that artsy kid that was all smiles to everyone, but relatively quiet. I wasn't a know-it-all, but usually when asked a question in class, I answered it right. I was smart, but man was I stupidly innocent and naive.

We were having a test that particular day, so the day before I asked if I could bring my stencils to school to work on the project we would be doing next. Dinosaurs! But of course I couldn't bring just the dinosaur stencils. I brought my whole collection, because if anyone finished early like me, they could work on theirs if I had a stencil to match their creature subject. These stencils were special. Everyone knew it, because I was able to do a bit of a show and tell with them in another class, telling how my mom had saved up and bought each set for me so I had Ocean Life, Grasslands, Dinosaurs, etc... I was an animal nut. Still am! When the time for lunch and recess came, I put them in their box, which was one I grabbed for them. It was blue plastic and beaten up with one of the snaps broken. I went to store them in the coatroom, when another student came with my Grasslands stencil really shaken up. They had accidentally broken the cheetah where the leg and tail had a thin bit of plastic that cracked. I told him it was okay and I can get if fixed. Before going outside I took it to our art teacher and showed her, and she said she would fix it for me.

I came back in after food and play and sure enough, my cheetah was good as new. Almost. It wasn't quite dry from the glue and my art teacher said she would like to hold onto it for the weekend. I thanked her. The end of the day came around and my best friend's mom, Karen's Mom was to pick me up with Karen and baby-sit me until my dad got off work and my mom could drive to come get me. I grabbed my backpack from the coatroom and was off.

Now, Karen and her family were not rich by any means, but they weren't bad off. My parents rented a small downstairs area of a duplex and Karen's family owned a two-story house with massive backyard and her father and brother had built this amaaazing playhouse in the front. The front was also the backyard because of how set in the house was. As a child, this place was massive. I went on to go work on my project in the house as Karen went to do her "winding down" which meant a snack and cartoons. Then, horror struck. My stencils?! THEY WERE GONE! The entire box was gone and in its place, two class books to make up the weight. I was in a sobbing fit. I couldn't get the words out. Karen's mom tried to console me and pretty much only got that I had lost my assignment. Karen was watching her cartoons and playing with her robo-dog, which she offered me to play with. That was a toy I was NEVER allowed to touch. My best friend was amazing, letting me play with her favorite toy to feel better. We had fun in the playhouse and her room but I was still broken inside.

My mom came and got me and I had said nothing to Karen's mom, so I could tell my mom myself that I lost all of the stencils she got me. I was so upset about it that I didn't get in trouble. The weekend was miserable. I had construction paper cut-outs from my stencils to make my own custom beasts, but I couldn't even play with them. Monday rolled around and my teachers knew something was up. I told them what happened, and immediately in each class, every student had their backpacks peeked into as the rooms were scoured. "Misplaced" and misplaced items were a regular thing and there wasn't any issue of privacy back in those days for little kids. I couldn't fathom that someone took them.. so they got misplaced, maybe? They were nowhere to be found.

Towards the end of the day, the art teacher brought me my last remaining stencil in a folder. It was fixed and I was thankful, and asked if I ever found the others, if she could fix my crocodile one. She said of course.

Back with Karen and to Karen's house. Karen told me we couldn't play in the playhouse anymore, that her dad had just painted the inside and it was still wet. I didn't think anything of it and said okay. While Karen went on to do her unwinding ritual, I went on to see if I could help her mother in the kitchen, and get a cup to try and collect some "Giant Lady Bugs". Not relevant to the story.. but giant lady bugs are actually grape vine beetles. To us kids, they were giant lady bugs because they were orange-red with black spots. I helped dry a few dishes and got the cup. Then I asked what color the playhouse was being painted inside. Karen's mother gave me a funny look and told me it was brown wood, like always. It wasn't going to be painted but one day it will have some outdoor carpet. I was... confused.

So I asked Karen if she wanted to catch those bugs with me and she said no, still enjoying her Sailor Moon. (I didn't know what that was until years later and I missed out! But we didn't have access to that station, so maybe not.) I went outside. As I was searching, I kept looking over at the playhouse. It didn't smell like wet paint and I kept thinking about what Karen's mom said. I thought maybe Karen tried to paint it herself? Eventually I went and asked Karen's mom if I could go into the playhouse.

She said yes and again looked confused.

I walked outside. I walked to the doorway. I peeked inside. There was no paint. But what there was, was a familiar BLUE PLASTIC BOX sitting on the Little Tykes table. I felt hot wetness run down my face. My stomach sunk and somehow, my heart was in my throat. I walked closer and found stencils.. my stencils, all spread out across the floor. I gathered them up one at a time, counting and naming each one by the terrain the animals lived in, aside from the dinosaurs. Those were always just Dinosaurs. One was missing. I walked out of the playhouse, and low and behold there was Karen.

Karen: I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO IN THERE! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED!
Me: These.. are.. my.. sten.. sils... (because I was a snotty crying drippy nose filled with a sense of betrayal)
Karen: Those are MINE. I won them. They have my name all over them!

On a closer look, I could see she wrote her name-ish in market on quite a few. Now, I was a very quiet, kid. People tended to forget I was around because I was so quiet. I was no angel, and I'll tell you about the time I was an entitled brat to the best babysitter ever. But this was not that time, not that babysitter and this time, I was not so quiet.

Me: THESE ARE MY STENCILS!!!

I have never to this day screeched as loudly as I had then. I think I was making words. But it may have just been one garbled sound or a series of garbled sounds. Whatever it was, it was enough that Karen's Mom came RUNNING. She had to have asked what happened, I don't remember. What I do remember is Karen saying I was stealing her prizes, and the next thing I knew, we were inside and Karen's Mom was telling me that Karen won those and I can't have them. Again, I was younger than Karen, by two years. She was held back once. That said, I was a smart kid. I'm going to paraphrase here a bit of course.

Karen's Mom: Karen worked very hard for those and I'm sure she would share and let you use them if you asked but you can't go taking what's not yours.
Me: ...But they're mine. I can show you they are mine.
Karen's Mom: But they're not. I know you want them but--
Me: You can ask the teachers and my mom. But I can show you now. The crocodile is broken and it is with the Marsh stencils and on it is the big snake and the crane and the frog and the alligator and the alligator isn't the crocodile because the alligator has a short nose and the crocodile has a longer one.
Karen's Mom had this confused look: Those are marsh animals..
Me: The Ocean stencil has the Willy whale (orca, but no, to me this is the Free Willy whale) and the dolphin and the hump back and the hammer head shark and the great white shark. And on the dolphin is blue crayon because I couldn't get it off. (One by one I went on listing each stencil and what was on them. I listed marks I knew I made too.)
Karen arrived!: I know all of those too! That's how I won them. They're mine.
Me: Then what's on the last one and what is it?
Karen: There isn't a last one! I have every last one! EVERY LAST ONE!
Karen looked so proud with those final three words glaring at me.

Now at this point Karen's Mom hushed Karen.
Karen's Mom: What is the last one?
Karen: There isn't a last one! She's lying and just wants my stuff because she doesn't have stuff!
Karen's Mom: Karen, stop it. You said there isn't a last one, so I want to know what last one she thinks there is.
Me: I know there's a last one! I have it! Ms. ArtTeacher fixed it for me and gave it back today!
Karen went pale.
Karen's Mom slowly stood up. But I was not done.
Me: Grasslands. It has the cheetah and the lion and the elephant and giraffe and the rhino. The cheetah got broken by KidAtSchool so Ms. ArtTeacher fixed it for me to get back today and it's in my folder.
I glared at Karen.
Me: I know my stencils. I know every last one.

Karen's Mom called down her son and Karen's brother was told to take me to the living room to play Sonic while she gathered MY stencils. I know she also peeked in my folder because that stencil was added to the rest. This meant something, because I NEVER got to play their games, and he put these massive headphones on me that were too big for my head. I remember lots of yelling and screaming.

I stayed there with Karen's Brother and developed a tiny crush. (This is used against me in later adventures)

Karen's Mom ended up cleaning off my stencils free of Karen's name as best as she could and then telling my mom what had happened, and apologizing. She even told me that she had set the stencil with the crocodile aside so Karen's Dad could fix it when he got home because Karen said it came broken. Karen was grounded. Karen didn't come into school the next day, and that day I had gathered work for two weeks from each of my classes because we were going down to Georgia to see my grandparents. When I came back two weeks later, Karen refused to look at me. Karen's Mom made her sit in the back seat and I got to sit up front. Karen had no wind down time at home and had to get started on her homework right away. My teachers had given me extra work, so I ended up a bit ahead and had no homework for the rest of the week, so I got to play more Sonic, without the headphones.

This isn't the end of my adventures with Karen. This is actually the turning point when she decided I would be her friend or I would regret it, or at least that's how I remember it and the stories pretty much go. I honestly don't know what went through her head.