Free The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower by Lisa Graff

wanted to be out the door and on her way to the mall before her parents came back into the kitchen and decided to ask her more questions about babysitting. After she’d inhaled the last spoonful, she lurched her chair back across the tiled floor with a screech and dumped her bowl in the sink. “ ’Bye, everyone!” she called into the living room, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “I’m off to babysit!”
    Her mother hurried into the kitchen before Bernetta made it out the door. “Are you positive you don’t want a ride over there?” she asked for the fifteenth time.
    â€œIt’s fine, Mom,” Bernetta told her. “I’ll just take my bike. It’s not that far. Besides, I don’t want to make Colin late for his swim lesson.”
    â€œAll right, then,” her mom replied. She gave Bernetta a kiss on the forehead. “Have a good time with the kids. And call me if you need anything. Or if the parents get sick, or if you’ll be home late.”
    â€œOr if there’s a fire. Okay, Mom.”
    â€œ ’Bye, sweetie. I love you!”
    She gave her mother a quick hug. “Love you too,” she said, and hustled out the door.

    Bernetta worked up quite a sweat pedaling her way to the mall, but she arrived at the food court at precisely nine o’clock. Gabe was waiting by the pretzel stand, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Today his T-shirt was red, and scrolled across it were the words YOUR CAR’S UGLIER THAN I AM . He saw her coming and waved her over.
    â€œHey!” he greeted her, his eyes sparkling. “You came!”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œYou ready for your first lesson?”
    â€œUm, lesson?”
    â€œYeah. I thought I could teach you some moves, and then we’ll get started right away. Don’t worry, you’ll be a natural. Oh, and before we start, I think we should agree to a fifty-fifty split of all profits. Deal?”
    Bernetta raised an eyebrow as Gabe led her over to a table with two chairs. “Are you some kind of professional thief or something?” They sat.
    â€œNah.” Gabe grinned. “I guess I’ve just done a lot of research.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, research?” Bernetta cocked her head to the side and studied him. “You mean watching movies, don’t you? Con artist ones, like what you were talking about the other day. Is that how you
researched
everything, watching movies?”
    Gabe shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
    â€œYou some kind of film buff or something?”
    He placed his hands flat on the table. “Name a movie, one you think I’ve never seen. I’ll bet you five bucks I can say at least one line from it.”
    Bernetta wrinkled her nose. Granted, back at Mount Olive, she hadn’t talked to a whole lot of boys, but she’d never had any idea they were this weird. “Um . . .” She named the first movie that popped into her head. “
Apollo
13?
” Her parents had rented that one last week.
    â€œYou’re kidding, right?” Gabe asked, eyebrows raised high.
    â€œLook, if you don’t know it, it’s fine, we can just—”
    â€œâ€˜Houston, we have a problem.’ That’ll be five bucks, please.”
    Gabe held out his hand, but Bernetta just rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t have five bucks,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”
    â€œAll right, you can owe me,” Gabe said. He shook his head and laughed. “Man, I can’t believe you picked
Apollo
13
! Anyway, you ready to learn the shortchange?”
    â€œShortchange?”
    â€œYeah. It’s probably the most basic con there is. But you still have to be a pretty good talker to make it work. Otherwise people start to get suspicious. Here.” He took his wallet out of the front pocket of his jeans and began riffling through the bills inside. There were a lot of bills. He pulled