Just before Christmas, when I was a kid of about 15 or so....

[hedda_foil]

3. When I was in 8th grade, a girl stole my new imitation gold clutch purse.

It slid off my pile of books as I walked home from school, and i didn't realize it was gone for a few steps. Whoever took it was seemingly gone so I enlisted my friends and a cousin who was a semester ahead of me. I was determined to get that purse back. My cousin found out who took it a few days later, so i went to the culprit's apartment to get it back. She tried to bluff it out but i was unyielding and after a few minutes she gave me the purse. After I left in triumph, I looked at the inside of the purse more closely. She had written angrily all over the red satin lining in ballpoint pen. I never used that purse again... probably because I realized that the thief was poor and jealous of the girls whose parents could buy them things like a gold purse for Christmas.