Courtney stood with her face up against the cold, smooth glass of the shoe store. It was an icy 20 F, with whipping winds, and as she turned homeward, another snow flurry began.

Courtney Johnson was a 17 year old girl who had stylish, silky, brown hair, and radiant blue eyes. Dressed in a pink, Aeropostale shirt as bright as the sun, and the latest flare, blue jeans, it became clear that she was preppy, rich, and spoiled. For over two weeks, she had been begging her parents for these gorgeous, pink flats. She just had to have them to match her outfit, but her parents had said that she had to wait until her eighteenth birthday-a whole thirteen more days!

Because she was adopted, her parents had always given her whatever she wanted. When she was younger, it was cute seeing her little face pout. But, as she got older, her behavior grew worse with her yelling and stomping off. One time, she even threw a vase against the wall and broke it. But, this time, her parents wanted to see if they could break the habit to make her a better, more polite teenager.

But, Courtney thought she was going to die if she didn’t get these glamorous, pink shoes!

Courtney raced down the stairs the next morning for breakfast with her new plan for how to get the shoes. She could hear the bacon sizzling in the frying pan, as she waltzed over to give them each a kiss.

“May I have those shoes for an early birthday present?” she asked her parents with a pleasant voice.

“No, and if you ask us again, you will be grounded and never get the shoes!” they answered angrily. She ran up to her room in anger and slammed the door to her room. She kept thinking that somehow she would get those shoes. Then, pulling out a shimmering credit card, that she had taken from her mom’s purse, and wiping the tears from her eyes she smiled.

“They are not going to weasel into my life and ruin it!” she said to herself.

Later that morning, Courtney dragged herself into school, and her friends could tell from the look on her face that she hadn’t gotten the shoes.

“I’m going to get the shoes after school today, I don’t care what my parents say. They shouldn’t have control over my life! They are like two snakes trying to make me miserable in any way possible! I’ll just hide them.”

After school, Courtney ran towards the shoe store. She breathed a long sigh of satisfaction as she heard the familiar “ring” of the door bell to her favorite shoe store. As she walked in, it seemed as if the door was smiling at her. She got inside quickly, grabbed the shoes, bought them with her mom’s credit card, and stuffed them into her book bag. She headed home singing her own praises, and as she skipped inside the door of her home, she found her mom doing laundry. She was very quiet and slipped past her mom into her bedroom. She walked in to her walk-in closet and pushed away some clothes. Behind her clothes, were five pairs of fabulous flats that she had used to buy with her mom’s credit card. There were new shoes from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and now Friday! Then, she pulled out the credit card from her pocket, and hid it between the pages of her science book, and started to arrange her shoes.

Her mom walked in and saw her arranging her shoes and yelled, “Courtney! What in the world are you doing!?”

“Oh, hey Mom,” Courtney said knowing that she was going to get it.

“Where did you get the money to buy those shoes?” her mom asked suspiciously.

“I have been working for them,” she replied confidently.

“Don’t you lie to me! Give me my credit card, and return all of those shoes! You are never getting any of them now! And, you are grounded for three weeks for what you have done! You’re acting like your obsessed with these shoes!” her mom replied with anger coming out of her like a burning fire.

Courtney obeyed and gave her the credit card that was in her science book and returned the shoes. She ran into her room crying, “I’ve never seen my parents so angry. I should have never done this! I am not obsessed either!”

The next couple of days, while Courtney was doing her homework, she stopped to think.

“You know, I have my mom’s second credit card in my math book. Who is she to take away all my shoes!I deserve them anyways!” As she said this, she reached into her math book and found the second credit card.

“I am just going to get online and order them off the internet because I have to stay in my room,” she thought chuckling to herself.

Ten minutes later, Courtney had happily ordered seven-teen pairs of shoes. Snickering to herself she muttered, “Obsessed? No way!”