crinkle

Katie grinned when she opened her pink plastic lunchbox. Grandma Kate's crinkle cookies were her favorite! She carefully set them to one side and unwrapped the tuna sandwich, kicking her feet happily as she munched on it. She squeezed the last few drops out of her juice box and reached for the baggy of cookies, pulled out just one and broke off a small piece. They were perfect, as usual, crispy, dusty outside and gooey on the inside. She popped the piece into her mouth and licked powdered sugar off her fingertips. 

"Hey, Crinkleface! Did you just eat one of my cookies?" She looked up just in time to see Mary's chubby paw snatching the baggy of cookies. 

"No, please! Give them back! I promise I'll give you the rest of my desserts for a whole week, just give back my crinkle cookies!" Katie reached for the baggy, dangling from Mary's hand as she stuffed two cookies into her mouth at once.

"Eeuck, these aren't even good!" Mary spat a mouthful of chewed cookie onto Katie's dress and dropped the rest on the floor, grinding them flat with her heel. She shoved Katie to the lunch room floor "Tomorrow's cookies had better be good, or else!"

Katie moped her way through the rest of the day, even through Math class, her favorite. She moped during recess and on the bus. She moped all the way home, too sad to notice the ambulance parked in front of the house, or that the front door was ajar, until she walked into the living room full of people. "Mommy? Are we having company? Where's Grandma?"

"Oh, honey," her mother picked her up. "Grandma Kate's gone." 

"Oh. When is she coming back? Mommy, why are you crying?