Alright, when I first got into using drugs, way back in the summer of my eighth grade vacation, I did some pretty desperate things for money. I wouldn't consider them desperate things, but they were definitely creative. I have always been one to enjoy thinking up good "get rich quick" schemes. I'm a self proclaimed master. 8th grade summer vacation was the beginning. I started venturing to the mall. I found myself with a new group of older friends. I was 13-14 hanging out with 18-19 year old guys. I started using pot pretty heavily.
One of the ways I'd get money, was bumming off of friends. I consistently made new friends, with the sole intention of using them for $ in the future. I frequently had my older friends walk around the mall with me, holding onto the back of my shirt collar. I'd beg my new friends for money, pleading "Please! They're going to kill me if I don't get them $180 by the end of the night!"
Back then, I was making anywhere from $150-$200 a Friday night. No joke. My pay only increased with age, as I met more and more new friends. I knew just what to say, to certain types of kids. To the kids younger than I, I was intimidating. To the nerdy crowd, I was friendly, I offered my friendship. To the cute rich girls, I flirted, kissed, whored myself out basically. To the popular crowd, I changed my personality to fit what they'd find "cool" To kids I knew I'd never see again "I'll pay you back" was my choice. Manipulation was my profession, and I excelled in doing it.
I often schemed up complex plans. Planting a glob of yogurt and foodcoloring on the mall wall, having one of my friends shout "Hes going to eat the slug for $50!" I was often asked to steal things from stores, and I was paid $1-$2 less than what the store charged. I often diluted drugs, and pushed them to kids just getting into the scene.
Ways I never needed money for anything but drugs:
I became a kleptomaniac. I began coming to the mall, filling my pockets. I learned I could tuck my pants into my shoes and fill my legs. I then started bringing backpacks. I learned tricks, like grabbing a magazine from a display, bringing it to the CD shop where it would beep. I'd show it to them, they'd be ok with it. Id go into the store, pack as many CDs into it as possible, and walk out. The magazine would beep, I'd hold it up, and they'd wave me goodbye.
I would take receipts on tables in the food court, go to the resturaunt it came from, and complain that I didn't get my... whatever side order it was. I would order free water from Macdonald's, dump it out, and pass it to a friend to get a free refill of the soda of our choice. I made friends with many of the managers and workers at each fast food chain. To this day, whenever I take my rounds they all wave me over and update me on their lives. (I really do like some of those guys/gals, actually)
Sometimes we'd bring an acustic guitar, sit outside a lesser known entrance, and sing punk songs for change. We often charged $3-$4 more for a pack of cigarettes, or some alcohol from the bar.
I even had people paying me to go to parties that my older friends would hold in the woods across the street from the mall every Fri/Sat night.
I had it made. This continued till around Sophomore year, when I started using heroin and pain medication. I lost so many friends, so fast. Got kicked out of school, got banned from the mall, arrested and thrown in jail. Hard times.
