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The stone fell in the pond with a huge splash of water. Maggie chose it carefully so it would create the most amount of damage with the least possible work. In fact, the flat, large, marble like stone managed to scare away at least 5 or 6 ducks that were peacefully gulping down the dirty water of the pond.
She didn't even care about the concerned, sad, hateful and even appreciating stares she got from kids and their mothers around her that happened to see her little mischievous act. When she passed near a little blonde kid with a "little elves" hat and matching schoolbag, she spoke under her breath but loud enough to be heard.
"Damn, this time i didn't hit any of them!"
The stupid little elf widened his eyes. Maggie didnt stop and look at the following reaction, but she was sure he was looking at her stopping in his trail, maybe with his mother trying to pull it by the bag, to make him go away from that bratty little girl.
Maggie giggled. This little escapade at the Springfield park pond set her in a good mood after a totally boring day at school. She was strangely calm all the time, and the most bullying she did was throwing out of the window that little new kid's pencil bag. Her followers didn't follow her around and the kids that usually feared her didn't bother to keep a  distance between her and them.
Remembering of this made her fall into a bad mood again, so she decided she wanted to go home and forget all about it. For a split second she was totally sure that Marge had prepared hamburgers and French fries for dinner, and that sent her mouth watering. She speeded up her pace.

When she reached the door, she was almost running. As soon as she was inside, she kicked her shoes aside in the entrance, dropped the bag on the couch in the living room (TV off and no Homer on the couch? that's weird!), and by the time she got in the kitchen, she had removed her jacket too.
"Mom, what..."
She stood there, with her jacket in hand, a look of total delusion on her face. The kitchen was silent and still. Maggie regained her composure and did the first thing that she was used to since she started speaking. She yelled at the top of her lungs:
"MOOOM!"
As she feared, the familiar raspy voice didn?t come to erase her fears. Instead, a different one confirmed them.
" Mom and Dad are away!"
It was a bright, high pitched, ear piercing voice. Muffled from the floor above. Specifically, from her big sister Lisa's room.
Maggie dropped the jacket to the floor, clenched her eyes shut and loudly exclaimed her delusion for the unexpected change in plans.
"D'oh!"
Lisa was a horrible cook! Maggie hoped with all her heart that this would be another delivered pizza and rented movie night, but the chance of that happening with only Lisa around the house was very slim, if not inexistent. If only Homer were there... when it came to self-administered evenings, her dad was the best.
Maggie knew very well that despite the 8 years of age difference, she could take on Lisa anytime she wanted. No unwritten rule about responsibility and all that crap could force Maggie to eat BADLY steamed broccoli and do homework until 21 point zero zero PM!
She was going to fight, and she was going to  win. She took a deep breath, lowered her eyebrows, popped a chewing gum into her mouth and put her hands into her jeans pockets. On the way up the stairs she stopped by the bathroom mirror to look at the result.

"Good Maggie, good. This is one of your best so far" She thought to herself. She looked totally cool and possibly older than what her little body (even for a 9 year old) might suggest. Her long, spiky hair fell down from the sides of her face and on her forehead in strands and threads. For such a young girl, she had pretty long eyelashes, and unusually deep blue eyes, unlike Lisa's that were more like a cerulean sky. Of the many things they had in common physically, the eyes were an example of "the same, but not quite".
Like the hair, or the round shaped nose, or the slightly curved and outwards overbite. Lisa's was more pronounced than Maggie's and Maggie sometimes found herself wondering, like now, how could Lisa kiss with such a particular... shape. When Maggie realized she was thinking a bit too much about her sister, she realized in a flash that she had unwillingly lost her "cool brat" attitude and was now looking totally different. Gone was the cold look; in the mirror there was a sweet face, round eyes full of future, slightly puffed cheeks, and a sly, enigmatic smile that could make iron melt.
She blushed violently as she realized that the sweet looking girl in the mirror was her, and she quickly modelled her face back to what it was before. Plus, she decided to chew her gum with the mouth open and lower the eyelids a bit more, just to accentuate the "I?m not hearing you" expression.
She had to wait a couple of seconds for the flushed checks to regain their natural yellow shade, and eventually they did, so she took another breath and stepped towards Lisa's room door like the coming of the Apocalypse, if only a really tiny one.

Lisa followed Maggie down the stairs. She was very fast for her age, must be all the sugary snack treats that she eats. By the time Lisa had exited the front door, she saw that Maggie had gotten on her bike and was now peddleing away towards Spaulding Way, that turned off Evergreen Terrace. Wipping out her cellphone from her pocket she contemplated calling her perants. No. They would never trust her again. She needed to find Maggie but where would a little 9 year old hellion go? She needed help. She sighed and dialed a number in to her cellphone. 'Bart, Maggie's having one of her 'pre-teen moments' I need your help.'

"Stupidity on it's own merits is only an annoyance.  When stupidity mixes with emotions, though, it becomes truely dangerous."

Maggie frowned as she remembered the quote one of Lisa's friends had voiced one night.  She hadn't understood it at the time, but she was begining to.

She'd turned on to Walnut street- at least, she'd thought it was Walnut street.  It was hard to tell in the dark.  She'd turned twice since then, and wasn't any closer to her home, or the park she usually brooded at.

"Great, just great.  Had to go and get yourself lost, didn't you?"  Maggie muttered to herself in disgust.  Lisa'd never let her live this down, not to mention what her mom and dad would do to her when they found out.

"Where's Bart when you need him?"

    The air in the bar was dank and thick, and reeked of beer and urine. The lights over the bar were dim and a few moths fluttered around them, occasionally getting burned, but never lacking the courage (or stupidity) to fly back at it.
    Maggie looked around, trying to find somewhere to seat herself. She was a little scared of the people at the bar, they seemed to be lost deep in their thoughts while they drank. But she had learned that drunks were not to be trusted; and she did have her wallet on her. She observed a few flies buzzing around a puddle in the corner, and stared at them, transfixed by their movements.
    "Hot chocolate, little Miss Simpson?" Moe called back from across the bar.
    Broken free of her small trance, Maggie turned and nodded. She decided that the booth in the back, near the television would suffice. That way she would be able to view whatever program was playing, even if it was not as exciting as "America's Wackiest Car Crashes". Maggie had grown into a little replica of her older brother; and one of those traits she shared with him was an inability to pull herself away from the soft, electric glow of the idiot box.
    Moe finished heating her drink and brought it to her in the corner. He had aged terribly; his already unattractive face had developed countless creases and wrinkles. Maggie didn't know exactly how old he was, but his face looked something like her grandfather's, who was somewhere around ninety.   
    He seated himself in the booth, on the opposite end of the table from her. "So, what brings a lady like you to a slime-hole like this, at this hour?" He did his best to give her a charming smile, but only succeeded in looking like a circus monkey who didn't know when the time had come to stop smoking.
    Maggie pointed her eyes at the table and glowered. "My stupid sister. She just hates me."
    Moe scratched at the stubble on his chin. "You talkin' about Lisa, right?"
    Maggie nodded and continued to frown at the dirty tabletop. "Mom and dad went out tonight, and left her in charge again. She always makes me do my homework right when I get home! And then she makes this stupid vegetable crap for dinner. It tastes awful! And always an early bed time. It sucks!"
    Moe took a quarter out of his pocket and began to spin it. "Little Lisa's always been like that. I remember Homer tellin' me once that she was a vegetarian." He uttered the last word with revulsion.
    "Yeah... I just don't get what it is with her. Homer always does better! He gets pizza, and lets me go to bed whenever I want!" She said this with happiness, as if for a second she believed that it really was Homer who was watching her tonight. Then her face fell again, and she resumed her vigilant watch on the table.
    It seemed as if Moe was about to reply, but suddenly his face contorted into a mask of anger. "Hey, you!! Get away from there!" He stood up and dashed to the bar. "You have to pay for that, you pathetic drunk!"