When You’re a Scooby-Doo Villain
Scooby-Doo taught us an important lesson. The only real monsters in this world are people. Some people will go to extraordinary to cheat others and cover their tracks. The OP didn’t hurt anyone else, but they did try to keep mom and dad from finding out what she and her friend did.
However, even if the neighbor didn’t rat them out, the OP did a pretty poor job of covering her tracks. Her go-to excuse for the missing lemon tree was that she and a friend decided to chop it down. Out of the blue, she took it upon herself to take down a dead lemon tree? That sus as heck.