Sweet Jazz City was big enough to have everything. Museums, theaters, live bands, a zoo, an aquarium, Thai food, a mini-theme park that was also an aquarium, all-night laundromats, vending machines that served unlabeled pop in front of a quirky wall mural, stores that only sold stuff imported from Japanese dollar stores, poser hippies that lived in McMansions, big rocks: the list went on forever.

As a result of all that cultural hoohah, it was near impossible to live there. The Blyndeff family, for instance, lived in the nearby satellite city of Almondine. It was legally not Sweet Jazz City, because the taxes were lower, but the huge metropolis had long since swallowed up the town. Still, one little Molly Blyndeff ran her one little family toy store not in the frenetic but lucrative Sweet Jaz City market, but in the sleepy burrough of Almondine. It made for long, slow shifts if she caught the wrong weekend. Other twelve-year-olds could spend slow Saturdays playing video games or getting frapps at the mall.

She was working retail.

At least in the next five minutes, her dad would take over the shift so she could leave… and go buy groceries. Her dad only ever voluntarily did night shift if they were out of Tagalongs. Still, it got her out of working, and she did enjoy her evening drives.

She could hear them on the wind. Molly's heart clenched. Teenagers. A whole gaggle of them, and they were headed for the store. It would be her luck to get a bunch of teenagers before she got off shift. Her dad would probably hide until they left, too. She took in a quick breath to get her Customer Face on.

Molly didn't get the chance to even talk before the red-headed leader teen kicked open the front door. "Greetings, toy sto-OH MY GOD Bear Trap, finally!"

She was struck dumb, because this gaggle of teeangers was Giovanni Potage and the Bonzai Blasters. Sure it was them in street clothes and not wearing helmets, but one didn't become part of and then thwart a separate museum heist with a group of friends and then forget them a week later. A whole bunch of emotions Molly wasn't used to- relief, joy, and surprise- all jumped out of her mouth at once. "Giovanni!"

The shop got a loud louder much faster, because Giovanni almost threw himself over the counter to hug her head while the others yelled out their greetings. "Bear Trap! Oh my god, your job's in Almondine?!"

Hugging with a countertop between them hurt her neck, but it was worth it. "I live in Almondine! The shop's attached to my house!"

Giovanni broke the hug so he could properly stand up and throw his arms around while he talked. "I cannot believe one of my best boys has lived three blocks from my house this whole time, and I've never noticed until today!"

One of the boys, Crusher if she could tell by his voice, said, "Yeah, we kept checking all the toy stores in Sweet Jazz City! We used so much gas!"

Giovanni went nearly as red as his hair. "Oh my god Crusher she wasn't supposed to know!"

Molly giggled. "Lol, rip."

"ANYWAY! Now that your secret base has been discovered, you can no longer escape us!"

She cut Giovanni off with a quick, "But I don't wanna escape you. Can we swap phone numbers real fast?"

"Oh totally!" The Banzai Blasters all whipped out their phones (except for one guy who she was pretty sure was Ben), and Giovanni went right back to his grand speech. "SO NOW, we must catch you up on your backlog of nefarious schemes!"

Her giddy feeling of relief cautiously deflated. Friends or not, Molly was running a business. "What kind of schemes? Were you going to shoplift?"

Giovanni scoffed the biggest scoff he could scoff. "No! Shoplifting is a loser crime!"

Car Crash cut in. "Unless it's from Walmart!"

Ben laughed. "Yeah, Walmart sucks!"

Giovanni picked his own conversation thread back up. "Thievery is only cool if you steal from museums, vaults of gold bars, and faceless minimum-or-less wage conglomerates! Not from independent locally-owned businesses run by a literal baby!"

He had her up until the end there. Molly ventured to ask. "Sooo, what's the nefarious scheme?"

Giovanni threw himself over a plastic kiddie chair. "I don't knoooow, I'm just bored! My moms are having company over!"

Spike, the only other girl boy, explained. "We always hang out at his house."

"And now we can't!" he roared while dramatically draped over a tea party table playset. "I can't even think over all their mom noises!"

Molly growled on his behalf. "Mood, but my sister."

Now Ben scoffed. "So what, are we just gonna read Goldenbooks and play tea party until your aunties leave?"

"You probably shouldn't," said Molly. "Dad takes over my shift in a few more minutes. You can come with me to the store, though!"

"A-ha! Loitering!" Giovanni shot right back onto his feet. "To the Piggly-Wiggly!"

They are up just enough time for the shift change. Molly never counted up the takings so fast in her whole life. She could hear his feet coming down the hall…

He dad entered every room like he was actually important, and that was humiliating enough on its own. The mustard-colored ketchup stained shirt and pajama bottoms only made the shame coil up in her gut even harder. "Hey Molly! Lookie what I got for you: the shopping list! I put stars by all the stuff you just gotta get!"

The Bonzai Blasters had been very quiet. Giovanni broke it. "That's your dad?"

Molly answered. "That's my dad."

"What does he mean 'you have to get'?"

"I usually just take the car." Molly hopped off her chair. "All yours, Dad."

"All righty! Time to match my dragons!" Her dad slammed his weight down onto Molly's plastic chair and broke it, just like he did with the last four. "Woop! Looks like I just spent the petty cash again!"

And, as if no one else in the world existed until then, he finally perked to attention and addressed the five teenagers in his store. "Oh! Hey there, kiddos! Lookin' to buy something?"

Car Crash muttered, "She… drives..."

Spike whispered back, "With a dad like that? No wonder. She's like Matilda."

Giovanni, lost for words, stammered. "I'm… waiting for my ride?"

That was as good a signal as any. Molly took the back door through the house and into the garage. The car fired up with a resounding battery-affirming rev. When she pulled around from the back, the Bonzai Blasters were waiting with their mouths hanging open and their phones out. They must have been in awe of her reckless and dangerous driving as she pulled up right on the sidewalk!

Oh who was she kidding? She drove a Barbie Dream Van.

Giovanni threw the expected fit. "THIS is your car?! I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're driving, but I'm more concerned that it's by yourself in a Tonka Truck."

Molly shrugged. "It's a Power Wheels."

"And it's pink! Couldn't you get one of the ATV ones instead?!"

Car Crash added, "Mine had a dino head!"

"I needed the trunk space!" Molly patted the black 'back seat' plus cooler for frozen goods. "And since I use it to haul groceries, I can buy it at cost and still write it off as a business expense!"

Giovanni groaned in out-loud disapproval.

Ben put it better. "I'm walking."

"Well then I call whatever you call shotgun in a Barbie car!" Giovanni pretzeled himself into the back seat. "Godspeed, Bear Trap."

They were off. They were off at only slightly above walking speed, but they were off. It was the weirdest, and only, entourage she had ever had in her life, but it was pretty great. She wasn't used to company at all on her grocery runs!"

Giovanni wailed. "You got any tunes on this thing?"

"I don't use the radio 'cause I don't wanna drain the battery." Molly pulled her phone out of her pocket. "But you can play the music from Papa's Scooperia real loud like I do!"

She hadn't heard that many people groan in disapproval at once since… well, school yesterday, but still.

"Bear Trap, I refuse to let one of my minions jam out to Papa's Scooperia," Giovanni complained. "Why don't you have real music?"

Molly didn't want to admit why, because she knew she'd hear about it for the rest of the drive, but she couldn't think of anything in the moment. There was no nice tidy lie. The confession was inevitable. "… Dad used all this month's data."

Giovanni punctuated his thoughts to thumps against Molly's head. "Bear Trap. My minion. My wonderful smart minion boy… did I teach you nothing?"

Crusher's thoughts were more direct. "Your dad sucks."

"Well, great, now I'm gonna have to provide the tunes and bad guy tutelage! All right: Bear Trap. Are you obeying the speed limit?"

Molly considered the question thoroughly. "Uh… be default, yes? I can't make forty miles per hour in a plastic car."

"Bad Guy Rule number six: always floor it!"

Car Crash jumped right on that rule. "It makes your car run better!"

"And the sub-rule of rule number six: floor it to bitchin' theme music!"

Spike went "Oo! And you have to drive places that aren't roads, like Lupin III!"

"So floor it, Bear Trap!" Giovanni roared. "Floor it like the wind!"

She had never floored it in her car before. She had always been terrified of the battery running out, leaving her stranded in the street with a half hour walk carrying fifty pounds of groceries. Molly still felt kind of an electric cold in her skin just at the thought of it.

That feeling, she told herself, was called a "thrill". She grinned, and she floored it.

The little car took off faster than she thought it could go, even with Giovanni in the back seat! The Bonzai Blasters cheered after her and broke into a jog- a whole jog!- to keep up. Giovanni broke out into some sick a capella guitar riff that turned into techno the further they went.

"Do you LIKE?! My car! Dunnununnahahaaah! DOOGEEDOGEGDOOGEOTO- YES YOU LADY- Bear Trap go through the park!"

She'd passed it so many times, the little city park, and never considered driving through it to get to Piggly-Wiggly. It just wasn't something a good little girl did. But she wasn't a good little girl now! She was a minion boy! She swung the car left, straight into the crosswalk, all while Giovanni belted out "GAS GAS GAAAS, I'm gonna step on the gas, TONIIIGHT-" They drove straight through a flock of pigeons! Came within arm's reach of the snow cone cart! Clipped the grass on the first corner! "AND I'LL BE YOUR HEEROOOO!"

Car Crash went full announcer! "She's coming up on the hairpin turn through the aromatics garden!"

"She can't do it!" shouted Spike. "There's no way she can come out of those turns at full speed! She'll go straight into the Japanese pond!"

"You fool!" cheered Crusher. "That rear-mounted Boss makes her perfect for drifting!"

Ben grumped, "You can't drift in a Barbie car!"

Molly wasn't even sure what drifting was, but when she went around the second turn at full speed, the side wheels came up off the ground and the bumper scraped the concrete. Pride and shock punched her in equal measure; she never ever scratched her car before! But she did it with Giovanni literally singing her praises in the back seat-

It hit her all at once. Other twelve-year-olds were spending their sleepy weekend sipping frapps and tapping on their phones.

Molly was illegally racing through a public park in a Barbie car while a team of street criminals provided live commentary and techno music.

"Best! Weekend! EVER!" Molly whooped!

"WRONG!" said Giovanni. "FIRST weekend ever, with the Bonzai Blasters! We're all cool all the time! We are never boring ever!"

And then the battery ran out in the store parking lot, so they had to load the groceries into the seats and carry the car home. It wasn't the most exciting part of the trip, no, but it was overall pretty great. Molly ate well that night and went to bed smiling. Giovanni texted her in the night asking what they would do tomorrow. She had a bunch of ideas and would probably forget half of them by the time she woke up, but it was okay. Everything was cool, and the store was out of Tagalongs.