 
This Isn't Over

By Jack Littleton 2017

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text Copyright © 2017 by Jack Littleton

All rights reserved.

IBSN 9781973526612

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the author and publisher.

This Isn't Over

Tinkertot-Peachbottom Adventure Series Book 2

By Jack Littleton

This book is dedicated to my mother, Sharon. Without her help, this would remain just a dream unfulfilled.

### Chapter 1

The Palace superstore was a bustling empire of customers on this Saturday afternoon. The "Black Aces" walked in stride to the large retail chain store. There were four "Black Aces" all together, two boys and two girls. Blue Adams "The Ace of Spades" and his sister, Gracie "The Ace of Diamonds", accompanied by Cal Green "The Ace of Clubs", and the sweetheart of the group, who was no nice little girl, Montsie Jameson "The Ace of Hearts", her real name was actually Montserrat. They all got their nicknames from a deck of playing cards, each taking a suit. The girls took the names of the red ace cards, and the boys took the names of the black ace cards.

The Palace's electric door slid open as they walked up to it. Now "The Black Aces" could go to work at what they did best, shoplifting. Blue, 12 years-old, was the leader of the wayward group and Cal, 10 years-old, was the second in command. The girls, Gracie Adams, 8 years-old, and Montsie, 6 years-old, rounded out the group. They had been stealing from the stores and other retail businesses for a few months now. It seemed like their courage went up with every job they "hit" on.

The plan was for Blue to go to Sporting Goods, Cal would take Electronics, Gracie would handle the Girl's Department and Montsie was to go to the Candy aisle. Each member went his or her separate way to carry out their job assignment. Today's plan was for Montsie to grab as much candy as she could carry and make a run for it. Gracie would follow closely with accessories like sunglasses, hair ribbons and bows, fashionable belts and anything else that could fit into a girl's shoplifted purse. The two boys would wait for the distraction and run off with cell phones and beach sporting goods, like Boogie Boards. They had pulled off similar jobs like this in other stores, so this should be a cinch.

Montsie went to the Candy aisle and saw what she was looking for. She had gotten a hand basket on the way in, and now she was jamming the basket full of bags of various chocolate candy bars. With this done, she went to go find Gracie who had now filled up two purses with nail polish, make-up, sunglasses, and hair accessories. The two girls nodded to each other, indicating that they were ready to go, and went to go find the boys. They came across Cal first; he was checking out the latest Smartphone and asking the clerk questions. The clerk had left the storage case open seeing no threat in a little kid like Cal. Big Mistake! The two girls proceeded to Sporting Goods and gave the "ready" signal to Blue.

Montsie turned away from Gracie and started running to the front of the store, Gracie followed from about a 50 ft. distance. When Montsie was about 15 ft. from the door, she noticed security all standing in a line across the exit doors and the entrance doors were cordoned off leaving customers outside. One of the Assistant Managers' stepped up to Montsie and said, "Stop right there! What do you think you are doing with all that candy? You have to pay for it." Montsie knew they could not touch her until she was officially through the doors.

Gracie saw Montsie up ahead. Security had not moved, so it was up to her to get them to clear the way. Gracie blew by Montsie and headed for the exit. She ran with all her might and, at the last second, she dropped to the floor and slid underneath a wall of arms. Without looking back, she ran outside and into the parking lot. A female clerk grabbed her from behind. As soon as she felt the tug, she threw the purses on the ground about 10 ft. away. A hand grabbed her around the neck. "You are coming with me! Nice try princess, but not today," the sales woman said.

Just then, Blue ran out of the store holding two good-sized boogie boards out in front of him as a shield. He drew three male sales clerks to him and they started chasing him down. He cut right and ran in front of cars in an effort to make it to the street. It was now or never for Cal. His assignment was the cell phones, which were the most expensive and of greatest value to the store. He shoved the teenaged clerk in front of him causing the boy to go off balance. Cal reached into the storage case and grabbed about four smart phones along with the model he held in his hand.

Cal ran for the exit. He saw Montsie up ahead being held by the store's Assistant Manager. He made a dash for the exit and actually made it because all the other security personnel were occupied at the moment. Cal ran across the parking lot and saw Gracie was being held. He ran up to the sales woman holding her and delivered a punch to the clerk's stomach, followed by a stomping on both of her feet. She bent over in pain, letting go of Gracie. Gracie ran to pick up the purses and ran behind Cal, across traffic, for the park on the other side of the street.

They saw Blue was swinging a boogey board in his hands knocking the sales clerks clear of him. He ran back to the exit of the store, only the one boogey board in hand. As one of the exit doors was closing, Blue threw the boogey board into the opening. He opened the door and ran inside to get Montsie. Montsie saw him coming, kicked the Assistant Manager in the shin and yelled, "Nice try, you stupid witch." The Assistant Manager looked at Montsie in shock, what language for such a little girl. Montsie grabbed the basket of chocolates, Blue grabbed Montsie, and together they ran out the door. The two small crooks ran in between a row of cars making it hard for the sales people to follow. Up ahead, Blue saw somebody was leaving and ran to the passenger side of the car and threw open the unlocked door. A young boy about 7 years of age was in the front seat. Blue reached across the boy, unbuckled his seat belt, grabbed the young boy by his right arm, and threw him to the ground. The boy yelled out crying just as Montsie got there. She catapulted herself off the boy's chest and into the car. She scrambled quickly into the back seat as Blue got in the car. Blue had managed to pick up a large block of concrete that had broken off the parking space guard next to them. He shouted at the female driver, "Drive! Now!"

The woman just looked at him in shock and said, "Hell no, my son is out there." The woman exited the car, and Blue had to think fast. He slid over into the driver's seat and threw the car in reverse. The car flew backward almost hitting the concerned mother and her son. Blue thrust the car in Drive and drove off, peeling out as he went. He got to the shopping center exit and turned right to get to the park. He had never driven before so he swerved from side to side as he made his way down the street, in the car, to the park. He pulled into the park and saw Gracie and Cal waiting for them.

He pulled up to them, slammed on the brakes, and pushed down the power window button. Gracie and Cal looked on in surprise; they did not expect Blue to steal a car. Blue yelled, "Get In!! What are you waiting for?"

Gracie got in the back with Montsie and Cal got in the passenger side. "You stole a car! How in the heck did you do that?" Cal asked.

"Circumstances allowed it, where to now?" Blue asked.

"I don't know; I didn't expect this. Dude, the cops are going to be all over this, we gotta ditch this car," Cal stated.

"You stole a Mercedes," Gracie stated in disbelief.

"Now we really got to get rid of it," Montsie said. "This thing probably has a tracker."

Blue hit the street at a decent speed and turned right. He pushed on the accelerator and the car was speeding along at 60 mph in a 40 mph zone. A red light loomed up ahead. An empty residential street was on the right. Blue took the turn sharply, slowing down just enough to skid around the turn, and came to a stop farther up the street. They all bailed out of the car, as if it were going to blow up. They headed for a vacant backyard to hide out for the time being. They hopped the fence, ran behind some hedges bordering a house, and hunkered down. It's a good thing no one was home and there were no big dogs to deal with.

The gang looked at each other and smiled. The take was five cell phones, a basket of candy, and two purses full of girl's items. Only the boogie boards were left behind. "Not bad for a few minutes of work," Cal said.
Chapter 2

Piper Peabody began her physical therapy session with exercise. After completing 20 cherry pickers, 20 jumping jacks, and 10 toe touches, her back began to feel stretched out enough. It had been two weeks of aggressive physical therapy following one week of complete rest. The battle with Doug Stravinberg had taken place about three weeks ago now. That fateful day, she was taken to the hospital in a neck brace while laying on a hard backboard in the ambulance. She had been diagnosed with a lower back sprain and hyper-extended abdominal muscles. Now she was getting physical therapy treatments that really made her feel a whole lot better after each session ended. Her pediatrician, Dr. Perry had said her recovery time would be about one month.

She had spent the last two weeks bouncing around on large rubber balls with handles, followed by ice treatments on her back and stomach. Her favorite part was the spa heat/vibration treatments that loosened her back up. Her physical therapist, Myra Davis, would feel her stomach and back for any tight knots left, and massage them out, if needed. Piper loved the massages too; it felt like she was floating on a cloud in Heaven.

It was now time for abdominals. Ms. Davis had Piper lay flat on her back on a cushioned mat. Piper brought her legs up and made the proper bicycle motions set to a three-minute timer. This was followed by touching her right elbow to her left knee, left elbow to right knee, intermittently, 10 times. Then after that, three more minutes of bicycle motions, along with 10 leg raises with feet together. Piper could not yet be medically cleared to return to sporting activities. She was about one week away from having a follow-up appointment with Dr. Perry who would check her flexibility before giving his ok. Ms. Davis congratulated her on her progress and promised to see her again in about four days. With the session over, Piper and her mom left to return home.

While Piper had been recuperating at home, her friends had stopped by to visit her a few times now. They forced her to move by dancing when she felt tightened up. Piper went swimming at Penelope and Bailey's house, and Tilly had stopped by to shadow box with her. Piper really felt close to her friends. They made every effort to help her recover, supporting and encouraging her when she needed it.

When she got home, she had lunch, consisting of a tuna sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. There was a knock on the door and Pauly, her brother, went to answer it. Bailey and Tessie had come to visit Piper. Bailey sure seemed to be showing up a lot lately. Piper really felt that she must care a lot about her. Tessie Teagarden had managed, as usual, to make some friends on the way over and was now hugging and kissing someone's cat goodbye. "Bye, Mr. Whiskers, I'll see you soon," Tessie called out.

Bailey and Piper just watched the interlude between Tessie and the cat, Mr. Whiskers, with fascination. Then they just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Tessie came over to hug Piper. "Hey, how you feeling?" Tessie asked, as she hugged Piper in greeting.

"I have been feeling a lot better; I feel like I'm getting better every session. We did a lot of exercising today, but I got through it," Piper said.

"How soon do you think you can return to sports?" Bailey asked.

"My physical therapist, Ms. Davis, says I should be ready to go, hopefully, after about three more sessions," Piper responded.

Pauly, instead of sitting back down, stayed within distance of the group of girls, casting inquisitive looks at Bailey. Bailey kept glancing at him and smiling. Pauly was a little older than Bailey by a few years; he was 12 years of age, and she was only 8 years of age. Even if she turned 9 years-old this year, was that still too much of an age difference? Hmmm, better leave her alone for now, Pauly thought to himself. "I don't need to get in any trouble for making googly-eyes at a little girl."

Bailey saw Pauly returning her glances and smiles. He's already 12 years-old, I'm probably too young for him, Bailey thought. Still, Pauly did look kind of cute with his curly brown hair and bright green eyes; he did look kissable at least. 'O' well, he's too old for me, but I wish he wasn't, Bailey thought to herself.

"Why don't we go sit in the backyard? I can get us some juice and cookies," Piper said.

"That sounds great, you are not going to go nuts are you," Tessie said remembering the incident at Ms. Hayes' house a few weeks ago.

"Bailey, why are you blushing?" Piper asked, and then noticed her brother, Pauly, walking away with a big smile on his face.

"Who me? I'm not. I'm just in a good mood, I guess," Bailey said barely able to keep a smile from her lips.

Piper was going to have to have a word with Pauly later. I wonder if she was flirting with Pauly. No, she couldn't have been, Pauly is too old for her...right? Piper thought to herself. The girls all moved to the backyard. They were all relaxing and enjoying each other's company, talking about girl stuff such as boys, TV shows they liked, and chores their parents made them do. The end of the school year was coming soon. Molly's 6th birthday was about two weeks away. They couldn't believe the little, not-so-innocent heartbreaker was turning 6 years-old. Too bad it wouldn't help her driving habits. Maybe her dad would turn up the top speed on the scooter to 15-20 mph, instead of 10-15 mph; the girls could only hope.

A flock of mountain sparrows and two blue jays flew into the back yard chirping wildly and hopping around. They made their way towards Tessie who heard the anxiety and worry in their call. Tessie sat upright and all the birds started to chirp at once. "OK wait, slow down, one at a time. What happened?" Tessie asked. One of the mountain sparrows hopped forth and began chirping and hopping around, spreading his wings in different directions. "Yes, ok, right, and Roxy saw them do what? Uh-huh, they stole a car!" Tessie exclaimed, while talking to the leader of the sparrows. Roxy the Mountain Sparrow hopped forth and went on to explain that there were two boys, and two young girls who had pulled off a shoplifting crime at The Palace department store. "O' my gosh, no way! They shoved some store clerks and they even threw a little boy out of a car!! Unbelievable!" Tessie said out loud.

The others watched this exchange with growing concern. This was not typical Tessie critter chatter; something bad had happened. "We have to call Tilly and Penelope right away," Tessie said and grabbed her phone.

"What happened?" Bailey asked.

"Sounds like a robbery," Piper said.

Tessie held up a finger to quiet them as she called Tilly. "I'll explain it to everyone at once, hold on," Tessie said.

Tilly answered her phone, "Hey, did I win a million dollars?" She listened to Tessie tell her about a shoplifting crew of four kids that had gone to The Palace and stole some cell phones, a whole basket of chocolate candy, and two purses full of girl's accessories like sunglasses, make-up, nail polish, and other items. Tilly was in shock. "O' my God, I have to tell Penelope. They have hit my nerve now; they stole things that are important to me. If I can't paint my nails pink, and put teddy bears on them, I don't know what I'll do," Tilly said.

"Cell phones were taken too," Tessie said trying to keep Tilly on track and on things that are more important.

"O' my God, all that chocolate, just gone," Bailey and Piper said in unison, looking at each other with tears in their eyes.

"Will all of you get a grip; I swear, Tilly bemoaning girl's stuff, and you two worried about chocolate of all things. We need to meet up, Tilly. Call Penelope and let's all meet up at the store in one hour," Tessie stated.

"Sounds like a plan, I'm on it," Tilly said. "We gotta offer our help to catch these guys. They are not going to get away with this," she finished.

"See you there," Tessie said. "Bye."

"Sounds like another case to me," Piper said. "I'm going to stay here and relax a little. Tell Tilly to include me on any assignments. I'm just tired from all the exercise today."

"We all want you to rest," Bailey said. "We better get going though. There is chocolate to find and you know how Tilly will consider it a crime against humanity if any clothing or hair items were taken," Bailey finished.

Bailey and Tessie hugged Piper goodbye and told her that they would keep her updated. The girls ran into Payne, Piper's younger brother, on the way out the door. "Bye, Bailey. You look really pretty today with that blue ribbon in your hair," Payne complimented.

"Ummm...ok...thank you Payne, that is really nice of you to say that," Bailey said smiling.

"Ok Casanova, back to your room you go. Beat it! Kick rocks or you will be dealing with me," Piper warned. Payne ran away smiling, it was his first time complimenting Bailey to her face. Pauly is too old for her, but she's just right for me, Payne thought.

"Don't chase him away. That was really sweet," Bailey said.

"Bailey, my darling, he says that to all the girls he knows, even me. He thinks he's a future ladies man or something dorky like that," Piper said.

"He didn't tell me anything," Tessie spoke up.

"Your 13, he's 6, get over it. Besides, Tessie you kind of scare the kid a little," Piper said.

"How?" Tessie asked.

"Let me see...hmmm...Mr. Whiskers, Sammy the Jack Rabbit, the Martin Ladybug Family...," Piper explained.

"But they are my good friends," Tessie defended herself.

"Exactly. I love you girls; thanks for coming over to see me. Give Penny, Molly and Tilly a hug for me," Piper said.
Chapter 3

One hour later, Molly Mustardspice pulled up to the front of The Palace department store. Everyone else had arrived already. Tilly and Penelope's bikes pink/white lights reflected off the outside of the store, shining into the daylight. Bailey's soapbox racer, complete with solar panels, was parked in front of the carts, pink/white lights flashing. The store itself had been closed down for the day. Molly parked her scooter moped in front of the doors and left her pink/white lights on. Pink/white lights reflected in a fast, steady rhythm off the front of the store.

Molly revved the gas a little bit to announce her arrival. Her Daddy had put 10-inch exhaust pipes on the scooter to make it louder. Now she felt like she was riding a chopper like the bikers did. Her scooter moped was loud now and the windows of the store vibrated with the noise. Molly turned her engine off and put her scooter on the kickstand. She removed her helmet carefully, so as not to ruin her pigtails. She took her goggles off and looked in the mirror, all was in order.

An officer on the scene saw her arrive and came over to speak with her. "Excuse me; the store is closed for the rest of the day."

Molly looked at him, popped a toothpick into her mouth, and showed the officer her I.D. for Tinkertot-Peachbottom Investigations. The card was pink with fake diamonds on the edges. "I'm with the agency, they are expecting me. Can you show me the way?" Molly asked in a commanding tone.

"Uh...umm...ok, right this way," the officer said in an unbelieving tone. How could this little girl be a part of the agency? "Hey Carlson, this girl says she's a part of the agency" the officer said, while looking Molly up and down.

"O' Molly, there you are, I'm glad you could make it," Penelope said as she came running over to hug Molly. "Tilly is in the girl's department weeping right now and Bailey is lamenting the loss of the stolen chocolates," Penelope said.

"There were chocolates stolen? O' no, where's Bailey at?" Molly asked.

Penelope led the way to the candy aisle where Bailey was trying to come to grips with the situation. Molly ran to Bailey and they hugged each other. When Molly realized just how much chocolate was taken, she felt Bailey's pain. The two little girls held each other telling themselves, and each other, "All is going to be ok." Penelope left the two girls alone and went to go find Tessie. She already knew where Tilly, Molly, and Bailey were. Now where to look...Pets. If Tessie wasn't there, pigs would start flying. Penelope strode to the Pet department and, sure enough, there was Tessie. Penelope watched her as she walked up the aisle. Tessie had one hand on the Bala Shark tank and one hand on some flat, silver fishes', called Silver Dollars, tank. Tessie was humming to herself as all the fish in each tank were focused on her hand. Tessie had her head down and her shoulders were raised; how weird this child was! A voice broke the silence, "All Tinkertot-Peachbottom Detectives report to the front."

Tessie let go of the tanks and saw Penelope. "Hey there, I was just getting some Intel from the fish that saw these kids in the store," Tessie said. "Let's go up front and find Tilly."

"That sounds like a good idea. It sounds like Tilly is done mourning and ready to get down to business," Penelope responded.

Tilly Tinkertot stood in front of the store, arms crossed and scowling. The Store Manager, Trinity Hudson, stood next to her. Everyone came forward to stand in a circle with Trinity. Tilly spoke first, "Ok girls, it's obvious that this has touched all of us in some way or another. Crying is not going to catch these hooligans. Apparently, these four kids call themselves "The Black Aces", whatever that means. They have been hitting various stores in our city, and the other neighboring cities close by. I don't know yet how they travel since none of them is old enough to drive. We know girls, from our last job, that we can catch slippery eels such as these. These kids are close to our age. Now, we know Piper is still mending and she's our best at physical altercations. I'm sure I speak for her when I say, we not only need to catch these guys, but also destroy them anyway possible in the process," Tilly lectured.

"Someone needs to pay for taking all that candy," Molly said.

"I agree," Bailey confirmed.

"The fish said that they wander about the store like they have a plan in place. They

don't waste anytime going to sections they are not going to hit. Although they dress differently each time, they are still easy to recognize," Tessie said, as Trinity looked at her funny for a moment.

"Nobody is going to steal from our neighborhood today, tomorrow, or in the future," Penelope stated.

"Mrs. Hudson, I have complete faith in my team and I'm sure we can help you. You say this is the third time these kids have stolen from you, that is three times too many! We will put a stop to this, no matter how long it takes. When have these robberies usually occurred?" Tilly asked.

"Always on the weekends, either Saturday or Sunday. This started about 3 weeks ago. They seem to make it almost every weekend. They dress different every time to hide their identity, but they always come in together. I would like to review the camera footage with you, as well," Mrs. Hudson said.

"With everything I have said, and our group's track record so far being 100%, we would like to offer you our help. We can work out the payment details depending on the help we provide, and how fast we can get the job done. Do you accept?" Tilly asked in a formal, business-toned manner.

"Yes, I would like that very much. How do you plan to help?" Mrs. Hudson asked.

"I say we get undercover jobs here. We can be like secret shoppers or something," Penelope said.

"I call dibbs on Pets," Tessie called out.

"Of course, ok. Wait how about this, we work undercover and work as employees. Do laws prevent that?" Tilly asked.

"Actually yes, but if we clear it with the police department, maybe we can work some-

thing out," Mrs. Hudson said.

"Where would we all work?" Penelope asked.

Tilly thought for a moment and looked at the group, the wheels spinning fast in her mind. "Each girl must be suited for the job given, including me," Tilly said. Tilly looked at Molly, and asked Mrs. Hudson, "Do you have an Automotive Department?"

"Yes," Mrs. Hudson answered.

"I think I got it, listen to this. Molly works Automotive Department; Tessie works Pet Department and Garden area; Tessie can also cashier too, she's got the patience for it," Tilly said.

"Yeah, I get Pets," Tessie celebrated!

"Piper will take Sporting Goods; Penelope can handle exercise equipment and the Outdoors Department, and I think Bailey would be a good eye in the sky, she can work security and video. I will handle Customer Service Returns in the front of the store so I can see these hooligans come in. I can also provide assistance in the Girl's and Boy's Departments, if the need arises. We will all keep an eye on Electronics and any other areas where the higher priced items are," Tilly finished.

"I like it. What do you think Mrs. Hudson?" Penelope asked.

"I like it too. I will get it cleared with the police. I don't have uniforms that will fit all of you, so be sure to wear your regular clothing. I will give 'The Palace' vests to the ones' that can fit into them. You can start training tomorrow. Make sure you talk it over with your parents tonight," Mrs. Hudson finished.

"We will, I don't see any problems coming up on my end," Molly said. Everyone agreed that this would probably not be an issue, but parents always had the final say.

"Ok girls, you know what time it is! Everyone put their right hand into the circle," and they all yelled together, "1-2-3 Girls Rule!!"

"See you girls tomorrow. Have a good night," Mrs. Hudson said.

Once outside, Molly started up her scooter moped and revved the gas. "What the heck is that noise?" Bailey yelled.

"I can't hear myself think!" Penelope yelled.

"What? What did you say?" Tessie yelled.

"That thing sounds like a Prius on steroids," Tilly said.

"I'm glad you like my pipes," Molly said as she drove off.

"Whoever heard of putting exhaust pipes on a scooter? That girl gets crazier by the day. Did you see the toothpick in her mouth when she got here?" Penelope asked.

"That's our Molly; God love her," Tilly said.

Chapter 4

Penelope Peachbottom rode her bike from The Palace to her house. She was getting used to the pink/white emergency lights of the agency and was even starting to like them a little...maybe. That siren though, should never, ever, be turned on. On her purple beach cruiser, they didn't look too bad. Tomorrow she hoped to start training at The Palace in the Exercise and Outdoor Departments, as long as when she told her parents, they said ok.

Her facial wounds from the last mission had healed well. She had received close to 15 stitches that day to sew her face up. Being hit with a paintball at point blank range had hurt a lot. She had to put scar cream on her face every night and moisturizer to keep the skin refreshed to prevent scarring as much as possible. So far, so good. Penelope was just glad that Polly, her little sister, was not hurt that day. She had never expected to get into an altercation with Doug Stravinberg, it just sort of happened that way. She would have to be more careful from now on when confronting people. Piper got the worst of it, taking on the guy physically. She didn't do as well as expected, but at least she had the guts to do it. Once Piper had seen what Doug had done to Penelope, that was all the inspiration she needed.

Penelope got home at about 5:00 pm, just in time for dinner. It was taco night and she could smell the seasoned beef mixing with the smell of cooked corn tortillas. It made her stomach growl as she went to hug first, her Mom in the kitchen, then her Dad who hauled her into the recliner chair he was sitting in. "Good to see you in one piece. I think I worry more than ever when you are gone now. I don't want you to get hurt again, her Dad told her. After she was done hugging him, she scooted over the side of the chair and went to her room. Pippy, her greyhound dog was in there chewing on some bone she had gotten a hold of and probably hid somewhere. It looked like a steak bone. The last time they had steak was like a week ago. The book she was reading was still on her bed where she had left it when Tilly called. She was reading 'Sheila the Great' by Judy Blume. It was a cute book about a girl who acted a little like Tilly. Pickles, her little brother, loved it and kept stealing it from her whenever the whim struck him. At least, he was learning to read.

"Dinner's ready," her Mom called out. Time to go eat finally. Penelope got her dinner ready and sat down in her place at the table; Polly and Pickles soon followed her to the table. When everyone had started eating, she popped the question to her parents. "Guess what? I found a job today at The Palace," Penelope said as a conversation opener.

"You what? You can't work, your only 10 years-old," her Dad said.

"What would you even do there?" her Mom asked.

"They have had a problem with shoplifters who call themselves, "The Black Aces", which sounds like a really dumb name. Anyway, they were hit by them this morning. They seem to be a gang of kids around our age, and they hired us to be like secret security," Penelope said, squinting her eyes a little and smiling. "The store manager, Trinity Hudson, has asked us to help her in catching these guys. She is getting the tapes together tonight and said she would email some videos to all of us. However, I want to make sure it's ok with both of you that I work there. I don't think I will get hurt this time; I hope not anyway. We are all working on it together and there will be other customers in the store. So, can I do it?" Penelope asked. She had her hands folded in prayer, hoping they would say yes.

"Well, I don't see an issue with it unless you work on Sunday nights. You got school on Monday, so all your homework has to be done" her Mom said.

"I'll get it done no matter what. What time should I be home on Sunday nights?" Penelope asked her parents, trying not to roll her eyes so obviously. Her parents were worried about homework of all things. Yes, don't worry about me. I could be hurt and, after all, I'm only 10. I'll fight off any weirdo just to stay in one piece, Penelope thought inwardly.

"Sure, go ahead. You got my vote," her Dad said; of course after her Mom put in her own two cents first. Who wears the pants in this family? Penelope asked herself.

"Yes, mine too. But you better not slack on any homework, or you get pulled from the case," her Mom warned.

"Yes Mom. Thank you both for trusting me," Penelope said while holding back sarcasm on the subject of homework.
Chapter 5

Tilly arrived home that night at about 5:00 pm, the same time as Penelope arrived at her own house. Tabby was out... thank you God... with some friends on a date. Tilly parked her scooter in the garage and went inside the house. Tilly saw both her parents in the kitchen and went to hug and greet them. "Got called on a new case today." Tilly announced.

"Oh really, what kind of case?" her mom, Tiffany, asked.

"Ever hear of "The Black Aces?" Tilly asked.

"They are that shoplifting gang that has been wreaking havoc on the stores lately," her dad, Todd, said.

"Yep, seems they hit The Palace today and made off with about $2000.00 worth of stuff this time. They stole some cell phones, nail polish, sunglasses, purses, and even some chocolate. Molly and Bailey are heartbroken over it." Tilly summarized.

"These crooks really need to be stopped. Mrs. Trinity Hudson is a really nice, neighborly lady. She doesn't deserve this." Tilly's dad said.

"Trinity asked me if I was available on weekends to help catch them. I am planning on working Customer Service, which is close to the front door and the Boy's and Girl's Departments, if needed. We got Molly in Automotive; Piper in Sporting Goods, once she is able to help; Penny in Exercise Equipment and Outdoors and she can also assist in Boy's and Girl's Departments; and Tessie will take Pets and the Garden Departments, she insisted." Tilly said. "So, would you object to me helping out?" Tilly asked. "Of course not. I don't have any issues, do you Tiffany?" her Dad asked her Mom.

"Just be careful sweetie, we don't need you almost going to jail like last time. Maybe Tabby can help you," her Mom offered.

"Tabby couldn't help a 40-year old vi..." Tilly started before her Mom cut her off.

"Tilly that's not nice, your sister loves you," her Mom cut in interrupting her.

"Loves me? Are you serious? Tabby loves me like a weirdo loves someone his or her

own age." Tilly shot back laughing.

"Go, just go, I can't believe you two girls. When I was growing up..." her Mom started.

"O' God, not a Mom story, please. Ok fine, I love Tabby like a male beta fish loves his brother, but that's as far as it goes, Mom." Tilly said.

Her Dad broke out laughing as Tilly went to her room to get ready for dinner. "What's so funny, Todd?" Tiffany Tinkertot asked.

"Male beta fish fight to the death, don't you know that." Todd Tinkertot responded.

"I do now. I just wish our two kids could get along; is that too much to ask for." Tiffany said.

"With those two, yes. However, if it really came down to it, I would put money on them coming together. I hated my brother when I was growing up, but one time he came to my defense against a boy who was bigger and stronger than I was. Then, after that happened, we went back to hating each other." Todd said.

*****

When Bailey got home after dropping off Tessie, she ate dinner with her parents and then went to her room to play 'Hungry Shark 3' on her tablet. She couldn't stop thinking about Pauley today. I think I found my first crush, my best friend's brother, Bailey thought to herself. Pauly's deep green eyes and long, curly brown hair really had set Bailey's heart in motion. I'm too young for him though, he doesn't want some little kid hanging around him. Although, we do have musical tastes in common and he does act like he likes me, so I don't know. Guess I will have to see what happens. Bailey said to herself.

*****

Tessie had ridden home with Bailey in her two-seater soapbox car. Tessie found both her parents at home when she came in. "Hi Daddy, I'm home. What you watching? Is our team winning?" Tessie asked. Her Dad, Tom, mumbled something incoherently about the coach's decisions in the game. It looked to be a college softball game. UCLA (GO BRUINS) was playing some other team from Florida. When her Mom entered the room, the tension seemed to go up a little, Tessie wasn't sure why. Maybe they were having a disagreement or something. Definitely time to head for the safe zone of her bedroom. "Hey Mom, I'm home now. We got called on another case today." Tessie said hugging her Mom. "I'll tell you more about it later. I want to ask you both then if it's o.k. for me to work on it with my friends." Tessie continued. Her Mom gave her a hug, and then went back into the kitchen all quiet, not saying anything to her Dad. Great!! They were fighting.

Tessie headed for her room and turned on her radio to a decent volume. Next, she released her butterfly family and they all flew to the ceiling to hang upside down and stretch their wings. "Looks like we are going to be working another case." Tessie said to Ariel the Angelfish. Ariel sat down at her tank computer and typed Tessie's information about the case. Ariel was only a fish, yet she had magical human qualities. No one else had any idea of Ariel's great talents. She just acted like a normal fish when other people were around.

Tessie turned on her computer and scanned her Face Time email address for the email from Trinity at The Palace; it was right near the top. Tessie clicked on it and opened it up, downloaded the video files, and watched the robbers/shoplifters make their way through the store. She was definitely going to have to study this with the rest of the group, and they could all text or chat at the same time about things they saw in the video. She continued down her email list and came across two emails from haters with horrific subject lines calling her, "fat, stinky, and skanky." She didn't need to open them to figure out they were post comments. Tessie deleted them and moved on. Nothing else good appeared in her feed worth reading. Tessie turned up her music and lay on her bed relaxing, listening to "Waking up in Vegas," by Katy Perry. She planned to keep relaxing until she felt it safe to come out for dinner, or heard one of her parents call her. She hoped her parents resolved whatever it was before dinner, or it was going to be a very quiet night and awkward dinner.
Chapter 6

'The Black Aces" met up that night at the neighborhood park, exchanging High 5's with each other. "Today went really well, I thought," Cal said.

"It was the planning that went into it that made it successful." Blue said.

"I can't believe you stole that car." Montsie said.

"That was spur of the moment thinking." Cal seconded.

"It's also the kind of stuff that can get us caught." Gracie reminded them. "We can't be doing stupid things like that."

"What we have to decide is where to go from here. I vote for us waiting for at least two weeks before they catch on to us. We can only change our appearance so many times, and today security seemed ready, like they knew it was us." Blue summarized.

"We can always skate over to Arrowhead and hit the village shops. The problem with that is there are so many tourists." Cal said.

"Let's just all relax for now, it might throw them off." Gracie said.

"What should we do with the money we got from the stolen cell phones?" Montsie asked.

"Go to the movies, save it for the carnival coming up next weekend in the parking lot of The Palace, and even save some for our summer vacation." Blue responded.

After Montsie and Cal left to go home later that night, Blue and Gracie sat on the swings talking to each other. "I think we should slow down. Our luck can't last forever." Gracie said.

"You're just a scared little baby, that's all." Blue said. "All of you are just squares. Everyone looks to me to make the decisions. I just want to take Michelle out this weekend and then kiss her afterwards." Blue finished.

"What if she doesn't want to kiss you? It's not like you brush your teeth often," Gracie said, as she rolled her eyes and muttered, "So gross." just thinking about it.

"Shut up! Let's go home and get something to eat." Blue said.

*****

Cal and Montsie walked home together. "Those two are weird, why are we even friends with them?" Montsie asked.

"I don't know, I mean I got the most expensive stuff today. I'm the one that had to shove the clerk and rescue Gracie from another clerk." Cal stated.

Cal walked Montsie to her house with his arm around her shoulders. "OK, bye Cal. Thanks for walking me home," Montsie said.

"Wait. Don't go yet." Cal said as he held on to Montsie's shoulders.

. "Why not?" Montsie asked.

Cal moved his hand down her back; Montsie froze up, not sure what to think. "Kiss me." Cal said.

"That's gross! I'm only six, you're ten." Montsie stated.

"So what!" Cal said to her in a frustrated mean tone and tightened his grip on her.

"You're sick if you want to kiss a six year old." Montsie admonished him.

"Whatever, get out of my face." Cal said releasing Montsie.

"You're a jerk! Don't talk to me anymore. I'm going to tell my parents and Blue and Gracie what you tried to do." Montsie threatened.

"I'll tell your parents about the candy you stole then." Cal threatened right back.

Montsie did not want her parents to find out about her stealing candy. "Fine, you can kiss me then." Montsie gave in.

"That's what I thought." Cal said as he grabbed her chin, pushing it upward to his mouth.

Montsie felt sickened and gross all over as she went into her house for the night. When Montsie went inside, she ran to the bathroom and wiped her mouth with a washcloth 50 times, it still didn't seem like enough. That was the first time Cal ever tried to kiss her. Why would he try that now? I've known him forever, now I feel scared of him, Montsie thought to herself.

Cal walked home to his house happy. Simple, like stealing a kiss from a toddler. Montsie wanted me to kiss her, she's just hiding it. Cal thought to himself. Who cares if she was four years younger than him? One day she would thank him for giving her, her first kiss.

Little did "The Black Aces" know then that the events of the coming week would change their fortunes forever. This group had never met the likes of Tinkertot-Peachbottom Investigations. Their biggest challenge was yet to come. The fateful kiss was only the beginning.
Chapter 7

Tessie Teagarden's alarm clock went off at 7:00 am, the following Sunday morning. Today was the day to start training at The Palace. After completing her morning tasks in the bathroom, she went to the kitchen to see what she could find for breakfast. She grabbed a bowl and poured shredded wheat into the bowl. Tessie then went back to her bedroom, closed the door and whistled the tune for the butterflies to come to her. The butterflies descended from the ceiling and settled on her shoulders, legs, and on the bowl of cereal itself. She said, "Good Morning." to all her friends and offered each one a small block of shredded wheat. As everyone ate breakfast together, she turned on her computer to play nature sounds for the friendly, munching insects.

When everybody had eaten, or at least was in the process of munching wheat grain, Tessie chose her clothes for the day. Denim blue jeans and a plain blue shirt with lace-trimmed sleeves, white socks and blue flats completed her outfit. Since she usually wore her hair down, she decided that today would be a good day to put her hair up in a bun, just to be different, She finished getting ready and said goodbye to her butterfly friends and to Angel, her Angelfish. She knocked on her parent's bedroom door and called through it that she was off and would be home this evening. "Just text me when you know for sure what time, " her Mom called out.

"OK, I love you guys." Tessie said.

"Love you too," her Dad said. Hopefully, all the disagreements had been settled now.

Tessie set off on her bike to start her first day on the job. She waved to various squirrels, chipmunks, and raccoons returning from night time foraging. Dogs and cats all said, "Hello Tessie," in their own language as she rode by. She came to the end of the street and stopped at the stop sign. She noticed a little girl in a skirt and leggings sitting on the curb about 20 ft. away. Tessie rode up to her and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," the girl said.

"Well it must be something if your eyes are all red like you have been crying and you are sitting out here on the curb early in the morning. What's your name," Tessie asked?

"Montsie," the girl responded.

Tessie got off her bike, went to Montsie, and sat down next to her, not knowing that she was a member of the shoplifting gang, "The Black Aces." "My name is Tessie Teagarden; I work at the neighborhood detective agency Tinkertot-Peachbottom. You sure you don't want to tell me what happened?" Tessie questioned.

She could see the girl's eyes get big for a moment. Montsie said, "No, it's nothing important."

"I have a friend named Molly that is about your age. She's really nice and cute like you. She wears pigtails in her hair and rides her scooter around. Maybe, you have seen her." Tessie suggested.

"You mean the little blond haired girl with the scooter that hums really loud, but is really slow?" Montsie responded.

"Yep, that's her alright; she also works where I do. If you ever want to talk or hang out, just let Molly or I know. Here is my card." Tessie said, handing her a business card. "I have to go. Do you mind if I give you a hug Montsie, just for good luck?" Tessie finished. Tessie hugged Montsie for good luck and wished her well.

"You're not going to kiss me are you?" Montsie asked with an edge in her voice.

"Kiss you, no; why would I kiss you? Only your parents should do that."

That's an odd question. Tessie thought to herself. Tessie wondered if that was the reason the girl had been crying. She knew how immature boys could be at this age and hoped no boys had forced her to kiss them. Tessie got back on her bike and waved goodbye.

Montsie waved back, glad that someone took notice of her. "She seemed really nice, but she's a detective and her friend Molly is too. Should I talk to her more or stay away? Gracie, Blue, and Cal would say the latter. Ugh, I'm so confused. Montsie said to herself.

Tessie arrived at work and put her vest on. It was a little small, so she tried on a size larger and it fit fine. Tessie, Tilly, and Penelope all got vests; Piper, Molly, and Bailey all wore regular clothes. Everyone went to their department to train on the tasks they would be carrying out. Molly was going to be checking air pressure and engine oil fluids on all incoming cars, and Piper would be stocking and recommending products in Sporting Goods. Tessie was shown the Garden area and told what plants to water, and when and Bailey seated herself in the security room and watched the store cameras. Penelope was shown the Exercise Department, and she could not resist taking a turn on all the treadmills throughout the day. Tilly got Customer Service Returns near the front of the store. Each detective was given a security radio turned to their own channel. The girls spent the first 10 minutes trying them out in various ways. Molly was making farting noises and flushing a toilet somewhere in Automotive and Bailey was burping and singing in hers. Penelope was doing her best Disney impressions of Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel the mermaid, amongst others. Tessie was acting in a stealthy manner running through the Garden Area and pretending that she was running from the Blair Witch. Piper was trying out the sports equipment, and really didn't care what anyone else was doing. Tilly was pulled into the game trying to tell the others to act more maturely and that they were here to work.

The Palace opened at 10:00am on that Sunday morning. Customers came flooding into the store at an amazing rate, even more so because the store was closed the day before. One hour in, everything was running properly and each young detective was alert and ready for any signs of trouble. Molly had been checking air pressure in the tires of all the automotive customers. She also checked fluid levels like engine oil levels, power steering, brake fluid, and water levels in batteries that had water. Any tough areas like transmission or differential were left up to the technicians. Tilly was doing great in Customer Service handling returns.

A mother with a young daughter came up to her, trying to refund a dressy skirt outfit without a receipt. This didn't suit Tilly too well and kicked off her day. "Do you have a receipt for this?" Tilly asked.

"No, it was a gift to my daughter and it's too big." the mother informed her.

Tilly checked the size and looked at the girl; it looked like it would fit. Tilly put on her best smile and showed off her nail work and said, "I'm a fashionista and it looks ok to me." Tilly turned to a store associate, "Can you bring up a dressing mirror? Thank you, Sam." Tilly said and then turned back to the customer. "Let's check this out, go in the bathroom, put the outfit on, and let's see you." Tilly said to the girl. The mother was appalled by Tilly's behavior, yet the girl complied.

Sam, the Sales Associate, brought the mirror up. The girl went into the bathroom, changed into the skirt outfit and came out so mother and Tilly could see. "Here, stand in front of that mirror." Tilly said. The girl moved to the front of the mirror pulling the leggings out from her legs to imply they were too loose. "Are you kidding me, you look great! Work it girl, give it a good walk up to the mirror with a "I'm hot and I know it" look; the girl did as she was told. "Nice, throw up some pouty lip. Perfect!!"

"What kind of associate are you?" the mother said peeved. "You can clearly see it's too big."

"No, it's just right. Darn girl, give me some snaps like, "O' no you didn't." Tilly was bringing the girl out of her shell. The girl pranced around, and a bit more, with a big smile on her face. Several customers had stopped to watch the scene. "Awesome!" Tilly exclaimed.

"Excuse me! I'm still here and I make the decisions not you," the mother said sternly.

"Why do you want the clothes smaller? If you go the next size down, her booty is going to stick out too much." Tilly reasoned.

"Her what!! Where is the manager? This is insane!! You look like you're 11years old, too young to even work here," the mother said to Tilly, losing her patience.

"Ma'am, without a receipt there are no exchanges; she looks like a 'DIVA BABY' with a spicy attitude in it." Tilly said trying to keep her calm, yet having fun at the same time. "Work it girl, show 'em' that milkshake." Tilly said. If only everyone followed my fashion advice, this would be a world of Divas. Tilly thought to herself.

The mother lost control of her mind. "Look you little twit, I've had it with you. My daughter is not fat like you are!" the mother yelled.

"O' No you didn't! You done crossed the line now, I'll meet you outside," Tilly said; ready to throw down with the mother. "Bring it Mommy Dearest!" Tilly exclaimed. She walked toward the exit and outside the store, waving her hands in the air, taking out her earrings, and putting her hair up.

"SECURITY TO THE FRONT ASAP - CODE RED!" Bailey shouted over the store intercom. "We have a situation in Customer Service; it looks like Tilly is calling a Mom out to fight." Tilly said into the radio tuned to the crew's special channel.

"On the way" Penelope yelled breaking into a run.

"Copy" Piper said, joining Penelope.

Tessie ran around the outside of the store and saw Tilly screaming at some lady. Tilly was down to her t-shirt and had put her hair up and taken out her earrings. "Tilly!! Tilly, what happened," Tessie called out arriving on the scene.

"This lady called me a fat twit and now I'm going to punch her teeth down her throat." Tilly answered. Penelope and Piper grabbed Tilly and stood between her and the angry mother, trying to keep the situation under control. Tessie stood in front of the mother trying to keep her from going after Tilly and possibly facing criminal charges.

"Tilly, get a hold of yourself. We have to use our heads until this mission is over. We haven't even caught anyone yet." Penelope reasoned. Tilly was glaring at the mother with a gleam in her eye, ready to start going.

Trinity Hudson, the Store Manager, came running out. "What seems to be the problem here?"

"This fat louse called me a fat little twit and now she doesn't want to...," Tilly said before she was cut off.

"Hush Tilly, enough." Piper scolded.

"She was so rude. I ask for a refund because my daughter's outfit is too big, and what does she do? She has my daughter put on a fashion show in front of everyone and tells me if her clothes were any tighter, her 'booty' would stick out. I mean, seriously! Now, she wants to fight me. She's maybe 11 years-old", the mother stated to Trinity.

"Tilly, is that true?" Penelope asked.

"Well, yeah that sounds about right, except she is leaving out that I'm a fashionista and have a degree in looking good. Her daughter's clothes do fit her and I was only trying to make a statement." Tilly said.

"Do you have a receipt?" Trinity asked the mother.

"No, it was a gift." the mother said.

"Please come inside and I'll get you a refund and a store discount on a $25.00 purchase. I'm so sorry about this." Trinity said.

Tilly was being led away by Tessie, Piper, and Penelope. "Tilly, you need to control yourself before we get fired, on the first day no less." Piper reprimanded.

"I know, I know. That lady is a witch though; she wouldn't even listen to me. Look at how she dresses, she could use some help and I was only trying to provide it." Tilly answered back.

"I can't believe you mentioned her daughter's 'booty' to her Mom." Penelope stated.

"I can't believe she wants her daughter's clothes so tight. Why she wants to do that is beyond me, it's absolutely absurd." Tilly responded.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully as Tilly found herself in the Girl's Department instead. She was better suited to this anyway. Penelope took her place in Customer Service. Tilly restocked the shelves and put clothes on the racks. Tilly grabbed the mirror from Customer Service, some display strobe lights from electrical, and made a model runway in the Girl's Department. She got some music off the radio going, some tunes by Charlie XCX, and spent the rest of the day giving fashion advice to future fashionistas. Suri Cruise has nothing on me. Tilly said to herself. The girls had just started the assignment and already drama had exploded. Tilly was going to have to be more careful. The girls would be back the following weekend, hopefully to catch "The Black Aces."
Chapter 8

Tilly apologized to Mrs. Hudson for the commotion before leaving, and expressed hope that she and her crew would not be fired. Mrs. Hudson did not seem to mind too much as she handed out micro SD cards to Penelope, Tilly, Piper, and Tessie to take home and review. The young junior girl detectives all thanked Mrs. Hudson and went home for the day at about 4:30 pm. Molly drove off on her scooter with the loud humming sound of her electric engine whining and echoing off the cars and buildings. Bailey put on her helmet and goggles and hugged everyone goodbye before powering off after Molly. "Tonight, we will all review the camera footage and meet up to go over what we saw. We can always talk tomorrow at school, too," Penelope informed the others.

"I know that we are all slammed with end of school year studies, but let's not forget it's Molly's birthday on Saturday, so we need to stay in touch and plan something," Tilly addressed the others.

"We will have to do something special for her, for sure," Tessie said. "Maybe I can get the Oroville Bird Family, Robin birds, to wish her a happy birthday in song. They live in the tree in her yard," Tessie told everyone.

"Alrighty, one more time on three girls, "1-2-3 GIRL'S RULE!!" Tilly yelled along with the others.

"See you darlings, tomorrow at school," Piper said waving goodbye.

Piper arrived home at about 4:45 pm, in time for dinner. She was starving after what seemed like a long day, even though they were given 10-minute breaks every 2 hours, and a 30 minute lunch period. She took time before dinner to go see Pauly in his room to ask him about his interactions with Bailey. Pauly reluctantly paused his video game when Piper knocked on his door. Disgusted by the smell of her brother's room, she said, "Let's go to my room, your dirty socks and clothes are clogging my sinuses."

"Whatever, it probably smells like flowers and perfume in your room and that makes my sinuses run," Pauly stated.

"Smells better than your sweaty body odor; did you even take a shower today, or even yesterday?" Piper asked.

They walked into Piper's room and sat down on the bed facing each other. "I have something to ask you about Bailey," Piper started. "I have been noticing you two making googly eyes at each other. Now, she's 8 years-old and you're 12. Do you like her?" Piper asked.

"When does she turn nine?" Pauly asked, not really answering the question.

"This summer, I think you are too old for her," Piper offered.

"I haven't even talked to Bailey about this. How do you know she even likes me?" Pauly asked.

"Girl's know. I haven't talked to Bailey about this either, but I'm going to. Before I do, I wanted to ask if you like her," Piper said, grabbing Pauly's shoulders smirking and getting close to his face. "Do you think she's cute, just tell me," Piper said, shaking Pauly's shoulders.

"You are totally creeping me out," Pauly said while being shaken. Piper pinched the pressure point nerves in his shoulders. "Ok, OK, stop; yes I think she is cute... for an 8 year-old," Pauly said, raising his voice in pain.

"I knew it, I'm going to text her and tell her," Piper said releasing his shoulders.

"Like heck you will. If this gets out to my school, I'm as dead as Tessie!" Pauly exclaimed.

"Wait, what? What did you say about Tessie?" Piper asked.

"You don't know? Tessie is the most made fun of and bullied girl I know. Everyone picks on her cause she is so weird, talking to animals and all. Her bullies make her cry sometimes. She never told you," Pauly said incredulously.

Piper was in another world now. "Don't ever let me hear you call Tessie weird again. Who picks on her the most?" Piper asked.

"Jane Matthews, a guy named Clay, a dude named Danny Moreno, I don't know them all. I hang out with my own friends," Pauly said.

"You do realize that Tilly goes to your school next year... right? There is no way she will put up with that, pigs will fly first. She almost got in a fight with someone's Mom today," Piper explained.

"Really?" Pauly said.

"You better warn those idiots to back off of picking on Tessie, or those boys will be singing soprano. Now let's go eat, don't mention Tessie or Bailey to anyone else, ok? Pinky promise me," Piper said, locking pinkies with Pauly. "Especially Tessie. Let me handle it."
Chapter 9

Tessie Teagarden sat at her computer watching the video file of the shoplifting at The Palace by "The Black Aces." The group of four kids each went separate ways in the store. One boy went to Sporting Goods; the other boy went to Electronics. The two girls also split up, one going to the Girls Department and one to the candy aisle. The video file ended; now she would have to watch the individual department cameras.

The boy in Sporting Goods grabbed about three boogie boards off the shelf, put them on the ground, and checked his watch. Then, he walked up and down the aisle..... killing time perhaps? After about five minutes, he picks up the boogie boards and starts running. The time stamp on the camera is 10:48 AM.

The cell phone thief chats with the clerk, turning the phone over and over in his hands. She sees that he is taking small glances at the display case, yet the clerk doesn't seem fazed. Does he not notice it? When the boy shoves the clerk, reaches into the display case, grabs several phones and starts running, the time stamp on the camera is 10:48:10.

Tessie opened the file of the girl in the Girls Department. The girl was filling up purses, not even caring who was watching. She looks around and checks her watch, the time stamp on the camera says, 10:47:30. Tessie sees her nod to the girl in the candy aisle and walks with her past Electronics to the Sporting Goods Department.

Geez, the candy aisle girl looks familiar and looks to be Molly's age. She slowly fills up a hand basket of candy and also checks the time. The time stamp on this camera says 10:46:00. The girl stands in the middle of the aisle for like 30 seconds, perhaps getting courage or waiting until she feels she is ready to start the process. Then, she walks to the end of the aisle and looks toward the exit. Tessie can see the girl's face clearly now as she turns back to get the basket. After getting the basket, she meets up with the girl in the Girls Department.

Tessie scans back to the girl's face, she has seen her before. This morning in fact! "Holy Popsicle Sticks," Tessie says out loud and reaches for her cell phone to call Penelope. Tessie tells Penelope that she knows who the candy girl is, and even where she lives. Within minutes, Tilly and Piper are informed via text and then Bailey and Molly are put in the loop. Tessie sends the video of the candy girl to Molly, and texts her "Do you know this girl?"

Molly responds back by text, "Yes, that's Montsie, she goes to our school. She's in first grade, Mrs. Robinson's class."

"We got a date tomorrow at school with this girl," Tilly texts in response, informing everyone.

"This is the girl that was sitting on the curb in front of what I think is her house. She was in tears and afraid I was going to kiss her," Tessie texted.

"Why would you want to kiss her? She's not your sister," Piper texted.

"I don't know, but she was scared to death. I gave her my card and told her to call Molly or myself anytime. She seemed ok after I hugged her," Tessie finished texting.

"Bingo, we just got our first lead in this case," Penelope texted. "This girl knows something; we have to convince her to lead us to the others."

"She must have been crying for some reason," Bailey responded.

"She looks like a little cutie, something deep is happening with her and we got to figure out what. If it's anything to do with "The Black Aces" then we might get this thing locked up quick," Tilly texted.

"Nothing is ever easy though," Molly texted, while trying to feed Charley some green beans; the hamster refused them. "What's your deal Charley? If I have to eat them, you should too. Besides, I need you to make me look good, that I'm eating my vegetables. There's a new toy in it for you," Molly told the hamster. The hamster then forced down one green bean and ran off.

"She could be a little firecracker disguised as a 'Pop-It," Bailey texted. Everyone wondered what a 'Pop-It' was, they had never heard of one before. If anybody would know, Bailey would.

"...?..." Penelope texted in confusion.

"I'll make us some; they are used for distraction purposes. You drop them on the ground or throw them against the wall, and they pop," Bailey responded.

"We will all talk at school tomorrow. Good night, Babes in Toyland," Tilly signed off. Everyone said goodnight and then Piper texted Bailey, solo.

"You like Pauly? XOXOXO," Piper texted.

"Mmm....maybe," Bailey responded.

"He's too old for you little girl," Piper texted in reprimand.

"So you say. He's cute, that's all I'm committing to," Bailey texted.

"He smells, his stinky socks and dirty underwear are all over his bedroom floor, he's lazy. He's not a good fit for you," Piper explained.

"I heard through chirping birds, he got revenge for you on Douggy boy. That's admirable," Bailey texted, defending herself.

"How so, that boy is so lazy and dumb," Piper texted in disbelief.

"Ask him then," Bailey texted,

Piper wanted to change the subject. "Did you know that Tessie is being bullied?" Piper asked.

"By who?" Bailey asked.

"Kids at her school. My brother told me they call her a weirdo and make her cry. Tessie has never said a thing to us; so possibly, it doesn't bother her that much. I don't know."

"Wait until Tilly finds out. .She'll go pay each one a visit," Bailey laughed.

"I know...right. God love her," Piper texted.

"See you tomorrow, tell Pauly that I will dream about him," Bailey texted, saying goodbye.

"(Gagging) I'm going to throw up now. Goodnight," Piper texted.
Chapter 10

Everyone met up at school the next morning, except for Tessie who was in middle school. They were all discussing paying a visit to Montsie. Because they didn't want to scare her, they were electing as to who should go. "Tessie and I can handle it," Molly spoke up.

"You two together scares me. If she gets to talking to the birds, you will be all alone," Penelope said.

"I think Bailey, Molly, and Tessie should go because Tessie has met Montsie before and both Bailey and Molly are close to her age," Tilly reasoned.

"She would probably be more comfortable that way," Piper put in.

"That would leave Tilly, Piper, and myself to go over the video files from The Palace, and try and figure out an action plan if they decide to come back," Penelope said.

The bell rang and everyone went to class with an understanding of what was to happen. Penelope texted Tessie with the plan and she confirmed it.

After school, Piper, Tilly, and Penelope all went to Tilly's house. Tabby saw the crew walk in and just turned away saying, "You better keep it down, I'm studying, and you don't want me to have to come in there and embarrass you in front of your friends," Tabby said to Tilly.

"Shut up, Tabby! We are busy right now," Tilly responded on the way to her room. Tabby went back to studying and Tilly, Piper, and Penelope all made their way to Tilly's room. "What happens if we need her someday?" Piper asked.

"The devil's empire will freeze over," Tilly responded, as she turned on her computer and pulled up the video files for the three of them to review and go over together.

*****

Tessie, Molly, and Bailey all made their way to Montsie's house. Bailey and Molly were wearing identical skirt outfits looking like twins except in facial appearance. Molly's skirt was yellow with blue patterns and Bailey's skirt was blue with the same yellow patterns. Tessie had on her usual outfit of blue denim shorts and vest-shirt combination complimented by her light blue eyeglasses. A couple of neighborhood dogs barked their "Hellos" as they walked by. Tessie then had to stop to talk to one of the dogs tied up on a lawn. Tessie communicated with the animal, a basset hound named Louie. Louie told her about his recent trip to the vet and earwax removal, he could hear allot better now. He also mentioned to Tessie that when he was out two nights ago, he had seen Montsie and a boy named Cal walking towards Montsie's house. The boy, Cal, had held her arms down and kissed her on the lips, even though she didn't want the boy to do that. Tessie thanked him for the information and wished him well, giving him a dog cookie as she left. "No wonder the animals follow her, they want treats," Molly said.

Tessie filled them in about the boy named, Cal. "OK, so we have a Montsie and a Cal. We need to find out who Cal is; hopefully, Montsie will tell us. He might be one of 'The Black Aces'," Tessie said.

"She was forced to kiss this boy!" Molly exclaimed. "How old is she?" Molly asked continuing.

"Six, too young for an immature 10 year-old filcher," Tessie said.

"So they are four years apart then." Bailey said, remembering that Pauly was 12 and she was 8 years-old. "I don't think he's too old, it's more like she doesn't want to kiss him that makes it so wrong," Bailey offered.

"Are you trying to tell us something, Ms. Bailey?" Molly said looking at her. Molly had heard the whispers.

"Well...I...sort of have a crush on an older boy," Bailey said.

"O-My-Gosh!! No way!!" Tessie exclaimed out loud. She was jumping up and down shaking Bailey's shoulders.

"Who is he?" Molly asked.

"Piper hasn't told you," Bailey asked in disbelief. These kinds of secrets were often hard for girls to keep.

"No, did you kiss someone? Tell us, tell us!" Tessie exclaimed.

"I want to kiss him, but I don't know if he even likes me, so calm down. I like Pauly...," Bailey started to say.

Tessie screamed and grabbed Molly, dancing with her. "Don't squeeze me! I'm only five you know and I might fart if you do," Molly instructed.

"And Piper knows...O'-My Gosh, what did she say?" Tessie asked.

"He's too old," Bailey said, laughing as she watched Molly and Tessie dancing in front of her. Tessie was clearly happier with the news than Molly was. Molly was being dragged around in circles, her pigtails bobbing all around. Tessie's long brown hair was flying in all directions.

"Do Tilly and Penny know?" Tessie asked.

"No, you are the first two as far as I know, besides Piper," Bailey said. Tessie fanned herself, hyperventilating. Now Bailey couldn't ruin Tessie's mood asking about the bullying, it would have to wait.

The trio of young detectives arrived at Montsie Jameson's house about 10 minutes after leaving home. Bailey and Molly knocked on the door while Tessie stood behind them. A woman, Mrs. Jameson (?) opened the door, "Yes, can I help you girls?"

"Hi, my name is Tessie Teagarden and this here is Bailey Bigglebaum and she is Molly Mustardspice," Tessie said introducing each girl. "We are detectives from Tinkertot-Peachbottom Investigations. I met your daughter, Montsie, yesterday morning when I saw her crying on the curb. Can she come to the door?" Tessie asked.

"Detectives? All of you? Let me call Montsie," Mrs. Jameson said looking the group over, eyes resting on Bailey and Molly the longest. "Montsie, you have some friends here to see you, a girl named Tessie Teagarden and some of her friends. You know her?" Mrs. Jameson asked.

"I'll be right there," Montsie said.

"We are going to talk to your daughter out here. The law says you have a right to be present, do you want to be?" Tessie asked.

"Yes, what is this about exactly?" Mrs. Jameson asked.

"We believe your daughter might be a part of a shoplifting ring and that she might be in some kind of trouble. We want to make sure that she feels safe, she may be being threatened," Bailey said.

"I go to school with her, me and Bailey both do. She's not in any trouble, so don't worry," Molly said, with her heartbreaker smile.

Montsie came to the door shyly unsure of what to expect. "Umm, hi," Montsie said tentatively.

"Hey Montsie, remember me, Tessie from Sunday morning? We wanted to ask you some quick questions in front of your Mom here. Can you promise to tell us the truth?" Tessie asked.

"You gotta pinky swear, and hold up your right hand please," Molly instructed. "Repeat after me. I, Montsie Jameson, promise to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God in Heaven. I swear upon cute puppy dogs, rainbows, and unicorns to be straight forward," Molly said out loud, which Montsie repeated word for word.

Molly took out a lollipop from her pocket and gave it to Montsie. Molly put a cinnamon toothpick in her mouth and Bailey got out her notebook. "Who are 'The Black Aces'?" Bailey asked.

"Well, their real names are Blue, his sister Gracie, Cal and...and...me," Montsie said full of nerves.

"You said their real names. What are their nicknames and yours?" Tessie asked.

"Blue is the Ace of Spades, he's the leader; Cal is the Ace of Clubs, he's just stupid; Gracie is the Ace of Diamonds; and I'm the sweetheart, Ace of Hearts."

Mrs. Jameson was shocked. "You stole something; I will whip your butt."

"Easy peasy Ma'am, we need to figure this out," Molly reprimanded.

"Do you know these kids yourself, Mrs. Jameson?" Bailey asked.

"I have no idea who they are," Mrs. Jameson said.

"Where is the candy at?" Tessie asked.

Montsie's eyes got wide before she spit out, "What candy? I didn't take any candy."

"We were doing so well too. Montsie, we saw you on camera filling a basket of candy. Don't lie," Tessie lectured.

"I don't want my Mom or Dad to spank me," Montsie said, all sad faced and tearing up. If I tell on them, they might hurt me," Montsie said.

"So...you did take the candy then?" Bailey asked.

"Yes. Mommy, don't spank me," Montsie cried. Montsie was starting to lose control now.

She is really scared and she's Molly's age. Something deeper has to be going on here. Tessie thought inwardly. Tessie pulled Mrs. Jameson to the side, while Molly and Bailey reassured Montsie with hugs. "Mrs. Jameson, she is scared to death. I don't know why, but there has to be a reason. The Store Manager, Trinity Hudson at The Palace, is most likely to forgive the candy Montsie took, but only if Montsie helps us catch her co-conspirators. Cell phones and girl accessories were also taken. According to the camera footage, it was a team effort. When I saw your daughter this morning, she was crying and worried I was going to kiss her, which I didn't do by the way," Tessie explained to Mrs. Jameson the situation. "OK, there is one more thing I would like to do in your presence," Tessie said. Tessie explained to Mrs. Jameson what she wanted to do and she agreed.

"So why were you crying yesterday morning?" Tessie asked Montsie. "Why were you worried that I would kiss you?"

"Cal kisses me and if I say I'm going to tell, he says he's going to tell my parents that I stole something." answered Montsie.

"How old is Cal?" Tessie asked.

"He's 10 and I'm 6 years-old," Montsie responded.

This sounds like the opposite of Bailey and Pauly, Tessie thought to herself. "Does he do anything else besides kiss you?" Tessie asked.

"No," Montsie said.

"Do Gracie and Blue know?" Tessie asked.

"No, I don't think so. He never does it in front of them," Montsie responded.

The girls got ready to leave, having talked to Montsie and acquiring more information. "Here is our card, please call us with an update; my phone number is on the card," Tessie said.

"Thank you so much girls. I will cooperate any way I can. No one is going to hurt my baby girl," Mrs. Jameson said.

After the girls had left Montsie and her mother, two police officers arrived. The two officers walked over to Montsie and her mother. "Now of course Mrs. Jameson, this is a serious offense. We need Montsie's cooperation in us contacting her shoplifting partners," Officer White said.

"I want to help anyway I can. Montsie is not the leader type; I believe she followed along because she was scared and intimidated by her friends. Please officer, Montsie is only six, she doesn't fully understand the implications of her actions in this matter,"

Mrs. Jameson said.

"We can make it easier for Montsie, if she is able to help us out," Officer White promised.

"Montsie, why don't you tell us what's going on with your friends," female Officer Neverwright said.

Montsie took a deep breath. "This is all Cal and Blue's idea to do this. Gracie and me just go along with it so we don't get in trouble. Gracie is 8 years-old and she tells me that we have to do what the boys say or they might hurt us, so we do it," Montsie explained.

"Did you ever call a store clerk a 'retarded witch' when she got in your way?" Officer Neverwright asked.

"Yes, I was scared...," Montsie began.

"Montsie!! You really said that! That's very immature of you to be that critical of people," Mrs. Jameson cut in.

"We have talked to the Store Manager, Trinity Hudson, she would like to get as much of the products Montsie and her friends stole as possible," Officer White said.

"Blue and Cal sold the cell phones to someone they met up with. Gracie and I didn't go with them and I don't know what Gracie did with all the girls stuff. I got some of it, but she gave the rest away," Montsie explained.

"How about the candy?" Officer White asked.

"I only have five bags left, we ate the rest after we got it," Montsie said.

"We will need those five bags if the product is still in good shape. You will have to make restitution for the rest, ok Montsie," Officer Neverwright stated.

"We can do that if it will keep Montsie out of trouble," Mrs. Jameson stated.
Chapter 11

The following morning at school, everyone met up again to discuss and update each other on the events of yesterday. Tilly, Piper, and Penelope had all watched the videos of the theft and compared notes with Tessie, Bailey, and Molly. After that Tessie gave an update on Montsie's house, besides what they had texted the night before. Montsie was not at school today, but her friend Gracie was. However, the junior girl detectives did not want to draw attention yet, being that Gracie was Blue's little sister. They all agreed to keep an eye on her, and who she talked to at school. Gracie was in the third grade, same as Bailey, but a different classroom. "There is another small bit of news about Bailey," Piper said.

Bailey blushed; she didn't expect to be put on the spot like this. "Bailey has a crush on someone we all know," Molly continued looking at Piper.

"O' yeah, who?" Penelope asked.

"What boy do I get to punch?" Tilly asked.

"Maybe we should keep it a secret, for now anyway," Piper said.

"You know and we don't; that's not fair," Penelope said.

"Actually, Molly, Tessie, and Piper all know," Bailey said. "Penny and Tilly might as well know too."

"I can't stand the drama, just tell us who it is," Tilly said.

"You, not like drama, as if," Penelope said.

"Shut up, Penny! Bailey, you got to the count of five. 1-2-3...," Tilly counted.

Bailey held up her hands in mock surrender and cleared her throat, "I have a crush on...drum roll please...Pauly," Bailey announced in excitement! Piper hid her face in her hands as Bailey drew out the tension, which made this love affair feel that much more real.

"Piper's brother!!" Tilly and Penelope shouted simultaneously.

"It's against my blessings...she's too young for him," Piper said, trying to throw reason in. Tilly and Penelope were now jumping together, holding hands and screaming with Bailey. "Apparently, no one agrees with me, not even Pauly. He likes her too. He says that 'she is a cutie." Piper said, rolling her eyes. "Barf!"

"This can end so badly," Molly said. "Bailey and Piper, if a break-up occurs, you gotta pinkie swear to still be friends."

"Wow!! I can't believe this," Penelope said.

"I'm speechless for once," Tilly said.

"Bailey is the first one to get a boyfriend. That's amazing," Penelope said.

"We are not dating yet, geez people," Bailey said, defending herself.

Just then, the school bell rang to start the day. Each of the girls went to their classrooms. At lunchtime, they all met up again, except for Molly and Bailey. Those two were off eating with Gracie. Neither of the detectives revealed their true identity to Gracie. Instead, they committed their friendship to the weekend thief in hopes of getting some information down the line.

When Tilly, Penelope, and Piper had finished lunch, they decided to walk the perimeter of the schoolyard. Piper saw her chance to tell them about the bullies at Tessie's school. "I have something to tell you, but you have to promise me one thing at least temporarily," Piper said.

"What is that?" Tilly asked.

"You can't tell Tessie because it involves her," Piper revealed.

"This doesn't sound good," Penelope said.

"Is Tessie in trouble?" Tilly asked.

"Yes, in a way she is. I was talking to my brother on Sunday after I got home about Bailey and he mentioned to me that if anyone found out he liked Bailey at his school, he would be as dead as Tessie was. I asked him what he meant and he told me that Tessie is being bullied at school. Sometimes they make her cry, and they play keep-away with her backpack and then dump the contents of the backpack on the ground. Tessie has never mentioned this to us. What do you think we should do?" Piper said.

"Pay a surprise visit to her school and see what's going on," Penelope stated.

"If they are girls, handle it physically. If they are a bunch of immature boys, hack off their 'gazoozoles.' If it's both, send a clear message that this better stop or I will personally see to it that it does and it won't be pretty," Tilly stated.

"So the big question is, do we ask Tessie about it?" Piper asked.

"That's a tough one. She obviously doesn't want us to know and it's hard to believe that she is afraid, the way she can just pick you up in a rage and calm you down," Penelope said to Tilly.

"Thank you for reminding me of that. I say we bring it up to her, but don't tell her about the surprise visit yet," Tilly remarked.

"Why don't we go to Strawberry Peak Ridge on Friday, invite her, and bring it up then," Penelope said.

"Since I have physical therapy tomorrow after school, and its spa day, mmmm-spa day," Piper daydreamed for a second before continuing. "Friday sounds really good to me. Now Bailey knows about this already, but Molly is the only one who doesn't. If she finds out, I think she will drive herself there on her scooter and pick a fight. She might get swung around by her pigtails if we are not there, so there is no need to tell her yet," Piper explained.

"Agreed," Tilly said.

"I can see her in her leather jacket, toothpick in her mouth, pigtails swinging and talking about 'gazoozoles.' Molly is such a character, we also got to discuss her birthday," Penelope said.

"So, she stays home Friday and the rest of us go," Tilly said.

"Is Pauly coming?" Penelope asked, raising her eyebrows.

"O' God, don't EVEN get Bailey started. We'll see if he wants to go," Piper said.

"Let me think....hmmm, five girls in swimsuits and one boy,.... he'll want to go," Tilly laughed.

"I'm bringing Pickles then and you bring Payne, just to stir things up a little," Penelope said to Piper.

"Time for class," Tilly said as the bell rang.
Chapter 12

That Wednesday morning, Blue woke up at about 8:00 am, obviously too late for school. He got up and went about his morning tasks, which included seeing if the house was empty and if Gracie had taken off for school. Thankfully, the house was empty. He took their dog, Salt, out to the backyard to go to the bathroom. With that done, he went inside to eat breakfast. School was an afterthought for Blue. He was failing almost all his subjects in the 7th grade and had long ago given up to live the deadbeat life. He became the 'leader' of "The Black Aces" to be able to get some money and hopefully some wash out pretty girls, too. He had succeeded on that front by taking girls from school out on dates. However, they thought his manners of respectability were lacking and had refused to kiss him. He tried pressuring them to advance their comfort level higher, but they refused and didn't talk to him anymore. Who cared? He didn't need any 'teases' hanging around him anyway. He wasn't the smartest guy with a straight path to success, but at least he had money.

He texted Cal to see if he had stayed home, which he had. He seemed afraid to go to school lately for some reason. Cal followed him like a puppy dog follows a little kid. He seemed on edge about something these last few days and Montsie had all but disappeared. The little girl no longer wanted to hang out with the crew. Blue had to get to the bottom of this in order to keep the crew together. Cal responded to his text and they agreed to meet up at Blue's house in about 30 minutes or so. Blue jumped in the shower and got ready. They needed to plan out what the next job was going to be.

Cal knocked on his front door about 30 minutes later and Blue immediately let him in. Blue asked Cal, "So what's been going on lately? You haven't even been going to school."

"Not much really, I just haven't felt like dragging my way to school," Cal responded.

"Montsie seems to have dropped off the face of the earth, although I heard she is still going to school," Blue said. Cal seemed to tense up at the sound of Montsie's name.

"What's up, bro?" Blue asked Cal point blank.

"Montsie is just being a little witch right now," Cal responded.

"How so? What do you mean?" Blue asked.

"When we were walking home on Sunday, after leaving you and Gracie, she was acting all sweet and bumping up against me. She acted like she was in love or something, laughing and skipping home. When we got to her house, I asked her if she wanted me to kiss her. She said 'No' and I threatened to tell her parents about the stolen candy. Then she got all scared and told me, yes...," Cal explained.

"Yes what?" Blue interrupted.

"That she would kiss me," Cal said.

"Bro, Bro! That's some sick stuff, she's six dude!! What happened after that?" Blue asked.

"I bent down to her level and kissed her. Hey bro, she asked for it!" Cal said defending his actions.

Blue could only stare at him in disbelief; now everything made more sense. Blue thought that Cal might be lying about how easy it was to kiss Montsie. How could he talk to Montsie so that she didn't blow everything up? "I heard that Montsie has been talking to some new friends, Gracie too," Cal offered.

"Really! Who?" Blue asked.

"I don't know who they are. It looked like some older girl and two little girls, one of them had pigtails," Cal reported.

"Is that all you remember? Some kid with pigtails. What the heck did they look like?" Blue asked, trying to get more important information.

"Man, shut the heck up! Like you're one to talk about me," Cal defended himself.

"God, Bro!! I'll tell you what, you touch Gracie and I will flat out destroy you. That's my sister and I don't give a flying rats butt, I will hurt someone if they hurt her," Blue threatened! "You caused all this drama, now we gotta' lay low. You know what, never mind you're off the crew for being a weirdo kissing 6 year-olds. Get out of my house!"

"Whatever, I don't need you. I'm tired of carrying you people; I always get the tough jobs and only a quarter of the money. Those cell phones were worth twice as much as that candy and girl's nail polish crap!" Cal yelled back.

Blue pushed Cal out of the house and Cal fell down on the ground, making no effort to get back up and challenge Blue. Blue went back inside, shutting the door. After recovering a little Cal got up, holding on to his right shoulder that he had fallen on, and went home. "Everything seemed to be unraveling," Blue thought. He would have to wait for Gracie to get home to get more information.
Chapter 13

Cal started to get his wind back after about 1/4 mile of walking. He didn't need this drama that Blue and Montsie were trying to cause. He knew that what he felt was the truth of the matter. Maybe it was time to go live with his father this summer and make up his mind about where to spend the next school year. He had been in a downward spiral ever since he had gotten mixed up with Blue. Here he was a common thief in his own neighborhood and now he was in hot water over kissing a girl. He had been friends with Montsie for a long time now. Out of all "The Black Aces," he had known her the longest. He felt stupid for possibly hurting her, he didn't know what was wrong with him. What he did know is that Montsie seemed to be changing the game up. Surely, it couldn't be all his doing....could it?

He was going to spend the rest of the day by himself. He would probably return to school tomorrow, something he had been afraid to do because someone might want to fight him for kissing Montsie or turn him in for shoplifting. Besides, he wanted to find out who Gracie had become such good friends with. Cal thought that the best idea was to finish out the school year working as hard as he could to pass the 5th grade, then split town and go to his father's for the summer. He wasn't in as much trouble grade-wise as Blue was. He could still salvage the school year if he just stayed out of trouble.

*****

Montsie returned to school Wednesday and saw Gracie talking to Bailey and Molly. Montsie wanted to tell Gracie that she didn't want to do shoplifting any more. Not just because Cal wanted to kiss her all weird like, but also because Montsie had now been found out by the detective girls. Montsie had, had to admit to shoplifting candy and she was going to have to apologize to Trinity, especially for calling one of her staff a, "retarded witch." On top of all that, she was going to have to help repay the cost of the candy.

She made her way over to Gracie, "Hi, Gracie."

"Well, hi there Montsie, I'm glad to see you back at school today," Bailey welcomed. Molly hugged Montsie after Bailey did.

"You know her?" Gracie asked.

"Yes, we met her the other day," Molly said.

"Can I talk to you for a second, Montsie?" Bailey asked.

"Yes, what do you want to talk about?" Montsie asked.

"We haven't told Gracie who we are yet, so please don't blow it. We might be able to get you both out of trouble, but Gracie will be harder because she has stolen more stuff with higher monetary value than you have," Bailey told her. Montsie agreed to keep it low profile and Bailey and her returned to the group. Bailey and Molly said goodbye so the two friends could talk more comfortably.

"They seem very nice," Gracie said.

"They are. Can I tell you something? You can't tell Cal I told you though, you can tell Blue if you want though, that's ok," Montsie said.

"What happened?" Gracie asked.

"Cal tried to kiss me on Sunday night. He is getting meaner when he does it; I don't know what to do about it," Montsie stated.

"Whoa, no way!! He did? That's gross," Gracie said.

"Be careful around him in case he tries to do that to you," Montsie warned Gracie.

"I'll make sure that my brother is with me," Gracie said.

"One more thing I'm really serious about is, I don't want to steal stuff anymore, I quit," Montsie said full of confidence.

"You are! Why? You're a quitter," Gracie taunted.

"I just don't want to get in trouble with the police anymore. I already had to admit to stealing the candy, they saw us all on video," Montsie stated.

"So, I could get in trouble, too?" Gracie said, suddenly scared.

"Yes, you could get in trouble, too; I don't want you to, believe me. Your brother should care more about it," Montsie lectured.

"I'll talk to Blue about it, he will know what to do," Gracie said.

"Don't let him lead you to jail," Montsie warned.

"He won't," Gracie said nonchalantly.

*****

Piper's physical therapy appointment was at 4:30 pm that day, which was Wednesday afternoon. Today had been a quiet day at school, not a lot happening. Piper walked into the physical therapy clinic with her Mom and signed in. When Ms. Davis, her physical therapist called her, she held back a happy dance of celebration since today was spa day, followed by therapeutic massage. She had put her bathing suit on under her clothes before school. Now, she stood in front of an assigned locker and took off her outer clothing.

When she was done, she took her towel and followed Ms. Davis to the spa room. Piper had to keep herself from jumping in; instead, she took the time to lay her towel down, put her hair up in a bun, and then slowly made her way into the spa pool. Piper was greeted by spiraling jets of water on her back and sank down into the water. She closed her eyes in pure bliss and felt herself float away outside of herself as the warm water enveloped her in its loving embrace. "We will stay in here for 20 minutes and then move on to massaging your back muscles," Ms. Davis said from what seemed like miles away. Piper felt herself drifting off to sleep as the water bubbled around her head and neck area.

After 20 minutes of muscle relaxation, Ms. Davis helped Piper up and out of the pool spa, and they made their way over to the table to dry off. Then, they walked to the massage room and Piper laid down on her stomach with her face down in the cushion at the head of the table. Ms. Davis laid Piper's towel over her legs and swimsuit and started kneading Piper's back. Ms. Davis knew that Piper loved this part of the physical therapy the most and that Piper looked forward to it. She let Piper relax and massaged her lower back feeling for the tightness of muscles. "So tell me about your detective work," Ms. Davis said.

"Right now, the current case we are on involves me and five other girls who are all my friends. I'm the sportiest one of the group, yet not the fastest. My friend, Penelope, is like a thoroughbred racehorse on her feet. We are working on a case at The Palace involving a ring of shoplifters," Piper explained. Piper knew she couldn't say too much more about the case, so she gave Ms. Davis a small bio on each member of the agency. "And then there is Tilly; she is the leader of our group and the most outspoken girl out of all of us. She does most of the planning and we add ideas until the plan is perfect. As rough as Tilly can be, you would think that she would be the one in physical therapy, but she can handle herself pretty well, especially if someone makes her mad," Piper summarized and laughed. Piper rolled onto her back and Ms. Davis replaced the towel's position on Piper. Piper had to keep from giggling as Ms. Davis pressed on her abdomen. Her stomach muscles still felt a bit hyper-extended, but she was definitely getting better.

When the physical therapy session was over, Piper returned to the locker room and took off her wet clothes, replacing them with her dry ones. "I would like to see you on Friday for some exercising," Ms. Davis said when Piper returned to the visiting room. "You still feel a bit tight in your stomach, but your back feels 100%, what do you think?" Ms. Davis asked Piper.

"I agree with you, it still hurts me a little when I laugh or eat too much," Piper said.

"That's to be expected, you'll get there. See you Friday," Ms. Davis said as she waved goodbye to Piper and her Mom.

*****

Later that Wednesday evening, Pauly got Bailey's number from Piper and texted her, "Hey Beautiful, wanna' hang out tonight?"

"Where?" Bailey texted back.

"I really don't want to have Piper as a 3rd wheel, but I want you to be comfortable, you choose. Are your parent's home?" Pauly texted.

"Yes, is my shed ok? My parents said ok, but I have to leave the door open. NBD right?" Bailey responded about five minutes later.

"On my way," Pauly responded.

Pauly arrived at Bailey's house about 15 minutes later and was let in by Ms. Bigglebaum. "She is in her office out back. Leave the shed door and sliding glass door open, close the screen though. No hanky-panky now," Ms. Bigglebaum teased with a big smile on her face.

"We'll be watching!" Mr. Bigglebaum yelled from the other room.

Pauly had no doubt about that. "Cool with me. No need to worry, she's just a friend," Pauly laughed but was super impressed with how these two loving parents protected their daughter. Pauly walked out to the shed, knocked on the side door, and went inside. He left the required doors open and went to hug Bailey. Bailey appeared to be super nervous, never having been alone with a boy before.

"So...umm...do you like me then?" Bailey asked cutting straight through the tension she felt.

"I think you are cute, but you are younger than me. What I like about you is how mature you are for your age," Pauly responded. Bailey had her hair up in a ponytail and put on her pink, rose-colored denim jeans and a white t-shirt that said, "I still live with my parents." She wore usual black framed and green colored eyeglasses, which just happened to frame her love filled hazel eyes. "I just wanted to let you know my opinion of all this before a lot of time passes. Bailey, I do like you, you are cute, sweet, and nice; I love your taste in music. You are the kind of girl any guy, myself included, would love to go out with. Your role in the agency, especially on this case, is underestimated. Your friends love you because of who you are. With all that out in the open, I think you are too young for me and I promise not to rush you or make you feel uncomfortable. The most we could ever do is kiss. You're the kind of girl that no guy wants to lose. You are a massive catch, Ms. Bailey," Pauly told Bailey in romantic fashion.

Bailey wiped tears from her eyes and said, "Thank you so much, you are so sweet. You are right though, I'm too young to really know what love is or even means. You're four years older than me. I have never even been kissed by a boy before, so it's a big step for me to even be in love. You might have been kissed before and even braided a girl's hair," Bailey said cracking up in happy tears. "I just want to go slow and see what happens. Hang out with you, listen to music, and go places together, stuff like that. Is that ok with you?" Bailey asked Pauly.

"Of course, no big deal, let's just get to know each other better," Pauly responded. Bailey and Pauly talked for another hour and listened to music. When it was time for Pauly to go, he hugged Bailey and wished her a good night and good day at school the following day. Both were unaware that Thursday would become the pinnacle of conflict in the current case.
Chapter 14

Cal returned to Park Lake Elementary School on Thursday, doing his best to avoid any contact with Gracie or Montsie. Although he did want to pull Montsie aside and apologize when he had the chance to do so, he also wanted to check and see how Gracie was and if there was any new news that he should know about. Cal went straight to his classroom that morning, not really talking to anybody he knew.

He didn't encounter Gracie until lunch, but she was talking to some friends at that time. He approached Gracie cautiously, "Hey Gracie, can I talk to you for a second."

"Stay with me, she told her friends under her breath. She just happened to be with Molly and Bailey at that moment. "What do you want?" Gracie asked, full of bravado.

"I'm sure you know that your brother fired me. I just wanted to tell you to be careful because Montsie has been talking to some detectives," Cal said eyeing Molly and Bailey. Cal wondered just who they were; could they be two of the detectives?

Molly wore her usual pigtails and Cal suddenly remembered the description he had given Blue. Gracie's friends did not want to be revealed as detectives, so Molly spoke up the only way she knew how. "Is it true you kissed Montsie? Also, that you forced her to kiss you?" Molly said with a mocking innocence.

"She's lying. I didn't force her, she told me I could," Cal said.

"Before or after you threatened to tell her parents about stealing?" Bailey asked, jumping into the conversation.

"I've known Montsie for a long time; we used to be good friends. It wasn't until we met Gracie and her brother, Blue, that trouble started. They are professional shoplifters, they are used to lying. I got fired and if that didn't happen, I would have quit," Cal explained. Then continuing, he said "If you see Montsie before I do, tell her I'm sorry for getting us caught up in this whole thing. And Gracie, you can tell your brother to kiss off, I'm not his pigeon anymore," Cal finished.

"Glad to see your change of heart, but it doesn't change the fact of what you did," Bailey reasoned.

"Get out of here before something bad happens to you," Molly threatened.

"Like what?" Cal said sarcastically. Was this kindergartner really threatening him?

"You want to try me?" Molly yelled back at Cal.

Bailey knew where this was going and signaled a secret sign to Penelope across the schoolyard at lunch. Molly had stepped up to Cal in the meantime. "You better back off little girl, before you end up flat on your back," Cal said.

"Hurry up!" Bailey shouted to Penelope who was dragging Tilly and Piper with her.

Molly had now taken her jacket off and stood there in her black leather skirt she wore to school today. "Try it, I dare you punk!" Molly threatened.

Three things happened simultaneously. First, Cal shoved Molly hard; second, at the same time, Molly hit him in the stomach; third, Penelope arrived on the scene with Piper and Tilly and grabbed Cal in a reverse headlock. As Molly was starting to get up off the ground, Tilly jumped over Molly, took a handful of the boy's "jewels" squeezing tight and pulling the momentum upward. The combination of Penelope's headlock and Tilly's frontal assault caused Cal to go off balance. Cal fell backward at Penelope's feet and Piper jumped in and grabbed his throat, getting in his face she said, "You were saying you dumb idiot...". Bailey and Gracie stood in shock at the quick turn of events, but Molly who had been pushed down in her skirt, was having none of it. Without missing a beat, Molly jumped on Cal's chest and scratched him across the face.

Cal was in a great deal of pain. His "jewels" hurt causing him to roll up into a ball. Piper continued yelling at him, "You stupid idiot, how dare you shove a girl. We may get detention, but you will end up in summer school with broken bones. HERE COME THE TEACHERS!!" Tilly joined in before the teachers came, "You messed with the wrong detective agency. Tell your friends, jerk-off, that you met Tilly Tinkertot..." That was all Tilly got out before the teachers arrived with whistles blowing and radios crackling. Penelope and Piper were both on the ground being held away from the melee. Tilly was being escorted and marched off quickly by the ear lobe to the Administration Office, courtesy of the school principal. Cal was being administered to like he was a victim, rolling around in pain his "jewels" hurt so bad. Bailey and Gracie looked on, mouths formed in an "O."

Now the assistant principals were coming out, radios in hand, grabbing Penelope first shoving her ahead of them, yet holding onto her arm at the elbow. Piper they were more careful with, but still had her by the back of the neck, steering her to the Administration Office. "Well, so much for good behavior," Bailey said. Molly was kicking and screaming to get back at Cal, but was being held by older students who had their arms over her chest. "Tessie's not going to believe this," Bailey said, grabbing her phone and taking quick pictures of Cal on the ground, Molly screaming and kicking, Tilly being marched away by the ear, Piper being steered by the neck, and Penelope in an arm bar wrestling hold all the way to the Administration Office.

"You're a detective, too?" Gracie asked Bailey.

"Umm, yeah I am. It's going to be a long night tonight," Bailey said, blowing air out her mouth in exasperation.
Chapter 15

Tilly, Penelope, Piper, Molly and Cal all sat in the Administration Office waiting to be called into the Principal's office. Cal was taken into the principal's office first to get his side of things. "The girl in pigtails threatened me and wanted to fight. Her friend called for back up and the next thing I know, they were all assaulting me. One of them had me in a headlock and the other girl, Tilly, grabbed me where it hurt most and pushed upward making me fall to the ground. Then the one with the neck brace grabbed my throat and choked me when I was down, and the one in the pigtails scratched my face all up. I have never done anything wrong to these girls and they gang up on me all the time. I'm afraid to come to school, it's so bad. Those girls are like hellions; they hate boys," Cal lied to the school Principal, embellishing his story to make himself look innocent.

"Is that true?" Mr. Lockett, the school Principal asked the yard monitor.

"The girls ganged up on him. I didn't see him do anything to provoke them; he might have said something though. Everything he has told you is what I saw," Mrs. K, the Yard Monitor said.

"You didn't push or hit any of them?" Mr. Lockett asked Cal.

"No, of course not; those girls are mean. I only just returned to school today after being absent for three days. I was afraid to come to school because they had been bullying me and now this happens," Cal said crying, adding tears for effect.

"Ok, take it easy and go back to class. I'll let you know if we need you again," Mr. Lockett said.

"Thank you, Mr. Lockett," Cal said getting up to leave. He was happy to escape discipline; these twits were in for it now. Mrs. K escorted him out of the office and when Cal got within ear range of the girls, who were all "mad dogging" him, he mouthed the "B" word in their direction. The girls saw it, but no one else did. Cal had managed to lie his way through the whole process by playing the victim.

Piper was called in next to tell her story. "You grabbed him by the neck and yelled in his face. I would call that bullying," Mr. Lockett said.

"What! You gotta be kidding me! He shoved Molly and probably looked at her underwear." Piper said in defense, trying to get the principal to realize a motive here.

"You have been bullying him for how long?" Mr. Lockett asked.

"I don't even know that creep, how am I going to bully him; he bullied Molly," Piper said, not believing what was happening here.

"You got five hours of detention to think about it," Mr. Lockett stated.

Penelope went in next to explain things. "You put him in a headlock, dragged him to the ground, while your friend Tilly assaulted him by grabbing his groin area," Mr. Lockett said.

"He deserved it. Did you not see what he did?" Penelope asked Mrs. K who was still in the office.

"Mrs. K here said you girls all ganged up on him and bullied him. You provoked him, if anything," Mr. Lockett stated.

"He's a liar, he shoved Molly first," Penelope reasoned.

"She provoked him by calling him a punk, which is wonderful language for a kindergartner, and asked him if he 'wanted to try her, but I suppose you did not hear that?" Mr. Lockett asked. "I'm giving you a one day suspension from school and, you are not going on your end of year class field trip."

"That's not fair. That boy is a criminal and you are treating him like a king," Penelope retorted.

Tilly was next up and explained her side of things. "You are a trouble-maker and your school record reflects that. You grabbed a boy in the groin, who is younger than you no less. How would you have liked it if he had grabbed you that way? Your family would have sued him; where did you ever learn such vulgar behavior anyway? That poor boy...," Mr. Lockett lectured before Tilly cut him off.

"That poor boy? That idiot creep shoved my friend!!" Tilly screamed and got up knocking her chair over in anger.

"Don't raise your voice at me, that boy did nothing wrong, No one saw him shove your friend. NO ONE!!" Mr. Lockett said, getting up from his chair on the other side of the desk, and leaning over into Tilly's face.

"You're full of it. You should check yourself, before you wreck yourself, Mr. Lockett. You got it all wrong. You have grossly underestimated me and the drama you have now caused. I hope you get reported to the school board!" Tilly yelled.

"Detention for the rest of the school year and one week of summer school. Have fun, Ms. Tinkertot!" Mr. Lockett said with heated anger.

Molly went in last and explained the events leading up to the altercation with Cal. "Why did you provoke him, do you like being a bully little miss?" Mr. Lockett asked.

"What eves, he was the one that forced a girl to kiss him. I called his wimpy butt on it and he shoved me to the ground. I even saw that creep look at my underwear," Molly said. "He should get beat up for pushing a kindergartner," Molly said.

"Then you scratched his face like a wildcat. Do you realize he could end up with scars all over his face for the rest of his life? Let me see your nails," Mr. Lockett said.

Molly showed him her nails, which were still full of skin cells from Cal's face. "Those are way too long and you used them as weapons," Mr. Lockett accused.

"Are you even listening to me, obviously not! He called us the "B" word when he left your office, after he lied his way out of trouble. You're just playing favorites," Molly shot back.

"It sure is funny, no one else mentioned that. You can write 500 sentences as follows, 'I will not bully my fellow schoolmates, or cause them any physical or mental harm.' GOT IT, GOOD!!" Mr. Lockett finished.

"That's too long of a sentence," Molly said.

"And since you like being Tinkertot junior and talking back, you can write an additional 50 more saying, 'I will not lie to Mr. Lockett." Molly said something under her breath when she left to go meet her Dad, who had come to the school to pick her up.
Chapter 16

Bailey texted the bad news of what happened to Cal, one of the thieves, to Tessie. First, she sent the picture of Cal on the ground, texting "It was a group effort." Then she sent the picture of Penelope being led away in an arm lock. Next, she sent the picture of Piper being taken away by her neck brace. Tessie was stunned speechless.

"I'm afraid to ask how this even started," Tessie texted back.

"Not done yet, sweetheart," Bailey responded.

"Did Tilly have a part in this?" Tessie asked.

Bailey sent a picture of Tilly with the caption, "That's the school principal escorting her by the ear."

"O-M-G!!" Tessie texted.

"Wait, there is one more," Bailey responded. Tessie buried her face in her hands wondering how, just how this one was going to be smoothed over. "Ready for the instigator?" Bailey asked.

"You mean Tilly didn't start it this time," Tessie texted.

"Here she is...," Bailey texted and sent the picture of Molly screaming her head off, face dark red, being held back by five older students, legs up in the air trying to kick her way out.

"We need to meet up after school today. Tilly and Piper both got detention after school and Penny got sent home today and was suspended from school tomorrow. Penny and I will meet you at my house after school. Molly, Penny, Tilly, and Piper may get grounded and may not be able to come over later tonight," Bailey filled Tessie in.

"Are you ok?" Tessie texted.

"I'm fine, will explain after school," Bailey responded.

"See you then," Tessie texted before signing off. The fallout from this was going to be huge.

Penelope and Bailey walked to Bailey's house together. "I'm waiting until I get home to tell my parents; they are so gonna' freak. I don't even know why I was suspended and banned from the class field trip at the end of the year," Penelope said crossly. "They said I used physical force to drag him down," Penelope finished.

"OMG, Molly and Tilly though. Holy Crab Cakes! Tilly really got a handful of him and all Molly did was scream at Cal," Bailey said.

"I don't know how they can find us at fault. Nobody saw him shove Molly, except us. So we catch the blame for it all," Penelope reasoned.

"I don't think they saw Molly's punch either, and the lying tattletale didn't seem to tell them that part," Bailey said.

"No, they only started looking when I pulled him backwards just as Molly punched him in the stomach; figures though, now he gets to play victim," Penelope scowled.

"I wonder what Molly's Dad will have to say about all this," Bailey wondered.

"I don't know, I just don't know," Penelope said.

They arrived at Bailey's house and headed out to "Bailey's office," the shed, after Bailey told her Dad that she was home and needed to talk to Penelope and Tessie. He said he would direct Tessie to the shed when she got there. Bailey poured about three glasses of lemonade and she and Penelope carried them out to the shed. Penelope turned on the fan for ventilation while Bailey put on some music at a low volume so that they could all talk.

Tessie arrived at Bailey's house about 10 minutes later and knocked on the front door. Mr. Bigglebaum opened the door, "Hi Tessie, the girls are in the backyard." Today, Tessie wore a red and white flower printed dress and her hair clipped back in a ponytail. Red cat-eyed sunglasses and red flats completed her outfit. She was dressed better and more stylish than she usually did.

"Thank you," Tessie said as she was let in. She set her backpack down in the living room next to Penelope's book bag and then started walking towards the backyard sliding glass door.

Mr. Bigglebaum could not help complimenting her. The oldest of Bailey's friends was starting to do that hip-swing motion that only females could pull off. "You look really nice today, Tessie. It's nice to see you in a good mood," Mr. Bigglebaum said.

"Thank you, you can put your shirt on now," Tessie said. Mr. Bigglebaum had completely forgotten to put his shirt on when he answered the door. He had been working out in the garage right before Tessie came.

"Yes, yes, right. Umm, they are in the shed, nice seeing you Tessie," Mr. Bigglebaum said as he walked back to the garage, mentally smacking himself for his obvious over-sight. He felt completely embarrassed.

Tessie walked out to the shed and greeted Bailey and Penelope. "Hey Hottie, did Tessie come with you?" Penelope asked.

"Wow! You look really pretty today," Bailey complimented.

"Your Dad said so, too," Tessie said as she removed her sunglasses.

"He did?" Bailey asked.

"He didn't have a shirt on either, I mean awkward...," Tessie remarked.

"OMG, I'm so embarrassed! I'm so sorry. He's a little weird sometimes," Bailey said, trying to explain.

"No offense taken, he did have a little twinkle in his eye though," Tessie laughed.

"OK, so let's get down to business," Penelope said. Penelope explained what had transpired during the altercation with Cal. "Everything just kind of happened at once. I went to pull Cal backward away from Molly, then Tilly took a handful which caused him to lose his balance and fall backward towards me, then Piper got him last by wrapping her hands around his throat," Penelope finished.

"Unbelievable. It seems to me that Piper could have avoided any trouble by just leaving him alone when Cal was already down. She should have been holding Tilly back instead. Piper knows Tilly better than that. Tilly gets an angry bee in her bonnet and all heck breaks loose," Tessie summarizing her thoughts.

"Well, it's over and done with now. I have to tell my parents still. So not looking forward to that...," Penelope said rolling her eyes skyward.

"The good news is that we know who 3 of the 4 thieves are. Montsie has already dealt with the police and has agreed to pay Trinity at The Palace back for the cost of the candy," Bailey said.

"Gracie didn't talk to the police yet, but she knows who we are now, thanks to this ruckus. It's doubtful whether she will still trust us," Penelope said.

Tessie chimed in, "Give the police the info on Gracie, if we find Gracie, we may find her brother Blue too."

"As for Cal, the police need to get to him today, but Montsie says she doesn't know where he lives. I will call it in and see what the police have to say about those two," Penelope offered.

"We almost got this case solved, we know what we need to know, yet the culprits are still out there. So close, yet so far," Bailey summarized.

Penelope returned about 15 minutes later after calling the police. "The police said that they do not have an address on file for Gracie and Blue, because there is no previous criminal history. It might be best for us to wait to strike and just keep watch on Gracie at school and see where she walks to after school; same thing with Cal. If they make the arrests too soon, then Blue and Cal might get scared and run if the other one was arrested. Better to let them think that the police are not involved yet. As for Montsie, her Mom has agreed to not let any of the other three thieves near her daughter and to pay back the $300.00 in candy taken from The Palace."

Penelope, Bailey and Tessie all agreed that this sounded like the best course of action.
Chapter 17

After Tilly walked with Piper to her house, she walked in the door and found both of her parents and Tabby at home. This was not going to be pretty. "You texted Dad and I that you got detention and had to stay after school, what happened sweetheart?" her Mom asked , raising her eyebrows trying to hope it was just a minor offense. Her Dad came walking into the room with Tabby and gave Tilly a hug.

Tabby retreated to the corner of the kitchen and literally grabbed a bag of cheesy popcorn and sat down on the kitchen counter to enjoy the festivities. "I can't wait to hear this one," Tabby stated.

Tilly cleared her throat and gathered her thoughts. "I got detention for the rest of the school year and one week of summer school," Tilly announced. Tabby screamed out in laughter almost choking on the popcorn.

"For what?" her Dad asked sternly!

"Grabbing a boy's crotch and taking him down...," Tilly started to explain before Tabby started having a feigned cardiac arrest on the kitchen floor. Tabby, who was drinking soda at the time, blew soda out her nose and mouth and started coughing and laughing at the same time.

While Tabby rolled around on the kitchen floor like a "spazzle," the conversation continued, "You what!!" her Mom yelled unbelievingly.

"This boy named, Cal, who we believe is one of the shoplifters that keeps hitting The Palace, shoved Molly down," Tilly explained.

"So you jumped him? So what if he shoved Molly! Why did you grab him like that?" her Mom asked, looking at Tabby to ensure that she was able to breathe ok.

"I wasn't the only one," Tilly said and then explained all of what happened, as she knew it, to her parents.

"Molly really said that, 'You want to try me?' That's actually hilarious, I wonder what Marcus, Molly's Dad, will think of that," Tilly's Dad pondered.

"Not really that funny, Tilly got the worst of it," her Mom said upset.

"O' my gosh, this is great! I should have recorded this," Tabby said laughing and turning bright red.

"Shut up Tabby!! You stupid miscreant!" Tilly screamed.

"Don't tell me to shut up, you nosy little attention queen," Tabby said, getting up off the floor.

"At least I'm not a boy's bed pet like you are! How many boys have you kissed this year?" Tilly asked.

"You are classless, trashy scum to mention this in front of Mom and Dad. Do you have no boundaries Tilly? FYI, I have had only two boyfriends this year; I broke up with Thomas and I have only kissed Jeremy," Tabby stated.

"All in what...two months maybe," Tilly yelled back! Tabby slapped her and ran from the room in tears. Tilly was sent to her room without her phone for the rest of the night, until her parents could figure out what to do next.

*****

Molly Mustardspice was picked up by her Dad after school and she told him all of what happened and the sentence punishment that she was being forced to do. "He shoved you down! I will get this straightened out with Mr. Lockett. You girls shouldn't have attacked him so hard though. Tilly grabbing him like that, Piper choking him, for God sakes little lady, it sounds like you started it by challenging him, in your skirt no less," her Dad lectured.

"You just don't know it all. He force kissed another girl," Molly said in defense.

"Molly! I don't care if he force kissed YOU, that does not give you the right to do what you did. You darn well know Molly that if Tilly sees you get pushed, she's going to come flying in and you know it. Is that what makes you so brave? You're grounded without your phone and computer for one week!" Mr. Mustardspice yelled at her.

"For what?" Molly cried out loud, starting to tear up.

"Starting it!" her Dad responded. "And, where did you get all these toothpicks from? Give me those too."

*****

Piper walked in the door and explained the day's events to her Mom and Dad. "I was wrong, he was already down when I choked him," Piper said teary-eyed.

"Why would you do that? You didn't need to. Now all of you are in trouble, except Bailey and Tessie. They always seem to escape trouble unharmed, how is that? It's always the same ones getting in trouble, you, Tilly, Penelope, and Molly. You could have gotten hurt again, Piper. You need to think more clearly and act more smartly; just go. Go to your room until I can figure this out," her Mom said.

*****

Penelope decided to bring Bailey and Tessie home with her to help her explain. Penelope told the entire story to her Mom and Dad. "I was trying to get him away from Molly. I didn't think that Tilly would grab him like she did, making him lose his balance and fall," Penelope explained. Bailey told her version of the events, which turned out to be the exact same as Penelope's explanation, just from a different point of view.

"And, now you are suspended for one day?" her Dad asked.

"You got off easy," her Mom said.

"I also lost my end of school year field trip rights," Penelope put in.

"As you should have...you're not a superhero, stop acting like one. Bailey and Tessie, we need to talk to Penelope alone. She's in some trouble," Penelope's Dad said.

"I knew the fallout would be big," Tessie said, after she and Bailey left Penelope's house.

"It might get left up to us to finish this case if everyone gets grounded," Bailey said.

"We need to think and plan and see what the outcomes are before we make any decisions," Tessie said.

"I'll keep you updated as to what happens with me, if anything," Bailey said.

"I will too. We might have to call in some extra help, but let's see what happens first," Tessie explained. "Bye, see you tomorrow after school."

"I'll text you," Bailey said.
Chapter 18

Marcus Mustardspice, Tiffany Tinkertot, Pauline Peabody, Peter Peachbottom, Bethany Bigglebaum, and Chris Green (Cal's Dad) all met with Mr. Lockett, the School Principal, the following morning. "My son was assaulted by this gang of girls. They have been bullying him for a while now, trying to make his life miserable. I think that the school district should do a lot more and expel Tilly Tinkertot and Piper Peabody for their actions. The rest of the discipline, I'm ok with," Chris Green said.

"Your son started it according to my daughter, Bailey," Bethany Bigglebaum said.

"He was provoked by one of the hellion girls," Chris said.

"That would be my sweet daughter, Molly, you are speaking badly of; he shoved her down in a skirt. She's five years old and in kindergarten, how old is your son?" Marcus Mustardspice challenged.

"He's 10," Chris answered.

"Double her age! Yet you say she provoked him," Marcus said.

"She hit him and then he knocked her down, he didn't hit her back. My son doesn't hit girls," Chris answered back.

"Well that's a good thing, bcause he might have been seriously hurt if he tried. My daughter Tilly takes no grief or static from anyone, she's very feisty. She is also a detective who is accusing your son of shoplifting," Tiffany Tinkertot said joining in.

"Piper says that, too. She's also a detective," Pauline Peabody said.

"My daughter, Penelope, is the other main figure in that detective group. She says that your son should be arrested, not only for shoplifting, but also for forcing girls to kiss him. If Tilly and Piper were to be expelled, then he should too," Peter Peachbottom summarized.

"We could always take this outside, Mr. Green. I don't appreciate some perverted kid shoving my sweetheart down," Marcus challenged Chris.

Principal Lockett jumped in saying, "Nobody is going anywhere. Mr. Mustardspice. I need your respectful attention to help find a solution in this mess. Apparently, my staff missed this pushing part."

"What about the assault on my son by that little girl and her friends, what about that?" Chris Green asked.

"She's five; did she REALLY hurt him that bad?" Tiffany Tinkertot asked sarcastically.

"No, your psycho kid did that, yours too," Chris said to Tiffany, and then pointed directly at Peter Peachbottom.

"Screw you, you should try parenting your kid better," Peter said.

Not to be outdone, Tiffany jumped in, in defense of her daughter, Tilly. "My daughter is not a psycho. You're calling a 11 year-old young girl a psycho and saying a five year-old kindergartner provoked him! Come on now!" Tiffany shouted back.

Mr. Lockett banged his fist on his desk, "enough everyone!" Mr. Lockett got on his phone and called Cal's teacher. "Send Cal Green to my office please, thank you." Mr. Lockett then faced the parents in his office, "Now, Mr. Green, I think your son needs to be questioned by our school officer regarding this shoplifting allegation. Also, Mr. Peachbottom send Penelope in." Penelope hesitantly entered the office after hearing the adults arguing about the situation that happened. "I'm going to revise some of the discipline these girls received, based upon what I heard today." Penelope got out her notebook to write down the new verdicts. "Penelope Peachbottom will remain suspended for one day; however, I will allow her to go on her class field trip." Penelope smiled at this new decision; this was going well so far. "Piper Peabody will remain at five hours detention - no change. Molly Mustardspice had to write sentences. She no longer has to write, 'I will not lie to Mr. Lockett' 50 times. The rest will stand. Tilly Tinkertot will remain on detention until the school year ends. Her week of summer school will be changed to one Saturday school, to be served this Saturday. Bailey Bigglebaum seems to have escaped trouble, but it sounds like she played a small role in this situation. She will now be given two hours of detention starting today."

Penelope wrote down everyone's punishment so she could pass it along later. Bailey sure wasn't going to be happy about all of a sudden getting detention. "Do you guys want to tell me who is grounded?" Penelope asked hesitantly.

"Molly is grounded for a week without her phone and computer," Marcus Mustardspice, her Dad, said.

"Piper is grounded for today and this weekend," Peter Peachbottom said.

"And Tilly...," Penelope said dreading the answer.

"Is grounded until further notice. We had an incident last night. She is off the grid entirely, no visitors, no phone calls, no detective work, no cell phone, no computer... nothing," Tiffany Tinkertot, her Mom, stated.

"Wow!! That's a bit harsh, don't you think, Ms. Tinkertot." Penelope said. "Tilly makes our group run; she is a huge part of our group. Yeah, she's kind of bossy, opinionated, hot-tempered, and a bit of a drama girly-girl who hates getting dirty, but that's also why we love her. Yes, sometimes Tilly and I argue, but it's not because we hate each other, we just got different opinions. She has all our backs 110% and we have her back. If not for her, we may not have found out who three of the four shoplifters were. Actually, we think we know who all four of them are: Cal Green, Montsie Jameson, who is already paying back some of the money she cost Trinity Hudson, and the brother/sister duo of Blue and Gracie Adams," Penelope finished. She hoped that she had done a good job of putting Tilly high on a pedestal.

"Penelope, that's all admirable of you to say about Tilly, but it goes beyond this school incident. Her and Tabby may never speak to each other again after she accused Tabby of...well, bed hopping with several boyfriends in front of her Dad and myself," Tiffany said.

"Oh," Penelope said completely shut down and speechless.
Chapter 19

The School Police Officer, Haz Noklue, sat across from the two alleged shoplifters, Cal Green and Gracie Adams. He had obtained permission to speak with the children from their parents. It had been a little slow going getting information from these two because they were scared on multiple fronts. If they talked too much, they risked becoming seriously hurt by Gracie's brother, Blue Adams. If they didn't talk enough, then the junior girl detectives at the school would possibly harangue them. Although Officer Noklue had heard the Tinkertot-Peachbottom detectives had taken a huge setback in physically assaulting Cal Green. The junior girl detectives had pointed in the right direction, now it was just a matter of getting a confession. Their friend, Montsie Jameson, had also implicated these two in the shoplifting ring. One great thing about prosecuting minors was once the sky started falling on whatever wrongs they were committing, they tended to run around in circles blaming the other kid and expecting an adult to intervene and save them.

"So, where is your brother, Blue Adams, at now?" Officer Noklue asked Gracie.

"I haven't seen him for two days now. I think he's hiding out somewhere; I don't know," Gracie replied.

"Some ringleader he is letting you two, no you three if we include Montsie Jameson, take the fall. You say Cal, that Blue was the planner of the group?" Officer Noklue asked turning his attention to Cal.

"Yes sir," Cal said shaking like a leaf. "I always got the hard stuff, the expensive stuff you know, while he just created a distraction."

"How many stores have you stolen from?" Officer NoKlue asked. "Tell me the truth now or I may have to do something drastic."

"Two," Gracie said.

"Four," Cal said at the same time. Then, he looked at Gracie because she was lying trying to minimize their crimes.

"So which is it? Two or four?" Officer Noklue asked.

"It's four. The Palace, Zody's Toy Store, Top Line Cellular, and Macklemore's," Cal stated. "I don't want to go to jail."

"Gracie, are you trying to cover for your brother? Do you love him a lot?" Officer Noklue asked.

"I love him, yes."

"He's left you and Cal in a tight spot. If he left to go anywhere, he obviously isn't trying to cover for you. He wants you to take all the blame and trouble away from him. Are you sure that you don't know where he is?" Officer Noklue asked.

"No! I swear on my life, I don't. He runned away. I don't know where he is," Gracie protested loudly.

"The school will be notifying your parents and, more than likely, you will have to pay back a big portion, if not all, of the cost of the items you stole," Officer Noklue said. "We are going to have to figure out what to do here. Thank you for talking to me, you can go back to your classes now.

*****

Her Dad, Peter, drove Penelope Peachbottom home. Penelope's head was lost 'in the clouds.' How could things turn so wrong, so quickly? At least she wasn't grounded like Tilly, Piper, and Molly. However, her parents were not happy with her for good reason, she couldn't blame them. She still had Bailey and Tessie to help out. Reinforcements would have to be called in for the assignment at The Palace this weekend; but who could she ask? They would probably have to be paid, too. "Tilly, how could you leave me with this giant puzzle," Penelope thought to herself. Tilly was being escorted to class in the morning and taken home immediately after school. She was not allowed to talk to anybody. They lost Piper and Molly for this weekend, as well. It was possible that Penelope and the others could wrap this up themselves. "No way, that would be too easy," Penelope thought inwardly. "If Blue was smart, he would lay low, but who said he was smart?"

Either way, the girls were contracted to work this weekend at The Palace. Polly, her sister, might be able to help; she could fill in for Piper. Pickles?? Gosh no! He would just spend the whole weekend buried in the toy section. Pauly, Piper's brother, Bailey would love that. He might be able to take Tilly's place. Payne could probably fill in for Molly. She would have to talk it all over with Bailey and Tessie." Penelope thought to herself, gazing off into the distance.
Chapter 20

When Penelope got home, she talked over her plan with Bailey who gave it a 'thumbs up.' Tessie thought it sounded like the best idea considering the situation. Bailey volunteered to call Pauly to ask him for his participation, and of course, Payne' as well. It really only mattered to Bailey if Pauly said yes or no. Payne was just the 3rd wheel in the scenario.

After talking it over with Bailey and Tessie, Penelope made the call to Trinity Hudson. Penelope crossed her fingers and said a silent prayer that Trinity would fully accept the changes in the grand plan due to the circumstances of the past week. When Trinity came on the line, Penelope said, "Hey Trinity, it's Penelope from Tinkertot-Peachbottom. How are you today?"

"Hey Penelope, aren't you supposed to be in school?" Trinity asked.

"Uhh yeah, about that...I got suspended for a day," Penelope answered.

"What! You did? For what?" Trinity questioned.

"Nothing like breaking the ice with a bang," Penelope thought to herself. "Yeah...well...it's a long story. The good news is that we now know who three of the four shoplifters are. The bad news is...half my crew got wiped out fighting one of the thieves at school," Penelope explained.

"I never said to fight these thieves, only catch them and turn them in,"

"Might as well get it over with," Penelope thought inwardly. "We will be missing Molly, Tilly, and...Piper this weekend. Tilly seems to be having some family issues, as well as, this situation," Penelope said.

"I hired six of you though," Trinity said.

"We will be having some fill-ins this weekend (I hope). Both of Piper's brothers and my sister will be taking their places. We hope to have Piper and Molly back next week. Tilly might be out of commish for a while," Penelope explained, hoping it would all come together just like that.

"My goodness, what happened?" Trinity asked.

Penelope explained the whole sequence of events at school, without all the discipline handed out. "Tilly grabbed him!! I thought Molly would be the one," Trinity said.

"Right," Penelope said in total agreement. "Anyway, we will be there tomorrow at 9:00 am."

"Ok, see you girls then. Stay out of trouble."

"Actually, we will have two boys, the rest will be girls," Penelope corrected.

"Thank you, see you then," Trinity said.

"Well, at least that's over," Penelope thought to herself. "Next order of business, got to get some Intel," she said out loud to Pippy, who had now fallen asleep. She needed to find Tabby's phone number. She found her address book lying under Pippy, her greyhound dog, who was all sprawled out with her tongue hanging out. She removed the address book and Pippy woke up to give her a "What's your deal?" stare and quickly went back to sleep. Soon doggy snores filled the room once again. "How does Tilly manage all this," Penelope said out loud, even though the dog wasn't interested in listening. Between scheduling and confirming appointments, staying in contact with the police department, keeping in touch with Montsie's Mom and now Gracie's parents, Cal's situation, Trinity at The Palace, keeping all the girls informed, and sticking to the agreements that had to be made, Penelope was ready to pull her hair out. Time to call Tabby, now there was something Tilly couldn't do peacefully. Tabby picked up on the fourth ring.

"What?" Tabby answered the phone after seeing Penelope's name on caller ID.

"Tabby, can you tell me what's happening with Tilly's grounding?" Penelope asked.

"She's a skeezy slime ball. I hope she stays grounded forever. I almost knocked her teeth out the other night. I should have done it too, but my parents were standing there," Tabby explained.

Penelope didn't want to argue with Tabby. "How is she, Tabby?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, no one has gotten a chance to talk to her, is she doing ok? Does she need anything?" Penelope went on.

"How would I know? She can go choke on rotten eggs for all I care. Why do you even like her? Didn't she shove or elbow your brother in the head? You should have beaten her butt. No, instead, she beat yours some friend! I beat her puny, little princess butt for you though. Are you having trouble putting on your pants right, Penelope, or do you need Tilly to come help you and wipe your butt too?" Tabby scolded Penelope.

"You know what, Tabby? Go screw yourself! Tilly was right, you are a bed bouncer. I hope you get "crabs" or something. I bet you have met all the boys on the football team! Thanks for nothing, you freakin' boy toy dumpster! Bye Tabby!" Penelope said as she hung up.

Tabby hung up her end of the line. "Did she just call me a...dumpster?" Tabby screamed. Now she was so upset, she felt she just had to take it out on Tilly. Tabby stomped to Tilly's bedroom. The door had been removed as part of Tilly's punishment. Tabby walked up directly behind Tilly, who had her headphones on, and wound Tilly's hair around her wrist and struck Tilly hard across her chin. Tilly was up in a shot. She put her feet up on the chair, pushed up and flew back at Tabby scratching her neck. "What's your problem?" Tilly screamed.

"Your friend, Penelope, smarted off to me. She called me a boy toy dumpster!" Tabby yelled.

Tilly burst out laughing her head off. "Good for her, I love my girls," Tilly said.

"They are all weird and retarded like you, except Piper. She might be the smartest one. Penelope is going to be missing teeth when I see her again. She's as stupid as a nitwit at a 1st grade Basic Math Convention. Bailey is a troublemaker who is as ugly as an alley cat, and she's a dweeby nerd too. Molly, I'm surprised she is even potty trained; she probably still wets her bed. And Tessie...my gosh...they don't come anymore block-headed dense than her. She's the dumb looking donkey...," Tabby yelled but couldn't finish before Tilly jumped on her.

She knocked Tabby to the carpet and ripped her shirt all down the front. Then, she pulled Tabby's hair in her closed fist and delivered multiple body shots. "Don't ever talk about my friends, you miscreant, ugly witch." Tilly yelled. At that moment, their parents came careening into the room with Casper and pulled the two sisters apart.

"Mom! She started it," Tabby defended herself.

"Your Dad and I heard it all. Tabby, get out of Tilly's room, now! When are you going to grow up and stop provoking her?" their Mother screamed at Tabby.

"Me? Provoke her? Do you even know how evil she is? She's the devil's spawn!" Tabby screamed.

"Stop it now! I'm sick and tired of you two girls trying to kill each other," Mr. Tinkertot said.

"Why don't you tell them what you said to Penny, Tabby?" Tilly said mockingly.

"What did you say to Penny?" Mrs. Tinkertot asked her daughter, Tabby.

Tabby allowed herself to be lead out of the room by her Dad. "This isn't over yet! Snitch!!" Tabby said to Tilly over her shoulder.

Later that night, Tilly found herself staring at the walls. No phone, no computer, no TV, this royally sucked! What to do? What to do? Her eyes scanned the room and fell upon an empty box of Girl Scout cookies next to some throwaway flyer about some carnival to be held in The Palace parking lot this weekend. Tilly thought for a moment, then let herself smile really big. She began to chuckle as a plan came to her mind, like a spotlight coming on suddenly. Why did she not think of this before? Now she had to sneak some quick phone calls out. Her parents were busy hearing her lame-brained sister whining. It was now or never.
Chapter 21

That Friday afternoon after school, Piper had physical therapy once again. Today included so many abdominal exercises, she wasn't sure that she could eat and not throw it all back up. Her lower back felt fine, but her stomach muscles often gave her some trouble when it came to discomfort and tightness. It hurt to laugh, run on the treadmill, or even argue with Pauly and Payne about the horrid smell emanating from their rooms. When she had bent down to Cal's level on the ground and came back up, she could feel her stomach muscles were still days away from being 100% again.

Later that night, Piper sat in her room wondering why her parents were freaking out so much about a simple throat grab. When she pulled off similar moves in karate, she was praised; do it in real life and she is grounded. Unbelievable! What was even more disturbing was that she was going to be replaced this coming weekend. Pauly reported to her that Penelope had Bailey call and ask him and Payne for their help this weekend. What on earth was Penelope doing? Pauly all but jumped off the roof for a chance to be around Bailey. Payne was less sure about the whole thing; work sounded like no playtime for video games or anything else fun for that matter. Polly, Penelope's sister, was also called in to action. Now let's think about this, Payne is six and Polly is eight. No, Penelope couldn't be doing that; she was a horrible cupid if she was.

Piper heard her Mom calling her and went to find her. Her Mom was just getting off the phone when Piper did the "What Now" Walk of Death into the kitchen. "Hey honey, why didn't you tell me you volunteered to sell Girl Scout cookies at the carnival with Lindsey?" her Mom asked. "What! I never agreed to this," Piper thought. "I think that's so sweet of you to help her and her troop. You are going to look like a doll in a Girl Scout uniform," her Mom gushed. "Wait. What?" Piper was trying to comprehend this. Did Penelope do this? Tilly? No, it couldn't be, Tilly wasn't even allowed near a phone. This strangely felt like a Tilly plan though. "I guess my job is to go along with this," Penelope cringed inwardly.

"Umm...yeah, I forgot about that," Piper fibbed with a big smile. "So, I can go to the carnival then?" Piper asked.

"Only to help sell the cookies and clean-up, all the scouts are pitching in to help," Ms. Peabody said.

"You know me, always happy to help," Piper beamed making a right-handed fist and swinging it from left to right. Note to self: Ask Penelope, what the heck!

Molly was sitting in front of the TV watching some show on The Disney Channel. TV was the only luxury she was allowed. Her hand hurt from cramping as she wrote all those stupid sentences. Cal started it, so why was she in trouble for hitting him? What was so wrong about saying, "You want to try me?" "It's like it's a bad thing or something," Molly reasoned to herself. What timing! To be grounded the weekend of the carnival.

The phone rang in the other room and her Dad went to answer it. Molly sat there sulking about her change of luck. Had she become too confident and overdid herself? What am I supposed to do when a boy pushes me down, cry like a little kid? Fat chance that will happen.

Her Dad got off the phone and came into the living room. "Baby girl, you should have told me that you were going to help at the carnival with the horses and the petting zoo."

Molly looked at her Dad like he was crazy. "What horses and petting zoo?" Molly asked.

"Mr. Mann called and told me you volunteered to help clean up after the animals and even wash them down," her Dad said.

Was this a trick? "I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this," Molly thought. "Umm, well...yeah...but who called him? I didn't think you were going to let me go," Molly said. "When you say...clean up, you mean feed them, right? Washing them down means like what? I'm confused."

"It sounded to me like you were going to be picking up the poop and scrubbing them down giving them a bath," her Dad said.

Molly did a double take. "OK, wait a minute. I need to think," Molly thought to herself. "But Dad, my birthday is tomorrow, aren't you going to....you know....plan a party? Take me shopping? Cake?" Molly questioned.

"Well, yeah. Then I found out you volunteered for this. This makes me really happy to find out that you are giving up your party and taking responsibility like this," her Dad beamed.

"Like heck!" Molly thought to herself. Who could be behind this unexpected surprise, Penny? "She would really have me picking up poop on my birthday? No, can't be. This has Tilly written all over it. How would Tilly even set this up? She was off the grid right. Right? I don't know how this happened, but I'm forced to go along with it," Molly thought.

"Thank you, Daddy. What time do I have to be there tomorrow?" Molly asked.

"7:00 AM" her Dad said.

"Fantastic," Molly said through clenched teeth and a forced smile. "Can I please make just one phone call, Daddy?" Molly asked blinking her bright blue eyes innocently.

"Sure honey bear, go ahead," her Dad said.

*****

Piper was allowed to only call Penelope. When Penelope answered, she was surprised it was Piper calling. "Hey girl, so you are off restriction then?" Penelope asked.

"Why did you plan this girl scout crap without me knowing?" Piper yelled.

"What are you talking about? I only said I would replace you to Trinity," Penelope answered.

"Well, now I'm selling girl scout cookies at the carnival IN A GIRL SCOUT UNIFORM!!" Piper yelled in response.

"That should look cute actually. You just had to find a way to help didn't you. This is all just an act, being mad. That's what I love about you, Piper." Penelope said.

"Are you crazy? I didn't volunteer; my Mom told me Lindsey's Mom called thanking me for my volunteering. If you didn't do it...," Piper said through clenched teeth. "Never mind, you better find Tilly before I do because I'm going to punch her. I bet she planned this," Piper said.

"Hold on a sec, Molly's calling me," Penelope said and then clicked over to the other line.

"Really Penelope!! You are having me clean up poop on my birthday. LARGE HORSE POOP!!" Molly yelled.

"What are you talking about? Piper's calling me telling me that someone volunteered her to sell Girl Scout cookies. What is going on here?" Penelope asked.

"This is so disgusting. I'd rather be a girl scout than a pooper-scooper. I'm going to need a shovel," Molly reasoned.

"Ok, wait hold on...no actually...let me call you back." Penelope said.

"This is my one phone call," Molly stated.

"Then, I will call your parents. I need to figure this out," Penelope said.

"God Tilly, what have you done?" Penelope thought.

Penelope went back to the other line with Piper holding. "Well, guess what Piper? Molly has been called upon to pick up horse and pig poop. She's a pooper scooper," Penelope revealed.

"OMG, that's funny!! I'll bet she is pissed though," Piper said.

"It's her 6th birthday tomorrow, what do you think?" Penelope confirmed. "I need to figure this out, Piper. I think Tilly is behind this, but I don't know her reasoning. Does anyone? She can't use the phone, so I will have to call her parents. Great! That means Tabby will be there. She upset me earlier," Penelope explained.

"Do what you gotta' do. I'm not dressing up as a Brownie Scout and I'm certainly not picking up poop. Tell Tilly to do it herself," Piper stated matter of factly.

"If Tilly is behind this...she did it for our own good," Penelope reasoned.

"I'm going to ring that girl's neck!" Piper said.

"You gotta' beat Molly to it then, talk to you later," Penelope finished.

Now Penelope placed a call to the Tinkertot residence. Mr. Tinkertot answered the phone. "Hi, Mr. Tinkertot, this is Penelope, could I please talk to Tilly really fast? I need to find something out and she is the only one who knows," Penelope said.

"Two girls talking is never fast," Mr. Tinkertot thought to himself. "Sure, you got two minutes, that's it," Mr. Tinkertot said.

Tilly came on the phone with a tentative, "Hello."

"Tilly! have you lost your marbles? Piper is ready to blow up, and Molly is so furious, she could commit harri karri!" Piper yelled.

"So it's a yes then. They knew what to do in the right moment. That's my girls!! I'm so proud, I could cry," Tilly said.

"You volunteered them! They didn't agree to it! Just what are you planning to do at the carnival?" Penelope asked.

"I'm thinking manicures, what else?" Tilly said.

"Manicures!! Over Piper's and Molly's' dead bodies you will!" Penelope corrected.

"Tell them to relax. I got a plan, and besides, we are contracted to be there," Tilly reasoned.

"AT THE STORE!! Tilly, Tilly, Tilly. My God, how do you do it?" Penelope asked, with her hand over her face.

"That's why I'm the head boss and you darling are the main partner. What did Tabby say to you?" Tilly asked.

"I'll tell you later, I got a riot on my hands now. Tilly, you have outdone yourself, yet again," Penelope said.

"Love me, hate me, say what you want about me...," Tilly sang.

"Don't go all Britney Spears on me," Penelope interrupted.

"Everyone needs to chill, I got everything under control. I bet we even catch Blue tomorrow. Trust me. I got something up my sleeve so to speak," Tilly said. "Gotta' go, my time is up. Bye"
Chapter 22

Tessie had just finished dinner when her cell phone rang. "Hey doggie whisperer," Bailey greeted her.

"Hi, what's going on?" Tessie asked. Both Bailey and Tessie had been getting texts from Penelope every 5 minutes or so for the last hour, updating them on the progress of the situation for tomorrow.

"I don't know, but Penelope is coming over and asked me to call you to see if you can come to my office. Penelope says Tilly has to be up to something," Bailey told her.

"I don't know if I even want to know what it is," Tessie responded.

"I got an idea. This meeting may be long or it might not. Why don't you ask your parents if you can stay over here tonight," Bailey said.

"I...your Dad was acting all weird the last time, it kinda' freaked me out," Tessie said.

"You dressed up, Tessie. You looked beautiful that day. He had never seen you dressed up before. Frankly, we were all a bit surprised," Bailey commented.

"I'll stay if Penelope stays," Tessie said. A night alone with Bailey and Ruby did not seem like an idea of the togetherness she envisioned. Bailey had a different taste in music that sometimes could not be overlooked. If Penelope was there, they would at least have more to do and talk about.

"Deal! See you when you get here," Bailey said ending the call.

"Wow! We are going to have nine people tomorrow, that's alot! Do we even need that many?" Tessie thought to herself, as she packed clothes and other essentials. Tessie got the ok from her parents and was now bicycling over to Bailey's house with her backpack and butterfly family. She knocked on the front door to announce her arrival and was let in. She put her bike next to Penelope's in Bailey's garage and then Mr. Bigglebaum directed her to the shed, a.k.a. "Bailey's office." Tessie hugged her two friends and then took a seat, after letting her butterfly family loose. The butterflies stayed well clear of Ruby, Bailey's pet red macaw.

"Ok, let me break down what I know," Penelope said. "Piper called me upset about someone volunteering her to sell Girl Scout cookies with her tennis partner." All three girls laughed trying to picture Piper, the sports fanatic, as a Girl Scout. "But that's not all, and then Molly calls me. Apparently, someone volunteered her to do some animal clean-up in the petting zoo and the pony ride for the wee tots," Penelope finished.

"I'll bet the little firecracker was ready to EXPLODE," Bailey burst out laughing.

"Tomorrow is her 6th birthday," Tessie brought up.

"Oh' yeah, that's right. Oh my, that's not good. Did Tilly forget?" Bailey asked.

"My guess is no. Tilly admitted to being behind it all. She's telling everyone to relax and chill out. She says she has a plan, Penelope offered.

"Then how come no one else knows what it is?" Tessie said questioningly.

"Ok, let's think here. I believe I know what Tilly wants us to do. She wants us inside the store, along with Polly, my sister, and Payne and Pauly. Piper and Molly are going to be outside in the carnival and she will want them watching for suspicious activity. She got them off restriction the only way she knew how," Penelope summarized.

"I get it. Tilly's thinks that she is helping them by getting them off the wringer for a day. But, how did she arrange all that being confined to her room for fighting with Tabby? Someone had to have helped her, but who?" Bailey asked.

"How does Tilly do anything? She manipulates and strategizes until she gets her way. She'll cause drama to get everyone to pay attention to something over here, when the real action is over there," Tessie said hand gesturing around the room.

"What's Tilly going to be doing then, tomorrow?" Bailey asked.

"Manicures, she jokes. I'll bet she is not even leaving the house. There is just no way, not with all this going on with Tabby. Her parent's wouldn't let her, would they?" Penelope said to the others, as clueless as them.

"We go into the store like normal unless we hear otherwise. Let Tilly handle whatever she's doing outside the store. Something is going to fall into place, I can feel it. We have all known Tilly too long to underestimate her," Tessie said.

"Agreed," Penelope said.

"I'm in," Bailey seconded.

"Let's just enjoy the rest of this night, us three girls," Penelope said. "So Bailey, about Pauly...,"
Chapter 23

Saturday morning dawned bright and early for Molly Mustardspice. Today sure didn't sound like fun. She had given up her 6th birthday party with her family no less, to do what...shovel horse manure. It just wasn't fair. After a bowl of cereal for breakfast, her Dad drove her to The Palace and carnival that was being held in the parking lot. She was silent in the car, unbelieving this dramatic turn of events that did not go in her favor. Yet Tilly, unashamed of ruining her birthday, tells her to relax and chill out. Like she would give up her own birthday to shovel horse poop. "Ha', fat chance," Molly thought.

Instead of looking pretty in her birthday dress, she had to settle for her blue denim overalls, a red t-shirt, and a straw hat with two holes cut out the sides of it for her trademark pigtails. The hat would help her keep the bright, hot sun out of her eyes. She looked more like a disadvantaged country farmer's kid than the birthday girl she was.

They arrived at the carnival within 15 minutes and found a parking space. She exited the car with her Dad and walked over to the petting zoo where Mr. Mann was still setting up. The carnival was due to open at 9:00 AM, two hours from now. "Good Mornin', how're you two this fine day," Mr. Mann greeted the two. "You all ready to hep' out today, Molly? Thanks for agree'n on such short notice," Mr. Mann said to Molly.

"She's not in a super good mood today, Mr. Mann," Mr. Mustardspice said as Molly stood off to the side arms folded over her chest. Molly wore a permanent scowl behind her yellow-colored dark sunglasses. She tapped her front right foot impatiently on the ground, putting all her weight on her left side.

"Well, let me show ya' what you will be doing today, Molly," Mr. Mann said walking toward a pen of goats, pigs, and other animals that Molly could not identify. "All you'll need to do is sweep up the animal dung in the pettin' zoo and holdin' pen. Then, you will take it over to that blue trashcan thar' and dump it in. When that's done, make yer' way over to the pony ride thar' and pick up any horse droppins' you see before the ponies start a walkin.' Don' wan' them a steppin' in it now, do we?" Mr. Mann instructed Molly laughing a little bit at his own joke. Molly just stared at him behind her shades like she was trying to picture Tilly's head on Mr. Mann.

"Well, we thank you kindly Robert for the opportunity," Mr. Mustardspice said. "I'm going to take off now and pick you up around 3:00 pm, ok Molly? I love you," Mr. Mustardspice said as he hugged Molly goodbye.

After her Dad had left, Molly walked away to begin her rounds. "For the love of God, how did I draw this job? Thanks a lot Tilly," Molly thought out loud. Molly set right to work, no sense crying about it yet anyway. Molly sang to herself trying not to think too hard about her predicament. "Happy Birthday to me," sweep, sweep, sweep. "Happy Birthday to me," sweep, sweep, sweep. One of the pigs came walking up behind her and nudged her elbow. Molly screamed thinking she was under attack and ran into a corner of the enclosure.

"It's ok, Molly, old Rufus just wants to be petted," Mr. Mann told her. It was going to be one long, hot, sunny day for Molly.

*****

Piper arrived at the carnival around 8:30 am dressed in her borrowed Brownie Scout uniform. She was even forced to wear the artist-looking beret on her head. Her hair was double braided and off to the sides. She felt as if she looked like something from a Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate box. Brown socks and white slip-on shoes completed the outfit. The Brownie dress came to just above her knee. She had never felt so humiliated in her life.

Then, she happened to look over at the petting zoo and saw Molly in her straw hat and yellow sunglasses. Molly was just staring at her, unsmiling, daring Piper to complain. Molly was furious enough to have smoke coming out of her ears. Piper almost felt sorry for Tilly when it came time to deal with Molly. "I better leave her alone today," Piper thought.

Soon after, Piper saw the cluster of bikes making their way around the outer edge of the carnival. Bailey's solar Soap Box Racer was leading the way followed by Penelope, Polly, Tessie, Payne, and Pauly. Penelope and Tessie both wore their blue work vests. Penelope wore blue jeggings and Tessie had on her pink denim pants. Tessie seemed to be going through a fashion change this last week, but she was still Tessie, unimpressed by everyone else's surprise.

The group locked up their bikes and headed toward the front of the store. Penelope and Tessie went to go see Piper, while Bailey and Polly ran for Molly. It wasn't long before Bailey and Polly came running back declaring Molly to be left alone today. Molly had waved them off before they could even say, "Hello."

"Don't you look cute today," Penelope said to Piper.

"All dressed up for the Girl Scout Jamboree," Tessie put in.

"Take a picture and I'm breaking fingers, who is first?" Piper challenged.

"Girl, you look about as happy as Molly does," Bailey said.

"No, I actually think Molly is on the verge of a meltdown. Tilly wouldn't show her face to her if she's smart. Did you at least get to wish her a Happy Birthday? Piper asked Bailey and Polly.

"We didn't get that far, if looks could kill...," Polly said and left off.

"Question of the Day: Where is Tilly anyway?" Penelope asked out loud.

"Can you imagine if she was really being serious about doing manicures today, or even if she doesn't come at all?" Tessie said to the others.

"Hey look, I think I can see steam coming out of Molly's ears," Pauly said pointing. "No, never mind, that's just the trash can she is dumping the poop into."

"See you two later; it's time for the rest of us to start work." Penelope announced.
Chapter 24

Trinity greeted Penelope, Tessie, and Bailey at the customer service desk. "I promised six and here we are," Penelope said introducing Polly and Piper's two brothers, Pauly and Payne.

"Now where to put everybody, let me see...," Trinity thought out loud. "Let's do Polly and Bailey in the Girls Department; Pauly you take Electronics; Payne can do House wares and help out in Toys. Tessie, can you take the Boys Department? I think it would be better than Pets or Garden, because I don't expect any trouble in those departments. Penelope, you can be in Customer Service. I have extra staff in security already. Sound good?" Trinity asked. Everyone nodded their heads yes. "One more thing, there is going to be a mascot dog from the carnival in and out of the store, playing with the kids and taking photos with them. If any of you want a free picture, then go ahead and take one. The mascot dog is supposed to have a long, floppy tongue hanging out its mouth," Trinity finished. Each of the junior detectives was then given a hand-held radio so that they could communicate with each other and store security. They were given their own private channel as well. Payne wasted no time burping into the speaker to see how it sounded, while Polly ran to the bathroom and yelled whatever came to mind. The remaining members of the group could hear the echoes bounce off the walls.

The store opened at 9:00 am. It was going to be a busier day than usual because of the carnival. Payne took a quick look around the Toy Department, while he could, to see what was going to be available should they succeed. He was promised a cut by Penelope and Piper. Afterwards, he made his way to Housewares and saw a lady and her daughter shopping in the lamp aisle. "Hey ladies, how can I help you today?" Payne asked.

"Umm...you work here?" The Mother questioned.

"This name tag says so," Payne replied winking at the young girl about 7 years of age.

"We are looking for a 3-Way Brightness lamp for my Daughter's room," the Mom responded.

"There is a great choice over here and it even has a teddy bear on the lamp. How neat is that, ladies?" Payne said showing them a lamp that would be a good fit.

"Right, umm...how much is it? I don't see a price tag," the Mother said.

"Let's take a box over to the wall scanner and check it out," Payne said to the young girl, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Payne held the box up to the scanner and said, "Looks like it's $18.99, a great deal if you ask me. A beautiful lamp for an exquisitely pretty young lady," Pauly said to the girl.

The girl looked at her Mom and put the box in the cart. This boy was sure acting weird. She had never had a boy flirt with her before and she wasn't sure how to react. "Are you trying to come on to my daughter?" the mother asked.

Payne didn't lose a step, "Well, she sure is a hot little thing. Maybe later we can go to the carnival," Payne suggested.

"My daughter is 7 years-old, how old are you?" the mother asked.

"I'll be 7 years-old too in a few months, freckle-babe," Payne said as he reached out to touch the girl's cheek.

The girl knocked his hand out of the air. "Don't touch me," the girl said in a mean voice.

"Can I speak with the manager?" the mother asked.

Payne knew he was in trouble, how to get out of it? Payne bolted for the Toy Section to hide behind some large boxes, but didn't make it in time. The girl caught up to him and pulled his shoulder dragging him out from beside the boxes by the shirt. "My mom wants the Manager, creep!" the girl exclaimed loudly.

"Geez, what's your problem Princess Zilla?"

Pauly was working electronics when he glanced into the Toy aisle and saw Payne running away from some little girl. "Oh no, I hope he didn't do what I think he did," Pauly said out loud to himself. Pauly ran to the scene to find out what happened. "What's the problem?" Pauly asked.

"This boy tried to touch me and then ran away," the girl stated.

The girl's mother came stomping up to him getting in his face, "Now who are you?" she asked.

"His older brother," Pauly said.

"I want the Manager NOW!! What is going on here? A bunch of kids are working in this store," the mother yelled.

Pauly summoned Trinity on his radio. "The Manager will be right with you."

Trinity showed up about two minutes later to find a stand off in the Toy aisle. "What's the problem here?" she asked, surveying the situation.

"This boy here," the mother started pointing at Payne, "tried to touch my daughter.

Trinity looked at the little girl who was standing there clearly upset. "Payne, what happened?"

"I was helping them select a lamp. Then, I made the mistake of trying to secure a date with Princess Zilla there and she tried to slap me," Payne explained.

"Ma'am, I'm so sorry. Please follow me to the front of the store and I will give you a 40% discount. Does that sound reasonable?" Trinity asked.

"Actually yes, but can you tell me why you have kids working for you?" the mother asked.

"They are a part of the security team of the store," Trinity responded.

"Then, they should be keeping their hands to themselves," the mother said, glaring one last time at Payne. The little girl stuck her tongue out and followed her Mom.

"Little brother, you got a lot to learn about the female of the species" Pauly commented.

*****

Bailey and Polly were stocking the racks in the Girls Department. Everything was going smoothly, which was good. The girls were holding up training bras to their chests and prancing around like older, rich ladies. "Darling..., have you ever seen a more puhfect', beautiful piece of 'at'," Polly said playing the part.

"No, I've neva.' Would you like some more caviar," Bailey responded in character. Just then, the carnival mascot dog went skipping by with some kids following. The group of kids chased the mascot into the Girls Department and the young kids made a game of chasing the dog and cutting it off. The kids screamed and hollered having fun. Now, the dog made a break for it back to the main aisle, jogging just fast enough to stay out of reach. There was a floor machine parked in the main aisle of the Girls Department. This machine was used for waxing the floors and vacuuming large areas. It was left there from the previous night. The dog ran into the roadblock and cut left only to be tackled by a group of screaming toddlers. Bailey saw the floor machine in the way and thought to move it just a foot or less to the main floor of the store. She didn't want anyone to get hurt.

Bailey crawled up on the machine trying to figure out how it worked. Bailey flipped a starter switch and the machine roared to life. There was a gearshift type thingy in the middle. She moved the handle from P to D, figuring that D was Drive and that was how you made it go. Unfortunately D did mean Drive, but not in a slow speed. Before Bailey even knew what was happening, she cleared the main floor of the store and was in the Women's Department. Panicking, she turned hard to the right and knocked over a rack of clothes. The circular rack fell to the floor carrying all the clothes with it. The machine then careened off the metal rack, and went to the left into another rack. This rack was big and attached to shelving that fell forward almost hitting Bailey in the process. Folded women's underwear and lingerie fell onto the machine, burying Bailey in a pile of underclothes.

The machine was still moving forward as Bailey tried to swim out of the clothes to see where she was going. While she was doing that, the machine picked up speed. Where was the brake at, it didn't seem to have one. Bailey made the turn out of the Women's Department with thong underwear hanging by a string off each ear. Tessie saw Bailey's predicament and came running over from the Boys Department to help, diving onto the machine behind Bailey. They ventured together about 15 ft. before connecting with a case full of plastic jars of nacho cheese. Bailey hit the shelving and nacho cheese started landing on Tessie. Some of the jars broke open when they hit Tessie causing her to lose her grip and fall to the floor. As plastic bottles fell to the floor, their contents spilled over Tessie's head and body covering her in the thick orange cheese sauce. Tessie was very dizzy and became light-headed from all the hits to the head. She could only look on helplessly as Bailey maneuvered through the Pet Department.

Bailey managed to turn down an aisle, but found herself in a worse predicament. Pet aquariums loomed ahead at the end of the aisle. Bailey couldn't figure out how to stop. Fish, rats, mice, snakes, and lizards were all in the way of the machine. Bailey, not knowing what else to do, jumped off the machine and looked on in terror as the machine crashed into the glass aquariums of the rats, mice, lizards, and a large tank of Koi goldfish. The machine smashed glass and ran right into the wall where it came to a stop.

Water cascaded in a wave down the aisle. Six rats went scurrying by ahead of the water. The mice were left behind, but managed to find safety in another aisle. Five baby pythons were slithering all over the shelves and floor. Gecko lizards were running amok in all directions. Tessie came running up covered in nacho cheese sauce. Koi goldfish littered the floor flopping around in the throes of death. Tessie sensed their pain and ran to the goldfish to see which ones could be saved; most were too far gone to save. Tessie ran to the ones still flopping around, picked them up and didn't know what to do with them. She saw an empty bucket by a sink, ran to the sink, dropped the fish in the bucket, filled the bucket up with fresh water and set it to the side. However, two of the large orange and black Koi goldfish were floating on the surface of the water. Tessie quickly grabbed those two out, put them on the floor, and began CPR on the fish encouraging them to stay alive.

Penelope saw what had happened and heard the crash of glass far off in Pets. She ran from Customer Service all the way to the Pets Department to find Bailey on the floor lying in a pool of water surrounded by geckos and snakes trying to avoid the water. Bailey was screaming her head off, she hated snakes. Just then, about 20 mice, families and families of them, jumped up on the lower shelf and then jumped on Bailey to clear the water. Bailey rolled around on the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs, as the rats started using her as a bridge. Penelope saw the rats coming and ran toward Tessie who was giving mouth-to-mouth CPR to a Koi goldfish. It wasn't long after before all the Koi goldfish were floating dead on top of the water level in the bucket. Why? They were fine a minute ago. Penelope was taking no chances with the rats and went screaming by Tessie with the rats in hot pursuit trying to avoid the water and run from the snakes before they became dinner.

Trinity came running up and turned the machine off. She saw Tessie, covered in nacho cheese, doing CPR on the fish. Bailey was grabbing at the hair on top of her head and pulling mice and rats off her. Penelope had booked it two aisles over, climbed up on a middle height shelf, and was screaming her head off. It was total pandemonium! Before Trinity could take in the whole situation, her customers started screaming and running in all directions away from the rats and mice. She ran to help, leaving Tessie and Bailey behind and went running past a loudly screaming Penelope, who was lying on a middle shelf in the aisle Trinity went down. Control had ceased to exist!

Penelope shouted into her radio, pushing the emergency button, "All hands on deck! Mayday!! Mayday!! Pet Department. Polly, who had ran across the entire store to help Bailey, arrived with the mascot dog. Polly saw the rats and mice and went screaming bloody murder, in the opposite direction. Just as she got to the end of the aisle, a corn snake was slithering on one of the shelves by her. The snake saw her coming and stretched out its body. Polly slowed slightly to try to push it away. However, the snake landed on her shoulder and began coiling itself around her upper arm. The young girl, lost control of her bladder and started peeing her pants, while shaking her right arm violently, trying to get the snake off her. Polly didn't see the congealed puddle of nacho cheese on the floor in time, before she slipped and went heels over head backwards onto the ground. With the brunt force of the collision, her back hit the ground and hitting her head on the ground as well. Dizziness took over and everything faded away.

Pauly and Payne heard the distress call and ran to Pets. When they arrived, carnage and unrest was everywhere. Penelope was screaming from somewhere close by, and Bailey was on the floor, surrounded by two baby ball pythons on either side of her, pulling at mice that were no longer there. Tessie had given up CPR; she was now picking up goldfish, both large and small, off the floor. All the fish were dead. Tessie was crying and distraught, trying to figure out why all the fish were dying in the bucket. Then they saw Polly lying in a pool of nacho cheese unmoving. Payne ran to Polly, who was

knocked out cold, and tried to revive her. Pauly ran to the Housewares Section and grabbed a whole stack of large trashcans with wheels, dragging them back to the Pets Department. Pauly called out "Help! Please anyone, put all the rats and mice in these plastic cans," while throwing them all over the floor to separate them. Several of the customers began doing just that, mostly they were men, as all their wives and girlfriends had ran away to the front of the store.

Molly saw Piper receiving the distress call, waving her arm and yelling for Molly to drop everything. Molly threw everything down and ran to the gate of the petting zoo. She opened the gate, but forgot to close it all the way. The more agile goats, sensing panic in the air, started running for the gate after Molly. A couple goats made it out the gate, including a full-grown Billy Goat. Molly saw the big Billy Goat coming and looked on horrified at her mistake. All she could think to do in that instant was to jump on the goats back in hopes of slowing it down, but that didn't work. The goat was running for the front of the store. Molly saw Piper grab her backpack and run into the store, as the door was closing. Two rats came running out into the carnival scattering people everywhere. Molly held on tight to the goat's horns bracing herself on the goat's back. The automatic doors opened in front of her and suddenly Molly was in the store. The goat was chasing Piper down the main aisle. Both Piper and Molly saw the problems, which were mounting, at once. Payne was leaning over Polly who was bleeding from her head lying in a pool of reddening nacho cheese.

Penelope had gotten down off the shelf and ran away from Pets with a giant tarantula attached to her shirt. Both Molly and Piper heard Bailey screaming in one of the aisles and ran to her, only to find Bailey tearing off her shirt in absolute terror. She seemed to be trying to slap away any critters that were near her, including snakes, lizards, and the mice and rats that had already ran by.

Tessie got up from the floor and ran past the trio to reach Penelope, until a second tarantula stopped her in her tracks. Tessie screamed and hit the ground in spasmodic fright, tearing at her shirt to get it off, but the damage was done. Tessie had fallen on the tarantula, which, in turn, squished it, and now she had tarantula guts of every color on her shirt. She ripped her shirt off leaving just her undershirt on; at least it covered her chest area.

Molly held on tight to the goat and managed to turn into the aisle where Bailey was. When she reached Bailey, she tried to calm her down, and then saw the two slithering ball pythons advancing towards them. Molly screamed out loud in warning and tried to bat the snakes in another direction. Bailey was holding on to her, unaware that the snakes were coming towards her. Molly tried to get free, but could not. Molly, in her moment of terror, punched Bailey right in the face. Bailey, stunned, let go of Molly and watched Molly run out of the aisle. Bailey ran after her, but she was shirtless and didn't have the luxury of an undershirt because she was not growing there yet.

Piper dug in her backpack and took out her stun gun. She zapped the two snakes and some of the other loose critters and carried them all to the trashcans. She wasn't afraid of snakes, rats, mice, and gecko lizards. The carnival mascot came tearing down the aisle towards her and ran up to her screaming to help remove the head of the costume. Piper and the mascot pulled up together. The head came off and locks of blond curly hair tumbled down. "Tilly!!" Piper yelled.

"No time, where's Trinity?" Tilly asked.

"I don't know, but Penelope ran that way followed by Tessie, Molly, and Bailey," Piper stated loudly.

"Polly is hurt, she cracked her head open on the floor. Call 911 in case no one else has. I'm going after the others and Blue!" Tilly yelled out.

"Blue? What are you talking about," Piper yelled, but Tilly was gone. Piper noticed that Tilly had picked up a can of pepper spray. Piper looked around her in awe, everything was in shambles. Broken glass, water, dead fish, squished mice, and a flattened tarantula littered the floor. The only thing Piper could think to do was grab her stun gun and hunt down the loose animals with her brother, Pauly. She came across Polly, who had blood all over her clothes, and looked like a complete mess. At least she seemed past the wailing stage, even though she was still crying.

Payne was leaning over her holding a towel to the back of her head. He too was covered in blood from Polly's head wound. He removed his shirt, applied it to Polly's head, and put her head in his lap. He screamed at Piper to get some more towels. Piper dialed 911 and reported the situation to the dispatcher, also making a plea for animal control to come. While making the call, she made her way to Housewares, got more towels, and ran back to Payne and Polly. "Stay with her Payne, I got to go help, well, everyone else. Call on the radio if you need anything else. The ambulance is coming." Piper said, as she dashed off to find the others.

*****

Three of the smaller Billy Goats and two pigs entered the store in pursuit of Molly, while Big Daddy Billy Goat, Mr. Mann, was running around outside in the carnival catching the loose farm animals. The loose animals were not that hard to catch, mostly because they were slow. Years of being in a petting zoo, being fed constantly and laying around sleeping, had not done wonders for them in maintaining slim, agile footing.

Inside the store, the pigs and goats split up. The goats ran towards Molly and the Daddy goat. However, on the way to the Pets section, the Billy Goats ran into a big distraction; they came across an aisle of packaged cookies and chips. Smelling food through the packages, the Billy goats tore into them. Chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies began to litter the ground in various shapes and sizes while being munched on by the goats. One of the smaller goats located bags of spicy potato chips and started eating those. Big Daddy Billy Goat came around the corner bleating loudly in a jog. He jumped up to grab some cheese puffs from the middle shelf, and started snacking on those. The goat that was eating the spicy potato chips started to bleat loudly because his mouth was burning. The other smaller goats followed him as he went to look for liquid to cool his mouth down. He found the refreshment aisle and started head butting the shelves, and then his friends joined in the melee.

Meanwhile, the two pigs were oinking through the Jewelry Department and eventually came to cosmetics. Lipsticks of various shades were in easy reach as the pigs began to nose push them out of the spring-loaded shelves they were on. The pigs quickly figured out if they stepped on the lipsticks, the plastic casing on them broke. Since they were not as lucky as the goats in finding food, they began to eat the lipstick. Each pig had a multi-colored mouth of orange, black, red, purple and blue. After about two minutes of raiding the lipstick, the pigs began to feel not so good.

Across the store Big Daddy Billy Goat had now joined the goats in making some of the wine bottles crash open on the floor, followed by other alcohol-containing adult beverages. The goats collectively began to lick up the "sweet" tasting juice until their heads began to feel wobbly. Two of the smaller goats laid down not feeling so good anymore, and then rolled on their backs. One of the goats lying down had forgotten to put his tongue back in his mouth and it just lolled around the outside of his mouth. The remaining goats' bladders began to fill up and having no modesty, one goat started peeing on the floor. He took a few steps and found walking to be more difficult than he had imagined and lay down in the puddle of pee. The Big Daddy Billy Goat now began to feel the effects of the wine and started vomiting in the aisle. The three goats that were still awake began to follow suit. Soon, the whole aisle was covered in slop containing chewed up cookies, chips, and red wine.

The pigs had met their match, since lipstick is not edible. The pigs, on their full stomachs of pig food and lipstick, began to get diarrhea. However, they still had some left over energy to run. The two pigs took off together oinking loudly, charging customers who were unaware of their presence until it was too late. Two brothers, ages five and seven, were munching on slices of pizza when the pigs found them. Both boys started running away, screaming as loud as they could. As the two boys ran around the turn at the end of the aisle, they saw a tarantula skitter by in their path slowing them down. The pigs never put on the brakes, bowling the two young boys over and devouring the pizza right out of their hands. The pigs then dropped another load of diarrhea on the floor close to the boys. The resulting smell was horrific. The boys started gagging and expelling the contents of their stomachs.

The pigs ran on and came across the goats who were either passed out on the floor or unable to walk. The pigs tore into the remaining lakes of liquid, snorting and drinking up as much as they could. Then both pigs, simultaneously, dropped the biggest load of diarrhea yet on the floor and then decided they couldn't walk and began rolling in their own feces, mistaking it for mud. Mr. Mann found them all together, about 20 minutes later, all sleeping. He got two store carts that had been abandoned nearby and emptied them. He put the inebriated farm animals in the carts, pushed one in front of him, and pulled the other cart behind him. He couldn't believe the mess these animals had caused and went to exit the store and put them back in their pens.
Chapter 25

Bailey ran to the closest clothing section she could find, which happened to be Infants & Toddlers. She ran to the Toddler's section looking for the biggest shirt she could find. She found a 4T-sized shirt that said, "Finally Potty Trained, My Parents Almost Gave Up Hope," and pulled it on over her head. It was a tight fit, but the shirt at least covered her chest even though her stomach area remained exposed.

She turned her head towards the sound of screaming and saw Penelope running towards her in terror, followed by Tessie in her undershirt. What was happening here? Bailey ran toward Penelope, who was not slowing down. The tarantula was still on Penelope's shoulder hanging on tight. Bailey braced for impact, grabbing Penelope in mid-run across her chest and used the momentum of the collision to roll to the floor. Penelope went down in a heap on top of Bailey. Tessie high-jumped the pile and turned around and grabbed Penelope. Both Bailey and Tessie held her until she came to her senses. The tarantula had scurried off on contact with Bailey. Penelope was hyperventilating and sobbing uncontrollably. Bailey screamed at her, "Penelope!! Penny, Penny, it's gone; it's not on you anymore! Get a grip! Calm Down, Penny!"

Penny looked at Bailey, then at Tessie, finally coming back to reality. Bailey spoke up first, grabbing Penelope's shoulders, "Penny, Polly is hurt, she cracked her head on the floor!" Penelope stared wide-eyed at Bailey, "Oh my God!! Where is she? My baby sister!" Bailey led Tessie and Penelope over to Payne who was consoling Polly as best as he could. Polly was crying steadily, but not screaming. Penelope ran to her sister, "Polly, Polly what happened?"

"She slipped on nacho cheese sauce and fell backward," Payne explained.

"Penelope, stay with her and Payne. Bailey and I need to go find the others," Tessie said.

"Piper called 911, help is coming," Payne told the group. The next moment, Bailey and Tessie were off running.

*****

Molly ran to the other side of the store before she calmed down. Did she really just smack Bailey? It was quiet in this part of the store. Where was she? Looked like Electronics, sort of anyway. She saw an older boy with three girls in one of the aisles. She went over to them, "Hi, excuse me, have you seen anybody running by here? Molly asked. The girls, who all looked middle school age, were just staring at her and the boy paid no attention to her; something was wrong here. "Are you ok?" Molly asked. One of the girls shook her head no. The name on her jacket appeared to be Chelsea. In fact, all the girls wore nylon windbreaker jackets with their names on them. "What's wrong?" Molly asked.

"Why don't you mind your own business, pigtails," the boy said menacingly.

Wait! That voice! Then Molly looked at the boy more intensely. "Blue?" Molly said.

"How do you know my name?" Blue asked Molly, and then looked at the girls that were with him. "How does this ugly little Chihuahua know my name?"

The girls, who all looked to be cheerleaders, shrugged their shoulders but still said nothing. Finally, a girl named Haley spoke up, "Where is your friend, Tilly?"

"Tilly? I don't know, is she here?" Molly asked.

"You slimy wenches know Tilly?" Blue yelled.

"Hey, watch your mouth bucko, or I will cram your teeth down your throat, you jerk!" Molly yelled back.

"Oh please, I'm so scared," Blue said feigning terror.

Molly ran to a nearby sales counter and grabbed a selfie stick, holding it like a baseball bat. "You wanna' try me, sucker," Molly said stepping up to Blue.

"You wouldn't dare," Blue challenged.

"Stephen King movie, Misery, and I quote, "Trust me, it's for the best," Molly said as she swung the stick at Blue's left knee. "I'm one crazy, lunatic kid," Molly said, after she made impact.

Blue fell in a heap groaning, his knee feeling broken. The girl had hit the side of his knee. He tried to stand up and found that he couldn't put any weight on it. The cheerleaders looked on in shock at the turn of events.

"Happy Birthday to me," Molly proclaimed as she climbed onto Blue's chest and sat down. Only then, did she pull out her radio on her waist and press the emergency button. "Molly here, I got Blue in custody. Hurry to Electronics, over."

Piper heard the call and raced to electronics to find Molly sitting on top of a boy who looked like Blue. "How in the heck, Piper thought to herself as she took in the situation. Some middle school girls stood off to the side. "What happened?" Piper asked.

One of the girls, Kingsley, spoke up, "This little girl here knocked him down with a selfie stick. I have never in my whole entire life seen anything like that before." Piper pulled out some zip ties from her backpack and secured Blue's ankles. Bailey and Tessie came running up to help, or so Piper thought. Tessie rolled Blue over and secured his wrists behind his back. Bailey had shoved Molly hard from behind, almost knocking her over and now they were arguing.

Just then, Tilly arrived in the dog suit. Bailey, Molly, Tessie, and all three cheerleaders had a look of surprise on their faces. Tilly said to the cheerleaders, "Thanks for your help, girls. I'm super sorry it took so long to get here, but in case you hadn't noticed, the store is in pandemonium right now."

"Tilly, what are you doing here?" Tessie exclaimed hugging Tilly. "I thought you had Saturday school."

"I got it switched to next weekend," Tilly said. Bailey and Molly ignored Tilly and the rest of the group and were now shoving, slapping, and pulling each other's hair. Bailey had the clear advantage, she was slapping while Molly was doing all the shoving.

Piper jumped in between them. "What's gotten into you two?" Piper yelled.

"She hit me first back in Pets," Bailey accused.

"It was an accident. The snakes were going to get me and you wouldn't let go," Molly accused back.

"You didn't have to hit me," Bailey glared.

"Ok, stop it both of you! We have more important things to worry about. Polly is hurt really bad. Trinity is very upset, she may fire us so it's a good thing we got Blue. There is lots of damage to the merchandise racks, animals are dead, need I go on, girls? This is serious! We need to band together; I will explain everything later. I'm sorry you had to pick up horse doo-doo, Molly. Piper, you look really cute dressed as a Brownie Scout. By the way, I know you hate it but it was all for good reasons. A huge amount of thanks go to Chelsea, Haley, and Kingsley for keeping Blue occupied allot longer than I thought it would take. Payne and Penelope are with Polly and the paramedics and Pauly is catching rodents. Now, what happened to Blue?" Tilly asked after finishing her speech.

"Molly hit him," Piper volunteered.

"Oh no, who hit who first?" Tilly asked.

"I hit him with the selfie stick in the knee because he said he wanted to try me," Molly said, as if everyone would understand that as a good reason. She thought everyone would be happy with her for single-handedly catching Blue.

"Molly! Did you learn nothing from before! Remember Cal? Remember Brandon? That's assault, Molly! You got us all in hot water!" Tilly screamed. Bailey took another shot at Molly, but missed. "Enough, you two! Give it a rest or I'm hurting you both," Tilly reprimanded.

Both girls immediately stopped. This was going to have to be put off until later, as the two girls glared at each other. "Now, get up Blue!" Tilly said reaching to get him on his feet with Tessie helping.

"I can't put any weight on my leg," Blue said.

Tilly covered her face in her hands and then looked each girl in the eye. Tilly needed time to figure out how to resolve this. Tilly walked away to find Trinity. "Leave me alone, for now," Tilly said over her shoulder.
Chapter 26

Penelope watched as they secured Polly to the stretcher. She had already called her Mom & Dad to let them know. Her Mom was going to ride in the ambulance to the hospital, while their Dad drove there. Since Polly's injury was not life threatening, and was just going to need some stitches, Penelope elected to join up with her family at the hospital later after she and her friends helped clean up the huge mess. Everything that could go wrong today did. Penelope was supposed to be in charge but when the rats and mice got loose, she had panicked just like the rest of them; some leader she was. Tilly had made her appearance in a dog costume. Penelope knew Tilly would find a way to be here, you could never in your life count her out. "I love you baby sister. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me most," Penelope said teary-eyed to Polly.

"It's not your fault, everything went bad today," Polly responded.

As Polly was being led away, Tilly came back to see her and Payne. "Good news, we caught Blue. Bad news, Molly assaulted him with a selfie stick and Trinity may withhold our payment to pay for the damage to her store from Bailey's wild ride," Tilly summarized. Tilly started to lose her cool just a little, her voice took on an edge that made Penelope step back and prepare for the 'Tilly Tantrum.' "And, that's not all; Bailey and Molly are bickering because Molly punched Bailey in all the confusion. Bailey has already smacked her several times and Molly keeps shoving her back. Tessie killed a tarantula that was native to, like Mexico or something, and all the Koi goldfish, even the ones that were still alive after Bailey hit the aquariums. Apparently, Payne romanced a little girl and tried to touch her, until she slapped his hand away from her face. Trinity had to give the mother a 40% discount," Tilly recounted for Penelope in frustration. Penelope made a move to stop her before Tilly completely lost it.

"O' No, sweetheart, I'm not done yet. Also, Molly rode a goat into the store, and the goat and his friends knocked off about 15 bags of chips and at least that many packages of cookies. Trinity is holding me responsible for almost beating up that horrid Mom last week, she had to give that lady a 75% discount ON HER ENTIRE PURCHASE! Polly cracked her head, as you know. Blue probably has a serious injury to his knee, a fractured kneecap most likely, and Trinity's insurance has to pay for BOTH OF THEM! This may go down as the worst completed job we ever had and we might be the one's having to PAY TRINITY BACK!!" Tilly finished. "Any questions, BOSS?" Tilly asked Penelope in sarcasm.

"I guess we better go talk to Trinity then," Penelope answered sullenly.

"You mean you don't want to take ALL the responsibility, you were in charge today, what happened Penelope?" Tilly asked very upset.

"Tilly, don't start! It's not like you were around helping us or anything, you got to play in a dog costume!" Penelope said, responding to the challenge.

"Everyone wants to be the damn chief. I will go handle it myself with Trinity and save all our butts, yet again. I hear one bossy princess comment out of any of you, that girl can look for a new job!" Tilly yelled, fists clenched at her sides as she walked away.

"Whatever," Penelope said.

"So now Molly and Bailey are bickering. Now Tilly want's to blame me for today." Penelope said out loud to Payne.

Payne had stood by silently watching Tilly and Penelope, now he made his presence known. "Forget Tilly, let's go find the others."

Penelope and Payne found everyone in the Women's Department picking up clothes off the floor. The Police had taken Blue away in handcuffs, now everyone except Tilly was pitching in to help, even the cheerleaders. Penelope didn't know the role they played until she introduced herself to Haley and Kingsley. "Tilly called me last night and asked me to meet this boy at the carnival," Kingsley said.

"Then, Kingsley called me and Chelsea for back-up, because that's what Tilly wanted," Haley added.

"We were supposed to be his 'date' for the day, which we were. Then we were supposed to meet up with Tilly, who was going to dress up in a dog costume, and a photographer, who was actually a police officer named Haz NoKlue, who was to arrest Blue. As you can see, it didn't work out that way," Kingsley said.

"Everything went crazy in the store and then Blue wanted to steal a few things which forced us to stay with him," Haley added once again.

"And then, Molly came and got into it with Blue, smacking him hard on the side of the knee with a selfie stick," Kingsley finished.

"So that was Tilly's big plan then," Penelope said to her crew. Penelope could not stop thinking about her baby sister, and started to become teary-eyed.

"What's wrong, Penny?" Piper asked.

"My sister is the one who got hurt the most, and all Tilly wants to do is blame me for all the mess-ups that happened today," Penelope explained.

"I killed the rare tarantula and all the Koi's and smaller goldfish, that's not your fault," Tessie spoke up.

"I rode the goat in the store that ate all the chips and cookies with his friends," Molly said.

"I tried to get a date from psycho girl," Payne said.

"At least, we caught all the snakes and lizards, and most of the mice and rats," Pauly said.

"How is any of that your fault?" Piper asked. "If it hadn't been for Pauly, it would have been a whole lot worse, but still not your fault."

"Just say it you guys, it's my entire fault, and I caused all the damage to the store. I was only trying to help and I got my best friend hurt...," Bailey said, starting to cry.

Piper and Tessie went over to Bailey to hug and console her. "Bailey, she was my little sister, so if anyone should be mad, it should be me. Accidents happen, we didn't know Tilly's grand scheme. I think we all did a good job, maybe not great...," Penelope said trailing off. She stood up and addressed everyone trying to be the voice of reason, "We might have to forgo our payment, but we still have each other. We all know how 'hot-headed' Tilly is, she will calm down. Now Molly, you have no room to gloat either, you went over the line and that will cost us as much as anything anyone of us did," Penelope finished.

"I'm really sorry guys and I'm sorry for punching you Bailey, but the snakes...scared me," Molly said starting to cry. "I thought you all would really be happy with me for catching Blue."

"We will just have to wait for Tilly's report. She is talking to Trinity now," Penelope said.
Chapter 27

"Ok, maybe you are not understanding the severity of the situation," Trinity said as Tilly rebuffed her yet again. Tilly had been arguing back and forth with Trinity for about 10 minutes now as to why she and her crew deserved full payment, since all four shop-lifters had been identified, three of which were paying restitution to the store. Tilly's argument further stated that if the store was without the services of Tinkertot-Peachbottom, Trinity wouldn't even have seen any restitution.

"Let me show you the cameras," Trinity said and turned on today's video. "Exhibit A, here's Payne upsetting the mother and daughter today. Here he reaches for her face and she slaps his hand. Now an argument breaks out and here comes Pauly to the rescue. I had to give that lady a 40% discount on the lamp," Trinity said.

"THAT she still bought even after her daughter and her were supposedly offended," Tilly pointed out.

"Exhibit B, here's Bailey and Polly in the Girls Department goofing around immaturely with bras. Here you come with a bunch of screaming toddlers running around like crazy. Bailey, for no reason whatsoever, hops on the floor machine and she's off across the Women's Department. Here she knocks over a rack, then a shelf of women's undergarments. Then, she clears that department, almost hits a customer right there, and then knocks over about $500.00 of nacho cheese sauce. She somehow manages to turn into the pet aisle, now she gets scared and jumps off and just where is Tessie in all this you ask. She goes running to help Bailey, as she makes her way across the store and then dives on to the machine until 5 lb. containers start falling on her head and she ungracefully falls to the floor in a puddle of nacho cheese. Here is the good part, she gets up completely disoriented...," Trinity said before Tilly cut in.

"Yes, not to worry, she's doing fine, not hurt at all. Thanks for asking," Tilly said. Ms. Hudson couldn't have cared less if anyone was hurt at this point, it seemed to Tilly.

"Tessie runs to Pets and by golly starts kissing fish of all things. Then, she gets a bucket, fills it with water, puts NO dechlorinator in the water, which in turn kills ALL the fish. I mean that's just a dumb move. Is your friend, Tessie, this dumb all the time?" Trinity asked mockingly.

"LOOK Ms. Hudson, Tessie isn't stupid! Don't ever let me hear that again. She just wasn't thinking in the panic of the moment," Tilly corrected.

"Exhibit C, here is Molly riding a goat into the store, a health code violation by the way, and what does she do but jumps off of him and he goes and destroys bags of chips and cookies with his friends. O' now look, we got pigs in the makeup aisle, eating lipstick. This is the part that gets really good. Tessie flattens a rare species of tarantula by falling on it and THEN rips her shirt off. Molly right here punches Bailey and the next thing you see, Bailey is ripping her shirt off. Now mind you, there are kids in the store...," Trinity said.

"What could they possibly have seen? Bailey's as flat chested as a pane of glass is smooth," Tilly quickly countered.

"Tessie isn't! Now she's running amuck in the store in only her undershirt, which only covers her chest not her stomach,"

"Well Thank God for undershirts. Let's move on," Tilly said.

"The goats are now joining up with the pigs and low and behold, my sweetie, the wine they are drinking is not agreeing with them...who would have thought that?" Trinity asks sarcastically. Now the pigs are destroying product and the goats are taking a dump in my store, along with the pigs. Moving forward a bit, Molly sees Blue, words are exchanged, then, with no provocation whatsoever, she plays baseball with his knee. That little girl is unstable, Tilly," Trinity said.

"I'm sure Blue was not 100% innocent," Tilly said looking on.

"I love this part. She sits on top of him like a lioness over her kill until Piper arrests him," Trinity finished.

"Ok, but you are forgetting a few things,"

"Like what?" Trinity asked heatedly.

"Piper and Pauly helping to collect the escaped animals, for one. Pauly enlisting the help of the public to prevent a catastrophe. Polly getting hurt, Blue wasn't the only one, miss. One of my crew was hurt, regardless of how the cheese spilled. You should have immediately secured the area with signs or something. Instead you run to Pets, of all places, where the shiznit has already HAPPENED," Tilly explained.

"Don't tell me how to do my job," Trinity warned.

"Our contract states that if we catch all the shoplifters within three weeks, my crew is owed $3,200.00, we should get that money. We caught all of them and 3 of the 4 are currently paying restitution to you."

"I have at least that much in damages to my store, two injuries I now have to report to insurance to pay for their medical care, and all of the food those animals ate, not to mention the MESS THEY LEFT BEHIND!!" Trinity yelled. "I run a business, Ms. Tinkertot. Your crew of girls has cost me dearly. Now you are telling me to eat the cost and pay you your money. I don't think so. In addition, what about last week when you wanted to fight somebody's MOTHER FOR GOD'S SAKE, that cost me money too! Now you tell me, WHERE IS MY MONEY?" Trinity yelled.

"You know, I actually thought you were pretty cool, sic even. Now I see that you are a money grubbing wench, trying to rip off a bunch of hard-working young people. I hope you feel good about yourself Ms. Hudson," Tilly said as mildly as she could.

"Here, take $400.00 and get out of my store! Don't come in here again expecting any more handouts, NOW GET OUT!" Trinity yelled.

"No! I'm not leaving until you stop being a miser and pay us our money," Tilly said standing firm. "I have been respectful and nice to you. I have listened politely, not interrupted you during all your accusations, in fact, you are starting to upset me," Tilly warned.

"Fine then, I'm calling security and you can meet your friends outside," Trinity said picking up her radio.

"You don't want to do that. I have connections and we will boycott your store and embarrass you for taking advantage of youth," Tilly stated.

"Security! To my office NOW!! Also, I will need an escort for the entire group of Tinkertot-Peachbottom Detectives out of the store."

"You money grubbing wench! How dare you cheat me and my girls!" Tilly yelled.

"You girls are nothing but a destructive force! Afraid of mice and rats, most of you anyway. Some detectives you girls are," Trinity said sarcastically. "I'm sorry I EVER hired your agency. Thankfully, I didn't hire you as security guards, you ALL would have muffed that up, too"

"DON'T EVER CALL US AGAIN!!" Tilly yelled stomping her feet. "I DON'T CARE what's happening at your store. GOODBYE!! I can see myself out." Tilly said walking to the office door as security made its way into the hallway. "DON'T TOUCH ME!! I'M GOING!!" Tilly screamed. The guards followed her out of the store.
Chapter 28

The rest of crew was picking up clothing when security guards came to escort them out. "It must not have gone well," Tessie laughed.

"Geez, what did Tilly say," Piper laughed along.

"Or do," Tessie said.

The security guards were attempting to be courteous. "Come with us peacefully and nothing will happen. Your friend Tilly is also being escorted outside the store," one of the guards said.

"We better go then. Tilly will not go easily, but why did she not tell us anything. Does this mean we are free to cause a little havoc ourselves on the way out? I wonder if that is what Tilly is expecting us to do." Penelope said to the others with a mischievous smile on her face.

"You didn't pay Tilly our money, did you?" Molly asked.

"She was paid in full, minus damages," the guard informed them.

"We'll see about that," Piper said.

The guards escorted the young girl detectives to the front, along with the Central Junior High School cheerleaders and Pipers brothers, Pauly and Payne. When Penelope, Piper, Tessie, Molly and Bailey all saw Tilly outside, Tilly just shook her head "no", which was code for don't do anything stupid. At that point, nobody made any moves to cause more damage.

"We got $400.00 girls for 12 people, including the cheerleaders. We got robbed. I'm sorry; there was nothing I could do, today anyway. She wasn't going to pay us anything. This isn't over." Tilly said seething. "I'm giving up my share of the money," Tilly said.

"Since I caused all the damage, I'm giving mine up too," Bailey seconded.

"I killed the fish and the fat, rare tarantula, I give up mine too," Tessie joined in.

"If you aren't taking your share Tilly, then neither am I. It wouldn't be right," Piper said.

"All I wanted...was a birthday party, but since Trinity the tightwad won't pay us the right way, you can have mine too," Molly said.

Tilly suggested that the ones who should get the money were Piper, Pauly, Payne, Polly, Penelope's sister, and the cheerleaders. "Then, it's split 7 ways," Tilly said.

"None of us are taking any money, Tilly," Haley said.

"Neither are we," Pauly said.

"Polly would agree with no money, if she was here," Penelope offered.

"Well, I'm not leaving the money for this wench. We will put it in the General Fund towards our next mission," Tilly stated. Everyone nodded in agreement with this idea.

Tilly and Molly rode home together. Molly used Penelope's phone to call her dad and he okayed the change in plans. The cheerleaders went their separate ways and Tilly and her crew rode home. Bailey took her soapbox car, Piper on her skateboard and Tessie, Penelope and Piper's brothers on their bikes. Pauly volunteered to take Polly's bike and rode home holding her bike while steering his own. They all look haggard. Tessie with dried up nacho cheese in her hair. Bailey had a toddler's shirt on, belly showing. Tessie had her undershirt on. Molly, with only one pigtail in place and her clothes all stretched out, rode with Tilly Piper had the Brownie uniform on, still dressed as a Girl Scout. Penelope still looked ok, but she was very tired and just wanted to go home. They all wondered what would happen next. Summer was coming. Only one more week of school and detention time. Molly somehow, someway, would get a birthday party; but for now, they all had to swallow the bitter pill.

Tilly stopped in the park and had everyone follow her in. "I just want to say that I'm proud of all of you, despite the outcome. Penelope, I left you in charge really without even telling you and you came through. You did a great job of organizing everyone. I love you, Piper, thank you for helping your brother, Pauly, clean up the mess. Payne too, thank you so much for watching over Polly when things went haywire," Tilly stated.

"Yes, thank you," Penelope seconded.

Tilly continued, "Tessie remember that chlorine kills fish and I'm not sure if a fish can be helped with CPR, but thank you for all your help this past week. You are the only one who escaped discipline, but the nacho cheese looks great stuck in your hair. Bailey, you are an integral part of this group. This mission...did not go according to plan...at all. However, we win together and lose together, as a team. We all love you, Bailey. Molly, temper, temper, little girl. You are the cutest little bug in the group, but the most explosive as well. You do things NO other six year-old girl does. Think more before you act, please, and Happy 6th Birthday. You are a true princess in this group," Tilly finished.

"Tilly, thank you for fighting for us. Thank you for your planning, even when we get left in the dark. We could never doubt you, EVER. You always have our best interests. We love you, Tilly. You are totally irreplaceable," Penelope spoke up for the group.

"I'm sorry, I blamed you girls, especially you Penelope. It's not your fault. Hands in everyone," Tilly motioned. Everyone put their hands in the circle. "1-2-3-GIRLS RULE!!! Pauly and Payne, too," Tilly added.

"Let's go home and get ready for a summer none of us can ever forget," Piper said.

"Is that an omen?" Tessie asked. They all hugged and laughed together as best friends.
Chapter 29

The following day, the Channel 1 News Crew stopped by The Palace to get the story from Trinity on "The Black Aces." Trinity addressed the camera crew, "I really owe it to my security team who did a great job in apprehending the shoplifters. All of the shoplifters, who are 12 or under, are paying restitution to the store and we hope to move on from this incident," Trinity stated.

"Is it true that the local detective group, Tinkertot-Peachbottom, assisted you in the arrests of the minors involved?" the news reporter asked.

"They did not play a large role in the capture of this group, 'The Black Aces." However, an enormous amount of damage was incurred to the store, as a result of their carelessness and lack of responsibility," Trinity said.

"Would you use them again or recommend the services of these young girls, in the future to others?" the news reporter asked.

"No. Just No, I would not," Trinity stated.

"Thank you. Brett and Kathy, back to you in the studio."

*****

"That trashy-dressed witch, how dare she say that!" Tilly proclaimed.

Piper placed the call directly to the Channel 1 News Studio, identified herself and her role in Tinkertot-Peachbottom, and said that there was a lot more to the story and that her agency would like to have a news conference at Tilly Tinkertot's house in time for the 6:00 pm news. Tilly texted the whole group of detectives, Molly, Bailey, Penelope, and Tessie telling them to come to her house to record the news conference. Piper was already there with Tilly, as they were giving each other mani-pedis. Piper and Tilly set up a long table that was in the garage on the front lawn. They also pulled out an old speaker that still worked and set that up a little ways from the table for sound and then connected a karaoke microphone to the stereo.

The crew of detectives all met up about 1 hour later and then just after the news crew showed up to record the conference. Since only one person could talk at a time, the other girls would stand to the side of or behind Tilly. Tilly was in her element having just curled her hair to look her very best and putting on a hairband with a big pink bow on it. She dressed in a pink polka-dot white sundress soaking up the attention. "Thank you for coming out today," Tilly began. The street was practically empty at this time with only the one news crew in attendance, which was a bit ironic. The neighbor across the street, whose shorts were too big for his waist and falling down, was bending over vacuuming out his car. The sound of the vacuum began to fill the air echoing off the solid houses.

The girls all clamored for position behind Tilly, wanting to get on TV too. "Trinity Hudson is a fraud! She did not fulfill her end of the contract and currently owes us $2,800.00 for our services per our agreement with her," Tilly stated. Piper couldn't help herself any longer and waved to the would-be TV audience. Not to be outdone, Bailey began to twirl her head making her hair fly around her head and played the air guitar.

"It is because of our agency that Ms. Hudson is even getting restitution from "The Black Aces," Tilly continued. Penelope also began hamming it up for the TV audience by making faces, blowing her cheeks out and holding her breath turning all sorts of shades of red. Molly had taken to purposefully picking her nose and pretending to eat the contents off her finger.

"We have a 100% success rate in our business, that speaks for itself. Most of our cases are wrapped up in about a week on average, and that's with going to school," Tilly said proudly. All of a sudden, a whoopee cushion made its appearance and was deflated letting out a grotesque farting sound behind Tilly. Tilly, who was unaware of what her crew was doing behind her back, tried to keep a straight face. However, all the girls behind her were now waving their hands in front of their faces, as if it stunk badly. Just then, a flock of sparrows flew overhead and decided they wanted to be on TV too. About 50 birds dive-bombed Tessie, their friend, at once causing her to fall to the ground. All the birds began chirping loudly in chorus with each other.

"We ask that you boycott The Palace and don't buy ANYTHING there until Trinity Hudson pays us what we are owed," Tilly finished. Penelope came up next, but the whoopee cushion went off again causing Molly to check Bailey's pants in the back and pointing to Bailey's backside, all the while, plugging her nose. Then Tabby came out of the house...

The girls were goofing off and sat down at the table because Penelope was laughing too hard and couldn't talk. Tabby seized the moment, lifted the microphone from in front of Penelope, shoved Penelope off the chair, and faced the camera. "My sister and her friends are stupid," Tabby began. Not sure what the news conference was even about, Tabby continued, "I would like to say hi to my sweetie-pie, Jeremy. He is really cute and I hope to marry him someday," Tabby said.

"Tabby! You moron, this is my news conference. Nobody gives a rats butt about you and your boyfriend," Tilly said, while trying to shove Tabby out of the chair. The birds that flocked to Tessie began attacking Tabby and pooping on her. Tilly almost had the chair tilted enough, but Tabby was hanging on tight.

Piper took over the conference, now standing in front of the table. "As Tilly was saying, we deserve our money! We worked really hard on this case," Piper said. Behind Piper, Bailey was now playing robot with Molly and Penelope had found the whoopee cushion and was deflating it slowly behind Piper. Everyone burst out laughing, except Tilly and Tabby who were too busy giving "face washes" to each other with dirty hands. Tabby was still hanging on to the chair somehow, and Tilly couldn't spill her out of it.

"Get out of my chair! You're ruining my moment, you stupid cow!" Tilly yelled at Tabby.

Tabby responded by putting Tilly in a headlock and hitting her head on the table. Tilly grabbed the neckline of Tabby's shirt and pulled down exposing Tabby's bra. "You little witch, let go or I'm really going to hurt you," Tabby responded. All the girls keyed in on Tilly and Tabby trading physicalities and slapping each other and went to help their friend, Tilly. Molly crawled up on the table and elbowed Tabby in the head and Bailey began pulling Tabby's hair. Piper now took the other side and began pulling Tabby, while Tilly tried pushing Tabby off the chair.

Tessie was instructing the sparrows to dive bomb Tabby, which they were now taking hard shots at doing. Penelope ran to the water hose and turned it on. The spray gun at the end became her weapon as she doused Tabby in water, but water also got on Tilly and Piper soaking their clothes. Tabby, finally, went over towards Piper, who was pulling her to the side, and fell to the ground. Since Tilly didn't let go of her in time, she ended up dropping on top of Tabby causing the news crew to have to edit out the part of Tilly landing on Tabby in her sundress. Tabby struggled to her feet and was now trying to drag Tilly around the yard by her feet. Tilly was screaming her head off in an embarrassing rage trying to keep her dress over her legs. Molly saw her opportunity to help and jumped on Tabby's back along with Tessie. Tessie knocked Tabby for a loop upside her head, after hearing the mean things that Tabby had said about her.

"Do I look potty-trained to you?" Molly screamed at Tabby. The Tinkertot's came running out to separate the combatants. The news conference, which was being taped anyway, was stopped.

Unfortunately for Tilly and her friends, the whole riot along with Tilly's wardrobe mishap, which was edited out, went on the news. This resulted in confirming Trinity's negative comments the day before and created bad press for Tilly. Tilly blamed Tabby for the whole mess. Tabby blamed Tilly and her friends for acting like goofballs in the first place and wanted a rematch with Tessie who had "clocked" her pretty good. Tilly wondered why her friends did not want to act mature, when it mattered most, but was glad they had her back. What did everyone expect from 6-13 year-olds though? Girls did like to have fun after all.

Summer was only just beginning...
Epilogue \- 8 days later, 2 Sundays later

Molly's Sixth Birthday Party

The guests had all arrived bringing gifts both big and small. The birthday girl had yet to make an appearance. Bailey and Tessie were off in one corner of the yard petting the new puppy that the Mustardspice Family had bought for Molly. It was an English Bulldog, perfect for Molly's personality, even though it drooled a lot. Polly's head was still bandaged making her look like a female swami. All her hair had been shaved off in order for the emergency room doctors to close the wound. She sat amongst a group of kids and adults recounting her story of what happened that day at The Palace. Piper, acting as a Drill Sergeant, was off leading a small exercise group with her brothers, Pauly and Payne,

Penelope and Tilly stood together waiting for the right moment to make a speech and introduce the birthday girl, who would now be blessed with more toothpicks than any 6 year-old girl could possibly need. A package of toothpicks of varying kinds and flavors were tied to many of the gifts. It was time for Penelope and Tilly to make their speech. They both stood up on one of the picnic tables and got everyone's attention.

Penelope did the honors of starting to speak first. "Thank you everyone for coming today to wish our best friend, Molly Mustardspice, a happy birthday. As most of the parents know, our last mission didn't quite go according to plan. Even though we solved the crime, small damages were incurred) in the process."

Then Tilly started in. "We ask you to boycott The Palace and do your shopping somewhere else. Trinity Hudson is a false friend and fraud. Despite all we did, our payment was withheld. This matter will be taken to small claims court in the very near future. THIS ISN'T OVER!!" Tilly yelled.

"NOT EVEN CLOSE!!" Penelope yelled joining in.

"I, personally, would like to thank all the parents of our group for letting us be girls. I know sometimes we get in trouble together, sometimes messes are made, charges get filed, ... against me mostly," Tilly laughed. "You parents are the reason why we are allowed to do what we do. Now, without further ado, your birthday queen, princess, firecracker, pig-tailed sweetheart, the cutest girl in our group. However, you might know her as, LITTLE MISS I DON'T TRY ANYTHING, I JUST DO IT. MOLLY MUSTARDSPICE!!" The song "Thunder Kiss '65 filled the air as Molly made her way to the party, dressed in a yellow sundress and her signature yellow sunglasses. "Wanna' try me?" the song sang out. Molly was welcomed with a group hug from all the detectives.

The school year was over, the detentions and Tilly's Saturday School had been served, and the "Black Aces" were no longer in business. They had been shut down and were paying restitution for their crimes.

THE END - BOOK 3 IS ON THE WAY
C O M I N G 2 0 1 8

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS TESSIE TEAGARDEN?

Book 3 of the Tinkertot-Peachbottom Adventure Series

While chasing a small-time crook in Newport Vista Beach, called "The Pocketbook Runaway," Tilly Tinkertot and her crew lose one of their own members, Tessie Teagarden, after she chases the crook onto a departing cargo ship, the SS Nau-Sea. After unsuccessfully trying to stop the cargo ship from leaving port with Tessie on it, Tessie is off to parts unknown.

As family and friends count the days, Tessie gets farther and farther away. However, is Tessie's situation really as bad as it seems? Or is she just forced to go along for the ride until the ship reaches its destination? With a villainous ship captain, Captain Banks, and co-captain, Asst. Captain Sanderson, hindering her every move, and a helpful, sympathetic crew enabling her every move, will Tessie ever see her family and friends again? Maybe her under-the-sea friends can save the day. No matter what, Tessie is about to embark on a globetrotting adventure that she and everyone she knows will never forget!

ALSO:

-Will Pauly give Bailey her first kiss.

\- Will Trinity Hudson be forced to pay the junior detectives the rest of their money?

\- Does the boycott end?

\- The two Tinkertot sisters, Tilly and Tabby, may never forgive each other, but will they be forced to work together to solve the next case that comes up?
Acknowledgements:

Thank you to the mountain community of Blue Jay, California, where the Tinkertot-Peachbottom Detectives call home, for allowing me to take liberties with your great city. There is no Lake Blue Jay. It would be great if there were, though. To the Strawberry Peak Fire Lookout Station, near Running Springs, CA, thank you for all your hard, yet boring, work everyday in keeping the mountain communities safe. I may never be the same again after climbing up, and especially down, those near vertical stairs that my kids accomplished in 15 seconds, whereas I took 15 minutes, at least, to accomplish..

To all the individuals who gave me notebook paper whenever an idea struck me suddenly, this book may have not turned out as well if you had said "No." To the real Cal and Blue, who two of the characters are based on, thank you so much for being the blockheads you are. So much so, that I had to write villainous characters with just your first names, last names changed for obvious reasons. Also to the person, who without your actions, my writing career may never have gotten started. Never before have I had so much ambition to finish something so badly.

To all the people who believed in me in the right way, to do the right thing, thank you for your encouragement.

Other books by Jack Littleton in the Tinkertot-Peachbottom Adventure Series

Book 1 - The Rag Tags
