A/N: I know. I'm a terrible updater.

"Max, this doesn't look right," Ella commented. I stepped off the bus behind her and barely managed to stop myself from crashing into her. She was rooted to the concrete, in the middle of the bus stand, not allowing people to board.

I shoved her toward the footpath, away from the crowd then took in the area around us. Not far to our left stood a building with a familiar blue logo. Well that's not obvious, I thought.

"The FakeBI set up patrols near all banks remember… apparently that was for night and day," I told her.

Several personal, dressed in crisp black collar shirts and pants, littered the street. And as we headed toward the mall, at least three patrols leeched their eyes onto us. The School really had resources on their side. And yet two teenagers and a preteen were a threat to them? I wonder what would happen if I formed an army…

Ella sighed in defeat once we passed the last patrol. "This makes Westend off the target list too," she said.

Nothing can drain a person more than losing pieces of hope, toward their once successful criminal business.

I walked through the mall feeling a sense of recent familiarity about it. According to Ella we hadn't been to this mall since dad was alive.

But I had definitely seen these hideous orange tiles before. And the sickly sweet smell of the candy shop, merging the headache of hair salon next door had to be unique to one mall.

Even the super tall mall security guard looked familiar. The guard turned around and I froze.

"El, we gotta go," I said quickly.

"Why?"

I ducked my head before the man could see me.

I kept my voice low but audible so I wouldn't have to repeat myself. "I'm band for life from this mall."

"WHAT?"

"Tell the whole world why don't you?" I grumbled.

-Two Years Ago-

"Is that…?" Fang asked. My jaw dropped as we witnessed what was happening in the center of the mall.

This was the only time in our entire lives that I was speechless and Fang was talking no-stop.

"No, it can't be… it looks like it but… no. It's not… right? Right? I mean… he would've said… wouldn't he…"

We had been watching the events unfold like movie. A comedy.

Ratchet being so distracted with making doe eyes at his girlfriend that he had almost punched the mall security.

The man had approached the two when the girl had been taking photos of particular clothes she liked. Apparently there was a rule against it. Ratchet had been too preoccupied to even notice the security while his girlfriend blatantly ignored the guard, until he got fed up and snatched the phone from the teenage girl.

Ratch had snapped his arm back, ready to attack. As soon as he set eyes on the culprit, looming over them like a skyscraper, his arm fell limp and his expression went from 'How dare you!' to 'I swear it wasn't me'.

Meanwhile Fang and I had been chuckling quietly from a bench not far from the whole drama. We had to occasionally stare down at our fries to avoid unwanted attention. Apparently laughing hysterical in the mall was too unusual for the local shoppers, but the free entertainment was worth it.

We didn't however expected our friend/sibling to suddenly plot to steal back the cell phone. Ratchet's best friend Holden had been roaming the stores when he was suddenly employed to distract the guard, while Ratchet just walked straight passed them. Huh?

It wasn't until he handed the cell phone back to his girlfriend that what truly happened dawned on us.

-Present-

"I can't believe this Max. You're a public delinquent. Way to blow our cover sister."

Ella had stayed silent the whole bus ride home. Once we reached home she started reprimanding me for my criminal past.

What can I say? Criminal Ride began with me getting kicked out of a mall because of attempted theft.

While Ella continued to act like a disappointed mother I headed to the swing set in the backyard.

The mall was our chance to get the rest of the money, with all those stores, all those customers it would have been a slice of cake. Our local mall was out of the question, too many security cameras.

My pocket began vibrating suddenly. I almost fell off the swing.

Iggy: Need help w/ JJs present

Iggy: What do u get the richest kid in school

Iggy: Max

Iggy: MAX

Iggy: MAAAAAAX!

I rolled my eyes.

I didn't have time for this. It was bad enough he called me every day to discuss Criminal Ride but now I had to solve his other problems. I had to deal with how to get the rest of the money now that Plan B was a bust, Westend Mall was the closest mall with the least security and had been the perfect target for our pick pocketing.

Life was a lot simpler when my only worry was being banned from a mall.

-Past-

Ratchet opened the front door of his house only to be met with a thirteen year old with a maniac of a grin. Or that's at least how he described it when he told his friend Holden.

"Can you teach me to pick pocket, sticky fingers?" I asked then charged into his house.

His eyes widened in disbelief. "What?"

Fang appeared, in his usually manner, out of nowhere. He was not buying into his brother's pretense.

"Give it up Ratch. We saw you at the mall."

I smirked. "And now you're gonna teach us."

Ratchet turned to Fang, then to me, then back to Fang.

His shoulder's sagged. "We're all gonna get arrested."

-Present-

"Iggy I swear if your calling about Criminal Ride again I'm gonna– Oh! Hey Fang, do you know how to do question 15 for Algebra II? …Oh wait, Nudge is making weird hand gestures at the door."

I followed Nudge to her room.

A small gathering of cash was on the corner of her desk.

You pick pocketed all of this?" I asked collecting the loose cash into a single pile.

"Violin lessons were cancelled and Ella came too."

It was a thousand … on the dot, the exact amount we needed.

"You two didn't get kicked out of the store did you?"

Nudge grinned, "They couldn't catch us if they tried."

I had taught her well. Well enough that now we had enough to make the exchange tomorrow.

"But you know how hard it is finding actual money in people's wallets. It all plastic."

Lots of tax paying citizens will be visiting Westend's lost and found tomorrow.

-Past-

We ran through the car park, the three of us, weaving between the cars.

Suddenly Ratchet grabbed our arms and pulled us behind a truck.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. I told you to take the girl's watch…" he cried with his voice low enough not to be overheard.

I nodded. "That's… what… we were… getting," I defended between breathes.

His eyes narrowed. "The one she bought. Not the one she was wearing."

"That's it!"

We all jumped and turn toward the voice. A tall mall security, with a Mario style mustache stood to our left. He was already waving over extra guards.

"You three will come with us. We're going to call your parents, no charges yet but you won't be allowed back here. If you do come back then–"

We weren't stupid enough to wait around to hear the rest.

"I knew we'd get in trouble."

"No you said we'd get arrested," Fang argued.