Another day has begun in the city with the hustle and bustle of the newly energized citizens. Most of them go to work or school while the others are going out for leisure or for bonding with their families. It was all good for everybody until it was interrupted with a scream.
"My car!" A human transgender man cried. "Somebody stole my car!"
The centaur cops galloped into the scene where the victim was crying.
"What happened?" The leading officer asked him.
"My car was stolen by a drake!" He cried.
"Don't worry, sir, we'll take care of the car thief." She told him as they rush to catch the thief.
The chase went on as the centaurs' speed almost outmatch the car. The city is in the hot seat as a car chase scene was set before the other citizens. This lasted for so long until it crashed in front of Sweet Pop, between two other cars and the thief left the wreck. The openers were so angry at themess that happened to their cars that they complained about their wrecked cars. Poppy, Violet, Smidge, Branch and Cooper rushed outside the cafe to see three damaged cars and complaining humans and drakes with the centaur police asking them questions.
"What is going on?" Poppy asked them.
"Miss Poppy, oh, these three lost their cars because some illegal immigrant came here and stole Manny's car after he stole food from a street vendor." The centaur police officer answered.
"Okay, did you catch the thief?" She asked him.
"He got away in a minute." Another centaur police officer responded. "Drakes are so slippery."
"Yeah, my species are slippery and it's both a gift and a curse." The drake girl sighed.
"Anything else you know about the suspect?" Branch asked.
"One thing to keep in mind is that the suspect is also an illegal immigrant." The officer said.
"How did you know?" He asked him.
"All we know is that these immigrants have no documents." The leading officer answered. "We got a report about a group of illegal immigrants who snucked into the Hippocampus to get here and the police made a list on them."
This shocked Rose, who is looking by the window of the cafe while eating lunch. She remembers that she is also an immigrant like her other friends but she became a citizen after days of paperwork and citizenship test that Poppy and her friends tutored her in and passed. She felt so sad for those who are immigrants like her but she also felt agitated because of the criminal who wrecked the three citizens' cars. That night, Poppy saw something moving from among the trash bins before she leave the closed down cafe. She peeped and left behind a plate of leftover food at the back of the door for the cats before leaving the cafe for the night. The shadowy figure crept at plate of food at the back door and stole it, leaving a messy plate behind. Poppy checked out the plate and was shocked that it has some leftover crumbs too.
"Hey, that food is supposed to be for the cats!" She yelled. "They never finish it off without licking it."
"Who could be doing this?" Violet asked.
"Maybe that illegal immigrant that everybody's talking about." Rose said as she and Harper entered the cafe for breakfast.
"How did you know?" She asked the two.
"Because somebody is trying to spy on us." Branch answered with a growl.
"What?! Branch, they're nobody trying to spy on us." Poppy nodded.
"When I see homeless people, I feel like they're spies because someone would use them for nefarious purposes." He answered.
"Yeah, we have to be wary about our surroundings." Rose said. "I learned about it from my parents and my boss from the gyaru cafe. I would wear hoodies and cloaks to conceal myself among the crowd to avoid them."
"But with magic, everything's okay." Poppy shrugged.
"Even with magic, we have to comply with the government and the law." Rose continued. "We have to keep Castle City safe from causing magic related incidents. Most humans still feel weird around us, even after the Big Reveal."
"Yeah, she has the point." Branch agreed.
"We just have to protect ourselves from the thief and we'll be okay." She advised them.
Later that day, Poppy and the others went back to work while Rose went to Feather Pen Studios for her job. Little did they know is that their lives would cross paths with a wrongly-accused thief. In a nearby bakery, a drake with a green tail, a violet mohawk, fangs, wearing a green shirt, a purple vest, grey pants, and black shoes, belt and wristbands was seen sneaking in the place. As nobody was looking, he grabbed a plastic bag of bread and ran out. The cashier saw this and yelled, which alarmed the customers.
"Help, thief!" She cried.
The centaur police ran into the bakery and asked them.
"What happened?" The leading officer asked.
"Someone stole one of our goods here." She said.
"We'll get that ruffian." The centaur said as she and her team started chasing them.
The drake tried to get away from the cops as he dodged every nook and cranny of the city to escape. The victims of the car wreck saw it and started chasing him. It didn't took so long that the chase ended up in front of Sweet Pop. Poppy and her friends were serving the customers and Rose recently entered the place when the drake got slammed into the door. The centaur police came in time to arrest the thief in front of the Snack Pack inside the cafe and drove away with him to the police station. Later, the Snack Pack went right to work, serving meals and food to the customers but Poppy was worried. Branch noticed the expression on her face and went up to her with worry.
"Uh, Poppy, what's worrying about you?" He asked her.
"That guy whom the police arrested, he felt guilty about it." Poppy said.
"The cops told me that he is the one who stole a bread from a bakery." He smugged.
"Stealing bread? maybe he's trying to find food." She wondered.
"Yeah, but he looks kinda familiar, isn't he?" He wondered to himself.
"What made you say that?" She asked him.
"I was looking at the window when the car crash took place." He said. "He may be the car thief."
"I dunno, Rose said something about his clothes too." She nodded.
But their conversation in the kitchen was interrupted when they heard the mailman placing some letters. Poppy got the letters and kept it in her pocket for the rest of her day. That night, Poppy opened the letters and read it, revealing something intriguing. Her father, Peppy noticed it and asked her about it.
"Poppy, what are you reading?" Peppy asked him.
"Dad, I can't believe I have jury duty." She said.
"Well, you are a citizen." He told her. "And so is Rose."
"Yeah, we helped her with her citizenship test." He said, remembering how the Snack Pack helped Rose study to get her citizenship. "She's very good with it."
"Dad, I wonder if she is also being asked to jury duty?" She wondered.
With Rose, she was opening her envelope in her apartment. She read her envelope and was shocked about it because she is called to be one of the witnesses. She. Was torn between saying the wrong words or be truthful that she called her parents earlier than the usual.
"Hi mom, I got a letter to be a witness for a hearing tomorrow." Rose said.
"Rosie, what happened?" Her mother asked her.
"I don't know what to say." She sobbed. "Most witnesses are prepared what to day but I'm not."
"Just write down everything you remembered seeing yesterday and the day before." Her father said. "Just be truthful and honest."
"Yes, dad." She said. "I know the drake they captured is not the same guy who destroyed the three cars."
"Rose, honesty is the best policy." Her mother said.
As Rose is preparing for her role as a witness, the rest of the Snack Pack were also joining the jury too. The next day, the other employees are placed in charge of the cafe while the Snack Pack are going to the Castle City courthouse for jury duty. When everybody is in place, the policemen arrive with the members of the court and the judge, a merman named Horace Whopper is seen inside his tank. The Snack Pack are sitting in the jury box when Rose is huddled up with a few of the witnesses who are sorted into their seats.
"Rose, you're here too?" Poppy asked when she saw Rose with them.
"Yeah, I became a witness in the two incidents." Rose said. "I don't know what to say."
"Just tell them the incident and what you saw yesterday." Branch added. "And good luck when you stand as a witness."
"I'll try." She sighed as she and the witnesses took their seats.
When the hearing started, the police arrived with the same drake that was arrested yesterday. Rose was shocked when she saw the defendant. The defendant has purple sideswept hair with a shaved undercut but she notices the similar facial features on the two. When the trial started, everybody is silent.
"This man, Angelo Martinez, known as Archer Pastry, also known as Kaboom and Kaplowie, was found stealing bread from a bakery and he was involved in the car case too." A goblin attorney said.
"Hey, did he look familiar to you?" One of the witnesses asked another.
"Shhh!" Another witness shushed them.
"Angelo Martinez is an illegal immigrant here in Westerna." Another lawyer continued. "He is one of these listed drakes who are illegal immigrants. They are reported to have sneaked their way into a cruise ship named Hippocampus. He was one of these illegal immigrants who steal in order to survive or for crimes."
"Do you know who are the other immigrants who joined them?" Judge Whopper asked him.
"We lost count on the number but we can ask some of the witnesses to know about this young man's crimes." He answered.
The first to be called is the first victim of the car thievery, an angry drake father. He stepped up to the podium beside the judge while his family and a teenager with a bandage on his wing was seen with the other people sitting beside them.
"When they first came here, a group of younger drakes have stoles my car and in the process, they crippled my son." He said. "Dr. Moonbloom is able to save him and I am grateful to her but I am angry at this drake for his wing injury."
"What grievances did happen to you?" The judge asked.
"It's for my son." The drake father responded
As the witness is talking about it, a court clerk is seen typing and writing about the case. The two lawyers asked the witness about everything they know and his answer is honest. Each witness spoke up at the stand about the incidents that happened to them.
"He killed my uncle in a car crash, it was painful for me to lose him!" She yelled.
"They vandalized and destroyed my house!" A gremlin said. "I have to live in an apartment with my wife."
"They caused arson to my business." A harpy woman cried. "I have to start over again with my employees!"
"He destroyed my car." Manny yelled.
"Yeah, mine too!" The drake woman added.
"Even me!" Another witness cried.
"What's your problem with him?" Judge Whopper asked another witness.
"Nothing." A witness yelled
"Nothing whatever?" He asked.
"Nothing whatever!" She shouted.
"What are you waiting for? Write it down." The judge said.
The jury wrote down the notes and things went on. After each witness told everybody about their grievances to the court, Rose is asked to speak out.
"Ms. Thornluck, do you have something to say about the drake that was arrested in front of you?" The goblin lawyer asked.
Rose was torn between saying the same thing as the other witnesses did and honesty but she took a deep breath and took her stand.
"Your honor, I just wanna say is that this guy arrested here isn't the same guy who crashed the car on the day before the arrest." She said honestly. "He doesn't look the same as the car thief."
This caused a murmur in the court. Everybody was shocked when they finally hear an honest sentence that Rose said.
"Miss Thornluck, how did you know?" The goblin lawyer asked her.
"It's the hairstyle and the clothes." She said honestly. "This guy here is arrested in front of me."
"Okay, how did you know that this man doesn't steal cars?" The other judges asked her.
"The drake who steals cars has shades, a mohawk and wears a hoodie." She said. "He..." She murmured before she was interrupted by the defendant.
"She's right, I didn't steal the car." The drake defendant confessed.
The other people were so shocked when the drake confessed over the one half of the crime that he was accused of.
"I never steal anything except for food." He cried. "I came here to get away from my abusive parents in Mexico. My brother, Paulo and I stowaway to find a new life but my brother and his new gang prefer to do heinous crimes to get what they want while I prefer to steal food to survive."
The people were shocked that the witnesses' and their grievances are meant for someone else and not the drake convict himself. The jury, plus the Snack Pack made their decision and passed the verdict to the judge. The judge looked at the verdict on his table and read it. He nodded and said the verdict out loud.
"The jury had reached the verdict." Judge Whopper said. "The defendant is innocent for a crime he didn't commit but he's still guilty for a minor crime. Because he's an illegal immigrant and he's too young, he'll be sent to the reform school."
"Reform school?" Rose was confused.
"Oh, the reform school." Poppy said as she caught up with her after the trial. "You were new to the legal system."
"The reform school is a boarding school for juvenile delinquents." Branch added. "He'll be taught how to be good."
"Oh, they never had those in other countries." Rose said. "The guilty people are usually thrown into jail."
"That sentence is reserved for the most evil people." Smidge said.
"We can celebrate in the cafe." Poppy said.
When the snack pack returned to the cafe, it's still up and running as the employeecontinued to bake, cook and serve everybody. They enter the cafe, where the employees surprised them with a feast.
"Surprise!" They cheered.
"All these for us?" Poppy squealed.
"Yeah, Fuzzbert planned it all along." A pixie employee said, eyeing Fuzzbert, who nodded in agreement.
Immediately, they had a congratulatory feast and everybody is invited.
"How was the cafe going while we're gone?" Poppy asked.
"We had a hard time running the cafe but we continued to keep moving forward." An employee answered. "Like you do."
"Not only that, I have to be honest at court." Rose said.
"Wait, you were not afraid to tell the truth?" Branch asked her.
"I was torn between saying the same thing as the other witnesses do but taking my parents' advice by heart, I have to be honest, especially at court." She said.
"Well, all ends it ends well." Poppy shrugged as they moved on with the feast. As for Archer Pastry, he is sent to the reform school under supervision of the police and has to undergo lessons of reformation and psychiatry.