One day, Colt was prancing around and making horse noises.
"Hey, Colt! What's gotten you so excited?" Laurel asked.
"Huh? Me? I'm not excited! What makes you say that?" Colt asked.
"You were prancing around and making horse noises!" Laurel said. "It was so cute!"
"Okay, fine!" said Colt. "It's because Barley finally got a job!"
"Really?" Laurel said. "Oh, that's great!"
"Yes, and now he will have less time to cause trouble around town!" Colt said.
"But why did he tell you first?" Laurel asked.
Ian entered the room.
"Hey, Mom!" he said. "Did you hear that Barley got a job at McDonald's?"
"No," said Laurel. "No, I didn't…"
"I hope that he remembers to shower!" Ian said, laughing.
"Ah, I remember the last time that Barley tried to shower," said Colt.
"What do you mean 'tried to'?" Laurel asked. "Did you stop him?
"Yes, because he was acting suspicious!" said Colt.
"How so?" Laurel asked.
"He was trying to bring in duct tape and a trash bag," said Colt. "I thought he might be trying to dispose of a body or something."
"Don't be silly!" Laurel said. "Barley would never do such a thing!"
"Oh. Okay," said Colt.
"Now, clean up your mess," said Laurel. "You tracked mud into the house."
"What? I didn't do that!" said Colt. "It was Barley!"
A week later, Barley was speeding because he was late for his new job. Colt saw this.
"Yeah, go ahead and speed…" he mumbled. " That's perfectly okay. I definitely won't get you in trouble for it."
Colt, Laurel, and Ian all went to McDonald' for dinner that evening because Barley had eaten all of the food in the house.
Shortly after they arrived, Ian got mad!
"Where is Barley?" he said. "Why is he not here?!"
"This isn't the McDonald's that he works at," said Laurel.
"WHAT?!" Ian said. "Why not?!"
"If we'd gone there, we might have distracted him from his work," Laurel said.
"Yes, and that would be stalking," said Colt.
"Uh… no," said Laurel. "It wouldn't be."
"Yes, it would," said Colt. "Trust me, I 'm a police, so I know these kinds of things."
Laurel sighed. "Whatever. Ian, what do you want from the menu?"
"NOTHING!" Ian yelled.
"What? Why not?" Laurel asked sadly.
"Because I didn't get to see Barley!" Ian whined. "Now I'm too upset to eat!"
"Okay," said Laurel. "You're getting a Happy Meal."
"NO!" said Ian. "I'm not even happy!
Colt looked at Laurel. "Why has he been so grouchy lately?"
"Probably because I took his AirPods away from him," said Laurel.
"What? Why?" Colt asked.
"Because he said 'Barl', and that is a major no-no word!" said Laurel.
"Well, next time he does that, you just need to stick a bar of soap in his mouth!" said Colt.
"I did that once, but he almost choked to death on it and Barley had to do the Heimlich Maneuver on him," said Laurel.
"Oh. Okay," said Colt.
Later that week, Ian decided that he was going to sneak off to the McDonald's where Barley worked.
"I will steal my mom's car," said Ian. "She's taking a nap right now, so she'll never notice!"
It was a busy day, and there was a long line when Ian arrived.
He was shaking and sweating nervously.
When he finally got to the front, he could barely even stand up.
"H-h-hi…" Ian squealed shaking harder.
"Uh…. hi?" Barley asked.
Ian got overwhelmed, screeched at the top of his lungs, and ran away.
As soon as he got outside, he began laughing.
"Yay! I did it! I got to see Barley at work!"
Back at home, Laurel looked outside and screamed when she noticed that her car was gone.
"WHO STOLE MY CAR?!"