Hello everyone.

I've had this idea for awhile but put it off thinking it was too average, but now it's haunting me and I've never been one to shy away from a challenge.

I couldn't of picked a worse time to begin it, either. This Indiana weather is going crazy, I haven't been able to keep my computer on more than an hour or two at a time because of how hot everything gets, so as with other stories I'm working on, most if not more of it will be typed on my phone and transferred when it cools down.

Length wise, it'll either be long or short depending on how much everyone likes it. I'll know by the second chapter.

Anyway, enough stalling, let's get on with the show.

"Come on, dude. Benson'll be back soon." Moredecai yelled, tossing a sponge at Rigby who was half asleep, leaning against the back tire of the park's truck.

Rigby mumbled, but stayed in his relaxed position.

"Rigby!" Mordecai yelled, "Get up! All I asked you to do were the wheels."

"Yeah, yeah," Rigby sighed while returning to work on the tires.

'This might just work,' he thought, stepping back to admire his progress.

The paint sparkled in the sunlight, reflecting the rays of the sun.

He looked down to the wheel Rigby "Completed" and shook his head, crouching to do it himself.

"These wheels look terrible."

When he didn't receive an answer, he looked over to see the sponge sitting in the dirt with no sign of Rigby.

"What?! Aww, he bailed on me!" he yelled looking around.

Following the sound of snoring, he found him asleep in the bed of the truck.

'I'm the one that should be sleeping,' he thought, washing the sponge in the nearby bucket, 'I've been working three days straight!'

He sighed. He'd been working a lot lately, but it was all part of his new plan to impress Margaret. Sure he'd made a lot of money, but that was only half of it. For the second part, he had to get on Benson's good side.

After finishing the wheels, he stood up and tossed the sponge into the bucket. Just in time too, he heard the quiet hum of the cart approaching.

Benson stopped near the truck and removed the key for the cart.

After inspecting Mordecai's work, he nodded, "Not bad, I didn't think it'd be done already."

"No prob."

Benson looked around, "Where's Rigby? I thought I told him to help."

"Uh, he ran off to put the soap and rags away," he lied, thinking quickly.

Benson and Mordecai both looked to where a rather loud bout of snoring erupted from the back of the truck.

Benson shook his head, "I can't say I'm surprised. You, however, I'm impressed with."

"Just trying to help,"

"You've done more than help," Benson said, giving the truck another look over, "You cut the entire park's grass, cleaned the fountain, and got those teenagers to stay out of the graveyard at night."

"Ha ha, nothing a few choice words couldn't fix," he answered, remembering how he'd spent the night hiding stereos tuned to the hip-hop station.

"Nonetheless, all he's done lately is sleep. You should find some better friends."

"Rigby's not so bad," he answered, trying to think of a reason to stick up for him.

"He's a bum," Benson said while checking his watch, "Well, I don't have anything else for you to do, so why don't you take an early day. You've earned it."

"Thanks."

Benson turned to leave.

'Step two,' Mordecai thought, "Uh, Benson, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."

Benson stopped, "About what?"

"Well," he began, "Since the park has the new truck, would you consider letting me use the old truck?"

Benson turned around, a suspicious look on his face, "What old truck?"

"The one behind Skips' house. It was the park's old truck, right?"

Benson seemed to think for a moment, his eyes widening and a smile forming, "I had forgotten all about it!"

His smile slowly disappeared as he thought about Mordecai's request, "Let's go for a ride."

Mordecai gulped, "Should we wake up Rigby?"

Benson shook his head, "Leave him, maybe a sunburn will teach him to work instead of slack off."

[][][]

They came to a stop in front of Skips' garage which was open, showing his current project in pieces on a table.

Mordecai followed Benson out of the cart and to the front door. Benson hadn't said a single word on the drive over, leading him to think this was a bad idea.

Several moments after knocking, the door opened and Skips skipped outside, wiping his oil covered hands on a rag.

"Hey guys. Are you here for the leaf blower? I haven't finished it yet."

"No, Skips," Benson answered, his voice in the same tone as before, "We're here to see the Black Tear."

Skips thought for a moment, much the same way Benson did, "Black Te- Oh man, I'd forgotten all about it!"

"Black Tear?" Mordecai asked out of confusion.

They walked around to the back of the garage, fighting through the bushes and weeds that had grown around it.

"There she is," Skips said as they came to a stop in front of a large vehicle under a car cover.

"Ah, good times," Benson said as the smile found it's way back onto his face.

Skips pulled the cover off, exposing the old, battered vehicle beneath.

"Whoa,"

The truck's paint was badly faded from the sun before it was covered. The front end was damaged from an long ago accident, and the left headlight hung from it's bracket on the front end. At one point in time an aftermarket body kit was present, but the only remaining signs of it were the cracked and hanging side panel along with the remaining piece of front bumper.

The rear end faired better, the glass dust covered but still clear enough to see through. The back seat was folded down, the space filled with body panels and engine components. The front windshield was cracked, forming a web of lines across the driver side.

"What happened to it?" Mordecai asked, in shock of the condition of the beast before him.

Benson shook his head, "It was shortly after I started working here, Mr. Maellard asked me and Skips to buy a truck for the park. After looking for hours, we found this beauty on the way back to the park, abandoned in the woods. The keys were in it, and the title was taped to the window."

"We must have spent over a year building her, but she was the fastest car in the town! It seemed every payday we bought something new for it."

"How did it get like this?"

Benson sighed, "I was tricked into a race with someone and I couldn't handle it. Slid into a tree. If they wouldn't of cheated, I would of won."

"No way," Mordecai said while shaking his head, not believing uptight Benson was ever rebellious.

Benson pulled off his red cap, exposing a knick in his glass, "I'm lucky that's all that I got from it."

Skips hit a few of the panels on the truck, causing bits of rust to fall to the ground, "Well, it could be worse. What'd you need with it?"

Benson thought for a moment, his eyes tracing the outline of the vehicle, "Mordecai's gonna take it off our hands."

"What?" Skips and Mordecai asked in unison.

Benson nodded, "If he wants to pay to fix it and do the work, he can use it. However, you will need to get your license and pay for insurance."

Mordecai nodded happily, surprised it was that easy, "Whatever it takes."

Benson nodded, "All right. I'll find the keys when we get back to the house. Skips, see if you can move it out of here."

Skips cracked his knuckles and grinned, "Not a problem."

[][][]

Mordecai stepped out of the cart, "Thanks again, Benson."

Benson walked to the freshly washed truck, "No problem. You've shown me I can trust you, and I think you'll take good care of it."

Benson looked toward the house, "If you want to clean out the garage, you could bring it here."

Looking at the still asleep Rigby, Benson reached into the truck and hit the button for the horn.

"Rigby, wake up!"

The form of Rigby jumped up, "I'm awake! I was cleaning the back!"

"No, now you're raking all the leaves in the park!"

Rigby pointed at his watch, "But it's time for lunch!"

Benson sighed, "If you're gone more than an hour, you're fired! I better not see any leaves on the ground at the end of the day!"

"All right!"

Mordecai jumped into the driver seat of the cart while Rigby yawned and got in the passenger seat.

"Man, I can't believe we have to rake leaves now!"

Mordecai started driving in the direction of the town, "No, dude, you have to rake leaves. I got the rest of the day off."

"What?! How's that fair?!" Rigby yelled in disbelief.

"Because I've done nothing but work for the past days while all you did was sleep."

Rigby mumbled, "I get tired sometimes."

"Tell me about it," Mordecai began while stopping at a red light, "Where were you last night? I came in and you were gone."

"I was… playing video games with Thomas. We beat Matcless Mayhem."

Mordecai parked outside the diner and shook his head, "No way, dude. No one beats MM."

When they walked in Margaret was walking back toward the kitchen with a pot of coffee, "Hey guys! I'll be with you in a second."

"Dude, help me with the leaves. I got plans tonight!" Rigby yelled.

"No way, I'm going home and relaxing. You should too when you're done. Benson catches you sleeping again and he'll fire you."

Rigby sighed, "Whatever. I'll do it myself then."

"You want the usual?" Margaret asked after pouring them each a glass of coffee.

"No, this time I want something good," Rigby said, causing an outburst of laughter.

"Yeah, as long as it's good."

They both stopped laughing and looked towards Mordecai.

"Uh.. What's wrong with Eileen? She seems a little down today."

They looked in the direction of the register. Instead of coming over to talk with Rigby, she sat with her head on her arm, reading a magazine.

Margaret laughed nervously, "Oh, you know, just a long week. I'll be back with your order."

Sounded a little far-fetched, but he let it go.

"Dude I'm gonna order tickets tonight for the new zombie movie when it comes to the drive in, I'm gonna ask Margaret, why don't you ask Eileen?"

"Eh, she's not that bad, but I'm more of a lone hurricane, a bachelor!" he answered, pouring nearly the entire container of sugar in his coffee.

Mordecai took it before it was empty and began pouring into his own, "Come on dude, she likes you. Besides, I talked Benson into letting me use the old park truck."

"What do you need a truck for? You can drive the cart without a license!" said Rigby.

"Well, the cart isn't as fun as an actual car."

Rigby shook his head, "Don't rag on the cart."

"I'm not ragging on the cart, it's just getting kinda embarrassing driving it everywhere. Plus, I think it'll impress Margaret if we take it to the drive in."

"Fat chance," Rigby said quiet enough for him to not hear.

"What?"

"Nothing. You gotta let me drive it when it's done! There's a new mall opening a town over."

Mordecai shook his head, "No way, dude. You can't even reach the pedals. If you help fix it up, I'll let you drive it around the park."

"Lame! I'll stick with the cart, thank you."

[][][]

Several hours later, Mordecai wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the now clean garage. All the boxes were moved to the attic, and he had even replaced the bulbs to the burnt out lights.

The bench was empty, the tools that were covering it hung neatly on the wall in front of it.

Sighing happily, he turned off the stereo and walked into the house. Benson was talking on the phone, from the tone of his voice he could tell it wasn't the nicest one.

"Yes, sir… Yes, sir… No I won't, sir…"

At length he hung up the phone and sighed heavily.

"Oh, Mordecai, there you are," he said, noticing him standing in the doorway to the garage.

He tossed a key ring to him, watching as he looked at them.

"Whoa, are these for the truck?"

Benson nodded, "You bet, just got off the phone with Mr. Maellard."

"You didn't get in trouble did you? It didn't sound like it went so well."

"Well, it took some convincing, but I can handle him. Pop's helped talk him into it, so thank him when you see him."

"Totally, thanks again."

Mordecai walked up the stairs and opened the door to his room. Flipping the switch, the dark room illuminated as the overhead light sprang to life.

Seeing Rigby was gone, he assumed he went to wherever he had to go. He'd be suspicious if it was anyone other than Rigby, but he assumed he was just playing video games somewhere.

Walking to his bed, he unzipped his pillow case and pulled out the small key that was hidden inside. With key in hand, he crawled under his bed and drug out a hidden lockbox.

Opening it, he sat on the bed and starting sifting through it's contents. A rare Megalomaniac trading card from the 90's, a picture of him, Margaret, Rigby, and Eileen from their trip to the abandoned zoo, the ticket receipts he'd bought for the zombie movie, Dead Again: One Last Time.

Finally, he found the brown envelop, packed tight enough it was nearly ripped along the bottom. Opening it carefully, he started counting the money inside.

With the tickets already ordered, he had just under a thousand dollars saved from the past month of work he's done. He hoped it'd be enough to fix the truck, it looked pretty bad and he wasn't sure he could work the same schedule again if it wasn't.

Besides, most if not all of his plan to impress Margaret depended on the truck. All his other attempts had failed so far, and this was all that was left. He tried being the good guy, got beat up by the bad guy boyfriends.

Tried being the bad guy, got beat up by the good guy boyfriends.

He looked at the keys in his hand and felt a wave of calmness flow through him.

Little did he know, his life was about to change for the worse before it got better…

Well, there it is.

Not a bad beginning, if I say so myself, definitely not my worst.

Anyway, thanks reading. Got a couple stories to catch up on so I'll try to get the next one up as soon as I can.

Feel free to leave a review, ask a question, or send suggestion.