Chapter Twenty Three: Girl Meets Demolition
"You got any money?" Riley asked me and Maya. "I never have any money." Maya answered. "I don't have any money and the only money I have I'm not allowed to touch." I told her. "How do we make money immediately?" Riley asked. "What we need is a Bat Mitzvah!" Maya exclaimed. "Are there any special requirements?" Riley asked. "Yeah, and I'm thinking it's gonna need to be you." Maya told her. "Get out!" mom exclaimed from the door. "You guys have been sitting in that window all day. You know what's great about a window? There's a world outside. Go there." Maya, Riley, and I all looked at the window. "It looks fakey." Maya commented.
"Get out of my house." Mom ordered. "Why don't I get a Bat Mitzvah?" Riley asked. "What's your Hebrew name?" mom asked her. "Riley Matthews." Riley answered. "There you go." Mom replied. "What do you want a Bat Mitzvah for?" "There comes a time in a young woman's life where she just wants to sit in a room and open envelops." Riley explained to her. "Riley, do you even know what this holy rite of passage is about?" mom asked. "Yes this holy rite of passage is about 12 hours before you open the envelopes." Riley answered.
"What do you need money for?" mom asked. "Buy stuff." Riley answered. "Specifically." Mom added. "Buy stuff for me." Riley told her. "Money needs to be worked for. It's pretty hard to come up with a scheme when all you've got is the clothes on your back, isn't it?" mom asked before she left the room. Riley, Maya, and I turned to look at each other and we nodded. We all had the same idea to get money.
Riley, Maya, and I walked into Demolition with all of our clothes and walked up to the counter. "We'd like to sell all of our clothes please!" Riley shouted. A girl walked out from the back and stopped in front of us. "Well, you certainly come to the right place." She told us.
"Okay, whatever she says, we're gonna triple it. We go triple, she hits us with a double, we take it and run, all right? I'm in charge here, just like I let you be in charge of the candy store and you at regular clothing stores and the movie theaters, right?" Maya asked. "Right. Triple the gummies, double the jellys, and pay whatever they say, because it's candy." Riley agreed. "Only Maya talks." I told Riley. "I'm sure that's best." Riley said. "But Carline why wouldn't you talk?" "Because when it comes to clothes Caroline acts like you." Maya answered for me. "That's not true." I argued. "Do you want to go there?" Maya asked. "Never mind." I told her.
"Your turn." The girl, Aubrey, said. "Triple, double, run." Maya told us as we walked towards the counter. "Yes mam'." Riley and I replied. "Sup." Aubrey greeted. "Sup." Riley replied. "I'll give you 38 bucks, the whole thing right now." Aubrey said. "We'll take triple." Maya told her. "Now you go up to 76, because it's double, and we'll take it." Riley said. "38." Aubrey said. "No." Riley said. "38." Aubrey repeated. "She's not doing this right." Riley told me and Maya. "24." Aubrey said. "What say we keep this between you and me?" Maya asked. "What say." Aubrey said. "You offered 38. It's worth double. You know it, I know it." Maya replied.
"You know it?" Aubrey asked me and Riley. "I do candy." Riley answered while I said, "I deal with things that don't involve people like you who will trick me because of my love for clothes." "I had friends like them once." Aubrey stated. "What happened?" Maya asked. "One day, one of the floated away like a balloon and the other one was taken away." Aubrey explained. "I hold on tight." Riley said. "And there is no reason for me to be taken away." I added. "Will you go 42 bucks?" Maya asked.
"Will you buy these dresses?" Aubrey asked holding up an ugly dress and a cute dress that I would probably buy. "Are those even colors?" Maya asked in horror looking at the two dresses. Aubrey takes both of the dresses and sets the one that I wanted down. "This is the color of dreams, unicorns ballet dancing on a cloud. This is the color of hug, if that hug was given by everybody in the world at once, puppies. The angles call this color imaginatia." Aubrey said to Riley. "That might work on her, but not on Caroline." Maya told Aubrey. Aubrey picked up the other dress and looked at me. "This dress was worn by Chloe Lukasiak." Aubrey told me before she walked back over to the counter.
"May I please talk now?" Riley and I asked. "Do you have something to say that won't hurt us?" Maya asked. "I must have that dress." Riley and I said in unison. "Well at least there's nothing worst you could possibly say." Maya said. Riley and I held up our emergency credit cards that our mom gave us. "Do you take this credit card my mom gave me for emergencies with a $500 limit on it? Because I need a dress for the spring formal, and I want that one. No other but that one." Riley and I said. "So how much for the dress of hope?" Riley asked. "And how much for the dress worn by Chloe Lukasiak?" I asked.
"Riley and Caroline, she's a shark. She knows you want the dresses. We're not going to afford any other clothes." Maya told us. "Well, I am shocked and offended you think so little of me." Aubrey said to Maya. "Oh no." Maya said. "Riley and Caroline, I will let you have these dresses for $50 each, if you say yeas right this second." Aubrey told us. "Y-." Riley and I started, but Aubrey cut us off, "$100." "Maya." Riley and I said. "200." Aubrey said. "I think the numbers are going up." We said. "240." Aubrey said. "I think that they're going up because they keep going up, be I'm not saying yes, and they're going up and up." Riley and I continued to say.
"Nine and up-." Aubrey started. "What is happening?" Riley and I asked. "300!" Aubrey exclaimed. "Deal, 300." I said for the both of us. "Because it was going to be more wasn't it?" Riley asked. "Yeah, could've been. Yeah." Aubrey answered. "Ha-ha!" Riley exclaimed. "Huh-huh." Maya mockingly said. Aubrey handed me and Riley the dresses. "Do you have any shoes that go with imaginatia?" Riley asked. "Also do you have the shoes that Chloe wore with this dress?" I asked. "Oh, they are just the gifts that just keep giving, aren't they?" Aubrey asked Maya and Maya nodded. "How much for the shoes?" I asked. "Yes!" Riley shouted.
Riley, Maya, and I walked into the apartment. Riley and I both had the shoes and dresses that we bought from Demolition. We sat down on the couch. "We sold all of our clothes." Maya stated is distress. "Our parents can never know about this." Riley stated and I agreed with her.
"Are you out of your minds?" dad asked us later in the day when he found out what we did. "Okay." Maya said standing up. "We got ourselves in to this, we'll get ourselves out." "Yeah, that's a way to go, stubborn in the face of stupid." Dad commented. "It's the only road I know." Maya retorted. "There's another road." Dad told her. "There's no other road. See?" Maya asked. "There's another road. It lies at the corner of "young and vulnerable" and "ask for help"." Dad told her. "I don't live there." Maya told him then she turned to look at me and Riley. "You two live there. Can you come up with something to get us out of this?" Maya sat back down.
Riley and I got up and walked over to our dad and gave him a hug. "Daddy, please help us. We need you, we made a mistake." Riley and I said to him. "Yeah this is working, this will work every time on me." Dad said. "That's great I could never say something so desperate." Maya commented. Riley and I stopped hugging our dad and turned to look at Maya. "You'd rather our mother, Topanga?" I asked. Maya pushed us out of the way and gave dad a hug. "Daddy, please help us. We need you, we made a mistake." Maya told him. "Okay, okay, all right. Listen, clearly both of you were taken advantage of. Now we're going to see how Cory Matthews responds when the people he cares about are taken advantage of. Are you ever going to do this again?" dad asked as he held me and Riley's dresses. "No." Riley and I answered while Maya answered, "Yes." "Okay, let's go anyway." Dad said. We followed him out of the apartment, but Riley and I grabbed our shoes before we left.
We walked into Demolition and we stopped by a table. "Alright girls, now who's talking?" dad asked. "You are." Maya, Riley, and I all answered. "Who's not talking?" dad asked and we didn't say anything. "Well done. Now let's watch what happens when someone who knows his way around the block come ridin' to the rescue of you three damsels in distress. All right who is the big bad wolf who took advantage of my little damsels?" We followed dad walking towards the counter. "I don't know. Who's the hip, handsome young guy who seems way too cool to be their dad?" Aubrey asked.
Dad paused for a second then smiled. "What?" dad questioned. "I'm sorry. I just mean, how are you not made up in euro retro with accents of Timberlake, since you have matching bodies?" Aubrey asked. "I don't know. I am Timberlake! You know how many times I've driven past his billboard and thought, "It's me!" But no one's ever said it out loud before you!" dad exclaimed. "And now that I've said it?" Aubrey questioned. "It feels right." Dad admitted. "Come on let's dress me up!"
Dad, Maya, Riley, and I walked into the apartment. Riley and I were wearing the dresses and shoes we bought, but at least I still had my hat. My dad was another story, he was dressed up like what he thought was Timberlake. "Okay, a lot of bad stuff went down in the last hour." Dad stated breaking the silence. "What is wrong with you people?" Maya asked. "The only good thing that came out of this is that I'm bringing sexy back." Dad explained. "Mom's gonna know." I said. "She'll never know." Dad told us. "I'm only wearing this with Shawn."
"Are you out of you minds?" mom asked us outraged later in the day as we sat on the couch. Dad got up and stood beside mom. "Mind!" dad shouted. "You." Mom said to him. "Yeah okay." Dad said. He moved and tried to sit down, but ended up having to fall down so he could sit on the couch. "Okay, I am going to give you one opportunity to tell me how it is possible that you spent, what, 80, 90 dollars between the three of you?" mom questioned. "Okay, this is going to be really bad." Dad whispered to me and Riley. "How much were the dresses?" she asked us. "50, 100, 200, 90, nine, nine, up, nine, up, 300 each!" Riley and I both exclaimed.
"Riley and Caroline, the credit cards were for emergencies. I made that very clear. When is buying a dress ever an emergency?" mom asked. "When," I started. "You," Riley continued. "Have sold the rest of your clothes." We finished together. "Maya." Mom said to Maya. "I got beat, okay? Demolition girl's better than me, okay? I mean, she's a pro. We all know Riley's a chump and so is Caroline when it comes to certain things." Maya explained. "Hey!" Riley and I exclaimed. "There's an astronaut riding a horse." Maya told us. For some reason I believed her and I looked over to where she was pointing.
"But this salesgirl's the greatest scam artist I've ever seen." Maya told mom. "Cory?" mom questioned. "I'm still not convinced this outfit isn't working for me." Dad told her. "Let me assure you." She told him. "Well there's $1200 I'm never getting back!" dad exclaimed then he realized what he said. Mom's jaw dropped and dad tried to close it several times.
Maya, Riley, and I were sitting in Riley's window. "We've lost." Maya stated. "She beat us." Riley said. "We got crushed." Maya said. "I don't like it very much." I said. "Have I let you down?" Maya asked me and Riley, sadly. "No, peaches, how could you ever let us down?" Riley and I asked. We turned back so we were facing forwards. "What kind of bad influence am I on you two if I let another bad influence be a better bad influence than me in your eyes?" Maya asked. Riley and I turned to look at Maya.
Riley turned Maya's head towards her. "Hey, we will never have a better worse influence than you." Riley told her. "Yeah there is no one better for us." I agreed. "Thanks." Maya thanked us. She laid her head on Riley's shoulder and I laid on Riley's other one. "You'll always be my favorite chumps." "Thanks." Riley and I thanked her. We both sat up because we both got an idea. We looked at each other to see if we had the same idea. "Would we still be your favorites even if we weren't chumps?" we asked her.
"You will always be my favorites no matter what you are." Maya answered. "Okay, good." Riley said as she moved Maya's head. "Because we may have to no be chumps for a minute." Riley told her. "But then you will again?" Maya asked us. "I know you secretly like it." I told her. "I do." Maya replied.
Mom, dad, Riley, Maya, and I walked into Demolition. Riley and I had our dresses and shoes and dad had his Justin Timberlake clothes. "So, you had a change of heart?" mom asked Aubrey. "What can I say? You affected me. If you don't want the dresses, the right thing to do is to cancel the charges." Aubrey replied. "So we'll give you the dresses and you'll credit the cards?" mom asked. "$300 for each dress." Aubrey said. "And $200 for each pair of shoes." I said placing me and Riley's shoes on the counter. "Wait a minute." Aubrey said. "And $1200 for my father's stuff." Riley said placing dad's clothes on the counter.
"No, we're just talking about the dresses." Aubrey stated. "No, you're just talking about the dresses. I'm talking about we also get our clothes back." Riley and I replied. "Well, what has gotten into you two?" Aubrey asked us. "What has gotten into you two?" Maya asked us also. Aubrey looked through dad's clothes. "Okay, I don't see the t-shirt here." "I can't get it off. It's part of my body now." Dad explained.
"How are y'all doing?" Evelyn asked. Smiles found their way on to me and Riley's faces. I turned to see Crazy Hat or Evelyn walk into the store. "It's 5:00. You got my dresses?" She asked as she walks over to Aubrey. "Hey, aren't' you Evelyn Rand?" Aubrey asked. "Yeah, you got my dresses?" Evelyn asked. "Hey, aren't you a billionaire?" Aubrey asked. "Yeah, just like one. You got my dresses?" Evelyn asked again. "Not her dresses. It's still-." Riley started, but Aubrey cut her off.
"Deal. Shoes, father's stuff, and the dresses. Now you guys get all of your old stuff, and we are done with each other." Aubrey told us. She took the dresses from us and we went to go collect our clothes. "Yeah I got your dresses, you got my $5000 each?" Aubrey asked. "$4000 each, wasn't it?" Evelyn asked. "Well it was before you were Evelyn Rand." Aubrey told her. "Now you are, now it's 5 each." Evelyn laughed and walked over to me, Riley, and Maya.
"Ooh, you're right. She's a real hoot." Evelyn said to me and Riley. "Wait, wait, you know her?" Aubrey asked. "These three? Oh yeah, they're my old pals." Evelyn answered. "You did this?" Maya asked me and Riley. "We might have made a little phone call, yeah." Riley and I told her. "Pretty good scam for two chumps." Maya complimented us. "Well, we have the best possible bad influence, do we?" we asked. "You did great." Maya told us. "Oh, it ain't over yet." I told her. Riley and I looked over at Evelyn. Evelyn walked back over to the counter. "I'd like to speak to the owners, please." She told Aubrey. "I don't see where that's necessary." Aubrey said. "Owners please!" Evelyn shouted.
The supposed owners walked out from the back of the store. "What's going on out here?" the lady asked. "All sales final." The man said. "Aren't you Evelyn billionaire?" the lady asked. "Yeah. How much do you want for this whole place?" Evelyn asked. "Oh, this place is not for sale." Aubrey told Evelyn. Evelyn started to laugh. "Oh, that's cute. You believe there's a thing not for sale, you savvy little businesswoman. Well, you know what I'm going to do?" Evelyn asked as she took a piece of paper and a pen. "I'm just going to write a number on this little piece of paper, and we're just gonna see what's for sale." She wrote down a number on the paper.
"No matter what number she writes, don't react." The man told the lady. "Have I ever reacted?" the lady asked. "Not to me." The man replied. "It doesn't matter what you write, because this place is going to be mine someday. Right?" Aubrey asked. Evelyn showed the paper to the owners. "Right except," the man started. "It's not our place anymore." The lady finished. They laughed in excitement and Evelyn was laughing with them until she stopped. "You two are horrible people." She told them and then ripped up the paper.
"Wait, so you're not buying the store?" the man questioned. "Please I've got closets bigger than this." Evelyn told him. "You guys would have just sold me out." Aubrey stated. "I think we're all disappointed here." The man said. "Go back to work, dear." The lady told Aubrey before they walked to the back of the store. Aubrey got the dresses and told Evelyn, "You know the dresses really do bring out your eyes." Evelyn looked at her. "Not those eyes." "Look at me." Evelyn ordered. "I'm not buying anything you're selling, and neither will anybody else, except the kids you're taking advantage of."
"Yeah." Dad agreed. "And dopes." Mom added. "Yeah." Dad agreed. "Wake up. Be better than what you are." Evelyn told Aubrey. "How'd you get to be who you are?" Aubrey asked. "By knowing what goes around comes around, and that all sales are definitely not final. And the most important thing," Evelyn walked over to me, Riley, and Maya. "I got friends who I can depend on and who can depend on me. My little dollies, you can call me anytime you want." She told us then looked at me and Riley. "And you two keep being who you are." Then she left the store.
"Are we still who we are?" Maya asked. "You're not such a bad influence." Riley and I told her. "Thanks. You're not such a chump." Maya told us. "Thanks." We thanked her. "There's an astronaut riding a horse." Maya told us. "We don't fall for that anymore." Riley told her. Maya turned me and Riley around and there was an actual astronaut on a horse. "Do you see it, too?" Riley and I asked and Maya nodded. Riley and I both made an excited face. "It's beautiful, we must have it. How much is it?" Maya asked as we walked towards Aubrey.
Aubrey reached down and grabbed the astronaut riding the horse. "Well this is one of a kind." Aubrey said "So are you, it's yours." She handed it to Riley. Riley, Maya, and I smiled at her before we left the store.
Mom, Riley, Maya, and I were folding up the clothes we got back for Aubrey when there was a knock on the door. Mom got up and opened the door. I looked and saw Aubrey standing there. "You really think I could become a good lawyer?" Aubrey asked mom. "You got skills," Mom said pulling Aubrey into the apartment and closing the door, "but you use your skill against people. I use my skill to help people have a voice. You want to be a good lawyer, first you've got to be a good person. Do you want to be a good person?"
"How would I do that?" Aubrey asked. "Well, first you find friends like them." Maya explained pointing at me and Riley. "And let them float or be taken away." Aubrey moved and sat down on the couch. "Can we talk about it? I could maybe use some new influences." Aubrey told us. "Oh, we have a great place to talk." Riley told her. "Yeah and we can stay there as long as you want." Mom told her. We got up and walked towards Riley's room.