A Miniaturization with Molly McGee

by birby6

When something goes awry, a thirteen year old with a ghost would never be on someone's emergency list. After an incident at school with a girl named Molly McGee, a younger girl named Nancy suddenly falls into one of the most drastic perspective changes of her life. Now at the size of a bug, only Molly and Scratch could potentially find a way to undo it...with situations to boot!

6. Chapter 6: One Can Relate

Nancy completely exhausted herself the moment her fragile body fell upon the clouds above. She breathed deeply while her legs collapsed onto the fluffy cumulus. Her body worked overtime to reach the very top of the stalk and after one tiresome climb she already wanted to forget that she went through such a hike.

"Never again…never…again…" Nancy muttered while she sweated buckets.

Her limbs shuttered for a few moments but for the most part she managed to pull herself back onto her feet. She brushed some excess clouds off of her ragged brown farmer's shirt and straightened out the blue tips at the end of her long hair. Her two large gardener boots suffered next to no sustainable damages as she made extra sure she addressed everything. She planted some beans after all which sprouted into the largest beanstalk she had ever seen, and she needed to stay in tip top shape for any upcoming issues. If luck came her way, she might finally find a treasure trove of gold nuggets to finally move out of her worn down shack of a house. Her dreams of finally escaping poverty shined brighter than the sun, although she doubted herself at times since she placed her bets on a giant beanstalk to solve her problems.

Too bad she lacked the funds to visit a therapist.

At first, she took a few seconds to survey the area until she finally gazed over the horizon and witnessed pure architectural work at its finest. Straight out of the medieval era, a large stone castle laid dormant and rife for the picking. She stood completely dumbfounded at how such a structure existed atop such white fluffiness, but she didn't complain. If she had a lucky streak under her belt it might house piles upon piles of gold she needed to escape into a life of luxury. With a deluxe condo fresh in her mind, she rushed on over to the gigantic establishment only to see it grow bigger and bigger as she came closer to it. At certain points she even noticed worn dents and cracks dotted around the walls that indicated old age, and once she reached the door she knew knocking remained out of the question. She had to admit the choice of door akin to a drawbridge caught her eye as something very regal, and she made a mental note to buy one the moment she achieved the status of a millionaire. Even though such normal ways inside such a place stayed literally out of reach, she settled on something rather unorthodox. Her height compared to the door left just enough to squeeze underneath the crack that separated the door to the ground, so she settled on that option instead. Surprisingly, she never bent over and broke her back in the slightest as her size easily made walking under doable with no issues. Step one in her trek to riches and fame complete.

Once she made it inside it reinforced the whole "minimized" notion in full. Pretty much everything that existed in the castle stood over her like titans. From the entryway alone she witnessed multiple gigantic shoes where she didn't even come close to the distinct yellow bottoms. The walls and ground encapsulated entire stratospheres compared to her to the point where a part of her wanted to bolt and call everything off. However, she needed the extra cash and sniffed out as much coinage she could take. She scurried across the floor despite her minuscule feet until she arrived at a massive table next to a common wooden chair. First impressions alone told her she arrived in a humongous kitchen, and whoever lived in the castle must have a huge appetite. As much as she wanted to not climb up another mountainous structure, her "money senses" informed her of something of interest on top. She lightly groaned before she shook her head steadily. She wouldn't like the next step, but she smelled money on the huge table.

Her train of thought came to a screeching halt once massive quakes resonated across the ground and sent Nancy airborne slightly each time. Her pupils contracted as sweat drenched her all over, but out of everything she needed at the moment a hiding spot ended up listed at the top. Out of sheer desperation, she bolted and covered her back against one of the large table legs as the tremors became stronger and louder over time. She tried her hardest to plant herself to the floor to varying successes, although her incessant rapid breathing made it somewhat difficult to focus. Eventually, after so many loud and strong quakes they suddenly stopped for a split second. Nancy wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but she fell onto a false hope when one very loud boom shook right behind her hiding spot. Nancy's face went pale as she plastered herself as much as possible across the table leg. Her eyes grew into two white moons the moment she caught a large streak of yellow out of the corner of her eye. A brief glimpse of pink barely scraped the top, but she barely had enough time to notice until one huge hand gripped the space right above her. She held back the immense urge to scream as the huge fingers prodded the area above, although it also gave her an eyeful of a large pink bracelet around the wrist. A fingernail nearly came into contact with her as she literally scooped up her torrents of sweat to toss somewhere else. A dark silhouette emerged behind the table leg followed by two bright shines for eyes, but everything else remained shrouded in mystery. Nancy dared herself to avert her eyes away from everything as her sanity drained closer to a breaking point, for the giant monster bound her in place. Even as the yellow and pink wall shifted it sent tremors that Nancy needed to keep to herself or risk getting caught. Whoever resided inside the castle meant business, and Nancy wanted to never meet it face to face.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to her, the giant hand withdrew back. The huge pink bracelet passed over and even bopped her across the head on the way out. The yellow and pink wall shifted away while the silhouette rose back upward. Nancy caught another glimpse of the two massive bright shines for eyes as more tremors emerged that sent her off of her feet. Once she felt and heard the quakes grow weaker she lightly peeked around the corner, only to see the silhouette as the titanic creature that likely owned the place. She silently watched the blank but massive being as it walked away from the spot and left magnitude tens in its wake. The moment it disappeared around the corner she knew she dodged certain and immediately slumped to the floor. Her muscles loosened as she let out one of the biggest gasps of air she ever performed. She literally avoided changing into a flattened pancake.

"Well…I'm going to need a quick change after this…" Nancy muttered as she wiped sweat from her brow.

Even though she may have gotten out of one situation, once she glanced up she realized another stood in her way. Nancy immediately frowned as her remarks about how she'll never climb again still echoed in her head. Still, she saw no other way to possibly go higher, so she began another strenuous climb up an extremely large object and almost broke her back instantly. It wouldn't last only a few minutes, and she ran on a timer before the gargantuan creature possibly appeared again. She scooted up slowly at first until she gripped the table leg firmly and picked up speed. She didn't know how long it would take, but she made decent progress at her current pace. Hikers knew nothing about their profession until they learned from a young girl and her tiring treks.

She blanked out about halfway up and focused on the climbing more than anything. She had no idea how she accomplished it without falling or anything else hurtful, but in the end she finally made it up top. At that point she instantly wrung out her hair of even more sweat than last time and collapsed onto the wood. In that time her vision fogged up a little, but she made out something very peculiar in the center of the table. It completely eluded her as to why a giant beast would have what seemed like a large type of bird on the premises, but it sat calmly and snug in its own comfy spot. It fluffed its feathers and pecked its beak into the ground a few times while the enamored tiny girl couldn't take her eyes off of what set under its body. Nothing but the answer to her problems stood underneath the big bird.

She saw golden eggs. Nothing but pure golden eggs ripe for the taking.

She drooled and held her arms out while completely enamored by the pristine glow of pure perfection. Before she even knew it, she began to walk slowly toward the eggs until she stopped within a few feet from them. The reflection of the riches by her feet appeared in her eyes as she reached forward toward one, but her attempt didn't go unnoticed. Right before she could place a single fingerprint on the pure gold…

"Hey! Hands off the pride and joy, bucko!"

The voice jolted her awake and left her on her behind. She shook herself a bit before she looked up and saw the rather unhappy bird glare right at her. Her back lightly stiffened, but for the most part she kept calm unlike her encounter earlier.

While surprised to hear words get uttered by the bird, she couldn't leave them unanswered.

"Errr, ummmm, sorry there!" Nancy said as she twiddled her thumbs. "I, uhhhhhhh, didn't expect to see, ummmmm, a large bird here!"

The bird's eyes narrowed and shot daggers in her direction.

"First off, I'm a goose. Get that engraved into your noggin. Second, you don't just suddenly climb on up and coincidentally unknowingly run into the only one up here. In fact, I don't think ANYONE has ever set foot in this place other than her."

"Well, uhhhhhh, there's…always a first for everything, right?" Nancy answered as she tepidly smiled.

"Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaah, I ain't buying that." the goose responded. "Got any other excuses as you keep your eyes on my precious golden eggs? Go ahead, entertain me."

It pretty much riled up an entire army and aimed all of the artillery in her direction. Too bad Nancy prepared for none of it and only saw the finish line at the end. Her mind raced for some kind of explanation that might have some kind of merit to it, although she lacked the skills of a con artist and struggled for several precious seconds. The goose nonchalantly sighed and rolled its eyes as it made itself comfortable, for even it knew it would take somewhat long for the intruder to conclude on something. Nancy rubbed the sides of her head but always came up empty handed while the goose watched for some type of amusement. She went from hero to zero in an instant while the entertainment prepared popcorn on the side.

They didn't have to wait long though before something else occurred around them. As if fate wanted Nancy to suffer even more, loud echoing booms started to shake the table and left the two turning their heads around. Nancy almost lost her footing while the goose made sure none of its precious loot fell off the table, although only one of them understood what the shakes truly meant. Nancy yelped for a split second as the tremors became louder and stronger while the goose expressed one of the snarkiest grins imaginable. The intruder would get what's coming to her.

"Ohohohoh! You really screwed up big time!" the goose exclaimed. "Now you'll REALLY get it! She definitely won't tolerate a midget like you!"

Nancy gulped as the sweat in her hair returned. She nearly had a heart attack the last time she dealt with the creature, and now she found herself in its presence once again. The quakes increased in volume and strength as Nancy ran her sights everywhere for a hiding spot, but not only did she find nothing but the goose would likely out her wherever she ended up. From there nothing became the most optimal, for she definitely wanted to not handle skydiving off the table. No matter what option she went for, all crashed and burned as the goose eagerly awaited her complete demise.

Once she received as much of an earful as possible of the incredibly loud booming, something else hit her hearing.

"Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an English man…errrr, woman!"

From there a dark shadow cast over the table and brought Nancy along for the ride. For some reason the voice maintained a rather playful but still serious tone, which gave Nancy some conflicting thoughts. Even so, she couldn't dwell on her misfortunes for too long as the dark silhouette reappeared right in front of the tiny girl's body. The two bright shines shot their lights right at the speck on the table while the goose grinned like no tomorrow in anticipation for Nancy's complete decimation. She couldn't fathom just how massive the creature stood compared to her, for it felt like its hands held entire continents and its face contained entire galaxies. It cast a very unnerving light upon the dot to the point where her legs refused to move. At that point she regretted everything and wished she never climb the massive beanstalk in the first place. Nothing prepared her for the worst.

The voice boomed once again overhead.

"Why have you come to my castle?! Nobody has ever set foot in my domain!"

The shines lit up once again which blinded Nancy for a split second. The goose smiled ear to ear as Nancy responded.

"Uhhhh, well…" Nancy stuttered. She tied her fingers together as the pressure built up and her heart increased in speed.

"Well…I grew very curious…and climbed myself up. When I saw your huge place…"

"Yeah, she ain't buying that, sweet cheeks." the goose said before behind.

The silhouette briefly glanced over to the goose as he snickered before it went back to Nancy.

"Seems to me you wandered in here to claim my prized golden goose! Popping in uninvited is one thing, but to steal one of my prized possessions…I get VERY upset."

The huge creature loomed in a bit closer to the table as Nancy's nervousness became worse. Once it managed to do so however, the shines for eyes and the black silhouette that shrouded most of the other details disappeared, which provided the full picture of what it finally looked like. As the goose mentioned already, it didn't go by "he" but "she", and it took up Nancy's entire vision. She wore some huge ragged brown shirt that appeared dirty in multiple places, but other than that she required no further descriptions. It became incredibly obvious who lived in the huge castle in the sky and guarded a treasure trove in the form of a goose that laid golden eggs.

She went by no other name than Molly McGee.

Molly expressed a very cheesy but solemn frown as her asteroid sized eyes stared right at the dot among the wood table. Nancy tried to make a break for it, but Molly slammed a fist down right in front of her that blocked the route. Her pink bracelet even almost smacked Nancy across the face from how close she blocked her.

"You know what I do to burglars whenever I get my massive hands on them?" Molly stated.

Nancy refused to answer as she poured waterfalls of sweat at that point.

"Technically you've never encountered anyone else before now, but I'm not complaining." the goose thought.

Molly's eyes narrowed as she locked eyes with Nancy. She then set one of her huge hands against the table, opened it up, then constricted her fingers together into one strong fist. She performed the action a few more times just so Nancy got the message, who pretty much understood instantly.

"How about I squeeze the life out of you through my thick, chunky fingers? I can fully do so and you would never utter a single scream as I flatten those lungs of yours. In fact, I can probably do whatever I want to your tiny body and get away with it. I mean, you definitely deserve something for your efforts to outright steal from someone of MY gargantuan size."

The giddiness of the goose kept reaching new high as Nancy fell onto her back it terror and worriedly crawled backward, but Molly blocked yet another escape attempt with her massive hand. She slammed it right behind her and Nancy ran straight into it.

"I think I've concluded on what I'm going to do with you though, as you need to learn you place as nothing but a particle of dust. I'm the biggest girl in existence, and NOBODY steals from me!"

From there she boxed Nancy in even further using her continent sized fingers and used her other hand to form one huge fist before she raised it over her tiny head. The goose eagerly muttered something under its breath as Nancy's heart skipped multiple beats. The angry expression across Molly's face told her everything she intended to go through with, and nothing would change fate. The tiny one on the table made the worst mistake of her life and would ultimately pay the price for her actions. Her curiosity pretty much killed her on the spot. Molly stated the truth after all, for size did matter when it came to forcing ideals. She forced hers after all, and Nancy learned the hard way. Molly prepared to turn Nancy into paste regardless of her pleas for mercy.

Molly lightly chuckled at Nancy's misfortune before she brought her gigantic fist right above Nancy's head. The goose cheered as it juggled its golden eggs while the tiny one accepted her fate as permanently sealed. She closed her eyes then waited for the inevitable…

…

…

…

…

…

…but then they heard a loud beeping sound.

Everyone turned to face the source, although out of the three of them Molly seemed the most upset. She slightly frowned as the realizations hit.

"Aww, not now! We just got to the good part!"

Almost immediately, Molly walked off in the opposite direction and retrieved her phone from the stand. Nancy and the goose relaxed a bit as the tiny girl plopped her back against the covers. The scenery instantly shifted from a dark and grim castle to the spacious area of Molly's bedroom once she picked up her phone and checked the screen. Everything existed within the imaginary minds of everyone involved. As it turned out, all of them played everything out in Molly's bedroom the whole time while her camera recorded them.

…for the most part.

Once she saw the bar on the very right completely filled up, Molly became rather unhappy.

"Of course I ran out of space at the most turnabout moment when the giant girl realizes she's acting cruel! I had the perfect angle and the rest played out perfectly! DARN IT!"

Nancy sat back up while the goose stared blankly at Molly.

"Why am I not surprised to hear that coming from you?" the goose said. "I swear you have the focus of a goldfish when you least expect it."

The goose then flew up into the air before it transformed into the one ghost that stood by Molly at all times. He left Nancy on the bed while he floated up next to Molly and glanced at the screen on her phone.

"Mol…you used up most of the storage downloading videos about puppies."

"Hey! It's like I have a part of their adorable souls whenever they show their adorable eyes!" Molly responded. "They BEG to stay on my phone! I can't just ignore something like this!"

She then tapped a button on the screen which automatically played a clip of a young pooch lightly barking while its bulgy eyes stared right into the screen. Molly bit her lip and gleefully smiled as she readied herself to unleash her built up adorableness, which Scratch didn't understand at first until the video ended.

"See? Little Larry likes you!" Molly said in a playful baby tone. "Give the nice pubby some love, Scratchy!"

While he ignored the obvious mispronunciation of the word, Scratch couldn't do so when Molly literally shoved the phone right into his face. She rubbed it up against his eyes before he shoved it away.

"Okay, okay! I get the message!" Scratch responded before he switched topics. "Can I eat the chocolate coins now?"

He then pointed over to the covers on Molly's bed where the scene took place, and right where Scratch acted out as the goose set a dozen or so shiny discs that contained all of the "chocolatey" goodness in the world. They needed to use something to play the golden eggs after all, and they fit rather perfectly in Molly's eyes.

Molly narrowed her eyes a little before she answered.

"Only a few, for we still need plenty for when we go through this again."

"YESSSSSSSS! SCORE ONE FOR THE GOLDEN GOOSE!" Scratch exclaimed as he zipped on over to the bed.

Nancy had to duck a bit as Scratch flew over her and snatched lots of the sugary delights like an eager kid at the dinner table awaiting dessert. She had to give it to him for keeping most of the insanity ever since her shrinkage in his head for the most part, although he slipped up a couple of times. After everything that occurred she wouldn't blame him if he called it quits immediately, especially once other happening showed up. It seemed to have all happened in a flash for the shrunken girl, as before she knew it weeks already passed. She really couldn't describe everything in one single sentence, and even now her head throbbed as it slowly took everything in one step at a time. Something about neighbors, ghosts, and other indescribable happenings left her as an afterthought in her head. Despite her insistence, Molly and the others found nothing in terms of the weird phenomenon around her reduction…at least for the most part. They received a brief spur of energy once they heard that Libby may have found something that could relate to her problem, but needed more context before she put a pin in it. Because of the seriousness in what she possibly discovered, at least from her perspective, she needed the next couple of days to herself and no distractions. To hear about a possible breakthrough left most in high spirits, but Nancy still kept a leveled head just in case. If Libby truly found something interesting that perhaps related to her shrinkage than she likely would have followed everyone else's excitement, and yet the horrors of staying as the tiniest girl in a normal world held her back. Even so, she had to admit that a lot happened in the blink of an eye. Brighton stayed as the gift that keeps on giving in the lives of its residents.

Scratch wasted no time as he vigorously tore the foil off of multiple coins and instantly stuck his tongue to relish in the chocolate goodness. However, he quickly realized something the moment his taste buds relayed their senses, and one glance down revealed everything.

"Hey! The chocolate has completely melted!" Scratch exclaimed. "Mol, what gives?!"

"Oh, I received those from last year's Halloween in another city and never brought them out until now." Molly replied. "I stockpile on holiday candy on a yearly basis."

Scratch's mouth hung agape toward the tween before he glanced back down to the melted chocolate. Even Nancy's eyes became dinner plates at the revelation Molly provided as Scratch replied back.

"How have I not heard this…until NOW?! I've heard 'Death by Chocolate' but out of everyone here I wouldn't have expected YOU at the forefront!"

Molly's eyes lowered a bit.

"Even a girl like me has a sweet tooth which requires some satisfaction here and there."

It almost seemed like the confrontation between the two would have escalated instantly as both Molly's and Scratch's eyes narrowed and locked with each other. When it came to Scratch and food they sung beautiful harmony to the point of gluttony at times, so when something upsetting splits the two, even for a short time, it suddenly turned into a death wish. Of course, Scratch befriended Molly and showed that he cared for her, but even then his appetite sometimes went…crazy, to say the least. If she really irked him that badly he would mow her down in seconds, and rotten candy sounded like the perfect recipe for disaster. The air around them became tense as the breeze halted into a standstill, which kept Nancy's mouth shut so she wouldn't inadvertently find herself involved in any capacity. Whoever came out as the winner of the rotten chocolate fiasco would go down in history as the one who tolerates really old candy in the McGee household. Both sides took to the stage and stared each other down in the standoff of the century. One could hear a lion roar in the background for some reason as they readied their next move…for sweet and sugary glory.

…

…

…

"Eh, I'm already dead so the saying doesn't really apply to me."

Molly won yet again.

Once the standoff concluded, Scratch instantly went back to the more than melted chocolate coins. Due to their condition though, he treated them more like a frozen treat and vigorously licked the foils like a dog drawn to peanut butter. Nancy had to move to another spot just so Scratch's spit didn't accidentally drench her from above, but for the most part the other girls let him have the moment to himself. Scratch loved his sweet treats after all.

Nancy would have also kept the moment to herself if Molly never unexpectedly sat down in front of her and gazed down with her white planetoids for eyes. Nancy curled up more than usual from nervousness that didn't go unnoticed by the giant one.

"Hey Nancy, you okay?" Molly asked with slight compassion and understanding.

Nancy muttered something to herself before she stuttered a bit then answered.

"For…for the most part… I still feel…some worry after…that scene…"

Molly chuckled in a lukewarm way and glanced to the side for a second.

"Yeeeeaaaah, I may have provided too much anger there. I'll try to tone it down a notch. You do realize I'm doing this to help get closer together, right?"

"I…I understand…" Nancy answered. "You also want to keep records…of our time together…"

"Of course!" Molly said. "I can't miss a second hanging out with my tiny friend…and I wanted to act like I'm bigger than I actually am for once. Come on! You understand, right?"

Nancy silently nodded but didn't answer back. She stared down at herself and fidgeted with her fingers as if to shut herself off from the world, which Molly took personally. She lightly frowned before she rummaged through her pockets for something specific, and once she recognized the touch she knew she had it. Once she brought it out it displayed some wrinkles but for the most part lacked any lasting damages. She lightly giggled before she lightly displayed it toward Nancy, who recognized it after she scanned her eyes over it, which took multiple attempts due to her minuscule size.

"Remember this, Nancy? The friendship chart from around when we first met?"

Nancy shuddered and shook for a split second before she answered.

"Yeah…for the most part…"

"And remember what this kept track of?"

Nancy mumbled to herself.

"Our…close friend relationship…"

"Exactly! Now look where I've marked the current progress, please!"

Nancy scanned over the picture once again and made sure to pay attention to the bottom. As she expected, she saw some color down at the outline that resembled her shoes. Even though not much stood out, a small shade of pink lingered around the bottom that meant one particular fact. While unsure as to what Molly saw in her, something changed during those months stuck in the giant girl's presence to warrant such a minute increase. She stayed silent for the most part, but curiosity got the better of her as to the factors behind Molly's addition.

"That…that pink?" Nancy asked before she stuttered a few times.

"Yup! That bright shade of pink!" Molly responded. "I know it doesn't seem like much, but I've noticed your attitude lift a little since we started this whole…shrunken business. You might not feel any different, but I know changes in happiness when I see it and you definitely lightened up, even by just a centimeter or two."

She spoke the truth on that front. While she felt that her nervous and scared attitude stayed stagnant, Molly saw something different. Nancy didn't quite understand the exact details behind such an answer, but in the end she wanted to think little about it. If her massive captor said something shifted in her mood she followed along, no questions asked. To see ANY sort of progress almost stunned her in a sense, but she stayed pretty tepid in the end.

Molly continued.

"Not only that, but the MISSION Squad may have made progress if Libby found something interesting within one of her books! Come on, you got to feel good about that possibility, right?"

"Yeah…I…I guess." Nancy answered while she twiddled her thumbs and looked down.

Despite Molly's insistence, Nancy's emotions stayed shackled to the unfortunate status smitten on her from the incident of frosting and cake. She couldn't enjoy herself when she required assistance from someone completely titanic to her every time, especially the one who humiliated her in the first place. The uncomfortable nature surrounding her seemed to have rubbed Molly the wrong way, for she immediately spoke up about something else. No negative feelings would course through others on Molly's watch.

"Come on, cheer up! Hey, I think someone has come to visit!"

Her choice of words caught the shrunken girl's attention as she slowly glanced back up toward the massive figure of the ecstatic tween. Molly then quickly turned around and seemed to have her hands full as she performed something that Nancy couldn't see. She only required a few extra seconds before she instantly pivoted back around and faced the dot on her bed with an excited smile. Her hands remained behind her back for a quick moment before she slowly brought one close to the side of the bed. Not long after, Nancy witnessed one of Molly's huge fingers as it stuck up and loomed over her…with a cheesy smiley face that Molly drew lightly with a pen.

Molly brought it over to Nancy and wiggled it around while she spoke with a different pitch and accent.

"Hello, Miss Nancy! I'm Molly McFinger, and I'm here to make you happy! Want to exchange numbers? Mine's only a couple of digits! Hahahahahah!"

Nancy didn't budge despite Molly's efforts, but the giant one still kept trying with her changed tone.

"Get it? Digits? You know, because I'm a finger? Come on! Turn that frown upside down!"

Because she still kept her expression to herself, Molly slowly prodded Nancy a bit with her finger. She bobbed it up and down as if it hopped around in happiness while Nancy backed up a bit from the constant touches. Once she scratched Nancy's back lightly with her fingernail she drew it back, and yet Nancy wanted none of it. Before long, the smile on her finger dripped down into a frown while Molly expressed something similar.

"You really don't want to make this easy, huh?" Molly asked. "I'm trying my hardest and yet you still shoo me away!"

She expected Nancy to stay silent, but for once she actually replied back despite still curled up to herself.

"I can't act happy…when I'm stuck like this…as nothing but bug food…"

Molly's frowning finger drooped down and shook left and right as if in denial.

"You're not bug food Nancy." Molly replied. "We'll figure something out as more details about your condition emerge. For now, let me spruce up your gloomy attitude and strengthen our friendship while you stay here, okay?"

Nancy wished she could follow Molly's example, but all of the contributing factors to her "tiny" fate left her in a rather crippled state. Even so, she agreed that her attitude needed some type of change so she wouldn't constantly feel worried for her life. As much as she wanted to separate from Molly and Scratch, even she knew that they ended up as her best bet to restore her size. Her best friend even had certain smarts that could possibly uncover more, although she required time at the moment, and in terms of an attitude adjustment Molly served as the best supporter. Everyone in the MISSION Squad had something that assisted in her restoration, including Katrina and Olivia who the former Molly thought…unnervingly about, and somewhere deep down she really appreciated it. She still didn't budge even after months of her stay with Molly and Scratch, but she knew the potential to move in the future.

At that point, Molly recoiled back a little and gasped.

"Oh, sweet baby corn! I'm seeing a glint of hope in your eyes!"

Her statement jarred Nancy awake and brought her attention back to Molly. Her eyes opened more than usual before she lightly hopped up and down in excitement, which creeped Nancy out to an extent.

"Yup, I definitely see a very light uptick in joy! While not by much, it counts for something!"

As much as Nancy felt no change whatsoever, Molly immediately went back to her paper of Nancy's friendship progress and hastily colored in a very faint line above where the meter last stood. She even wrote the term "M.A.D" written near the top along with the actual phrasing underneath. Apparently, it read "Molly's and NAncy's FrienDship" which exemplified Molly's inconsistency with naming conventions, but also displayed the overall name she gave to the whole picture. While barely a change, the fact she made progress at all showed that the potential existed, but progressed at a snail's pace. Even so, Molly saw something in Nancy's attitude that signaled an increase even though the shrunken girl felt nothing.

She continued to smile toward Nancy until she felt some rumbling in her pocket. Not wanting to ignore such a feeling, Molly reached inside and pulled out her personal cell phone. She took one look at the screen before her mood instantly shifted.

"Oh, shoot! That time again? I've stayed focused on so many other things that I completely forgot!"

Before she could tell Nancy the news, they suddenly heard a loud outburst from Scratch. They hastily turned their heads toward the ghost and witnessed him as he vigorously rubbed some foil off of his tongue. He shook himself and wrung everything out like yesterday's laundry.

"BLECH! SOMEONE FILLED ONE OF THESE WITH DARK CHOCOLATE! WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS?!"

"I say he went a bit COCOAnuts for coins!"

Everyone in the room suddenly looked toward Molly's marked finger, which stood up and wiggled around as Molly's different pitched voice hit their hearing. Their pupils contracted, including Molly's, for a brief moment in awkward silence.

They made sure to not address it for the rest of the day.

---

As for what Molly's phone alerted her to, she only needed a quick trip downstairs to find out. Scratch grew rather curious and followed along, while Molly tucked Nancy away snugly in her pocket since she couldn't leave someone of her minuscule size alone. The rest of Molly's family sat around the dinner table as a very particular structure stood in the center, and they knew what it meant. Scratch would have felt his heart stop if he still had a body, for he never knew the McGees contained something of such substance and intrigue. It became that time every few months for the family.

They really displayed artistic talent from a small house made of Popsicle sticks.

While many considered it a children's activity, the McGees created something special from what many consider trash. Situated at a size around the common gingerbread house, all of the Popsicle sticks held it together and formed such durability that stood the test of time. While not perfect, especially from a few rather large gaps between sticks, nobody could ignore the incredible craftsmanship. They even made sure some spaces acted like open windows using a few open holes and the front door opened and shut with precision accuracy. One peek through one of the windows revealed an entire open room inside dotted with many pieces of stick furniture, including a few figures. From a couch with a shorter fourth leg, a makeshift television set, cupboards, a sink, to even a thick stick carpet it seemed too good for a simple family to ever construct together. Even one of the stick figures sat down on the couch and watched TV in the clever diorama while perfectly upright and coated in glue. As if the house needed more to exemplify the amazing workmanship between the McGees, they didn't stop at just the house. Laid out in front of the sticky establishment set a rather vast appearing yard of various trinkets which, like the house, also ended up made of Popsicle sticks. From a weird looking swing set, tree house, basketball hoop, to even a small dog house everything stood out like they wanted all eyes on them. Some displayed large gaps in them, but for the most part completion seemed imminent. While they never appeared to have painted or colored the diorama, every single stick kept something across their surfaces. Each one, even the ones inside the house, displayed a name of some kind and none of them repeated. At face value none would pay too much attention to such a detail, but for the McGees they maintained something very significant that only they truly understood. All in all, they may not have the artistic skills of Picasso, but their art always had a distinct touch no one could replicate.

Scratch couldn't take his eyes off of such splendor while Molly took her seat. Pete kept his attention on his plastic bag as he rummaged through it while Sharon continuously brought out Popsicle stick after Popsicle stick for something specific. Darrell ended up as the odd one out as he kept up a phone conversation and ignored everyone around him.

"…and you want how much for the petroleum jelly? Okay, I can deal with that. Uh huh. Uh huh. Well EXCUUUUUUUSE me for the timing! How should I have known you do ironing? If you want, I can send you some guys to cool off that burned ear for some extra coinage. Yeah, I have connections around here…"

As Nancy watched everyone across the table on their own agendas from the safety of Molly's pocket, part of her felt a bit down. Molly got to see her family gather around for a family activity, and yet she never had the chance to undergo the same thing for months. While she knew Olivia performed excellently to cover for her back at home, she wanted to see her parents and sister with her own eyes. Of course, she knew such desires became impossible as long as she remained bound and shrunken to the one who set off all of her troubles in the first place. Molly must have really considered herself the luckiest girl in the world to escape everything smitten across Nancy's unfortunate self, and yet she prospered like nothing happened. It really hurt her to see such a loving family together while she couldn't go through the same, like the indescribable dust mite reality described her as. Whatever the case the McGees had going for them with the diorama they created on the table, Nancy would never go through the same as the smallest kid in existence.

Scratch broke the ice first for good reason.

"DAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNG! You McGees kept something like THAT out of my sight?! And I thought I contained more secrets than all of you!"

"Well, we sort of only bring it out every few months or so depending on the circumstances." Molly answered.

Pete clenched his teeth as the sights inside the plastic bag carried some unfamiliarity for something specific.

"Come on! COME ON! I swear I left the Bernie stick in here!"

"Calm down honey, for I'm sure you probably just misplaced it." Sharon stated as she looked over another one of her sticks.

"Easy for you to say! You don't think two seconds about where to place yours!" Pete retorted as he dumped piles out of the bag. "I thoroughly plan everything for these momentous occasions!"

Darrell stared at his father rather nonchalantly as he put his phone down.

"You mean like the time when you hired that professional paraglider for our cousin's birthday and failed to account for the tennis court next to it?"

"Hey! The weather report stated no turbulent winds!" Pete responded. "You can't blame me for that!"

"Tell that to his burnt behind across the pavement." Darrell said. "Do I need to remind you about the transplant afterwards?"

Sharon shuddered at the thought before she chimed in.

"Yeesh! Please don't remind me. I still haven't gotten over the fact that they couldn't find a donor. I thoroughly wanted to scrub the image out of my brain!"

"And yet the doctors reported 'No end in sight.'" Darrell said with a brief glare at his dad.

Pete and Darrell stared at each other for a few more seconds before Pete went back to rushing through his bag. Before too long however, Scratch brought up the obvious question.

"So, what exactly do you have in mind with this…stick house? As much as I'm impressed with your craftsmanship, this sounds a bit…out of it compared to everything else I've known about all of you."

"Oh, it goes back around the time we started to move around before we settled here." Molly explained. "Basically, for every friend we make in our travels we get to place a Popsicle stick with their name on it anywhere on the model to build whatever we want!"

"Of course, if anything remains incomplete we have to make another friend if we want to finish it." Darrell added. "I'm actually almost complete with the pet three headed hydra. I named him Juan!"

He pointed out a particular spot on the model where a large lump of sticks stood high with three long sticks up top. They could make out some small horns on two of them, but not the third. A stick near the back also seemed like it had some extras on it, but not by much.

"Oh, I thought that represented a garbage pile in the yard." Scratch said.

Darrell shook his head.

"Not when I'm finally finished with it. Just need to make a few more friends to finish the horns and tail spikes before I start on the next one."

"Another hydra?" Molly asked. "What could you possibly want out of that?"

"His twin brother." Darrell responded. "I want to create an amazing stand off between the two of them right in the front yard! I mean, how awesome would it look to see a giant monster fight in front of your own house?!"

"I'd probably run for my life, but I see your point." Scratch said. "Does the other have a name too?"

"Yeah. I named him Juan."

"I thought you named the first one Juan."

"I did! They both have the same name."

"And why would you do that?"

"So I can make an excuse to call their fight a 'Juan on Juan!'"

Molly, Scratch, and even Nancy stared rather blankly and unimpressed at Darrell for such a rather corny quip while the younger brother laughed a couple of times. He then carefully picked up one of his sticks and broke off a piece before he placed it atop the lump for one of the hydra's horns. They could barely make out the name "Jeremy M." written in marker on it.

"Aha! I finally found it!" Pete exclaimed as he held up a Popsicle stick in triumph. "Nobody take the open spots on the roof! I clearly have a design in mind!"

"Sure you do." Sharon muttered as she finally concluded on her own stick.

With no extra time to waste, Pete hastily glued his "Bernie H." Popsicle stick and cautiously placed it over one of the open spaces on the house's roof. He lightly giggled as the piece fit perfectly before he immediately went back to his plastic bag. As if to reinforce the masterpiece of sticks to everyone in the room, Scratch went up to the house and compressed himself until he could fit inside before he opened the front door. Surprisingly it opened with no issues, and yet Scratch still made his way inside. Almost immediately they heard him loudly gasp.

"No way! You guys even created dishes and…a fully fledged three layered cake out of all of this flat wood?! I may need to call Da Vinci because I'VE FOUND THE NEW CRAFTING GENIUSES!"

They then heard some licking noises from inside which soon turned into spitting sounds.

"Okay, I probably should have expected tastelessness with that."

"Hey! Hands off our hard work on the Friend Ship!" Darrell stated.

As if on cue, the family watched Scratch exit the small model and expand back to his regular height. However, he also had another question to ask.

"Friend whatnow? You gave the whole creation a name?"

"We decided on such early on." Sharon answered as Pete brought out dozens of marked stick. from his stash. "Initially we settled on a model ship, but as we obtained more and more materials it soon shaped into, well, that house. Molly came up with the name."

Molly instantly joyfully smiled widely while she gave the others a thumbs up. The other followed suit as everything added up in Scratch's head.

"Ohhhhhhh, now I get it. That explains the makeshift captain's wheel above the entryway in there. Also, why am I not surprised to hear Molly settle on that name?"

"I mean…it was the most appropriate at the time!" Molly added. "It'll get even better when I also add…THIS!"

The others watched as Molly brought up a particular plastic bag of her own and ran through it almost as anxiously as her father. Before long, she immediately reached inside and grabbed what she wanted.

"BEHOLD!"

She then eagerly raised her hand in the air as she held her almighty object. Everyone else kept their attention on her and gazed up at what Molly created, and it took all of them by surprise. In one of the most detailed and appealing models ever made by McGee hands, Molly displayed her own special one crafted in the shape of a mythical creature known for catching the eyes of young girls everywhere. While a bit plump from all of the stubs after many Popsicle stick, everyone clearly saw the vivid shape of a winged horse straight out of tall tales. Molly seemed to have broken up many sticks in order to shape the body into the perfect shape, and the legs even appeared to have extra layers which increased the thickness and exemplified the hooves at the bottom. About a few dozens of sticks, including some broken up ones, made up both of the horse's wings even if the stiffness broke the illusion a little bit. She included a few stick stubs that gave off the appearance of coats of feathers, although large splotches of glue covered some of them which she couldn't solve. Some of the smallest pieces stayed hear the top that made up the head and eyes, while the thinnest near the back made up the horse's mane. Molly really gave it her all when she displayed her special "winged horsey" to her family, and some almost couldn't believe that she created it with her own two hands. They knew Molly liked all of the sugar and spice that made up a regular girl, but never on the level of creating the concoction herself.

"Whoa! When did you have the time to make that?!" Sharon asked in astonishment. "You really outdone yourself!"

"Thanks mom!" Molly replied. "As for when I crafted this, well, it took few weeks. I still needed some friends for some extra Popsicle sticks to spruce up some details. Once I made friends with everyone in Brighton I had more than enough to work with!"

Scratch took a closer look at the winged horse model for a split second.

"While I may not have the mindset of a mathematician, I know Brighton doesn't have that much in terms of sticks when it comes to population."

"Correct, good buddy!" Molly replied while slightly giddy. "A lot of these sticks also come from my stint in the Ghost World! I sure made HUNDREDS of new friends from the other side, and this reflects all of the friendships made! See? I even included yours up front!"

Scratch didn't quite understand the last part until Molly pointed it out for him near the horse's face. Low and behold, he saw a Popsicle stick with his name on it written in bright bold pink letters across the forehead to the point where it ended up as the most obvious name to notice out of the rest around it. In retrospect, he actually really liked the fact that she made sure his name stuck out, especially after everything they've been through together. To think he started off as a grouch that accidentally cursed himself to a soothing spook who made friends with a human sounded straight out of the deepest corners of the Ghost World, and yet he accomplished the impossible. Molly changed him for the better, and he couldn't thank her enough for it.

He still required one more answer out of her though.

"And how have you managed to obtain the hundreds necessary for all of it?"

"Easy!" Molly responded. "Remember when I let you consume all of those Popsicles during the hottest day of the year after we couldn't get that one kiddie pool?"

Almost immediately Scratch's expression went blank as a portion of his head opened up which revealed his ghostly brain…completely encased in a large block of ice.

"Not even constant trips to the basement heater thawed this Minnesota winter yet."

"And I'm greatly thankful for your contribution to my Molly masterpiece." Molly replied with a cheesy smile. "I only need to place the horn on its head and I can call this finished for the Popsicle house!"

"Uhhhh, sis?" Darrell asked while he tilted his head. "Didn't you already finish that flying horse?"

Molly cocked an eyebrow in Darrell's direction.

"Flying horse? This ain't a flying horse, silly! I'm making a winged unicorn for the front yard, and it'll end up as the family pet! It helps to achieve my long lost fantasy of caring for one, especially after SOOO many letters to the nearest stables."

Scratch's face went blank once again.

"You serious went that extra mile…and pestered an entire stable…for something completely unreal…"

"Wait. So I DIDN'T suddenly go crazy with all of those missing stacks?!" Sharon exclaimed. "I thought the rogue bat in the attic hoarded them away the entire time! I even prepared protective pads from Pete's previous encounter!"

"Hey! Leave Mr. Nibbles out of the equation!" Scratch stated. "You'd sing a different tune if he brought back something YOU liked!"

"Can everyone stay quiet for once while I CREATE THIS ONE OF A KIND SWING SET?!" Pete exclaimed as he held onto an in progress Popsicle stick swing for the house.

His eye twitched while he grasped the pieces of wood like they served as his only life line, which immediately told the others to let him have his time. He clearly took the whole project as more than just a model, and if they upset him more he likely would destroy all of their hard work in an instant. Because of the risk, the others calmed down while he connected a few more pieces and pasted glue across them. He let them know that they should get back to work on their own parts to add, which they went for when everything settled down. One person's upset became another person's relaxation.

Darrell watched Molly go through her own bag while he went back to his own piece.

"Of course she wants to place her part between the 'Juan on Juan'." Darrell thought.

Molly eagerly opened her bag and scanned her eyes over every inch for one final stick to use as the horn for her unicorn. After ventures throughout both Brighton and the Ghost World she more than not created hundreds of new friends for one final finishing touch. She already placed Scratch's name on the unicorn's head, and while she forgot where she placed Libby's she made extra sure to have hers in big bold letters to show how much she meant to her time since she moved permanently to the small town. Just one more stick to finally end her next piece for the family model. Her mind raced to conclude on who to pick, especially for something as important as a unicorn's horn. With so many friends under her belt, she had plenty of options to choose from.

…if any remained.

Her heart stuttered for a brief second as a window broke inside her head. Her pupils shrank as she ran her fingers over every inch of the bag, but nothing appeared. At one point she even stuck her head inside just to make sure she missed nothing, and yet she came out empty handed. Her smile went straight while her back became stilted and unresponsive, which set off alarms to her dead bestie close by. She couldn't believe her eyes at the phenomenon she encountered from within her own personal stash. Hundreds upon hundreds of friends locked their friendships with the young girl, and yet she came up short.

She lacked one final friend to call her masterpiece complete.

"Uhhhh, Molly? You okay?" Scratch asked.

She instantly shot all of the red flags in the world as she exchanged gazes between herself and her ghostly buddy. Her skin lightly went pale as she looked at him like a deer in headlights.

"Ummmm…" Molly stammered as she scrambled for words. "Errrrrr, yes! I'm thoroughly okay! I just, uhhhhhhhhh, need to finalize the perfect Popsicle stick! Yeah! I can't just make a finishing touch, uhhhhhhhh, without a friend that deserves it more than anything!"

His eyes narrowed as beads of sweat dropped from Molly's forehead.

"Since when did you suddenly care so much about this…Popsicle house? From what I've seen, your father seems like the most dedicated-"

"DON'T DISTRACT ME! I'M ABOUT TO GLUE LARRY!" Pete interjected as he grasped the stick with the aforementioned name closely.

Everyone else just stared at him for a split second as he carefully attached the stick to a short piece that appeared like a swing. He still needed one more to attach it completely, so he rummaged through his bag again for the perfect piece…which made the others deeply sigh. Right when he found it, he went back to work with the glue. Pete really ended up as the Picasso that required everything to align perfectly for his creation.

With the brief moment to herself, Molly silently glanced downward toward her pocket where the shrunken one peeked out cautiously. She stayed mute for the most part while everyone else around her performed most of the talking, but even if she found a chance she likely wouldn't go for it due to her secrecy out of the public eye. Both girls locked eyes for a few moments before Nancy muttered something to herself and due her head into her shirt. She really desired to avoid attention, and with everything drastically bigger than her she pretty much locked herself up for pretty much everyone. The fact that she still disliked Molly came as no surprise to the few that knew of her existence and fate, which left her out of the Popsicle stick club. She couldn't call Molly a friend as long as her future stayed locked and miniaturized with the one who brought all of the problems in the first place.

…but Molly intended to fix all of it.

---

The family spent the next few minutes wrapping up their finishing touches on the model before they stowed it away and went back to their own agendas. For Molly, Scratch, and Nancy, it basically meant more time to work on their short series of videos based on a classic fairy tale. Molly made sure to tone down her aggression when the camera rolled while the other two went through their own roles like normal. Molly wanted to connect with Nancy more anyway and she performed well despite her stature as the smallest kid in the world. Out of all of it though, Molly just felt glad to finally act out as the biggest girl in existence, even though she set herself as the antagonist in the videos, which further increased her desires to find a way to act it out for real. She held back so much happiness and joy in her role as the big one that she took a few moments between cuts to calm herself down, which Scratch and Nancy didn't quite understand when they happened. They knew Molly always thought out everything like she kept a few screws loose, but they never questioned it. She acted out in her own personal manner after all, and they couldn't change it. All in all, nothing but a long beanstalk, a poor girl, a masochistic goose, and a giant Molly McGee became their personas for the rest of the day.

Once they received their fair share of antics, the sun finally set as the moon took over. Like always, Molly carefully brought Nancy into her grasp before she placed her at the topmost shelf near her bed while she made herself comfortable. The shrunken one shuddered before she went under her small piece of cloth for a blanket and drifted off to sleep. She dropped a couple of tears and sniffed a few times while she silently wept to herself, but for the most part she stayed asleep. Nothing but a comfortable sleep became everyone's top priority under the covers, including the dead.

…but not for a specific jolly girl.

Scratch sawed logs while he called his small dollhouse his own personal getaway. After an exhausting day with someone who blew all of her energy in one go, he needed some peace and quiet to himself. His dreams often included an endless paradise of tacos or the perfect vacation spot for ghosts, so he very much disliked anyone who disturbed his sleep. Too bad he often ended up prone to premature awakenings, especially from Molly, but he often performed his best to not get upset at her. Just because he became cranky didn't mean he should take it out on his best friend. Even he deserved some personal time to sleep in the land of the living.

As if fate wanted a repeat of all of the unfortunate times, he wouldn't get too much time on the particular night. One moment he continued through his own REM cycle, then the next his eyes shot awake from one strong bang. His small house shook, which stirred him into reality to the point where his eyes flew open, and the next thing he knew one huge roll of paper set dormant right through the open window. Once his mind recollected everything up to that point, the ghost lightly groaned as he floated out of his comfy bed. Sometimes he wished he could outfit Molly with a muzzle just so he could get a good night sleep.

"This better have some importance, Mol." Scratch thought as he rubbed his eyes and floated over to the rolled paper.

It required some elbow grease to pull open, but eventually Scratch mustered through and laid the long piece across his tiny bedroom. He would have turned on the lights in his house, but he wanted to keep Nancy asleep so he wouldn't have two cranky girls to pay attention to. Instead, he changed from his amorphous normal shape into a ghostly flashlight, and with the newfound light he read the message on the front in full.

Meet me in the downstairs basement bathroom. I have to talk to you privately about something. Don't wake Nancy, okay? Love, your bestie of besties, Molly.

Scratch changed back into his regular shape and lightly groaned. Of course she would want him during the worst time of the day for activities, and yet she urgently needed him nonetheless.

"If she goes off on another tangent about how elephants can be cute, I'm going to bail in an instant." Scratch muttered.

Scratch shook himself awake as best as he could before drowsily floated downward and phased through the ground. He popped his head briefly outside to make sure Nancy still slept, which she did, before he phased through more floors and grew back to his normal size. Thanks to his ghost abilities he only took a few seconds to reach the basement, where he noticed the bathroom door shut as light shimmered from the crack underneath. The ghost shook his head before he phased through and groggily focused his sight forward. After a few extra moments he managed to finally see a very worried appearing Molly as she sat on the toilet. As if on instinct, he instantly yelped and shot his eyes open. If he accidentally made his way inside during a rather…awkward moment…

Right as he finished though, Molly quickly shot herself forward and covered his mouth with one of her hands.

"Shhhhhh! I don't want anyone else awake, Scratch!" Molly stated.

Scratch required a few moments to catch up before he settled down.

"Well EXCUUUUUSE me for thinking I accidentally trespassed into an inconvenient situation. I know girls on toilets live longer than the boys who unexpectedly waltz across them, but even though I'm already dead I'm no stranger to courtesy now and then!"

Molly's eyes went dead for a moment.

"You seriously think I would call you during those times?" Molly said in a rather deadpan tone.

"I mean…you never know! YEESH!" Scratch replied as his cheeks went slightly red. "Unexpectancy comes with your family after all!"

An awkward stillness blew through the air for a few moments before the two settled down a bit.

"Okay…okay. I may have gotten a bit heated, but I didn't catch too many winks before you called for me. So…what do you have on your mind?"

With the clash of expressions now ceased, Molly slowly glanced over to the side and weirdly rubbed her shoulder with one of her hands. Her eyes dipped a little as she took a deep worried breath that gave Scratch some red flags.

"I…don't have any more sticks for my unicorn." Molly said in a slight nervous tone.

Now Scratch became the one with dead eyes aimed at the other.

"You called me up out of my sleep…for that minor inconvenience." Scratch said in a deadpanned tone. "And I thought I went crazy ever since I met you."

"No, no, no! I'm not talking about that specifically!" Molly replied. "Despite the hundreds of friends I've made over the years combined with the numbers since I arrived in Brighton, I'm missing ONE SINGLE FRIEND to wrap my creation up! A unicorn can't call itself one without, you know, A HORN!"

Molly groaned while she dug her head into her hand. While she didn't cry, Scratch felt her sorrows eat at her which knocked him down a peg or two.

"Ohhhhhhkayyyyyy." Scratch responded. "So you can't just, I don't know, make another friend? I mean, come on! You're Molly! You can make friends with nearly anyone!"

Molly glanced back up toward her ghost buddy.

"And who would you suggest after I basically befriended everyone in Brighton AND the Ghost World?"

Scratch took her question somewhat seriously and pondered for a few moments, Surprisingly, no matter how much he ran over everything he knew, everything came up blank. His eyes opened widely for a split second before he he glanced down at the sad Molly once more, for even she could tell he pretty much showed up empty handed. The young ecstatic tween really exhausted everyone she knew into her well rounded friendship circle and left no visible options left.

"Ohhhhhhhhh. Now I get your drift." Scratch responded. "Even so, surely you can find someone else, right? You've done so much this seems like next to nothing!"

Molly deeply sighed again as her mood dipped while she glanced downward.

"Well…I know possibly one…"

"You…do?" Scratch asked.

Scratch immediately received a face full of Molly as she nearly got up right into his face in a lightly crazy manner.

"Don't you know of one single TEENY TINY detail who STILL considers me the enemy behind ALL of her troubles?"

The twitches in one of her eyes left all of the serious pouring out of her that unnerved Scratch to a certain extent. Even so, he couldn't just ignore her strict question and ran through all of the options in his head. At first nothing showed up, especially since she made it clear that she befriended everyone she knew earlier, and yet he would have went dry on ideas for a second time…until he glanced into the corner. There he completely missed the almost obvious answer he looked for, and after all of the hassles since then he nearly surprised himself that he never concluded on them earlier. To think out of everyone to possibly elude Molly's friendship they would have constantly showed up again and again in front of her face, but in the end the tween could barely see her. It almost seemed like he lost a million brain cells, but even someone of his IQ understood the answer once he learned of her existence and fate.

"Oh my gosh! I…I almost forgot about the midget for a second there!" Scratch responded before he added to it. "After everything that occurred since you miniaturized her, I'm not surprised she STILL hasn't called you a close friend yet."

Molly immediately backed off of Scratch and drooped a little before she deeply sighed again.

"I know! I can't believe after all the time spent with us…she hasn't called me a friend in any aspect. How can the MISSION Squad continue if the one they want to save outright DESPISES their leader?!"

Scratch listed off the many incidents that occurred ever since Nancy came into contact with Molly.

"Well, you barred her from her normal life for months, left her as a speck on the ground, opened up outrageous happenings centered around her, delayed progress on her reversal to focus on everyone else, basically ate her up which nearly destroyed the Ghost World, nearly stomped on her multiple times, left her with numerous nightmares, humiliated her over the internet, left her worried for her safety at every angle, provided false hope that she would ever change back-"

"I thought friends comforted one another, Scratch." Molly interjected.

Scratch suddenly stopped counting the problems on his fingers, including the new ones that sprouted up, before he shifted topics a bit.

"Well…you could try to start up another scavenger hunt to bring you and the midget together. I mean, it worked for me and Libby, soooooooo…"

Molly shook her head.

"Nope, that won't work. Nancy can't exactly go out in public at her current size, and even if she could…"

Both Molly and Scratch shared the same thought as a very tiny Nancy appeared on the ground. She stood calmly before a shadow covered her from above which caught her attention. She screamed immediately before Molly's bright pink and yellow shoe crushed her from above. Her shoe raised back up which revealed the spooky pitch black ghost of Nancy's soul, which sent chills down Molly's and Scratch's spines…even though Scratch lacked one. One mishap will result in her joining Scratch. A scavenger hunt wouldn't suffice for the dilemma between the tiny and huge girls.

"Okay, I see your point." Scratch responded. "Even so, didn't you also want the midget to take her time to get used to you?"

"Yes Scratch, I did say that." Molly replied. "Still, we've gone for months and she barely made a dent in my attitude chart. These last couple of nights…I heard her as she cried herself to sleep. It really hurts to know that she still feels like a prisoner in our vicinity, despite everything I've done to make sure she gets used to me quicker. Look at this fine print!"

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Molly swiftly brought out the piece of paper that cataloged Nancy's progress toward a possible friendship between them. The last time Scratch witnessed the piece of paper it barely displayed any rising color, and now…it seemed nothing changed. After the incident that left her stuck with Molly and Scratch she closed the doors to her personality tightly to them. While they knew Nancy had at least one friend to open up to, she…rubbed everyone else the wrong way. The less Molly thought about the devoted goth girl the better, and even Scratch appeared to want to never get near her. Despite the one exception though, Nancy left her progress in a rather stagnant position.

"…and this worries me how?" Scratch asked while slightly unsure.

"Well…you're a member of the MISSION Squad, remember?" Molly said. "All of us have to assist in any way possible to restore Nancy to normal, including having many friends! More friends equals more fun! Besides…you like Nancy deep down, don'tcha Scratchy?"

Scratch glared at Molly for a few split seconds before he huffed and snorted through his long nose. As much as he wanted to completely dunk on Nancy for sending more weirdness across Brighton, especially since they seemed to start after she shrunk, something held him back from doing so. He squeezed he brain throughout everything he'd seen and experienced since, which further lowered his sanity whenever something happened. She still pinned the blame on her and didn't appreciate her much, but he didn't outright hate her. For such a set of phenomenons around the town, as much as he couldn't wrap his brain around most of them he couldn't just keep the shrunken girl in the center of all of it. In retrospect, he also had a chart to mark progress over his tolerance of her presence, and they both still had much to learn about each other. She showed a sliver of positivity toward him before since she gave him the special beanbag chair, so if she could move her attitude inch by inch it seemed reasonable for him to go through something similar. Nancy may have an attitude problem to fix toward Molly, but Scratch also needed to fix his toward the speck of a girl.

"Okay, okay. I get the message, Mol." Scratch replied. "Even so, I'm not one to get involved with the two of you. Have you even gotten to know her?"

"Well, I know a few!" Molly answered. "Of course I don't know enough to personally go buddy-buddy and hang out like actual-"

The giant rocks for wheels rolled around while the gears turned. Molly appeared to stare off into space for a few seconds as she tried to comprehend the words she just uttered. She didn't know too much about Nancy despite the months together because of their rocky connection, which ultimately kept the tiny one's mouth shut over everything about her. No matter how much Molly prodded her for information, including one of her massive digits, Nancy clammed up for the most part. Despite everything about her staying locked away, a few details managed to creep out like her autism. Even so, Molly lacked enough to understand her completely. If she wanted to understand more about her shrunken friend, she needed to go to someone very close to her.

…and her best option personally disliked her to the point where she wouldn't even consider herself close to the joyous one.

Molly expressed a rather goofy smile as she glanced over to her ghostly bestie.

"Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch. Do you mind handling a very TEENSIE WEENSIE favor for little ol' Molly here?"

Scratch remained unimpressed.

"That depends. What do you have in mind?"

Molly would have gone off about her idea if a certain ringtone never chimed in soon after. The two jolted upward for a split second before Molly hastily ran through her pockets for something specific. Right when she located it her fingers grasped it and brought it out. As a thoroughly maturing girl, she always kept a cellphone with her even though she mostly used it to post pictures of puppies around Brighton, but for now something different occurred. Because of the brief sound it made she knew nobody directly called her, but texted instead. At first she wondered who would do such a thing at the current time of night, although once her eyes noticed the contact info it became rather obvious.

Molly lightly squealed with delight while she opened up the text, but her smile quickly disappeared once she saw the contents. Scratch sneaked a peek at the screen and frowned.

"I don't think he realizes that code words only work if both sides understand the meanings."

"Yeeeeeaaaah. I might need to speak to him about that." Molly responded before she tepidly chuckled and felt goosebumps.

Out of everything to have happened since Molly saved the Ghost World, reality shook the girl's world the moment she met some new neighbors, the Chens, across the street. On the surface they appeared completely normal as if everything in their lives worked in their favor, but as the McGees learned more about them it nearly stunned all of them once their professions as expert ghost hunters came to light. The youngest one of the family, June, even had autism just like Nancy, although she clearly didn't share the same mental gymnastics Nancy felt on a daily basis. Of the four members of the family though, Molly shared a rather captivating interest in the older brother named Oliver. While Scratch strained himself from getting recollections of the shapeshifter Olivia, Molly fell head over heels for the rather smart guy. He stood a tab bit taller than Molly and maintained an expression that kept her eyes on the prize. His hair stayed at a rather flat angle but stylized in a fashion that captivated the young tween girl's personality. In terms of an attire, he went rather basic compared to more flashier designs. A dark blue shirt combined with a typical white undershirt may have given off vibes akin to more casual types, and yet they blended in like everyone else in Brighton. They had to give it to him for his jeans though, for they stylized well with his overall appearance which ultimately made sure they never contrasted in color. Out of everyone to possibly land into Molly's life, she couldn't have asked for anyone better in terms of a potential crush. At face value, they seemed like everyday neighbors that moved in to have better lives…with the major ghost hunting caveat.

"You know you'll have to tell him about Nancy, right?" Scratch said. "I mean, you revealed me to him after a series of shenanigans, so it seems reasonable to-"

"Yes, Scratch. I'll have him learn about Nancy at some point, but…not now." Molly interrupted. "He already has a lot to comprehend, and…I don't want to completely overwhelm him, okay? Let's just focus on getting Nancy to like me more…and as much as I don't want to bring her up…out of everyone to know my tiny friend better than anyone…"

She locked eyes with Scratch pretty worryingly which the ghost didn't appreciate too well.

"I have a feeling I know the certain 'dark one' you speak of, and let me say…I'm so glad I'm not you right now."

---

Molly and Scratch waited until morning to finally act. Scratch explained to Nancy that Molly needed some time away from all of the hassles after all of the craziness, which meant he had to watch over the tiny one in her absence. As much as Nancy appreciated time away from the one that caused her shrinkage in the first place, she ended up with her hands full when she started to dry heave. While she wanted time to herself, she couldn't when only her and Scratch stayed in the same room. As for the ghost, he tried his hardest in Molly's absence to make sure nobody else knew of her existence and status in the world of normal sized people…although her heaving almost made him wanted to empty himself out too. For once he understood how babysitters felt when they needed to watch over an infant, as he probably would have accidentally left one on a boat in the middle of nowhere from one single distraction anywhere else. Nancy may not have eaten yet, but her stomach disagreed as the pain spiked across her tiny body. Suffice to say, both ghost and shrunken girl found themselves in a rather colorful situation where both of them needed some sort of compromise until Molly got back. They may not have such animosity compared to the connection between the big and small girls, but they lacked such grand positivity either.

All parties arrived at the town's famous ice cream shop, the Sweets & Treats, where Molly's target sat in silence next to her "best" friend. As much as Molly loved the atmosphere inside, only one specific idea lingered in her head as she eyed down the occupied table. The rather joyous clerk currently had her hands full with another customer, so she didn't quite have anything on the menu at first. Her back crawled from top to bottom once she saw the one person with the demeanor she didn't quite like, but if Nancy tolerated such a personality it seemed reasonable for her to deal with it as well. At least the split image of the timid tiny one sat next to her with her head down, albeit regular sized as if nothing bad happened, which eased Molly up a little. As long as her eye contact stayed at a minimum the less of the disturbed creepiness seeped into her soul. She desired happiness and joy after all, so for someone who stuck around in the dark Molly wanted none of it. While her choice of happiness stayed in the light, for Nancy's best friend her choices couldn't have remained any further into the darkness…which Molly detested.

Molly slowly made her way over to the table rather nervously while Katrina's snake eyes stared her down.

"Well, well, well. Look at what the black cat dragged in." Katrina said while she tapped her fingers against the table. "I see one rather infamous Cake Crasher in my presence."

"Yeah, I…I still hear that every now and then." Molly replied rather shakily. "I see Nancy decided to join up too."

"Nancy" shot Molly one rather nervous glance before she looked over to Katrina. For someone who filled in for the actual person while they dealt with their own problems, she pretty much acted like a split image of her. Of course she knew the real personality underneath all of the sheepishness, and she still couldn't handle her rather crazy nature at times. For now, she displayed no such weakness so nobody suspected anything. She had to give it to Olivia, for none of the MISSION Squad work wouldn't have ended up possible without her expertise in cover ups…which also drove Scratch nuts.

"Nancy" muttered something under her breath while Katrina spoke for her.

"We had some time to figure out together before you called up. I would have figured you wanted some information straight from the horse's mouth, but I understand why you wanted me by her side."

She kept the details under wraps in public, but her choice of words informed the ones who knew the real facts underneath. Molly had to hand it to her for hiding the real problems out of the public eye, but her hobbies lead most away from her in the end…minus Nancy. While bewildered as to how Nancy befriended someone like Katrina, the more she questioned it the more her head hurt. The less she thought about it the better. Katrina knew how to talk even with her dark interests.

"Nancy" glanced over to Katrina for a quick moment before she silently nodded in agreement. Katrina snickered while Molly worryingly expressed herself like some had her up for a prison mugshot.

"Sooooooo…you'll tell me everything you know about her then?" Molly asked while she lukewarmly chuckled…just to quell her overbearing nervousness.

Katrina's eyes narrowed intensely like a cobra or gorgon, and she left Molly petrified in coats of stone even though she bared no lethal weapons. "Nancy" only watched in silence, although she mutely scooted closer to her best friend as if she desired some comfort.

"What do you have of interest to me?" Katrina asked.

"Excuse me?" Molly replied tepidly.

Katrina got right in front of the tween's face which left Molly more nervous than ever.

"If you want the information out of me, you'll have to make it worth my while. After that STUNT you pulled against my best friend, I can't exactly leave you off the hook. Pay up and THEN we'll talk."

It should have as no surprise that she wanted some type of extra payment ever since she made it clear that she disliked the domino effect Molly set ever since she embarrassed Nancy to the world and set off her shrinkage. She heavily disliked Molly despite her adoration everywhere in Brighton, and her creepiness left the goth girl out of the question in terms of one final friend to complete her unicorn. At least she saw something in Nancy that may steer her in the right direction of friendship, but Katrina definitely lacked such an opening. She completely shooed away all of the deafening questions as to how Nancy became friends with her while the grim girl herself stared her down. As much as she wanted to make a deal to obtain the information she desperately needed, she also wanted to bolt at the sight and forget the altercation never happened. Friendships don't always propagate daisies during the first few steps after all.

Molly comically bit her lip as drops of sweat fell from her face while she struggled to conclude on an offer, but before she could possibly answer the careful shapeshifter made her move first. As Katrina bound a very terrified Molly in place, "Nancy" slowly went over and whispered something in her friend's ear. While Molly couldn't hear what she said, the expression across Katrina's face told her that she finally had a moment to loosen some tension. Once "Nancy" pulled back Katrina's gaze lessened but remained somewhat cross toward the often joyous tween. She definitely heard something to lightly change her mood.

Katrina gazed thoroughly into Molly's soul one more time before she spoke up again.

"Alright, I've seen enough to know that all of us need to simmer a bit. Cake Crasher, you want a few scoops or not?"

Almost immediately her words caught Molly's attention. She went from dangerous aggressor to supportive teddy bear in a brief flash, which caught her off guard. While confused as to why she settled on delicious ice cream, Molly couldn't ignore the offer. She did it before with Libby on multiple occasions because of their close friendship, so her assumptions lead her toward something similar even though Katrina still called her by the online moniker given by fans, especially Andrea. While still creeped out to no end by everything Katrina stood for and the fact they hadn't settled everything yet, ignorance against creamy delights sounded like something straight out of a person who despised joy.

"Well, errrrr, I…take some, I guess." Molly answered rather unnervingly.

Katrina and "Nancy" both nodded their heads in her direction before they brought themselves out of their seats and headed for the shop's counter. The last customer just finished up their order which left the clerk available, which the three girl took with no hesitations. The often happy woman at the cash register kept her smile up even after Katrina arrived on the premises, which lifted Molly's nervousness a little as they made their orders.

"I'll…I'll go for the…rocky road, please." "Nancy" said while she twiddled her thumbs.

"I'll take the sugary cotton candy sundae flavor, if you don't mind." Molly said as she smiled lightly.

"Okay! Coming right up!" the clerk replied before she glanced over to Katrina.

As for the eleven year old goth girl, she never uttered a single word in the woman's direction. Instead, she locked eyes with the adult and silently nodded which prompted a nod back. The woman slightly smiled as she brought out three large cones and scooped all of the girl's orders. A few plops into the cones later and all three of them held their orders while Katrina dropped some quarters on the counter. Once all parties became content the girls headed back to their table and sat back down, which Molly took as an indication to start licking. Her choice of flavor likewise displayed an entire shade of pink while small star shaped sprinkles dotted the top, which she adored. As for the shapeshifter, hers ended up a mix of vanilla and chocolate while chocolate chips and stayed remained engraved into the confection. Katrina settled on a rather weird purple colored surface combined with some black jagged shapes akin to something like bat wings. Suffice to say, everyone enjoyed their choices.

Molly vigorously went aggressive with her licks as her tastes buds relished in the pure cotton candy flavor while Katrina and "Nancy" went a bit slower. Even so, Molly still had a question from the display up at the counter.

"If I may ask, how did the clerk understand what you wanted without a single word? Seems…kind of unsettling in a certain sense."

"Let's just say…I know more about this place than you think." Katrina replied before she licked her ice cream. "Now, have you calmed down enough so we can discuss everything further?"

Molly's licking screeched to a halt once she heard Katrina's question. "Nancy" seemed to have seen the nervous tension built up in her face and asked for the ice cream in an attempt to calm her down, at least from what Molly concluded on. Out of everyone to possibly attempt to simmer her down, Katrina appeared near the bottom of the list. If she despised her that much after everything that happened to Nancy, it sounded almost counter intuitive to act like she cared for her with a delectable treat. Even so, she didn't want to bite the hand that fed her. While it calmed her down somewhat, Molly's nervousness still strapped her in for uncomfortableness.

She licked her ice cream a few more times before she replied back.

"Umm, that…depends." Molly responded. "I still need what you know about, well…"

Molly shot the timid girl doppelganger a very short glance as she quietly ate her own confection. Katrina slurped up some of her purple ice cream before she answered.

"Then let me make this as clean as I can so you can engrave it into that desolate head of yours." Katrina explained. "After what you did, I DO NOT LIKE YOU. Very few have managed to anger me as much as you have, and yet…you still came to me for assistance. Want to win me over? I seriously doubt that will happen anytime soon, and yet the look in your eyes bleeds seriousness. Despite my immense hatred for you, I won't turn this down…if you can make it worth my while."

Katrina rubbed her fingers together like she held coins while Molly shuddered like someone just ripped apart a stuffed animal in front of her. Molly's licks became more vigorous in an attempt to settle down, which slowly began to make a mess around her.

"What, uhhhhhh…do you want exactly?" Molly asked with a few stutters.

Katrina's gaze shot venom that seethed into Molly's veins. Molly's ice cream dripped everywhere from her licks as the pressure almost became too much for her. If Katrina wanted her dead she held the deadliness to do so while Molly wriggled to break free. The struggles to stay away from Nancy's dark friend left her as a worried wreck to the point where she likely would have kicked her out of the MISSION Squad entirely if not for the fact that the shrunken girl herself kept her as a close friend. No other person in Brighton likely never fathomed the fact that someone befriended a goth girl like Katrina, and yet Nancy somehow pulled through for her. She felt trapped within the own confines of her sheer anxiety while the opposition reveled in her misfortune. Katrina made it obvious that if you messed with anyone she cared about…you would pay the ultimate price.

Molly almost wanted to not hear a response from Katrina, and yet she already made a mess of her ice cream in a failed attempt to calm down. Before long though, the goth girl let her have it.

"I want you…to get your stupid boyfriend and his family off of my case."

Almost immediately, Molly halted as her tongue paused mid lick. She heard some tires screech in her head while her mind comprehended what came out of Katrina's mouth. Out of every possibility to add into the equation, such a request never fazed into the tween's head. She could have demanded for her spleen or a limb but in the end desired something right out of left field. Even the Nancy lookalike looked at her in slight surprise but still stayed mute for the most part. Blood became completely unnecessary for the satisfaction of Nancy's best friend, which provided some well deserved relief from Molly's end. She would live another day.

After a few more seconds, Molly completely sank into her seat while her drained and rather comical expression spelled out everything in terms of her feelings. Her heart throbbed in a rather cheesy fashion as she caught her breath from such a herculean set of circumstances.

"Errrrrr, what?" Molly said in a rather guilty tone and expression. "Me…having a crush on him? HAHAHAHAH! I have to admit Katrina, you have a very great sense of-"

"Cut the act Cake Crasher, for I already know." Katrina interrupted rather blatantly. "Again, I know A LOT more than you think. You can untie your underwear though, for I'm not that cruel to spill the beans on something I'm completely uninterested in…to an extent."

The fact that she somehow learned of her crush on Ollie without her awareness left more pressure in the room that Molly barely hung on to. The tension started to come back to her in a way where she immediately went back to licking her ice cream…which barely had anything left. At that point she began to lick the cone as if her life depended on it, which left the other two slightly confused at her display.

"Soooooo…what do you want me to do?" Molly asked between licks.

"Again, I want you to get them off of my back." Katrina answered. "Ever since they've arrived here I've always stayed on their radar. Just because I live the way I do they think I must have some connection with the dead, and let me say…I'm NOT someone who enjoys jerks that peep into the bathroom like I'm some exhibit at a zoo. You have no idea how much they've riled me up, and while I know how to temporarily get away it only becomes a matter of time until they try to force a ghost out of me YET AGAIN. Just because I ACT like the stereotype doesn't mean I'm automatically the expert on ghosts here."

After what she heard, Molly imagined all of the intrusive trespassing Katrina must have felt even since the Chens learned about her. It seemed almost like a perfect match for them and their ghost catching tendencies, so to hear that they immediately targeted her because of her interests sounded like the most appropriate set of actions. Of course since they still appeared to have constantly pestered her for days on end they possibly found nothing of interest at the time, but the fact that they still persisted must have left Katrina in a very angry mood. She even appeared to clench her fists as she spoke about the troubles with them, and she seemed to have licked her ice cream in an attempt to calm herself like Molly. To think someone like Ollie went for such dirty tactics hurt in some respects, but Molly still thought lovingly of him. Katrina heavily despised her after all, so it seemed like she deserved the annoyances just so she wouldn't get to see Nancy's best friend stare her down like a predator.

"If I have to do so for the information I need…I…guess I'll try to get Ollie off of-"

"Oh no. You won't TRY Cake Crasher. You WILL." Katrina interjected as poison dripped from her words. "Get your hubby wubby and his family away from me then I'll tell you everything I know about her. Got it?"

Molly shuddered uncontrollably as Katrina pinned her down once again with her gaze. As much as she wanted to side with Ollie to knock Katrina down a peg or two, she knew everyone deserved a share of happiness in their own way. As long as the Chens continued to track her down at every possible second her joy would never surface again in her own…dark and twisted way. She already figured out what choice to go for.

"If you really want all of them away from you…I'll convince them to back off, but ONLY because I need the info from you."

Katrina leaned forward and locked eyes with the older girl in a narrow stare down. Molly sweated bullets as she licked at her cone, but at that point she already finished everything off which made her appear crazier than she usually acted. The two stayed paused between each other for a few extra seconds until Katrina leaned back into her chair, although her usual blank face indicated nothing about what she truly thought at the moment. She seemed to have settled on something.

"While incredibly faint in your eyes, I can vaguely see your seriousness to go through with our proceedings. I may hate you on a high degree…but I'll take your word for now. DON'T go back on our promise."

Molly immediately slumped back in her chair once again as the relief built up poured out into one relaxing pose. At that point she knew the worst had ended, so it now relied on Katrina to let the cat out of the bag when it came to Nancy. Even "Nancy" expressed some amount of tension lift from her shoulders as she slowly moved up further so she could hear the information too. Any amount of help to mirror Nancy helped to avoid suspicion after all. Everything worked out for both parties in the end.

…except for the one customer who sat close and listened in on the whole thing. After he heard everything said and done, he decided to move to a different seat to eat his ice cream.

"Why do I always have the nuts here?"

---

Katrina made sure to reveal everything she knew about Nancy for Molly's benefit. She made sure to include interests, dislikes, and tendencies along with some rather minor inconvenient info. Because of the lengths some of the details required the three stayed on the spot for a really long time. They finished off all of their ice creams in that period and Molly eventually fell asleep at multiple points which required a smack or two. Eventually they grew very bored of the same area for hours and left the building, but Katrina still laid out more and more for Molly to take in. They sat on benches, grass in the park, and even the roof of a vacant building just so they wouldn't remain in the same spot. As boring as Katrina's explanations went, Molly needed to pay attention if she wanted to speed up the process of befriending Nancy especially after months of no progress on any spectrum. Libby may have found something interesting but she still needed time, which meant more alone time between the others of the MISSION Squad. Despite all of the set changes though, the Nancy doppelganger stayed in character throughout the whole ordeal. She even added a couple of insights of her own accord, in Nancy's personality and words obviously, which further expanded Molly's knowledge of the tiny girl. When Katrina said that she would reveal everything about Nancy she knew about, she really meant EVERYTHING.

After a rather tiring day of information that would make the internet blush, Molly exhaustively made her way back home. To her surprise, Scratch and Nancy seemed to have settled down for the most part despite the rocky start earlier. They explained that it started when Scratch suggested a certain TV show he enjoyed, and from there their day went by swimmingly. While it required some coaxing from his end, Nancy even suggested a trip to the dog park since she particularly adored them. It nearly stunned Molly to hear the two as they enjoyed some time together, even though Nancy still stayed more on the timid side, while she went through nothing but boatloads of information and busted her hump in the process. Molly made sure Scratch kept his mouth shut about her intentions, because despite all of the boring facts she learned about she would finally bestow Nancy the perfect friendship they deserved in the long run…and not from her ghost bestie.

When morning arrived, she sprang into action.

Nancy slowly opened her eyes and yawned on the shelf where Molly placed her during the night. As much as she wanted to avoid her nightmares ever since she shrunk, she couldn't. Most of them still included Molly as the antagonist and every single time she stood millions of feet high. The loose pair of eyes nearby always kept her in check as Molly performed every heinous action under the book, which sometimes woke her up prematurely. She checked under her eyes and felt no further tears from her sleep, so she took her time to check on the piece of fluff and cloth she used for a bed. Like always, they lacked anything messy and displayed neatness. As much as she liked her personal space all nice and tidy, she only required one brief glance of her surroundings to realize she still stood smaller than anything else. Molly stated multiple times about how enthralled she felt to act as the biggest girl in existence, but Nancy considered it the worst punishment that ever occurred in her lifetime. Another day, another reminder of her horrible fate as a prisoner in Molly's presence.

Her drowsiness still lingered a bit as she turned around to see if anyone else awakened alongside her, but she received her rude one when Molly's massive planets sized face stared right down at her speck of a body. She yelped for a split second and jolted upward as her mind continued to catch up to the times, but Molly already had hers up and about in the shining sun.

"MORRRRRRRRRRRRRNING NANCY!" Molly boomed over her.

Nancy curled up in her piece of cloth for a blanket for a moment until her eyes flew open and her mood shifted into her normal personality. Molly's wide smile took up a majority of her vision as the gargantuan girl spoke further.

"Another day with my tiny bestie, and I'm always eager to try anything new! You feel the same way, right?"

Nancy required a few extra moments before she answered.

"Uhhhhh…maybe? I can't exactly…do much like this…"

"Relax Nancy! Ol' Molly has you covered!" Molly replied. "Here, have some breakfast!"

Without missing a beat, Molly instantly whipped out what appeared as nothing but a small crumb, but on closer inspection one could see the very distinct patterns…and syrup. As it turned out, right atop her finger set a very tiny piece of a pancake perfectly sized down for Nancy's consumption. She even seemed to have Nancy hooked in somewhat, as she kept her eyes on it and couldn't take them off. As it turned out, Molly already took advantage of what she heard from Katrina perfectly since Nancy's ideal choice for breakfast set right before her like royalty. She only just started with her plans though.

Nancy shuddered as her intrigue took over.

"Puhpuhpuhpuh…a pancake? How…how did you…?"

"Oh, my dad just so happened to have some on standby, and I wanted you to have some!" Molly responded as she gleefully smiled. "You do like pancakes, right?"

Nancy silently and slowly nodded.

"Th…thank you…so much…" Nancy stuttered as Molly brought her finger forward.

Once the crumb came within arm's reach, Nancy brought them forward and carefully grabbed hold before she dug in. She shuddered even more than usual, but such fears sat on the sidelines for once. Molly joyfully watched Nancy eat from above, even though most of the details stayed more on the unknown side due to all of the shrinkage taken from their initial confrontation. Even so, Molly definitely thought of a lot more for the extra bump in Nancy's friendship chart. She'll get her into a deepening friendship in no time.

Before long, Nancy swallowed a portion of the pancake crumb and asked a rather interesting question.

"As much as I love this…I thought your dad…held back on cooking pancakes…after that bat incident…"

Molly knew immediately what Nancy spoke about. It occurred a while back when Scratch's bat friend, who liked to hang around the house on occasion, went on another scavenger spree and hoarded many household items into his personal stash. It also included a whole bunch of pancake mix that Pete planned to use for his own personal breakfast, but the mammal failed to account for where to place the boxes. He screeched and settled down right as he placed them between some open yeast and baking soda…

The McGees, plus Nancy in Molly's pocket, had to settle into a nearby hotel until the millions of house cleaners finished their "sticky" situation.

Molly already had an answer at the ready though.

"Oh, that? Well, it required some convincing, but I managed to get through to him just for you…without mentioning you of course! I can't leave a best friend starving, especially when it come to pancakes!"

Right after she finished, a loud rip echoed throughout the whole house followed by a very deafening yelp. A voice came up soon after, which the girls determined as Scratch, although they couldn't figure out exact words. However, from his tone of voice, something very…colorful happened below them that they wanted no part of. Yet another incident in the McGee household happened like every single day.

Nancy prepared to ask Molly about it, but the giant one already thought two steps ahead.

"Uhhhhh, what exactly am I-"

"IGNORE THAT!"

Molly immediately expressed a rather uncanny smile as Nancy opened her eyes further for a split second. Once she gazed into the very unnatural appeal of Molly's titanic face, Nancy quickly went back to eating her pancake crumb silently. Behind the facade of a smile though, Molly couldn't have shielded one of the conditions behind her father's pancakes any better in her mind. She instantly levied Scratch so she could focus on Nancy as she woke up, which the ghost reluctantly agreed to after many, MANY begs, and the less she thought about it the better. Her father had his own issues to attend to…

She instantly burned the thoughts the moment they showed up.

"Yes, yes… Enjoy your favorite breakfast…" Molly thought like a crazed maniac underneath her cheesy smile. "You'll like me in no time…no, you'll LOVE me! BEST FRIENDS FOREVER! MWAHAHAHAHA!"

"Molly, uhhhhh, you…okay?"

The giant girl remained caught so much inside her own devious and underhanded mind that she never realized the reality around her until Nancy quietly spoke up to her. Almost immediately once she realized to not get carried away into her fantasies her comical devious grin straightened out and her pupils expanded back to normal. She then aimed her sight back to the dot on the shelf as if Nancy caught her in the act, although she appeared not too suspicious with the small pancake crumb still in her hands. No way would Molly find herself busted by a barely visible dot in her presence.

"Oh, errrrrr, yeah! Perfectly fine!" Molly stated as her joyous personality returned. "Nothing wrong here! How about I, ummmm, get this day started by, ummmm, picking you up? Yeah, definitely that!"

Nancy went for another bite of her pancake while she lightly tilted her head in slight confusion. Molly wasted no time dawdling soon after, as she hastily brought one of her massive hands before the shrunken girl so she could hop on. As if by clockwork, Nancy understood what it meant and stood up before she walked a few steps forward. She cautiously stepped off of the wooden shelf and onto one of Molly's fingertips which the giant one wanted. Before long, and after she made extra sure Nancy walked closer to the center of her palm, she brought her hand back and cemented the tiny one as safely in her grasp. Her back shook with eagerness for a split second, since she could never get over her happiness from how drastically huge she stood at compared to Nancy, before she got out of her bed with the shrunken one in tow. Let her day with Nancy commence.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Molly suddenly said. "I need to freshen myself up with some of my favorite tunes!"

As if she knew exactly where to go next, Molly instantly went to her phone and ran her fingers over the icons on the screen. A few touches later and a familiar yet catchy tune came out from the speakers on her phone, but Nancy understood it all too well. She always had a bit of a soft spot for k-pop, especially from some specific bands, and the song she heard from Molly's phone just so happened to stand out as one of her all time favorites. It almost astounded her in a way because she never informed Molly about it, and yet her skin crawled once the lyrics hit her ears. As for Molly, she knew she caught Nancy's interest yet again even though she didn't know how to pronounce the band's name or the song title. She admitted to herself that she wanted to dance to the rhythm since it sounded like something funky to dance to, but she kept Nancy in mind since she still held her in the encompass of her fingers. For now, she reveled in such delight to have brought another one of the shrunken girl's interest into the limelight. If the rest of the day proceeded like she planned, then she sensed another increase in the friendship chart toward a best friend status. Nowhere to go but up from both sides.

"This seems…nice…" Nancy said. "You even…cut this pancake…so perfectly for me too…"

"Yup! All the best for my tiny friend!" Molly replied.

As she left Nancy distracted by the deliciousness of her favorite breakfast, Molly subtly used her feet to move the dozens of rulers, protractors, and calculators on the floor underneath her bed. She still kept up her phoned in smile to hide all of the facts from Nancy so nothing could possibly ruin everything she had planned.

"After you finish that, we have a lot of stuff to do! I've officially called today…"

Once she lightly tapped her shoes against the floor, it triggered a series of events that took Nancy by surprise. The ceiling opened up a bit and lowered down a large colorful banner that displayed hundreds upon hundreds of the shrunken one's face in a young cheap fashion akin to some of Molly's artistic skills, while she expressed various happy emotions. The letters even ended up created out of some outlines of her long brown hair, including the blue tips, as they curved and curled at various angles. Dozens of streamers and confetti fell from the banner while a light trumpet tooted its horn throughout the premises. Balloons of all shapes and size poured from the opening and all of them displayed a rather messy caricature of Nancy's face. While not the most festive, it got the job done for what Molly thought of for the day.

Molly's smile lit up the room while she pointed toward the message embedded into the banner. In big letters form out of drawings of Nancy's hair…

"Super Happifing and Respecting All of Nancy's Kindness!"

Molly held out her other arm as if to dazzle Nancy from everything she worked on, but Nancy reacted rather subtly and emoted lightly. Even so, she had to admit the flashiness behind all of it appealed to her in a certain way…although another loud ripping noise plus Scratch's outbursts soon after interrupted some of her thoughts.

"Wow. Uhhhhh…that sounds…nice." Nancy replied while worried for her life.

"Oh, you don't know that HALF of it!" Molly excitingly said. "I've prepared SOOOO much stuff specifically for you today, and as your upcoming giant bestie I've made sure to have the best quality! See? All part of S.H.R.A.N.K!"

Nancy slightly frowned while she curled up to her knees within Molly's hand.

"Uhhhhhh…that spells 'shrank.'" Nancy responded lightly while she stuttered.

Molly's eyes widened a little as light wrinkles appeared under her eyes. She turned around to face the banner and silently ran over the letters in her head…where she noticed the rather unfortunate spelling.

"Shoot! I knew I should have thought that more through!" Molly thought.

She bit her bottom lip for a moment before she went back to Nancy.

"Uhhhh, ignore that! I've still perfectly planned everything for your enjoyment! Think of this as your own special day…like a birthday!"

"Well…" Nancy started while she twiddled her fingers. "Don't you try to make every day special…and even made up names for them?"

Nancy quickly shot her attention over to a calendar Molly placed on one of her bedroom walls. True to what the tiny girl said, every day listed for the current month contained something in them that the tween came up with. Some examples included "Flower Appreciation Day", "Plush Toy Tea Party Day", "Puppy Kisses at the Dog Park Day", "Kaiju Molly in the City Day", "Good Live Action Movies Day", and even "Stick By Libby No Matter What Day", which spoke volumes behind her creativity when it shined. For the current day she seemed to have scribbled something out and replaced it with the aforementioned "Super Happifing and Respecting All of Nancy's Kindness Day" along with a small crude caricature of both hers and Nancy's faces smiling next to each other. As much as Nancy wanted to know what Molly planned previously before she came into her life, she had most of her attention on the new ones to soothe her sanity. Nevertheless, Molly thought one step ahead for individual days that needed attention, which basically meant every day where a holiday didn't occur

"Every day deserves their own unique time in the spotlight! I can't just leave one of them alone when EVERY DAY has something extraordinary! It always makes me happy to know I always have something to look forward to, including a day ALL ABOUT YOU!"

Molly prepared to list off the first few activities, but then one final loud rip rang throughout the whole house. Two yelps of different tones followed soon after, and they didn't have to wait long to figure out what happened. Almost instantly, a very disturbed and distraught Scratch burst through the door in the ground while he held a very hairy long piece of paper. He locked eyes with Molly and Nancy as he held his arms up like he went crazy. Clearly something occurred with the ghost which left him in such a state.

He set the stage quickly for the two as he lightly panicked.

"I'm out of paper! Please tell me you have a long roll of tape!"

Molly expressed slight confusion while she used her other hand to give Scratch the requested object.

"Since when did tape-"

"I'm making due with what we have, okay?!" Scratch interjected before he got up to her face and muttered: "You owe me for this."

With the tape in hand he zipped back down and disappeared before they heard his voice again.

"We'll have to make do with tape, Pete. Now STOP SQUIRMING so I won't have to puke as much!"

---

Nancy loved to swim. Whether the calmness and weightlessness of the activity appealed her in many ways,, for the most part she really appreciated the different motions instead of the common walking and running. She also received a full refreshing dip every time she dunked her head under the surface as if seasons completely changed. Her family likes to call her the "family fish" from how often she desired to swim around in a body of water, especially in her younger years. As much as she preferred not to wear goggles, she got a kick out of diving toward the bottom and seeing all of the interesting objects down below from creatures to tossed items. One time, when her family took some time to enjoy themselves under the sun by a nearby lake, she even stumbled across a formation of rocks near a shallow lake bed that displayed names she couldn't recognize. She took one to school where a teacher revealed it as something marked around the time when Brighton became first established, as the it spelled out a name related to one of the town's first settlers. Once one of the curators of the Brighton Museum learned about the discovery he immediately went to the aforementioned spot Nancy went to and gathered the rest of the rocks for a special display, where the girl also donated hers in the process. In the end, while she received local credit for such a discovery she just felt good to get into the water once more. With her young energetic body, she enjoyed her time in the water like the fish girl her family called her.

With such a prominent interest, Molly made extra sure to lead off the process of gaining extra brownie points using such knowledge. She kept a vivid memory of Katrina's offer to use her pool close as she gather as much supplies for an excellent time in the water. She gathered one of her favorite towels that displayed multiple patterns of kittens and her watermelon colored bathing suit before she settled on some pool toys, such as a large inflatable killer what that squeaked when you jumped on its back. For Nancy, Libby actually had such a problem covered a while back. She felt saddened that a usual wardrobe wouldn't work for someone around seemingly half a centimeter in height, so she hand crafted very specific sets of cloths for Nancy to wear. It required a lot of trial and error, plus a couple of microscopes, but she eventually created some incredibly tied together pieces of clothing fit for a girl who suffered an enigmatic miniaturization. She left them as comfortable as possible for the shrunken girl, although Molly needed to carefully sneak them into the washing machine and bring them out when they became dirty. While she covered a variety of styles, including a signature shirt with a pattern of a turtle shell, she required extra attention when it came to a bathing suit. While she only had a small piece of rubber to work with, after many grueling hours Libby finally created tiny swimwear for Nancy. Because she liked the googly eyed ghost necklace Nancy maintained around her neck, she designed the tiny swimsuit after it. While the main color of the suit stayed at an ocean blue, a cute decal of a goofy large eyed ghost set in the middle. As much as Nancy would have preferred something else, even she admitted that she adored the stylistic choice that helped match her necklace. Once everything became set in stone, they headed off toward the location Katrina provided in their flashy choices of swimwear.

Because Molly's suit lacked pockets, she bundled the shrunken Nancy into her short but workable hair. Nancy made extra sure to grasp a strand tightly while Molly walked down the path in her bare feet, which luckily lacked any hazardous terrain. Scratch floated close by while rather unimpressed.

"I better feel like I didn't waste time with this." Scratch said while slightly miffed. "I wouldn't find myself surprised if I see a severed head anywhere from that creepy girl's interests."

"Relax Scratch, for I know where I'm going!" Molly reassured. "We've received permission from her while her family focuses on their business ventures! We can't toss up the opportunity to have an entire pool to ourselves!"

Nancy poked her head out of Molly's hair for a brief moment.

"Uhhhhhhh, if I may ask…when did my best friend…tell you about her secret pool? She doesn't usually…tell that to anyone."

Molly paused for a split second while her legs became stilted. Her mind raced for something to respond with, and yet she only grasped air. She likely would have stayed that way for a bit if the unlikely savior in the form of a small wire gate never came up after a few more steps. While no sign displayed what it guarded, after the directions given by Katrina it seemed like they came across the fabled pool. As to why they needed to walk out of their way to find it eluded them at the moment, but for now they appeared to have found it.

"Well…it seems like we've arrived." Molly said with a pinch of confusion. "I don't know why the place has trees to the point where I can't see anything, but I can't judge decorative choices."

"Yeeeeeeeeaaaaah, this might not go over well." Scratch said.

"Ummmm, well, we've made it…" Nancy said from atop Molly's head. "I have to thank Katrina…for her kindness. She doesn't like it when anyone…she doesn't know goes in."

"If anything, I'd find myself surprised to hear about something she DOES like." Scratch responded. "I'm not feeling the best of vibes here, and if that creepy girl's personality provided any warning signs this pool likely is one of those dinky backyard ones you find in the family sec-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!"

Such words fell into the ether the moment the tween opened the gate and headed inside. Their jaws dropped, minus Nancy's, upon the sights set before them. Lounge chairs and benches littered the outside while tanning decks sat close by, ready for one's relaxation time. None of them appeared to contain any dirt on them either, which meant they stood out as clean as a whistle. Even a long chair one would expect to see occupied by a lifeguard perfectly aligned with the pristine waters contained within. One long gated outer edge kept most of the trees at bay and left any excess particles from a premature dip, which left the place nearly spotless. The main event though stood out as the mammoth pool, and it easily outclassed any potential alternatives one could find in a store. In fact, it displayed as if one went on a vacation at a deluxe hotel or mansion. At first glance, it appeared as though it dipped around ten feet or higher, which left plenty of room for diving and entire groups, and a width of around twenty. Multiple filters ran across the outside along with a couple of underwater lights, possibly for night swimming, which provided more than enough for an entire day spent in its waters. No such massive pool would become complete without a diving board though, and the one before them sported two on each end. They remained relatively sturdy and fresh, which meant cannonball contests seemed like an actual reality. Just to rub even more flawlessness on the set of deluxe proportions, a medium sized hot tub dipped in one of the corners complete with water jets and lights for the perfectly bubbly experience. Out of everyone in Brighton to possibly own such luxury, Andrea Davenport likely became the populous' first assumption. For the girl that desired to stay out of the public eye…

Never in a million years would anyone guess someone like her.

Molly stood almost too stunned to move while Scratch spent a few seconds in awe…before he fell to the ground on his back.

"Augh! My stars! Ohhhhh! My heart…it hurts! I need OXYGEN! Get me to the emergency room! I'm suffering! GIVE ME THE ZAPPER!"

He continued to moan and groan across the ground while he reached upward as if he wanted to move toward the light. His showmanship gave off a rather corny aspect to it though, which Nancy caught on to.

"Errrrr, don't you…lack a heart?"

Scratch immediately shot his head up and shot the tiny girl a rather plain stare.

"You really can't give me a moment to marvel over such splendor, huh? Thanks for the info, Sherlock."

Nancy recoiled back some before she sat and bundled herself up to her knees. Soon after, Molly finally spoke up.

"This…looks…ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! I never knew Brighton had a SECRET POOL, especially owned by the best friend…of my tiny best friend!"

The ecstatic tween wasted no time as she sped all over the place going over every single primary detail she managed to get her stubby pudgy fingers on. She dipped them and stuck her toes into the water…

"Perfect temperatures unheard of…"

…zipped over to the lifeguard chair and sat in it eagerly…

"…coziness like a cushy cloud…"

…rushed over to the tips of each diving board and giddily jumped on them a few times…

"…sturdiness beyond comprehension…"

…then expressed on of the her biggest smiles once she placed her hands and feet into the Jacuzzi.

"…to even the tropical scents straight from the Bahamas, Florida Keys, and Disney Land resorts…"

After she ran her mouth off of details, her body shook uncontrollably until she exploded in pure happiness.

"I'VE ARRIVED AT THE SWIMMING POOL OF DESTINY FIT FOR MY UNBRIDLED JOY!"

Nancy nearly lost her grip from Molly's hair as the tween bobbed up and down in excitement. Her feet slipped and left her hanging for a split second before Molly noticed and grabbed her. Her wide smile stretched across the skies from Nancy's perspective as Molly held the tiny girl in her hand.

"I feel like I've died for a second time there, because I've just experienced paradise!" Scratch said as he rushed up to the two girls with a grin. "How have I NOT LEARNED about this?! I've lived in Brighton for ages now, and this COMPLETELY escaped my radar!"

"Well…" Nancy answered while she muttered something incoherent to herself. "She doesn't exactly appreciate just anyone…knowing. For the most part, she wants to see…that rich girl as…the luxurious one."

"Already good enough for me!" Molly anxiously said. "Now CAN WE MAKE LIKE DOLPHINS AND JUMP IN ALREADY?!"

They gave Nancy next to no extra moments to respond as Molly and Scratch dashed over to one of the diving boards. They gazed delightfully into the water while their bodies shook, which in Scratch's case was his formless ectoplasm. Nancy lightly groaned under her breath and looked to the side while Molly formulated their next action. She wanted something flawless to cheer Nancy up after all.

Molly cleared her throat before she spoke in a rather phoned in formal tone.

"Eh hem! I, Molly McGee, have dictated that, from hence forth, these waters shall greatly benefit our enjoyments to the one hundredth degree. As tradition to fully embrace our enthralling future-"

"Get on with it Mol! I'm itchin' for some swimmin'!" Scratch interrupted while slightly annoyed.

Molly shot Scratch a rather unimpressed glance before she went forward with what she had in mind.

"To make a long story short, I want all of us to jump in at the same time. It helps reinforce our everlasting friendship together…with STYLE!"

Molly's eyes glistened while she wiggled her fingers with her other hand in a dazzling fashion so she could get the point across to the others. Nancy and Scratch understood pretty quickly.

"While I'm all for that, the midget…not so much." Scratch said. "She doesn't exactly carry the same 'oomph' while all tiny like that."

Nancy fell back into her knees which caused Molly to glare at Scratch for a split second.

"She doesn't need to make a big splash, Scratch. Anyone can jump in the way they want! Besides, she would work wonders in professional diving at her size!"

"…true." Scratch said.

Molly then set Nancy down in an open space on the diving board, which provided plenty of room for the inevitable dive. From how close in proximity she stood to Molly, she got a very short moment to see Molly's gigantic bare foot next to her. She instantly turned away and paid no attention to it while the giant girl lightly hopped up and down on the board. The motions sent Nancy airborne multiple times to the point where she couldn't control herself, but by them Molly and Scratch already fully prepared themselves.

"Line up all of the colored balls, because we're about to play POOL!"

With that final explanation, Molly sent herself into the air while Scratch followed. They gave Nancy the short end of the stick as they left the shrunken one up in the air once again from the motion. Before long, Nancy hit the diving board across her back before she tumbled into the water below. Molly and Scratch made amusing poses while in the air as the imaginary cameras flashed before them, although they also caught Nancy as she flailed about in the air until everyone splashed into the water. Like Scratch predicted, Nancy left no such water in the air on impact, but the others definitely did…to the tiny one's detriment. Before she even had a chance to comprehend anything, she glanced up and witnessed huge waves and drops as they fell from the sky toward her. The only option to brace for impact stood out, which left Nancy impacted by entire torrents and even catapulted her into the air over and over again on contact. All of the sickening twists lead Nancy dizzy in more ways than one, and it took a couple of agonizing seconds before the water settled around her. Miraculously, she suffered next to no injuries whatsoever despite all of the factors against such an outcome. After everything said and done though, Molly really left Nancy to fend for herself from a series of events that occurred so quickly you could have blinked and missed it.

Nancy shook herself off a bit while she watched Molly and Scratch as they surfaced. While she wanted the two to do so away from her, she never received such an outcome. Right as she floated along the surface, she suddenly found herself rising upward out of the water. Two large walls on the front and back covered her vision as the ground nearly caused her to slip and fall off. She worriedly held on for dear life as she went higher and higher until the elevation stopped. She slowly opened her eyes while firmly grasping the wall in front of her, and from there she realized what happened the moment a pair of joyous moon sized eyes gazed down at her.

One would have concluded that Molly surfaced from under her, but between two of her toes became the more uncommon choice.

Molly stuck out one of her feet from the water while her huge face kept an eye on the one she promised to pay attention to. She lightly squealed with glee as she witnessed Nancy's tiny body stuck between her toes.

"Ooooooooh! How CUTE! I didn't mean to, but SWEET BABY CORN! You really amaze me when I least expect it, Nancy!"

Despite everything said, Nancy still wanted out of her current situation. She tried to scoot herself off before she inhaled too much stink, but before she could do so Molly happily wiggled and curled her toes which shook the tiny girl all over. She couldn't even hold her nose from the fumes since she needed to grasp Molly's skin so she wouldn't fall off. Even though Molly seemed to enjoy her time with a tiny dot of a girl between her pudgy toes, Nancy not so much. For such a few minor actions, it spelled pandemonium for the shrunken one in the cross hairs.

Eventually, Nancy couldn't take any more of Molly's current antics.

"Molly, ummm, can you please…let me down…before I get too sick?"

From there, all of Molly's toes stopped as the tween's smile lightly faded a bit. Nancy took a few extra seconds to calm down and set her aching head against Molly's big toe while the giant one herself understood everything in an instant.

"Oh, ummm, sorry! I almost got too carried away there. I can say you were TOETULLY right on that front! Hahaha!"

Nancy shot Molly a look while the big girl winded down her laughter.

"Okay, okay! Not the most appropriate time, but still! Sometimes you have to lighten up the mood!"

Nancy held on again as Molly carefully lower her foot down back into the water. She waited for Nancy to hit the surface before she went back into swimming. She caused a few minor waves that shook her in the water, but for the most part she remained intact. From there, Scratch finally surfaced next to them, although they wondered why he required a longer amount of time than the two of them. Almost instantly, before they could ask him, Scratch's pupils contracted as his ectoplasm felt the water around him. Clearly all of them operated differently to each other.

"Temperature settled in the middle, less than only a few waves along the surface, a certain stillness unheard of, and even…the legendary Motichan pool filters…"

The girl's watched as the ghost lost most of his form and floated along the surface in a relaxing position.

"Yup, I've definitely died for a second time. I haven't even gotten into the hot tub yet and ALREADY I don't want anyone to wake me! Miracles like this only happen…once in an afterlife…"

"Oh, definitely." Molly added while relaxing a bit herself. "I almost feel like I never want to leave this place! I understand now why they call Nancy a fish around here! Hahahahah!"

Her response raised Nancy's eyebrows.

"Ummmm, how exactly…do you know that? I don't recall…telling you."

Molly's body went stiff for a second time while her pupils contracted and the sound of glass breaking rang through her head. After all of the knowledge she learned from Katrina, she inadvertently let some of the facts slip out. Because of her method to obtain the information she couldn't let Nancy know, especially because of the reasons she learned about them in the first place. No matter what the tiny girl asked about them, Molly vowed to keep her mouth shut at all costs.

As if the words never hit her, Molly completely ignored Nancy's question and went on with her plans to win the shrunken one's friendship over.

"Well, uhhhh… Don't pay attention to me, I've prepared everything today for you! You like swimming in this pool, right? I can see some slight enjoyment in those tiny eyes of yours!"

Scratch nonchalantly stared at Molly's cheesy tactics to keep everything under wraps while he held back the urge to roll his eyes. He continued to wade silently along the surface of the water as his enjoyment to finally unwind reached its peak. As for Nancy, she took a couple of seconds to drench herself and get wet before she perked up.

"Ummmm, I guess…maybe a little?" Nancy answered.

As much as she wanted to full on accept the enjoyment, the set of circumstances held her back. While true that she adored taking a plunge in Katrina's pool when she allowed it, especially from how close they stuck together as best friends, she still maintained her standard size fit for her age. She never dealt with different perspectives when it came to her favorite activities, but once it happened thanks to a mishap between a thirteen year old and three layers of frosting it almost left her as a shell of her former self. The pool may have stretched a long distance even before her reduction, but now it appeared too much of a behemoth to find happiness under the water. The fact that she needed to consider her favorite activities when she never did so beforehand displayed more damage in her mental state from her shrinkage. The more she willed to enjoy herself, the more the reminders of her crippled state left her dry.

She went under the water anyway just to get the rest of her body wet, where she barely traveled due to her shrunken height. The moment she saw Molly's planet of a face once she resurfaced brought back all of the painful memories of her horrid fate.

"It…really hurts to know…that even when I'm swimming…I'm still just a speck." Nancy said.

Nancy sighed while Scratch groaned.

"In fairness, you sort of lack the scope necessary for fun and games in a pool. I mean, you can't chicken fight, play marco polo, have swimming races-"

Molly instantly shot Scratch a look while she spoke through a fake smile.

"You don't have to reinforce everything, Scratch!" Molly stated before she instantly brought her attention back to Nancy.

Scratch's eyes lowered while her expression went straight.

"I'll…take a dip in the hot tub if you need me."

With that said, Scratch raised himself out of the pool, comically wrung himself out like a washcloth, then floated over to the aforementioned hot tub in the corner. The instant he touched the water he sank like a rock and moaned in great pleasure as he felt most of his undead nature take a back seat. He relaxed in such an entranced state that his eyes rolled out as if they wanted a dip into paradise, which Scratch instantly popped back into his noggin like nothing happened. His weakness for Jacuzzis hooked him in yet again.

"At least he…knows how to enjoy himself…" Nancy said.

"Hey, we can have fun too!" Molly responded. "Sure, you may not have the height, but it means nothing in terms of spreading joy!"

"Easy for you to say…" Nancy thought as she saw Molly dip herself closer to her.

Even with her massive stature over the speck in the water, Molly still happily smiled while her head skimmed the water's surface. Even the slight motions with her head sent waves down upon Nancy, which gave the titanic one some inspiration.

"You know, from this angle…I can easily see myself as a sea monster to your tiny body! Come on, you also see it, right?"

Nancy pretty much learned immediately the moment she saw Molly's huge head pop out of the water. From where she floated on the surface, Molly appeared like she could sink entire battalions of ships and never think too much about it. She shuddered to imagine a joyous and carefree Molly McGee as she laid ruins of everything she inadvertently destroyed. One long swim across the oceans equaled the decimation of millions at the scale Nancy saw her. She would put many urban legends on ice from her sheer scale, all while her smile gleamed across the sky. Molly likely already came up with a "Kraken of Love and Kindness Molly" persona for her notes at that point.

"I…can't exactly ignore…the facts…" Nancy replied. "You appear almost…menacing up close…"

"Yeah, I can imagine." Molly responded. "Still, I have the PERFECT opportunity to finally act out something I've wanted to try to make your day even better! I mean, you've already plunged into the water…"

Nancy shuddered at the thought, especially since she knew anything goes when it came to Molly and her schemes. One small mishap could end up as a premature end for her, and Molly's carelessness multiplied scenarios by eleven. Even so, any sort of denial always fell on deaf ears due to her reduction, as anyone bigger could enforce their ideals on anyone barely sized up to them. Nancy almost never had a say in anything due to the inhibitors placed on her, and Molly always set her ideas over hers anyway. Whatever Molly wanted out of her, she got with no contest. It really hurt to think about, and yet it left Nancy more wishful that her shrunken state would finally undergo a reversal…even if Molly and Scratch served as her only hope.

Nancy silently watched as Molly's giant happy smiling face sank deeper into the until she completely submerged herself. Her heart sank for a split second once the huge distorted figure of the gigantic tween swam under her. The different palettes of colors left her unsure as to which corresponded to which body part, so she made her wild guesses just in case. While somewhat familiar with what lurked underneath it also painted all of the warning signs in the world to bolt and get away. Unfortunately, Nancy's size meant such a tactic remained out of the question. She likely only managed a couple of inches before her inevitable capture, which painstakingly reminded her of how helpless of a state such a shrinkage left her in. Molly called all of the shots after all despite her claims of a day focused on the tiny one she cared about, which made Nancy even more worried for her life.

She left Nancy in a rather nervous state as the tiny girl suddenly saw bubbles surface around her. From her perspective, they matched up to some of the tallest buildings on the planet that sprayed huge drops of water when they popped. While unaware as to what Molly planned, she tried to maneuver around the falling drops before they landed on her. The moments with the huge sacks of air became short lived however, as the palette of colors from below expanded in scope which meant only one possible action for Molly to take. From there, Nancy lightly shrieked and paddled as fast as she could, but before long she smacked head first into a rather hard wall. She suffered a hard migraine while she shook herself off, but by then a dangerous white wall stood tall over her tiny body. It wouldn't take too long before dashes of pink filled up her vision, and by then panic finally settled in. Her breathing shortened as she turned in the opposite direction, but she never managed to swim too long of a distance until more pink arrived. She found herself boxed in while completely scared for her life, and soon after the light began to dim until nothing but black took over. Gravity shifted everywhere until she hit something very soft and slimy, and right then and there she put two and two together.

Molly really needed to weed out the urges to act before she thought things through.

As for Molly, her choice of activity would have left some scratching their heads in terms of safety. Because of how big she appeared to the tiny girl she intended to act out the fantasy of a giant friendly sea beast. Once she dived underwater and gathered some water between her cheeks she would have shot back up to the surface and spewed the water gracefully like some abridged pristine fountain decoration. She expected Nancy to stare in awe at her display, which would have likely added a few inches to the friendliness chart. While she went through the first few steps smoothly, he hit a snag when it came to filling herself with water. Because she couldn't open her eyes underwater she made a mental estimate about her current position, and once she assumed the correct area she opened her mouth and filled her cheeks almost to the brim. Of course, because of her hastiness, the numbers went slightly off to where she sucked in a rather "miniature" extra. She never realized it at the time, but she would a little bit later when she surfaced.

Molly required a few seconds to fill herself before she swam up and burst through the surface. Once she felt herself no longer underwater the young girl finally opened her eyes and glanced downward to see her tiny friend. To her surprise, no suck speck existed along the water's top, which killed a slight bit of her enthusiasm, and it took a few extra moments for the wires to connect. From there her heart ached while she panicked. From there she started to open her mouth to pour all of the water out…

"Molly? You've come here too?"

Molly recognized the heavenly tone from anywhere. After everything she went through with him she still devoted a special portion of herself to adoring him from afar. Never had a girl like her ever shared such strong emotions that stirred her premature hormones than the moment he showed up in her life. Despite all of the ire brought upon him at many points, eventually she knocked him back to reality to the point where such feelings took a backseat. She couldn't have felt like the luckiest girl in the world to know that her life changed forever, which already made her heart thump wildly. While clueless as to how he arrived onto the premises, she didn't case. Oliver Chen showed up in her presence.

Molly's cheeks swelled with water, and while she wanted to spit all of it out she risked Nancy's existence to yet another individual if she ever did so. As such, once she saw Oliver, nicknamed Ollie by many, she held back on spewing everything out of her mouth for now. She watched as he opened the gate with some trusty ghost equipment in hand and waved it around the place. It seemed to have pointed to Scratch at first, but he ignored that and went up to Molly as she swam in the pool. His eyes stayed a bit more open than usual, likely from her swelled cheeks, but for the most part he remained content…which hooked Molly in almost immediately.

"You seem to have…something going on there. You okay?"

Molly couldn't speak, but her body still moved which became her next best option. To answer her dreamy hubby, she slowly nodded her head so she wouldn't make too many motions with her cheeks. Nancy still remained inside after, and the less she caused havoc for her in her mouth the better. She just hoped it wouldn't impede too much progress for the day moving forward, especially with her insistence to get closer to the shrunken girl's friendship. For Molly, as much as she wanted to give up Nancy to speak to Ollie, such an option stayed off the table.

As for Nancy, she found herself yet again taken into Molly's body while the giant girl herself never flinched. Even the most minor of motions Molly made on the outside spelled catastrophe inside her mouth. The waves and depth of the water within her cheeks sent Nancy everywhere to the point where one could have easily mistaken such an occurrence with a dangerous thunderstorm out at sea. No matter how much he attempted to paddle against the surges, they always snatched her away for their own agendas. Her body smacked against the backs of Molly's teeth, the top of her tongue, to even a brief graze against her uvula, but even after all of it she suffered not too much damage. Even so, she needed to stay back from Molly's throat or risk a potential fall into her stomach. Nancy wanted no part on the menu set for the thirteen year old tween.

Ollie looked Molly down a little while she tried to get words out to no avail.

"Ohhhhhhkay. I'll…take it for what I can understand." Ollie said rather shakily. "Still, I didn't know you knew about this place too. My family learned about it from the parents of that one goth girl from school once we've gotten pretty close. Let's just say…they think she knows more than they do."

Molly lightly frowned despite her filled cheeks and rolled her eyes behind her eyelids, for he pretty much confirmed the statements made by Katrina from yesterday. She would have to convince him at some point to back off of her, but for now she needed to focus on not swallowing her tiny bestie.

She attempted another chance to speak up, but before she could do so the two heard a distant call from Scratch.

"Hey, Ollie! Move to your left so I can catch some more rays, okay?! I can feel my undead years peeling off between the sun and these bubbles!"

The two shot a brief glance over to the relaxing ghost, who stiffened up his back a bit so they could see him better. Unlike many others outside of the McGee family, Ollie perfectly saw him despite his semi transparency when he went out in public. After Libby and Nancy, he ended up as the third person to gain the ability to see him in the open, although he didn't earn it that quietly. He still required some warming up to the whole concept after all of the statements provided by his parents about the nastiness of phantoms, but he seemed to not fly off the handle too much. Instability served as the primary reason as to why Molly kept back all of the facts about Nancy to him, as even more of the unorthodox might cause him to snap after everything that happened. Scratch also maintained some unnerving tension at first since he showed up in his afterlife, but even he eventually became used to him. Just because someone ended up lead down one direction didn't mean they couldn't change to another.

"I see…Scratch doing well as always." Ollie said while he moved over as asked.

Molly nodded her head while her filled cheeks swayed. She made sure to not go with her urge to swallow no matter what her body said. She couldn't speak, so she relied on other methods of communication…even if they were sub optimal.

"Oh, that reminds me of something." Ollie stated. "I kind of need some foresight on this one happening I've seen spread around everywhere."

He then placed his ghost hunting equipment down and ran through his pockets until he found his phone. He scrolled through the pages until he ran his fingers across one particular app and loaded it up. Molly tilted her head in slight confusion at what he meant, but everything came pouring out the moment he displayed the screen to her.

She almost felt a tug across her chest as the video played out and ended a few seconds later.

She should've come to expect that the one she adored ever since he became her neighbor would have eventually saw the viral incident that sparked her internet infamy. While it provided almost instant popularity, it came at the cost of the one who suffered the most in the end. In many ways she hoped Ollie completely missed out on such an altercation, but as she learned the hard way the internet never forgets. Out of all of the joyous occasions, she still kept one blemish to her being close to her. After everything said and done, it left one popular and the other completely in the garbage…as a shrunken speck. Now Ollie knew of how all of it started…on the surface level.

He let loose more bombshells soon after.

"You apparently really struck the internet by storm with that stunt! I have to admit, everything aligned perfectly! My family can't stop laughing to this! The internet calls you the Cake Crasher, right?"

Molly couldn't believe her ears. He just wouldn't stop assaulting her hearing with all of the damaging facts that riddled her soul. She already heard them a million times, but to hear them from someone she cherished since he moved to Brighton made the situation a hundred times worse. He never knew the true consequences in the aftermath of that day, and because her mouth swelled with water she couldn't persuade him with words. Nancy never deserved the harsh humiliation while she prospered from all of the positive benefits from going viral. She didn't want Ollie to fall into the same camp as the general public, especially when everyone else close knew the terrible truth including the one she miniaturized in the first place.

At that point she nearly completely lost it. While she lacked speech, she flailed her arms and mumbled through her lips in an attempt to portray what actually happened that day…to rather crazy results. She splashed around, waved her hands in the air, tapped her stuffed cheeks, to even outrageously pantomimed a tipsy person so she can potentially get the point across. Unfortunately, like anyone who glanced from the outside with no context, Ollie read her as completely blank.

"Whoa, Molly! Did I strike a nerve or something?!"

Molly vigorously shook her head in strict denial, which only exemplified her craziness at the moment to the young ghost hunter. She attempted to pull herself out of the pool, but slipped back into the water as Ollie proceeded to back up a bit.

"Okay! Okay! You clearly have something going on! Since I'm not detecting any ghost activity here, besides Scratch obviously, I'll just, uhhhh…see you later then!"

Molly held out one of her wet hands as Ollie nervously backed up toward the entrance gate and opened it. As if he wanted to forget what he just saw, he slammed it shut and ran off. As much as she wanted to not scare him off, at least one person appreciated his absence…even though she remained completely out of the conversation. Yet another weird occasion went across the young McGee that made her out as a maniac more than a joyful soul.

She wasted no time to empty her mouth out once Ollie left. As if on instinct, Molly immediately turned back to the pool and opened her spacious maw downward. Torrents of water poured out, and before long she noticed a familiar speck as she landed back into the waters below. She twirled in circles upon impact with the surface, and her head teetered like she ingested something nasty. Her eyes became pinwheels while she held her head from such a massive migraine, but other than her severe dizziness she suffered no lasting injuries. After such a roller coaster of motions inside Molly's mouth, she clearly needed some break time.

Nancy held her forehead for a second and coughed a few times while Molly attempted to comfort her.

"Sweet baby corn! I'm so terribly sorry about that Nancy! I planned something I thought would have worked but miscalculated in the end! I never meant for any of that!"

Nancy waited for her head to stabilize back into her normal state of mind before she looked up toward the colossal behemoth girl above.

"I've slammed against so many of your teeth…and nearly fell down your throat. I can't exactly…calm down nicely…"

Nancy held herself tightly and shuddered uncontrollably despite her enjoyment of swimming. She almost curled up into a fetal position while her breathing sped up which required a couple of moments to herself. The first activity Molly planned for the day ended in yet another scarring scenario that left Nancy worried for her life. It began with not a bang, but a whimper.

Molly nervously expressed herself as if she knew they started with a disaster, and yet also guiltily at the same time.

"Okay! Soooooooooo our time swimming didn't exactly go as planned. However, the ol' McGee noggin ALWAYS maintains a Plan M, and I know exactly how to turn everything around!"

Nancy shot a rather worried glare in Molly's direction as she floated near the surface of the water. For once, he tiny size benefited her in a certain way since she never sank at all during her time in the pool. Even so, the faster she got out after her near death experience the better, which Molly understood as if she read her mind. She missed once, but she still kept plenty behind closed doors.

The girls' attention turned to Scratch in case he also wanted to leave, but they witnessed something else instead.

"Uhhhhhh, Scratch?"

The ghost stirred himself awake a little after he relaxed so much he fell asleep in the hot tub. His eyes aimed right at the two girls, mostly Molly because her size made her easier to see, and narrowed a bit.

"What? Can't you see I'm enjoying myself here? Say…has this Jacuzzi gotten colder or something?"

His instinct became spot on…because the heat of the water completely separated his bottom half from his top.

---

Some people just absolutely delight themselves at the thought of caring for animals, and Nancy stuck around in the same camp. While her parents, for the most part, remained pretty adamant about a new potential furry family member, for the young girl it sounded like a dream come true. In terms of staying in Brighton, she couldn't have asked for more whenever she visited the town's dog park. Dozens of energetic lovable pooches ran around the premises on a daily basis, and it became one of her primary locations where she felt genuinely happy. She always kept her head down in case one of them desired to provide tens of licks like they absolutely loved her to pieces, and for the most part they enjoyed her loving company. At points she almost couldn't help herself and embraced them in one of her greatest signs of affection toward what many called "man's best friend". Her last couple of birthdays even took place at a private enclosure in the dog park, and while she never ended up bestowed a puppy of her own the fact that she got to enjoy herself around endearing pooches became perfect in itself. Already she wanted to do something with animals when she hit adulthood, and while not necessarily dog work stirred in her head she appreciated the knit community around loving dogs. All in all, she loved dogs.

In terms of a day centered around her tiny friend, Molly set the location as their next stop.

While for the most part Nancy stayed pretty silent and cold at the start, her eyes lit up the moment she saw dozens of her floppy eared companions. Even though she stayed hidden in the confines of Molly's pocket, she couldn't help herself when she recognized certain dogs and their long wet tongues. Molly only needed one quick glance down to notice she already hooked Nancy in as tons of puppies and dogs energetically ran around and barked happily. Even Scratch popped a light smile at such lovely pooches because deep down he carried a soft spot toward their friendly demeanors. He learned the hard way that they can see him invisible in public, so he remained a bit wary just in case they pounced on him like a chew toy. The less he thought about the Rottweiler that ripped off his nose the better.

Time for the three to start their next stop on the Nancy Friendship Train.

Molly glanced down at the tiny girl within her pocket and smiled.

"I see someone eager to snuggle some puppies!"

Nancy shook for a second before she looked up at Molly's gigantic face.

"I…really, really do… Sadly, I'm a bit…too tiny for normal stuff…"

"Relax Nancy, for your big friend Molly knows exactly what to do!" Molly responded. "If you want a joyous day in the dog park, then you WILL get a joyous day in the dog park!"

"Yeeeeeeeeaaaah, I'm not quite sure about that." Scratch said as he floated next to the two. "Hate to break it to you Mol, but I don't think the midget mixes well with canines at her current size. One miscalculation and-"

"Oh, relax Scratch! I know what I'm doing!" Molly interjected. "Nancy loves dogs and she deserves time with her doggy friends! Don't ruin her special day now!"

"But Mol-"

"DON'T RUIN HER SPECIAL DAY, SCRATCH."

The dark tone behind her large clean smile told the ghost everything he needed to know about how Molly felt at the time. While Nancy never caught on, Scratch certainly understood how the usual ecstatic tween fell into a more pressuring presence. All the months with next to no progress on either Nancy's restoration or her friendliness took a toll on Molly's patience, and now she would resort to other tactics to obtain what she wanted. He saw the overbearing turbulence over her head while lightning struck the tips of her hair. Underneath all of the flowers and ponies set a rather crazed individual bent on succession over her tiny friend. He knew Molly went crazy before, but not to a degree when it came to a shrunken girl who wanted her normal size back. Better play it safe just in case.

Scratch's eyes narrowed toward Molly while she oozed total control of the situation.

"You know what? Fine. Have it your way. Don't come crying to me when everything crashes down. I know a sinking ship when I see it, although since I'm already dead…I might as well stick around when I finally get to say 'I told you so'."

Molly very quickly shot Scratch a distinct thumbs up while the ghost crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. After everything said and done, the group finally made their way through the gates and into the dog park. Instantly a group of dogs ran up to them as their tails wagged and their tongues stuck out like they always welcomed visitors. They ran their wet tongues all over Molly that made the girl laugh happily, and while Scratch expected their attention to remain on the girl, a few strays from the pack took notice of the floating specter. He tried to ignore them in case they actually couldn't see him, but as he learned from a previous incident they certainly saw in in all of his ghostly glory. As such, they immediately tackled him to the ground, but they never bared teeth at him. He found it more surprising to feel dozens of doggy kisses upon his dead spirit, a stark contrast to confrontations earlier, as they seemed to have learned their lesson. For Nancy, she took cover deep into Molly's pocket just in case, although a few curious canines dug their noses into the opening out of curiosity. As monstrously huge as she saw them, her adoration for the animals outweighed her worries. Suffice to say, everyone received their own welcomes from their arrival at the dog park.

"YAY! I love me some puppy kisses!" Molly exclaimed as a chihuahua ran its adorable face over hers.

"Okay, okay! Oof! Give me time to breath!" Scratch said before he came to a realization. "Oh, wait. DUHHHHH! Already dead!"

After several minutes of intense licking, all of the dogs backed off and went back to their instinctual activities. Molly already put on one of her wide signature smiles while Scratch brushed himself off and squeezed his body out of excess dog slobber.

"Blech! They may have reconciled to me, but that doesn't automatically make me used to their affections." Scratch said. "I'm call it a start and end it there for now."

"We can't stop when we just arrived!" Molly responded. "Nancy needs her fix of dogs, and I'm just the right best friend for the job! I'LL DO ANYTHING TODAY FOR MY TINY BESTIE!"

"…and that gravely worries me for some reason" Scratch thought as Molly ran off with Nancy in tow.

The group went about glancing over every dog and marveling at their cuteness, especially Nancy. She kept her presence to a minimum so nobody would notice her in Molly's pocket, but it didn't stop her from reaching out and attempted to pet the loyal animals as if she still had her normal size. Unfortunately, her shrunken state left distance near impossible to attempt any type of interaction, including the common petting and hugging of the pooches, which let her down to an extent. She still can't resist the adorableness of any dog in the vicinity, but part of it came from actual interactions. As she watched Molly as she petted and hugged every dog that trotted up to her the more she wanted to go for it too. Yet another limitation behind her terrible fate as a dot in Molly's presence reared its ugly head to her determent.

Molly happily laughed up a storm from the amount of doggy love she received, and Scratch even had a couple of moments alone with a few near the park benches. He situated himself there so he wouldn't draw too much attention, but the dogs had other plans. They became really affectionate toward the specter and desired to stick around him. Even when he took a brief break to the drinking fountain a few dogs followed, which ticked Scratch a bit but for the most part he let the mutts have their fun. Nancy ended up as the only one to not receive the attention she wanted, and it brought her down a peg or two. In an ironic twist, the one who heavily adored dogs over the others became the one out of the dogs' color blind sight.

She sank down into the giant tween's pocket in sadness which Molly caught on to. She took some private time away from the dogs to address her issues.

"Why so sad Nancy? I thought you LOVED the dog park!"

"Yeah, I do…" Nancy responded. "I just wish I could do more than…stay in here and watch. You can enjoy yourself with them…because you still have your normal height…and yet I can't…"

The tiny girl brought her head down and fidgeted with her fingers as she knew such activities remained out of reach for her. Even the small frown across her face stirred Molly the wrong way, and she vowed to fix it.

"You speak as if you DON'T have someone like me by your side!" Molly replied. "As one of your closest and most cherished best friends of all time, I, Molly McGee, shall prove to you that size doesn't matter!"

Her statements left Nancy slightly intrigued to the point where she looked back up toward Molly's huge face, but still in a rather sad fashion.

"Really? Uhhhh…how so…exactly? I don't see how…"

"Oh, just follow my lead, okay?" Molly responded while she infectiously smiled.

Nancy brought herself closer to the lip of Molly's pocket as the huge girl walked to the side and bent over to pick up something off the ground. Once Nancy noticed that she picked up a typical long stick, she figured out what Molly planned to ease her into the moment. At first she lacked the understanding as to how everything would have planned out, but Molly revealed all of it soon after. Such a classic game required no such complicated measures after all, but when it came to someone at a fraction of their usual size some explanations became needed.

"Ummm, you plan to play…fetch?" Nancy asked.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Correctamundo!" Molly answered enthusiastically. "You can't get more basic than the game dogs go nuts for! Of course, I'm not going to throw the stick."

Nancy tilted her head.

"Really? Then…then who?"

Molly glanced at Nancy and raised her eyebrows a few times before she grinned.

"I'm going to let YOU throw it, silly!"

Nancy's chest stuttered as she watched Molly lower her hand closer to her pocket until the stick set before the worried speck of a girl. Even if she planned on a smaller size, the stick still eclipsed the shrunken girl by at least hundreds upon hundreds of feet. She may have the appearance of a small ant, but definitely missed their strength. At best she likely would have gotten at least one broken back if handled solo, and yet she intended to steer clear despite Molly's intention. Professional javelin throwers never stood a chance, so Nancy basically equaled a further negative number. No such simple games became necessary when it came to an enigmatic shrinkage, especially to an eleven year old autistic girl.

"Well, errrrrmmm…" Nancy stammered as she backed up into Molly's front. "You may have…thought things through…a bit unrealistically…"

Molly instantly deflected such criticism toward her choice of activity.

"Nonsense! I know your sense of scale drastically differs from everyone else, so I'll help you out! Here, just firmly grasp a part and I'll hold the rest! Easy as pie!"

Nancy still maintained some uncertainty around the circumstances of one instant acting tween, but she didn't have a say in the matter anyway. She brought the stick a bit closer to her pocket so Nancy could grab it while one of the dogs waddled up to her the moment it saw the stick. Nancy couldn't see too much over the piece of wood, but the faint image of a dog still passed through her sight. She had no idea how it would all go out, and it worried her to an extent. Whatever the case, Molly set the game in motion.

"Alright boy! Go and…FETCH!"

The next few moments sped by to the point where most would have missed it if they blinked. Right as Molly finished her words, her fingers released the long stick straight through the air and sent it spinning like a helicopter blade. She gave next to no time at all for Nancy to follow soon after, which came at a rather dangerous cost. Her reaction time came into effect a split second too late after Molly, as before she even knew it her fingers stayed planted on the wood right when the stick went airborne. The tiny girl twirled through the air along with the stick as her grip stayed glued to the object, and she briefly screamed as millions of colors passed by her eyes. The dog pretty much bolted in the other direction the moment Molly released the stick and barked happily while it ran after it. Almost instantly when she heard the scream, Molly realized her mistake and ran off after her. As for Scratch, he required a few extra moments to get some dogs off of his back before he heard the familiar voice of the shrunken girl. The moment he saw Molly desperately run after the stick he automatically figured out that she screwed up again and hoisted himself up after her. For such an instant series of events, it left multiple parties scrambling around in panic at what just happened.

"Yup. I definitely saw this coming." Scratch thought as he witnessed the stick flying through the air.

Molly really kept a rather strong throwing arm, for the stick Nancy stayed stuck to sailed through the air for several extra seconds and traveled quite a long distance until it finally landed into thick clump of grass. Nancy would have taken a few moments to recover from dizziness if the dog that chased after the flying stick maintained a slow speed. Unfortunately, such an outcome never happened as the energetic happy dog arrived very quickly and chomped down on the stick to pick it up. Luckily for Nancy, she gripped one of the stick's ends and managed to avoid the dog's massive maw, but it didn't solve the fact that she still couldn't pull herself from the stick in any way. She held on for dear life and the eager canine turned its head everywhere in an attempt to locate the girl that threw the stick in the first place, but ended up empty handed at first. After going the distance it reached a densely green portion of the dog park it seemed to have not recognized, so it began to lightly whine while Nancy refused to let go. Both human and animal had predicaments they each needed to solve.

A short time later Nancy heard some rustling close by. The dog soon whined a bit more until another figure emerged from the tall grass. She expected possibly Molly to have finally caught up with her, but first impressions showed anything further from the initial thoughts. Another girl appeared before her, but Nancy admitted that first glances may have fooled her if not for some rather stark differences. For one, while her eyes shared similarities with Molly her height seemed a bit shorter. Her skin also slightly darkened compared to the tween and her more stout nose helped her stand out from the norm. While she kept the same brown colored hair similar to Molly, it extended further down in the back and maintained a more rounded top. Unlike someone out of the McGee household on a typical day, she wore a long yellow dress with pink sleeves and collar that kept a rather bright appearance over many other warm colors. Her shoes also matched her shirt with yellow and pink colors, although she kept her socks pretty high up her legs that Nancy didn't understand. As much as she reminded Nancy of Molly, she definitely expressed a very similar smile to her in almost every way. If Nancy somehow stumbled into a mirror dimension of some kind, the girl easily fit the role of a mirrored Molly straight out of a fairy tale book. In fact, she reminded her so much of Molly that it unnerved Nancy to an extent. Molly, yet also not Molly at the same time.

Nancy really obtained her share of Molly over the last few months.

Due to the fact that Nancy has to stay around Molly at all times while tiny, she eventually learned her name as Emmie Suksai. She grew up around a strong Thai culture and even became bilingual in both the respective language and English. While she lived in New York she sometimes took trips to see her cousin Molly, which brought a change of scenery away from bustling crowds. While seemingly around the same age as her and even shared similar proportions, at least her normal size, for now she towered over Nancy like an ant to an elephant. It dampened her spirits to see even girls around the same age as her always stood out as titans of the upper world. Emmie would never know she existed in the first place.

Emmie had her eyes set on the scared dog while she happily smiled.

"Awww, hello there little guy! Did you get lost?"

The dog whined again and shook as Emmie rustled her fingers through its fur. It seemed to have calmed the dog a little, as it slowed its shaking while its whining subsided. It then dropped the stick in its mouth, and consequently Nancy, before it gave Emmie some very sticky licks out of affection. She giggled before petting the dog and adoring its adoration toward her.

"Heeheeheehee! That tickles!"

With both parties above her distracted, Nancy finally found a moment to pry herself free. She required a lot of strong tugs, but eventually toppled backward after nearly breaking her back. Now free from her wooden prison, she glanced to the side and saw Emmie's massive shoes close by. She shuffled them as she set her attention on the dog which kicked dirt and almost buried the shrunken girl on the ground, so Nancy instantly booked it in the other direction. She managed only a very short distance though, for not long after the recognizable joyous girl arrived on the scene almost out of breath. She pink and yellow sneakers stopped right before the tiny one and made her slam straight into them. On impact she rebounded back and fell onto the dirt, but at least she managed to avoid a situation under Molly's shoe instead. More troubles and turmoils emerged for Nancy to handle, as she now needed to contend with two titanic girls in her midst.

As for the ones above her, Molly nearly tired herself out as she chased down the dog to the point where she almost collapsed to her knees. Scratch floated close by but lacked the tired nature Molly displayed due to his ghostly weightlessness. She required a few extra seconds to settle her muscles before she glanced up and saw Emmie…which instantly stiffened her back.

"Emmie!" Molly exclaimed in surprise.

Molly's hair stood on end for a split second as her cousin replied.

"Oh, hello Molly! I see you like dogs too!"

"Well, yeah. I…really love snuggly wuggly puppies." Molly replied as she calmed down. "I thought you left already back to, you know, New York."

"Uhhhh, not quite yet." Emmie answered. "My dad has to pack up everything, and we would have left already if some prankster didn't, ummmm…clog the toilet."

Both Molly and Scratch stared at Emmie while slightly befuddled while the dog heard his master's call and left in a hurry.

"Since when had anyone in this dingy town pulled a stunt like that?"

"Hey, I just as confused as both of you!" Emmie responded. "Because of that, and tons of toilet water, we…can't exactly leave yet. I pretty much get to wander around a bit while my dad tries to contact his insurance company."

"Oof, that doesn't sound pleasant." Molly replied. "Knowing how stingy those types get, especially the REALLY cheap ones around here, it likely won't end after a few minutes."

"More like entire hours." Scratch added. "I've dealt with my fair share of cheapskates, and trust me, they LOVE to shove every single-"

Before long, a very light wind picked up until a small tear opened up next to him. The girls seemed not too alarmed by it though, as they knew they only saw a small portal to the Ghost World that liked to show up unannounced for communication between realms. Before they wondered why it appeared, they received their answer when it shot out a piece of paper that smacked Scratch across the face. The portal disappeared afterward as Scratch pulled it off and glanced over it. The instant he realized what it detailed he deeply frowned.

"Of course Salvatore would come up and charge me with something like a 'tolerance fee'" Scratch muttered.

"Uhhhh, what exactly do you have there?" Molly asked.

"Nothing important." Scratch stated as he crumpled up the paper and tossed it away. "Can we just grab that stick and get out of here?"

Molly and Emmie perked up for different reasons.

"Oh, so you tossed that piece?" Emmie asked. "If it came from the other side of this park, I have to say…your throwing arm gained some strength, Molly!"

Molly lightly chuckled at her cousin's complement.

"Well, I did take part in the town's baseball team, so I may still have some in me."

Emmie giggled back as Molly leaned downward and picked up the stick by her feet. At first she considered such a minute action not too important, but once she turned the piece of wood around her enthusiasm lightly went south. She fully expected to witness her shrunken friend at one point, but out of all of the specks across the stick, none stood out as the one she wanted. Her smile instantly fell straight as her pupils contracted into dots, which caught both Emmie's and Scratch's attention to different results. If Nancy somehow fell off after it landed or something else happened entirely.

Molly immediately felt like someone injected a lethal dose into her chest.

"Molly? You, umm, okay?" Emmie asked while slightly worried.

Molly shook herself a little in an attempt to calm down before she answered.

"Oh, uhhhhhh, I'm totally perfect! Nothing worrying here, no sirree!"

The cheesy smile across Molly's face instantly rang bells in Scratch's head, and he didn't like it. He floated up to Molly before she personally asked her.

"You sure, Mol? I don't see you on stage speaking at the Oscars when I see your eye twitching."

"Nonsense! I'm completely fine!" Molly answered through close teeth and an aforementioned twitchy eye. "Say, uhhhh, Scratch. Didn't you accidentally drop something around here that you…FORGOT last minute?"

A few gears required some turns until Scratch looked Molly in the eyes and understood what she meant. He very briefly scanned over the stick and came to the same conclusion she ended on. From there he also felt a dark pit in his chest, although because he already died he worried not as much as Molly. Even so, she relied on him to figure out where Nancy landed around her, and due to the possibility of an accidental crush she couldn't move or risk everything. Scratch knew what he needed to do, but that didn't mean he appreciated it.

He gazed over the two girls for a second until he finally answered.

"Oh, uhhhhh, right! I dropped that one…THING on the way here. I'll, uhhhhhhh, need at least a few minutes."

With that said, Scratch rushed off toward the other end of the park while Molly and Emmie stayed in their same spots. Emmie raised an eyebrow at the strange behavior of the two, but she didn't want to intrude on personal matters just in case. From their Molly felt some relief that her cousin suspected nothing, but that became the easy part. She needed Scratch to follow through with everything while avoiding detection, which didn't exactly stay on his resume in a permanent manner. He needed to find Nancy, as they couldn't fail the one task the MISSION Squad held together on a pedestal like a trophy.

Scratch made extra sure the two girls couldn't see him from afar, although some curious canines kept their eyes on him which required another hiding spot. After a few extra detours so nobody knew of his location, he acted out the first few steps.

"You better still exist in one piece, midget." Scratch thought as he took a couple of deep breaths.

Once he settled down into a more subdued state, the ghost began his compression. What once set next to him as a wire fence soon extended into the atmosphere until it became the largest wall in the world. The blades of grass that he never paid too much attention to made extra sure he saw them the moment they covered the sky like an entire forest. What became rather insignificant ground shot up from under him and became endless lands of dirt and mud which grossed him out a ton. He chose to not reduce himself too much for better visibility for Nancy to see him, but he still cringed for all of the drastic changes in scenery. For once he agreed on Nancy's stance about such perspective changes when at a greatly reduced scale, but he couldn't dwell on it for too long. Time to finally locate the midget and bring her back in one piece.

He made mental notes about where Molly and Emmie stood before he miniaturized himself so he knew beforehand where to head to. With the directions set in place he rushed off and bushwhacked through entire clumps of grass until he made extra sure he managed to reach the correct spot. He only required on glance up to figure everything out.

…and there he saw the two colossal girls.

He knew he should have ended up comfortable at that point, especially after all of the times he shrunk to fit into his house during nighttime, but the angle almost made him desire some large brown pants. He mostly saw Molly as someone huge near the top around her face or as one large eye that gazed through a window on his house, but he never managed to witness her at ground level. From there both Molly and Emmie could eliminate entire cities after only a few steps and never find out. He lost track of certain comparisons between the girls' shoes and typical city buildings, and in terms of their bodies they easily surpassed into celestial entities past the clouds. While they likely kept their outgoing personalities if such a dangerous occurrence ever happened, it came at the cost of catastrophic calamities to everyone by their feet. He shook at the thought of a joyous and upbeat giant Molly on an "ehappifying" romp where she inadvertently destroyed everything in her path, and he knew Emmie wouldn't fare any better. He agreed with Nancy on one thing, but another came to the fact that no overeager girl should ever undergo a growth spurt of any kind.

He still hadn't forgotten about Molly's near destruction of the Ghost World after all.

"Keep it together Scratch, for the sooner you find the midget the better." Scratch stated to himself before he zipped through the grass around the two gigantic girls.

While Scratch's "little" excursion began, Molly never moved an inch. She wouldn't forgive herself if she accidentally stepped on the one she vowed to protect. Emmie didn't know the turmoils built up in her head, and she intended to keep it that way. The less that knew about Nancy the less of a possibility to leak to the public. A phenomenon like her shrinkage deserved no such heavy coverage from the media especially from the damages that went with it.

"You, uhhhhhhh, sure you feel fine Molly?" Emmie asked. "You don't really…look too good."

"I'm FINE Emmie! Just…PERFECTLY fine!" Molly responded with the most tepid of smiles across her face.

Emmie lightly frowned as a bit of negativity rubbed off on her.

"Is it because…of the Cake Crasher incident?"

Molly's mood dipped even further upon the particular title getting uttered from her cousin. First Ollie, and now Emmie learned of the incident that sparked her online infamy. She almost stumbled over her own two feet in the process, which sounded like nothing too serious…unless you found yourself at a fraction of your original height. Both Nancy and Scratch scrambled to get out of the way as Molly's shoes nearly crushed them, although the two tiny ones remained separated. Dirt kicked up and flew over Nancy's and Scratch's heads and nearly buried them as the girls overhead never noticed the turmoils down below.

"So…I guess you also found out about that." Molly said while slightly down.

"I can't exactly ignore something when it goes viral over the internet." Emmie responded. "I got to say, my dad and I laughed a few times when we first saw it."

Emmie shuffled her feet a few times which spelled chaos for Nancy and Scratch. Despite her younger age than Molly, she still caused the same amount of destruction across the dirt for the two. Nancy nearly ducked out of the way before Emmie planted her shoe on the exact spot she once stood, and Scratch ended up with a face full of dirt. The ghost floated while his face went flat for a split second before he spat entire buckets of dirt out from his mouth. He needed to find Nancy, but Molly and Emmie made it not so simple.

Molly's cousin then switched gears a bit.

"Did you mean to do that on purpose?"

Her tone became more sympathetic while her expression reflected uncertainty to a particular extent. Almost instantly, Molly retorted back.

"Of course not! I never intended to make a fool of myself or Nancy! Just one mistake left her in a rather sugar coated heap, and I have to carry that guilt everywhere I go from now on!"

Her head tilted downward as her sorrow seeped into her face. Despite having a very happy and bright attitude, even she couldn't avoid rather grim emotions. She dealt with so much baggage ever since she twisted fates with Nancy, and while she made sure to lock most of it behind her bright personality some still slipped out on occasion. It hurt to think about how all of it started because of such a rookie mistake, and it came at the cost of someone she just met. Such tribulations since left many crazy antics upon her life as well as all of the ghost shenanigans on top of it. All in all, she wanted Nancy back as much as the shrunken speck of a girl did.

Emmie slowly walked up to her cousin, which served as more potential damage for the two tiny ones by her feet. Her shoes sent multiple shockwaves across the ground that sent Nancy into the air for a moment before she landed face first into the dirt. Scratch gained the short end of the stick as he ended up too close which came at the cost of his lower half. His bottom portion flattened which caused the ghost to yelp until she lifted her foot up once again. A large imprint remained of where he floated before he ripped his upper part loose. Surprisingly, he felt more miffed than hurt after all of it.

"Of course I just HAD to fall FLAT there." Scratch said to himself as he regenerated due to his undead nature.

He continued his search down below while the two girls still conversed from above. Emmie placed a hand on Molly's shoulder in family comfort.

"While nice to finally know the name of the girl you humiliated, I understand your worries completely."

"You…you do?" Molly asked.

"Of course I do." Emmie responded. "The Molly I know would never consider such actions purposely for the detriment of others. You always desire to keep everyone happy, and I really like it!"

Molly's eyes opened wider a little as she gazed at her younger cousin. Despite the video that spread like wildfire across the internet, Emmie thought of the scenario differently than the general public. As someone close to her, the images of the accident alone never deterred her cousin away from the girl she always knew. Never had it crossed her mind that she would ever perform something terrible against someone else, especially someone she just met, and she intended to fix her mistake even though Emmie didn't understand the true extent about what happened. She found it rather soothing once she heard someone else's opinion that strayed from the norm, especially from family like Emmie. She may not have known about it, but her kind words lifted Molly's spirits out of the negativity from the accident of sugar and frosting.

After her words of encouragement, Molly's light frown changed into one of her signature smiles.

"Aww, I'm glad to hear someone like you say that." Molly replied. "You have no idea the amount of burdens on my shoulders since that fateful day. It still hasn't left my mind…for better and worse."

"Yeah, I can easily imagine." Emmie said while she smiled back. "I know it might not solve everything, but have you given your apologies to, uhhhh…Nancy? Did I get her name right?"

"Yes, she's known as Nancy." Molly answered. "As for an apology, well, you have no idea how many times I've went stated that to her again and again. I heard she took it well after though!"

"Oh, right! I think I saw her around town these last few days." Emmie said. "She seems to have taken the situation rather well, although I haven't heard her speak too much."

"I've pretty much learned about that since day one, heheheheh." Molly said as she tepidly rubbed the back of her head.

While she heard about Emmie's encounter, in reality she came across someone else completely. Molly had to give it to Olivia for holding up her facade of a timid autistic while the real girl stayed cooped up close to her and Scratch. After everything said and done though, she still received reminders about what she intended to solve beyond everything else after months of next to no progress. Nancy wanted nothing more than to get her size back, and while the circumstances around it painted an enigma, at some point they'll finally come across their first breakthrough. Everyone had their own duties under the MISSION Squad banner, and Molly needed to keep her safe no matter what.

After they finally wrapped everything up, both Molly and Emmie ended their interactions with a famous McGee family hug. The two smiled as they held each other in their arms and felt a warm feeling inside, which catastrophically left the two tiny ones running for the hits. Nancy just about pulled herself out of the dirt when a series of massive tremors between Emmie and Molly careened her straight into a wet puddle of mud, which drenched her all over near Emmie's shoes. Scratch possibly received the worst sentence as he perfectly though he floated far enough away from the giant girls' shoes to search for Nancy again. In reality, he miscalculated by a few single digits, so when Molly moved in close to Emmie he ended up caught in the crossfire. He managed only a small glimpse of a dark shadow before he disappeared under the flat surface of Molly's shoe as she sent a deafening quake through the miniature world below. After such an impact, Scratch stayed stuck at the bottom of the tween's shoe once she lifted it back up before he detached in a stringy mess like a loose wad of gum on the floor. His eyes rolled out of their sockets as the massive imprint across his ectoplasm told the world that he suffered a rather damaging press, and he likely would have found himself dead if not for the fact that he already carried that title. Once again, Molly and Emmie felt nothing while Nancy and Scratch succumbed to most of the consequences.

He felt more loud booms from Molly's gargantuan shoes as he crawled away so she wouldn't leave him as a sticky mark against the ground. She still rumbled the ground as well as Emmie as his loose eyes darted everywhere until they witnessed the one person they actively looked for. They squeaked happily and hopped up and down as Nancy brought herself back to her feet while completely washed up in mud. One look over herself and she deeply sighed, but not before Molly and Emmie sent tremors that shook her up. Scratch's eyes turned back around as his imprinted body felt around until they finally grasped the loose eyeballs. He stuck them back into their sockets before he zipped on over to the muddied shrunken girl, although he winced a little at her appearance. Mission finally accomplished.

"Phew! I finally found ya, midget!" Scratch said as he shook the large imprint across him off. "For a second I thought you would have joined me in the afterlife after we lost you!"

Nancy kept her gaze downward and stayed silent for a few seconds as Molly's and Emmie's shoes brought dozens of extra booming quakes around them.

"This day…hasn't gone well on my end…" Nancy said at a quieter tone than normal. "It really stinks…that I can't do anything…unless either you or Molly always stays by my side…"

She sniffed a couple of times while she wrung some excess mud out of her hair. He ignored a couple of booms from the two giant girls as he floated up to her. He made sure to not compress himself too much to Nancy's level so he could rescue her easier, so he measured up to around triple of her reduced height. Even so, he put a hand on her shoulder and turned Nancy around so she faced him when he spoke. She needed to hear him out.

"Look, midget. I'm not one to instill happy news all the time, for I'd rather Molly do so, so I'll keep this very brief. GIVE. US. TIME. Nobody has heard of this situation before, so for now keep a leveled mind and let us help you, okay?"

Nancy would have replied back, but then another series of quakes almost sent the two across the ground again. Before long, one of Emmie's shoes came down within mere inches of their tiny selves followed by one of Molly's. It left them with next to no time to react before they raised upwards once more and crashed down in another series of deadly tremors. Nancy scrambled to get back on her feet and run while Scratch gazed one last time upward. Almost instantly he figured out everything.

"Ohhhhhhhh, shoot. She pulled out the ol' Molly ecstatic special. Nothing will interrupt such an embrace like that! Normally I wouldn't mind as much, but at this size near her eager feet…"

Scratch's eyes instantly shot over to Nancy as Molly's shoe shot dirt up into the air from another deadly impact. Soon after Nancy's panic instantly spiked as she rushed across the dirt for any sort of safety, but in her haste she never noticed one of Emmie's giant shoes until a shadow loomed over her. Nancy's drained expression glanced upward as the bottom of the shoe came down fast to the point where all of her muscles came to a screeching halt. From there Scratch lightly yelped and zoomed toward her to the best of his abilities. Nancy changed into a deer in headlights as Emmie's foot ended up only a head's length away, which spelled her final resting place if someone never intervened. It really seemed like the end for her, but at the very last second Scratch snatched the shrunken girl onto his back and barely escaped by the skin of his teeth. The top of Nancy's head lightly grazed the bottom of the shoe before Emmie put her foot down, which sent a powerful shockwave that almost shook Scratch off course. Drops of mud and dirt rained from above that struck Nancy and Scratch multiple times, and while it lost the ghost some altitude he remained upright with Nancy in tow. Scratch became an overnight superhero in an instant.

Nancy gripped Scratch tightly so such a change to fall off remained lower on the percentage table as Scratch revealed the rather bad situations ahead.

"Look alive midget! We haven't escaped this neck of the woods yet! Molly's giddiness shot through the roof between her and Emmie, and when her carelessness goes along with it…"

She needed no further examples, as she witnessed both the gigantic selves of Molly and Emmie as they embraced each other and lightly hopped up and down with glee. They didn't know it, but they brought Nancy and Scratch into the crossfire below, and they succumbed to all of the consequences. Molly's shoes came in quick and left the ghost struggling to avoid them, while Emmie's never fared much better. At one point one of Emmie's shoes took Nancy and Scratch by surprise to the point where they lacked time to zip away. It would have ended up curtains for the two of them if the ghost never made one crucial decision. Right as the huge shoe stomped into the ground and lifted back up, the two tiny ones avoided their ends by a hair as they took cover in one of the smallest indents imaginable. Once they witnessed Emmie's shoe lift back up, Scratch made his move as Molly became their next obstacle. Her foot came down a lot quicker which left barely enough time to rush under it, which Scratch went for as if his afterlife depended on it. The numbers fought for dominance and Nancy's cranium barely scraped the bottom of Molly's shoe, but due to his swiftness Scratch managed to squeak by just as she left one extra loud boom that sprayed dirt everywhere from the impact. Nancy shut her eyes as the ghost carried her away out of sight to safety. The two got away from the deadliest family hug between two gigantic girls.

After their intertwined hug, Molly and Emmie pushed themselves back as Scratch silently flew up close to Molly's ear and whispered.

"Midget secured. You caused a ruckus down below, but I got her."

He made extra sure he stayed out of sight from Emmie as he carefully situated himself behind her head. Molly twitched ever so slightly as if she responded to his statement, while both girls happily looked at each other.

"I wish I could stay here longer, but I don't want to waste too much time since I haven't visited Brighton's infamous giant sunflower yet." Emmie said. "I'll see you later if our room still has rubber ducks along the surface."

"Oh, right! The whole flooded room thing." Molly replied. "Yeah, I'll keep in touch just in case. See you Emmie!"

The young Thai cousin of Molly happily waved before she turned around and ran off in the other direction. After the series of shenanigans, Scratch grew himself back to normal size and brought Nancy to the forefront. The tween opened her pocket before Scratch plopped the shrunken girl back safely within the confines. Molly would have offered some heartwarming statements to possibly cheer Nancy up, but she immediately noticed the muddy mess all over her.

"Oh, sweet baby corn! You look completely run down!"

"Way to reinforce the obvious, Mol." Scratch sarcastically said before he switched gears. "You and your cousin nearly trampled us down there!"

Molly's back stiffened as she couldn't believe what her ears picked up.

"Sweet baby corn! OH, SWEET BABY CORN! Please don't tell me that just happened!"

Nancy mumbled something to herself before her muddy self nervously let the cat out of the bag.

"Yeah. You sort of…almost crushed me…into a pancake… So horrible…"

Molly frowned even further as she knew her next activity shared the same terrible outcome as the last. Even so, she still had plenty more planned before Nancy's special day ended.

"Okay, so the dog park ALSO DIDN'T go over well. No worries though, for I have MORE IDEAS tucked away that I'm certain will make you OVERJOYED LIKE ME!"

---

A montage then starts of the three going over various places while Molly raps to a fast marching beat.

It's All About Nancy

(Starts with Molly covered from head to toe in plush animals while Nancy sits on her shoulder as various objects she likes fly by)

Loving hugs, plush cats; don't fancy that

Swimming all day, wearing all gray

Big dogs go by, she goes wide eyed

For her heart throbs when on the wayside!

(They soon stop by the ice cream shop where Molly orders on of Nancy's favorites)

Cheer up! Cheer up! Molly's all here

To make you all happy! Don't shed a tear!

(Nancy sticks her head out for a lick only to fall face first into it from her miniature size)

Today is your day! No time to be chancy

(Molly pulls her out and looks at the tiny girl's messed up depressed face)

Because for now it's all about Nancy!

(They then stop by a manicure and pedicure salon with Molly at the helm and Nancy on the counter)

Manicures, nail polish; too bad you're smallish

For one could paint you since you're not tallish

(Molly accidentally paints the entirety of Nancy's front instead of just her fingernails, which leaves her with a flat expression. She then switches to hair dye)

Hair dye, blue color. One or the other?

If none, then we can go all the way!

(She starts her work on the tiny girl's hair up close)

Up to the right? Down to the left?

Oops!

(Nancy comes out covered completely in blue like a Smurf as the music halts with a record scratch. Molly reels back in surprise while Nancy doesn't like her new makeover. As if on cue, Scratch floats in holding the check for everything…which costs a lot)

Scratch: Yeah, I'm definitely not going to pay.

(The music starts back up as the group heads for the local arcade)

Arcades, electronics, no need for phonics

(As she tries to play one of the cabinets, Molly inadvertently presses on her as she stands on one of the buttons)

I heard you prefer this sort of game!

(She tries to play ski ball next, only for Molly to throw her with one of the balls into the lowest hole. Molly tries bringing up other topics)

How bout this, or that, or maybe some of this?

(Nancy frowns unhappily and lightly shakes her head to the towering girl before her)

Come on Nancy, give me a good name!

(Molly tries desperately to find something to cheer her up)

Cheer up! Cheer up! Molly's all here

To make you all happy! Don't shed a tear!

Today is your day! No time to be chancy

Because for now it's all about Nancy!

---

Molly exhausted herself in all of her attempts to win some extra brownie points for her friendship toward her tiny bestie, but as if someone sucked all of her luck into a penny all of them ended in disaster…for Nancy. Giving up became the last option to rely on, so she never considered it. She had to give it to Scratch for tagging along despite some rather "feminine" activities, and yet his grumpy persona persisted as if they never happened. Molly detected no such increase in Nancy liking her after everything they went through, which she couldn't blame her for due to all of the circumstances against her. She planned to have a perfect day for the shrunken girl, but at their current rate it might as well dipped into the negatives. Nancy deserved much more in Molly's eyes.

Because her legs felt they carried a blue whale, Molly instantly collapsed onto a nearby bench on the sidewalk and tilted her head back in pure exhaustion.

"I need oxygen! I NEED THE BREATH OF LIFE!" Molly exclaimed as sweat dripped everywhere across her face. She even comically raised a hand up to grab the sun, only for her arm to fall straight back down.

"Well, you called up the wrong one for the job." Scratch said as he referred to himself.

Nancy stuck her head out from Molly's pocket soon after, but after everything she went through her body had seen better days. From multiple bruises, a swollen eye, dirt across her knees, to even a large chunk of missing hair, she displayed all of the hallmarks of someone who just encountered a street gang and lost. Even so, her personality remained underneath all of the beatings. One could easily recover from them…unlike her miniaturization.

"Uhhhh, we should probably…call it quits for today." Nancy said. "I clearly can't handle…all of these activities…like this."

As if on instinct, Molly's head immediately shot back up like someone just awakened her from a nightmare.

"No! I will not leave you unsatisfied from a day of fun! S.H.R.A.N.K. deserves your full happiness Nancy, and as your gigantic bestie we shall make today EXTRA SPECIAL! You may have taken some bad outcomes, but the party won't stop until the brink of dawn! YOU SHALL ENJOY YOUR DAY AND LOVE IT!"

The rather uncanny smile and slight craziness underneath her facade provided some really unnerving indicators that Nancy may have shoved to the side, but not for Scratch. After so many failed attempts to befriend her tiny friend quicker than ever, her desperation sank lower as the day progressed to the point where cracks started to form. She planned so much and listened to everything Katrina said about her likes and dislikes yet she always came up short. He recognized such a dangerous attitude beforehand after an incident with Andrea and school, and she seemed to forgo such borders for a second time in an attempt to win over the shrunken girl she kept privately for months. He didn't see his living best friend but an impostor that drove her own ideals over everyone elses.

"Errrrrr, Mol?" Scratch said rather shakily. "Maybe the midget has a point. She can't really do anything like that, and you left her more battered than-"

Before he could finish, he suddenly became spooked himself when a rather disturbed smiling Molly instantly shot him one of the most poisonous expressions underneath the mask. He could hear the maniacal laughter and lethal chorus as crackling fire rang through his hearing. She made it perfectly clear in a split second that she would go after him if he interrupted her schedule for S.H.R.A.N.K. as she completely lost her mind at some point throughout the activities. While laughable in a certain context, for Scratch it set a precedent to not tread lightly. She really acted like she masqueraded as someone completely opposite of her normal upbeat persona at times.

"Yeesh! Fine, have it your way!" Scratch replied.

A few seconds of silence passed, and in that allotted time the wheels in Molly's head began to turn. Something about what Scratch said seemed to have set a domino effect in her brain that eventually struck gold after some intense thought. After what seemed like an eternity, even though in reality it lasted only a few quick moments, a light bulb lit up which widened her eyes of inspiration. Soon enough, a scheme formed soon after where everything perfectly connected into a web of ideas and their executions. Her mischievous mind settled on something she never imagined until she reminded herself of a moment that completely passed over her initially.

Time to save S.H.R.A.N.K. with another Molly scheme.

"Hey Scraaaaaaaaaaatch?" Molly said with an impish smile. "Want to hear this funny joke I've heard?"

"Uhhhhh, what?" Scratch responded. "Why should I-"

He never found a moment to finish his statement when Molly instantly brought herself up close to him and began whispering in her nonexistent ears. She spoke at a low enough volume which Nancy couldn't eavesdrop on, which left the tiny girl confused as to the sudden change in events. She watched as Molly spoke…something to Scratch, and she only gained leads toward the supposed subject through their reactions. Scratch opened his eyes more than usual while Molly kept her rather mischievous expression for a time until a few moments later. From there, Scratch lightly frowned while Molly angled her eyebrows downward a bit. A few extra seconds later eventually Scratch began to whisper something toward Molly's ears which Nancy also couldn't hear. Eventually the two went back and forth until they went into something akin to full blown pantomiming, for Molly's arms waved up into the air and Scratch grasped Molly's face at one point. Scratch then went behind Molly's head and pretended to silently walk downstairs before some rather loud noises occurred that even spooked the tween a little. After such a display he "emerged" from below and went back to whispers toward Molly. The two lasted for another few more seconds until they finally appeared to have settled down, and Nancy really couldn't describe what she just saw in one word.

The two basically put on a really bad comedy routine.

After the…display, Molly and Scratch brought themselves back while they left Nancy in the dark about what they spoke about.

"Ummmm, if I may ask…what sort of joke causes…that?"

"Oh, we'll tell you when you became thirteen like me. You won't understand." Molly replied.

Scratch deeply sighed and snorted as he looked at the two girls rather worryingly, but mostly toward Molly.

"You really sure about-"

"YES SCRATCH! EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE!" Molly exclaimed while on breaking point.

The ghost shut up at that point as Molly went back to Nancy.

"Well, uhhhhhh, we might have to take a rather important pit stop before we can, errrrrrr, continue with your day. Don't worry, it will ONLY take a few minutes tops."

"Uhhhhhh, ummmmm…" Nancy stuttered. "Why…exactly?"

"I can't tell you silly or I'll spoil the surprise!" Molly responded. "I have EVERYTHING under control."

The smug smug across Molly's face rubbed Nancy the wrong way, but because of her status as the bigger girl she called all of the shots. As such, Nancy had no choice but to go along for the ride. She knew Molly acted unpredictable at the most inopportune times, so if something clicked in her head she usually acted immediately. No further questions became necessary, especially since she didn't like to provide details on most of her schemes. Nothing but more "Molly Madness" over the horizon for the ghost and shrunken girl.

Behind the curtains though, Molly definitely kept one close idea secured for their next location…much to her cheesy evil mastermind mindset.

"Oh yes, Nancy. I know EXACTLY what to do next, and when it succeeds you'll DEFINITELY like me! You'll reach the top of the chart to the point you'll ABSOLUTELY ADORE ME! THIS…IS ABOUT…OUR FUTURE FRIENDSHIP! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

---

Ever since the near destruction of the entire town from a giant sunflower, the community kept the plant in check. Much to the delight of Brighton's mayor, it became one of the town's treasures and biggest tourist attractions. While the Giant Dazzling Man Eating Sunflower didn't move so much after the incident, it left onlookers stricken with awe when they laid their eyes on it. True to its name, it stood as the tallest thing in the whole town, including the mayor's office, which obviously required some gardeners and volunteers to take care of it. With so much tourism around such a marvel, it actually warranted a few portable toilets and a small souvenir shop themed around the humongous flower. The mayor paid deep pockets for their town treasure and it paid off in spades. Molly even visited the huge flower on occasion since she made friends with it, and even though it stayed immobile she could tell underneath that it appreciated her presence down on the ground. Even though Scratch figured out the hard way that it could see him invisible out in the open, as days passed he really appreciated the shining yellow brought by the sunflower's bright yellow petals. It seemed that as spectators and tourists passed by its towering stature it left a happy and warming impact on their lives. Nobody could have felt any happier to visit an incredibly rare Giant Dazzling Man Eating Sunflower without all of the destruction…and Molly's ignorance.

The three took the time to gaze upward at such a gigantic plant before Molly sat down on one of the many park benches near it. At first she seemed pretty normal, but soon after she gave Scratch her phone which prompted the ghost to float away somewhere else. Somehow it provided some tiny red flags in Nancy's head that she kept to herself since she usually never willingly started a conversation. She stayed bundled up and hidden in Molly pocket while the girl herself enjoyed having someone drastically smaller than her at all times.

They watched a few tourists walk by after they marveled at the giant sunflower before Molly looked off to the side where Scratch headed off. She mumbled something incoherently that Nancy couldn't hear before the ghost zipped back into view with Molly's phone. He still kept on the light frown from earlier he twiddled his fingers a few times.

"The deed you requested has finished, Mol." Scratch said using fancy words.

His tone shook as he spoke before he handed Molly her phone back. Such a statement prompted a delightful response soon after.

"And thank you, Scratchy!"

Even as all of the foreboding signs still loomed over her head, Nancy kept her reactions to a minimum. Scratch deeply snorted and sighed while he and Molly set themselves on the sidelines as if they…waited for something. Nancy shuddered and glanced upward toward the friendly giant sunflower, which calmed her to a certain extent thanks to its rather shining appearance. While not exactly a flower expert, she had to admit that they displayed rather stunning forms. If Molly willingly chose the place as their next destination from such a minor quirk in her personality she wouldn't exactly question it. Such splendors of the human world brought stillness in the eyes of the troubled, which helped someone like her.

They wouldn't have to wait long before another figure emerged into their lives under the flower. While it satisfied some, it confused the shrunken one more than anything. She kept quiet for the most part, but also questioned Molly's choices when it came to happening for her "special day". In fact, Molly knew it more than she did, so it seemed really weird to include such a figure in their activities for the day. Even so, Molly still called everything since her size completely eclipsed hers.

"Ah, Libby! You've arrived early!" Molly stated as she smiled.

Libby rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, I was already lingering around this place while researching Nancy's condition. I can't exactly help myself when it comes to phenomenons nobody's encountered before."

"Riiiiiiiight. You and your research tendencies strike again." Scratch said while he fought back a roll of the eyes. "I assume you discovered something about the midget then?"

"Well…" Libby started as she glanced down and shuffled her feet. "I…think I'm onto something, but I'll need at least a few more references before I concretely claim such assumptions. Just give me…a little bit more time, okay?"

Her slightly uncomfortable nature provided some light warning signs in Nancy's head, but before she could think further Molly spoke up.

"Okay! Good to know! I'm just happy that we FINALLY might have a lead to the whole dilemma! I mean, for months we've found next to nothing and it kind of made us somewhat antsy for something to put us in the right direction! THANKS LIBBY!"

"Yeah, uhhhhhh, I do what I can to help." Libby replied as she lightly chuckled. "Speaking of which, you…do still have her, right?"

Molly slowly nodded before she turned her back, likely to cover the tiny kid to the public, which prompted her tall human bestie to follow. Libby peeked over Molly's shoulder before the tween used to fingers to slightly open the pocket that contained the shrunken girl. Once she widened the gap a little, Nancy's head lightly stuck out as she held herself up near the lip of the opening. She looked up and shook for a split second at Molly's and Libby's gigantic faces, but she still lightly stuck up a hand and nervously waved to both of them. No need to reject her only possible saviors of her miniaturization, even though she despised one of them.

She stuttered from nervousness for a few seconds before she finally spoke.

"Uhhhhhh…hi there Libby…in your humongous stature…"

Despite the anxiety across Nancy's tiny face, Libby still kept up a friendly smile.

"Hello Nancy! Nice to know that you've stayed safe. Gotten used to your size by now?"

Nancy's mood drooped a little while she glanced over to the side and stroked her hair slowly.

"Not exactly… I'm still greatly intimidated by everything…even after so many reassurances by Molly…about my safety…"

"Yeah, I can EASILY imagine your intense nervousness." Libby responded. "If you can hold out for a bit longer I MAY have found something interesting. I'm going to need everyone present to tell them the news…when I set everything in stone."

"I've heard about that…but thanks for reiterating…" Nancy stated while she shuddered.

Both Nancy and Libby stared at each other for a bit longer before Nancy straightened her expression as they nodded. Libby understood the turmoils that occurred when shrunken to the size Nancy found herself at despite never undergoing the same treatment. However, before they could get further into details, Molly interrupted their conversation. She called Libby over for a reason after all.

"Okay! You've connected again and now we can hang out for some EXTRA SPECIAL BESTIE FUN! I know EXACTLY what to do with ALL of us TOGETHER!"

Libby tilted her head to the side.

"I thought you texted me because Darryl found himself radioactive again and needed some-"

"OHHHHHHHHHKAY! No time for jokes now Libby! We have no time to spare!" Molly interjected in a rather obvious guilty tone.

She then shot Scratch a very brief glare before the ghost lightly waved his hands as if his mind ran on fumes at the time. With everything seemingly settled, Molly urged the others to follow her down the path near the sunflower. Even through their confusion, Nancy and Libby couldn't exactly conclude on a reason why they shouldn't follow so they silently did so, although the former stayed in Molly's pocket. Eventually, the group settled near the base of the sunflower's huge stem while it partially covered them from any spectators. Some very elegant styled benches dotted alongside it combined with a couple of toilet stalls nearby, which appeared perfect for their next course of actions. All remained well for the group at the moment.

"Ooh, ooh! I just found the perfect spot!" Molly exclaimed with glee.

Her toes then went tapping with eagerness while her signature joyful smile widened considerably. As much of a "Molly" moment that passed by their lines of sight, one of the others chose to speak up soon after.

"Ummmm, you…have something in mind, Molly?" Libby asked.

"YESYES! A MILLION TIMES YES!" Molly responded while she eagerly nodded endlessly. "I've found the perfect spot for a best friend selfie! Imagine ALL of my besties together IN ONE SPECIAL SHOT!"

She hyped up something which carried a rather minute payoff, at least from what Libby and Nancy saw, and yet it sounded like something Molly would go for. At first it sounded like yet another failed "Molly scheme" which usually resulted in catastrophe, but they couldn't settle on an excuse to not reject such an idea. She had a point in the fact that the huge sunflower made for the perfect backdrop for a photo, and the fact that Molly tamed it after its destruction spree helped establish her trait to always make things right. They made note of Scratch's rather unsettling silence, but Molly kept herself front and center for the most part. Nobody could ignore her overwhelming joyous antics after everything said and done.

"Well, uhhhhhh, okay. If you say so!" Libby answered as Molly brought her phone out.

The tall girl sat down in a comfortable position as Nancy sank into Molly's pocket to avoid detection, but before she went in deep Molly interrupted her.

"Oh, I'm going to have you in this picture as well Nancy! I'm not going to share this with anyone else after all, and you have just as much of a presence in my life as my other besties! Come out and show yourself to the camera!"

While it sounded weird at first, after a few quick seconds she realized that such an occurrence happened already. Molly snapped some photos with her phone over the months since she took her in, and the fact that she recorded multiple videos that showed her tiny size, especially the one with the golden goose, meant going camera seemed like a rather strange rejection. After another reminder that everyone bigger than her commanded their ideals over hers, she pretty much concluded that such choices became streamlined as a shrunken one. As her slight frown remained plastered across her face, Nancy hoisted herself back over the lip of the pocket and glanced up toward the camera. Nothing but yet another downside to having your size reduced ended up apparent for Nancy and her unfortunate outcomes.

The girls in the camera's view smiled, minus Nancy, while Molly adjusted the angle.

"Hmmm, a little over… Okay… And…okay!"

From there she set the camera at the perfect angle as she prepared to press the button to click everything into place. Libby and Nancy watched closely as Molly hovered her finger over the portion of the screen that housed the button, although they found it rather odd that she didn't immediately press it. Soon enough, she seemed to have everything prepared, and she just about became ready to finally snap the picture…

…

…

…

"…now Scratch!"

The next few seconds became some of the most frantic and chaotic between the group, and yet for some it appeared as if it happened in slow motion. Right as Molly called for her ghostly buddy, Scratch acted and quickly zoomed into the shot. He had his sights set on one particular person, so Nancy never saw him coming when he snatched her from Molly's pocket. From there, as Nancy's mind tried to catch up to the times, he targeted his next victim right next to Molly. Libby's eyes narrowed into dots as he brought his ghostly hand that held Nancy right up to her as it went transparent. From there, another factor suddenly made itself known as it literally emerged from the portable toilet stall next to the group. She stated before about her priorities in another area, so it sounded pretty natural to visit the place she talked about. However, Libby's reaction time came in clutch as right before Scratch forced Nancy up to her face she suddenly jerked to the left. In the end, she fell out of the bench and would have left Scratch with no other target…but the girl right behind Libby. She barely had enough to sigh when she emerged from the stall when Scratch's transparent hand slipped straight into her head and took Nancy with it. Afterward he flipped over and fell to the ground below as the shrunken girl disappeared from his grasp. As for the girl caught in the crossfire, her eyes rolled back before she fell to the ground next to him and started to wriggle uncontrollably along the ground for a few seconds. Before anyone in the group knew what happened, the aftermath already showed up.

Suffice to say, something didn't go according to plan.

Everyone managed to push themselves back onto their feet, minus the girl who just appeared, as nobody seemed to have lasting injuries. Molly shook her head as she got up while Libby held her head for a few seconds until her emotions went into overdrive.

"MOLLY! WHAT THE HECK?!" Libby shouted while her hands waved in the air.

Scratch lifted himself into the air soon after and appeared to have a slight concussion, but for the most part his undead status stayed intact. He shot a glance at Molly as brought herself back to reality and looked over her human bestie.

"Judging by the stern stance and frantic antics…I'm clearly speaking to Libby." Molly said before she put her foot down. "Shoot!"

"Hey, I warned you about how brazen it sounded to possibly go through with it. Too bad you, oh I don't know, COMPLETELY IGNORED ME!" Scratch responded while he crossed his arms. "At this rate I might as well take on the job as your voice of reason…which I'm NOT well suited for."

"Well, how should I have known that Libby has the reflexes of a cat on too much coffee?!" Molly exclaimed in disbelief.

None of their bickering satisfied Libby though, as she still remained clueless of their crazy idea for…something. In a fit of extreme sleuthing work, something she only pulled out when she took on the moniker of "Bloodhound of Truth", she changed into a blur for a split second before she ended up right in front of Molly and grasped her by the collar. Her panicked seriousness dripped all over her face as Molly became slightly worried. She meant business.

"Molly…explain everything. NOW." Libby said with slight vigor and terror.

Molly shuddered for a few seconds before Scratch spoke before her.

"Let's just say…another Molly scheme blew up in her face."

"Not the time, Scratch!" Molly responded as drops of sweat fell from her face. "I can fully explain everything from here!"

"Then start talking before my ANXIETY bursts through the roof!" Libby stated while gravely worried for her life.

The young tween would have immediately revealed her intentions behind such an apparently random series of evens if the girl from before never uttered anything from her face in the ground. Almost instantly the other three perked up and turned their attention over to her, although Molly obtained her fair share from first impressions alone. Right as she realized who showed up unintended with the group her face became pale. She suddenly remembered the words spoken earlier and the plans behind such a choice, which ultimately came at a price when she settled on the particular venue. She wandered around on her own while her father dealt with some pranksters, and because Brighton usually remained somewhat free of wrongdoers expectations stayed relatively low on that front. Unfortunately, Molly became the stopping stick for the tourist car of the particular girl.

…let alone a close relative.

"EMMIE!" Molly cried out as she bolted toward her downed body.

From there the other two put the argument on hold and rushed over to the unconscious girl. Before they could act though, Molly made the first move and flipped her cousin around until her front faced up. While she appeared not greatly hurt at first glance, the fact that her eyes stayed shut and her mouth hung agape possibly meant something else. While she refused to go mouth to mouth, Molly still attempted other methods. She wouldn't leave her relative as another type of Scratch on her watch.

"Emmie! Emmie! Speak to me! Please wake up!" Molly exclaimed as she picked up her inactive face.

While nothing became apparent at first, the hopes of the others emerged as they heard some low audible grumbling from Emmie's mouth. Molly almost fainted while Libby and Scratch held their breaths for the best. From there Molly heard some soft breathing and an energetic heartbeat as she placed her head against her chest, and then Emmie's eyes slowly opened before she held her head. She kept mumbling something, but once she lifted herself up relief hit everyone else hard. From what they saw, she only suffered a rather minor fall.

Their panic settled down rather quickly at first, and from there they finally heard Emmie speak.

"X́ā kkk nạ̀n…cĕb cring…"

Molly's young cousin slowly came to as she held her head from a minor migraine. Libby released her breath while Scratch twiddled his thumbs at the display. For Molly, her joy came through once again.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Molly exclaimed as she embraced Emmie. "Sweet baby corn! Don't scare me like that again!"

Emmie, while still rather out of it, coughed a little from Molly's hug before she let go. Her head still drooped to the side, likely from dizziness.

"X́xf…c̄hạn rū̂s̄ụk kddạn māk thī̀ nī̀…"

Molly lukewarmly chuckled and smiled toward her cousin's bilingualism while she patted her back.

"Uhhhhhh, you okay Emmie? I know you can speak Thai, but you just can't leave us blocked by a language barrier."

"Khuṇ kảlạng phūd t̄hụng xarị-"

Emmie suddenly halted her speech as her dizziness wore off. Her eyes shot wide open while her skin crawled which almost made her lose her balance. She looked downward at her arms and hands before her dress and legs while the other three watched in befuddlement at her actions. The young girl prodded her fingers all over her body and even felt her face at a few points, which increased her anxiety as the seconds passed. Before long, her body tightened as her back went straight. She apparently stood stunned as her tiny pupils stared right at the other three and her limbs quivered. Something rang through her head of hers.

"Thảmị c̄hạn t̄hụng pĕn bæb nī̂! C̄hạn h̄wng khır xīk læ̂w?! Thảmị c̄hạn t̄hụng phūd p̣hās̄ʹā xạngkvs̄ʹ mị̀ dị̂!"

Molly, Libby, and Scratch just blankly glanced at each other for a split second as Emmie freaked out even more.

"Okay, something definitely happened in those few crazy seconds." Molly stated. "Why don't you just calm down and-"

"C̄hạn ca s̄ngb lng dị̂ xỳāngrị meụ̄̀x c̄hạn t̄hūk khrxbngả xīk khrậng læa mị̀ s̄āmārt̄h phūd p̣hās̄ʹā xạngkvs̄ʹ dị̂!" Emmie exclaimed before she ran up to Scratch. "Dụng c̄hạn xxk mā deī̌ywnī̂!"

She then grabbed Scratch like a maniac and crazily gazed at him like she got back from an insane asylum. Before she could do anything else, Molly and Libby pulled her back while her heart rate accelerated. They sat her down on one of the park benches as Molly held her shoulder and rubbed her back for some kind of calming comfort. Luckily her breathing slowed a bit in the process, but Emmie still held herself close in a bundled position as if to retreat into her own head. Even though she simmered down somewhat, the others still needed answers.

"Alright then. Now that we calmed Emmie down a bit, I think both of you need to explain yourselves." Libby said sternly to both Molly and Scratch. "What sort of mindless scheme have you thought of this time Molly?"

After all of the chaos that passed through the group, all of it ran a one eighty back to the one who instigated everything. Libby's eyes narrowed as her gaze shot straight into her soul, which gave Molly chills. From there, she knew withholding such important information came to an end after the haphazard planning she exchanged with Scratch. Her scheme collapsed right before her eyes, and she served as the primary suspect. Yet another crazy idea crashed and burned in the hands of Molly McGee's ever developing mind. Libby basically caught her red handed.

Molly bit her lip in a rather over the top fashion as she felt stress hives pop up across her skin like weeds. From there, she couldn't hold it in any further.

"OKAY! OKAY! I SCREWED UP AGAIN! Everything sounded SO good on paper too!"

Libby continued to stare at Molly like a hawk while Scratch turned around to roll his eyes in private before he got back to the girls.

"I warned you Mol that this wouldn't work out, but you CLEARLY ignored me. You should have known-"

"I get it Scratch, okay?! Don't rub it in!" Molly interjected.

Scratch reeled back as Molly sadly looked over to the panicked Emmie. While not as freaked out initially, her messed up hair and beating chest told her that she still had a little bit in her. From there, Molly lightly shook her head and faced Libby once more, for she deserved to know her idea. Time to drop the bombs.

"Well, you see Libby… I wanted to have Nancy possess you."

From that moment, Libby's arms went limp as her mouth hung down for a few seconds. Before long, she stood back up and faced Molly.

"You…WHAT?!" Libby exclaimed in disbelief.

"I know! I know! I shouldn't have tried it!" Molly responded before she talked about it further. "I thought Nancy would have liked to experience having a normal height again!"

Molly's words struck a chord in Libby's head, and before long she remembered an incident that happened a few months earlier. All of the pastries lined up for her taste, the overwhelming majority of Motichan merchandise, and the possession of one girl named Molly McGee added up into yet another blemish of crazy proportions straight from the depths of Brighton. To think that Molly wanted to go through the entire process of possession again after that mess sounded preposterous, and yet outlandish enough for someone like Molly to go through again. Of course, she wanted someone else as the shell now, and to think she concluded on her became a bit too much for Libby. As a close friend, Molly should have known better.

"So you settled…on ME?!" Libby retorted. "You could have at least given me a heads up! Did you call me over JUST for that?!"

Molly glanced downward to the side and rubbed her arm from the uncomfortableness in the air around her.

"Well, ummmmm…sort of?"

Both Scratch and Libby shot daggers from their eyes at her which prompted another response.

"Okay! Okay! Yes! You appeared as the perfect target! Of course, I didn't expect you to have such blistering reaction times to avoid everything!"

Libby glared at her for a few more seconds before she sternly walked up to her best friend. The two girls locked eyes while Scratch floated back a few inches to give them some space. If Libby wanted to act like an animal against Molly she could go completely nuts and get away with it. Molly admitted that she screwed up after all, and she fully accepted the consequences of her actions. She dragged Libby into another scheme that ended in bruises against their limbs. Whatever the case, someone would get it in the end.

The two continued through one of the deadliest staring contests between them, but eventually one of them simmered a bit. She deeply sighed and held her forehead for a moment before she finally came to an agreement.

"I know how much the incident with Nancy affected you, and even though I would have disagreed with your possession idea…I understand your intentions. I can't stay angry at you after everything you've done for me, but next time…try to accept the possibility of a rejection if everything doesn't go your way."

From there Molly's joyous smile returned before she squealed with glee and provided one of her trademark hugs to her tall bestie. She likely would have continued to embrace her if Scratch never interrupted them.

"Okay, as much of a happy occasion I don't want to break, we sort of have someone else to take care of. You know, we still have a certain MIDGET with us?"

The wires fumbled around for a while, but eventually they connected in the girls' heads. They became so fussed up over Libby's forced involvement and the aftermath of it that they completely forgot about the other girl tangled into Molly's mess of a plan. Details stayed somewhat fuzzy since everything occurred so quickly, but some emerged that helped shape the situation in their minds. Molly started all of it because of her after all, so it seemed criminal to completely forget her. The dust settled and they haven't seen Nancy yet.

"Oh, right! Nancy!" Molly said while slightly upbeat. "She should have possessed my…"

She halted her speech as more facts showed up in her head. Her face drained of life for a split second as she turned to face Libby, who she knew didn't end up as a temporary body for the shrunken girl.

"Ohhhhhhhhh, riiiiiiiight." Molly tepidly said while her face mirrored the emotion.

"Yeah, Nancy ain't speaking through me anytime soon." Libby responded while her eyes narrowed for a split second.

"Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaah. THAT didn't go over well." Molly said with a pinch of nervousness.

She then turned to Scratch.

"So where did you place her then, Scratch? You failed to place her in Libby's body, you know."

"I've already taken notice of that if you couldn't tell." Scratch replied. "Well, because Libby got out of the way she may have possibly ended up in the girl behind her, who…"

He trailed off as realizations hit, and the two girls caught on rather quickly. Soon after, all of them turned their attentions over to the curled up cousin of Molly. She bundled herself up to her knees and slowly rocked back and forth while her eyes stared off into space. Her unsteady nature provided even more indicators to their suspicions to the point where Molly slowly walked up and took a seat next to her. For the most part, Molly never knew Emmie as someone extremely timid, but she understood who usually displayed such a behavior.

"Nancy? You in there?"

Emmie's body shuddered and shook as her eyes slowly angled over to Molly's empathetic self. She refused to unbind herself as her worry took over for the most part, but she mustered enough finally speak up again after she muttered something to herself.

"Chı̀…s̄̀wn h̄ıỵ̀ c̄hạn...Phūd tid«k̄hạd«bæb nī̂."

Molly lukewarmly chuckled and smiled before she put a hand on the nervous girl's shoulder.

"I'll, uhhhhhhh, take that as a yes."

She then watched as Emmie, which she possibly determined as Nancy stuck in her body, gazed at her for a second and lowly nodded. Taking such a gesture as another sign, Molly then carefully got off the bench and indicated to the timid girl to do the same, which required a few extra seconds. The girl's legs trembled, but she eventually planted them on the ground and walked up to Libby and Scratch with Molly by her side. Her nervousness dripped out from the body she forcibly went in due to Scratch's incompetence.

She fiddled with her fingers as Libby walked up for a closer look. Her investigative skills lead her to scan over Molly's cousin like the "Bloodhound of Truth" she called herself.

"So…I'm speaking to Nancy?" Libby said as her eyes looked over everything.

"Xīk khrậng chı̀." "Emmie" responded. "T̄ĥā dị̂ pord xỳā...Mxng mā thī̀ c̄hạn-"

"Okay, we get it Nancy. I'm not well versed in Thai." Scratch interrupted.

"Is…is that what I looked like when Nancy possessed me?" Molly said in slight awe. "I have to admit…it kind of looks uncanny in motion."

"Other than the obvious body differences, than yes." Scratch responded. "However, I have no idea why Nancy became language locked. I'm still not completely well versed into 'living being possessing another living being', especially since I haven't completely mastered it yet."

"Then maybe you should have held off on performing such a feat…ON ME?!" Libby answered with minor vigor.

"We get it, Libby! No need to escalate everything further!" Molly shakily said as she slid between her and Nancy.

Libby glared intensely at Molly's nervous expression for a few seconds before she settled down some. She clearly became really miffed at the shenanigans pulled between everyone involved, and she likely would have went off on another tangent if she went against anyone else. However, because she faced Molly her demeanor sizzled into a more manageable temperature because of their close friendship. Even so, she couldn't believe her best friend tried such a brazen stunt without asking her about it first. While Molly's patience commonly wore thin, the fact that she brought her into the mix made the situation a lot worse in her head.

"Okay! Okay! Looks like we have everything settled for the most part." Scratch stated in slight irritation. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a midget to pull out of Molly's cousin who emerged from the portable toilet."

"Chı̀ c̄hạn xyāk h̄ı̂…r̀āngkāy pkti k̄hxng c̄hạn klạb mā…t̄ĥā ṭhex thảdị̂." Nancy responded.

Despite the obvious language barrier, Scratch ignored her words and proceeded to strap on some large doctor gloves and a stereotypical stethoscope out of nowhere. His expression stayed pretty flat as the others watched him float down to the possessed Nancy stuck in Emmie's body. He cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath as he stared the nervous girl in the eyes. He understood what she wanted at the moment.

"Just to let you know…I still have no idea what I'm doing."

The girls cringed. Nancy never deserved to usurp Emmie's body after Scratch forcibly sent her in, and yet she found herself in yet another person once again. The ghost forced her into Molly and a cake decoration before, and while she may have somehow became used to it she definitely wanted to avoid doing so if possible. In retrospect, Molly found it more surprising to see her undergo the process multiple times over herself since she maintained a stronger relationship with Scratch. She would easily find more use over Nancy, especially since she desired to always meet new people to "enhappify" them. She always wondered what it would feel like to become an animal like a dog, cat, turtle, or some other species that eluded her. The perspective changes always lead to some rather interesting-

Right before Scratch could reach inside Emmie's head to pull Nancy out, Molly perked up.

"Wait! Not just yet!"

Almost immediately, the others paused and stared at Molly like she lost her marbles. Nancy in particular possibly took the news worse than the others.

"Umm, excuse me?" Scratch said as his hands drooped down.

"Well, uhhhhhhh…" Molly stuttered as she fidgeted with her fingers. "I'm saying…that maybe Nancy should stay in there for a little bit longer? I have a reason!"

"Khuṇ b̂ā h̄rụ̄x pel̀ā?!" Nancy exclaimed in both hers and Emmie's voices from the possession. "C̄hạn mị̀ s̄āmārt̄h pị rxb «bæb nī̂ dị̂! C̄hạn yạng phūd p̣hās̄ʹā xạngkvs̄ʹ mị̀ dị̂ ley!"

Everyone else stared blankly at each other from the obvious language barrier set from the possession, but then Libby broke the silence.

"Ummmmm, maybe you should hold off on speaking for now, Nancy."

Nancy's head, or Emmie's since she possessed her, limped down upon hearing words she couldn't speak before Molly elaborated a bit further.

"Well, errrrrrr, I'm thinking that we actually have an opportunity here. I mean, okay, we may have missed Libby-"

"Wait a minute. When did this become a 'we' situation?" Scratch interjected while he used his finger to emphasize "we". "You clearly told me to-"

"No time for that, Scratch!" Molly interjected back before she continued. "Anyways, we missed Libby and struck my cousin Emmie instead, but…Nancy has a normal size again! That must count for something, right? Sure, she may not have her typical body-"

"Læa p̣hās̄ʹā." Nancy nervously interrupted.

"I'll…take that as something." Molly said as she understood nothing. "Even so, I wanted to go through the whole possession process for Nancy for that very reason! I know you want to get out of Emmie's body Nancy, but at least give it some time until we go through the rest of the activities I have planned for you. I want you to experience them in full without falling back on your shrunken size. Please? For me?"

Her eyes glistened under the sun as she lightly pouted akin to an adorable puppy. Scratch and Libby lightly frowned at her desperate begging, but they didn't have a say in a question not aimed at them. For Nancy, she found such an attempt more creepy than cute. Every time Molly tried to bump up her cuteness factor, it may have worked on other but not the shrunken girl who knew the true nature behind such an expression. Even so, as much as she wanted to dismiss her pleas so she could get out of Emmie's body as soon as possible, she had to admit that Molly made a strong point. She wanted her restored size more than anything, and while she received such a grace period before when Scratch made her possess Molly it never fully scraped the itch. She still lacked her original body, and while she became somewhat used to walking around as the one who shrunk her in the first place her cousin…kept some rather different traits. Communication served as the biggest issue because of her "language lock" to Thai, and her choice of clothes didn't reflect Nancy's own personality. As such, her stay as Emmie wouldn't go by as easily as before. Even so, such ignorance of the positives stood strong to the point where it required some deep consideration. The fact that she could stand with everyone else and not upward toward their humongous bodies served as possibly the most contributing factor behind her final decision.

She finally settled on an answer.

"K̆…c̄hạn yạng mị̀ s̄bāy dī…tæ̀ k̆ mị̀ ỳxtĥx chèn kạn mæ̂ẁā c̄hạn ca phūd tid«k̄hạd«bæb nī̂… c̄hạn deā ẁā c̄hạn khng xyū̀ bæb nī̂ dị̂… xīk h̄ǹxy…"

Nancy nervously put her hands behind her back while she tilted her head down and lightly tapped a foot against the ground. For the others, she left them confused out of their minds behind what answer she settled on. The constant language barrier proved next to impossible to comprehend, but at least one of them took such a mess into an agreement. While not a perfect answer, she received something out of it.

"I'll take that as a firm yes!" Molly exclaimed as she perked up.

Libby and Scratch stayed a bit uncertain.

"Ummm, I'm not quite sure about this." Libby said. "I mean, Nancy doesn't appear completely thrilled like you. Maybe you should…ease everything off a bit?"

"As much as I'm unwilling to agree on anything…I have to make an exception here." Scratch answered.

"Nonsense!" Molly replied. "I've planned the perfect day for her and she LOVES it! Suuuuuuuure, she may now have my cousin's body, but I'll make it up to her! Right Nancy?"

"C̄hạn…c̄hạn deā." Nancy stuttered with the combination of hers and Emmie's voices.

As everyone finally settled down, behind Molly's over exaggerated smile her thoughts ran rampant.

"Yes, absolutely yes! I just dodged a complete tragedy! Just a little while longer and then she'll HAVE to like me! I'm a genius! Nancy's forever friendship, here I come! MWAHAHAHAHA!"

---

After a series of rather…odd events, Nancy now possessed Molly's cousin Emmie's body due to Scratch's incompetence. Just to make sure Molly stayed in check and out of trouble, Libby accompanied the group while she kept her eyes on her. Even though it appeared not that big of a deal on the surface, she worried that something might happen out of their control, and she clearly remembered when Nancy possessed Molly. If any catastrophic even occurred akin to the troubles of a certain "huge bulge that could tear apart both souls" variety, she'd never risk it. Libby cared for Nancy's safety too, and if she detected any warning signs after another Molly scheme she readied herself just in case.

In terms of their next stop for S.H.R.A.N.K. though, Molly already thought one step ahead. While Nancy never considered herself the greatest of artists, she thoroughly enjoyed crafting and brainstorming new creations for her family. Clay especially provided enjoyable goosebumps for the young girl, and she always managed to get her hands dirty when she put her mind to it. She cherished her very first creation even though complexity didn't stand out, and she even still kept it safety stowed away in storage. Despite the appearance of a rather generic mushroom, she eventually molded the cap until it sported a rather robust shape of an actual baseball cap. The humorous nature behind such a change still made her smile underneath her timid nature, although she never forgave herself for an extra lump underneath she couldn't fully chip away. The mushroom supposedly represented her love for the outdoors even though nobody other than her understood it in full. At one point Katrina even thought she snagged something rare to use in another one of her supposed hexes, and she became greatly disappointed when she learned the truth. While not as prolific, Nancy appreciated her expressiveness on the creative side when prodded her fingers across the materials.

Such a fact meant the town's art studio became their next stop.

For such a building that housed such specialties, it maintained most of the essentials. From rows of workbenches that showed brushes and stencils up top to shelves of rather distinct figurines, Brighton contained no shortage of utensils for creative endeavors. The figures usually kept a price tag so others could paint and claim them as their own, and the shiny caricatures of some rather beefy folks helped provide the walls their own unique identities. From clay, wood, and paper most of the materials and colors stood across the back in a few long rows each labeled appropriately with their distinctive names. The floors normally displayed some loose drops of paint and water from some slight mismanagement, for the most part nobody slipped and hit their heads like a klutz. The clerk and owner typically remained out of public view, although the former occasionally appeared in case of replacement colors when supply went dry. At one point she even had some free time and painted a dull colorless figure of a cartoonish knight all in blue with a red tint near the sword. At one point she accidentally placed a drop of red on the helmet, but in the end kept it there for "better detail". All in all, while not the most visited establishment in the small town, it maintained its stance as somewhere unique midst all of the rather generic workplaces where dreams came to life.

Molly's wide bright smile lead everyone forward into the building.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, we've arrived at our next place of Nancy's great interests!" Molly exclaimed. "Anyone have a certain creation in mind? I've got plenty!"

"Ehhhhhhh, I'm not exactly the artistic type." Scratch said. "I pretty much have the drawing talent of a caveman. Stick figures and basic shapes all the way."

"Well, art is one of the most subjective topics on this very planet." Libby answered. "What you think stands out as utter garbage may strike someone with awe!"

"Yeaaaaaaah." Scratch responded while very mellow out. "I've also heard that art is in the eye of the beholder, and when it comes to me…"

The ghost took a moment to pluck one of his eyes out and angle it toward his body. Almost immediately afterward he stiffened for a split second.

"Yikes! I might need a trip to a ghost masseuse to roll out these wrinkles!"

He stuck his eye back in as the girls made their way inside. Molly walked up to the front desk and spoke with the clerk about a possible clay creation for each of them. Her response came in the form of a nod as Molly brought up the required amount of money for each of them minus Scratch. As much as the ghost became a bit excluded from his "basic artistic talent", the less he reminded himself of his crude stick figure art straight from elementary school the better. Molly also made extra sure that Nancy spoke less often so they wouldn't have to wrap their heads around a language they barely understood. Once everyone finished up, the clerk handed them their own meshes to handle themselves which Molly understood immediately and zipped over to her table. The others followed and took their seats, except for Scratch, and made themselves comfortable. Time to let their creative juices flow.

Nancy required a few extra moments to adjust herself in her possessed body. She glanced down at her hands and fingers and shuddered at all of the differences. The fact that she ended up forced into Molly's cousin made it even creepier to think about, but she only paid attention to the negatives for a few seconds. She found herself possessed in Molly's body before, and she learned that getting used to the differences stood out as one of the first steps. With all of the tidbits in mind, Nancy kept herself quiet and finally settled down into her comfort zone. She only required a few extra moments of focus on the clay mesh before her mind struck an idea. She became struck with inspiration.

"Xụ̄mmm nạ̀n xāc fạng dū ǹā s̄ncı…" Nancy muttered.

Ignoring the fact that she still couldn't speak English, Nancy put Emmie's hands to work. She rounded out the edges and narrowed her eyes to help pinpoint exact locations, much to Molly's amazement. The tween held off on her creation so she could pay attention to Nancy, whose instant working skills really impressed her.

"Yeesh! And I thought I knew what I wanted quickly!" Molly stated.

Libby sculpted out a round flat disk out of her mesh while she sat next to Molly.

"I heard people with autism like put their mind into things with extravagant details. I'm not too surprised to see her already have something in her head."

"Really?" Molly asked in curiosity.

"Well, from what I've read about it. Certain inaccuracies may still linger somewhere between the lines."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brilliant stuff about that ateesum stuff." Scratch sarcastically said as he fumbled with his own mesh he obtained…somewhere.

"Autism, Scratch." Molly corrected as she glanced at him.

"I get it! I get it!" Scratch answered. "Sometimes I have many details slip out of my mind, okay?"

He kept messing with his own mesh as he drew a finger through the thick clay. Eventually, he created something out of it as Libby lightly turned her attention to him, but she only saw his supposed basic artistic talent described earlier. The ghost then brought his "masterpiece" up to her face.

"So…thoughts?" Scratch asked.

Libby struggled to come up with good definitions at first.

"Well, uhhhhh…it's the thought that counts." Libby responded.

Scratch went flat pretty quickly.

"Yup, I definitely knew it. I'm not rivaling Michelangelo anytime soon."

"Then maybe you should take lessons from him if you have an issue." Libby replied. "Surely you've come across many historical figures in the Ghost World."

"I know a lot, but not by a huge majority." Scratch answered. "It gets PRETTY crowded down there, so specific individuals kind of come and go as they please."

The ghost looked over Libby's own in-progress creation while he floated next to her, and while he couldn't figure out everything, the general shape raised a few flags. The large divot near the top threw him off a bit, but for the most part he already had a hunch at the ready.

"Let me guess. A turtle?"

Libby chuckled under her breath.

"Well, I decided on it at first. Unfortunately, I may have placed too much pressure at the top so I'm making do with it. I'm considering more of a Stupendemys as I'm shaping this up."

"You lost me at stupid." Scratch said rather blatantly.

Libby's eyes narrowed for a split second at him.

"Stupendemys, Scratch. They're an extinct prehistoric reptile that shared an appearance with turtles, or at least from what I've read."

"Ehhhh, I'll still call them stupid." Scratch replied as he turned his back and shrugged. He then proceeded to go back to his own clay mesh for of extra touch ups.

"Someone ought to shove a dictionary into his nonexistent cranium." Libby thought before she focused more on her clay mesh.

As the two continued on their own amorphous creations, Molly kept her eyes on her possessed cousin, who she knew as Nancy underneath, as she worked her mesh into a certain shape. She couldn't take her eyes off of her, especially from the way she worked certain details into her figure. At times, she seemed like she smiled a few times while riled Molly up behind her infectious face. From light flaps near the top to short well rounded feet, her creativity slowly leaked as time moved on. Molly paid so much attention to Nancy that she barely touched her own clay blob. All within her eyes Molly saw some sparks of personality beneath all of her timidness and worry, which she wished Nancy displayed more often. She definitely felt like she gained some respect, and the small sprout of friendship emerged from the ground. Molly knew she earned some likeness, even if Nancy needed to borrow the body of her cousin, which tickled her heart to the point where her joy seemed to have shined even brighter. Molly desired to finally achieve Nancy's friendship, and it appeared to slowly grow with each passing second.

"Molly? Hey Molly? You okay?"

The questions jarred Molly out of her own thoughts. She sat straight up as her hair stood on end for a split second before she faced the source next to her. As it turned out, Libby had her eyes over her for a time and appeared to have noticed the barely touched mesh near her hands. She already made good progress on her ancient prehistoric turtle and used the accidental indent in her design, but Molly never touched up on her own creation.

"Oh, uhhhhhh, yeah. I'm still up and about. Why do you ask?"

"Well…you hardly worked on your own design." Libby answered. "Also, your eyes stayed locked on Nancy almost since we arrived. You have something on your mind?"

"Libby, you know I ALWAYS have something tucked away in my noggin."

"Nononono, not like that." Libby said. "I'm talking about your fascination with Nancy and her current creation. You've stayed immobile with your eyes on her for the last thirty minutes."

The duration at the tail end shook Molly more than usual. She knew she paid attention to Nancy and her clay design, but the fact she did so for that long left her in slight astonishment. She could have easily focused on her own agenda but shoved all of it to the side so she could make extra sure that the shrunken one she cared about liked her more after a string of failures. For once she finally appeared to have a chance, and she kept it close so it wouldn't fail. She allowed her desire to keep her busy, which came at the cost of time doing nothing but watch the possibilities as they reached higher percentages.

"Ohhhhhhh, THAT minor detail." Molly stated as reality hit her.

She uttered some light tepid chuckles as she quickly shifted gears to keep the topic on track.

"I'm just…interested in seeing her creative visions! Yeah, that! You said so earlier about how autistic people have some, uhhhhhhhhhh, creative endeavors! They think, ummmmmm, different from average people at times! Heheheheh…hmmm."

She hastily expressed her common guilty cheesy smile that always performed the opposite of its intended function as Libby just stared at her unenthusiastically. He weak chuckles spoke volumes about her cover which she lightly scratched her face. Before Libby could address her awkwardness, their conversation cut short when a crunch struck their hearing. They instantly turned toward the source, only to see a small slab chipped off of Nancy's impressive figurine. She sat up a bit startled, but once she glanced over to the side and saw Molly and Libby her nervousness kicked in.

"Xụ̄mmmm… c̄hạn xāc ca wāng…kddạn māk keinpị k̄hxthos̄ʹ…thī̀ thảh̄ı̂ khuṇ s̄xng khn tkcı…"

The other girls stood silent, likely from the obvious language barrier, as Nancy lightly brushed the broken slab to the side and picked up a brush on the side. At that point, she already made impressive progress on whatever she had in mind. She already painted some yellow over the round plump feet while the main body dripped in shades of blue. They noticed two large white circles near the center that most likely represented eyes along with two light blue open bulges above near the top. At that point any potential guess sounded completely wrong toward what she intended to create all along, and even though it appeared complete in many aspects, the fact that she still attempted some fixes indicated its rather incomplete status. Both Molly and Libby had to admit that she maintained some level of creativity in her she never showed off before then, and it left both of them with smiles on their faces.

…which only lasted for a few more moments.

Nancy began with a few light strokes of the brush when a very familiar feeling stirred below. It started rather minute with only a few low rumbles, but as she tried more and more to ignore it the more apparent it became. She bit her bottom lip as she lightly clutched her stomach and attempted to shake it off, and yet the poison prodded at her insides like it wanted to test the waters. If someone just stuck a dozen needles into her chest she likely wouldn't have found a difference, and yet she knew the operation only started. Her breathing shortened as sweat dropped from her forehead while her limbs shook from the immense pressure placed upon her possessed body like a million weights. The familiarity behind such an occurrence seemed almost too similar to a certain time under yet another body, and it still desired another go at her ever since. The poor girl knew what it meant, and yet she could do nothing about it.

Her behavior caught the attentions of the others almost instantly.

"Nancy? You okay?" Molly asked.

Her cheeks swelled for a split second before she barely managed to squeak out a few words.

"C̄hạn…rū̂s̄ụk mị̀kh̀xy dī…"

The pain spiked again as one massive bulge quickly emerged from her back then subsided. Soon after it shot up around her lower abdomen then sank again. From then it randomly emerged from one part of Emmie's body as if something ran through her insides like some mangled carnival ride. At certain points it even seemed like she suddenly became a hunchback, which sent the others on high alert. All of the craziness from her stay in Emmie's body took its toll as the huge lump sent Nancy to the floor. Molly raced toward the suffering girl and tried to pull her back onto her feet, but instantly Nancy fell to the floor once again. Something currently kept Nancy on the ropes while trapped in Molly's cousin's body.

"Mạn cĕb! Cring«mạn cĕb!" Nancy exclaimed in her mangled voice as Emmie's body ached all over.

From there, the others started to lightly panic as they tried to pick her up to no avail.

"Nonononono! Don't panic, Nancy! Just keep calm and DON'T PANIC! JUST KEEP IT TOGETHER, OKAY?!"

"Molly, I don't think your increasing panic is making this any easier!" Libby exclaimed.

"Don't think of yourself within the minority. You get used to it…and all of her overreactions." Scratch responded as he hastily made his way over.

The other two helped Nancy get back onto her chair at least, but the massive bulge kept spiking all over the place to the girl's pain. Any attempt to potentially curl herself into a fetal position wiped from existence as the body she possessed pulsated all over the place to the huge moving lump. Libby and Scratch stared at each other in the eyes while Molly wouldn't stop biting her fingernails.

"I assume you recognize the picture here? No pun intended." Libby asked.

"Yup. The memories never left my brain." Scratch answered while he slightly frowned and crossed his arms. "At least THAT time she lasted for a while, but now…not so much."

"Well, you acted rather sloppily from the process this time." Libby replied before she switched topics. "Enough about the theories though, for we need to pull Nancy out NOW!"

"I DON'T NEED REMINDERS ABOUT HER POTENTIAL END!" Molly exclaimed as she freaked out more. "PLEASE TELL ME THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN WHEN NANCY POSSESSED ME!"

"Hate to break it to ya Mol, but…yes." Scratch answered.

Molly succumbed to rather frantic breakdown as Nancy's bulge grew even bigger. While she found herself somewhat lucky for Nancy's pain to not stir any major attention, especially due to the clerk always having to restock from the back rooms, she still needed the neighborhood friendly ghost to get her out. Just when she thought Nancy finally found a moment to enjoy herself which possibly increased Molly's status on the friendship scale, once again something went wrong in the grand scheme of things. Despite Molly's incessant care to make sure the final act of the day ended up splendor it became a premature celebration of anguish and panic after everything said and done. Nancy found herself in yet another troubling situation Molly so desperately wanted to avoid through any means necessary. Nancy easily fell from the frying pan and into the fire despite all of the safety measures.

Molly at least thought that the situation couldn't get any worse than-

Everyone other than the stricken Nancy suddenly suffered a form of astonishment when they heard the back door as it flew open. The tween couldn't believe all of the unfortunate circumstances around the group's current whereabouts, and usually bad luck honed in on Libby for the most part. The whole area may have stayed empty for a while, but when one more joyed the fray everything suddenly fell into meaningless complications. If anyone else managed to stumble across the troubled scene it would have became terrible enough, but when someone you knew closely arrived at the worst possible moment the area suddenly changed into a lit minefield. For everyone in the vicinity, they rolled the latter and paid for it dearly.

Nobody but the eldest sibling of the notorious Chen family emerged in all of his ghost searching glory.

As much as Molly's heart throbbed for a loving neighbor like him, Nancy's unfortunate situation skewed her priorities in another direction. As he arrived out of the store's back room he glanced down at his tracker for a few moments before he shook his head.

"I'm still not detecting anything strange out of her, and yet her appearance screams for the dead. I might have to jot my thoughts down for later…"

The moment he placed his eyes off of his ghost tracker, he instantly saw complete pandemonium. Both parties, minus Nancy, stared at each other like both of them shined bright headlights in their direction. Molly's heartbeat slowed to a crawl while Libby hiccuped and stepped back. Scratch stood out as the only one not too surprised, although he stiffened for a second once the opposing party saw him. As one of the very few outside of the McGee family able to see him, he needed to think of a plan B in case the once in a blue moon person stumbles upon him. All in all, the painful awkwardness left a certain stillness in the air which goaded one side to make the first move.

The boy took the bait.

"Whoa! Molly?!"

Molly bit her lip and shuddered everywhere before she zipped over in front of the suffering Nancy. He cheesy guilty smile spoke volumes to her true intentions.

"Ollie! How…abrupt seeing you here!" Molly stated as she tepidly chuckled. "You really caught all of us off guard! Heheheheheh…"

Sweat poured from her forehead as Libby got up next to her and Scratch attempted to calm Nancy down. He never obtained a degree in therapy though, so he remained a bit clueless. If he forced Nancy out while Ollie kept his eyes on them the tiny girl's discovery seemed inevitable, so for now Nancy needed to cool her head to not arouse too much suspicion…contrary to Molly's current attempt. He groaned in the back of his mind while he floated down toward her to at least keep the huge lump down. Scratch came to the rescue once again in terms of saving a certain shrunken one.

"I think I'm more appropriate to say that from what I'm hearing behind you." Ollie asked. "What have you gotten yourself mixed up in now?"

"Mixed up in? Noooooooo!" Molly said in a relatively playful and guilty manner. "What makes you think I've gotten myself in YET ANOTHER situation of spectral proportions?"

Like always, Ollie didn't buy her obvious cover up.

"Molly, everyone in town knows you for you crazy antics. I've also learned first hand that your presence attracts many, MANY happenings around here. I've pretty much done my research into that weird goth girl for today, and I would have left uninterrupted…if I never saw you here."

He left her on the ropes to fend for herself. In all of his tracking down of Katrina's whereabouts, including where she went for the day, Molly became the one outlier that diverted him out of his duties. While she would have tried to have kept her troubles out of Ollie's attention, once Nancy fell to the floor and stuck Emmie's distressed head out from behind her she knew the cat leapt out of the bag. Her heart sank once she saw Libby and Scratch near her while Ollie's eyes opened wide. From there yet another "Molly situation" echoed through the town of Brighton to the ones closest to her, much to her dismay.

"Phā c̄hạn xxk cāk r̀āng nī̂… dị̂ pord!" Nancy exclaimed as the bulge extended and emerged across her back.

As if on instinct, Ollie appeared terrified and ran on over to the girl's aid while pushing Molly out of the way. The huge lump ran circles throughout Emmie's body and stuck itself all over the place as if something desperately wanted to come out. No matter if Nancy decided to stayed in a fetal position or not, at some point the massive bulge shot out of her abdomen and caused even more pain for the possessed one. If nobody intervened, she would perish and take Emmie along with her.

Ollie frantically scanned over the girl in pain and ran numbers through his ghost tracker like his life depended on it. Almost immediately, the color across his face drained.

"All of these signs point to…a body controlled not by her own will straight out the goriest of horror movies! Molly, A GHOST IS POSSESSING THAT GIRL!"

Normally, Scratch would have relayed the rather unimpressed reality check for the blatantly obvious, but instead he raised his nonexistent eyebrows toward such an observation.

"Wow, uhhhhhh, impressive!" Scratch said. "You hit everything mostly on the nose there! What tipped you off?"

Ollie glanced up at Scratch for a moment.

"As someone who's researched all of the common tropes related to ghosts and ghouls, it becomes rather elementary after the fifth billionth time between the lines."

"Okay, as much as I would like to admire your sense of observation WE KIND OF HAVE AN ISSUE HERE!" Molly exclaimed as she anxiously chewed her fingers.

She spoke the truth about the matter. As they continued to banter they wasted time as Nancy suffered in Emmie's body, and as many of them learned from her time inside Molly both parties shared the same risk the more a human possessed another human. The instability behind such a procedure, rather than a typical ghost possessing a human, made it unsafe in many ways, at least from how Scratch read it. Of course it required a ghost to perform such a feat in the first place, but even Scratch couldn't fully use it safely. The more they spoke, the more time they burned toward Nancy's troubles.

As much as they wanted to act immediately, if they performed anything out in the open they risked the potential leaks to the public. Nobody other than the ones caught in the web of problems deserved the insights into the concepts of the undead, so they required a more private location. Nancy's wriggled around across the floor left some scratching their heads vigorously until Libby saw a local bathroom nearby in the building. They knew where to head next.

As the huge bulge shot up and almost took Libby's eye out, Molly and Scratch hoisted Nancy up by the shoulders as Emmie's body went berserk. Libby proceeded to grab her legs when Ollie suddenly intervened.

"Wait! I didn't even get to pour out the special water! I can't skip any important step when it comes to ripping spirits out!"

The lump shot forward even further and completely tipped over a nearby table before it stretched across Emmie's back…which socked Scratch straight in the noise. The ghost lightly growled under his breath as the possessed girl's legs flailed about. Libby gave Ollie a rather disdainful glare soon after.

"This ain't a regular possession, Ollie! I wish I can explain further, but for now HELP US GET THIS GIRL INTO THAT BATHROOM RIGHT NOW!"

The frantic nature of everyone around told him that they already kept their priorities straight. As much as he wanted to act upon his duties as a ghost hunter, he heard the most viable step. Any potential leak of such a happening to the public and it could possibly cause mass panic. He learned the hard way about such a possibility, and the less he went through more the better. Because of such an insight, he reluctantly agreed and grasped one of Emmie's legs to stop it from flailing too much. With the other leg handled by Libby and the top taken care of by Molly and Scratch, they hastily rushed over to the restroom as quickly as possible. Nancy accidentally knocked down some art pieces across the shelves as he limbs came loose at one point, but luckily nothing shattered. Before long, everyone made it inside, although it lacked such space akin to restaurants and schools, and they released Nancy onto the floor gently. While Ollie felt some discomfort because he just so happened to travel into the girls' bathroom, because nobody seemed to occupy the area when he came in he settled down a little bit.

Step one down, and now it became time for the second.

Nancy's massive lump extended so high from there that it touched the ceiling, and yet she acted as though Emmie's body had a mind of its own. The other four watched in terror as the bulge shout outward and struck the sinks and toilets all over the place which dislodged them at many compromising angles. Water sprayed everywhere and soaked everyone as it filled the room. As messy of a situation it made out of the room, at least it kept them out of the public eye…for now. The sooner she came out of Emmie's body, the sooner the troubles would end

"Xeā...C̄hạn...Xxk cāk r̀āng nī̂!" Nancy exclaimed as the bulge literally shot her up against the ceiling.

She crashed against the top until the lump descended and ran across her body again. The others rushed for cover near one of the stalls as a burst of water blasted Scratch against the back wall. He smacked against it with a loud bang before he literally peeled his flat body off like a sticker and recouped back to the others.

"Alright then, this has gone on far enough." Scratch said. "Right, I'm pulling her out now."

The ghost pushed up some of his nonexistent sleeves and huffed vigorously before narrowly avoids another blast of water his way. Only he could possibly separate a human possessing another human after all since he performed the feat with Nancy and Emmie in the first place. Even though such a process only occurred twice before, he thought he pretty much learned enough to do it again. He managed to float up close to the distressed combination of souls in one body, but the water sprayed everywhere and the lump automatically moved Emmie's body across the wet floor before he could firmly grasp her. Before long he managed to finally place a ghostly hand on her, but he immediately retracted it once some intense heat almost charred off his fingers. Luckily another blast of water cooled him off…but not before it sent him into the back wall once more. He dripped his flat form downward and oozed back to the group like silly putty. Such an approach proved…damaging to say the least.

"Any luck?" Libby said as her hair became soaked in toilet water.

"No dice." Scratch answered rather groggily. "I could have EASILY separated them on the spot if not for a rather BURNING sensation the moment I touched their body!"

"Burning?" Molly asked. "That sounds rather…unnatural."

Ollie immediately butted in.

"But…that shouldn't happen! No such record I've learned about detailed such a trait when a ghost possessed anyone! Unless the ghost maintains powers of fire, no possession automatically gets intensive heat on the body! Even then they risk a potential combustion of the host-"

"WE'RE DEALING WITH A HUMAN POSSESSING ANOTHER HUMAN, OLLIE!" Libby exclaimed in panic.

Ollie sat stunned for a moment as the others scrambled to figure out how to cease Nancy's suffering. The room began to get flooded to the point where the group started to wade across the surface, and the massive bulge almost filled up a third of the room. From there Nancy found it very difficult to keep Emmie's head above water and the bulge made swimming harder than usual. Even then, she couldn't do much from the immeasurable pain about to burst from her chest if uninterrupted. She turned the bathroom into a swimming pool in only a few minutes, but it wouldn't last once the waters reached the ceiling.

Nancy bubbled and spurted water in an effort to stay afloat, and yet her skin felt a million degrees hotter than normal. She tried to speak up toward the group, but the sense of toilet water filled Emmie's lungs to point where such communication became impossible. Even so, the other four kept their thinking caps on while they tried to focus, but the rushing water made concentration rather difficult.

"I'M NOT FIT FOR PROFESSIONAL SWIMMING!" Scratch exclaimed as he constantly found himself drenched.

"At least you've already died to where this doesn't matter!" Molly replied frantically as the waters filled up to her neck. "You can at least try to pull Nancy out again before we drown!"

"Not when her skin burns of a million suns!" Scratch screamed. "Not even the smoothest of oven mitts can tame degrees from what I've felt!"

"Then maybe someone should calm her down!" Libby worriedly answered. "I mean, if her possession somehow flared up her emotions is seems natural to soothe the spirits within! Scratch botched the process which may have brought some unintended consequences after all!"

Scratch shot Libby a nasty leer before his ectoplasm went underwater. With the bathroom nearly filled to the brim they almost had no time left to figure something out. If Libby's theory had some truth to it, then one swift calming session became a ticket out of the problem. Too bad they couldn't exactly reach Nancy quickly in the water and figure out just how to slow her down. At that moment Nancy continued to cry out as Emmie's skin started to crack bright lights. If it didn't spell her demise with only a few minutes left than the group understood next to nothing. They needed an extra boost and fast.

…which arrived in the form of Ollie's quick thinking.

While a bit uncertain about lasting effects, something about Nancy's condition struck a chord to the point where he rummaged through his stash until his sense of touch ran over one specific object.

"Even though I'm not completely sold on this, I might just have the saving grace for all of us."

The eyes of the other three fluttered open and stayed wide as they swiftly turned their attention over to the ghost hunter. They refused to blink while her pupils remained small toward such a startling revelation, and once they witnessed what Ollie kept stored it almost sounded possible to get out in one piece. While not too stylized from the equipment he showed off during his stay in Brighton, the visuals got the job done for at least one of its functions. On the surface level one's assumptions possibly lead toward the group of common plastic toy guns, especially ones that squirted some sort of liquid substance, but their guesses easily lead them down the wrong path. One only needed to remember that his sister just so happened to invent extraordinary technological equipment specifically for their ghost catching endeavors. Once that certain fact arrived into their noggins, everything suddenly became perfectly understood. They had to give it to June Chen for her brilliance, for she just so happened to possibly save their skins unintentionally.

The others already knew of the Chens' antics, so they automatically assumed something rather crazy and weird from the get go.

"And what sort of gadget have you brought out? Looks…damaging." Molly said as rushing water poured into her mouth.

"I'd rather NOT volunteer to stay at the receiving end of that barrel." Scratch replied while he nearly sank.

"It's one of the later revisions. My sister initially considered a more threatening design, but I'll just cut to the chase." Ollie explained. "This large machine shoots out a sticky but soothing adhesive that relieves stress of someone currently under the possession of a ghost. While not completely finalized, as she she calls it under a beta status, most of the major flaws became ironed out over time."

"You have a gun that can calm the nerves of the possessed?!" Libby exclaimed. "Then go ahead and shoot it already before we drown!"

"I just stated that it works when a GHOST possesses someone, not a human possessing another human!" Ollie retorted. "I'm not even sure it will work for this specific set of circumstances! It could clearly backfire if-"

"JUST SHOOT THE DANG BLASTER ALREADY!" Scratch exclaimed before he became completely submerged.

The water raised up to the bottoms of their faces by the time Scratch went under, so whether or not Ollie's device worked on Nancy became the option between life and death. As much as he wanted to not use it, he realized they had no other choice. The others struggled to speak as the air around them quickly went down, and yet Ollie still needed to get one more point across.

"I'm going to need…a clear shot…so if you can…distract her until then-"

He couldn't take it any more as he too went under soon after. Molly and Libby managed one final glance at the world above until the entire bathroom filled completely with water. They barely found enough time to take a deep breath before everyone completely found themselves underwater, which severely limited their time even further…minus Scratch. Nancy and her crazy possession of Emmie also seemed to have taken her last breath before she went under, although Emmie's skin continued to crack bright lights to the absolutely gigantic buldge which took up nearly half of the entire room. Not only did Molly and the others have a strict time limit in air time, but Nancy also stayed on one for a different reason. If they didn't act fast, all of them would perish…except for Scratch.

The others could barely see Emmie's face through the millions of brightening cracks, and yet she still acted up. Molly and Libby instantly swam toward the possessed girl and waved their arms for attention. Any attempt to speak only accelerated their demises so none of the ones living them went for it, which pretty much left Scratch as the only one.

"Hey midget! Just hold yourself together a bit longer! I won't let you die on my watch!" Scratch exclaimed through the water.

Molly and Libby rushed through the water close to Scratch and perked up before they provided a distinct thumbs up. Nancy mumbled incoherently as many bubbles left Emmie's mouth, but the bulge kept a different agenda. It thrashed about through the water and whacked the surrounding walls close to the others, which left the other three to bolt from the spot. Pain surged through Nancy that made her coil up into her happy place as the experience left her in shambles. The lump became larger and larger while the cracks shined brighter and brighter, and if Emmie could actually speak she likely would have screamed similarly to Nancy's. They nearly ran out of room as their lungs slowly flattened over time until they went on their last reserves. Their distractions served as a rather brutal attempt against the malformed possession.

As all of the chaos went on, Ollie readied the blaster. In reality, he actually never managed to wield it before as the Chens haven't encountered someone actually possessed until now. In addition, he needed to shoot the weapon while underwater and on his last few breaths of air. He shivered from the temperature and immense worry as he took aim at the combined Nancy and Emmie. He had to give props to his younger sister for her forward thinking to make such a weapon waterproof, but he still didn't know if it maintained an ability to calm the girls in the first place. Either it worked or it failed, and he heavily relied on the former.

He clutched his chest for one brief moment before he fired the fateful glob.

The mesh sailed through the water toward Nancy, and while he worried that he missed the mark…it splatted across her head perfectly. He lightly smiled as Nancy appeared to have floated still the moment the glob struck her. Her eyes stared into space as Emmie's limbs went limp which took its toll on the massive lump. Even the large bulge that caused her pain seemed to have eased a bit until it also floated lifelessly underwater. The other three bundled up rather tightly together from nervousness until they saw the rather drained body of Molly's cousin despite her open eyes. June Chen's genius saved their bacon.

Once he saw the writing on the wall, Ollie suddenly threw Scratch a look of desperation and used the last of his breath to shout through the water.

"NOW SCRATCH! PULL HER OUT!"

Scratch shook himself back to reality once he remembered the intentions behind the blaster. He wasted no time as he zoomed through the water and up to the stricken girl. He then plunged a ghostly hand straight into Emmie's head and ran his fingers through it like made until he touched something very familiar. At that point the others felt their lives slowly whittle away until they succumbed to the lack of air and blew out their last large bubbles…right as Scratch felt something click within Emmie's head.

From there the bathroom reached its limit in water. Even through everyone inside lost all of their breath, the water kept pouring in from the broken faucets and toilets. At that point the door bent from the sheer volumes from within until even that eventually fell to the pressure. The door completely flew off the hinges and an entire river of toilet water surged out and into the store. The few patrons that lingered around the chairs immediately found themselves drenched and whisked away from the torrents that flowed everywhere along with all of the paints and sculptures. Pots smashed to bits and brushes shattered the windows as everything within the walls disappeared throughout the flowing waters. To add insult to injury, even most of the walls completely broke down and took the roof down with them which lead to the inevitable collapse of the building. Every single object either fell into the front parking lot or ended up drained through nearby drain pipes. The aftermath left many in tatters.

The ones that kept themselves in the bathroom floated harmlessly into the nearly empty parking lot, but only one of them still stayed awake. It took a few seconds, but after a massive migraine filled his head Scratch slowly opened his eyes. He shook himself off and opened his mouth, which released whole bucket loads of water, before he fully awakened.

"Yeesh! I might have to pay attention in the future about going on water slides!" Scratch stated before he coughed a few times.

He required a few extra seconds until the realizations hit. He witnessed the others across the pavement unconscious and filled to brim with water, which made him slightly panic. He set his focus on Molly first before his mind caught up with one specific factor, and once it hit him…he knew he would probably regret it for the rest of his afterlife.

…so he didn't do it.

"Oh, I'm not fit for this!"

Just to make sure the process went by incredibly quickly, Scratch instead formed his shapeless ectoplasm into one comically large hammer. Without missing a beat, he brought himself down right upon Molly's stomach which shot her upward and emptied out her waterlogged organs. Her eyes instantly burst open and targeted Scratch like she saw the light.

"IWONTSUFFERPOSEIDONSWRATH!" Molly exclaimed before she caught up with the times. She took a couple of deep breaths and coughed a bit as she whirred back to life by Scratch, who stared right back at her.

"Whoa! Wha…what the heck just happened?! Sweet baby corn! Did I perish?!"

"Sorry kiddo, but I'm not seeing you spring daisies anytime soon." Scratch replied. "We sort of have another topic to discuss though."

Molly only needed one single glance forward to see the other three as they laid unconscious on the pavement. As if on instinct, Molly immediately sprang to her feet and ran on over to one of them while Scratch handled the others. However, due to the set of circumstances before her, she instantly realized that an opportunity appeared before her. Due to such a thought, Molly suddenly found herself above the fallen body of Ollie after what happened earlier. One gaze into his closed eyes already made her heart pump while her eyes lit up something…rather infatuating. Molly couldn't help herself as she dreamily smiled toward his unconscious body and comically puckered up her lips for the upcoming "kiss of life" to revive her hubby. She licked them, popped them, and made extra sure her lips stayed soft and moist as she slowly moved herself in. As much as she wanted to plant a good one and get it over with, a part of her desired to savor the moment as much as possible. The stars aligned for the perfect moment to finally seal her light puppy love with her loving neighbor.

"YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES-"

She moved herself up closely as she heard church bells in the distance, and soon after the violins started to play. The cherubs watched and cooed toward her while all of the rainbows in the world waited in anticipation. Molly would finally do it and finally tie the knot to all of the shippers out there. Everything added up to the perfect moment for the tween to the point where a heavenly chorus rang through her ears. Time to finally plant a good one…for his life.

At least she wanted to tell herself that.

All remained calm between as Molly practically had her lips over his…then locked with him.

She didn't want the moment to end. Her joy reached new heights the moment she managed to finally engrave herself as the one to finally plant one big kiss. Her mind tried to comprehend such perfect bliss of tween girl and loving stud. From then she completely forgot the main reason she actually performed such an act in the first place, despite the lives on the line. It became a typical Molly moment for her forgetful nature to kick in, but it didn't matter. She finally claimed her rightful status as someone who made the first move between young love.

Despite the overwhelming emotions that coursed through her head, a certain itch nagged at her. Her expectations set a rather smooth surface for contact, but she actually felt something akin to…sandpaper. She warded such a thought off at first, for she finally decided to open her eyes and witness her new hubby in his full glory. However, what should have ended in happiness…became a moment of utter disgust and revilement. Whether she still kept some water in her head or it became filled too much with air, the outcome completely turned the tables on her. As if reality wanted to chew out on her even more, her action also made her opposition wake up from a watery fate. Their eyes locked straight ahead as the gears in their heads screeched alive which made both sides completely pale.

They wanted none of it to become a fact for the history books.

…

…

…

…

…

…but their ear piercing screams said otherwise.

Molly abruptly fell and backed up on her hands and feet like mad as her heart rate became a blur. She frantically backed up so much that she accidentally hit a streetlamp, which she clasped as if she received the scare of her life. Her receiver nearly matched her reaction and shot straight up before she slipped on a puddle. She landed on her behind, but unlike Molly she curled up and dug her head into her knees as she screamed. Suffice to say, both sides lost in those few seconds.

Their screams attracted some unwanted attention as Scratch basically flattened out the actual Ollie and emptied his body of all the filled water. He heard him speak low and groggily as he came to, but he set his sights on the two freaked out girls the moment he heard them shriek.

"Geez! I know we just went through another outrageous occurrence, but some of us still need to recover here! What did I miss now?!"

Both girls glanced at each other for a second before Molly hastily replied.

"Nothing Scratch! Absolutely nothing!"

Her tepid tone oozed a guilty cover up, but before the ghost could prod her further Ollie slowly picked himself up and held his head.

"Ugh… I feel like someone hit me with a freight train…" Ollie stated rather sluggishly. "Did…we make it out?"

"By the beating of your pulse you haven't kicked the bucket just yet." Scratch answered as he floated over to Nancy next.

The other two girl received very unnerving goosebumps once they heard "make" and "out" in the same sentence. They shot daggers at each other and made a couple of humorous hand motions that implied to never speak of what just happened between them. After a few nervous nods, they called it and zipped their mouths. To them, such an exchange of lip contact never happened. In their heads, they just woke up after Scratch revived them.

NOTHING HAPPENED BETWEEN THEM AT ALL.

Everyone else headed over to Nancy's spot after Scratch nearly flattened Emmie's body out of all excess water straight from the sewers. They anxiously stood back, except for Scratch who hovered, as the young girl lightly coughed and slowly opened her eyes. While not completely beaten from the surges of water, she displayed a few bruises nevertheless. They put a number on her even though they stayed around the single digits.

"Nancy? You still in there?" Libby asked lightly worriedly.

The girl sat back up and held her head while she remained rather mute. They had no idea if Scratch successfully forced Nancy out of Emmie's body yet, and the silence around her brought stillness toward the final outcome. As if by chance, after only a couple of seconds, they received a reaction although not one they expected. Emmie's stomach rumbled while her head swayed in the light wind until her cheeks inflated. She gurgled and moaned lightly which provided the signs needed for the others to take a few steps back. From there her belly fluctuated which fueled her cheeks with something nasty, and once she couldn't take any of it further she finally heaved. While a small dosage of bile escaped her mouth, a rather distinct speck fell out right across the pavement. The others caught on rather fast and looked down closely where Molly instantly lit up. After such a crazy series of events, Scratch performed his duty perfectly.

Nancy made it out in one piece.

"Nancy!" Molly exclaimed.

The tween never hesitated and snatched the stricken tiny girl into the encompass of her fingers once again. Emmie still teetered and held her head but otherwise suffered only the light bruises from earlier. Nancy still required a little bit of time to finally come to, but she fully awakened once Molly happily rubbed the shrunken one against her cheek. Both Emmie and Nancy separated successfully.

"Easy there Mol! She just got out!" Scratch responded.

Molly paused for a brief second before she realized the situation before her. As she heard some muffling from Nancy embedded in her cheek, the tween lifted her out and kept her safely in the palm of her hand. The tiny girl coughed a bit before she glanced upward toward Molly's massive eyes.

"Am…am I…out?" Nancy said while light headed.

Molly nodded very lightly and smiled.

"Yes Nancy. Scratch pulled you out."

Nancy rubbed the sides of her head to calm her massive migraine while Libby and Scratched checked on Emmie.

"Wha…what just happened?" Emmie slowly said while she held her forehead. "I feel like someone…just filled my head with cement…"

Libby and Scratch helped the previously possessed Emmie back on her feet. Her legs shook at first and shuddered, so Libby helped reinforce her backside until she stood up. The girl took one glance around her and noticed the vastly different scenery around her, which surprised her a bit.

"Uhhhhh, why am I here? Where…am I? I don't remember much after a point…"

"Let's just say…you ended up caught in a mix up." Scratch replied. "We'll explain more once we got you cleaned up a bit."

Ollie assisted in keeping Emmie's balance in the wake of the destroyed store. Miraculously, the back room somehow survived the massive flood, doors intact, where right as the group recouped after such an intense event the clerk opened the door with many filled bottles of paint in hand. The instant his eyes scanned over everything…

The local therapist became booked for months.

---

Despite all of the damage done to the art store, most, if not all, kept some form of insurance due to all of the "Brighton Madness" the town became known for. Molly and the others managed to get away before the feds showed up who basically shook their heads at yet another incident within the little town. While most of the painted arts ended up washed away, in terms of pottery not too much shattered throughout the water. Even though repairs cost a pretty penny, it pretty much became the norm if anyone chose to live in Brighton. From ruined streets due to a giant radish, frozen streets after a grueling blizzard, to even wrong destroyed buildings due to a miscalculation, the town of Brighton had no shortages when it came to shenanigans completely unheard of.

…and it only became crazier once Molly moved in.

The group took refuge atop a small hill that overlooked the town just to make sure nobody else followed. After all of the precautions, Molly finally brought Nancy out in the open once more within the confines of her fingers. As much Molly wanted to gush over her enjoyment of acting like she just ingested a million mushrooms, after all of the mishaps that roped Emmie and Ollie into the fray they deserved to know about everything. They stood by the sidelines while Molly, Scratch, and Libby filled them in on everything surrounding Nancy's shrinkage, although Nancy chimed in on a few occasions, in only a few stuttering words like usual, to fix a few errors. In all of the time spent as the three retold everything, Emmie and Ollie couldn't take their eyes off of the near invisible speck in Molly's hand. They never witnessed someone who diminished drastically in size before after all, and while Nancy liked to stay out of the limelight when her dot of a body became known it seemed like clockwork. Now even more knew of her status as the smallest girl in existence after Molly's intervention, which opened up more holes to potentially have her existence known to the public. Even though the ones closest to Molly remained determined to keep her hidden, the more that knew the more of a risk slowly rose from the depths.

Both Emmie and Ollie kept their eyes glued to the dot of a girl named Nancy.

"I…I can't believe it." Ollie stated in light awe. "She actually reduced in size after that infamous incident. As if I can't handle yet another crazy set of circumstances!"

"Easy there Ollie. I swear I'm not hiding anything else to increase your insanity." Molly stated. "If it makes you feel better, you're handling it WAAAAAY better than Libby."

"I can attest to that." Scratch added. "She nearly lost it once she saw Nancy in Molly's hand."

Libby shot Scratch a rather mean leer.

"You would have acted the same if you saw such an anomaly of her stature."

"Yeeeaaaaaaah. I don't think so sweetie." Scratch replied while he rolled his eyes. "I've stayed pretty uninterested in the whole-"

"Okay you two! We kind of have to stay on topic here!" Molly interjected.

Both Libby and Scratch stared daggers at each other for a few more seconds until they fell back to the topic at hand. Nancy quivered in the presence of everyone greatly bigger than her as almost all of them brought their white moon eyes close to her vulnerable body. While Ollie kept his curious side at bay, Emmie allowed it due to her younger personality. She even lifted one of her humongous fingers and lightly poked Nancy from all angles, which made Nancy feel somewhat violated. Even so, she knew she held no such power against such decisions. Size matters in her eyes after all.

"Ngận…cǐw…" Emmie muttered as curiosity got the better of her.

"Easy there! You don't want to squish her." Libby said.

Just the term "squish" sent some very dark implications to Nancy that worried her dearly. Her chest felt like someone carved a hole in it and her pupils shrunk. To control her sanity so she remains in a happy place, Nancy sat down and curled up in an attempt to slow herself down. Any image of the macro environment around her reinforced her terrible condition, so she dug herself into her knees to blot out the world. The others caught on quickly the moment her actions changed. Anxiety flowed through her once the reminders kicked in.

Libby instantly fell into damage control and lightly panicked.

"Oh, uhhhhh, nononono! I didn't mean it as if she would actually do so! You know I would never allow such a horrid outcome upon you!"

Emmie glanced down at the scared girl in Molly's grasp and lightly frowned. Soon after she looked toward Molly for a second.

"Hey, Molly? If I may…can I hold her for a few minutes?"

"Oh, ummmm, sure." Molly replied, knowing Emmie more than anyone else.

With that said, Nancy turned her head up while her knees shook as Molly held her huge hand out toward her younger cousin. Emmie's curious gigantic eyes scanned over the tiny one as she held out her own massive hand for Nancy to walk on. As much as Nancy knew she likely wouldn't perform anything terrible, her nervousness still lingered in the back of her head. To not possibly upset everyone greatly bigger than her, the shrunken one picked herself up and slowly walked to the end of Molly's fingertips. She hesitated for a moment, but after she calmed herself a bit she took her first few steps on Emmie's huge fingers. Once she saw her safely in her hand, Emmie's brought her back and held her close to her smiling face while the others watched curiously. From one giant girl to the next, Emmie now controlled Nancy's existence from within her grasp.

Because her smile almost matched Molly's, Nancy could tell she was related to her.

"So…small…" Emmie said as she rubbed Nancy's back with a huge fingernail.

The tiny girl herself didn't mind her intrusions too much, especially from Emmie's rather curious mind, although she accidentally pressed a bit too hard at certain points. To think she once inhabited her body to now standing in her hand sounded unheard of, but in terms of Brighton everything remained out of the ordinary. At least she no longer remained language locked to Thai anymore, and Emmie seemed to not care too much about her usurping her body against her will. She appeared not as completely into her like Molly displayed on a daily basis, and…she rather appreciated it. Her curiosity got the better of her, but at least she kept any over the top emotions to herself. On those terms, Emmie edged over Molly and made Nancy more comfortable in her presence. She still felt nervous, but not on the same level as the instigator behind her shrinkage.

Emmie's wonder over Nancy's tininess lead to a few more pokes across her body from her huge fingers before she spoke up again.

"A girl like you…miniaturized to a speck. So…fascinating! I'm so happy to know someone like you exists!"

Nancy hesitated for a brief moment before she responded.

"I wish…I could say the same about you. I'm still not completely used…to these perspective changes."

"Yeah, I can imagine that." Emmie responded while she slightly frowned. "You seem like a nice person though! I've learned to always value someone by their personality, and I already want to know more about you…regardless of your size!"

Her final statements actually made Nancy's eyebrows raise.

"Rrrr…really?" Nancy stammered. "But…but I'm barely visible…"

"That doesn't matter!" Emmie responded. "Just because I'm huge compared to you doesn't mean I don't understand how you feel. The community I'm in always welcomes everyone with open arms, and that includes you! Just don't take my body for a joy ride next time, heeheeheeheehee!"

The young girl giggled before she lightly winked to the dot in her hand, which warmed Nancy up to her a little bit. The delivery behind a few of her words provided some rather obvious signs about her relation to Molly but unlike her captor she never reinforced her excessive joy on her at every possible second. The fact that her hand lightly shook every few moments or so easily indicated her vivid fascination of acting like she downed a growth potion exactly like how Molly felt. She managed to leave Nancy out of complete fear for minutes on end from her kind words alone, which a served as a great boon over Molly, and from there she actually didn't mind if Emmie continued to hold her in the center of her palm. Emmie may have provided less than what Molly provide, but already she coaxed Nancy into a friendship.

Despite her lack of visibility to everyone of a greater scope, Molly barely managed to distinguish a light smile across Nancy's face. Her mouth soon went agape while her arms fell limp.

"But…but I also reiterated the same points again and again…for months on end no less! How come she automatically befriended Emmie…but NOT ME?!"

"I hate to act as the killjoy here, but I know that she never miniaturized someone against their will." Scratch responded. "I think you still have a LONG way to go, Mol."

Molly couldn't believe it as she saw Nancy slowly warm up to her cousin. She kept Nancy for months on end with next to no progress made on her shrinkage or friendship…and yet Emmie befriended her quicker than even. While not completely into her comfort zone, Nancy connected with Emmie in no time flat, which was a stark contrast between her and Molly. It almost offended her to know that all of her efforts became null compared to others, but like Scratch said she started Nancy's problems in the first place. It hurt to witness such affection between friends while her attempts went nowhere, but she found it also charming to know that a friendly demeanor existed somewhere within the speck of a girl.

From there, Ollie came up and provided his own closer look at Nancy. She withdrew herself a little, but not by much to completely ward him off.

"From ghosts and ghouls to now shrunken girls…I holding SO much back to not completely lose it. Even so…I can't ignore such curiosity."

"Pretty much all of us felt the same way in some respect when we first saw her." Molly added.

Ollie scanned all over her for minutes on end while Nancy nervously shook from all of the eyes on her. Once he received his fill, he finally added his two cents to the mix.

"You know, now that I think about it…this seems like an amazing opportunity! A phenomenon nobody has ever heard of, and we exist near the center of it! Just one single answer to her troubles could spell our success in mere milliseconds!"

"If the public thought of such a concept as a social norm, then I likely would have tried that ages ago." Scratch said. "The instant she hits the public the media would absolutely never leave her alone."

Ollie temporarily brought his attention over to the others.

"But…we'll easily be seen as heroes! Wouldn't you want the title over your resume?"

"Not when it comes at the expense of her." Molly responded. "Besides, we…still know nothing about it."

From there Ollie paused for a while and just stared at Molly while his body went limp. It rubbed the others off the wrong way until he broke the ice.

"You've gone…for months…with absolutely no progress whatsoever? Since the start…you've come across…next to nothing?"

Molly rubbed the back of her head caught red handed while Libby straightened her hair a little.

"Well…I may have discovered something." Libby said. "I just need a few final tidbits to set everything in stone. I don't want to mislead anyone and state what I thought was fact instead of fiction."

Ollie still couldn't believe his ears.

"Wow, just…wow. Next to nothing in terms of that girl's shrinkage…when I would have at least written down multiple pages at this point."

"Way to rub it in there." Scratch replied while rather unimpressed. "If you so want the midget to return to her normal size and gather information, then why don't YOU try and help?"

From there everyone else perked up more than usual. They've spent so much time going over all of the relevant information that they completely missed a golden opportunity until the wires connected. The others shot each other quick glaces while their eyes stayed relatively wide, and after a couple of seconds Ollie broke the silence once again.

"Oh my gosh. I can't believe I never thought about that until now!" Ollie said while he slapped his forehead. "The chance to completely restore a shrunken girl along with all of the ghost occurrences around here? It's like this town needed me all this time, which now that I think about it…sounds a bit creepy."

"You mean like the common strange happenings around here?" Libby responded. "I'm still getting used to them on a daily basis! Kind of hard to ignore them for my possible research on Nancy."

From there, Ollie perked up once more.

"Wait a minute. Didn't you say you may have a possible lead with the girl's shrinkage?"

Libby tilted her head curiously.

"Yeaaaah. I'm stilling looking through it. Why?"

"Well, I just so happen to comb through all of the footnotes and asterisks when it comes to ghost research. Because I'm already greatly fascinated at the opportunity to help…maybe you could use the extra brainpower. I mean, if she may have suffered something paranormal you won't find any greater information than from me. Besides, I'm always up for something new in the ghost department!"

A couple of the others raised their eyebrows in slight shock. Ollie really wanted go all the way in terms of restoring Nancy to the proper size, although his motives behind it remained an enigma. If he truly desired to help her like the rest of them, then they really saw no reason as to why they shouldn't reject such a grateful offer. Of course, since Molly headed the group efforts she called all of the shots. It all came down to whether Molly wanted him or not.

Of course, anyone who knew Molly understood the most likely answer.

"If you really want to help us with Nancy's problem…then I can't say no! Welcome to the MISSION Squad!

Molly then instantly held out her arms and provided one of her signature hugs to the young ghost hunter. Her legs twitched as Ollie took a few moments to have everything settle in nicely, but once he came to he smiled and patted her back. The others heard a few light squeals in Molly's direction, which painted the obvious as to why she acted up. Libby and Emmie chuckled while Scratch and Nancy kept their thoughts to themselves. Any extra help became appreciated when it came to the strangeness around Nancy's condition.

Molly eventually pulled herself back to let Ollie breathe while the intelligent boy had a question to ask.

"Uhhhh, what do you mean by MISSION-"

"Don't think about it too much." Scratch interjected. "As long as you help speed up the process behind…the insanity of the midget's reduction then you'll do. I've come THIS close multiple times to move to an asylum, so you better help alleviate the craziness before I ACTUALLY settle on it!"

"Heheheheh, uhhhhhhh, I'll…do what I can." Ollie replied rather tepidly.

Almost immediately after, Emmie suddenly shot one of her hands up.

"Ooh! Ooh! What about me?! I can help too you know! I deserve such a privilege too since you also revealed Nancy to me!"

Everyone else watched as Molly aimed her gaze over to Emmie then lightly smiled.

"Emmie, what made you think I WOULDN'T let you join too? You know I can't leave family out."

"Eeeeeeee! Thank you so much Molly!" Emmie happily replied.

Nancy never saw the next part coming, because before she even knew what hit her Emmie instantly brought her up close against her chest and pressed her against it. She definitely learned about her relations with Molly when her fingers nearly emptied out her lungs and left her as flat as a pancake. Luckily for her, Molly saw the damage and motioned to Emmie about her action. Once the realizations hit, Emmie quickly stopped and brought her hand that held Nancy back out into the open.

"Oops! Uhhhhhh, sorry Nancy! My excitement got the better of me."

"I…understand…" Nancy muttered as she breathed in heavily.

She nearly collapsed against Emmie's skin as her accidental hug left her exhausted. Before anyone else could speak though, Ollie turned his attention over to Nancy again as Emmie continued to hold her.

"So…you're the other autistic girl I've heard about then?"

Nancy's back shot up once the all too familiar word arrived through her hearing. While she already knew about Ollie's younger sister with the same disability, it still startled her to know about it. She clamped her mouth shut at first and nearly bound herself into her own head, but she couldn't ignore a friendly question. She should have known sooner that news of her autism would have spread to other parts of town.

"Well, uhhhhhh…" Nancy stammered as she struggled to find the correct words. "Uhhhhh…yes. I'm…autistic…like your sister."

"Ah, so you also already know that!" Ollie replied. "I'm sure she would like to get to know you better, especially after all of her time spent with her inventions. If only you still had you normal size…"

"Yeah…I'm want that…more than anything right now…" Nancy replied while stuttering. "That accident…really hurt…"

"Yeah, I can imagine." Ollie responded. "I'll do what I can to figure out the strangeness of your problem, for an opportunity like this only happens once in a lifetime! How can I NOT ignore it?!"

"I…guess that makes sense…" Nancy stated.

"Ooh, that counts for me too!" Emmie suddenly added. "While I may not live here, I'll do what I can when I'm back at New York. I mean, Brighton's archives may not have everything detailed about such a weird set of occurrences, so I can go through the city's many libraries for something interesting! I can't see you suffer any more than you are now! Come on! Please accept me too!"

Both Ollie and Emmie kept their eyes on Nancy for her endearing support, which she couldn't obviously say no to. If Molly already said they made it into the "MISSION Squad" then she couldn't find any other reason to reject them. Because of all of the aforementioned points made earlier, Nancy glanced up toward the two…then lightly nodded. Any extra help to restore her size served as a possible way to quicken everything.

Ollie and Emmie smiled and nodded back which instantly prompted Molly up for something she needed to get off of her chest.

"As much as I'm VERY joyful about more people joining in on the Nancy bandwagon…I'm also incredibly sorry for unexpectedly dragging both of you into the problems in the first place. If I just eased myself a little bit longer you wouldn't have learned about them, and the less that know the less of a chance for her leaking to the public. I allowed my schemes to get the better of me…and for that I'm very sorry."

From there Ollie walked up to Molly and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Molly, in all honesty…I likely would have figured it out at some point. I mean, I've learned about Scratch on my own and I know you don't exactly…cover things up well. Better now then never to get me into this group then, right?"

"I would have agreed with his statement…if I lived here in the first place." Emmie added. "Even so, I'm perfectly fine with this! I'm just as excited as you to possibly fix something we've never tackled before! Friends and family stick together after all, and I'm all in for helping a cousin of mine out!"

The distraught tween glanced toward the two as a distinct light of positivity shined in her eyes. Despite all that she did to them, they bared sweets instead of knives. She considered herself incredibly grateful to have such loving friends and family members, as they went through whatever they had to make sure she kept a smile on her face. Even with Brighton's low numbers, the community banded together like family to her and she loved every second of it. Even she needed an uplifting sensation every now and then despite her personality, and thanks to Brighton she never had to feel negativity for long.

…but not for one teeny tiny exception.

"Thanks you two. I really needed kind words at the moment." Molly replied. "However, I still have to give my condolences to the one affected the most."

Everyone else, minus one distinct person, looked at Molly in slight confusion before the girl stared down at the one speck in Emmie's hand. She bundled herself up tight and stayed quiet for the most part, but once she noticed Molly's endearing gaze she knew she ended up next on the topic ladder.

"Hey, Emmie? Can I have Nancy back, please?" Molly asked.

Everyone's expectations lead to Emmie going through with Molly's request. It seemed as the most logical, especially from how supportive she acted toward her cousin. However, it left many scratching their heads as she appeared to hesitate a bit. Something possibly surged through her head that left an impact on her, but the subject stayed out of their senses. Whatever the case, it left a gap waiting to get filled on the other end.

"Ummm, well…" Emmie stammered before she went on. "If I may ask, can I…hold Nancy just a little bit longer? I've never done something like this before…and she's rather cute all tiny in my hand!"

The truth finally came out, and from there many should have expected such an answer. Molly already stated multiple time about how joyful she felt when she acted like she gained millions of feet in an instant, so to hear a distant relative feel the same thing sounded almost like a no brainer. Of course, Emmie thought differently on specific topics, like her enjoyment of spicy foods, but she still shared some interests she never fully realized yet. As such, when it came to acting like a black and white monster movie Molly's cousin maintained some level of interest if she refused to not hand Nancy over instantly. If Molly desired to act out a fantasy where she grew to extreme height, Emmie would likely follow…but on a lesser scale.

In response, one could have thought of Molly feeling a pinch of anger after such a rejection. However, she instead lightly smiled and chuckled to herself.

"Heheheheheh, okay. I won't end your enjoyment that quickly. Feel free to act like you just became the biggest girl in existence for a bit longer!"

Emmie brightened up a little once she heard Molly, although Nancy still remained rather unnerved about everything around her. Because she couldn't hold her, Molly got to her knees and looked down at Nancy within her cousin's grasp. She took a couple of deep breaths first before she finally spoke her mind.

"Nancy…I'm terribly sorry today didn't quite go as planned. I just wanted you to like me more, especially after all of these months spent together. I even went to lengths I shouldn't have and resorted to tactics unheard about from my end, which only made everything worse. The fact that you warmed up to everyone else but me also left me more frustrated to win you over. I've now realized that you go at your own pace, and I can't rush your potential friendship toward me. I promise from now on that I'll let you warm up to me without any of my schemes to possibly win you over faster. Do you forgive me?"

For not going off on another tangent, Molly sure made her points loud and clear for the shrunken girl. At first, she didn't know how to react after all of the insanity she pulled off. The fact she forced her to possess Emmie for an attempt to save the day left a sour taste in her mouth that still lingered. She really shouldn't have gone off the deep end for a shred of a possibility to add a few colors to her friendship meter. Even so, she went through all of it for her, and despite ending in yet another series of crazy events she still thought about everything as if she truly cared. She looked out for her through the rose tinted glasses and tried to her best of abilities for everything to progress according to plan. That fact alone made Nancy think differently about her to an extent. If she could fully admit her faults despite all of the damages done…

"Well…the thought really counts…" Nancy stuttered while in her "comforting" position. "You really looked out for me…even through all of the damage. While this doesn't solve everything…I forgive you…and appreciate your efforts."

Everyone else watched as Molly's face lit up again.

"Yay! Thank you Nancy! I solemnly swear to not push you any further into getting to like me. After today, I'm basically tuckered out from everything-"

She never finished as she comically fell backward onto the ground in an instant. She hit the ground with a thud which stunned the others, but before anyone could ask if she needed anything she spoke up for them.

"Oh, sweet sweet ground. How quaint to finally grace me with your presence across my jelly legs. So much running around, and the might of my exhaustion completely ruined the fragility of my body. Don't pull me toward the light, for I still have a life ahead of me…"

…where she acted melodramatic for no reason.

After all of the shenanigans she went through for Nancy, she likewise never had a moment to finally call it quits and collapse somewhere comfy. While far from the most opportune moment, she made it clear that one such time became apparent which she went for. His legs twitched and rumbled while buckets of sweated poured from her forehead. They needed no further indicators as to how Molly felt at the moment. She finally took Scratch's lifestyle and rode it to its full effect. One required moments to themselves after a hard day's work.

"Mol…we still have to make our way home." Scratch stated. "As much as I adore your mindset right now, we sort of need to get back before it gets dark."

"Yeah…I know." Molly replied between cheesy breaths. "Just give me a few moments to gaze up at the stars…and free my mind from the constrains of today's insanity…"

Scratch rolled his eyes and crossed his arms while Ollie and Emmie chuckled lightly under their breaths. Nancy watched silently for the most part while she stayed bundled up, although she wouldn't stay that way for too long once Molly said something else.

"Am…am I seeing Orion's Belt or just imagining things?"

From there the others turned their attention upwards toward the stars, although their angles remained a bit off from Molly's. As such, Scratch shook his head.

"Probably just your exhausted head. You sort of went through an entire day of nonstop work."

"Actually…I think I see it." Ollie responded.

To get a better view, Ollie walked up to Molly and set his back against the ground close by. Once he fully laid himself out, he pointed toward a cluster up above.

"Oh, you're looking at the Little Dipper there Molly. I can see the resemblance…if you let your mind wander too much."

From there the others became slightly confused and laid themselves down soon to see everything better. Emmie placed Nancy against the front of her shoulder so the tiny one could lay down too, although Scratch didn't appreciate doing so at first until a few stars reflected in his eyes. From there eyes shined under the stars that captivated the group of young onlookers, especially for a certain couple. Something definitely caught their eye above.

"Yeah, I don't exactly see eye to eye here." Scratch said. "One easily has a wider range over the other."

"What may appear obvious to you can end up confusing for another." Emmie replied. "At least the Big Dipper is more obvious to the naked eye. See?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know the big one hangs around the little one." Scratch replied while unimpressed.

"You know, ancient humans loved to tell tales just by looking at the stars." Libby said as her eyes glistened. "Someday I'd love to read about them. I've heard some constellations carry some really deep meanings if you look hard enough."

"You mean…like zodiacs?" Nancy asked.

Libby turned her head to face the speck on Emmie's shoulder.

"For the most part. There's a lot more than those few instances. I still have to catch up on my reading to understand them."

"Yeeeeeeah. I'm definitely drawing a blank here." Molly stated before a stroke of inspiration hit. "Hey! Why don't we form our OWN stories?"

Everyone glanced at Molly for a moment.

"As in…like our own constellations?" Ollie asked.

"Yeah! It sounds like fun!" Molly answered before she pointed at a cluster to her left. "Like, uhhhhh, that one! Doesn't it give off an appearance of a cuddly kitten?"

"Umm…maybe?" Nancy stuttered. "I see more of a…large box…than an animal."

"Oh, that could be the box the kittens are in!" Molly replied. "Nice addition there, Nancy!"

From there, Nancy's eyes opened wider than usual. For such a generic description, it still added to the blueprints of a story in the stars. She never actually thought it would become major, and yet Molly put it in anyway. As she gazed more at the brilliant lights, she pictured more vibrant shapes she never knew was possible. Before long, she spoke about more and more instances that everyone else appreciated while they added their own takes. As the night went on, the story about a litter of kittens out in the open sea formed as the stars set forth a tale nobody other than the group truly understood. For once, Nancy didn't mind Molly's presence while Emmie enjoyed her personal time as the giant girl for once. Everyone in the group, including Scratch and Ollie, enjoyed their time crafting a story out of hundreds of shining stars in the sky just like the ancient people.

Molly never thought such a possibly would ever come to fruition, but as she heard the shrunken girl's tone of voice…she knew she found an increase in their friendship.

"Well, I can say this has been a rather STELLAR performance!"

Everyone halted the moment the abridged version of Molly's voice hit their eardrums. She instantly looked down and saw her finger with the comical smiley face as it stuck up and wiggled while it supposedly spoke. Everyone stayed awkwardly silent for a few moments until she slowly put her finger down.

She made extra sure to wash her hands for the full twenty seconds.

The Ghost and Molly McGee!