My Best Friend's Brother

Mini Bike

Aria walked with the boys from school, listening to Reese rant about something involving a squirrel.

“You know, if you’re not allowed to keep a squirrel in your locker, they should put up a sign. I’m not psychic. I can’t read minds.” Reese rambled.

“How did you even get it into your locker?” asked Aria.

“Look.” Dewey stopped.

“No, Dewey, let’s go.” Malcolm demanded, annoyed.

“No, it’s a mini-bike.” The older three stopped in their tracks and spun around to find that Dewey was right. There was a mini bike in a pile of trash.

“Someone’s just throwing this away?” Reese marveled as they moved closer to the bike.

Aria knew that the boys were probably daydreaming about the bike but she also knew that none of them knew how to work a mini-bike. Her dad had taught her how to ride a dirt bike and she didn’t think that it was much different from a mini-bike.

They all break out of their trances when they see a garbage man about to throw away the bike. “Wait! Wait! Wait. You can’t throw that out.”

“This? It’s a piece of trash.” The man gestured to the bike.

“What are you talking about?” Reese exclaimed, “That’s not trash. You don’t know what trash is.”

“I am a garbage man.” The old man deadpanned.

“Look, why don't you just give us the bike? Maybe we could fix it up or something.” Malcolm interjected.

“What’s it worth to you?” 

“What? We don’t have any money. You were just about to throw it away.”

“Give you 30 bucks.” Reese offered as he held the money in his hand.

“Done.” The money took the money and left the bike.

“Where’d you get 30 bucks?” Aria asked the older boy.

“What are you a cop?” Reese got a bit defensive.

Aria raised her hands in surrender and helped the boys get the bike to their house.

Hours later, after Aria had helped them restore the bike the girl had to go home. It didn’t take long for Lois to find out about the mini-bike, according to Malcolm she locked it up and refuses to let them anywhere near it.

Each of them were taking different approaches to convince their mother. Malcolm was offering to save them money with taxes, Reese threatening violence against the annoying dog next door and Dewey was just throwing a tantrum. None of it seemed to be working.

A few days later Aria was at the Wilkerson house and watched the boys attempt to convince their mom once again while she did laundry.

“Okay, Mom, we thought about it and we understand that you’re worried about us getting hurt, so we promise we’ll wear helmets when we ride the mini-bike.” Malcolm proposed.

“And in addition to the helmets, we’ll also wear elbow and knee pads no matter how dorky we look.” Reese added.

“And we’ll only ride in the park.” Dewey promised the woman.

“And only under your supervision when you say so and when you’re with us.”

“No.” Lois answered curtly.

“Wait!” Malcolm exclaimed.

“No!”

“This isn’t fair! You don’t get to just say no!”