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They froze when Taym raised his voice, but mutiny was only moments away when Maebe made her offer. With a huff, Grace let go of Joy's hair and Joy let go of whatever she had been twisting inside Grace's shirt. The two buckled up with only a minimal amount of shoving and softly spoken Mandarin.

Hope took her seat, eyes still wet and obviously disappointed that someone was in the way of her new ship. Noticing her two sisters and Maebe up front, her eyes widened, "But-"

A great shushing commenced, but in the end the three were quietly seated and appearing relatively well behaved; Grace was prim even if her skirt rode up a bit more than proper, Hope was quietly bouncing a bit with a strangely speculative look, and Joy made a show of staring out the window but kept sneeking expectant glances.

Arms crossed, Grace was less than impressed, "Well if you like her so much, maybe you should date her."

Joy opened her mouth, likely to say something crude involving Slurpies, when Hope interrupted, "What about Dwight?" The other two immediately went quiet as they focused on Maebe.

"Does he have a girlfriend yet?"

"No way, he's too big of dweeb, he'll never get one," Grace snorted at the idea.

"Is he doing okay?" Joy intoned, staring down at her phone again.

"Charlotte would always give us updates but Simon has been the one the past few times and he never talks about anything ever and he can't really write us letters and we never get to hear about him anymore and he is not a dweeb! HE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO EVER UNDERSTOOD ME!" Hope looked ready to go to war.

"I should be so lucky," Maebe shot back at Grace, waggling her eyebrows. "But like I said-"

Her mouth snapped shut when they mention Dwight, and her eyes widened just a little bit in surprise. It felt odd to remember, rather suddenly, that these girls knew hunters she worked with. She'd never met Charlotte, but she knew full well the little legacy she'd left behind, and decided to focus on the better subject of the two, in order to ignore the worst.

"Ohhh, now Dwight." Maebe crooned. She had no plans to stop with the Deus of our Lives."Dwight's special." Taym clipped an answer concerning him, and Maebe rolled her eyes, leaning in to fatten the conversation with details on just how fine Dwight really was, when the flat tire had her screaming as the thumping vibrated through her body."

He told her to entertain them, and she gave him a look that clearly said What the ******** do you think I've been doing?, before waiting for him to get out. Then, she turned back towards the girls, and a slow, sneaky smile rose up on her lips.

"He can be a real jerk sometimes, but don't be too hard on him," She whispered. "He's in looove."

Taym was driving not three, but four gossipy teen girls to their destination, lest he ever forget.

It had been a long, long time since Taym had changed a tire. For this reason he was oblivious to the fact that his picture was being taken. Also for this reason the picture showcased 711 guy's doppleganger looking at a flat tire like it had personally offended him and was overdue for justice. Pam's reluctance to leave Grace alone with him made even more sense than it already did, in light of that expression.

Luckily changing a tire was apparently not-unlike riding a bike, with the added bonus that the weapon-amplified strength surging through his scrawny drug dealing cashier arms made loosening the lug nuts something less of the horrible and emasculating ordeal he vaguely remembered it being. In short order the tire was replaced, the jack removed, the lug nuts tightened, the rest of the tires experimentally kicked to verify that the rabbit's untimely end had only ruined one of them, the flat shoved back into the trunk, and the hatch slammed with rather more force than was strictly necessary.

It was hot, even for Taym, and he'd stripped off his jacket when he got back in, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. If he had been privy to Grace's conversations it is likely that he would not have done this. He cranked up the AC and flung the jacket at Maebe, interrupting whatever enjoyable chatter she might be engaged in with Hope, with a grumbled "hold this."

"I hope," he said to no one in particular as he started the car, "that everyone's still buckled in. Grace."

And please for the love of god let the rest of the trip be uneventful.

Tilting her head, Hope watched the Taym grape in concern, wincing at its demise. Grace looked ready to ask him if he wanted check her belt himself, but the sudden gift from Maebe had her arms full of jacket and opportunity shining in her eyes. Hope peered at it with quiet interest and even Joy was sneaking looks once more.

"Thank you."

"Thank you!"

"Thanks."

Sniffing the coat discretely, Grace made a face and then tried to subtly go through the pockets. Tooth picks? Weird. Cigs? Several found their way into her own pocket as Joy, the much more cunning of the two, pocketed several without being noticed by either of her sisters. Joy took the lighter too, while Grace quickly became distracted by the phone she fished out.

Hope was both intrigued and alarmed as she leaned over to watch Grace snoop through the phone. The latter's grin sunk into a terrible pout as she was treated to a lockscreen that was probably the stupid girlfriend. She made a sound of disgust while hope blushed but looked even more interested than before. Both made a few attempts to unlocked it, muttering quietly in Mandarin to one another until they both locked eyes on Maebe.

What followed was a silent pantomime asking if she'd unlock it for them so they could snoop on the private life of the strange grouchy man with his edgy convenience store kidnapper flair.

All of the girls had, unfortunately, underestimated Taym's ability to move very swiftly. The three in the back sagged a bit in disappointment, including Joy. Hope began answering Maebe's questions in earnest anyway, though, and she happily chattered about school (it was great, if not at all as progressive as they liked to advertise) and their age (15 but turning 16 in a few months, and at this there was a small aside from Joy, about being able to join then) and about boys. She had a lot to say about boys and girls alike, though often the real people would slide into the land of fictional ones on TV, and the entirety was interspersed with comments from the other two.

There were, of course, pointed personal and invasive questions about Maebe (do you have a boo what are they like do you have pics how old are you who did your hair what TV shows do you like how old were you when you lost your V-card Sam or Dean?) and more about Taym (what's with the scar is the freckled peach girl the one on your phone how old is she how did you meet is it serious or is it open if you were to describe your relationship through trigger warnings what would they be?) and still more about Dwight that eventually got dropped as soon as it became clear that they knew him but they weren't close or anything.