Molly’s Adventure

Molly’s Adventure
Published	July 2, 2010 (2010-07-02)
Page count	24
Major characters	Molly, Justin
Minor characters	Abbey, Janet
Locations	Abbey’s house
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Molly’s Adventure is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive comic that gives Molly her first starring role. Sent out to sell thirty boxes of cookies in a single day, she recruits a passing Justin by force, and the outing quickly gets away from both of them.

Partial synopsis

Molly comes down the stairs in her badge sash and backpack, ready to sell all thirty boxes of cookies by the end of the day. Janet won’t let her go without a partner. Molly first asks Abbey, but he is busy blowing up balloons for Daisy’s surprise birthday party, and not even an offer of free cookies at half price changes his mind. Molly then insists that she already has somebody lined up, while Abbey flatly tells Janet that she is lying. Janet lets her go anyway, gently reminding Molly that she is “too good a girl to take guilt in that little heart” of hers.

Out on the sidewalk, Janet’s silhouette continues to watch from the window while Molly searches for a partner. Justin happens to stroll past whistling, and Molly decides that is qualification enough. She grabs him by the arm and hauls him off before he can object.

He has no idea what he’s just been volunteered for, and he never even caught the name of the girl doing the dragging. He’s going to learn a good deal more about her than that before the afternoon is out.

Character dynamics

Molly’s partner search ends the moment Justin walks past.

• Molly and Justin: The two start the comic as total strangers. Justin had previously been David’s dragged-along sidekick in Onwards to Adventure, and no earlier main-comic page features him with Molly. Here, Molly chooses Justin when he happens to walk past while she needs a partner. She grabs his arm and hauls him away before he can ask what she wants, leaving him no opportunity to agree.
• Abbey and Molly: Brother and sister in Kevin and Janet’s household, Abbey refuses both to accompany Molly and to support her lie. Seeing her drag Justin away is enough for him to reconsider. He says, “Wow, now I feel like a jerk..”

Trivia & observations

Pencil sketches of Molly’s original, girlier design.

• The comic gives both children their first lead roles. Molly had previously appeared as Abbey’s little sister in Rising Temperature and returned for scouting duties in Invitation. Justin had also appeared in supporting roles, beginning as David’s reluctant sidekick.
• Janet, the one enforcing the partner rule, is Abbey and Molly’s adoptive mother. She and her husband Kevin were introduced back in Rising Temperature.
• The surprise party Abbey is preparing is for his girlfriend Daisy. The two have been a couple since New Beginnings.
• At her first door, Molly introduces herself as being from “the Girl Scout association” before beginning her cookie-sales pitch.
• Veronica has said Molly “had a much girlier design back in the day before she started being a tomboyish girl scout”, and shared sketches of the old look in a Tumblr ask.

Related chapters

• Onwards to Adventure: Justin’s debut, where David drags him into an imaginary rescue mission. The police become involved, and a news report describes a “mass kidnapping”. Molly similarly grabs Justin and pulls him into an errand without first explaining it.
• Invitation: The first look at Molly the scout, where it’s Abbey who gets conscripted into dragging her cookie cart around town. This time around, he proves a bit harder to rope in.