Though I wish Molly and Gayle were legit written out, instead of quietly disappeared, "Chuck Cunningham" style. My impression is that Lynn initially thought introducing two teenage girls into the strip, and into Connie and Lawrence's family, would create all kinds of great material. And she did mine them for (not-great) story arcs for a while. However, she quickly lost steam/interest and then just seemingly pretended they never existed. I think she would have done that with April if she'd felt she could get away with it.