THE WHOLE GANG sat around the apartment looking at papers of Monica's bills.
"How could someone get a hold of your credit card number?" Joey asks.
"I have no idea. But look how much they spent!" Monica scolded.
"Monica, would you calm down? The credit card people said that you only have to pay for the stuff that you bought." I comforted.
"I know. It's just such reckless spending." Monica sighs.
Ross buts in, "I think when someone steals your credit card, they've kind of already thrown caution to the wind."
"Wow, what a geek. They spent $69.95 on a Wonder Mop." Chandler says as he sits on the co uh h next to Monica.
"That's me." Monica informs.
"Oh! The yuk! Ross, he's doing it again!" Phoebe points to the lamp that Marcel is humping.
"Marcel, stop humping the lamp! Stop humping! Now Marcel, come back-" Marcel runs to Rachel's room.
"Oh no, not in my room! I'll get him." Rachel runs after him.
"Ross, you've got to do something about the humping." Monica scolds.
Ross gets defensive, "What? It's, it's just a phase."
"Well, that's what we said about Joey..." chandler says as I giggle.
"Would you all relax? It's not that big a deal." Ross sits down.
Rachel starts yelling from her room, "Stop it! Marcel! Bad monkey!"
"What?" Ross sighs.
Rachel comes out of her room, "Let's just say my Curious George doll is no longer curious."
I grimaced, "That's disgusting. Anyways, I forgot to tell you all that I'm gonna be in an art show on Saturday and I want you all to come.
"Oh that's great!" The all cheer.
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I SAT AROUND the table drawing as Monica dialed the phone and Phoebe and Rachel walked in with laundry.
"Hey." Rachel and Phoebe greeted.
"Hi." Monica then spoke into the phone, "Hi, uh, yes, this is Monica Geller. Um, I believe I'm taking some classes with you and I was wondering what they were."
"What are you doing?" I ask.
Monica hushes me, "Alright, great. Thanks a lot." She hangs up the phone, "I'm going to tap class."
"What, what, so that you can dance with the woman that stole your credit card?" Rachel sighed.
Monica argues, "This woman's got my life, I should get to see who she is."
"Go to the post office! I'm sure her picture's up! ...Okay,
Monica, y'know what, honey, you're kinda losing it here! I
mean, this is really becoming like a weird obsession thing." Rachel states.
"This is madness. It's madness, I tell you, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MONICA, DON'T DO IT!! ...Thank you." Phoebe acts out.
"As much as I would love the embarrassment of going to a dance class with you guys, I have to work on these drawings for the art show." I sighed.
"Oh right! I can't wait!" Phoebe exclaims.
"Where are the guys by the way?" I add.
"Down at the Coffee house." Monica informed.
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I MOVED MY art supplies down to Central Perk as the guys discussed what they were gonna do with Marcel.
"I can't believe it, Ross. This sucks!" Joey exclaims.
"I don't get it, I mean, you just got him. How can he be an
adult already?" Chandler sighs.
"I know. I know. I mean, one day, he's this little thing, and
before you know it, he's this little thing I can't get off my
leg." Ross sighs.
"Isn't there any way you can keep him?" Joey asks.
"No, no. The vet says unless he's in a place where he has regular access to some... monkey lovin', he's just gonna get vicious. I've just gotta get him into a zoo." Ross stands up.
"How do you get a monkey into a zoo?" Joey sighs.
"I know that one!" Chandler snaps his fingers, "...No, that's Popes into a Volkswagen."
"Well, we're applying to a lot of them. Naturally our first
choice would be one of the bigger state zoos, y'know, like,
uh, San Diego... right? But that might just be a pipe dream,
because, y'know, he's out of state. Uh, my vet, uh, knows
someone at Miami, so that's a possibility." Ross says sadly.
"Yeah, but that's like two blocks away from the beach. I
mean, it's a total party zoo." Chandler watched as I drew.
Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe walked in, Phoebe being the first to talk, "Hey. We found her, we found the girl."
"What?" I turned to them.
"Did you call the cops?" Joey asks.
"Nope. We took her to lunch." Rachel smiled.
Chandler quickly had a sarcastic response, "Ah. Your own brand of vigilante justice."
"What?! Are you insane? This woman stole from you. She stole. She's a stealer." Ross whines.
Monica sighs, "Y'know what? After you're with this woman for like ten minutes, you forget all that. I mean, she is this astounding person, with this- with this amazing spirit."
"Yeah, which she probably stole from some cheerleader." Ross argues.
"...Take off their hats!" Chandler randomly shouts.
"Popes in a Volkswagen! ...I love that joke." I laugh.
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I STOOD BEHIND some people looking at my art at the art show, none of the gang had showed up yet.
"You said we needed more culture." One of the men said.
The other man sighed, "this is culture to you?"
"It's probably her first try." The first man laughed.
"Yeah, on Van Gogh's first try, he drew the hands of the peasants." The second man judged.
"Meaning what?" The first man asked.
The second man shrugs his shoulders, "Meaning, real art takes...courage, okay? And honestly."
"Well those are her drawing points." The first man sighed.
"Yeah exactly, that's why this is...motel art." The second man started to walk away.
I felt a twinge of sadness as they walked away. It's like high school all over again. You'll never be good enough no matter how hard you try. They see right through me. They see right through. Can you see right through me? They see right through. They see right through me. I see right through me. I see right through me
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ABOUT AN HOUR later still none of my friends hadn't shown up. I started to take my drawings down when I heard a voice behind me.
"El-Caso! Sorry I'm late I had to race across the city." Chandler smiled.
"Oh, Chandler." I stepped back so he could look at them.
He looked at them, "wow, you did these? Freehand?"
"Yep." I sighed.
"My god these could be tracings." He examined the drawings, "look at this one, wow- you nailed it." He stared at one of his shared apartment with Joey, "how much?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
He pointed at it, "I don't see a price."
I looked at him in disbelief, "you wanna buy it?"
"Well yeah, yeah, we have to have it in the apartment. I mean, there's my bedroom and- there's my hockey stick! Is that Joey's sandwich?" He laughed.
"Uh-huh" I laughed.
"That is our apartment. And we are friends. I am really proud of you." Chandler looked back at the drawings.
I hugged him as I blinked away tears, "thank you."
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THE NEXT DAY I sat next to Chandler as Ross read letters about if Marcel made it into zoo's. I would never admit that I held a grudge against everyone except Chandler for not coming to the art show. Even Chandler didn't know that everyone else didn't show up.
"Oh God." Ross turned to Marcel, "We didn't get into Scranton." He turns to the rest of us, "That was like our safety zoo. They take like dogs and cows. See? I don't know who this is harder on, me or him.
"I'd say that chair's taking the brunt." Phoebe motions to Marcel humping a chair.
"Marcel! Marcel! Marcel, no! Good boy. See, how can nobody want him?" Ross sighs.
"Oh, somebody will." Rachel comforts as Joey walks in.
"You know there already is a Joseph Stalin?" Joey asks.
"You're kidding." Chandler throws the newspaper down.
"Apparently he was this Russian dictator who slaughtered all these people. You'd think you would've known that!" Joey scolds.
"Y'know, you'd think I would've." Chandler nods to me.
"Phoebe. Whaddyou think a good stage name for me would be?" Joey asks.
Phoebe thinks for a moment, "...Flame Boy."
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AT THE AIRPORT the whole gang except Monica was about to say goodbye to Marcel.
"Okay. Goodbye, little monkey guy. Alright, I wrote you this poem. Okay, but don't eat it 'till you get on the 'plane." Phoebe gave Marcel the piece of paper.
"Aww. Thank you, Aunt Phoebe." Ross smiles.
"Okay, bye, champ. Now, I know there's gonna be a lot of
babes in San Diego, but remember, there's also a lot to learn." Chandler said his goodbyes.
"Yeah, and make sure you treat 'em right, or I'll find you." I added to Chandler's statement.
Joey sighed, "I dunno what to say, Ross. Uh, it's a monkey."
"Just, just say what you feel." Ross encouraged.
"Marcel, I'm hungry." Joey said plainly.
"That was good." Ross sighs.
Rachel brings Marcel a teddy bear, "Marcel, this is for you. It's, uh, just, y'know, something to, um, do on the 'plane."
"Uh, if you guys don't mind, I'd like to take a moment, just me and him." Ross says as Rachel moves out of the way,
"Oh, sure. Sure, absolutely." We all stand there then realize what he means and go to the other end of the room.