Secrets Pt. 3
It's been a couple weeks since Paloma had joined the group of seven, in that time a lot has happened, TJs black eye had healed, Mikey had his tenth birthday and even Gretchen's birthday was last week. Right not all the kids were on the playground for recess, each playing their own game.
"OK, let's go! Line up, five rows of 20! Move it, move it, move it!" The kids fun was all cut short by Randal shouting into a megaphone.
"Man, someone must be in big trouble. Finster hasn't cancelled recess since Billy Stoler short-sheeted her support hose." Vince said as all the kids were standing in line.
"She was limping for three days." Said TJ.
"Ten-hut!" Randal said as Miss Finster came through the doors.
"This week we've seen a crime wave unparalleled in Third Street history. Someone on this playground is responsible for breaching nearly every rule we hold sacred." Miss Finster stated walking down the steps.
"Even the cannibalism taboo?" Asked Mikey.
"Evidence connects two masterminds
with these crimes. Two kids who've done it all. Made a big mess in the hallways, wrote graffiti mocking the faculty, defaced restrooms, stole food from the cafeteria, broke kids out of principal Prickly's office and made a complete mess of the mess area. These students will be going directly to Principal Prickly's office. These students will receive severe punishment befitting these atrocities. These students are Dede King and Gretchen P. Grundler."
"Miss Finster, Gretchen's the best kid
in school, and while Dede's not the perfect student, she wouldn't cause trouble without a good reason." TJ defended after everyone gasped.
"Yeah, you're making a terrible mistake. Tell her, Dee, Gretchen." Vince looked at the girls, expecting them to agree with him.
"No, guys, she's right. Take us away, Miss Finster." Gretchen sighed as Dede stood next to her.
"Gretchen, what are you saying?" Asked TJ.
"Don't worry yourself over us anymore, T.J. We're nothing but trouble."
"March, young ladies." With Miss Finster's order both girls walked into the school.
"Dede and Gretchen gone bad? It can't be." Said TJ.
"Down is up! Black is white! The millennium approaches!" Mikey panics.
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*I know what you're asking. How did it happen? How did Gretchen Grundler,
straight-A student, and Dede King, above average student, end up taking the long walk to the principal's office? It's a story as long as the lines at Gonzo World, but without the free refills.* Gretchen inner monologues as the two reach the office and walk in.
"We've been expecting you, Grundler, King. Take a seat. Principal Prickly will be with you in a moment." Said Miss Lemon.
"Well, well, if it ain't "goody-two-shoes" Grundler and King. What'd you do, Grundler? Get too many A's? Or defend too many kids, king?" Sue Bob laughs after the other two girls sit next to her on the bench.
"We're not in the mood, Murphy." Dede sighed as she leaned her head back.
"Oh, come on, King. Where's your sense of humour? When you're about to face the man, sometimes that's all you got. So, what you in for?"
"It's a long story." Answered Gretchen.
"Pfft. Like we're going somewheres?"
*She had a point. I don't know what it was that finally made me spill. Maybe it was Sue Bob's earthiness. Maybe it was the clickety clack of Miss Lemon's typewriter. Whatever the reason,
I suddenly felt compelled to tell Sue Bob the whole sordid tale.* Gretchen thought before she turned to look at Sue Bob. "It all started about a week ago on my birthday. It was a great day. My favourite uncle George gave me the best gift I ever got. A Galileo hand-held personal computer. Galileo was a dream come true, a powerful multifunction PC
that fit in the palm of my hand. It had 16 megabytes of RAM, internet access, and cute howdy froggy desktop icons
that made computing fun."
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"Hey, Gretchen, don't look now, but you've got mail." Said Galileo, after Gretchen sat down at the cafeteria table where her friends sat.
"Whoa! That thing talks." Asked Vince.
"Don't feel threatened, Vince. Computers are only as smart as the humans who program them." Said Galileo as the other seven gathered around Gretchen to take a closer look at Galileo.
"In fact, the battle of... oops, sorry...The argument they couldn't settle with words of Bunker Hill actually took place on Breed's Hill." Said Ms Grotke as they were all back in class.
*Yep. Galileo did everything. Thanks to a sophisticated spoken-word translation program, it even took notes in class.* Gretchen thought as she held Galileo up.
"Excuse me, Miss Grotke. Could you repeat that last point? And this time, please, speak slowly and enunciate." Galileo asked.
"Oh, well, OK. The argument they couldn't settle..." ms Grotke did as Galileo asked and repeated slowly.
*Galileo even calibrated age, skill level, and frustration factors, and would let me win at chess occasionally.* "Checkmate!" Gretchen said as she moved her chess piece.
"Good move, Gretchen. you finally win one." Cheered Galileo.
*That's right. I loved a machine like a sister or a kind uncle. Maybe that's sick, maybe it's twisted, but love it I did. And then one day everything changed.*
"Alright, everyone line up, I need two kids up front to be captains, we're gonna play basketball." Said Coach Kluge, during gym class, before picking Vince and TJ as the captains. After the class had been evenly split up into two teams the kids got ready to play. "Hold up, king, since there was an incident with the sixth grader and her jewellery getting caught and breaking, causing a student to trip, you can't wear your bracelet during gym class anymore."
"What? But I'm always careful, and it's really durable." Dede argued back.
"I'm sorry, but those are the rules now. And Grundler, no computers, you've got to put that away as well."
"But—" Gretchen also tried to fight but was also shot down.
"Now, both of you." Coach Kluge said, pointing to the locker room.
"Come on Gretchen, let's go put them in our lockers." Dede sighed as walking off into the girls locker room.
"They really need to get new lockers." Gretchen groaned as she struggled to open her locker.
"That's true, if you want, you can put Galileo in my locker till the end of class." Dede said putting her bracelet in her locker and moving to the door as Gretchen walked over to put Galileo away.
"You go, girl! I'll be here waiting for you to finish." Galileo said as Gretchen put him down.
"KING, GRUNDLER." The girls heard Coach Kluge shout and Dede ran out the door, Gretchen slammed the locker closed and quickly followed her, not realising the locker opened back up and both the bracelet and galileo fell out.
"You girls are gonna end up failing gym class at this rate." The girls heard Coach Kluge say when they got back. Thinking he was talking about them they almost panicked before they saw him facing the Ashley's, who were holding out notes.
"Like, who cares." Said Ashley B.
"Yeah, we could totally, like, break a nail or something." Ashley A agreed.COach Kluge just rolled his eyes and sent the girls on their way, not wanting to deal with them.
"Well girls, what do you say about a little R&R in the clubhouse." Ashley B suggested as she opened the locker room door to go out into the hallway.
"That sounds good, anything beats having to sweat in that smelly gym." Ashley Q said as she followed the others to the door, accidentally kicking something on the floor. When Ashley Q looked down she saw a blue bracelet on the ground, not noticing that she had kicked a certain red handheld computer out into the hallway under a bench.
"Like, it's that King's?" Ashley A asked as Ashley Q picked it up.
"Yeah, she never takes that tacky looking thing off." Scoffed Ashley B.
"Wonder what's so special about it." Ashley Q said as she put the bracelet on and pressed one of the buttons at random, only for a bright flash of light to appear.
"Woah! It takes pictures?" Ashley T said impressed.
"Yeah, wonder what else it does?" Said Ashley B.
"Well, we have an hour till gym class is over, why not find out." Ashley A smirked before they all laughed.
"SCANDALOUS!" They said as a group and finally left the locker room.
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"Man, that was some game." Said Spinelli as the girls all walked into the locker room to get changed out of their gym clothes.
"It was so much fun." Said Paloma.
"Yeah, we so kicked your butt." Dede jokes as she nudged Spinelli.
"Haha." Spinelli laughed sarcastically, before jokingly looking at Gretchen. "We would have beaten you if we had more athletic team members."
"Na na na na na, those are just excuses." Dede waved her hand back and forth, before pulling Gretchen into her side. "You know you could have put Gretchen on defence to the hoop and had her relay plans and strategies to ya. While she may not be a gamble Vince, her mind definitely is something to be feared." At this the four girls laughed as they all got to their lockers.
"Where... oh, where's Galileo?" Asked Gretchen and she and Dede gasped seeing the locker door open and both prized items gone.
"No...no my bracelet." Dede started to look around in her locker. "It's gone, oh, this is really bad."
"Are you sure you put them both in your locker Dede?" Asked Spinelli as she saw her two friends panic.
"Yes, we did, and now they're gone!" Gretchen cried after the two had practically tore the locker room apart.
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"I looked in Miss Grotke's class." Said Gus as they all grouped back up together. When the girls got out of their locker room the guys saw that Dede and Gretchen were really upset they immediately asked what was wrong and jumped at helping them trying to find the important items.
"And I checked the gym itself. Nothing." Said Vince.
"This is a nightmare." Gretchen groaned.
"Let's go over this again. You asked the Diggers, you talked to swinger girl, you checked the lost and found." Said TJ, making Dede and Gretchen look at each other. "You did check the lost and found,
didn't you?" At that both girl got up from the swings they were sitting on and ran off.
"I guess that was a no." Said Mikey as they all watched them run off.
"The lost and found box, Menlo. We need to see it now." Gretchen demanded as soon as they got to the office.
"That's not the way it works. You tell me what you lost, And I'll tell you if it's in the box. Those are the rules." Menlo states.
"One Galileo hand-held PC, model G-55, serial number 76502."
"And I've lost my bracelet, it has a blue wrist strap and a white top with some buttons on it." Dede explained.
"Oh, yeah, your iconic bracelet. And that a spiffy little piece of tech.
300 meg chip, voice-activated control, -cellular e-mail--" Menlo started.
"Yes. Yes. That's it. Is it in there?" Gretchen asked.
"No I was just asking, you can go and look if you want, but only one of you is allowed in at a time." Menlo said, pointing to the wall, indicating the room next to the office.
"I thought you said YOU'D be looking?" Dede asked, looking at Menlo weirdly.
"Normally I would, but knowing how you people get when more than one of you comes to look for something you've lost, you'll just follow me into the room and still look yourselves."
With the Ashley's, they were all walking around the school's hallways now, still messing with Dedes' bracelet, when it started to beep.
"Huh? Is that the noise that King always runs off at?" Asked Ashley T.
"Yeah, wonder why?" Ashley Q said as she pressed the button that was flashing.
"Chief, we saw you distress call-" Sparky started as he appeared In hologram form. "Hey, who are you!"
"Ohhh, scandalous, projection TV." Ashley A said.
"It's not the capitan, pretend you're on three V." X-5 whispers to Sparky as he comes into view.
"I've always wanted to be on three V." Sparky said before running off, only to come back changed into a new outfit. "Haha, I will never join the dark side, you hunk of evil, villanus, thing." Sparky swung his sword at X-5, but because it was a real sword, more a collectible, it imminently broke. "Ah, nice one. You were meant to duck. This thing was a collectors item, now look at it."
"This show stinks." Said Ashley B, making Ashley Q press the button again to get rid of the hologram.
"Well that was lame." Ashley Q sighed but before she could move her wrist was grabbed. Looking up the four Ashley's saw it was Gelman who had grabbed Ashley Q's wrist. "Let go!" Ashley Q screamed as she tried to pull her wrist free and accidentally hit one of the buttons making a laser go off somewhere in the school. She only succeeded in getting her wrist free when the bracelet came off, leaving Gelman to laugh as he ran off.
"I'll go and have a quick look." Dede said before she walked into the lost and found room. "Great." Dede said as she saw the big box of lost and found items, but before she could start to go through it she heard a noise behind her, only to t n around and see a beam of light fling around the room before hitting the box. "Oh no. This is not good." Dede slowly backed away from the box as it started to shake and groan, a few seconds later a monster emerged from the box made out of all the items from inside the box. When the item monster spotted Dede it charged down trying to bite her, but Dede quickly jumped to the side then to the other side as the monster tried to hit her again. As the monster roared at Dede she jumped up and kicked it in its head before swinging on the hanging light and hitting it again. This back and forth kept going for a little while, even ending up out into the main hallway, as Dede jumped back to dodge the monster's tail she ended up being the water fountain. Dede looked from the monster to the fountain and back again before she turned the fountain on and aimed the water at the monster, it seemed her plan had worked as the monster started to bubble up green, not long after it ended up exploding, leaving green goo everywhere. "Someone is controlling my bracelet, I've gotta find out why... oh. Uh Sorry." Dede shouted to Hank as he rounded the corner and screamed in shock at the mess as Dede was running back towards the office. "They weren't in there" Dede said to both Gretchen and Menlo who were still waiting in the room.
"What, then where could they be?" Gretchen asked.
"You know, now that I really think about it, I do remember seeing something like your items." Menlo said.
"Where?"
"I don't know. My memory's a little hazy." Menlo started rubbing his fingers together.
"Out with it!" Dede said, grabbing him by his shirt, pulling him to be face to face with her. "I want my bracelet and Gretchen wants her friend back!"
"OK! OK! Just don't hurt me. After class, I was..."
*Menlo sang like an old guy in the shower when nobody's home. He had no info for Dedes bracelet but he was able to tell me who had Galileo. It was Greg Skeets, the graffiti kid, a guy who couldn't spell "computer," much less use one. Menlo told me where to find him. I don't make it a habit to slum in the Third Street School underworld. But if I wanted Galileo back, I had to hold my nose and plunge in.*
"Nice work. You're a regular Degas." Dede said as she and Gretchen walked up behind Skeets, seeing that he was drawing a monster version of Miss Finster on the wall with chalk.
"What did you call me?" Skeets asked looking back at the girls.
"Nothing. Listen, we seem to have misplaced some things, my hand-held computer. About yea big, matte-black finish, soothing voice. And a blue strapped bracelet. Maybe you've seen them around." Asked Gretchen.
"You mean that TV remote I found
under a bench in the hallway? I traded it for a stick of gum. Stupid thing didn't even work on my TV, and I've not seen a bracelet anywhere, not that I'd care to look for some girly junk."
"Who! Who did you trade it to?" Gretchen grabbed Skeets' shit before he pushed her off.
"Hey! I'm no blabbermouth. Now beat it. I'm busy. I need to write something nasty
about Finster before the bell. Uh... how do you spell "meanie"?" Skeets asked looking back at his work.
"You know? Your writing will have much more punch with a varied vocabulary."
"Yeah, but I don't know any new words. I guess I've taken my art as far as I can go."
"Skeets, I'll make you a deal. You tell me who's got my computer, and I'll give you some good words to use on the wall."
"Words? Like what?"
"How about "nefarious"?"
"Yeah, that has a ring to it. Finster is a nefarious Degas. Thanks, brainiac."
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"I'm in. So far so good." Said Sparky as he was walking through the halls of third street elementary school dressed in earth clothes. "Everyone thinks I'm a typical student." Sparky passed some students as they laughed at him. "Maybe I should do some dance moves, show them that I'm, you know, cold."
"The word is 'cool' and no, do not attract attention to yourself." X-5 said into Sparky's earpiece.
"No problem." Sparky was moon walking but ended up tripping and falling onto his back, right in front of TJ and the rest of the gang, before jumping back up to his feet. "Oh, hello earth friends, I am the new kid. I am just like you, only new. Do you know, perhaps, we're I might find Dede?"
"You know Dede?" TJ asked as he and the others looked at each other.
"Who are you?" Spinelli said, stepping forward.
"Just a new kid. Not an alien of any kind." Sparky stammered.
"No. Don't say that, you're not an alien." X-5 panics in the ear piece.
"That's what I just said." Sparky argued back.
"Uhhh?" Said Mikey as he and the others were all confused on who Sparky was talking to.
"It's nothing, I'm talking to my ear." Sparky dismissed their confusion.
"Hey, check out the size of this kid's honker." Said a random kid as the other kids around all laughed.
"Forgot what school was like." Sparky sweats. "So much attention. Pressure to conform. Giggling."
"Remain calm, happy thoughts." X-5 tried to help, but it was too late as Sparky was already running away. He didn't get too far though as he ran straight into a door, which was opened by the Ashley's.
"Like, watch we're you're going." Ashley A said as she stepped on Sparky's glasses.
"Wait." Sparky said, grabbing the glasses and putting them on and standing up. "I know you, what have you done with Dede? You have her bracelet!"
"It wasn't me, I never took it. I found it. I was going to give it back to her." Ashley Q defended herself.
"You're such a liar!" At Sparky's accusation Ashley Q pushed him back away from her and started to walk away with the other Ashley's laughing. When Sparky landed he did so next to a big bin on wheels that Hank had used to clean the hallway, Sparky quickly jumped up and grabbed the bin before sending it on its way to the Ashley's. Knocking them all into it. As Sparky was laughing at them he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking up he saw Principal Prickly standing there.
"My office, now." Prickly said, dragging Sparky to his office.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Skeets didn't know anything about Dedes' bracelet, but he gave me a single name. Mundy. He told me where Mundy hung out. I was about to go even deeper into the school underbelly, to a place I'd heard about but never seen, a place out of a nightmare.*
"This is all so ugly and wrong." Gretchen sighs as she and Dede stand outside the boy's bathroom.
"Don't worry Gretchen, I'll go in with you and help, I just hope that Mundy knows something about my bracelet, I really need to find it." Dede said before walking into the boys bathroom.
"Excuse me, Mr. Mundy. I believe
you have something that belongs to me." Gretchen said when Mundy didn't turn to face them.
"Dang." Mundy said, ignoring Gretchen as he tried to stick paper towels onto the ceiling.
"I said you have something that--"
"I heard you. I ain't got nothing of nobody's." Mundy said, turning to face the two girls.
"But Skeets said--"
"Nothing of nobody's." Mundy said in a 'that's final' voice as he threw another wet paper towel up to the ceiling, only for it to fall down again. "Dang. These suckers won't stick."
"Mundy, I know this is highly unethical,
but what would you say if I told you how to get those "suckers," as you call them, to stick to the ceiling?"
"Depends. What's the catch?"
"A simple trade. My info for your info."
"Well, deal, but you gotta go first."
"Very well. See, it's really a function of viscosity, -or "v" in the formula of "v" over "H."-" Gretchen started to write the equations on the mirror only for Mundy to interrupt, as both he and Dede were utterly confused as to what Gretchen was saying.
"Viscosi who?"
"A little liquid soap in your paper wad mixture, and you'll have this place looking like a bat cave in no time."
"Wow. You smart kids know some important stuff after all." Mundy looked up at his work as the wet paper towel actually stuck to the ceiling this time.
"Now, what about your end of the bargain?"
"I, uh, traded your thingamajig
to Kirsten Kurst for a bite of her pizza."
"You mean, Kurst the Worst?" Gretchen gulped.
*Skeets and Mundy were one thing, but Kurst... she was a force of nature.*
"Don't worry Gretchen, I'll be with you. But Mundy, do you have any info on where my bracelet is?" Dede said, looking at mundy.
"You mean that bracelet that takes pictures, I heard Gelman say he snagged something like that from one of the Ashley's." Mundy said, throwing another paper towel to the ceiling.
"Where are they, Mundy? Where are Gelman and Kurst the Worst?" Dede asked, grabbing Mundy's face and making him look at her. As both Dede and Gretchen were running through the school Dede came to a holt as they passed principle Prickly's office, seeing a very familiar person being told off by Prickly.
"I can explain everything, I'm a new kid. Oh.. hi chief." Sparky said, spotting Dede at the door looking in.
"Sparky?" Dede asked before Prickly looked at her and she shrugged at him. "Principal Prickly, isn't that kid playing on his bike on the playground." Dede pointed out the window in Prickly's office. As soon as he looked out the window, Dede and Sparky ran out of the room and hid under some stairs before they were seen. "Sparky, where did you get those awful clothes?"
"Hold on, X-5 is blabbing in my ear." Sparky said. "What? Maximus?" At this Dede gasped and put her head next to sparky's, to be able to hear X-5 as well. "He's what?"
"Apparently, Maximus has traced a signal to earth and his entire armada is closing in as we speak." X-5 explained.
"It's my bracelet, he must have honed in on it somehow. X-5, run a tracer on it, I know that Gelman has it, and triangulate our coordinates." Dede said into sparky's earpiece.
"According to my trackers, you're right on top of it."
"Where?" Sparky asked. Dede looked up the stairs and saw Gelman there, pressing buttons on her bracelet.
"Gelman, give me my bracelet." Dede demanded as she ran up the stairs to him.
"What? This?" Gelman taunted.
"Yes. Wait, no, don't press that one." Dede said as Gelman was going to press another button. Sparky panicked as Gelman pressed it.
"Sixty seconds to supernova." The bracelet rang out.
"No, he activated the auto destruct function."
"I do not like how this day is going, I wanna go back to bed." Sparky whined.
"Give it to me." Dede demanded.
"Gotta catch me first." Gelman laughed as he ran off with the bracelet. Dede and Sparky gasped looking at each other before following Gelman through the school, ending up cornering him in the gym.
"End of the road Gelman, now give me my bracelet."
"Fat chance." Gelman said as he pressed another button, sending shuriken flying at Dede and Sparky. When they both dodge out of the shurikens' way Gelman then pressed a button to have lasers shooting at them. Dede looked at the bracelet and saw that there were only nineteen seconds left.
"Better hurry, we only have-" X-5 started.
"LESS THAN FIFTEEN SECONDS LEFT." Sparky shouted. Dede and Sparky charged at Gelman, both tackling him down to the ground and grabbing the bracelet back, stopping the countdown with only one second left on the clock.
"Auto destruct, disengaged." The bracelet called out.
"Now to deal with Maximus." Dede said, putting the bracelet back on and running out the gym with Sparky behind her. As soon as they both got onto their spaceship they connected to Maximus' ship and played recordings of the taunts that Gelman did. "Forget about this nothing planet." Dede came into view of the camera and cut the recordings off. "It was all me. Haha sucker."
"Atomic Candy." Maximus growled as Dede's ship turned away from earth. "I should have known You were behind this infertile prank. Let's see how funny you think total destruction is." With that Maximus pushed Minimus of off the controls and turned his ship around to follow Dedes, as he started blasting his own army as Sparky kept dodging each of the blasts.
"He's taking out his own ships." Sparky started.
"If he's going to do that, then let's help him out. Get closer to the enemy Sparky." Dede instructed.
"Ey, ey chief." Said Sparky.
"Harder on starbort Sparky." Ordered Dede.
"But chief, that's open space, we'll lose any cover if we-"
"We've got to try Sparky."
"Ey, ey chief." sparky sighed. It wasn't long before Dedes ship was forced to stop as Maximus' army was in front of them, though they couldn't go back as Maximus' ship was there.
"I guess it's time we bid adu." Said Maximus as he appeared on the ship's screen. "I have to admit though, you were a worthy adversary, for a girl. When I give the signal I want you all to blast atomic Candy and her silly friends to smithereens, and lock, get ready, FIRE." As Dede, Sparky and X-5 braced themselves for the attack but it never came, instead they all took fire at Maximus' own ship, making him retreat.
"That was close, time to go home, I need to see how Gretchen is doing in finding Galileo." Dede said before she was dropped off back to earth. When Dede was back at school she immediately ran to the cafeteria to see if Gretchen was still there, but when she walked in all she saw was a massive mess and Gretchen on the floor covered In tapioca. "Gretchen, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, where's Kurst?" Gretchen asked.
"She's not here, I take it she didn't have Galileo?"
"She said she didn't, then started a food fight."
"I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you Gretchen, I feel like such a bad friend."
"That's fine, it looks like you managed to retrieve your bracelet back. At least one of us was able to get what we were looking for."
"It's not too late, let's get you cleaned up and track down Kurst again." Dede said, helping Gretchen off the floor.
"It's alright Dede, I think Galileo is lost forever at this point."
"No way, we're gonna get you Galileo back no matter what. Now come on."
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"I got Kirsten Kurst a couple times, then she blindsided me with a bowl of tapioca. When I came to my senses, she was gone and that's when Dede came back and managed to sneak us out of there unseen, but by the time we were done
wiping pudding out of my hair, Finster was all over us like a pig on sorbet." Gretchen finished her story to Sue Bob.
"But I don't get it, how did Finster finger you both?" Asked Sue Bob.
"It wasn't so tough, girlie. King was seen at both her crimes of making a big mess in the hallway and breaking that student out of Prickly's office and Gretchen here left a trail of clues a mile wide. "Nefarious" happens to be the word she won last year's spelling bee with. The viscosity of liquid soap was the subject of her blue ribbon science fair project, and finally, here's a tissue, for Pete's sake, you missed a spot of tapioca on your glasses. Oh, you're smart, Grundler, but it's all book and no street." Miss Lemon explained, laughing.
"Anyway, I guess you could say I got what's coming to me." Said Gretchen.
"But I don't get it. You're gonna take the fall for those other kids? Why?" Asked Sue Bob.
"I didn't try to stop them, did I? I could have, but didn't. That makes me as guilty as if I'd held the chalk, paper wads,
and pudding myself."
"Grundler, you're all right. Here." Sue Bob handed Gretchen her, her Galileo.
"Galileo. you had it?" Gretchen smiled as she hugged the mini computer.
"Yeah, I traded Kurst the Worst a slice of pimento loaf for it."
"I-I don't know what to say."
"Hello, Gretchen, where have you been?
You've got stacks of e-mail. And exactly who was that who tried to take a bite out of me?" Said Galileo as he appeared on the screen.
"Gee, Sue Bob. Thanks."
"One thing I don't understand, how did you make a big mess in the hallway, King. And who was that student you broke out of principal Prickly's office?" Sue Bob asked, looking over at Dede.
"Oh...uh-" before Dede had to make an excuse m, she was saved by the phone on Miss Lemon's desk ringing.
"Yes sir. I see." Said Miss Lemon as she answered the phone before hanging up and looking over at the three girls. "Ok Grundler, he'll see you now. King, he also told me to tell you that you're off the hook."
"How come?" Dede asked as the three girls looked at each other confused.
"He just said someone vouched for you, and that you're free to go. I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth if I were you." With that dede and Gretchen stood up.
"Wish me luck." Gretchen said as she started walking to Prickly's office.
"I'll be waiting outside for you Gretchen." Dede said just as Gretchen opened the office door and walked into Prickly's office.
At the end of the day it was found out that Gretchen's punishment was just to clean up the mess that was made, Dede offered to help but Gretchen refused, saying Dede wasn't the one to help those other kids make those messes. When Dede arrived home she was welcomed to the sight of her mum lugging a small suitcase down the stairs and Lapis just sitting by the entrance to the living room.
"What's going on mum?" Dede asked when Crystal got to the bottom of the steps.
"Oh, jewel, your back, that's great. Your father got called into work for an emergency and I'm needed at the office in manhattan. It's all last minute and we're sorry to have to leave so quickly again, but your nana is going to visit one of her friends so I've rang up Flo and Bob and they're ok with you spending the next few days at theirs."
"I see. When will you be back?" Dede said, picking up Lapis.
"We both should be back by Monday at latest." With that Crystal got both of their suitcases into her car and drove Dede and Lapis to Spinelli's place.
"By mum, have a safe trip." Dede said as she kissed Crystal's cheek before jumping out the car with Lapis and grabbed her suitcase from the car boot.
"Bye jewel, have a fun weekend with Ashley." Crystal smiled before driving off. Dede walked up to Spinelli's front door and knocked, it didn't take long for the door to open and reveal Spinelli standing there with a big smile on her face.
"Dede, you're here. Oh man, this weekend is gonna be awesome." Spinelli said as she grabbed Dedes hand and dragged her inside her house, closing the door after Lapis followed them in.
"Oh, Candy, you're here." Said Flo as she kissed Dedes cheek.
"Hi Mrs Flo. Thanks for letting me stay again while my parents are out of town." Dede smiled.
"Not a problem dear, you're basically family. Now why don't you two go and watch TV, Bob should be home soon, then we'll need to go grocery shopping for dinner tonight." With that the girls all went and watched some tv, though it wasn't long till Bob came back from work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day we can see five of the eight friends standing outside the front of Third Street elementary school at the flag pole.
"Anybody seen Spinelli and Dede?" TJ asked as he walked up to his other friends.
"We thought they were with you." Replied Vince.
"With Dede staying at Spinelli's this week they were supposed to meet me
at the corner on the way to school, but they never showed up."
"Hey, there they are." Gus pointed to a blue car that just pulled up and both Dede and Spinelli stepped out carrying small suitcases.
"Bye, Pooky! Candy!" Bob called out before he drove off. Spinelli stomped over to the cannon that was near the school and sat down on the cannon ball next to it, after throwing her bag on the ground next to her.
"Hey, Spinelli, Dede, where you been?" Vince asked the girls as they all walked over to join them.
"I don't want to talk about it, OK?" Spinelli said
"Why not?" Asked Mikey.
"'Cause I don't!"
"Dede, what's happened?" TJ asked, looking at the other girl.
"Well, you know that I'm staying at Spinelli's till next week?" Dede asked and the others all nod. "Last night Mr Bob and Mrs Flo took us to the supermarket with them."
"Oh, that's rough." TJ winced.
"Yeah, my mom took me to the market
a couple weeks ago. She made me sit in that little seat." Said Gus.
"This was worse, OK? It started out pretty normal, just like any other trip to the store." Spinelli explained what had happened at the supermarket last night.
****************************************
Not long after they got to the supermarket Dede and Spinelli made sure to also top up on snacks for the weekend. "Look, Pooky, Wubble-bubble's on sale. Your favourite!" Flo said, holding a bottle of bubble Bath up.
"Mom!" Spinelli whined, upset that she was being embarrassed again as other kids and their parents walked past before she laughed nervously. "I don't know who you're talking to, lady, but I'm not Pooky."
"Let's hope it doesn't put a rash on your heinie like last time, hmm?" Bob joked, making Spinelli more embarrassed.
"Dad!" Spinelli said before she grabbed the trolly and moved onward. "Could we just get moving?"
****************************************
"And that's when it happened."
*************************************
As Spinelli was walking away in a hurry she wasn't paying attention and bumped her trolley into another.
"Spinelli, are you ok?" Dede ran up to said girl when she saw what happened before turning to who Spinelli had accidentally ran into, only for both of them to gasp when they saw the one and only Miss Frinster standing there.
************************************
"Wait a minute. You're telling us you saw Finster? The Finster shopping?" TJ exclaimed.
"In the supermarket?" Asked Mikey.
"Like a normal person?" Gus continued.
"I'm not buying it. I can't afford to." Said Vince.
"Yeah, you're not meant to see teachers outside of school." Agreed Paloma.
"Actually, Spinelli's story could be true. I mean, teachers are human. Therefore logically, they must eat, sleep,
and presumably shop." Gretchen reasoned.
"Yeah. And that ain't the half of it." Dede sighed as she watched Spinelli bury her head into her hands.
"You mean there's more?" Asked TJ.
"Much, much more."
******************************************
"Miss Finster, I'm-- I'm--" Spinelli started to apologise but was cut short as her parents walked up behind the two girls.
"Bob! Flo!" Exclaimed Miss Finster.
"Muriel!" Bob and Flo exclaimed back, just as happy to see her.
"Muriel?" Both Dede and Spinelli said, looking at each other.
"What a surprise. I haven't seen you, people, since Flo's mother moved out of town. How is Aggie anyway?" Miss Finster questioned.
"Oh, fine, fine. You know, she's retiring next month." Flo replied.
"You don't say. Oh, the years sure speed by. It seems like just yesterday me, Trixie and Aggie were shaking it for the troops in the South Pacific."
"Shaking it?" Both kid's questioned again.
"You know? They're having a big shindig for her this weekend. You ought to go, Muriel." Said Bob.
"No, I don't go to those things. They depress me. Give her my best, tho." Said Miss Frinster.
"Well, actually, we're not going, either. We told Crystal we'd look after Dede, and her dog Lapis, as her grandmother is going to the party and there's a babysitters' convention in Tahoe this weekend, so we can't find anyone to watch our little girls." Said Flo as she put her hands on the girls' heads.
"Aw, gee, it's too bad you're going to miss Aggie's party. Say, I know someone who might be able to help you out."
"You do? Who?"
"Me! Though I don't do well with dogs, so someone else will need to look after the mutt."
"WHAT!?!" Both girls shouted, shocked by what they just heard.
*****************************************
"NOOOOOO!!!!" Mikey screamed out.
"Finster babysitting you? It can't be." TJ said.
"Well, it is." Spinelli sighed in defeat.
Been good knowing you both." Said Vince as he rest a hand on each girl's shoulders.
"Hey, if you don't survive the weekend,
Can I have your catcher's mitt and Gameboy?" Gus asked the girls.
"Oh, come on, guys. It's not as bad as all that." Said TJ.
"T.J.'s right. You're the toughest kids in school." Said Mikey.
"Yeah, you've made it through worse than this." Gretchen assured
"Sure, just keep your spirits up and make the best of it. You'll be fine." Said TJ.
"Gee, maybe you guys are right. We can make it through this. We can make it through anything, especially when we're together. Thanks, guys." Spinelli said as she stood up and both her and Dede walked into the school.
"They're doomed." Said Paloma.
"I'll see you in class Spin, I just gotta do something really quick." Dede said as she stopped in front of their classroom.
"Alright, I'll take your bag in." Spinelli grabbed said bag, leaving Dede with a backpack on.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Dede smiled before she ran off down the hall, looking for someone. After a few minutes of looking Dede finally managed to find who she was looking for, walking away from a water fountain. "King Bob, there you are."
"What do you need, king?" Asked Bob as he stopped in front of Dede.
"Well, long story short, I'm having no choice but to stay at Miss Frinsters this weekend along with Spinelli, however she doesn't like dogs. So I was wondering if you'd be able to watch Lapis this weekend, she doesn't like pet hotels and I thought because I had to cancel on you that one time, that maybe a full weekend with her will make up for it." When Dede finished she was breathing heavily, having said it all quickly, hoping he'd agree to look after Lapis.
"Wait... you have to stay at Miss Finster's?" He asked, thinking he misheard Dede.
"Unfortunately. So will you look after Lapis for the weekend? Please, I'm begging, I don't want to leave her somewhere she doesn't like and I have all her stuff in here." Dede took off her backpack and held it in front of her.
"Sure, I'll look after her, where is she?" Bob took the bag from Dedes hands and looked around for the pup.
"She'll be here at the end of the day, she knows she'll be staying with you so she'll find you at the entrance. Thank you so much King Bob, I really owe ya one." And with that the bell rang, just in time for Dede and Bob to be able to run to their classrooms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the end of school bell, we can see Miss Finster out front telling off a frightened corn chip girl. "How would you like detention for the rest of your life, huh, little missy?"
"No." Corn chip girl sobbed.
"Then don't ever let me catch you yawning without covering your mouth again! All right, Spinelli, King, let's go."
"So long, Dede,Spinelli." Vince said.
"Be tough, kids." Said TJ. Dede and Spinelli then started walking to Miss Finster's car passing kids that just looked on in sadness. While walking Dede looked around and managed to see King Bob as he was holding Lapis, she smiled at them both, still sad she couldn't have Lapis with her for the weekend, and they both returned the smile, sending silent encouragement to Dede.
"Get in." Miss Finster said as she held open her passenger door for the girls to climb in, closing the door when they did. During the drive Dede sat in the middle as all three we're glancing at each other, not saying anything until Miss Finster seemed a bit awkward in the silence. "So, uh, how about a little radio?"
"Tunes? Righteous!" Both girls exclaimed, however what was put on was not what they were expecting.
"Welcome to K-dust on your a.m. dial, where it's all Broadway all the time." The radio rang out.
"Everyone likes the oldies." Miss Finster smiles.
"Actually, we like the newies." Spinelli said.
"You'll learn." music started playing. "Oh! This one's from "men from over there." What a show,
♪ Cause we're the men ♪
♪ From over there, there, there ♪
♪ Yes, we're the men ♪
♪ From over there, there, there ♪
♪ 'Cause we're the men ♪
♪ From over there, there, there ♪
♪ We're the men ♪"
As Miss Finster was singing, Dede and Spinelli just looked at each other before resting their heads back onto the headrests, both thankful the ride wasn't that long. "Well, here's my pad."
"Please just call it an apartment." Dede said as they all got out of the car.
"What's that?" Spinelli asked as they were near the door.
"It's a cat door for strays. Say, you're kind of strays yourselves this weekend." Miss Finster says.
"You're not going to stuff us through that, are ya?"
"Of course not. You'd upset the saucer of milk on the other side." Miss Finster laughs as she opens the front door and walks in, laughing.
"Is that why I couldn't bring Lapis?" Dede asked, following her in.
"Yeah, even if it's the most well trained dog, they'll still scare all the cats away." Dede nodded as she and Spinelli walked fully Into the home, stopping to look at how it was all set up. "Make yourselves at home. Just don't touch anything. I'll get dinner started."
"Great. I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse." Spinelli cheered.
"Ohm you're in luck. We're having horse liver with Lima beans and Brussels sprouts." Miss Finster walked into the kitchen to get started.
"Why us?" Both girls whined.
After dinner the three females all walked into the living room. "Cop a squat, you two. We'll catch something on the boob tube." Miss Frinster said walking to TV.
"Cool! Wrestling's on tonight." Spinelli cheered as she rested her head back onto Dedes lap.
"And friends should be on right after." Dede said as she was leaning back onto the armrest of the sofa.
"Nonsense. We're watching "McManus."" Miss Finster said as she walked back to sit in the last seat on the sofa.
"McManus? The vet detective?" Dede asked.
"You've got to be kidding." Spinelli sighed.
"Shh. It's starting." Miss Finster shushed them to watch the TV.
{"So, Mac, how did you know the diamonds were in the cow?"
"Well, let's just say I milked a friend for information."
"McManus, vigilante veterinarian. Tonight's episode: Hare's looking at you, punk."}
"Oh, brother."
After finishing that show Dede and Spinelli were inside the bedroom, which had two twin beds, and we're changing into their pyjamas. "Some Friday night. No dessert, no wrestling, serious lack of toys." Spinelli said as Miss Finster came out of the bathroom in her nightgown.
"Hey, we gals gotta stay beautiful, don't we?" Miss Finster said after both young girls shouted in surprise at seeing her wearing a face mask.
"Man, it can't get much worse than this." Spinelli said when she walked into the bathroom after Dede had finished.
"That's your bed." Miss Finster pointed to the other twin bed in the room as she finished putting her hair into curlers. "Sorry you have to share, or one of you could take the sofa."
"No, we're good to share." Dede said as she made her way to the bed, only to stop short as something caught her eye. There on the chest of drawers was a picture, an oddly familiar picture of three beautiful women all in Hawaiian hula outfits.
"Hey, who're these two with Madonna?" Spinelli asked, seeing what Dede was looking at.
"Madonna? That's me and your grandmothers in Guam back in '52. Trixie, Aggie and me sure had fun together back in those days. Went on all sorts of adventures." Miss Finster replies.
"Umm... Miss Finster? Can I ask you a question?" Dede asked, still looking at the picture in disbelief.
"What is it?"
"Do you know Beatrixo, Muriella and Agnesie?" At this question the look in Miss Finster's eyes changed, they softened quite a bit as she came and opened the top draw under the picture and took a box out.
"I do indeed. I take it Trixie told you about those names."
"So you were-"
"A part of your grandmother's team, yes." Miss Finster opened the box and showed Dede the yellow bracelet that was sitting inside. "Why do you think you've never been in trouble for being late or missing class as a whole? Heck, how do you think you got out of trouble with Picky the other day."
"You mean, you-"
"We're covering for you, yeah? I may be retired but I still recognise the call to duty. So know that I'll be helping you with this, but only this. Nothing else." With that Miss Finster closed the box and put it away.
"What are you guys talking about?" Spinelli asked, having been just looking back and forth between the two during their conversation.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Spinelli. Now, goodnight you two." Miss Finster turned the light off and went to bed.
"Thank you Miss Finster." Dede said as both she and Spinelli got into bed as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen." The counting was what had woken up Spinelli.
"What the--" she asked sitting up and saw Miss Finster working out.
"Seventeen. Eighteen. Oh, you're up. Good. Nineteen. Twenty!" Miss Finster said when she saw Spinelli awake, putting down the weights when she reached twenty.
"What time is it?" Spinelli yawned.
"Five."
"A.M.?"
"You got it." Miss Finster opened her closet and started to hit the punching bag. "Where are you going?" She asked when Spinelli got up and was walking to the doors.
"It's Saturday. I'm watching cartoons."
"Cartoons? That's kid stuff. We've got errands to run. Wake King up as well will ya." Miss Finster smelled under her armpits. "Let's go, I can shower later
"I wish you'd shower now." Spinelli said after she sniffed the air before going over to a still sleeping Dede and started to shake her awake. "Hey, Dee, we gotta get up."
"Noo, i's too early." Dede muttered before burying her head under the covers.
"Come on, if I have to be up, so do you." Spinelli grabbed the blanket and ripped it off.
"Why do we need to be up so early on a Saturday?" Dede sat up and rubbed her eyes, yawning big.
"Finster said something about errands." And with that Dede stood up and sluggishly got ready for the day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So I says: "Well, that's a fine how-do-you-do". And I don't tip him." One of the women said to Miss Finster and another older lady as they were at a hair salon.
"Good for you, Gertie." Said the other lady.
"Sassy and economical." Said Miss Finster.
""Is standing up an extreme sport?" Oh, boy." Spinelli sighed as she read a magazine while Dede was playing her Gameboy.
"Huh." Dede said when her bracelet started to beep. "Here, Spinelli, I gotta go do something." Dede handed Spinelli her Gameboy so she wouldn't be bored, before she turned to Miss Finster. "Miss Finster, I gotta go."
"Right, I expect you back at my place later." Miss Finster nodded and Dede ran out of the salon and into a nearby alley.
"Atomic Candy, reporting for duty." Dede answered her bracelet and saluted Admiral DeGill.
"Atomic Candy, we need you at once." DeGill said urgently. "Headquarters is under attack."
"Be right there sir." Dede ended the call with DeGill only to call her ship and be zapped up to it, changing into her galactic guardians outfit.
"Some old villain escaped from the forbidden zone." Sparky informed when Dede sat in her chair. "She's kinda mad."
"To put it mildly, she was imprisoned a long time ago by a team of guardians, their names were-" X-5 started and printed out a document to get the names. "Beatrixo, Muriella and Agnesie."
"There's no time for exposition guys, Admiral DeGill is in trouble." Dede said.
"This is no ordinary villain, captain. She possesses the power to transmute her body into a black hole."
"Well, you know what they say! There's a sucker born every minute! Get it!?" Sparky laughed as the ship set off to headquarters. Upon arriving at their destination they quickly zapped down and ran to DeGills office, only to see the villain they were after trying to suck DeGill into the black hole of her body, Dede reacted quickly and shot at her, forcing the black hole to stop,
"Leave the fish alone, he's my boss!" Dede demanded.
"Atomic Candy, is that anyway to treat family?" The villain asked.
"Family? What are you talking about?"
"Come, give your auntie matter a hug." Auntie matter said holding her arms out.
"My aunt?" Dede gasped along with Sparky and X-5.
"What? Didn't anybody tell you?"
"No! I never knew. But by he black hole, how?" Dede was really confused at this point.
"It's from my fathers side." Auntie matter explained. "Your granny is more like mum. Pretty and without a black hole. But oh, I hate her."
"It's so terrible when sisters fight." Said Sparky.
"Join me Candy, why waste your time with these galactic do gooders. I can give you great power." Auntie matter tried to convince Dede to join her, knowing it would hurt Beatrice.
"I'll pass, thanks." Dede declined.
"Think about it, it would be a shame to have to-" auntie matter changes so she could activate the black hole if need be. "Dispense with you too." With that auntie matter walked through the wall and left them be.
"Charming woman." Said X-5.
"Yeah, she's really absorbing." Sparky jokes.
"Thank you. I believe we've had enough of your black hole jokes."
"She must've found this place, a little hand to swallow."
"Please stop. It's not funny." This caused a 'it is - it isn't' fight to go back and forth between the two.
"I'm afraid it's true." Admiral DeGill said, standing up and looking at Dede. "That guardian she's hunting, Beatrixo, is your grandmother, you better earn her."
At Dedes nod of understanding, she put an end to Sparky and X-5 ms fight and dragged them back to her ship. "I knew my grandmother was called Beatrixo, but I never knew she had a sister. It doesn't matter now though, we need to get to earth and warn her."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Nana, why didn't you tell me?" Dede asked as she, Sparky and X-5 were standing with her in the kitchen of the rental house she was staying in for her friend's birthday party.
"Oh, must have slipped my mind." Beatrice said as she cut a pie up and pushed it to Dede. "It's not important, is it?"
"Thank you." Sparky said, snatching the pie.
"Kinda, yeah." Dede said. "She's got a black hole, she's sucking up half the galaxy, she's heading here right now."
"How do you like your pie, boys?" Beatrice asked, not looking worried at all at Dedes warning.
"Nana, we have to get out of here." Dede retired to reason as the boys were happily eating the pie.
"Don't worry, it'll all turn out fine." Beatrice patted Dede on the head until a shaking caused them to stop.
"Oh no, she's disabled the ship." X-5 said as another ship was hovering over it, slightly dismantling Dedes' ship. The four of them all ran outside and watched as auntie matter absorbed a bunch. Ore stuff.
"That little vixen, she was always taking my things." Beatrice said annoyed, before she pressed a button on her bracelet and changed into her galactic costume.
"Wow, nana." Dede said, still liking the look of her nanas outfit.
"I still got it sister. To the Century Warbler." Beatrice said as she called her ship to them.
"How old is this ship? Sparky asked, reading a manual. "Well, here goes nothing." Sparky pressed a button to get the shop started, only for it to lose a few pieces.
"She may be a little rusty, but in my day, the Century Warbler was the envy of the universe." Beatrice defended her ship, still proud of it. "It even has its own kitchen." At the push of a button, the kitchen appeared.
"Well, if it isn't the great Beatrixo." Auntie matter said, appearing on the screen. "You don't look so great now."
"Hello, baby sister. How are ya?"
"How do you think I am!? You and your friends left me to rot in the Forbidden Zone!"
"Mother always said you had a temper."
"I DO NOT! Prepare to be annihilated!"
"Oh, pish posh. I think I'll make a prairie dog pie. Who wants it extra sticky?"
"Oh, me! Me! Me! Over here! Pick me!" Sparky and X-5 immediately jumped at the chance for more pie.
"Don't you bake when I'm threatening you!" Auntie matter said angrily but Beatrice ignored her and got up to go to the kitchen, whistling as she stirred the ingredients together.
"Shields." Dede ordered as she saw auntie matter getting ready to attack.
"Ahh. Shield, shields. Maybe this is it?" Sparky said, reading the manual again, he pressed a wrong button and had something hit X-5 on the head. "Guess not." It was too late now as Auntie matter managed to make her way onto the ship. "She's coming through the holy chief."
"Prepare to be boarded." Dede said getting ready to fight, shooting a laser at auntie matter as soon as she came through the wall. Dede followed up with the attack, going for hand to hand, but Auntie matter hit her away with a part of the ship.
"Chief!" Both Sparky and X-5 called out worried.
"I don't think so." Dede smiled as she used her bracelet to levitate the object, sending it straight back at auntie matter. Auntie matter saw this and activated a shiel, stopping Dedes laser attack that came soon after.
"I'm gonna tell Mother what you did to me!" Auntie matter said to Beatrice.
"You were always such a tattle-tale!" Beatrice argued back.
"You stole my boyfriend!" Auntie matter said as she turned black hole and started to suck things in.
"I did not, you sucked him into the next galaxy! She lost more boyfriends that way." Beatrice didn't seem to be effected by the black hole as she still just casually put the pie into the oven. "Pies almost ready kids."
"This really sucks." Sparky said as he almost lost grip, if X-5 didn't catch him. "HA, get it."
"Yes. As unamusing as always." X-5 said before the part he was holding onto broke, sending them to auntie matter.
"Nana, we could kind of use your help here." Dede begged as she managed to grab onto X-5 and Sparky before they got to the black hole.
"Pies ready." Beatrice said after the oven beeped. She took it out and held it up, only for the pie to get sucked up into the black hole, though instead of just going through like everything else had, the pie ended up covering auntie matter completely, making the black hole useless and sticking her in one place. "Let that be a lesson to ya! Nobody likes a pie hog!"
"Yeah! Stick around! Get a grip, will ya? This is a stick-up! Ha ha ha!" Sparky started but X-5 had enough of Sparky's puns and shut him up.
"Let's call Admiral DeGill so he knows he can come and grab her." Dede said and did just that.
"Congratulations Beatrixo, that was some inventive thinking." DeGill said to Beatrice from Dedes bracelet.
"Oh, I knew my sister. That girl can't resist a prairie dog pie."
"Any chance you'll ever come out of retirement?" DeGill jokingly asked.
"What for? You got my granddaughter."
"Nana, I hope I can be as good as you one day." Dede said after she finished the call. Maybe you'll let me take the Century Warbler for a spin."
"Don't press your luck dear."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Great day, huh, Spinelli? Good bunion scrape, a couple of hours of bridge with the girls, and a trip to the Civic Band Shell. Nothing like three hours of Sousa. That's living large, all right. I'll go make dinner." Miss Finster said as they both walked back into Finster's home.
"What are we having?" Spinelli asked
"You're in luck, more liver."
"Could you excuse me? I think I need to use the restroom."
"Okey-dokey." Miss Finster walked into the kitchen to start dinner while Spinelli grabbed the phone and went to the bathroom, calling up TJ.
"Hello, T.J.? it's me. Listen, you gotta do something. Dedes been gone all day so I've been stuck alone. She's driving me crazy!" Spinelli said as soon as TJ picked up.
"Hmn. I wonder what she'd like better, creamed asparagus or creamed beets." Finster wondered, before walking to the bathroom door just to ask her. "Hey, Spinelli!"
"I'm telling you, Teej, it's horrible. All she ever does is old people stuff. Look, I knew she was mean, but I had no idea she was so boring." Miss Finster heard Spinelli say through the door, making Finster feel sad and she walked into the bedroom, sitting on her bed and looking at the picture of her and her friends.
"Is it true, Muriel? Have you gotten boring?"
"OK, well, see you later. Maybe." Spinelli sighs as she hangs up and goes to the kitchen. "Can I help?"
"No. Just go watch some TV."
"What do you want me to watch?"
"Huh? I don't know. Anything. Just go."
"OK." Spinelli did as was told and went into the living room and watched Commander Blade's Cartoon Cavalcade! Until the TV was turned off. "Hey!"
"Come on. It's time for dinner." Miss Finster said, now only in a dressing gown. Spinelli sighs as she got up and follows Miss Finster into the kitchen.
"What the--" Spinelli said looking at the Hawaiian inspired decor in the kitchen.
"We're having a Luau." Miss Finster said removing her dressing gown, showing off her hula skirt and coconut top.
"A Luau?" Spinelli asked in disbelief.
"Yep. Yours and Kings grandmothers and I used to do this all the time back in Guam. Listen!" Miss Finster said before putting the needle of a record player on the record, having hawaiian music start to play.
"I don't believe this."
"Hey, it's fun. Watch." Miss Finster started to hula dance while singing.
"♪ I'm a hula-hula baby ♪
♪ In a hula navy ♪ Come on, shake it!"
"Aw, what the heck?" Spinelli gave in and started dancing as well.
"That's the ticket. Now you got it. Good, good. It's all in the hips.
♪ I'm a hula-hula baby ♪
♪ In a hula navy ♪"
"Too bad Dede is back yet." Spinelli said actually enjoying herself now.
"Ahh, she's fine. Knowing that girl, she'll be back soon and can join us." Right as she said that there was a knock on the front door. "Speak of the devil." Finster went to open the door and low and behold, Dede was standing there.
"What'd I miss?" Dede asked seeing them both in hula outfits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thanks for everything, Miss Finster. I had a great weekend." Spinelli said on Monday morning as they were parked out front of Third street elementary school.
"Yeah, it was a lot of fun." Dede agreed.
"Oh, are you kidding? Batting practice, miniature golf tourney, Chili dogs in the park-- It was a Sunday I'll never forget." Miss Finster said.
"Yeah, same here." The girls agreed with the teacher.
"Uh, Dede,Spinelli, there's one other thing."
"Yes?" Spinelli said.
"What happened between us this weekend, it doesn't change anything. As soon as you both get out of this car, You'll be the students again and I'll be the teacher."
"We wouldn't expect anything less." Dede smiled as they both got out of the car.
"Hey, you, you're late!" Miss Finster yelled at the two girls.
"But, Miss Finster, I--" Spinelli started but cut herself off when she saw Miss Finster smile at them.
"No excuses, missy! Now get inside!"
"Yes, ma'am." Dede saluted and walked into the building with Spinelli next to her. "That was interesting." Dede chuckled as Spinelli laughed.
"Yeah, it's good to know things are back to normal."
As the girls were walking to their classroom to meet up with their friends they were stopped by something blue jumping into Dede's arms, upon looking down they saw it was Lapis that had jumped at her.
"Lapis, where'd you go?" A voice called out as the girls looked up to see King Bob rounding the corner, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Lapis in Dede's arms. "Oh, there she is, she just ran off."
"That's ok, thank you so much for watching over her this weekend."
"Gladly, I really like... Lapis, yeah. I'll watch her whenever you need me to." King Bob looked away slightly and was saved from saying anything else by the warning bell going off. "Well, bye."
"That was weird." Spinelli said as they watched King Bob run off, before running off to class herself.
"Yeah, wonder what that was about." Dede looked down when she heard Lapis stifling a laugh, when Dede looked at Lapis she saw Lapid was looking at her with a massive smirk on her face. "What?" Dede asked her, and she swears, If Lapis had eyebrows, she'd be raising them. Lapis just laughed again and jumped out of Dede's arms and left the school to go home.
"It was a very...enlightening weekend, that's for sure." Lapis said when she was outside, laughing to herself again.
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Okay, I finally managed to finish this, hopefully it's alright and somewhat enjoyable.
Paloma is officially in the story now, she'll be showing more in other chapters.
I took so long as this year has been horrendous for me, from having to go to the hospital for my wrist and ankle, to doing so much over time at work and even losing all the drafts I had done for these chapters all weren't helping keep me motivated to write too often.
Also, I might re-write "Gus' last stand" as I don't really like how it is, I really rushed that chapter as I needed Gelman to be introduced for this.
Feel free to let me know if there's anything you have constructive criticism on and if there's any ideas you'd like to see implemented (if I can implement them).