Chapter 1 Part 2

Tommy’s frown suddenly turned into a smile.  “Hey!  Do you think my new neighbors gots any kids?”  He toddled over to the front door to take a peek out the window so he could try and get a glimpse of his neighbors across the street.

     Danny shrugged.  “I don’t know.”  Then he grinned.  “But we can always find out!”  He went into the living room and walked over to his new, small, blue bag.  Danny then opened the zipper, rummaged through the bag a bit, and pulled out a pair of small, blue binoculars.  He headed back to the front door to where Tommy was still waiting for him.

     “Wow, Danny!” he exclaimed.  “What is that?”

     “They’re called binoculars.  You can use them to look at things from a far distance.  Now,” Danny continued, “let’s see who’s moving in!”

     He moved closer to the window, and held the binoculars up to his face.  Danny was surprised to find that the lenses were very dark and blurry.

     “Huh?”

     He turned the binoculars around to see if he was holding them the right way, or if the lenses were dirty.  But it turned out that there was a label stuck to the front of them!  Danny peeled the label off as carefully as he could, and read it.  It said:

WARNING:  OBJECTS MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.

     Danny chuckled and rolled his eyes.  ‘Why do the manufacturers need to put this on a pair of binoculars?’  He shrugged, crumpled the label in his right hand, and put it in his pocket.  Then, Danny started to look across the street with the binoculars again.  The lenses were much clearer now.

     All he could see so far was a giant moving truck, along with Tommy’s star ball right behind it in the backyard of the Pickles’ new neighbors.

     “You never told me that there was a moving truck across the street!” Danny said, not taking his eyes off the binoculars.

     “There is?” Tommy asked, with excitement in his voice.  “It wasn’t theres when I was looking for my ball!  Let me sees!”

     Danny handed the binoculars to Tommy, and he looked through them with amazement.  “Wow!  You’re right!  There is a giant truck out theres!”

     A few more minutes passed without any luck of seeing the neighbors.  Stu Pickles came up from the basement with his toolbox, and glanced over to see Danny and Tommy looking out the window.  Stu chuckled to himself.  ‘What are those boys up to now?’  he wondered.

     He approached Danny and Tommy as slowly as he could.  Then, he lifted Tommy up into his arms as fast as he could.  Tommy gasped at first when he was unexpectedly grabbed.  But, when he saw it was his Dad, he giggled with delight.

     Danny turned around to see what was making Tommy laugh so hard.  “Oh, hey, Mr. Pickles!” Danny exclaimed.  “What’s new?”

     “I was just going to ask the same thing.” Stu said, pointing to Danny’s binoculars.

     “Oh, these?  Well, we saw the note about Mrs. Pickles visiting the neighbors across the street, so, Tommy and I decided to see if your new neighbors have any kids we can play with.”

     Stu set Tommy back down, and leaned next to Danny.  “Have you boys had any luck yet?”

     “Not yet.” Danny said, lifting the binoculars up to his face again.  Nobody was in the neighbors yard yet.

     “Well,” Stu said, “I don’t think reading my notes and spying on our new neighbors is going to help anything.”

     Danny glanced up at Stu when he realized what he was trying to say.  “I guess I should’ve thought of that beforehand.” he said, apologetically.  “Sorry, Mr. Pickles.  I wasn’t trying to invade yours or the neighbors privacy.”

     Stu nodded.  “It’s okay, Danny.” He paused, then said, “Tell you what, why don’t I give you and Tommy some lunch, and then we’ll go over and see the new neighbors.  Sound like a plan?”

     “Sounds great!” Danny exclaimed.  “Thanks, Mr. Pickles!”

     Stu nodded again, and headed toward the kitchen, while Danny and Tommy started to build a block tower.  Just when Stu was about open the refrigerator, the doorbell rang.  He quickened up his pace a bit and got to the door before the doorbell’s forth ring.  Stu grinned when he looked into the peep hole and opened the door.  It was Chas Finster and his two-year -old son, Chuckie.

     Chas greeted Stu with a big smile and said, “Sorry to come here in such short notice, but my Dad has a huge cold and my Mom needs some help around the house for a few days.”

     Stu frowned.  “Is he alright?”

     Chas nodded.  “I just need someone to watch Chuckie until Tuesday, and I haven’t been able to get anybody to baby sit.” he explained.  “Betty and Howard are taking Phil and Lil to the doctor’s for a checkup.  Charlotte and Drew are with Angelica at a hotel for Charlotte’s business meeting.  And Danny, Sam, and Tucker’s houses are in a whole different town!”

     “Don’t worry about it, Chas!” Stu exclaimed.  “Bring all of Chuckie’s stuff over here so he can spend the night.  Danny’s staying here until Tuesday anyway, while his parents are at an inventors science meeting.  Jazz is at a friend’s house.  Tucker, Sam, and their parents are away too.”

     “Wow!” Chas cried, setting Chuckie down into the Pickles’ hallway.  “And I thought spring break was supposed to be relaxing!”

     As Chas and Stu continued their chat, Chuckie toddled over to where Danny and Tommy were playing.  “Hi’ya guys!” Chuckie greeted them happily.

     “Hi’ya, Chuckie!” Tommy exclaimed.

     “What’s knew, Chuck?” Danny asked.

     “Well, I’m staying here for two whole days!” Chuckie replied.

     “Cool!  So am I!”

     “That’s great!” Chuckie paused, then asked, “What are you guys doing?”

     “We’re building a block tower!” Tommy answered.  “Do you wanna help us out?”

     “Sure!”  Chuckie picked up a block, and carefully set it on top of the block tower.  “Why are we building a block tower anyway?”

     “We’re waiting for my Daddy to make us some lunch, then we gets to go visit the new neighbors!”

     “Oh.”  Chuckie carefully placed another block on the tower.  He paused again, then said,  “I didn’t know you gots horsys, Tommy!”

     “You’d better start asplaining, Danny!” Tommy exclaimed, patting his playmate on the back.

     Danny sighed.

Rugphan

Chuckie's Masterpiece!

Chapter 1 Part 1: Tommy's New Neighbors

“Tommy!” Danny cried.  “Over here!  I’m open!”

     Danny Fenton was playing catch with Tommy Pickles in the Pickles’ backyard.  The two of them were bored that Sunday, so Tommy suggested to play a game of ‘Don’t Drop the Ball’.  The goal of the game was to see how many times you could catch the ball without dropping it.  The high score so far for Danny and Tommy was seven.

     “Okay, Danny!” Tommy exclaimed.  He was about to throw the ball to his playmate, but paused instead.  “What number comes nextest?”

     “Three.” Danny said, answering the question for him.

     Tommy nodded.  “Okay, then!  Here comes number three!”  He threw the giant star ball as hard as he could, and Danny caught it easily.

     “Alright!” Danny cried.  “I caught it!”

     “Great job, Danny!” Tommy said, happily.  “Now, toss it back to me!”  He raised his hands up in the air as he said it.

     “Okay!” Danny replied.  “Here comes number four!”

     He tossed the ball as gently as he could.  But apparently, Danny threw it a little too hard.  Tommy ran up to try and catch the ball, but missed.  It bounced up about ten feet into the air.  This time, Danny tried to catch the giant star ball.  He almost caught it, but it slipped out of his arms like a giant stick of butter.  The ball then jumped up, going way above and over Tommy’s head, and flew over the fence into Tommy’s front yard.

    “Uh, oh!” Danny cried.  “Sorry about that, Tommy!”

    Tommy sighed.  “It’s okay.  But that was my favoritest ball in the whole wild world!  But now it’s gone!  My Mommy and Daddy told me I’m not apposed to go in the front yard without a growed up!”

    Danny smiled.  “Don’t worry Tommy!  I’ll get your ball back!”  He thought for a moment.  “Tell you what, I’ll give you a lift on my shoulders near the fence, and tell me if you see it!”

    Tommy nodded.  “Okay!  Let’s do it!”

    Danny hoisted Tommy onto his back, and held onto his playmate’s legs.  “Do you see anything?” he asked.

    “Well,” Tommy replied, “I see some houses, and some flowers, and some trees, and-,”

    “I mean, did you find your ball?”

    “Um, no.” Tommy said, disappointedly.

    Danny was about to put Tommy back down when he suddenly cried, “Wait a minute!  I see it now!”  Tommy frowned and glanced down at his playmate.  “But it’s across the street!”

    Danny frowned too.  “But I’m not allowed across the street without a grown up!” he cried.  “Now what are we gonna do?”

    Tommy smiled again.  “Let’s go and see if my Mommy will takes us across the street to gets my ball!”

    “Good thinking!” Danny exclaimed.

    The two of them headed for sliding glass door that led into Tommy’s kitchen.  The Pickles’ kitchen was nice looking, along with the rest of the house.  The walls were painted a light blue color, and the floor tiles were painted yellow and white.  There were cupboards and drawers everywhere  (Sometimes, Danny would forget which ones held the crayons and paper for when he and Tommy wanted to draw things.).  All that was in the middle of the small room was the refrigerator and the big, round kitchen table.

     Danny tugged on the sliding glass door as hard as he could until it opened.  He quickly wiped his white sneakers with red shoelaces on the mat outside the door, and he and Tommy stepped inside.

     “Mrs. Pickles?” Danny called.

     No answer.

     He tried calling again.  “Mrs. Pickles?”

     Still no answer.

     Danny turned to Tommy.  “I wonder where she went.”

     Tommy shrugged.  Then he said, “Usually my Mommy leaves a note for my Daddy saying that she’s went somewheres on the kitchen table.  Let’s see if she lefted one for him!”

     Danny walked to the kitchen table.  It was a little too high for him to see anything, so Danny stood on his tippy toes and looked around the table.  Sure enough, there was a piece of notebook paper with Didi Pickles handwriting on it.  Danny quickly grabbed the piece of paper from the table and showed it to his friend.

     “See!” Tommy exclaimed.  “I told you!  What does it say?”

     Danny read the note to Tommy.  It said:

Stu,

    I’m across the street visiting the new neighbors.  Please give Tommy and Danny their lunch at 1:30.  I will be back in about an hour.

                                   -Didi

   

     “That’s perfect, Tommy!” Danny cried.  “You’re Mom’s just across the street!  Maybe she’ll see your ball and bring it back!”

     “But what if she doesn’t see it?” Tommy asked, worriedly.

     “Then we’ll just ask her when she gets back from visiting the new neighbors!” Danny replied.

     Tommy looked puzzled.  “What are neighbors, anyways?  Are they like horsys or something?”

     Danny laughed.  “No, Tommy.  They’re people who live close to you.  Like these neighbors are just across the street from your house.  Phil and Lil are your neighbors because they live right next to your house.” He paused.  “Is this making any sense to you?”

     Tommy nodded.  “I thinks so.” he answered.  “But I don’t gets why they’re new neighbors.  My Mommy and Daddy have known the peoples across the street for a long time.  So, why are they new all of a sudden?”

     “Because, those people who used to live at that house moved to another town, in another house.” Danny explained.

     Tommy’s eyes widened.  “You can do thats?”

     “Uh, huh!”

     “But what about all of their stuffs?”

     “Don’t worry, Tommy!  Your old neighbors took all of their stuff with them!”

     “Where?”

     “To the new house they’re living in!”

     “Why did they move anyways?”

     “I don’t know!  Probably because one of their jobs moved or something!”

     “Wait a minute!  Jobs can move to different towns, too?”  Tommy glanced at Danny with a puzzled look on his face.  “You’re really starting to confoose me, Danny!”

     Danny opened his mouth to say something, but he thought better of it.  “Forget it, Tommy.” he mumbled.

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Afterward

“Now,” Sam continued, looking into the camera, “everything is back to normal.”  She paused.  “Well, almost normal.

     “Danny and I are still friends, now that that whole ridiculous argument is over.  Tommy is still making plans and adventures.  Chuckie is still learning how to be brave.  Tucker is still making jokes and hanging out with the babies.  And Phil and Lil are still acting like, well, Phil and Lil.  Anyway, all of us are still the same.

     “First of all, as you may want to know, all of our parents’ loved the Valentines Day Pictures.  My Mom went to a photography store to make our group picture a bigger size.  I didn’t really care whether she put it our living room wall or anything.  I want to treasure this picture for the rest of my life.

     “Dash and Quan still continue to taunt Danny, Tucker, and me.  None of us have discussed what happened on Valentines Day.  And we never told anyone about what happened that day either.  And we’re just fine with that, because that’s the way everything should be.

     “As you probably figured out already, Danny and Bart have forgotten about their past differences.  Bart is the same person he was, and always will be.  He will every once in awhile get angry with us, but quickly catches himself (Well, most of the time anyway.).  Bart’s much nicer to us now.

     “Bart still likes to pull pranks on people, but most of them are harmless ones now.  He had to leave town to go back to Springfield because the baby was going to be born soon.  Bart came back to Tommy’s house with his Mom two weeks later so we could see his new baby sister, Lisa Simpson.  She’s very cute!  It turns out that when Bart said he had plans for his new sister, he meant that he was going to teach her some new things.  I guess all Bart needed was a friend.  And he got a handful of them!

     “Bart ended up joining our ghost group.  He’s not very good at keeping secrets is the problem.  So, Danny, Tucker, and I told Bart he could join if he didn’t tell anyone about it.  Bart promised that he wouldn’t tell, and whenever he came over, he would teach us some of his skateboarding and slingshot skills.  He’s actually pretty good at it (And he actually knows how to make slingshots!)!

     “Now,” Sam concluded, “I think that’s the end of my story.  Thanks for listening!”  She stood up and turned off the camera.

     “That was pretty easy!” Sam admitted.  “Now, I need a juice break!  All of this story telling is making me thirsty!”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Rugphan

Chapter 6: Picture This!

You should’ve seen the look on the babies’ faces when they spotted Danny and me entering the gym doors.  Let’s just say they looked scared to see us (Except for Dash and Quan of course.) because we had false angry looks on our faces.  It’s kind of hard to make a mad face when you’re trying so hard not to burst out laughing.  But I managed to do it.

    When we approached the babies Danny cried, “Tommy!  Tucker!”

     “Phil!  Lil!” I called out angrily.

     “It wasn’t our faults!” Phil cried, quickly running up to me.

     “We was only following orders!” Lil said, approaching her twin brother as slowly as she could.

     “Tommy,” Danny asked, madly, “was this your idea?”

     “Um, well, I…” Tommy stuttered.  “Bart camed to my house when you, Sam, and Tucker was at school.  He camed up with the idea, and I camed up with the plan!”

     I glared at Bart.  He had a mixture of surprise and fear in his eyes.  He gulped, glanced up at me, and mumbled,  “Don’t have a cow, man!  We was only trying to helps you!”

    I tried to keep my mad face on, but what Bart said was so funny, I couldn’t help myself!  I burst out laughing.  Unfortunately, that made Danny start laughing too.

    The babies looked at us with puzzled and relieved looks on their faces.

    “So, you’re not mad at us?” Tucker asked, quickly.

    Once Danny and I got control of ourselves, I cried, “Of course, not!  You guys were only trying to help!  We were just pretending to be mad at you guys to get even!”

    Danny nodded.  “We appreciate what you did, you guys.” He paused before continuing.  “Just, don’t ever do that again!”

    “Don’t worry!” Tommy exclaimed.  “We won’t!”

    “Yeah,” Angelica said, arms crossed and rolling her eyes, “hopefully!”

    I smirked.  “Why?” I asked.  “Were you afraid that Danny and I were gonna yell at you?”

    Angelica glared at me.  “No!” she cried.  “I’m not ascared of you dummies!”

    Little did Angelica know that Tucker was sneaking up behind her while she was saying this.  “BOO!” Tucker yelled.

    Angelica screamed.

    All of us burst out laughing.

    “Oh,” Angelica said, in mock seriousness, “well, that time I was just messing with you!  That’s all!”

    “Whatever, Angelica!” I said, rolling my eyes.

    “Wait a minute!” Tommy suddenly cried, turning to me and Danny.  “Does this mean our plan worked, and you guys are friends again?”

    Danny and I glanced at each other, then back at the babies, and nodded.  “Yep!”

    Tommy grinned.  “That’s great!”  He turned to the others.  “Did you hear that babies?  We did it!  Danny and Sam are friends again!”

     The babies cheered.

     “Hey, Sam!” Chuckie exclaimed.  “Do you gots our picture moneys?”

     I was puzzled for a moment, until I realized what Chuckie was talking about.  “Oh, yeah!”  I took the piggybank out of my right dress pocket and glanced to my left.  The photographers were all set up for pictures!  It was a good thing too.  I was getting tired of carrying all of that heavy money in my dress pocket.  “Well,” I said, “we might as well get our pictures taken before everybody else gets here.”

    “Good idea!” Phil cried.  “Let’s goes!”

    As the babies ran to the photographers, Dash and Quan approached us.

    “Hey, Dash!” Danny exclaimed.  “Hey Quan!  Thanks for helping me and Sam back there.  That was really nice of-,” Danny was cut off when Dash picked him up by his shirt collar.

    “Listen closely, Fenton!” Dash cried.  “What happened back there, stays back there.  Everything is gonna go back to normal starting tomorrow.  You don’t tell anyone about this, and I won’t either.  Got it?”  He held up his fist.

    Danny nodded, quickly.  “Sure, Dash.  I don’t have anything against that!”

    Dash smiled.  “Good!  It was a pleasure doing business with you Fenton!”  Dash shook Danny’s right hand as fast and as hard as he could.  Then he and Quan ran to the other side of the gym to pour mouthwash into the punch.

    Danny groaned.  “Great!” he cried.  “One arm’s bruised, the other one has been nearly pulled out of its socket, and now I need to get my right hand sprayed for Dashaburkulosis!”

    I laughed.

    “Hey, Danny!” Tucker cried.  “Sam!  Get over here!  You guys have to pay for the pictures!”

    “We’re coming!” I called.  I turned to Danny.  “Come on!  Let’s get over there before they take the picture!”

    When we got over to the photographers, Jazz came running up to us.

    “Where have you been all this time?” Danny asked.

    “Helping Mom and Dad at the daycare center!” Jazz answered.  “What did I miss?”

    “Well,” I started, “Danny and I got trapped in our classroom, we became friends again, and Dash and Danny became friends for a record of two seconds.  I think that’s about it.”

    Jazz looked at me with a surprised look on her face.  “Wow!” she exclaimed.  “And I thought I was only gone for half an hour!”

    As I gave the photographers the money, Danny asked, “It’s only been half an hour?”  He faced the babies.  “How long were Sam and I in our classroom?”

    “I don’t know.” Tucker replied.  “Probably about ten minutes.”

    “Really?” I asked.  “It seemed much longer than that!  It seems time goes by really slow at school.”

    Danny opened his mouth to say something, but one of the photographers interrupted him.  “So, you want seven copies of this picture, and nine people in the picture?”

    I nodded.

    “Well,” the photographer said, “we have a policy that when someone buy more than five copies, you get one more copy for free!”

    “Sweet!” I cried.  I paused for a moment.  “But do we need another copy?”

    I glanced at Danny who was lost in thought.  A minute passed before he exclaimed, “I think we do!”

    He walked to his left to where Bart was.  He had been watching us gloomily, while the babies were getting ready for their picture.

    I watched Danny and Bart chat for a few minutes.  Then they both came to the photography section.  “Here’s our tenth person!” Danny exclaimed.

    I smiled.  Bart did seem to look happier.

    A few more minutes passed before we were all ready for our picture.

    “Okay, kids!” the second photographer cried.  “Everybody ready?”

    I checked to see if everyone was comfortable.  Everything seemed to be all right.  I turned back around and nodded.

    “Okay, then!” the photographer cried.  “On the count of three, smile and say cheese!  One…Two…Three!”

    “CHEESE!” we all exclaimed.

Rugphan

Chapter 5 Part 2

Danny and I sat in silence, fiddling with our thumbs.  I felt like we’d been sitting in there for hours.  What was taking the babies so long?

     ‘Well, on the bright side,’ I thought, ‘at least the lights are on!’  I’ve never told anyone this, but I’ve been afraid of the dark since I was three years old.  I was at a nighttime carnival with my parents, and there was a petting zoo there.  I was so excited to see the animals, so I asked Mom and Dad if we could go see them.  They both agreed.

     I guess I was so busy looking at the animals, that I didn’t hear my parents say it was time to go.  When I turned around, they weren’t there.

     It was so dark there.  Besides the Ferris wheel lights, I couldn’t see anything!  So, I started to cry.  Hey, what else was I supposed to do?  I was only three!  Luckily for me, a security man came up to me, and soon enough we found my Mom and Dad.  I think that was the scariest moment of my life!  I’ve never gone to a carnival since then.  And I’ve never been anyplace that’s dark since that day either.

     After a few more minutes of silence, Danny suddenly stood up.  “That’s it!” he cried.  “I’m busting the door open!”

    I glanced up at him with a worried look on my face.  “Danny, I don’t think that’s such a good idea!”

    “Why?” Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.  “Got any better ideas?”

     I thought for a moment.  “No, but-,”

     “Then it’s settled then!” Danny interrupted.  “Now, on the count of three, I’m gonna slam the door down!  One…”

     He took a few steps back.

     “Danny, I don’t think you should do this!” I cried.

     “Two…”

     Danny got into a running position.

     “You could get hurt!”

     “Three!”

     Danny ran as fast as he could toward the door and slammed himself into it as hard as he could.  WHAM!

     “OWWW!” Danny yelled, jumping up and down and clutching his left arm.  “OW!  OW! OW!  OW!  OWWW!”

     I gasped.  “What did I tell you?”

     “It hurts!” Danny said, gritting his teeth.  “I think I bruised it!”

     “Hang on!” I cried.  “I think there might be some bandages in the first aid kit!”

     Danny glanced up at me with a surprised look on his face.  “We have a first aid kit in here?”

     “Of course we do!  Where did you think Mrs. Robinson gets all her bandages?  From a magical genie in her pocket?”

     “Sort of.” Danny answered.

     I sighed, and grabbed the first aid kit from the top shelf of the cupboard under the sink.  I quickly fished through the first aid kit until I found a box of Reptar bandages.  Once I got the box open, I pulled a bandage out and gave it to Danny.

     “All better, now?” I asked him, with a smirk on my face.

     Danny nodded with an annoyed look on his face.  “Yeah, thanks.”

     He sat down in a nearby chair and placed the Reptar bandage on his left elbow.  Danny gave a huge sigh.  “Well,” he mumbled, “I guess we’re stuck here for awhile.”

     I nodded.  “I guess so.”

     Silence.  Then, “I messed up, didn’t I?”

     I glanced over to see Danny looking up at me.  “What do you mean?”

     Danny sighed.  “I guess, what I’m trying to say is, I should’ve let Bart join our ghost group.  We’ve been trying to get new members for months to join our team.  Then an opportunity like this comes right in front of my face, and BAM! I blow it.”  He paused for a moment.  “I guess I just wasn’t thinking at the time.”

     Wow.  I had never heard Danny say anything like this before.  I felt kind of bad. 

     “No,” I replied,  “I messed up.  I guess I was in such a rush for finding new members, that I wasn’t thinking about you or the babies opinions for Bart joining our group.”  A pause.  “I guess I just got a little carried away.”

     I noticed Danny grin a little bit.  “I don’t think the survey thing was the best option!”

     I couldn’t help but laugh at this.  “No, I guess it wasn’t!”

     Danny laughed too.  “Listen, I’m sorry if I was such a jerk the past few days.  I was so busy trying to find new members, that I guess I didn’t have time for the stuff I enjoy.  Like, Valentines Days for example.  Or hanging out with my friends.  I shouldn’t have let that happen.”

     So that explained the whole Valentines Day thing!  I smiled.  “And I’m sorry if I got a little pushy and told everyone your Reptar Bar reaction.  I was acting like-like-,” I couldn’t think of what to say next.

     “Angelica?” Danny suggested.

     I giggled.  “Yeah.  Like Angelica!”  I paused.  “So, does this mean that we’re friends again?”

     “The best!” Danny exclaimed.

     We gave each other a quick hug.

     Once we pulled away from each other, an idea hit me.  “Oh, man!” I cried, slapping myself on the forehead.  “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!”

     “What is it?” Danny asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

     I pulled one of my hairpins out, and held it up to Danny’s face.  “You know how to pick locks, right?” I said smiling.

     Danny grinned.

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