Author's note: I know I left this story and I'm really sorry cuz I have a big space for Mr. E in my stories… So I sat down and after doing a lot of thinking, I'm doing a reboot just like I did with Blur Dragon. Elements from stories like "Music From the Grave", "A Voice from Beneath", "Deep in the Woods" and "Mysteria" among others rise up to meet in this fic where a few details might come clear… or maybe not.
Fanfiction based on the brilliant cartoon Flying Rhino Junior High with a lot of my personal touch. Let's face it, the Phantom rules! Earl is the best but the poor guy has worse luck than 13 Friday. And still, he never gives up! Anyway, hope you like it.
Songs belong to Tim Burton.
1. A Lost Gull
"First things first
I'ma say all the words inside my head
I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been, oh ooh
The way that things have been, oh ooh
Second thing
Second, don't you tell me what you think that I can be
I'm the one at the sail, I'm the master of my sea, oh ooh
The master of my sea, oh ooh"
Imagine Dragons
The Flying Rhino Junior High is no regular place. It has been like this for the last twenty years or so. It has its teachers, students, principal, janitor and all. And except for the facts that Buford, the janitor, is a pig and the principal Mulligan is a rhino, all seems fine in here. But some know better. Oh, yes! They do. They better.
Everybody knows that for some time a phantom has been living with them and has a huge grudge against the school. A more than unfair D was the cause, or so the story tells but nothing it is at it seems. If they knew as much as the resident ghost, their hearts would have stopped a while ago.
Lydia, Billy, Marcus and his sister Ruby, currently students of the junior high, know that Earl A.K.A The Phantom cannot be taken so lightly but the principal after many years has grown tired of these rumours of the basement inhabitant.
"I have never heard such thing as the one we have here. The Phantom this, the Phantom that. There is no such thing as that. I once knew a boy called Earl P. Sidebottom and that's that." The rhino has it all clear but the four children are not so sure. Earl is NOT going to like that at all. The whole building holds its breath, waiting for a ragging volcano to come to life but nothing happens. Seeing this strange calm, the four kids head for lunch time.
"Let's face it. He has planned thousands of schemes and none has worked at all." Ruby sits down in her usual place in the cafeteria.
"You say that now but he has almost won a lot of times" Marcus, her little brother and brilliant IQ, checks his mega might, his favorite pocket computer.
"Yeah, but we have beat him all along. We are smarter than him." Billy, de-facto leader and sports man, feels proud when a sudden smack startles him. "Lydia!"
"He might be a villain, he might have loose many times but he does not deserve this humiliation" The girl, a-student and red-haired prodigy, is really angry at her friend.
"Why not? Has he ever done any good to us?" Ruby frowns deeply.
"It is thanks to his schemes that we have learnt to be better persons and best friends."
"She is right and you know it." Marcus agrees. "Earl might be bad but he is no monster. He also has feelings. He is human just like us"
"Oh, yeah? And since when does he had shown any goodness? He enjoys the pests he sends in and only cares for himself." Ruby starts to eat. "We have outwitted him thousands of times."
"And he keeps on going." O´Toole shrugs. Lydia eats her meal and walks away. "Lydia, wait! Don't go mad! Is just Earl!"
"So what? You think you have the right to treat him like that?" Leaves the place with tears in her eyes looking for a place to be on her own.
"Now you really have outdone yourself, Billy!" Marcus sighs. The older boy gets up but his friend does not let him. "Let her be for a while. Lydia needs some time"
"I've never seen her so sensitive about that hat and cape guy" Ruby takes out her mirror.
"Well, it was thanks to Earl's last scheme, that she proved that she wasn't just a pretty face. We also talked about our little time travel trip and agreed that we had been ignoring the Phantom's bullying for too long. When we are gone, Ruby, no one will know that and he will be against the world again"
…
Lydia isn't so wrong about it.
Earl has been listening to the rambling of Mulligan all morning but unlike other times when he went on rampage using his Environmaster, today he is sad. Nobody appreciates his work. His efforts wasted to hear children laughing in his face while Raticus keeps on understanding nothing.
He is lonely.
And people would never get to his core, his sorrow. He is a lonely genius and that is hard to get along.
"There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best
For my talents are renowned far and wide
When it comes to surprises in the moonlit night
I excel without ever even trying
Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones
An emptiness began to grow
There's something out there, far from my home
A longing that I've never known
But who here would ever understand
That the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin
Would tire of his crown, if they only understood
He'd give it all up if he only could
Oh, there's an empty place in my bones
That calls out for something unknown
The fame and praise come year after year
Does nothing for these empty tears"
Poor Earl. Twenty years turned into dust in seconds…
Nobody really can understand him. All his schemes, all his intelligence are turned into a mad man's rant. If they only knew the truth… Little did they knew how deep did his lair went and with it, the real core of his predicament. Petit brains indeed. Hu? Hello, hello? Principal Mulligan is in his office with all the teachers. Earl sighs. Sits down in his computer and listens. This better be good.
"How can you be so sure that there is no Phantom? All the school knows that he is real." Buford looks at him with a hint of reproach.
"I'm tired of hearing that over and over again. He is not real! Ghosts don't exist!" Mulligan keeps singing the same song. Earl does not refrain himself this time. That does it!
"I AM THE PHANTOM!" shouts Earl through the PA system.
"What did you say?" Mulligan looks Buford.
"Nothing, sir."
"I AM THE PANTHOM! PHANTOM!" he keeps on trying.
"The PA needs a check out."
"Are you sure is not a real person talking?" Mss Snodgrass glances at him.
"Absolutely"
"I AM THE PHANTOM! EARL P SIDEBOTTOM! THE PHANTOM!" No use. Earl lets tears take over his eyes and mind.
"Some kid playing pranks. Anyway, I want you all to know that the Phantom thing is just a rumor, nothing else. If anyone talks about it, tell them that is just his mind playing tricks." The principal shrugs his shoulders and everyone leaves.
"He has forgotten about me…" Poor Earl cries out loud. "He has turned me into a mere buzz. The nerve!" the phantom shakes in fury. His fingers are posed to start another disaster when he notices something.
Buford is back to his chores grumbling but not all the teachers have left the room. Needlenose is still inside.
"Do you remember Earl?"
"Yes, that so called genius who had a deserved D in class" the arts teacher retorts.
"Speak for yourself, you moron." The Phantom shows his teeth in anger.
"I'm starting to think that maybe all this is really Earl's doing." Milford takes out the student´s file.
"What did he say?" Now that is unexpected.
"He said…" Raticus sits near his "friend".
"I heard him!" Makes him fall down.
"He has not forgotten about you. That is good, Phanthom" Gets up slowly.
"Quiet." Snarls Earl.
"If that would be the case, we should think on something before somebody gets hurt" the principal looks quite concerned.
"Why us?"
"Because in way we are responsible of this. Once we have him, everything will be just a bad dream" Milford has a very clear idea of what to do and that catches Earl's attention. The jig is up! The good-hearted principal isn't as ignorant as he pretends to be. Interesting!
"Wow!" The rat tilts its head. "Seems they want to get you behind bars or something."
"I'm not some dog they can punish for being bad. I will show them. I will make those two mumbling midgets tell the truth even if it is the last thing I do as Phantom. And those kids will pay too. No change of scene this time, just them and me!" a very cruel idea is beginning to take shape as he rises up.
"And me, too" Raticus as always. They look around through the cameras and watch all the people, ignorant of what is to arrive. Then something catches their eye. One of the four kids is crying all alone. That is unusual.
"What is she doing there? Why is she crying? She has her stupid friends, how come she is not happy?" The Phantom tilts his head.
"How can Billy and Ruby be so cold?" Lydia is sitting in a corner of the gym. "Ok. Earl is a villain, has done many horrible things…" that is about to trigger the Phantom's rage, "but they have no right to talk in such a way of him." Earl is speechless. "He is still human and has feelings. I would be angry too if I heard that." The Phantom gently falls on his chair. She…
"What did she say?"
"She said…"
"I heard her!" Deep breath. "She pities me. Nobody ever has done such thing for me. She feels sorry for me and stands up for me."
"That is really nice of her."
"Rewind!" The cameras show what happened in the cafeteria.
"She has… I just can't believe it" Earl is speechless.
"Maybe she wants to be your girlfriend" Mutters Raticus.
"Shut up!" Evil glance and the rat cowards back. "She has done the noblest thing for me and I'm not going to let you insult her. I have to make sure that this was no accident"
"I was broken from a young age
Taking my soul into the masses
Write down my poems for the few
That looked at me took to me, shook to me, feeling me
Singing from heart ache from the pain
Take up my message from the veins
Speaking my lesson from the brain"
Is good to be back with Mr. E! Always pays off!
Long life the Phantom!
What will happen?
Next stop: Lonely Night