Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV show Arthur.
Buster is the funny one, Francine is the sporty one, Brain is the smart one, Muffy is the rich one. And Arthur, Arthur is the exclusive one.
Arthur's Crew, whispers the entire third-grade hallway at Lakewood Elementary School.
Fern knows that in every good school story, there is that group. The popular crowd, the in-crowd. The villains. They're so smeared with scandal and glamour and meanness that they can't recognize themselves, let alone the heroes.
It's not like that in Lakewood.
Buster is the class clown and Francine is a jock. Brain will always help you with your homework and he'll even be patient when he's explaining simple addition. Muffy is the richest kid in Elwood, while Arthur is down-to-earth.
Fern marvels at how their distinct, vibrant personalities manage to weave together perfectly as a group. It's not possible—it shouldn't be possible, not in fiction—and yet it is.
They're so ordinary and extraordinary, and it makes her sensitive writer heart weep.
It's not fair, George thinks.
Once in a while, he gets tired of being the tag-a-long in the Crew. He gets tired of always being dragged into Arthur and Buster's fights. Arthur always forces George to hang out with him when he's trying to get back at Buster, and vice versa.
He's always invited to hang out with the Crew when they're missing a member—like last week, when the Crew had planned to go to the movies together and Brain had gotten sick and they had given his ticket to George and George had been forced to accept because he didn't want to seem ungrateful. And then at the movie theater, they had all admired the hero and how strong and brave he was and George was left in the corner thinking that the sidekick ought to get some more recognition.
The frustrating thing is that whenever George feels bitter about being used and thinks he'll finally stand up to the Crew, they always do something nice like throw him a surprise appreciation party. And then he feels guilty about the mean thoughts he had and happy to have such good friends, until the next time they use him.
He has always had a hard time saying no.
There was a time when Sue Ellen didn't care about popularity. That time is not now.
She knows that she has turned into one of those girls who fake smile at everyone and say flattering things they don't mean and there is a part in her that hates it. She has betrayed herself and she can't stop the consequences that have followed.
She doesn't know when it started. Was it when the Crew had let her play Virtual Goose with them? Was it when she started bonding with Muffy over World Girl Dolls? Or had it started way back on Parent-teacher Conference Day, when Francine had made her feel ashamed of her parents and she had begged her parents to "try to be normal?"
All she knows is that she wants a seat at the Crew's table in the cafeteria so bad that it's ridiculous.
Arthur's Crew, they say to which Fern weeps and George surrenders and Sue Ellen curses.
Arthur's Crew, they say that mousy Maria and freckled Nancy and weird Otis worships.
The Crew will never hear.
This is what happens when angsty teenage girls watch a kid's show.
