Cartoon: Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja
Title: A Honkin' Regular Saturday Morning
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Characters: Randy Cunningham, Randy's mom
Tags: ADHD!Randy, Randy has Auditory and Visual Learning Disability, Insecure Randy, Randy's mom, Randy's mother is a single parent, Her name is Ruth Cunningham, Medication, Medication:Ritalin, Mentions of Underage Sex
Summary: Just Randy and his mom having a casual Saturday breakfast.
A Honkin' Regular Saturday Morning
It's starting to get progressively louder again.
The humming noise inside of his head.
He tries to keep himself calm about it. 'Ignore it,' he tells himself. This way, the noise won't take over him. He disregards the fact that he has tried to ignore it multiple times before, and each of his past attempts to block out the sound has failed. It's always there, back in the deepest part of his mind. Sitting there. Never resting. It is a constant whisper that waits for its opportunity to become a piercing scream.
He tries his best to focus on the voice talking to him, but he can't. The louder the noise is, the murkier the voice and words become.
He does not panic.
He does not panic!
He can no longer tell the difference between the sounds in the words. Words are changing, getting mixed up, flipped around so much that he feels like they're a stack of cards being handled by a dealer.
He is now fidgeting in his seat. He doesn't know when he began doing this. He never knew that he did this or that it was problem until it was pointed out to him.
The hum increases in volume.
Everything is moving fast now. He feels like he's inside of a space shuttle that's traveling at 17,500 mph and he can't get off – which sounds pretty Bruce in reality, but this is inside of him so it's not so Bruce.
The hum is at its peak.
"Randy?... Randy!"
Randy's head snaps up from looking down at the freshly-stacked homemade chocolate chip pancakes drenched in maple syrup that his mother placed in front of him.
His mother is sending him a concerned look as he begins to rock back and forth in his seat. Randy has still not noticed what he is doing.
"Randy." She repeats his name softly this time and- Oh wonk. He knows what she's going to ask. He's fine, alright! There's nothing wrong with him. It's just that it's hard for him to make out what she, or anyone else for that matter, is saying to him at times.
Instead, his mother reaches across the table and the freshly-made breakfast to grab hold of his hands. As she rubs soothing circles into his palms, she tells him calmly, "Randy. Honey. Breathe."
Randy does just that.
He closes his eyes and takes slow, deep breaths to help lower his anxiety. The noise diminishes until it becomes a low hum. It's not great – he wishes that the hum was gone – but he can work with it.
When he re-opens his eyes, he sees his mother's warm and caring smile.
"Better?" she asks him.
"Y-Yeah," he replies hesitantly.
Based off his tone, his mother gives him a look that clearly states she's doubtful of his words. In response, Randy gives her his biggest and brightest smile before stuffing his face full of pancakes.
Randy does not need to look at his mother's face to know that she had just rolled her eyes at his antics. So Honkin' Bruce! His plan worked. Most of the time, it was difficult to divert his mother's attention from him.
Ruth stares at her son before snorting. She then continues to sip her jasmine oolong tea and skim through the latest news articles posted on the NHGTTWDPC online addition on her MCFist pad. It seems that there was a malfunction with the new McFistaPhone 6.
She continues to look over the reports within the article when she notices that a new movie has been released in theatre today, "Brock Octane: The Last Adventurous Rocketeer"
Ruth frowns at the title and can already picture what the movie is going to be about: Some buff and overly-confident male with some hour-glass shaped, hot-tempered, I-don't-need-no-man woman who at first acts like she isn't interested in the main leading male role but as the story progresses they quickly fall in love with each other with only knowing each other for less than three days and get together at the end and live happily ever after. The main plot will be mediocre at best, the plot twist will be so easy to figure out (yet most will claim they didn't see it coming), and all the fillers will be filled with nothing but explosions and never-ending fight scenes.
Ruth did not enjoy movies such as these so much because they were too predictable after a certain amount of time. She preferred suspense movies more, but she knows how much her son loves these types of movies and will lose his absolute cheese if he went to see it today. She hasn't spent much time with her son in quite some time, which was why she cooked breakfast.
She feels as if she's being a neglectful parent towards her little snookums. Though she knows if she asks Randy, he will tell her otherwise. They can go to the 5 o'clock showing in the evening, and then afterwards go to a random restaurant. Randy deserves a little spoilage, based off his recent report card: 2 B's, 1 B-, and the rest C's. His grades could be better than they are, but Ruth knows this is a work in progress and that Randy's grades are way better than they were before.
They would probably be better now if her son would just-
No. No, Ruth.
Don't think about it today. You don't want to start today off with a bad note.
But Ruth's mind went to just what took place 5 minutes ago.
She had been telling her son about this new discovery in health when she began to notice that Randy was losing focus and wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. She noticed that he was trying to focus, but it seems as if there were an inner conflict going on in his head. She still continued on with the one-sided conversation, more slowly now, until she noticed that her son was alternating between twitching and rocking in his seat.
'He hasn't taken his medication.'
Since she's a Physician Assistant, what she has learned from her experiences with some of the patients that have anxiety or ADHD is that breathing exercises can benefit. It benefited her son as well.
'But to an extent,' her mind reminded her.
When Ruth was first confronted about her son having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a learning disability as well, Ruth didn't believe what Randy's math teacher was saying. Being in health field and having studied it for so long, Ruth knew the good, the bad, and ugly truth about it – how children were sometimes misdiagnosed when they're young because some teachers didn't like having to deal with challenging students. How the misdiagnoses affect their brain functioning when they get older even when it was revealed that they didn't have it at all.
Though, when she received Randy's first middle school report card, she was surprised to see only D's and F's. She confronted Randy when he got home from the Weinerman's house, and asked him why he was failing.
Randy finally told her that he had difficulty in focusing on what the teacher was saying and completing a task. He didn't like staying in his seat at times, and he would constantly squirm or feel the urge to talk nonstop to his seat partners. Also, he mentioned how sometimes what the teachers in his classes were explaining to him and showing to him through visuals made absolutely no sense.
"Like how do I explain how an orange and the Statue of Liberty are related?!" Her son squawked at her.
It was then that Ruth realized that she shouldn't have turned a blind eye to something that concerned her son's health and well-being.
She wanted her son to be cared for and loved for, unlike her own upbringing.
Ruth shook her head to shrug off the negative thoughts picking at her brain.
All she wanted today was to spend time and go out with her son. Although her work schedule is Monday through Friday, 8 o'clock a.m. to 5 o'clock p.m., her work is rather demanding. There were days when she has to stay over time and work weekends due to understaffing or emergencies. When she returned home these days, all she wants to do is collapse on the living room couch because of the strenuous work day.
But Ruth couldn't complain much. She actually enjoyed her job, and she also had to think about Randy. She wanted the best for him and that required more effort when you're a single parent.
Ruth had only known Randy's father for almost three hours before she and him shared a night of passion that resulted in her little angel.
She was 17 and he was 16.
It wasn't the best decision she made at the starting point of her life, but she doesn't regret it. She was finally able to leave home, and she met the nicest couple, which resulted in her son and their youngest son becoming the best of friends.
On the thought of Mort and Heather Weinerman, Ruth just remembered some vital information.
Ruth stared as her son finished off his plate by sucking up the crumbs like a vacuum does to dirt.
Ruth's expression turned into one of disgust at her own son's eating habits.
"Sweetheart," she stated to turn Randy's focus on to her.
Randy set down his plate and looked up from his finished meal to his mother.
Seeing that she now held her son's attention, she decided to continue on with what she going to say.
"I have some news to tell you, that you might truly enjoy~" she sung.
Randy cocked his head his head at his mother's change in tone.
"This summer, the Weinerman's are going on a family vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii and they're inviting us to come with. Thanks to Mort's promotion by Mr. McFist, the family now has a more sustainable income where they can enjoy a week-long vacation together away from home. They shall be staying at The Kahala Hotel and Resort, and they so happen to have 2 extra free tickets for Scuba Diving at Alex's Aquatic Adventures that they got in a package deal! Does that sound like something you would want to do over your summer vacation this year?"
Ruth talked loudly and clearly so that her son wouldn't misinterpret the information too much.
Randy couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Uh, yeah!" he shouted from the top his lungs. "Scuba Diving is the Cheeessseeee! HowardandIarehavingepicdivingadventuresthissummerbreak!"
Ruth couldn't help but smile at her child's enthusiasm.
Though here comes the hard part. The part she didn't want to bring up earlier but now she had to because it concerned her son's safety.
"But you do know what that means, correct Randy?" she questioned.
Randy paused in his great excitement and stared owlishly at his mom for some time.
"Errr," he started off. "It means that I'm going to have to keep up the good grades?'
Ruth nodded her in agreement to her son's words.
"And?"
Randy bit his bottom lip, a bad habit of his, as he tried to come up with any other reasons off the top of his head.
Ruth sighed before continuing. "Randy. It means that you're going to have bring your bottle of Ritalin with you and not lie to me that you brought it and you're taking it."
"W-what?!" he stuttered. "I don't lie to you. Why would I lie to you?"
"Randy. I know you do. I've seen your bottle. It's still full! And we'll be going scuba diving. I want you to know exactly what the instructor will be saying to you. I don't know how I could live myself if you were harmed," she said with a worried expression.
Randy began to fidget in his seat once again because of his mother's words.
"I mean, yeah, I don't like taking my medication, and I don't see a reason why I should have to because there is nothing wrong with me."
"Randy."
"It's just so wonk! I'm perfectly normal and functional, I don't understand why I must-"
"Randy!"
"I'm fine mom!"
Before Ruth knew it, her son had leapt out of his chair and ran upstairs to his room.
Randy slammed the door behind him.
He will probably be grounded for a honkin' week and will not be going to Hawaii this summer with Howard because of how he just treated his mother. Goodbye Hawaii.
Randy exhaled the stress that was pent up in his body.
He climbed up the ladder to his bunk bed and laid down on it.
Randy knew he had learning disabilities. He just didn't want to admit it.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!
Why him?
He never did anything intentionally wrong.
Sometimes.
And he's the ninja for crying out loud! Ninjas are supposed to be the best and not have something mentally wrong with them. The only things they were supposed to have were cool battle scars.
Hahahaha! Look at me, I'm Randy Cunningham! I don't understand common words and pictures at times. I'm so dumb! Herp-a-derp-aguh!
HAHAHAHA!
Randy forced his eyes shut and tried to force back his painful memories. He could feel his eye ducts start to water, but he held them back.
That time was long ago, but it still felt like yesterday when his peers emotionally abused him.
Randy wanted to go to sleep, but he found that he couldn't.
His body felt like he should be active. That he should be dashing around and doing anything but relax at this time.
Randy sighed.
He'll just lock his door and ninja out before heading to Howard's house.
Howard recently just got the new Grave Puncher video game, and this time you're not only fighting zombies, but witches, werewolves, vampires, and sirens.
Yeah.
That sounds Bruce right about now.
Randy's mom couldn't hold back the groan inside her throat when she heard Randy's door slam.
She knew that the conversation wasn't going to go so smoothly.
Randy was insecure about his medical condition and hardly ever wanted to talk about it. He even hated going to the hospital for a refill.
Ruth was only concerned about her son's well-being and future. She's dealt with adult patients that have ADHD and though they seem perfectly functional on the outside, they still have difficulties with their disorder.
Ruth sighed as she began to clean up the table.
Look like her plans for tonight will have to be for another time.
