Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV show Arthur.
It's a typical summer day and D.W. and Emily are heading into the living room to watch TV when suddenly Emily freezes and grabs D.W.'s hand to make her stop too.
When D.W. shakes Emily's hand off and asks her with irritation what has gotten into her, her friend simply points to the couch, where Arthur and Buster are lounged.
"Oh, don't worry," D.W. reassures her, and pulls out a small notepad full of scribbles. "Arthur owes me, so we won't have any trouble telling them to go away—"
"No!" Emily whispers loudly. "No, don't do that."
"Why not?" asks a perplexed D.W.
"Because, well, I think it would be better if we just watched TV with them," Emily says, blushing like crazy. D.W. just stares at her.
It's the summer before third grade, and Emily has just come back from California with a hairstyle that was apparently very popular in the 1980s and makes Emily look like an ostrich in D.W.'s humble opinion.
"Emily, you didn't start watching Bionic Bunny in California too, did you?" D.W. says slowly. "Because I don't think we can be friends anymore if you did—"
"No!" Emily answers quickly, wrinkling her nose. "But, well, don't you want to hang out more with your brother and his friends?"
"No," says D.W. truthfully.
"Well, I do," Emily declares, and marches into the living room. D.W. follows reluctantly, thinking that if a three-week vacation in California has made normally level-headed Emily so strange, then the people who live in California on a day-to-day basis must be crazy.
D.W. is a very keen observer. She watches as Emily puts her hand on Buster's arm and asks about how soccer is going. Emily, who has never played sports in her life, says that she would like to join the team—when she's older, of course, and flutters her eyelashes. D.W.'s eyes narrow when Emily's gaze remains on Arthur and Buster and never flickers toward the television.
After the show is over, D.W. drags Emily out of the living room despite her protests and demands to know what is going on. Instead of giving a proper answer, Emily gushes about how amazing Buster is and how he manages to be funny and smart and kind and sporty all at once and his eyes are so many shades of blue that she could spend ages staring at them and not get bored.
D.W. manages not to barf.
"I mean, not that Arthur isn't nice too," Emily adds, misunderstanding D.W.'s expression. "But the glasses just don't appeal to me."
"Emily," D.W. manages to say, "Buster is eleven years old!"
"So? The magazines I picked up in California say that older guys are much more sensitive and experienced."
Emily rambles on about Buster the rest of the week and onto the following week. D.W. stops inviting her over to her house. At one point, Arthur and Buster corner D.W. and ask her to tell her friend to stop following them around.
Naturally, Emily spots this and asks D.W. why she was with Arthur and Buster. When D.W. stammers and stutters, not wanting to hurt her friend's feelings, Emily accuses D.W. of "betrayal" and refuses to come out of her house for the rest of the month.
Arthur and Buster are so grateful to D.W. afterwards that they start including her in their trips to the Sugar Bowl and the movie theater and she doesn't bother correcting the misunderstanding.
On the first day of school, Buster gets glasses. Emily wrinkles her nose and apologizes to D.W. for being unfair to her. For the most part, life is back to normal.
What D.W. doesn't tell anyone is that she thinks Buster looks fantastic in his new glasses.
