Plot: Phoebe likes Arnold. Arnold likes Phoebe. Janet hates Phoebe. All this can end in nothing good.
Chapter 1
I watched as happiness spread across Phoebe Terese's face as my cousin asked her out on a date. I clenched my hands into fists and almost nearly ran up and shouted at them both, but they were saved by the bell signaling the end of the school day. I growled, I'd talk to Arnold tonight and then get Phoebe tomorrow. I stalked off to my locker and gathered up my things and then went out to the bus and almost immediately found Arnold sitting alone in one of the sits, trying hard to suppress a large smile. I instantly sat down next to him and he turned his attention to me and looked kind of shocked by my appearance.
"Arnold we need to talk," I said seriously.
"Why? What has the schooling system done wrong now?" Arnold asked curiously.
"It's not about the school this time," I said and then got closer to him so that he knew I meant business. "You need to break off your date with that...that girl," I snapped.
"Wh-what! Why?" Arnold asked bewildered.
"Because, she is no good for you Arnold and she's so annoying," I muttered.
"Hey, you don't know Phoebe like I do!" Arnold growled at me angrily.
"I know her well enough to know that she is absolutely not your type. I say you break off the date before she thinks things get serious," I said crossing my arms.
"But Janet, that would be so rude and I actually like Phoebe, a lot," Arnold admitted with a sheepish grin on his face. My eyes widened in shock and I felt my jaw drop open.
"B-But Arnold you can't! You're out of her league, maybe you should go out with that nice Wanda girl, how about that?" I offered.
"Janet, you know as well as I do that Wanda has been going out with Ralphie for the past two months!" Arnold groaned.
"Well, about that Dorothy Ann girl? Even she is better then that Phoebe person," I said and Arnold gaped at me.
"Dorothy Ann is nice, but she and Carlos have an obvious thing for each other. I like her as a friend just the same way I only like Wanda as a friend. And don't even try to set me up with Keesha, she's so into Tim its not even funny!" Arnold said exasperated.
"Well you just have to break off your date with Phoebe," I said getting desperate. I had no real reason for hating Phoebe, but I just did. The girl drove me nuts and I was not going to stand by and do nothing as she seduced my cousin.
"Why Janet? Why?" Arnold said getting angry and impatient.
"She um...she um....," I trailed off scrambling to come up with a good reason. "She likes Ralphie!" I suddenly exclaimed. Arnold's unimpressed look melted into shock.
"She does? Wait, you're lying to me!" Arnold accused and I pursed my lips.
"Not this time cousin. I hear every single piece of gossip and the thing that is going around on the grapevine is that Phoebe has the hots for Ralphie," I said.
"B-But he's dating Wanda! Phoebe wouldn't like the guy one of her best friends is dating and when I asked her out she looked so happy and excited," Arnold said trying to come up with excused to shoot my supposed 'rumor' down.
"Well, she was obviously faking it so she wouldn't hurt your feelings. That's something I have to give to her, her caring personality. Come on cousin, she just didn't want to let you down so she put on her fake happy act to fool you. She's not who you think she is," I said. Arnold honestly looked horrified and I felt myself smile, but I quickly frowned when Arnold looked over at me in distress. I gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay Arnold. She's just not the person for you, or the person you want to associate with," I said as the bus finally pulled out of the school parking lot.
*~*~*~*~*
Neither Arnold nor Janet saw Keesha and I sitting there right behind them. It took everything both of us had not to launch at Janet for what she was saying about Phoebe. Phoebe didn't like Ralphie, especially not since he was dating Wanda! Phoebe would never do that and she has liked Arnold ever since third grade where they had met in Ms. Frizzle's class.
"Can you believe her?" Keesha whispered to me. I shook my head in disgust, but both Keesha and I kept listening and it shocked us both when we heard Arnold starting to give into his cousins lies.
"He isn't seriously buying it is he?" I asked. A few more minutes of listening confirmed that Arnold was actually believing Janet, because he wasn't speaking up and defending Phoebe at all. Finally the bus pulled to a stop and Arnold and Janet got off and after they did Keesha and I shared a shocked look with each other. "Arnold wouldn't even think about breaking off his date with Phoebe, would he?" I asked.
"Oh bad! Oh bad! Oh bad bad bad!" Keesha exclaimed.
"No, Arnold is sensible and if he's smart he won't break off his date with Phoebe," I said trying to convince myself as well as Keesha that we could trust Arnold as a friend.
"He's going to break off the date isn't he DA?" Keesha asked and eventually I sighed and nodded. Keesha and I were silent thinking about how upset Phoebe was going to be. "Wait, if Arnold does break off his date with Phoebe we'll know that Arnold isn't to blame, its Janet!" Keesha said.
"Which means, if Arnold breaks of their date, we can totally put everything on Janet's head!" I exclaimed and Keesha and I grinned.
"Which means, as best friends we should do what we must to protect our friend," Keesha said.
"Even if that means tearing Janet to shreds," I finished. Keesha smiled brightly and put her arm around me.
"Before too long DA you'll be half bookworm half Wanda!" Keesha laughed.
"Hey, Phoebe is one of my best friends, I'm not going to let Janet hurt her like this, not without feeling the same pain," I said and Keesha nodded.
"Together, she is going down," Keesha said and we high fived over it.
Later that night I got a call and wasn't the least bit surprised it was Phoebe who was sobbing uncontrollably. I instantly hung up the phone and darted over to her house which was only a few block away. When I got there Phoebe was waiting for me on the front porch. She was still sobbing, so I took my place next to her.
"DA! It's a-aw-awful," Phoebe sobbed. "A-A-Arnold cal-ca-called me after I-I go-got home and t-t-told me that h-h-he wanted t-t-to break o-off the date," Phoebe stuttered between panting breaths.
"Oh Phoebe I'm so sorry," I exclaimed as I put an arm around her comfortingly.
"D-D-DA! W-w-why would Arnold j-j-just break o-o-off the d-date! He didn't e-e-even ex-explain w-why he was d-d-doing it!" Phoebe cried.
"That's because Arnold didn't have a good reason, he was forced to break off your date," I admitted. Phoebe instantly stopped and looked up at me.
"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked straightening up.
"Keesha and I overheard Arnold talking Janet. Janet told him that you weren't right for him and that you liked Ralphie and were just faking being excited so as to pity him!" I explained and Phoebe gasped in shock.
"B-But I don't like Ralphie! He's dating Wanda! I like Arnold and I have since like seventh grade!" Phoebe exclaimed.
"Pheebs, you've liked him since third grade, don't lie," I said and Phoebe gave a sheepish grin. "Anyway, don't blame Arnold for anything, Janet told him lies," I said.
"Yes, but Arnold believed them and broke it off with me before we even went out! I thought we were friends!" Phoebe exclaimed.
"Don't worry you'll get your chance to explain things to Arnold tomorrow and don't worry you're date will be back on before you know it!" I explained.
"What about Janet?" Phoebe asked.
"Oh leave her to Keesha and I," I said and Phoebe smiled.
"Wait, if you're going to do any harm to Janet, I at least want to be a witness, you'll need someone on your side," Phoebe said and I giggled and we hugged each other tightly. We called Keesha and Wanda and explained the plan and exactly what had happened. We agreed that Janet was going to pay no matter what.
*~*~*~*~*
I felt awful for breaking off my date with Phoebe. Especially since it seemed to destroy whatever friendship we had. I sat behind her in science and tried to pass her a note, but she only crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it into the recycle bin and never spoke a word to me. As well it was obvious that the other girls were siding with Phoebe on this argument, because DA, Keesha, and Wanda all refused to talk to me and the other guys which got the guys angry at me.
"Dude, you better fix things," Ralphie grumbled at me during math class. "Wanda won't even look at me, because of you," Ralphie snapped.
"None of the girls have talked to any of us Ralphie," Tim pointed out.
"Either way, you have to fix things Arn, you've got no choice," Carlos agreed.
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Besides what if I told you guys Phoebe isn't the person we thought she was?" I asked.
"I knew it! She's an alien," Ralphie exclaimed.
"No, she's not an alien Ralphie, she's just not who I thought she was," Arnold said.
"How could you have possibly found that out you haven't even gone out on a date with her yet?" Carlos inquired.
"I just-" Our discussion was cut short by our math teacher, Mr. Page sending all four of us out into the hallway for talking and disrupting class. Once out in the hallway though we just started talking again. "Like I was saying, I just heard from people that Phoebe doesn't really like me and she only agreed to go out on a date with me because she felt sorry for me!" I explained.
"Who told you that?" Ralphie asked. Before I could reply all four of us stopped and turned our attention further down the hallway.
"What is that?" Carlos asked.
"Let's find out," Ralphie said. All four of us crept down the hallway and peered around the side and we all gasped as we saw Keesha, Wanda, DA, and Phoebe cornering Janet up against the lockers. I was about to stand up for my cousin when Carlos put his hand over my mouth and shook his head.
"Listen," Carlos whispered. We all listened closely to what the girls were saying.
"You four had better back off! I can take all four of you down no problem!" Janet threatened furiously.
"We'll let you go when you promise to admit to Arnold that you lied to him," Wanda snapped back. Lied to me? About what?
"Whatever are you talking about Wanda?" Janet asked.
"Don't play like you don't know what we're talking about Janet," Keesha said.
"Seriously I don't know what the heck any of you are talking about!" Janet said throwing up her arms.
"You know exactly what we're talking about Janet," Phoebe sneered.
"Don't accuse me of doing something that I didn't do Phoebe," Janet angrily snapped. Her eyes flashed in fury at being held prisoner.
"That's just it Janet," DA began. "Yesterday on the bus you sat right in front of Keesha and I and told Arnold complete lies about Phoebe which caused him to break off their date! Deny that," DA finished.
"When was it ever okay for people eavesdrop on private conversations?" Janet snapped.
"Ha! So you're not denying saying those lies about Phoebe?" Keesha asked.
"Of course not! I said those lies and I'm proud of it. Arnold deserves someone better than Phoebe," Janet snapped. The four of us guys that were still undetected gaped in shock. Janet lied to me...and I fell for it! From here I could even see the hurt on Phoebe's face and I felt like a real jerk. I had let my cousin tell me lies about the one girl I had fallen in love with. "Now if we're done," Janet said and started away, but DA blocked her path.
"Oh we're not done quite yet Janet," DA said firmly.
"Dorothy Ann, move out of my way," Janet said straightening her back to try to be taller than DA, but she didn't realize that both she and DA were the same height, so her attempting to intimidate DA was a failure.
"She we're not done Janet," Wanda said.
"Move Dorothy Ann!" Janet repeated with more anger.
"No," DA replied. Janet tried to shove her back, but DA somehow managed to push Janet back and into the lockers.
"When was DA ever able to do that?" I asked looking up at Carlos who had a small smile on his face. He just shrugged as a reply and Ralphie shushed me so we could hear the rest of the conversation.
"How dare you push me like that!" Janet screeched.
"Um, newsflash, you tried to push her first," Keesha said.
"Whatever, what do you four want?" Janet snapped glaring at all four of them.
"We want you to tell Arnold that you told him those lies about Phoebe," Keesha said. "And we want you to apologize to Phoebe," Keesha added nodding over to Phoebe. Janet scoffed.
"Yeah right, I'm not going to listen to what you four tell me to do," Janet said sticking her nose up as if she was too good for anything.
"Listen Janet, you are going to tell Arnold you lied to him and you are going to apologize to Phoebe, now!" Wanda yelled angrily. That was when things got ugly, fast. Janet does not take well to other people ordering her, so Wanda's statement made her go ballistic. Instead of launching at Wanda however Janet targeted the one person she knew wouldn't fight back, Phoebe. She lunged at Phoebe and easily tackled her to the ground stunning everyone.
"Get off her you bitch!" Wanda shrieked launching at Janet and pulling her off of Phoebe. Janet spun around and being taller than Wanda was able to get her to the ground. DA was helping Phoebe off her feet and both were trying to inch away down the hallway. Janet must've seen them for she jumped off of Wanda knocking Keesha to the floor in the process and raced towards DA and Phoebe. Janet jumped and landed on DA and pushed her to the ground and then made a dive for Phoebe, but was stopped when Ralphie tackled her to the ground and held her there.
"Get off of me," Janet shrieked angrily.
"No way," Ralphie snapped. In the time Janet had started rampaging the four of us had already raced down the hallway trying to stop Janet before she did anything drastically stupid, even though it seemed like it was a bit late for that. Tim had stopped to help Keesha and Wanda up, while Carlos was crouching beside DA, while I ran past Ralphie and Janet over to Phoebe who was pressing herself up against the lockers along the wall.
"Phoebe, are you okay?" I asked and she slowly nodded not making eye contact with me. I sighed and then turned towards my cousin who no matter how much she struggled couldn't get Ralphie off of her. "Ralphie, let her up," I whispered. Slowly Ralphie got off of her and she jumped to her feet.
"Arnold, how can you let your stupid friends attack me!" Janet sputtered trying to make the others once again the bad guys, but since I had heard everything, even her confession I so was not going to buy this.
"Get lost Janet, you've caused enough trouble," I said. Janet looked absolutely horrified and then spun on her heel and stormed off. Janet glared at DA, Keesha, and Wanda as she past them and then disappeared around the corner of the hallway.
"Is everyone okay?" Phoebe asked softly. Everyone nodded.
"We'd better get back to class before we're missed too much," Keesha said quickly.
"Knowing Janet she's probably stalking the halls waiting for us," DA pointed out.
"Hey we got kicked out of class, we'll make sure she doesn't attack you again!" Ralphie suggested.
"Yeah come on Keesha I'll walk you to your class," Tim offered and the two quickly hurried away.
"I will escort you Wanda if you do not mind," Ralphie offered and Carlos and I rolled our eyes as Wanda took his outstretched hand and they walked away in the same direction as Keesha and Tim.
"We'll just let you two talk then," Carlos said as he put his arm around DA and both slipped past us and vanished as well. Phoebe and I were the only ones left and even though I couldn't take my eyes off her she never once returned my gaze and I sighed.
"What class do you have?" I asked.
"History with DA," Phoebe explained. She started down in the direction Carlos and DA had gone, but I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
"Listen Pheebs, we have to talk about what...Janet said to me," I said and Phoebe sighed. "Don't worry, you don't have to say anything, all of us guys heard everything you said including Janet's confession," I explained and Phoebe faintly smiled.
"Well, what do you have to say?" Phoebe asked.
"I'm sorry," I burst. Phoebe looked kind of startled. "I'm sorry Janet said all those things about you," I explained and Phoebe sighed.
"I'm not all too mad about that Arnold," Phoebe said as she slid to the floor her back still to the lockers. I slowly sat down beside her.
"You aren't? But if not that, then why are you mad?" I asked.
"I mean it does bother me that Janet did say all those things, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much as how unbelievable those lies were, yet how easily she was able to convince you they were true. Arnold I thought we were friends, I thought you knew me better than that!" Phoebe cried.
"Phoebe I am sorry, I really am," I said softly. "I guess the more Janet talked the more I wanted to deny her, but everything she said just seemed to be true and I-I shouldn't have believed her. I should've talked to you before I listened to Janet," I explained and Phoebe gave me a faint smile.
"It's okay Arnold. Janet is your cousin and you guys do have a pretty close bond. I guess you just trust her enough to know what's good for you," Phoebe said.
"Until now," I said inching across the floor until I was sitting directly across from Phoebe, her feet touching my knees. "You're right, I trust Janet so much that I didn't listen to what my heart was telling me, but no more. I'm taking control of my life again," I said and Phoebe smiled brightly.
"That's great Arnold," Phoebe congratulated gently. "What are you going to do about Janet though? I mean she is your cousin," Phoebe asked and I smiled.
"First off I'm totally going to piss her off," I said with a faint smile.
"How?" Phoebe asked.
"Like you said she is my cousin, I do know what makes her tick. At the moment you are on the top of her most wanted list," I said standing up and holding out my hands. Phoebe grabbed them and I pulled her to her feet and looked down into her brown eyes.
"So?" Phoebe prompted.
"Phoebe Terese will you go out with me?" I asked and Phoebe smiled and squealed with excitement.
"Only on one condition," Phoebe said.
"What would that be?" I asked.
"Don't you dare break it off," Phoebe said.
"Deal," I said as I took her hand in mine and led her down the hallway back towards her class.
*~*~*~*~*
THE END! My first MSB fic and I think its okay. Not the best, but heck it is like 4:30 a.m. my time so I guess this is okay. :) I think Arnold and Phoebe would be cute. I also know DA got a little OOC at the beginning with the whole 'tear Janet to shreds' thing, but I thought that would be so funny to hear especially from DA.
Review if you like, you don't have to, but if you want too thats awesome!