Eugene's Jinx-Proof Institution
A/N: The Hey Arnold characters belong to Craig Bartlett, not me. Also, this story is based on a TV show idea I thought of 4 years ago. I tried sending the idea to Craig Bartlett by e-mail, but I didn't have the right e-mail, and the idea was obviously not turned into a TV segment. Therefore, I decided just to put the story on the fan-fiction site.
Chapter 1: I'm Okay
Eugene Horowitz stepped out of his red apartment house on a lovely morning. He started walking down the steps that led to the crumbling sidewalks. As he was about to get on the last step, he tripped and screamed as his body rushed toward the ground, tumbling quickly. His face hit the sidewalk hard. "Ow!" he cried. "I'm okay."
Eugene lived in Brooklyn, New York, and his apartment house was crammed between a dozen other apartment houses on the block. There was a lot of traffic on both the roads and the sidewalks. Several people passing by stepped on his head. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" Eugene said in a muffled voice when the people stepped on him. Finally, he muttered a weak, "I'm okay."
It took him a moment, but Eugene finally got up and began to walk down the sidewalk to school. He was used to getting hurt on a daily basis. It all started when he was in preschool, and it never ceased to haunt him since then. Nobody was ever sure why Eugene got in so many accidents, but they just shrugged it off and thought that maybe he would grow out of it.
Suddenly, Eugene felt as though he were being jerked downward. He instantly realized that he went through a sewer hole. "Agh!" he screamed as he hit the cement floor covered with filthy sewer water. Eugene got up and spit out the germ filled water. "I'm okay," he cried. He went up the ladder and got back on the street, where he continued to walk until he arrived at his school, P.S. 118.
As usual, all the elementary school students congregated on the sidewalk that surrounded P.S. 118. Some were even playing in the playground in the back of the school. P.S. 118 was a brick two-story school and was basically like a big block building. Stone steps led up to the entrance. A sign that said "P.S. 118, Established 1932" hung over the brown double-doors.
Eugene walked over to his friends, Arnold and Gerald, who were casually chatting with each other.
Arnold was Caucasian and had a football-shaped head, and he had two thick locks of hair that stuck out on opposite sides of his head. A small, blue baseball cap sat in the middle of his head. Arnold often dressed in a unique manner. He had a turquoise sweater, but underneath was a red flannel shirt that stuck out from underneath the sweater. That made him look like he were wearing a kilt. Gerald was African-American and had a tall black afro. Gerald often dressed in a red sports T-shirt with the number 33 on it in white.
"Hey, guys," Eugene said as he approached the two. "Whoa!" shouted Eugene as he tripped on one of the cracks in the sidewalk and fell down. His head smacked the ground hard. A shattering sound was heard, and when Eugene opened his mouth, it was revealed that he had broken one of his two front teeth. "I'm okay," he groaned.
"We'd better get you to the nurse," Arnold said. "It looks like you broke a tooth."
"Yeah. I think I may have broken it last month as well," Eugene said. "Or maybe it was last Tuesday. I really can't remember."
"You really seem to get in a lot of accidents, Eugene. It's like there's some weird, mystical force that's making you prone to such dangers," Gerald said in an eerie tone.
"Be quiet, Gerald," Arnold said. "There's no mystical force, Eugene. You just have to be more careful, that's all."
"Well, okay…" Eugene said.
"Come, on, let's go to the nurse," Arnold said, helping Eugene up. Arnold and Gerald gathered the tiny shards of Eugene's tooth and took them along to the nurse. The three entered P.S. 118 and went through the halls. The walls on the side were white cement blocks, and their age was showing, as many of the blocks were chipping. There was a lot of graffiti on some walls in the school. The green lockers also seemed to be aged. Many were rusted, and some looked bashed in. Many of the lockers were in such bad shape that they didn't even work. The only part of the halls that looked good were the shiny green and orange tiled floors.
Arnold, Gerald, and Eugene entered the nurse's office, which was a few doors down the hall from the entrance. The nurse's office was a small room with white cement blocks. Several health-related posters hung around the room. In the front of the room to the left, there was a little dark niche with access to a bathroom and a shower. There was a brown counter and brown cabinets on the left side of the room with all sorts of medical supplies. In the back left corner of the room was a brown desk with office supplies on it. In the back right corner was an instrument used to measure height and weight. In the front right corner was a brown leather cot. A nurse stood by the door. "Hello, what can I help you with today?" asked the elderly nurse. She was big-boned and had a beauty mark on her left check and had gray hair. She wore a white uniform.
"Eugene had another accident…again," Gerald said.
"Not to mention the fact that I had a few accidents on the way to school," Eugene said. Arnold, Gerald, and the nurse looked shocked at him.
"What happened?" Arnold asked.
"Well, I was walking out of my house, when I tripped down one of the steps to my house. Then, several people walked all over me, and then, I fell in a sewer. Then, when I got to school, I tripped and broke my tooth," Eugene sighed. Gerald showed the shards of Eugene's tooth to the nurse.
"Oh my goodness," the nurse said. "That sounds terrible! We must get you to a dentist right away to see if your tooth can be glued back together." The nurse went to the brown desk and picked up a red phone. She dialed the number for an emergency dental hospital. When the hospital answered, the nurse said, "Hello, I am a nurse at P.S. 118, and I have a young boy with me that just broke his tooth. It's all shattered. We need to get his tooth fixed as soon as possible. Thank you, goodbye," the nurse said as she hung up the phone. Then, she turned to Eugene. "Well, an ambulance will show up in a few minutes. You'll be going to get your tooth taken care of."
"How long will it take?" Eugene asked.
"I don't know, but you'll probably have to miss a day of school. The process of restoring or replacing your tooth will probably take a while," the nurse said.
Eugene sat down on the brown cot, and the nurse got a plastic bag from the counter. Gerald gave her the pieces, and she dumped them in the bag and zipped it shut. Arnold, Gerald, Eugene, and the nurse waited until the ambulance came.
Several minutes later, a siren was heard outside, and Arnold, Gerald, Eugene, and the nurse left the school to get in the ambulance. The ambulance was waiting by the sidewalk. By now, most of the students had already entered the school. The ones that still remained, though, looked at the ambulance with curiosity. When they saw Eugene coming out with Arnold, Gerald, and the nurse, they seemed to realize that it was just another one of Eugene's freak accidents. Arnold, Gerald, and the nurse helped Eugene into the back of the ambulance, where the paramedics had him lie down on a white cot in the back. The ambulance sirens whirred, and the ambulance drove off to the hospital.
Suddenly, the school bell rang. Arnold, Gerald, the nurse, and the other remaining kids outside rushed into the school.
"Uh oh, we're late!" Gerald said.
"I hope Eugene is okay," Arnold said.
"Relax, Arnold," Gerald said. "He just broke a tooth, that's all. He's been in worse accidents before. Still, it makes you wonder if there's some sort of curse on him."
"Gerald, there is no curse," Arnold said for the last time. Then, Arnold and Gerald rushed into Mr. Simmons's classroom. They hoped that their easy-going teacher would understand why they were late.
"Boys, the bell just rung," Mr. Simmons said. "Why are you late?" he asked. Mr. Simmons was a bit lean, and he wore a green sweater and a white-collar shirt underneath. He was bald and had light brown hair at the sides.
"Eugene had another accident, and Gerald and I took him to the nurse to help him. The nurse called for an ambulance, and Eugene's already on his way to the hospital," Arnold said.
"Hospital?" Mr. Simmons said in a shocked tone. "That sounds pretty serious."
"Well, he broke a tooth after he fell down, so the nurse called for an emergency dental hospital so that they can either restore or replace his tooth," Arnold explained.
"Well, okay," Mr. Simmons said. "I sure hope Eugene will be okay." Arnold and Gerald shut the brown door and sat down in the two empty desks in the front of the classroom. Mr. Simmons began lecturing about the Louisiana Purchase, but Arnold and Gerald thought about other things. They were concerned about Eugene, as he'd been in so many accidents that it seemed unusual. Even though it may have just been coincidence, the boys slowly began to think that maybe there was more to Eugene's prone to accidents than they realized.