Fire Safety Chuckie
Summary: The gang is in kindergarten, and receives a visit from a fireman. Will Chuckie go fire safety crazy after this incident? Inspired to write this story after watching the episode, Officer Chuckie from season 6.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. My OC Zack was introduced in Rugrats and the Gray Plague, and, Mrs. LindaBerry from You're Not the Boss Anymore, returns, as the kindergarten teacher for Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Zack and Kimi, as Angelica and Susie are now in second grade.
Our story begins, at the end of show and tell. Tommy is the last one to present.
"This is my daddy's clam quarter." Said Tommy, holding up a video camera.
"That's camcorder." Said Mrs. Lindaberry, correcting Tommy.
"Thanks Mrs. Lindaberry. Ok, so this is my daddy's camcorder! You can make movies with it!" Said Tommy excitedly, as he showed it off.
"And here's a movie I'd like to show you! It's called, Reptar versus Goober!" Said Tommy, as he pressed the play button on the camcorder, and a picture appeared on the little LCD screen.
The movie was taken in Tommy's backyard. The camera sat on the picnic table, and Tommy was down beneath it, reaching his hands up like a puppeteer. In one hand, he held his Reptar doll, while in the other hand, he held Dil's Goober doll.
"You make me smile. Can I have a hug?" Said the Goober toy as Tommy squeezed it.
"Roar, no!" Said Tommy pretending to be Reptar, making the Reptar doll talk.
Then, the Reptar doll knocked Goober off of the picnic table down on to the grass.
"Yay! Reptar won!" Said the excited 5-year-old Tommy, jumping up and down by the picnic table, tossing his Reptar doll in the air like he was one of those famous circus jugglers. Then, the camera shows Tommy reaching up to the top of it to turn it off, fading to a black screen as the LCD screen goes blank.
The class clapped and cheered.
"When I grow up, I wanna make movies, like Reptar and Okey Dokey Jones." Said Tommy.
"That was an excellent presentation, and you did a lovely job on your movie Tommy." Said Mrs. Lindaberry.
"Thank you!" Replied Tommy.
"Now take your seat, show and tell time is over. We need to get ready for our special guest, Chief Cozmo." Said Mrs. Lindaberry as Tommy went and put the camcorder up in his Reptar backpack and took his seat at one of the tables, along with Chuckie, Phil and Lil.
"Who's Chief Cozmo?" Asked Kimi.
"He's a fireman from the Yucaipa California fire department, and he's coming to talk to our class today about fire safety." Replied Mrs. Lindaberry.
Just then, Chief Cozmo entered the room.
"Good morning class, my name is Chief Cozmo." Said the fireman.
"Good morning Chief Cozmo." Said the class in unison.
"I am here today to talk to you all about fire safety. Do any of you know what fire is?" Asked Chief Cozmo.
"It's this really hot stuff that's very dangerous." Replied Chuckie.
"Very good. And can anybody tell me why fire is so dangerous?" Asked Chief Cozmo.
The class just stared, dumbstruck.
"Well children, a fire can happen when you least expect it. It can burn your house down and can be very dangerous. And so, I am here today, to teach you some proper safety rules when around fire, what to do and not do with fire, and what to do if you should ever come up against a fire emergency." Continued Chief Cozmo.
He went on to talk about how dangerous fire really was. How you shouldn't play with matches or fool with fire unless you were aided by an adult. Then, he talked about how important it was to have a plan should you ever end up in a fire emergency.
"If your clothes should ever catch on fire, what should you do?" Asked Chief Cozmo.
"Stop, drop and roll." Replied Z, a young boy sitting across from Kimi.
"Would you care to come demonstrate for us? Uh…" Asked Chief Cozmo.
"Z, my name is Z." Said Z as he headed up to the front of the room.
"Oh, is your name also Zachary too?" Asked Chief Cozmo, as he then looked at the tables to see the kids name tags, and saw Zack's name tag and Z's.
"No." Replied Z.
"But I will say, I've had quite the time getting Z and Zack mixed up in this classroom sometimes." Commented Mrs. Lindaberry.
"Now Z, what should you do if your clothes should ever catch on fire?" Asked Chief Cozmo.
Z stopped, got down on the floor, and rolled around.
"Very good Z. Stop, drop and roll, that's exactly what you should do if your clothes should ever catch on fire." Said Chief Cozmo.
"You can take your seat now Z." Continued Chief Cozmo, as Z went back to his seat.
The fireman went on to talk about how important fire drills were, and just like they would have them from time to time at school, it's a good idea to do them at home as well, and to always have a meeting place to meet up outside if you should ever have a fire break out in your house.
"And finally, before I leave here today, what's the number to call in a fire emergency?" Asked Chief Cozmo.
Chuckie raised his hand.
"Yes to the young boy with red hair and glasses. I can't see your name tag very well." Said Chief Cozmo, calling on Chuckie.
"Um… My name is Chuckie and that number is 9 1 1." Replied Chuckie.
"Very good Chuckie. Well, I'd better be going, but before I go, are there any questions?" Asked Chief Cozmo as he got his stuff together, as during his speeches, he showed some pictures of what burnt down houses looked like, etc.
Everybody just sat there in silence, surprising the fireman, as he's usually seen a lot more action at this particular age when it came to fire stuff.
"Well ok then, have a lovely day, and remember kids, fire, is not a toy." Said Chief Cozmo, as he started to head out of the room.
"Let's thank our special guest for talking with us today." Said Mrs. Lindaberry.
"Thank you Chief Cozmo." Said the class in unison as the fireman walked out of the room.
"Ok kids, it's time to get ready for lunch, and before I forget, for next week's show and tell, inspired by what Tommy brought in today, I'd like all of you to bring in something, that resembles what you'd like to be when you grow up." Said Mrs. Lindaberry as the kids went and got their lunch money or lunchboxes out of their cubbies.
The class lined up in two lines, the hot lunch line and the cold lunch line. Tommy and Chuckie got in the cold lunch line, while Phil, Lil, Kimi and Zack got in the hot lunch line. They headed down to the cafeteria, Tommy and Chuckie, went and found a seat, and opened up their lunchboxes. Chuckie had a boloni sandwich, sour cream and onion potato chips, and a juice box, while Tommy had a pepperoni and cheese lunchables pizza, a small bag of Reptar cookies, and an orange soda.
"Wasn't that fire safety officer cool?" Chuckie asked.
"Yeah he's ok, but you don't need to worry, no fire's gonna happen." Said Tommy.
"And how can you be so sure it won't? I've seen your daddy put out plenty of fires when his inventions don't work right." Said Chuckie.
"Chuckie you worry too much. There's no way my house, or even your house for that matter, will ever burn down in a fire." Said Tommy, taking a bite out of his pizza after applying the sauce, pepperoni and cheese.
"Don't forget Tommy, I'm staying with you this weekend while my mommy and daddy take Kimi to Ballet Camp." Said Chuckie.
"Oh yeah I forgot about that! We're gonna have lots of fun! And Zack let me borrow the newest Reptar movie on DVD, so we can watch it!" Said Tommy excitedly.
"And Zack let me borrow his latest issue of Armadilla Dave that he got from that Braille and Talking Book Library. The words are in print as well as Braille in every issue." Said Chuckie.
"Oh, and do you have Dil's Birthday present? He's turning 4 this weekend and we're celebrating his birthday tonight." Said Tommy.
"Now Tommy, I'd never forget your brother's birthday, though I should tell you that Kimi and I went in together on this present, since we don't get very much allowance." Said Chuckie.
"That's ok Chuckie." Said Tommy, as he finished up his bag of Reptar cookies, leaving only a few on the table.
It got to be tradition ever since they started kindergarten and brought their lunch to school, after discovering they didn't like the food in the cafeteria that Chuckie wouldn't bring a dessert in his lunch, since he knew Tommy would always bring some sort of Reptar treat in his lunch for them to share. Chuckie ate the last of the Reptar cookies and the two of them headed outside for lunch recess.
Later, at Tommy's house, Tommy, Chuckie and Dil are playing tag in the living room, when Tommy runs too close to a floor lamp, just barely missing it.
"Tommy stop!" Yelled Chuckie.
"What's wrong Chuckie?" Tommy asked.
"You nearly knocked over that lamp. You could have started a fire." Said Chuckie.
"Don't worry Chuckie, the lamp is fine." Said Tommy, staring up at the brightly lit lamp.
A little while later, Tommy and Chuckie were heading through the entry hall to take Chuckie's stuff upstairs to Tommy and Dil's room, when the smoke detector starts going off.
"Oh no Tommy, I think you may have a fire in your house." Said Chuckie.
Just then, Stu walks up from the basement and overhears the smoke detector and Chuckie's comment.
"Oh, thank you Chuckie, it appears this smoke detector needs new batteries." Said Stu, taking the smoke detector down from the wall and into the kitchen.
"You're welcome." Replied Chuckie, as he and Tommy follow him into the kitchen.
Unfortunately, they were out of batteries, so they had to make do with no working smoke detector at this time.
That night at dinner, Stu, Didi, Chuckie, Tommy and Dil all made pizzas, as requested by Dil since they were celebrating his birthday. Stu wanted bacon on his pizza, so Didi cooked it on the stove, when she suddenly, got her dress sleeve a little bit too close to the stove.
"Didi watch out! You don't want to start a fire, and your sleeve is close to that burner." Said Chuckie.
Didi looked down to notice this.
"Thank you for noticing Chuckie." Said Didi, as she rolled up her sleeve.
"So, how was school today Tommy?" Stu asked.
"It was ok" Tommy replied.
"It was great! We had a visit from a fireman named Chief Cozmo!" Said Chuckie excitedly.
"So what did you learn from the fireman?" Didi asked.
Chuckie told them everything the fireman had told them. He also asked Stu and Didi questions about if they had a fire extinglisher and a meeting place outside if they should ever have a fire.
"You know, we've never talked about this, thank you for bringing the meeting place up Chuckie." Said Didi.
"Mommy." Tommy said irritably.
"Now Tommy, it's important to talk about fire safety." Said Stu.
"But daddy, Chuckie's been talking about it all day." Growned Tommy.
"I think it's neat! At preschool, Miss Applebee took us to the fire station." Said Dil.
"Yeah I went there too." Said Tommy.
"Did you get to ride the bright red shiny firetruck and honk the horn?" Dil asked with excitement.
"Yes." Grumbled Tommy, who was really getting tired of talking about fire related stuff by this time.
Everybody finished their dinner and got ready to have Dil's birthday cake and ice cream. Dil wanted a yellow cake with green and blue icing, which is exactly what he got. Stu lit the candles on Dil's cake and the gang sang Happy Birthday.
"Now make a wish an blow out the candles Dil. You don't wanna start a fire." Said Chuckie.
Dil sat there for a minute, thinking about his wish, but before Dil could blow out his candles, Chuckie blew them out for him.
"Chuckie what did you do that for?" Tommy asked angrily.
"He was taking too long." Grumbled Chuckie.
"That's it Chuckie. I've had enough of your fire safety stuff. Just go read your stupid comic book about the turtle and leave me alone." Snapped Tommy.
"It's Armidillo Dave, and… that's exactly what I'm gonna go do. You go enjoy Reptar." Snapped Chuckie, as he finished his cake and ice cream, tossed his dishes in the sink, and stormed out of the room.
Chuckie went up to Tommy's room and pulled out the comic book. It was issue number 5, when Armidillo Dave fought some aliens at the bottom of a raging volcano. Chuckie was too involved in his book to give a care about what was going on around him. After dessert Dil opened his presents from Tommy and his parents, Chuckie gave him his present earlier that day when he got there. One of the presents Dil got from his parents was the new Goober movie on DVD.
"Tommy, can we watch my new movie?" Dil asked.
"No! I need Reptar when I'm mad." Snapped Tommy, as he put a bag of microwave popcorn into the microwave, hit the popcorn button, and stormed out of the kitchen into the living room, putting on the Reptar DVD he borrowed from Zack.
And yes, while they were only in kindergarten, they got limited use of the microwave, as that as well as the ice and water machine on the fridge were the only two kitchen appliances they were allowed to use with no adult supervision, but only with a limited amount of items, such as to heat up microwave popcorn or something that had a particular button on the microwave for its food preparation. Unfortunately, the popcorn button, didn't always work the way it should.
Forgetting about his popcorn, it stayed in the microwave for too long. Chuckie started to notice a strange smell from upstairs and came down to see what was the matter. He noticed the blackened popcorn in the microwave and took it out. He was about to pour it out when he decided to show it to Tommy, in hopes he'd knock some sense into him. By this time, Stu and Didi had headed off to bed, as it got to the point where bedtime was no longer existant on Friday and Saturday nights, so long as Tommy and Dil stuck to their bedtime schedule on school nights, and Dil was off somewhere enjoying his new birthday presents other than the Goober DVD. Tommy was still in the living room, engrossed in the Reptar movie, so much so that he hadn't noticed the popcorn, til he could smell something.
"What's that smell?" Tommy asked.
Just then, Chuckie walked into the room carrying the bag of blackened popcorn.
"Is this what you smelled?" Chuckie asked, sticking the bag in Tommy's face.
"My popcorn! It's ruined!" Shouted Tommy.
"Don't look at me Tommy, you did it." Said Chuckie.
"But how?" Tommy asked.
"You can't just let it sit in the microwave. Zack taught me the last time I slept over and his Aunty Celeste showed us how to make the microwave popcorn that you have to listen to the pops. When they get further apart, it means it's done." Said Chuckie.
"Zack's aunt only does it that way cuz she can't see." Snapped Tommy.
"It's true with microwave popcorn whether you can see or not. You're lucky you didn't start a fire." Said Chuckie, taking the bag from Tommy's hand and dumping it into the trash.
"Whatever." Tommy scowled as he drew his attention away from Chuckie, back to the Reptar movie.
Chuckie left the room and went back upstairs to finish his comic book and turn in for the night. Eventually, after the movie was over, Tommy came upstairs and joined Chuckie in his bed as he was the last one to fall asleep that night in the Pickles' household.
As the night droaned on, an electrical fire started down in the basement. Chuckie awoke at one point, getting a bad feeling. He was going to wake up Tommy or Dil, but he knew Dil was tough to wake up sometimes, and didn't wish to wake up Tommy in the event he was still mad at him. Chuckie, unable to sleep, wandered through the house. As a young toddler, he use to get scared wandering through Tommy's house alone late at night, but in the six years he's been spending time over there regularly, he's grown use to it. He headed downstairs and noticed a funny noise coming from the basement. He knew Stu was in bed, as he heard him and Didi snoring when he passed by their room on his way downstairs to get a drink of water, as he was thirsty. When Chuckie heard this noise, he stood there for a minute, shaking, unsure of what to do. Then, it hit him what might be going on. He approached the basement door, and remembered what the fireman told him.
"Always feel the door to see if it's hot." He heard Chief Cozmo say in his head.
He felt the door, to notice it was hot.
"AAAHHH!" Screamed Chuckie.
Catching his breath, he realized now wasn't the time to panick. He needed to find the phone fast and call 911, or something bad was gonna happen. He ran into the kitchen where he knew there was a phone on the wall. He got down the phone and dialed the familiar number.
"Hello, what's your emergency?" Asked a voice on the other end of the line after two rings.
"I think there's a fire in the basement. I hear scary rumbly noises and the door feels hot." Said Chuckie.
"What's your address?" The lady asked.
Chuckie hesitated for a moment, trying to think of Tommy's address before answering. Then he remembered.
"It's 1258 North Highland." Replied Chuckie in a panic.
"No don't panic young man, the fire department is on their way." Said the nice operator.
"Thanks." Said Chuckie, slamming down the phone and rushing outside as fast as he could. He thought about going and waking up everyone else in the house, then remembered that it was most important to get himself outside. The firemen would take care of whoever couldn't escape.
Just then, a parade of fire trucks showed up in front of Tommy's house. The sirons woke up Spike and Spikfee in the backyard, who were barking by this time. The firemen got out and noticed Chuckie in the front yard.
"Don't worry Chuckie, we'll take care of this." Said a fireman, who went in through the front door. The fireman opened the basement door and sprayed a hose of water down in the basement, putting out the fire. By this time, Stu, Didi, Tommy and Dil were awake and came downstairs to notice the firemen.
"What's going on here?" Asked Stu.
"Don't worry sir, everything's under control. Of course you may have a bit of repairs to make in your basement, and may want to get some of your electrical wiring looked at, but if it weren't for your red headed son out front, you guys might be dead within the next hour." Said the fireman.
Everybody headed outside to find Chuckie in the yard. Just then, Chief Cozmo emerged from one of the firetrucks and saw what was going on. He came right over to Chuckie.
"Are you the same Chuckie I saw earlier today?" Asked Chief Cozmo.
Chuckie nodded.
"Well, I have to say I'm impressed! You're a hero!" Said Chief Cozmo.
"No I'm not." Replied Chuckie with a frown.
"Sure you are. Had you not called the fire department when you did, that fire could have come up from the basement and destroyed this entire house, and your friends living inside. And so, in honor of your bravery, I'd like you to have this." Said Chief Cozmo, pulling out a firemen's badge, and placing it on Chuckie's pajama shirt.
"Wow, thanks!" Said Chuckie with a smile.
"Yeah Chuckaroo way to go." Said Tommy excitedly, coming over to Chuckie and putting an arm around his friend.
"Thanks Tommy, and I'm sorry I got so fire safety crazy earlier." Said Chuckie.
"No Chuckie, I'm sorry. I should pay more attention so fires don't start in the first place." Replied Tommy.
"But boys, this fire had nothing to do with any of you. Heck, it wasn't even one of my inventions! This fire started due to some pour electrical wiring, that Didi and I are going to have to get looked at and replaced." Said Stu.
"Along with those basement repairs." Added Didi, as the firemen drove off and everyone else headed back into the house.
The following week at show and tell, Chuckie told the class of his fire rescue mission at Tommy's house last weekend, and showed everyone his badge he got from the fire department.
"When I grow up I wanna be a fireman, cuz firemen keep people safe." Said Chuckie with a huge smile.
Everyone clapped and cheered when Chuckie was finished, and Chuckie, felt really good about himself inside for being so brave, and saving his best friend.
The End
Author's Note: The idea for Tommy's movie in the beginning of my story was inspired by my childhood, when I was younger and could still see, I use to take my mom's camcorder and make movies of my toys. So thought with Tommy's interest in film seen in the AGU series, what a great way to put a start to this interest, having him as a 5-year-old in kindergarten, making little movies of his toys, which would eventually branch out into movies with his friends, filming important events, and someday, making it a career with huge movie stars. And as for Z, I thought it would be interesting to make Z appear in their kindergarten class as one of their classmates. Hope you all enjoyed that story, and I hope to be back with more Rugrats stories during childhood, sometime soon!
