It was the first day of school. Mrs. Flounder's elementary school class had about 20 bright shining students in it. And then there was Squidward. He was always in a bad mood, and nobody knew why. He didn't even laugh with the other when Mrs. Flounder sat on the tack on her chair. He was just a lonely child. Lunchtime was the worst time of day for him though, and that poor little squid grimaced when he heard the lunch bell. He walked out, his sack lunch in hand, and sat at an empty table. Peace and quiet. That was just the way he liked it. All of a sudden, a perky little sponge and a tubby star sat down with him.
"Hi! My name's Spongebob!" the little sponge said, offering his hand.
"And my name is ice cream!" shouted the obese star. The little Sponge whispered in his ear.
"Actually you're Patrick, remember?"
"Oh yeah!" Squidward placed his lunch back in his brown bag and walked over to the building and ate on the ground right next to it. All of a sudden, Spongebob popped out of the trash can beside him.
"Hey, you got any extra mustard?" he asked, chewing loudly. Squidward, being the sensible squid he was, knew this was going to continue unless he put an end to it.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" he asked sarcastically.
"Actually, I was just trying to be your friend." Spongebob said.
"We can be friends if you go get me a…" Squidward said, thinking as he went.
"A clarinet!" he said, folding his arms. He expected this to be particularly hard to find. Spongebob was back in an instant, holding the most hideous looking woodwind Squidward had ever seen.
"Can you even call that an instrument?" Squidward asked in disgust. He took out a piece of paper and a pencil. He sketched out a black clarinet, a beautiful one, one that he had been dreaming of for his whole, tiny life. He showed it to Spongebob, pointing out and describing all of the details.
"Back in a jiffy!" Spongebob said, saluting his new "friend". "Come Patrick, we have a clarinet to fetch!" he caked, summoning the small pink star to run over to him. The two buddies ran off to find such an instrument. Squidward sat in peace and enjoyed his lunch, though little did he know that it would be the last peaceful lunch that he should ever eat.
Squidward saw no sight of those two nuisances the rest of the day, and even most of the next day, until lunchtime. Lunch had just started, when he saw the sponge running toward the schoolyard, waving Squidward's dream clarinet over his head. Patrick was running as fast as his small stubby legs could carry him, and was falling way behind Spongebob. Spongebob arrived with the described clarinet, right down to the type of wood! Squidward was baffled as he took the instrument from Spongebob. He looked for a flaw, any tiny little flaw, but found nothing. He sighed.
"Well, does this instrument meet your standards?" Spongebob asked proudly.
"Yes it does. But there is one flaw" Squidward said, an idea coming to him.
"What is it?" Spongebob asked, scratching his spongy head.
"Well, it needs to also to have a gold accent!" Squidward answered. "Pure gold!" Spongebob laughed.
"That whole thing is made of gold Squidward!" he said. "Black gold!" He laughed harder. This was the most annoying sound Squidward had ever heard.
"Isn't black gold oil?" Squidward asked suspiciously.
"Sure is!" Spongebob answered, catching his breath. "The wood is covered with a mixture of oil and black-colored gold, which is still pure!" Spongebob said.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Squidward shouted angrily.
"So we're friends now?" Spongebob asked, paying no attention to Squidward.
"Not until I'm certain that it sounds perfect too!" Squidward yelled. He blew into it, but it was a very sour note.
"Didn't you fools make sure that the inside was sanded with a single leaf from the legendary music tree?" Squidward asked, not even knowing if there was a musical tree.
"Well… no" Spongebob said shamefully.
"Well take care of it!" Squidward said, chucking the instrument at Spongebob.
"We'll be right back!" Spongebob yelled, and he and Patrick were off again. Squidward chuckled.
"Looks like I'll never be seeing them again!" he said as the bell rang to go back to class. Squidward walked back to his seat in the classroom, and saw that they would be studying a special tree today. The tree was called the "Legendary music tree" and if an instrument was rubbed with the leaf of it, it would be one of the most wonderful sounding instruments in history. However, nobody knew where the tree was. However, they didn't get far into the lesson before it was time to go home.
The next day at lunch, the second the lunch bell rang, Squidward saw Spongebob and Patrick flying toward the school on a floating staff (The musical kind). Spongebob was standing on a fourth note and Patrick had to be supported by four sixteenth notes. The staff disappeared when they were right above Squidward, and Spongebob and Patrick plopped to the ground right beside him. Spongebob landed on the ground right next to Squidward. He handed Squidward the clarinet proudly. Squidward couldn't believe it. He was so shocked that he couldn't come up with any other ridiculous feature that the clarinet had to have.
"So I guess us three will be best friends forever!" Spongebob said gleefully. The only good thing that had come of this was that Squidward now had an incredibly nice clarinet. He blew into it, and a sweet note came out of the other end.
Suddenly, the wind heavily picked up and blew the clarinet out of Squidward's hands and far away into the sky above. Squidward thought that his life couldn't possibly get worse, but some small part of him knew that this luck would continue for the rest of his life.