A one-shot on how Nigel and Hoagie were recruited. And a few cannons on things like where Numbuh 1 got his rocket boots from. Enjoy, and don't forget to review, follow, and favourite!
Disclaimer: Mr. Warburton owns AAALLLLLL *mysterious fortune teller music plays*
There once was a little boy who had zero confidence in himself. He was scrawny and pale and timid. His name was Nigel. He didn't have any friends, and was often laughed at by the other kids during recess. He hated it, just as any kid would. He didn't like attention, good or bad. He simply enjoyed being alone, wallowing in his own thoughts. He spent the majority of his time locked up in his closet with a flashlight, reading through stacks and stacks of books. He was a very bright boy, so much so that at school he was called a nerd. Nobody stood up for him. And if no one else did, why should he?
Two years after he started school, he transferred. His mum found work in Virginia, and so they moved. He didn't really care. He was nobody anyways. He didn't expect anybody to miss him, and nobody did, especially since they were all posh and rich and spoiled and cared for nobody but themselves.
He started first grade at a strange school called Gallagher Elementary. To his utter shock, there he met a lot of other kids who were just as scrawny and timid as him. His first friend consisted of a short, pudgy american boy who sported a pair of vintage aviator goggles and a cap. He often carried around a stack of blueprints for no apparent reason. He was always seen working on them, compiling idea after idea onto paper. He was very protective of them and let next to nobody see them.
Nigel was fascinated with this boy. He was impressed at how focused he was at his task. Even so, he never attempted to interact with him. Nigel didn't even know his name. He just knew that he was The Nerd. Like, there were other nerds, but this kid was The Nerd. He saw him get teased and bullied quite often, but Nigel was too afraid to help. By now, Nigel was kind of accepted in the school`s community, but all the same, he was basically friendless. And he knew for a fact that if he tried to befriend this boy, his weak reputation would deteriorate and crumble into dust. At this point, the thing he wanted most was to simply be accepted.
One day, during recess, something happened that made him change his mind. The school's resident bully, dubbed Thuggie (thanks to his bad-boy attitude and criminal habits), approached the chubby boy while he was diligently working on his blueprints, sheltered safely underneath the playground's slide.
"Hey Gilligan!" the bully yelled, sauntering over to the poor boy with his gang of followers. The boy ignored him. "Hey! Answer me when I talk to you, loser!" His friends laughed.
"W-what do you want?" he whimpered in response, keeping his eyes glued to his papers sitting in his lap, shrinking into the shadows of the slide.
"Look at me when I talk to you, loser!" Thuggie yelled. His friends burst into even more laughter. By now every kid's rapt attention was glued to the conflict breaking out, including Nigel's. Nobody moved and nobody made a sound. Nigel felt his fists clench. He watched, appalled as the Gilligan boy looked up nervously, biting his lip.
"Staring is rude, Gilligan," Thuggie sneered, shoving him down into the sand. Nigel gritted his teeth. He could feel a coil of rage boiling away in the pit of his stomach. What did he ever do to them? He watched in horror as the right-hand man of the bully snatched away the Gilligan boy's precious blueprints, gazing at them in mock fascination.
"Wow, nerd, you're pretty good at drawing pretty princess pictures. Too bad they're nothing now," he taunted, ripping one up. Gilligan let out a cry of dismay. The bully and his friends laughed heartily, high-fiving each other. They began passing out the intricate drawings- the drawings this little first-grader had spent hours and hours on, tearing them apart one by one, similar to that of how vultures rip apart animal carcasses. Each time one was destroyed, it was as if a part of the boy was destroyed. At last, Nigel could not take it anymore.
"Stop it," he growled, striding forward. He stepped in front of the boy, blocking him from their view. The entire yard was suddenly abuzz with murmurs and whispers of surprise.
"Oh, lookie what we've got here! Mama bear has come to the rescue." They burst into laughter, crowding around the duo. "Aw, how cute."
"Shut up," Nigel retorted, standing his ground.
"Who are you, anyways? Do you even go to this school? Do you know who we are?" they asked threateningly, a little surprised at his defiance. Never before had their motives been questioned. "We're in the fourth grade. That means we are three years older than you," said the leader, enunciating each word carefully.
"That may be, but sadly your intelligence correlates to that of someone much younger than three years," Nigel shot back, enunciating just as carefully. There was a chorus of ooooohs and buuuuuurn from the surrounding onlookers.
"We got a live one here," the leader muttered angrily, stepping forward. Nigel squared his shoulders, bringing his fists up, preparing for a fight. He knew there was next to no chance he would survive, especially considering that it was one against seven. And… also the fact that he didn't actually know how to fight. "Ooh, he's gonna fight us, guys!" Thuggie remarked. More laughter from his cronies.
"Ooh, he's gonna fight us, guys!" Nigel mocked, imitating his southern drawl. More ooohs and ahhhhs. He was met with seven cold glares.
"Do you wanna fight us, kid?" Not really, no, Nigel thought to himself.
"Do you wanna make me?" he retorted bravely.
"Dang!" someone yelled.
"I don't make trash, I just burn it," Thuggie replied, smirking. The yard erupted. Someone threw a bottle of aloe vera at Nigel, who caught it with one hand and took a sip. Several girls swooned and fell over.*
(*this is a bit of an exaggeration)
"I suppose that means you'll be burning yourselves, I see," he replied without missing a beat. By now you could barely hear the dispute, as the surrounding kids were all arguing and fighting and talking and yelling and screaming and…
"SHUT UP!" bellowed the leader. Silence pursued as every kid froze in fear.
"Oh please, you should shut up yourself," Nigel said, crossing his arms, feeling adrenaline pumping through his veins.
"Okay, that's it, you little twerp-" The seven of them advanced towards Nigel, and he shoved the Gilligan boy to the side in an attempt to shield him away from the upcoming carnage.
"Stop it, will ya'?" interrupted a new voice, clear as a bell. Everyone turned to stare at the small girl tapping her foot impatiently. "Dis is so lame dat Abby doesn't even want popcorn."
"Totally agree with you, sis," a taller girl added, stepping beside her.
"Cree, go away. This isn't your problem." Thuggie muttered, blushing a little. It was quite obvious that he had a major crush on the sassy fifth grader.
"Yes it is," she retorted. "You shouldn't be so mean to people."
"I'm not being that mean!" he protested.
"Yeah, and I'm not joking. Back off or you'll get a taste of this," she said threateningly, waving her fist at him.
"Hahahaha, what are you gonna do, girlie? Pull my hair?" he exclaimed, eyes burning with sudden rage. He abruptly strode forward and, to everyone's utter shock, swung his fist at her face. Nigel cringed along with everyone else, squeezing his eyes shut. There was a series of thumps and a cry of pain- from Thuggie. Everyone stared.
"He had anger management problems, anyways," Cree muttered, shrugging. Thuggie lay on the ground, hands curled around his crotch, whimpering with pain. People continued to stare at her. "What?" she exclaimed. Abby gave her a high five.
"Why you little…" yelled Thuggie's right hand man. He gestured to Abby, who appeared to be the weaker target. His friends growled, and as one, they shot towards her, fists raised. People screamed and ran away. Nigel stood rooted to the ground, frozen in fear. He vaguely felt the Gilligan boy peeking from out from beside him.
The little girl suddenly rushed forward… towards her attackers. She leapt up into the air, throwing one guy over her head into another one. Two fists were swung at her, but she simply ducked and rolled, allowing the two attackers to sock each other in the nose. The four lay on the ground, clutching their foreheads and faces. She kicked another one in the solar plexus, rendering him useless as he lay sprawled out, moaning loudly. She punched another in the face. By now the right-hand man was the only attacker left, but he looked as if he had peed his pants. He let out a little squeak as Abby approached him, and sprinted away.
"And this little piggy went wee wee wee, all the way home," Abby murmured to herself, chuckling. Cree picked her up and spun her around, laughing.
"What happened here?" a voice suddenly exclaimed. Of course, the recess supervisor had to appear now, at the worst possible time. Onlookers quickly busied themselves with other activities.
"They got into a fight, sir!" Abby replied politely.
"No we didn-" started one. He was quickly silenced by a lot of "shut ups" and "be quiet, moron!" They didn't want to admit to being beaten up by a little girl three years younger than them.
"Right, how about you all come with me to the principal's office, right now!" he demanded, burly mustache quivering angrily. Whining, they followed him, muttering amongst themselves.
"That was amazing!" Gilligan suddenly yelled from behind him. Nigel spun around, surprised.
"No problem, baby," Abby replied, walking to them, Cree following. The two boys gazed up at them in wonder.
"Yes, that was quite amazing," added Nigel.
"Are you kidding'?" Cree asked incredulously, turning to him. "You were amazing!"
"Me?" Nigel asked, blushing furiously.
"Yeah! You standin' up for Hoagie? Dat's real cool of you, ya know," Abby cut in.
"Oh…" Nigel said, taken aback. "Thank you."
"No, thank you!" Hoagie suddenly replied, hugging his legs from his place on the ground. Nigel stumbled slightly, surprised. "How can I repay you? Oh, I know! I've been working on these new rocket prototype boots. You have to try them."
"What? No, no, you don't need to repay me. I didn't really do anything in particular." He glanced at Abby. "If anything, repay her. She kicked some serious butt back there."
"You're kiddin'! If it wasn't fo' you, we wouldn't have stepped in. We usually don't like getting involved in… kid-on-kid fights." Cree gave her little sister a withering look.
"Abby! Anyways, I have to run. See you later!" Cree said over her shoulder, walking away. The two boys looked from Abby to Cree and back to Abby in confusion.
"Nevermind, nevermind," she said reassuringly. "Don' worry about, it, baby. Nice work back there, anyways. Those boys is gonna get a real spankin' in there," she said, gesturing towards the school.
"Seriously!" The three of them continued to banter and talk, eventually planning to meet after school for ice cream and candy.
And thus began the friendship of the three future operatives.
About two months after the incident, Abby approached them during lunch. Hoagie had recently outfitted the boot prototypes on Nigel, and he was fiddling with the buttons underneath the cafeteria table. A sudden burst of flames erupted from the soles and Nigel shot backwards in his seat, toppling over. He grinned sheepishly at a smug looking Hoagie and Abby, the latter of which was looking at him with her eyebrows raised.
"Going to work on that," he muttered, pushing himself off the ground. He picked up the chair and sat in it obediently, wearing an innocent expression on his face. Abby snorted.
"Anywaaays," she began, stretching the word out. "I wanna talk to you both… I have… an offer to make."
"An offer?" Nigel asked curiously.
"An offer." Abby suddenly lowered her voice to her whisper. "I trust you guys. A lot. You're both smart, loyal and brave." She glanced at the gray smoke billowing out from underneath the table. "Well, for the most part. So I've made a decision to tell you this." They nodded, listening carefully. "I'm part of a secret organization of kids that fights adult tyranny, called the Kids Next Door. "It's dangerous work, but I believe in you two. And we need recruits with potential- kids who are smart, loyal, and brave, just like you."
"Recruits?" Hoagie asked.
"Recruits," she confirmed.
"Us?" Nigel asked.
"You," she confirmed. Nigel and Hoagie glanced at each other, and then at Abby. They grinned.
"We're in."
Hope you enjoyed reading it. Leave a comment or criticism in the reviews! Thanks to everybody who has fav/followed me or posted a review on one or more of my stories. LOVE YOU ALL
-happynomnom