Rugrats: Season 10- Episode 1
Air time: Nickelodeon in USA, YTV in Canada, 8:00 PM
Episode: The Perfect Friend
It was Friday, and the Finsters knew what that meant. Daycare.
Chas woke up and went to the room of his children, Chuckie & Kimi. He first nudged his son awake. When he saw his sons eyes open, he took a pillow and lightly tossed the pillow into his face as his son giggled.
"Good morning little guy! How was your sleep?" asked Chas, as if he was able to understand his son's giggly speech. He dressed Chuckie and sent him downstairs to go eat breakfast.
He turned to his daughter, Kimi, next. But rather than seeing his daughter snuggled up calmly and smiling in her sleep, Kimi was shivering, looked very cranky, and clearly had cried a little bit in her sleep. Chas nudged her awake, and Kimi immediately started crying.
"Whats wrong sweetheart? Are you okay? Come on, Daddy will see whats the problem." Chas said as he picked her up and took her to his room where got out the first aid kit in his room.
"Good morning Chuckie-san!" Kira said as she lifted Chuckie and placed him in the chair with the booster seat, and gave him his breakfast of buttered toast.
After he finished, he began wondering where Kimi was. Moments after, Chas came in with Kimi, who was still wrapped in her blanket and shivering.
"Kira, this isn't good. It seems that Kimi has some sort of virus or fever. I'll take her to today to Dr. Cartoonian to see if he can tell what the problem is."
"Awww, my poor Kimi-chan." Kira said
Chuckie walked up to his parents to see what the problem was, but was immediately stopped by his mother.
"Sorry Chuck, we can't let you near Kimi today." Stated Chas "Kira, I thinks its best for me to stay home today to take care of kimi."
"I think thats for the best. Chuckie, it seems you have to go to daycare alone today."
Chuckie face went into shock at this suggestion, and he immediately tried to escape his mother's grasp, but was unable to. Kira took Chuckie to the car. Once they had left, Kimi began to cry again. Not because she was sick, but because her brother wasn't around.
Kira took Chuckie's teddy bear, Wawa, from his room, and gave it to him. This seemed to calm down the fearful toddler, and he immediately felt better.
"There, all better now." Kira said as she flattened her son's messy hair. "I'm sorry Kimi can't come, but she is sick, and we wouldn't want you sick too now would we?" She explained as she drove to the daycare.
She dropped him off, gave him a kiss goodbye and left. At the same time, someone else was dropped off and Chuckie became very worried. The boy's father was quite scary looking. He was almost never sad, always smiling and laughing. He wasn't too tall, but he looked really strong and always talked in a scary accent from a faraway place, and he had a blonde crewcut. But what scared Chuckie the most was his son. The boy was Chuckie's age. He wore purple overalls, a long sleeved green shirt with the sleeves always rolled up, and he had black sneakers. He also had brown hair that was quite long for a boy's. Chuckie always avoided him. And thats because he was always in fights.
Chuckie decided to just hide in the ball pit until it was time to go to the "scream room." While he was hiding, he saw the boy. He was quietly playing in the indoor sandbox.
"Maybe he is not so bad" Chuckie whispered to himself.
Then, he saw Big Justin. Chuckie was really scared of him. He was big, mean and tough, and he always got what he wanted. Chuckie's best friend, Tommy, told him about Justin because he'd been kicked out of his last daycare, which Tommy met him at. He was the biggest, meanest, most selfish toddler ever.
"Hey Bassem." Justin said to the boy. "Thats a nice sandcastle, my soldiers could use it as a fortress." He then dumped the soldiers into the sandcastle.
Bassem picked up the soldiers and tossed them out. "This castle is for the merman king."
"Merman king, thats dumb!"
"No its not! He is the king of the mermans and mermaids! He is King Neptune II, he has a wife named Queen Pearl and they have 2 sons and a daughter! They are real! Look, I don't want to fight, so please stop. I can help you build a fortress for your soldiers if you want?" He offered as he took the shovel and pail next to him, and started a new building for Justin in a different spot.
"No! I want that one!" Justin commanded. He then returned the soldiers to the castle
"Justin! Thats for King Neptune!"
"No! Its for my soldiers!"
Bassem's patience was going away fast.
"please Justin, go build it yourself!"
"No!" Justin then destroyed the whole castle.
Bassem got really angry, and before he could do anything, Justin pushed him. Bassem got up, and yelled at Justin.
"Yeah! He deserves it!" said Chuckie (to himself, no one heard him) Bassem actually seemed kind of cool all of the sudden. Not afraid to stand up to bullies at all.
Bassem and Justin began pushing each other. After a few minutes, one of the monitors came and was very furious, but not with Justin.
"Bassem! Not again!" said the monitor
Bassem looked at her, and realized he was the one who had Justin pinned down. He looked at the monitor with a worried face and began shaking his head. The only words he could speak out loud weren't in english, in fact, it was in a weird language no one around him knew. She took Bassem, and dragged him into a big playpen, the bars were too high for him to climb, and he had no screw driver to unlock himself from it, he was stuck there.
All the other kids were saying really mean things about Bassem like how he was bad and crazy. But it was not true.
Chuckie walked up to Bassem who was really upset, and tried to talk with him.
"Hi, I'm Chuckie."
Bassem turned and saw the redhead. "Hi Chuckie, I'm Bassem. Let me guess, you think I'm crazy and bad too huh?"
"No, I actually think you are really great."
"That's nice but- wait, you think I'm great?"
"Yeah! You were brave against Big Justin, he could have hurted you. You are really brave. Hey! You are just like my bestest friend Tommy! You should meet him!"
"Okay! Maybe my Baba and your mommy can meet each other."
"Your bottle?"
"No, my Baba. That is how you say Daddy where my Daddy comes from."
"Ohhh. Where is your Daddy from?"
"I don't know, its really far away though, and its a really old place that is been around for a long time. Maybe even before T.B. was invented. They talk different there too. Baba taught me how to talk like they do there."
"Ohh. So thats why you sound different when talking to grown ups then with babies."
The monitor came in and immediately scooped up Chuckie. "Sorry Chuckie, but Bassem is in time-out, that means no friends!"
Chuckie looked back at the playpen, Chuckie thought Bassem would be upset because he had to leave, but instead, he looked up and said thank you.
"You here to pick up your child?" asked Kira to the man in the blonde crewcut, as she waited at the front desk in boredom.
"Yeah." said the man in a very odd and deep accent. "You seem to have a foreign accent, are you from here?"
"No, I'm originally from Japan. I lived in France for a few years as well, but recently moved here because my husband lives here. How about you. Your accent sounds like one I heard very common around the mosques in Paris."
The man chuckled. "Thats because I'm from Baghdad, Iraq. My wife is too. I immigrated here 4-5 years ago with my 12-year-old sister, Ana. I knew my wife, Farah, from university, so we met up, started dating a week later, and now, here I am, married to her and with a kid."
"Thats interesting. I was originally a divorcee because my husband was a diplomat and after he had a transfer to England, we decided we could not sustain a long-distance marriage, He also did not feel ready for a marriage or for children, so we divorced. He still does things for our daughter, like paying for her education fund as well as any hospital bills. My current husband, Chas, does the nurturing and caring. I met my husband when he almost married my crazy boss. Its a pretty funny story actually. His 2-year-old son stopped the marriage with his first word"
"Thats incredible. What was it?"
"Nooo!"
The two parents laughed as they continued to chat.
"What about the mom? The first wife?" he asked nervouly
"All Chas told me was that she was a gardener. She inspired him to be into it too. She died 5 months after giving birth. It was caused by some respiritory disease that giving birth stopped her from being able to beat. After me and Chas married, I adopted Chuckie and he adopted my daughter, Kimi."
"I'm glad things turned out good for your son." He said. He felt bad for asking what he did and changed the subject "I think its best for me to introduce myself. I'm Sahak Arakelian, but in english, my name is Isaac so I just go by that socially."
"Its nice to meet you Isaac, I'm Kira Finster."
Isaac turned to all the children playing around in the main room.
"So which two are yours?" he asked
"Well, only one of them is here today. My daughter was quite sick this morning." Chuckie then ran to the lobby and up to his mother who was giggling at her son's energy. "But this little one seems to be pretty healthy still. What about you?"
Isaac pointed at the child being walked to the front by the monitor. She handed Bassem to Isaac, who's face immediately went straight.
"I'm really sorry. How can he be creating so much trouble? I would never allow this in my home. He's usually well behaved, but in public its as if he isn't afraid to fight, ever. So what was it today?" apologized Isaac.
"Its fine. He had a quarrel today with someone. He was playing in the sandbox and he probably just did not want to share." the monitor explained
Bassem began shaking his head.
"Then what did happen?" asked Isaac
Bassem decided to reenact what happened. Chuckie and him went to the sandbox, and began reenacting what REALLY happened, Chuckie playing Big Justin, and Bassem playing himself. Kira seemed to understand the intentions of the children, so the adults let it continue, and they realized what was wrong, Bassem was in fact the victim and had been provoked.
"Oh my, I guess it was Justin who started it huh?" asked the monitor "I'm sorry Bassem."
Isaac and Kira scooped up the two kids and each headed to their cars.
"It seems Chuckie and Bassem have become friends today." said Isaac
"It seems so. Maybe they'd like to play some more. How about you come visit my cafe, its called the Java Lava, my friends have children two, maybe Bassem can become friends with them too."
The parents agreed and both headed to the Java Lava, where Betty was going crazy, having to handle the rush hour of highschool students on a friday afternoon all on her own. Kira ran in and placed Chuckie in the playpen. Following in was Isaac with Bassem.
Bassem introduced himself to the others.
"Hi, I'm Bassem."
"Hi Bassem, I'm Tommy, this is my little brother Dil, and these are the twins, Phil and Lil." explained Tommy
"Its nice to meet you." said Lil
"Do you have a brother or sister?" asked Phil
"Nope. Its just me, but my auntie is pretty young, so she is kind of like a sister." answered Bassem
"Do you like adventures?" asked Tommy
"Yeah! Especially the ones King Neptune sends me on."
"King Neptune?"
"He is the king of the mermaids and mermans. I am his kingdom's protector."
"Wow! Mermaids!" said Phil
"Do you really think they are real?" asked Lil
"They've gots to be. I also believe in other stuff like vampires, were-woofs and other stuff."
"Cool! So, is the man in the blue shirt and big nose your Daddy?" asked Tommy
"Yeah. I call him Baba because thats what you call your Daddy where he's from." Bassem said, pointing to his father, who was in his usual attire of his light blue denim uniform dress shirt, black jeans and white sneakers, with a small gold crucifix necklace around his neck and a silver watch.
"Where's your mommy? You have one right?" asked Tommy
"I do. She works at the hopsickle. She works behind the big desk and lets the sick and injured peoples in."
"Ooooh." said the kids
"Your brother is cute by the way Tommy." Bassem said "Hi Dil, I'm Bassem."
Dil looked at Bassem and giggled, then hit the boy on the head with his rattle.
"What was that?"
"Sorry, he does that a lot, expecially to me." explained Tommy
Meanwhile with the parents...
"Great you could finally make it Kira." said Betty in relief
"No problem, I also brought someone I met from the kids' daycare." she then gestured to Isaac putting his son in the playpen, then joining the adults.
"Nice place you have Kira." Isaac complimented
"Thanks, these are some friends of mine."
They each exchanged names and handshakes.
"Hi, the name's Stuart, but I go by Stu Pickles, this is my wife, Didi."
"A pleasure." said Didi
"I'm Howard Deville, and this is my wife."
"Betty, put 'er there." Betty said, giving her usual strong gripped handshake, but for once, was out shaken. "Woah. Now that is how you shake someone's hand. Say, you have quite an interesting accent. Whats your name and where are you from."
"My name is Isaac Arakelian. I'm actually originally from Baghdad like my wife, Farah. And that child right there in the purple overalls is my son, Bassem."
"Wow, Bassem seems to be getting along quite well with our kids. Tommy and Dil are our children. Tommy is 1, he's in the blue shirt, and Dil is 6 months, the one in the yellow onesie. Phil and Lil are Howard and Betty's twins, they are also 1." explained Didi
"So Isaac, you have anymore kids or is it just Bassem?"
"He is my only one right now, but me and my wife may have more. have a teenage sister to take care of too, since she was only 12 when I brought her here."
"Wow, thats quite an interesting back story. Well, we'd just like to welcome you to our little circle of friends. How about I get you a coffee, on me!" said Betty
"No, please, I'd feel guilty if you paid Plus I honestly can't stand coffee. I wouldn't mind trying some of the this bubble tea you have though. I like tea better, its my wife who runs on coffee."
Kira gave him a bubble tea, and he paid for it with his money as promised, and extremely enjoyed it. "This is incredible!"
Didi decided to officially welcome Isaac as friend of theirs.
"Isaac, how would you and your family like to join us for dinner tonight. Every Friday we join our friends from the neighbourhood and have dinner at one of our houses. I'm pretty sure we can fit 4 more people."
"That sounds nice, thank you."
Didi laid the big bowl of goulash onto the table, and then checked the time.
"All the families will be here in a few minutes. Isaac knows our address right?"
"Yes Didi." Stu answered
"Is he only bringing his family of 4?"
"Yeah Dee."
"The goulash is made only from halal ingredients, right?"
"Didi, they are Christians!" said Drew "Thats kinda not right to assume. Plus Isaac's last name is of Armenian origin, you can tell by the suffix in his last name. Only Farah's a blood Iraqi, but a Christian."
"Sorry, forgot. He knows about Chas' allergies, right?"
"Dee, Kimi is sick, remember? The Finsters can't come. That's two dumb questions in a row." answered an annoyed Stu
Over with the babies, Tommy was talking up a storm about Bassem to Angelica.
"He is so nice! And he likes adventures, and he is brave, he is just like me!"
Angelica just sat there all bored. "So what! A new dumb baby."
"Angelica, he is really cool!"
"I bet he's even dumber than you."
Tommy sighed and went back to playing with Dil until the Carmichaels arrived. Susie, Edwin, and Buster all went to see went straight to the babies.
"Hi guys." said Susie "Watcha doin?"
Tommy told Susie everything about Bassem, and as usual, Susie reacted the opposite way Angelica did.
"He sounds great! I'm so excited to meet this new friend, and he's coming tonight?"
"Yeah!"
The Devilles arrived moments later, and the last group to arrive were the Arakelians. Isaac, Farah, Bassem, & Ana.
Farah was a slim woman, who was a bit short, just barely taller than Didi with her height of 5"1. She had brown hair like her son's, but her's was more curly and longer. She was wearing her usual outfit of blue jeans, a plain black blouse over it that almost seemed like a dress as well. She also, like Isaac, seemed to speak in a heavy foreign accent, just barely being able to be understood. Ana was quite short, but being only 16, it wasn't too shocking, and unlike her older brother, her hair was darker, and had a bit more of a more tanned tone of skin. She was wearing her normal outfit of white jeans and a red sweater with brown ugg boots.
Through his father's discipline of trying to teach his son manners, Bassem shook the hands of all the adults and said hello, although being that is was one of only few words he could say in English to adults, he immediately grew bored and went to go play with his new friends.
"So, Bassem, I hear you like mythical creatures." said Susie
"Yeah, they are super cool. Especially King Neptune! I'm his human soldier and I protect his kingdom from Hydro!"
"Wow! But if he's not real, how can we fight Hydro?" asked Phil
"Simple, you do it in your mind. My Baba says that when you do that, your head goes into the clouds, and you can do anything you want when that happens!"
Tommy, the twins, and Susie all became really excited.
"Okay, close your eyes, and imagine you are under the sea."
*The frame shows Tommy closing his eyes and the screen goes wavy into a dream sequence. Tommy, the twins, and Susie are all dressed in scuba suits. Tommy's is baby blue, Susie's is yellow, Phil's is dark green, Lil's is light pink, and Bassem's is purple.
"Let's go to King Neptune!"
The babies swam to the King and Queen's castle, and were welcomed by the Hydro instead of King Neptune & Queen Pearl.
The Hydro was like Hydra, but more sea-monster-dragon- type-like. And when it spoke, it sounded just like, Angelica? It even had blonde pigtails on every head.
Phil stood in front of the rest of the gang.
"I'll take care of this. I know what to do! You just have to cut a head off!"
"Wait! Phil!" Bassem yelled, but it was too late, Phil had already cut of the head.
"Phil, you can't cut off any head, if you do-"
Then the Hydro got back up.
"It grows 3 more."
"How do we get it Bassem?" asked Lil
"We have to get the middle one, that is the only way to hurt it, but, the only way we can, is by poking her in the eye!"
"ALRIGHT!" they all yelled. They all swam at the Hydra, as she roared at them.
"You dumb sea-warriors think you can beat me?" laughed Hydra, only to get poked in her eye by Tommy. The Hydra grabbed her eye, and began crying, swimming away from the castle.
"Warrior Bassem! You've saved us again, and with your companions I see!" said King Neptune, a big, muscular Merma who had long red haor and a long red beard.
"Yup, but its all thanks to warrior Tommy."
King Neptune turned to Tommy "In that case, I reward you, Warrior Tommy, with a medal of heroes!" he said, putting the medal around Tommy's neck. Tommy looked at the medal in aw.
*Screen waves back to reality. Tommy opens his eyes, as well as the rest of the kids.
"Wow, that was great!" said Tommy "That was such a crazy adventure!"
"And we didn't even need the backyard!" added Susie
"This comes in handy when we can't go outside." said Lil
"Yup. I've gotta go to the toilet, be right back." said Bassem as he got up
"Wait, you mean the "Big White Thing."" asked Tommy
"Yeah, I go to the bathroom in that thing, since I didn't like how a potty feels."
"Wow! You know how to use a toilet! That's so cool, even Kimi is still on the Potty!" said Phil
After Bassem went to the bathroom, all the babies looked at each other.
"Tommy, you were right, Bassem is neat!"
"Yeah, he can go on an adventure without a backyard!" said Lil
"And use a toilet all by himself!" said Phil
"He's the bestest person ever brought to us for friends!" Tommy finished.
They then overheard the adults talking while dinner began being served.
"Mmm this salad is delicious, what is it called?" Charlotte asked Farah
"Its called Taboulleh. Its just parsley, tomatoes, onions, and some different spices with lemon juice." explained Farah
"I don't care how simple it is, its delicious." replied Randy
Lou was more interested in something else with the new family "So, you're both from Iraq eh? I remember meeting someone from there fighting for Britain in WWII, he sacrificed an arm to save my life in the trenches and gave me an extra hankercheif back in the Ypres. Nice fellow. He even survived it all and got to go back to his family."
"Really? He sounds a lot like what my Grandmother told me about my grandfather back when he was in WWII." answered Farah
Stu all of the sudden felt the need to change the subject. "So, how would Bassem like to go with the kids to the park tomorrow with our babysitter, Taffy?"
"Sure. It beats paying that money hound Lipshitz. I see why he holds such a name. Farah takes all his advice ever since her cousin gave her is first bookmas a gift back when she was pregnant. I'll be broke through him." said Isaac
"I know! Some doctor!" said Randy "And Lucy doesn't seem to see that!"
Angelica then came in with cookie crumbs all over her face.
"What you all talking about?" asked Angelica
"Bassem! He is super cool! And he's coming with us to the park tomorrow!" said Phil
"Oh please, you are acting like he is the bestest thing ever!"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Tommy, he's soon gonna see that he's better than all of you! And when he does, why would he wanna be your friend?"
"Thats not true Angelica!" said Susie
"Sure it is! I remember this one boy named Sean, and he and I used to be friends in preschool, until he found out he could draw better flowers than me, now we aren't friends at all because he thought he was better than me."
"Really?" asked Tommy
"Yup!"
"Angelica, Sean doesn't play with you anymore because you made Harold spill juice on him, not because he can draw better flowers."
"Angelica you are lying!" said Lil
"No I'm not, Susie wasn't even there, she doesn't know anything!" said Angelica, trying to cover up her lie.
"Oh, never mind." said Lil, and then sat back down like nothing happened
Tommy still was thinking about what Angelica had said. Was what Angelica said true?
The next day, Kimi was feeling better, and was able to join the babies to go to the park.
The babes learned that Bassem's Aunt Ana is in the same high school as Taffy, and even has some classes with her, so the girls decided to work together on the babysitting.
On the way there, Tommy told Chuckie everything Angelica told him, and came up with a strategy to keep them from losing Bassem as a friend. Whatever he did, they would insist on either doing the opposite, or doing it better than him.
"Alright minnies, you all go have fun!" said Taffy, as she let them all go to play. Phil & Lil immediately went to go play in the mud, Angelica on the swings, and Tommy, Chuckie, Kimi, and Bassem in the sandbox, while the girls played with Dil.
"So, Kimi, you wanna fight the Hydra today with me, Tommy, and Chuckie, we're the bestest sea-warriors ever!" said Bassem
"That sounds like fun!" said Kimi, then, she was nudged on the arm by Chuckie
"Uhhh, actually, wanna do something new and different."
"Like what?"
"We could bury you in the sand and only leave your head sticking out?" suggested Tommy
"What?!"
"Or we climb mount neverest, and you can watch." suggested Chuckie
"But that sounds no fun."
"How about we fight a dragon and you play the princess in danger!" suggested Kimi
"HEY!" Bassem yelled "Whats wrong guys? You all liked me yesterday! What did I do?"
Tommy got up. He gave an angry face. "You are not perfect Bassem, stop doing things that make you look better!"
"What! I'm not perfect!" said Bassem
"But you think you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"But you think you are, and you think you are better than us!"
Bassem got really angry. He did not wanna hear this. But right when he was about to yell, a big kid walked up behind him.
"Hey kid! Get out of my sandbox!" said Timmy McNulty
"This isn't your's!" said Bassem
"Yeah it is! Because I run this park, now get away!" replied Timmy, as his brothers all joined him.
Tommy, Chuckie, and Kimi all ran away, but Bassem stood his ground. "Bassem! You can't fight them!"
"Yes I can!" called Bassem
He walked up to Timmy, and roared at him. Timmy tripped, and all of the sudden, he got really angry. The four brothers then started tussling with Bassem. Timmy then walked up to Bassem, grinned, and pushed him. He then began building a sand fort to protect himself while Bassem got up. When Bassem saw it, he knew what to do, he walked up to Timmy, and yelled at his face. Timmy became startled and fell on the sand fort. He saw it destroyed, and he began crying. They all saw this. The brothers all went to Timmy, while Tommy and Chuckie helped Bassem up.
"Wow, you fought with Timmy and made him cry!" said Phil
"You are good!" said Lil
"Thanks." said Bassem
All of the sudden, they saw Colleen McNulty, the boys' mother "Hey, did you all make Timmy cry?" asked an angry Colleen
Taffy and Ana noticed this and gasped. They scooped up the minnies and ran off with them, getting away from Colleen.
Back at Tommy's house, the babies were all passing the ball around, talking about their day.
"Hey Bassem, I'm sorry I said that at the park today." said Tommy, he then passed the ball to Kimi
"Yeah, we didn't mean to make your feelings hurted." she then passed the ball to Chuckie
"We just thought you were gonna be mean and not our friend when you sawed that your the bestest baby around ad we're not." he then passed it Phil
"We feel bad. You are really nice and cool, and we weren't good friends." he then passed the ball to Lil
"But fighting was wrong, why did you do it? It only makes things worser." she finally passed it to Bassem
"I forgive you all, I know you didn't mean it. You are all the bestest friends ever. And I'm sorry for fighting. Sometimes, it happens because I can't help it. I make mistakes too you know." he then passed the ball back to Tommy
"Yeah, I guess no one is perfect, huh?" he passed the ball to Chuckie
"Nope. Every has something wrong. Kimi can be loopy. I'm the scardiest baby ever, Tommy is too bravely, Phil and Lil eat bugs, Dil is too drooly, Susie can never get the right message through, and Angelica, well, if I said everything bad about her, I'd be a bajillion years old by the time I'm done."
The babies all laughed at the joke, and then got up.
"Well, I can say one thing. We really like you Bassem. Welcome friend!" Tommy said, as they all joined in a group hug "We're glad that you are a new friend of ours."
"Aww thank you guys!" said Bassem "I'm glad I made friends with you guys. Thanks. We may not be perfect, but we are for each other!"
For those of you who are wondering why this was so long (4,690 words!) I treated this like a half-hour long, commercial-free special. If Bassem's intro ain't gonna be a movie, it might as well be a special with no commercials. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think. And yes, Bassem no longer holds the nickname "Ari". I really started to dislike that fast. Also, I will be trying to treat this like a series sort of thing, season by season, story by story. Unfortunately, I cannot update daily, which may seem like a continuous inconvenience, but unfortunately, that's the reality of life.
I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Tell me what you think of the Arakelian family as well. Until next time...
STAY TUNED & PLEASE REVIEW!