TJ and Spinelli were on the other swing set while Swinger Girl was on her separate swing that she had been flying for what might have been her whole life. Spinelli had her head low as she grasped the handles and TJ was swinging slightly next to her.
"That's terrible, Spinelli, and your parents didn't even tell you?" TJ asked after the girl had told her what Principal Prickly had told her.
"Yeah, you think they would after I just learned to trust them." Spinelli scoffed as she swung back and forth, but in depression and aggression. This was really not a day of school she was looking forward to.
"Well, well, if it isn't the girl going to the desert island?" one of the Ashley's came to stalk the lower-class students they despise.
"Get lost, crème puffs, this day's terrible enough already!" Spinelli glared at them.
"Like, you'd really fit in with them, Spinelli." Ashley Q. remarked.
"Yeah, you're such a savage in this school and you weren't even raised on an island like those cannibals!" Ashley T. laughed.
They all laughed at her and walked off.
"On the bright side I'll be away from the butt heads." Spinelli snorted.
"Won't be the same without ya..." TJ sighed. "I kinda wanna give you something to remember me by."
"Not your hat, Teej, I couldn't do that to you."
"No, something else."
Spinelli's eyes widened slightly as TJ drew closer to her. "What're you-" suddenly, she received a sweet kiss on the lips. Her eyes grew wider than usual as she was kissed by the one and only, TJ Detweiler. "Whoa..." Spinelli whispered in shock.
TJ smiled, then kept swinging. "It really won't be the same without ya, Spinelli. Who's gonna protect us from that snitch Randall, those bratty Ashley's...?"
"I'm sure you'll be okay," Spinelli shrugged and didn't swing, but stared at the black top with stray chalk scratches drawn or rubbed into the pavement. "I just can't believe my parents didn't tell me."
"Don't sweat it, just call me before you leave, okay?"
"Okay. I'm sure it's a misunderstanding anyway. I'm sure my parents and I will talk about this."
That night, at the Spinelli house.
"What do you mean we've already talked about this!?" Spinelli gaped at her parents after talking with them about her day at school.
"Well, sure we have, pookie," Bob told her. "Don't you remember?"
"Um, no, I think I would remember us talking about this." Spinelli scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"We have, honey, we talked about it last week." Flo tried to jog her memory.
Spinelli looked at them, then thought back, slightly rolling her eyes in annoyance to this.
Flashback
Spinelli was in her bedroom, jamming to some heavy metal music. She was so engrossed by the music, she didn't seem to notice any of her surroundings. Downstairs, Bob and Flo were looking over some papers that Spinelli brought home from school for them to look at while she would do homework. They came across a foriegn exchange student flyer.
"Exchange students, those are always interesting." Bob remarked.
"Wouldn't it be nice if Ashley became an exchange student?" Flo added, smiling proudly.
"Why don't we ask her?"
"Honey? Honey doll!?"
"Yeeeeaaahh!" Spinelli was rocking out to the music and did an air guitar, though her parents mistook it for her answering them.
"How would you like to become a foreign exchange student?"
"AWESOME!" Spinelli still rocked out. "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!"
Bob and Flo smiled. It was settled, they should sign their daughter up for becoming a new transfer student. They filled out the permission slip. A while later, Spinelli was finishing some homework and Flo came in.
"Honey, you have to sign this for school." Flo handed her the paper.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, Mom." Spinelli took it without reading and signed her name on it, handing it back.
"Good night, sweetie, in a week, all your dreams are gonna come true." Flo hugged Spinelli close and kissed her on the cheek, then went out for the night.
Spinelli glanced at her mother and shrugged, unsure of what she meant by that. She then went to get some sleep.
End of Flashback
"Oh, yeah..." Spinelli sighed in defeat.
"Being a foriegn exchange student would be good for you, pookie," Bob encouraged his daughter to go for it anyway. "They say it's a learning experience."
"Yeah, a whole new sandbox." Flo added.
Spinelli sighed and slumped. This was going to be a miserable final week at Third Street School. However, before she knew it, it was time to go to the island. Her new adventures await on the Albonquetine Islands, but luckily for her, there was a girl on the island, who was from New York, who wasn't an islander. Hopefully the two would become friends and help each other out.
"So, you're leaving, huh?" TJ asked, flatly.
"Yeah," Spinelli sighed. "I'm really gonna miss you guys."
"Woe, woe is us, without Spinelli, it'll be nothing but endless rest, oh, woe!" Mikey cried.
"Gosh Spinelli, I don't know what we're gonna do without ya..." Gus frowned deeply.
"Don't worry about it, okay? You guys don't need me." Spinelli told them.
"See ya when we see ya..." Gretchen sighed unhappily.
Spinelli sighed sharply. She then heard her dad's car horn honk.
"Come on, sweetie, we gotta get you across the ocean before a volcano erupts or something!" Bob called.
Spinelli sighed again and looked at her gang. "See ya, guys..." she walked off to to the car and shut the door behind her.
The gang all watched her leave. The bell rang to summon them to class and they quickly went. They just hope that Spinelli would be alright without them and she would be alright without them. They all expected Gus to be the one to be away because he's moved so much and been to six different schools, but no. It was their very own Spinelli. Millions of thoughts and questions overwhelmed their brains. Would they see her again? Would she change? Would Spinelli's new friends be more savage than the kindergarteners of Third Street School or in China according to Diggers Sam and Dave? No one would know the answer until Spinelli would come back home.
Spinelli was now in a new part of the world. She was on the islands and only saw a few kids. Not as many as her friends or anyone in school, it looked lonely, but what could she expect from an island? She saw a girl with earrings and pigtails, highly assuming she was the New York girl since the other kids didn't wear shoes and had hoop rings, such as a nose ring on the boy and big ear ones on the girl.
"Um, hi, I'm Spinelli..." the new girl came while the kids stared at her.
The New York girl saw the islander kids weren't going for her, so she decided to greet her and make friends first. "Hi, I'm Mike," the girl spoke. "And this is my new island."
"It's my island!" the girl in green protested.
Mike glanced at her, annoyed. "This is Lu..."
"Princess Lu!" the girl once again protested.
Spinelli found this girl annoying and started to chase her.
"More like Princess Pain in the Butt if you ask me..." Mike murmured. Once Spinelli came back, Mike went back to introductions. " That's her turtle Lancelot, kind of a love-hate relationship. This almost naked kid is Og. Don't let the nose ring fool you, he's actually a pretty cool dude. And we are the only kids on this island."
Spinelli shrugged at it. "Cool..."
"Great, another city girl, I wonder what's gonna happen to my precious island?" Lu sighed, sounding mopey.
"She reminds me of four girls back home..." Spinelli growled.
"Tell me about it,... I just hate girls like that... At least this time's temporary." Mike whispered to her.
"So, your name's Mike? Funny, one of my friends back home is named Mikey."
"No offense, but what kind of name is Spinelli? Sounds like Italian food."
"It is Italian," the other girl told her. "My name's Ashley Spinelli, but don't you dare call me Ashley! I hate that name!"
"Yeah, well, don't call me Michelene, then."
"Right."
"Right."
And like that, Mike and Spinelli reached an agreement. The islanders then decided to get Spinelli settled into her new lifestyle for a while and turn in for the night to await adventures very soon.
