1
---
"Class, please, settle down!" Mr. Simmons called to his students. The kids seemed unusually high-strung this morning, not to mention loud. The teacher rubbed his balding head and mumbled to himself, "Let's see, Helga's here, Gerald's here, Eugene's getting his stitches removed at the…No! No!" He half stood. "Curly, that purple paint is not grape flavored, please put it back in the cabinet! Thank you. Now, Nadine's here, Stinky's here, Arnold's…hmm…" Mr. Simmons checked every desk. "Where's Arnold?"
The door flew opened. "Here I am, Mr. Simmons!"
"Oh, Arnold!" Mr. Simmons nodded. "You're not usually tardy!"
"Sorry Mr. Simmons, but I have great news!" The blonde boy approached the desk and handed the teacher a letter. "I wrote to this place called the T. Roberson Society and they wrote back! They said they'd fly us to San Lorenzo, all expenses paid! Isn't that wonderful?"
"I've heard of them." Said Mr. Simmons. "Don't they usually do this for high school students in Honors Biology?"
"Yeah Football Head?" Helga interrupted. "What'd you do? Promise we'd cure a tropical disease or something?" The class laughed, but Helga's blood ran cold when Arnold looked her way. He had never looked at her that way before. As far she knew, he had never looked at anyone that way, and it gave her heebie-jeebies.
"Well, Arnold?" Mr. Simmons brought him back to Earth.
The boy looked at his teacher for a moment, then at his classmates. Should he tell them the truth? These were his friends, after all, the people he had known his whole life. Sure, Harold and Helga may be a pain sometimes, but they didn't mean any harm. Not really anyway. He might as well trust them.
"It's because of my parents." Arnold finally said. It suddenly became very quiet, the quietest it had been all year. "You see, they were doctors down in South America, and they used to have all sorts of adventures! San Lorenzo was the last mission they were supposed to take, but they never came back. I thought maybe if I went to San Lorenzo, I could find them. But the T. Roberson Society will only sponsor us if the whole class goes. So will you?" He looked around the room. "Please?"
"Oh Arnold!" Mr. Simmons looked as if he was going to cry. "That is truly the most touching story I have ever heard! Yes, yes! Of course we will go, won't we class?"
Everyone cheered. The rejoicing was thunderous, so no one heard Sid lean over to Stinky and say, "Can you believe that baloney Arnold's trying to pull?"
"I know." Stinky replied. "What a bunch of hogwash! Everyone knows Arnold's parents got abducted by aliens!"
"Gimmee a break, Stinky!" Sid snapped. "They're obviously mobsters on the run!"
"Well, whoever they is," Stinky looked at Arnold in the front of the room, "They ain't no doctors from San Whozwhatitzit!"
"Got that right!" Sid agreed. "But at least we're getting out of class for this!"
"Darn tootin'!"