Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to get the next chapter up. I found I got distracted last night while watching Rugrats on The Splat, though I should mention, that while they didn't air The Odd Couple during last night's two hour marathon, they did air two of the other episodes referenced in the last chapter. Then today, I guess I'm still a bit more tired than I thought. No matter, I'm back with the next chapter, so I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 2, The Sleepover at Zack's
"Destination complete!" The voice from the driverless car called out, just as it pulled into a parking space into the parking lot at the apartment complex.
Just then, as Celeste switched off the driverless van, Zack awoke with a start, looking around and recognizing where they were.
"We're home Zachary and Tommy." Celeste said, getting out of the van and coming around to get the two boys out of their car seats, gathering up her purse, Zack's diaper bag, and Tommy's overnight bag.
Once everybody was out of the van, Celeste handed the electronic keys to Zack, and let him press the button to close the doors and lock them.
"Wanna help aunty Celeste lock up the car?" Celeste asked.
Zack smiled and giggled, as he pressed the correct buttons on the remote to close the two sliding doors, followed by the button to lock the car. Once they were done, the three of them walked up a sidewalk passing by all of the apartments, until they got to their front door. While walking, Tommy turned to Zack.
"Wow Zack, you live at the tired center?" Tommy asked, as the outside of the apartment complex looked similar to the complex his grandpa Lou and grandma Lulu lived in.
"No silly, me and my aunty live in a partment complex, and look! Here's our partment, up ahead!" Zack said excitedly, pointing to his front door, as it came into view.
The building was an ordinary red brick building, with what appeared to be several brown front doors in a row, leading into each person's apartment. It was like a neighborhood of houses, only with no yards separating them. As soon as Zack saw his front door, which was the fifth one in down the sidewalk, he turned the corner, and Celeste and Tommy turned right along with him, as the three of them made their way up to the front door. Celeste put the key into the lock, opened up the door, and had everybody head inside. Just as they headed up to the small porch, the lights all turned on automatically, as a security precaution, so that Zack would have light to see by, even though Celeste didn't need it because of her blindness, though in actuality, all of the apartments did this to keep burglers away.
"Ah, home sweet home. You and Tommy go play Zack, while I get supper ready, and soon, we'll eat while watching the made for TV Reptar movie." Celeste said with a smile, as she kissed the top of her nephew's head, then left the two boys in the small entry hallway, while she disappeared around the corner into another room, then off to Zack's room to stash Tommy's bag.
Once Celeste was out of sight, Zack turned to Tommy, who was looking around the apartment with curiosity.
"Want me to give you a tour?" Zack asked.
"Sure!" Tommy replied, as Zack took Tommy's hand, and the two of them headed into the living room, to begin the tour.
They went through each of the rooms, and Zack pointed out what each room was. They went to the kitchen, which was deserted at this point because Celeste hadn't returned from changing out of her work clothes to start making dinner. Zack pointed over to the table where there were two seats with booster seats on them.
"Those are the seats where we'll sit to eat Tommy." Zack explained, pointing to the chairs with the booster seats on them.
They then went back into the living room, where Zack showed Tommy the TV remote on the coffee table, his collection of DVD's, and their large, flat screen TV, as well as the comfy red couch.
"Me and my aunty watch TV in here, and sometimes, I'll play in here too." Zack said.
Tommy looked around and noticed that Zack didn't have a playpen.
"No playpen?" Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nope, don't need one. I do have a tiny backyard though, where we can play when it's daylight." Zack explained, pointing out a huge window in the living room that looked out into the tiny backyard.
Unfortunately, neither of the toddlers could see much, because it was already dark outside. Tommy did see where the back door was in the kitchen, and the keys hanging on the hook on the wall near by, which he assumed were for that door. After they explored the living room, they went into a hallway, where Tommy noticed three doors. Two of them were open, while one of them was closed.
"Where does the closed door go Zack?" Tommy asked, heading for that door and reaching up to the doorknob.
Just then, Zack grabbed his hand and jerked it away.
"No Tommy, that's the bathroom. We only go in there to take a bath when my aunty's with us. Otherwise, the door stays closed, and we're to stay out." Zack said sternly.
"Oh." Tommy said.
"You're not, you know, potty trained, are you?" Zack asked.
Tommy pulled down his blue shorts to reveal his diaper underneath.
"Thank you, that answers my question. Me neither. Of course, I'm not even a-year-old yet. I wish I could use the potty though. Just think, freedom, and no more growed ups needing to change my diapies." Zack explained, walking further down the hall where there were two open doors across from one another, and another door at the very end of the hall that remained closed.
Tommy was shocked. He had never actually met another baby before who looked forward to getting potty trained. Even he wasn't really looking forward to the day he'd lose his diapers. Where would he keep his screwdriver? However, now wasn't the time to worry about such things. Now was the time, to enjoy his sleepover at Zack, and enjoy what time he had left in diapers before the dreaded day came around. He at least had pockets in the shorts he was wearing, and only hoped he got to keep those, after losing his diapers.
"Where does this door go?" Tommy asked, pointing to the closed door at the end of the hall.
"Oh, that's a closet. The open door to the left is my aunty's room. We're not allowed in there, but we are welcome into the open door on my right, because that's my room!" Zack cried excitedly, walking into his room, with Tommy following close behind him.
The lights were already turned on, and Tommy noticed his overnight bag off to one side of the floor against the wall. He looked around the room, and saw some lovely white furniture, consisting of a dresser, a book shelf, a changing table, and a rocking chair. He saw some baskets filled with toys next to the door, and noticed the carpet was a slightly darker shade of blue than the carpets at his own house. However, the thing that really caught his eye, back in the far left-hand corner of Zack's room, stood one of those racecar beds. It was no ordinary bed though. It was light green, just like Reptar, and at the head of the bed was Reptar's tail, while at the foot was Reptar's head. It was like his Reptar wagon, only a bed instead.
"Wow neat! A Reptar bed!" Tommy exclaimed, pointing to Zack's bed.
"Yep. And on the bed are my Super Why sheets." Zack explained, pointing to the sheets on the bed, and the different characters.
"Look, here's Wiatt, here's Princess Pea, here's Red, and here's Pig." Zack explained, pointing to the different characters on the sheets.
However, Tommy had never heard of Super Why before, so none of this looked familiar to him. He did know Reptar very well, and was fascinated by this really cool bed Zack had.
"That's a really neat bed Zack." Tommy commented.
"Thanks! Wanna see something really neat?" Zack asked, as he ran over to the light switch and shut off the lights.
This entire time, Tommy still had his eyes on the Reptar racecar bed, when all of the sudden, Reptar's eyes on his face lit up.
"See Tommy? Reptar's eyes glow in the dark! Of course, I can turn them off, and, I can also make his entire head light up." Zack said, climbing on his bed and reaching up to a switch on one of Reptar's scales on his head.
He pushed it in one direction, causing the eyes to shut off, then flipped it back in another direction, causing the entire head to light up, then flipped the switch back to the middle, where only the eyes lit up, glowing red, while when the head was lit up, it appeared a bright green. After demonstrating the bed to Tommy, he ran over and turned the lights back on, then stared down at his basket full of blocks.
"Wow! That's a really neat bed Zack, I bet you have lots of fun getting to sleep inside Reptar every night, huh." Tommy said.
"Yeah, I sleep there sometimes." Zack replied.
"Sometimes?" Tommy thought to himself, confused again.
He thought about asking Zack about that, but was quickly interrupted from his thoughts when Zack spoke up, changing the subject entirely.
"Hey! We've got time to play before dinner, wanna build a block city and make Reptar knock it down?" Zack asked, pulling out his Reptar doll out of one of the baskets.
"Sure!" Tommy said, running over to the basket full of blocks.
The two boys dumped its contents on to the floor, and got to work, building a huge block tower together. Meanwhile, Celeste had changed clothes, had returned to the living room, where she switched on the television, then got to work in the kitchen preparing dinner. Back in Zack's room, they had built a massive tower, similar to the huge city Angelica was having the babies build in Thumbs Up. A few minutes later, once they were done, Zack picked up his Reptar doll and handed it to Tommy.
"Here, you be Reptar first, after all, you're the guest." Zack said.
"Okay. Roar!" Tommy cried, pretending to be Reptar, as he jammed the toy into the block city, and knocked it down.
No sooner had the blocks scattered everywhere on the carpet, when the two boys heard an all-too familiar voice calling their names in the distance.
"Tommy, Zack, dinner will be ready shortly." Celeste called.
Tommy looked around at the mess of blocks that lay on the floor before him.
"Uh, Zack, don't you think we ought to pick up first?" Tommy asked.
"Oh don't worry about it Tommy, my aunty will pick them up later." Zack said, noticing he was somewhat trapped, because he was across the room, with several blocks scattered on the floor before him.
"On second thought, it would make it easier to get out of here without hurting ourselves. Here, let's clean up the blocks together." Zack said, picking up a hand full of blocks and tossing them randomly into the box.
Tommy however, started going around, and remembering what he learned at Chuckie's, he started putting all of the orange blocks together, then yellow ones, and so on, lining them up on the floor.
"Tommy, what are you doing! Just, toss them in the box!" Zack cried impatiently.
"You mean, we don't gotta put them away by size and color?" Tommy asked.
Zack just gave him a dirty look.
"What are you crazy? Of course not! We just want them off of the floor. Come on." Zack protested, as he kept tossing random blocks of different shapes and colors into the box.
Tommy threw his piles of orange and yellow blocks he had lined up into the box, not caring where they landed.
"Wow, picking up blocks here is a lot easier than it ever was at Chuckie's." Tommy thought to himself, as the last few blocks were picked up off of the floor, and the toddlers pushed the basket back towards the wall so neither one of them, or Aunty Celeste would trip over it later.
Once they were threw, Zack took his Reptar doll, and the two boys headed out into the living room, where they smelled the aroma of cheese fill the air, and the TV was on, airing a game show. Tommy sat on the floor, and after watching the show for a few minutes, he noticed it looked very familiar.
"Wow! I know this show, my mommy was on this." Tommy said, pointing to the TV which was airing an episode of Super Stumpers.
At that moment, a shot of the two contestants behind their podiums appeared, neither of which looked like Tommy's mom.
"Your mommy's not on this show." Zack scoffed.
"No, she was on there a long time ago." Tommy said.
"Oh. Well that's cool, but what I'm looking forward to is the made for TV Reptar movie, which is coming up next!" Zack cried.
Now Tommy had heard commercials for it all week on TV, but while he'd point to the TV and get really excited whenever the commercial came on, his mommy, who was usually watching with him at the time, wasn't sure about letting him stay up past his bedtime to watch the movie, as she'd comment on it every time. Little did he know he'd be sleeping over at Zack's on the night of the movie.
"Uh, Zack, after dinner, isn't it going to be bedtime soon? My mommy toldid me that the Reptar movie was coming on after bedtime." Tommy said.
"Bedtime, what's that?" Zack asked.
Tommy gasp. First, Zack couldn't wait to get out of wearing diapers forever. Secondly, there were no strict rules in terms of how the blocks were picked up, or even if they were picked up, but this one was a huge shock. What baby didn't know about bedtime.
"Come on Zack, you know, bedtime, when your aunty probably reads you a story, tucks you into your blankie, and you drink a nice warm bottle of milk before falling asleep?" Tommy asked.
"Oh, no. We don't do stuff like that. Well okay, so I'll usually have a bottle of hot milk, but most nights, we just, fall asleep whenever we're ready to do so." Zack replied.
"I don't understand." Tommy said, turning his gaze away from the TV, no longer interested in watching Super Stumpers.
Just then, Celeste came in, carrying two lap trays that she placed on the floor. Zack sat near one of them, while Tommy went to the other, a bit confused, as they were facing the TV. He did notice the living room was carpeted, just as Celeste returned with their plates and two sippy cups. On each of the plates were some nachos with melted cheese on top, a cup of banana yogurt on Tommy's plate with a cup of blueberry yogurt on Zack's plate, some cut up hotdog, and a small portion of red grapes and frozen blueberries.
"Mmmm! Hot chips and cheese, hotdog, yogurt, grapes, and frozen blueberries! All of my favorite foods!" Zack cried, digging into his plate.
"But wait, aren't we spose to eat in the kitchen?" Tommy asked, just as he turned and saw Celeste sit down on the sofa with her plate in her lap, complete with a chicken anchilotta, and some rice on top.
"No no Tommy, we're gonna eat while we watch the rest of Super Stumpers and the Reptar movie." Zack said.
Again, Tommy couldn't believe it. Even in his house, eating in the living room in front of the TV was forbidden. He was expecting this visit to be a lot more like staying at Chuckie's house, only so far, it proved to be just the opposite, and even opposite from his own home, as after Dil was born, seems things got more strict in his home, as with having a little brother who often cried if awakened before he was ready, going to sleep at night was more or less, in order, no its, ands, or buts.
"Come on Tommy, you're two now, right?" Zack asked, in between bites of hot chips and cheese.
"Uh huh." Tommy replied, before taking another bite of his banana yogurt.
He didn't much care for the yogurt, as he liked other flavors better, but decided to be polite and not say anything.
"Come on Tommy, I may be much younger than you, heck, I haven't even had my firstest birpday yet, but I happen to know that the year of being two is well, the transitional two's." Zack explained.
"The transitional twos? What do you mean?" Tommy asked.
"Tommy, at age two, I've heard that it's when babies drift away from being babies, and not only that, but the growed ups try to really start running our lives. Once you turn two, I hear everything changes. It's harder to go off on aventures, play rough with our toys, and even bedtime routines become more strict. I don't gots a mommy and daddy no more, only my aunty, and she promised me a life of freedom and happiness. Now Tommy, it's your chance for that freedom. Just think, I mean, can you honestly say you like that thing called, bedtime? If you were home tonight, you wouldn't be getting to watch the Reptar movie." Zack said.
Tommy just stood up from his food, which was mostly gone now, except for the blueberries on his plate, and stood up, his back against the sofa. He thought about it for a few minutes, and while he was always use to being put to bed at hnight, and sleeping in his bed most nights, except for that one night after Dil was born when he drug his pillow and one of his dad's slippers into the closet, upset by Dil taking away his mommy and daddy's attention from him when he started crying, interrupting story time with his mommy to have a lullaby sung to him to get him to stop, he did realize that there were nights when he wasn't ready to go to bed, especially when something was on his mind, like when his aunt Miriam came to visit and wondering if she was an ant from outer space, or that time his grandpa put him and Chuckie to bed early to try to hide Morgonna from them, but never in a million years did he imagine never having to go to bed when his parents wanted him to every night.
"Come on Tommy, don't be a baby. You could live like me, if you just, challenged the limits." Zack said.
Tommy stood there, frozen, his mouth gaped open. After all, he was usually the one saying stuff like that to Chuckie when he refused to go on one of his adventures with him, never in a million years would he meet someone who would be talking down to him other than Angelica, but even at Angelica's house, she had strict rules, even if she was constantly challenging them, getting the babies to do all of her things for her, like cleaning up her room.
"Okay Zack, I get it. You do things differently around here. I guess, I can give it a try. After all, at my house, we'd never be allowed to eat in front of the TV." Tommy said, taking a seat back in front of his plate and trying one of the frozen blueberries.
"Mmmm, cold." Tommy commented, after eating one of the blueberries.
"That's cuz they're frozen. Someday, when you start getting more teeth, as that's something else I hear we'll be getting as we get biggerer, and I hear it hurts, you'll thank me for introducing you to frozen blueberries." Zack said.
Tommy wouldn't admit it, but because of being born two months premature, while he didn't suffer from any major delays, he did have a few physical delays, his teeth coming in slower was one of them, as he had only one tooth most of his time as a bald one-year-old baby. Once he turned two though, he started to grow hair, and judging by some of the headaches he had been starting to witness as of late, it wouldn't be long before he started getting more teeth, though while it might not be pleasant, he'd take Zack's advice and eat those, over biting on other kids' toys at the park, like that Gabriel kid did, getting Tommy framed that one time for wrecking the Mcnulty boy's ball, which, to this day, he liked those kids even less now since that happened, along with how they treated everybody at Timmy's last birthday party, excluding the girls because they had coodies, and then Chuckie, because of turning into a monster like the girls. No matter, they went on to finish their supper in silence, drinking the water from their sippy cups, as the final round on Super Stumpers concluded, and the lady contestant playing, won.
"Congratulations Rita Loud, you won the match, for another high score in Super Stumper's history." Alan Trebek claimed.
While they wouldn't meet the Louds for another year or two, the mom was the contestant on the show.
"Oh wow how wonderful!" Rita exclaimed.
"So what will it be? The dining set? Stewed proons? Bug zapper?" Alan asked.
"Well, with a husband and eleven children, our dining stuff tends to need replacing every few years." Rita said.
"Then the dining set it is." Alan said, handing her a large box.
"Well that's all of the time we have for tonight. Tune in tomorrow, for another mind expanding edition of, Super Stumpers!" Alan said, waving goodbye to the camera, as the closing credits started to roll past on the screen.
Soon, after the credits ended, the Heavenly Diaper commercial came on that Phil and Lil starred in.
"Wait a minute Tommy, isn't that Phil and Lil?" Zack said, pointing to them on the screen at the end of the commercial.
"Yep it is! They starred in a mercial for diapies a long time ago." Tommy said.
"Oh wow I see. I wonder what that was like." Zack said.
Tommy didn't respond, figuring it might be better if Phil and Lil told him that story sometime. Soon, their plates were empty, as was Celeste's, as she came over and started wiping up what spilled with a rag, and cleaning up their dishes.
"So, while there's a commercial, would you boys like to come help get your hot milk ready?" Celeste asked.
Again, something else that confused Tommy, as while he had hot milk every night, helping prepare it was something new to him. Curious, he and Zack headed into the kitchen, where Celeste tossed the dishes into the sink, pulled out two baby bottles from the cabinet, some milk from the refridgerator, and then, something else that Tommy didn't recognize. First, she poured the milk into the bottles, and then, she poured the unfamiliar stuff that while stirring up Tommy's bottle with a spoon, he noticed the milk inside starting to turn brown.
"What's going on Zack? Why is my milk brown?" Tommy asked.
"Don't you know? That's chocolate milk! My aunty mixes in ovaltine with the milk to make it good and chocolatie." Zack explained.
"Oh yeah, I've had chocolate milk before, well, sort of." Tommy said.
"What do you mean?" Zack asked.
"Well one time when my daddy gave me, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Angelica these really neat helmets to wear and he and everybody's daddies were watching football on TV, my grandpa gave us bottles to drink, and he gave me some chocolate milk. Only, Angelica wanted it." Tommy explained.
"Typical." Zack groaned while hearing the story, crossing his arms, thinking this event couldn't have gone well if she was involved, as while he had only known the gang for not very long, he knew that blond with the pigtails to be nothing but trouble.
"What happened?" Zack asked.
"Well, we tried to keep my bottle away from Angelica, cuz she wanted my milk, but in the end, while she didn't get no chocolate milk cuz the bottle was empty by the time she got it, none of us got any neither. The living room was a mess, and our mommies were mad." Tommy said.
"I take it you haven't had chocolate milk since." Zack replied.
Tommy nodded yes.
"Well no worries, Angelica's not here, so I think you'll be able to enjoy your chocolate milk more this time." Zack said.
Tommy smiled at his comment, just as Celeste came over and picked up Zack, overhearing his babbles to Tommy, and carried him over to the counter, where the spoon sat inside his bottle.
"Wanna help me stir?" Celeste asked her nephew.
He smiled, grabbed the spoon, and started stirring it around, as Celeste held him up to the counter so he could reach it. Once it was done, she put him back down on the floor, put the bottles in the microwave, and at that moment as she was starting up the microwave to heat them up, the boys heard the all-too familiar roar of Reptar coming from the TV in the living room, as they ran back in there to catch the movie. They sat down on the floor, their eyes glued to the TV, as Reptar came charging down the streets of Tokyo, and a few minutes later, the evil scientist from the Runaway Reptar movie appeared in a dark laboratory from inside a boxcar, stirring something in a test tube.
"Soon, my experiment will be complete! No longer am I making Reptar robots. Rather, I'm making a female Reptar, which will allow the production of dinosaurs to once again, head on, full force, and soon, we'll get our revenge on becoming extinct to begin with, as we wipe out the entire human population, and get our revenge, taking over the world, once and for all! Ha ha ha ha ha!" The scientist cackled.
Then, the footage flipped to another building, where the professor and his crew were also working on a project.
"It seems, that Reptar has a family, and his family, drove a train." The professor explained to his crew, as he looked through a crystal ball at what appeared to be the Dinosaur Train characters before him.
"That does look like Reptar." The female assistant commented, pointing at Buddy, who was the same species of dinosaur as Reptar.
"We do believe that this particular dinosaur might be Reptar's relative, and might be able to help us, finally send Reptar back to his own time, once and for all, and we must hurry, before that evil project of regeneration is complete." The professor said to his crew members wearing the yellow suits.
"Yeah!" His male assistant said, agreeing with him.
Just then, Celeste came in with their bottles of hot chocolate milk, complete with milk and Ovaltine, and handed them to Tommy and Zack, who drank their bottles with no hesitation. Tommy liked the taste of the warm chocolate milk, and in fact, found he liked it more than what he had been drinking over the last two years. He finished his bottle and continued to watch the Reptar movie intently, not wanting to miss a thing, as the scientist completed his project, a female Reptar, who was named Reptara, who looked like Reptar, only she had dark purple skin, light pink scales, and a blue tongue. Meanwhile, Celeste sat on the sofa to watch the movie too, and listen to it as best as she could, even though there was no audio description, as Zack climbed into her lap with his bottle, curled up, and drank his hot milk, eventually, falling asleep, way before the movie was over.
However, Tommy was too engrossed in the movie to notice, that is, until what felt like another commercial break came on, and after seeing the same ads shown for what felt like the bazillionth time, he decided to pass the time during this commercial break by talking to Zack. Noticing he was no longer on the floor next to him, he tossed down his bottle, which he had long since finished, and glanced over at the couch, where Zack was curled up, asleep in his aunty's lap, his now empty bottle, lying on its side on the couch cushion next to them. This really took Tommy by surprise, as he couldn't remember the last time he fell asleep in his mommy or daddy's arms, heck, even Dil didn't usually fall asleep until he was tucked into his crib at night. While he too, was starting to grow sleepy, he knew if he fell asleep before the end of the movie, nobody would know what happened, since it was highly unlikely that Phil, Lil, Chuckie, or even Kimi got to stay up to watch the movie, and while they had recently made a new friend at the park named Jesse, he wasn't sure how thingds ran in his household either, thus, it was up to him to stay up and watch the rest of the movie so he could tell Zack and the others what happened the following day.
So that's exactly what he did, as Reptar won Reptara's heart, and together, they caused the evil scientist's plan to backfire, getting him sent to Jail, and Reptara disappeared to America to become a heroin, while Reptar continued to take care of business in Japan, as he wasn't sure if he should remain with the girl reporter and the princess, or fall for his own kind, even though she was created in a science lab, rather than by mother nature.
No matter, he watched the rest of the movie, and at a later commercial break, while he figured Zack didn't mind sleeping in his clothes, same with his aunt, as neither one of them were dressed in pajamas, Tommy wanted to sleep in his Reptar pajamas he brought with him to the sleepover, and was really looking forward to sleeping in Zack's Reptar racecar bed. So he ran to Zack's room, undid the zipper on his overnight bag, where he pulled out the white footsy pajamas with Reptar on them, carried them back to the living room, and during the climax of the movie, he changed into his pajamas, leaving his blue t-shirt and blue shorts scattered on the floor. He was about to look for the TV clicker on the coffee table and turn off the TV as soon as the movie ended, when an announcement caught his ears.
"Stay tuned for Nigel Thornberry's Animal World, coming up next, right here, on KLPO." An announcer said.
This sparked Tommy's attention.
"Nigel Strawberry? Gosh! I haven't seen Nigel Strawberry since the Lipchitz cruise!" Tommy thought to himself, as the commercial break ran, followed by the start of Nigel's show.
Tommy sat back, completely forgetting about going off to bed, as getting to see both of his heroes in one night, one after the other, was a rarety for him.
"Hello faitful viewers. I'm Nigel Thornberry. Today, coming to you, from Uganda's Impenetrable Forest, we will be taking a look at that very rare bird, the great crested grebe." Nigel explained to the audience on the television, with images of the forest behind him.
Tommy continued to watch the show intently, as Nigel had his adventure in the forest, and showing off the bird. At one point in the episode, Tommy was fascinated by how the mother carried her babies on her back.
"Until the baby bird is old enough to swim, the mother bird carries her baby on her back." Nigel explained, as footage of the mother bird swimming with her babies on her back was shown.
Before Tommy knew it, the show was nearly at an end.
"Thank you for watching Nigel Thornberry's Animal World." Nigel said at the end, as his picture faded away, and credits rolled, showing pictures of the landscape of the surrounding area.
Shortly after the show ended, the news came on, much to the two-year-old's dismay, so Tommy, very sleepy now, got up from the floor and looked around for the TV remote. He found it on the coffee table, found the power button, switched off the TV, and glancing over at the sleeping duo of Zack and his aunt on the couch, the overly exhausted two-year-old collapsed to the living room carpet, and passed out.
The next morning, Tommy awoke on the living room carpet to the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen. Sitting up, he glanced around and noticed that Celeste and Zack were no longer on the couch. Curious, he stood up and walked into the kitchen, where Celeste was fixing breakfast, some bacon was heating up in the microwave, and Zack was sitting in his booster seat at the table, sipping on another bottle, this being, his morning bottle of hot chocolate milk.
"Morning Zack." Tommy greeted, heading over to the table where he was sitting, noticing his diaper was sagging something awful as he walked, as it hadn't been changed since before he left for the sleepover.
"Morning Tommy." Zack said upon removing the bottle from his mouth.
Tommy found the seat across from Zack at the table and climbed into the booster seat. Then, looking for the belt to strap him in, he attempted to buckle it without much success. Noticing the extra noises coming from the table, Celeste stopped pouring Zack's bowl of Reptar cereal, and went over to the table to find that Tommy was awake.
"It sounds like somebody's awake! Did you sleep well Tommy?" Celeste asked, coming over to where he was attempting to strap himself into his booster seat without much luck.
However, a quick wiff of the air told her differently.
"I see you're having trouble with that strap. Here, let me help you, but first, I think we need to take care of something." Celeste said, scooping Tommy out of the chair and carrying him in the direction of Zack's room, where she lay him down on the changing table.
She then went over to his overnight bag, where she pulled out a fresh diaper, the baby powder his mom had sent, and his clothes for the next day.
"Now hold still Tommy." Celeste said, taking off his Reptar pajamas, where some poop had leaked out of his diapers into the pajamas.
She then got him all cleaned up, and Tommy, being a good guest, was well behaved, as she changed him into a fresh diaper, and got him dressed for the day.
"Now, how about some hot milk and Reptar cereal." Celeste said, picking up the freshly clothed Tommy, who giggled and smiled at this idea.
He hoped she'd put the Ovaltine in it again, as he really liked that, and, he was very happy that like him, Zack enjoyed Reptar cereal for breakfast. Soon, Tommy was back at the breakfast table, a bowl of Reptar cereal, a bottle of hot chocolate milk, and some strips of bacon on a plate with Reptar's picture on it were before him. Tommy wasn't interested in the bacon, but he did eat every last bite of his Reptar cereal, and drank all of his milk, while Zack ate everything, the bacon included.
"Do you want your bacon Tommy?" Zack asked.
Tommy shook his head no, as he still had a mouth full of Reptar cereal at the time.
"Mind if I have it?" Zack asked.
Again, Tommy shook his head no, so Zack reached across the short table, where he grabbed at Tommy's bacon, and had it. Once he was finished, the conversation continued, as Tommy finished up his hot milk.
"So, guess I was more tired than I thought. What happened to Reptar?" Zack asked.
"Well, he gotted Reptara, and they became good friends. And then, they beat the evil scientist, but they didn't put his plan into action." Tommy said.
"They didn't?" Zack asked.
"Nope, Reptara decided she'd rather be a hero like Reptar, so they went off to different parts of the world to do good things, hoping to cross paths again someday, as Reptar continued to look for his family, while doing good." Tommy explained.
"Wow that's great! I see you never went off to bed in my room, deciding to sleep on the living room floor." Zack commented.
"Yep, cuz you were right about something else. Not having a bedtime is kind of neat, specially when you get to see Nigel Strawberry after Reptar." Tommy said.
"Huh? What are you talking about Tommy? Who's Nigel Strawberry?" Zack asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
Tommy was shocked. While Zack had heard of Reptar, he had never heard of Nigel Strawberry.
"You've never heard of Nigel Strawberry?" Tommy asked.
Zack shook his head no.
"Oh my gosh! Nigel Strawberry is the bestest hero ever! He goes on all sorts of aventures, in the drain forest, the jumble, and teachers peoples about all kinds of aminals. I even got to meet him once, and, with Peter and my daddy's help, he saved my life!" Tommy added.
"Come again?" Zack asked, not believing Tommy at this point.
"It's true. It happened before I gotted that Gray Plague. We were spose to go on the Lipschitz Cruise, but my daddy wanted to take us on a small boat instead. We gotted ship wrecked, and ended up on the same island as Nigel Strawberry. Me and my friends, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Susie, and Dil all went in search for Nigel Strawberry, only when we founded him, he gotted hit on the head with a coconut, and turndid into a baby, acting very strange. I wasn't so sure about him at this point, specially when we got stuck in this scrubmarine type thing under water, until my daddy and Peter rescued us, and Nigel turned out okay. He even thanked me for my help, which made me very happy. We all then went on the Lipschitz cruise together, and it was the bestest vacation ever!" Tommy exclaimed, finishing his bottle of milk.
"Sounds like fun! But, what does Nigel Strawberry look like?" Zack asked.
"I've gots pictures back at my house, I'll show them to you when we head over there later." Tommy said.
Soon after everybody finished breakfast, Zack and Celeste got ready to go, and they made sure everything was back in Tommy's overnight bag. Shortly after, they left Zack's apartment, and got into Celeste's driverless van, as they headed in the direction of Tommy and Dil's house. As usual, Zack had himself another nap, seeing that the car made him sleepy, but Tommy on-the-other-hand was thinking. For starters, he thought about last night was the first time he had seen Nigel Strawberry on TV since the cruise. He also thought about the talk Zack had with him about how he was getting older, and that he couldn't let his parents baby him forever if he was going to grow up. It also hit him that because of not being put to bed early, he not only saw the Reptar movie, but Nigel's show, and got curious as to what other fun things he could do late at night, if he didn't go to bed quite so early. It was then that he decided, he'd sell this idea on his friends, and get them to do it too. Who knows, maybe Nigel's show came on every night, and they could all see him again, as he doubted that Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil had seen him since the cruise neither.
"Destination complete." The GPS audible voice said, as Tommy looked out the window to see he was once again, in his parents driveway, back at his house.
"We're here kids, time for another day of playing while Aunty Celeste heads off to work." Celeste said, as Didi came out the front door and up to the van, where she opened the door on the driver's side, where Tommy was sitting.
"Hello sweetie, did you have fun?" Didi said with a smile, giving Tommy a kiss on the forehead, as she unstrapped him from his car seat, and saw to removing it from Celeste's van, and placing it back into her own car, while Tommy ran into the yard, and started chasing a butterfly that was flying around.
"They had a great time Didi." Celeste said, getting out of her side of the car and coming around, to hand Didi Tommy's overnight bag, and getting Zack unstrapped from his car seat, handing him and his diaper bag over to Didi.
Shortly after, Didi, Tommy, and Zack headed into the house, where Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Jesse, and Dil were already playing together in the playpen, and Celeste headed off to work, and soon, another new day at Tommy's house would begin.
And this, ends chapter 2. So, what will happen next? Find out, come the next chapter!
Author's Note: Several Rugrats episodes were referenced in that chapter, amongst them were Game Show Didi, Baby Commercial, Aunt Miriam, Grandpa's Date, and Touchdown Tommy. I also made a reference to The Rugrats Movie and Rugrats go Wild, and did you guys notice a reference to an episode of The Wild Thornberrys too? Well, there was a reference to the episode, Valley Girls, as the episode of Nigel's show that Tommy watched, was the episode he was shooting in that particular episode. And it's quite likely, that several episodes of Wild Thornberrys will be made reference to in future chapters as well. Hope you enjoyed it, and, be looking for mmore chapters, coming soon!