Chapter 3, A Thanksgiving Day Gone Bad
Bobby POV
Location: Yucaipa, California, November 29, 2013
The next morning finally came. I burst out of bed with excitement, as I ran downstairs and ate my bowl of Captain Squash cerial for breakfast. My lovely breakfast however, was interrupted, by a scream from the living room.
"Get in here Dweeb, the parade's about to start." Shouted my brother Derek.
"Ok, I'm coming." I sighed.
"Hurry! Before I change the channel!" Derek griped.
"I can only run so fast, I'm only five." I protested, as I ran into the living room, and took a seat on the couch, where I watched the Gracy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The first hero to come in the parade was Reptar.
I'm just a dinosaur,
I don't know what I'm for,
I love to stomp and roar?
Hey! I'm just a dinosaur!
Sang the giant Reptar, as it marched through the parade.
"And that was Reptar, performing one of his numbers from the very well known Reptar on Ice show." Explained a female parade narrator.
"This big, green, mean dinosaur is adored by kids and toddlers all around the world, featuring 12,380 performances of his Reptar on Ice show, seen nation wide, at several locations all over, including the Pepsi Arina, and Rockafella Center." Explained a male parade narrator.
"And Reptar has starred in several feature length films, like Reptar vs. The Mole People, Reptar vs. The Aliens, and Reptar vs. The Giant Cochroaches." Explained the female parade narrator.
Then, after Reptar passed by on the screen, came the balloon of Robosnails.
"And here comes Robosnails, Reptar's partner in crime, introduced at the famous EuroReptar Land in Paris." Explained the female parade narrator.
"I hear EuroReptar Land was suppose to be taken over by Coco Labooche, until she was overthrown, after attempting to kidnap six young children!" Explained the male parade narrator.
"Hmmm, I hope those six young toddlers got back with their mommies and daddies." I thought to myself, as Robosnails passed by on the TV, and the narrators, blabbed on about the specifications about the balloon.
I couldn't wait for Captain Squash to appear. But looks like I had to wait a little bit longer, as the next character to appear, was Goober.
"You make me smile, Can I have a hug?" Asked the guy in the giant Goober costume, as he passed by on the TV screen.
"And that's Goober the Goafer, saying his catch phrase, adored by young toddlers, between the ages of one and five-years-old." Explained the female parade narrator.
"Not only does this goafer love hugs, but it is said he will be starring in his first feature length film, coming to theaters everywhere next summer, called, The Goober Movie." Said the male parade narrator.
"That's nice, but where's Captain Squash!" I shouted.
"Be patient Dweeb, he's coming." Snapped Derek.
I hate it when my brother snaps at me, so I just gritted my teeth, in hopes that Captain Squash would show up soon. Then, he showed up! The huge balloon of Captain Squash!
"And here's the premier of the new Captain Squash balloon, in our seventy-first edition of this Gracy's Thanksgiving Day parade." Said the female parade narrator.
"This Captain Squash balloon is made out of 2,000 yards, that's equal to 1.14 miles, or 6,000 feet of nylon fabric, it is 20 feet long and 12 feet wide, and requires 16,780 cubic feet of hulium!" Explained the male parade narrator.
"Uninflated, this balloon weighs 450 pounds, it is 40 feet high fully inflated, and, it takes 30 people to guide our kids favorite super hero, Captain Squash, through this year's beautiful parade." Explained the female parade narrator.
"Wow!" I said, amazed that a Captain Squash balloon could be that big!
"And that's nothing compared to the little ones I got at a Captain Squash Birthday party I attended earlier this year." I added.
"Of course not Dweeb, this was designed for the parade." Said Derek.
But before I could say anything back, my mommy switched off the TV.
"Come on kids, Kelly and the twins are in the car, and my corn pudding is ready to go. We need to head over to the Java Lava, to help Chaz and Kira get all set up for Turkey Day Extravaganza." Said my mommy.
Derek and I groaned, as we put on our coats, and ran out to the car, where my dad was in the driver's seat, waiting impatiently, for us to hurry up. We got into the car, and headed off to the Java Lava, where I found all of my good friends, seated around a small toddler table, wearing feathered headbands up top their heads.
"What are you guys doing?" I asked, approaching the table.
"We're playing natie Americans!" Replied Tommy.
"Oh, you mean Indians!" I said.
"Oh, I didn't know they were called Indians, cool!" Kimi replied excitedly.
"Nope, Tommy's right, they're called natie Americans." Said Zack.
"Well, ok then." Said Kimi.
"Oooh! Prettyful!" Said Dil, pulling at Tommy's headband.
"Let go Dilly." Said Tommy.
"So, what are we eating?" I asked.
"Well, we've gots Reptar cerial, Captain Squash cerial, stuff, and Phil and Lil are making turkeys!" Said Tommy.
"And I've got a mud pie, with extra wormies on top too." Said Phil.
"Eeewww, I'll stick to Reptar cerial, thanks." Said Jesse with a disgusted look on his face.
But before I could take my first bite of Captain Squash cerial, after placing the feathered headband on my head, handed to me by my good friend Tommy, a cry came from behind the counter at the Java Lava.
"What was that?" I asked.
"I don't know, let's go see." Said Tommy, as he got up from his spot at the toddler table, the rest of us, following him back to the kitchen where all of the grown ups were.
"Now that the element has died in our oven here at the Java Lava, we'll never get this turk duck en cooked." Said Chaz, as he blew his nose into a tissue.
"And I thought it would make a nice food for Kimi and mine's first Thanksgiving feast in America too." Added Kira.
"What is a turk duck en anyway?" My daddy asked.
"It's a turkey, with a duck inside, and a chicken inside of that. Chaz and I thought it would be a nice array of meats for everybody to have at the Thanksgiving feast this year, but with our oven broken, I don't see how we're going to cook it." Said Kira.
"No worries, we've still got corn pudding." Said my mommy.
"And I made the potato pancakes, in honor of it being the first day of Chanukah." Said Didi.
"What are we going to do about a turkey then?" Howard Deville asked.
"Is Lou off winning another one in one of those card playing contests again?" Charlotte asked sarcastically.
"Oh now don't you remember? Pop and Lulu are away this Thanksgiving on a cruise, celebrating their one year wedding anniversary, but I'm sure if we hurry, we can head back to our house, and cook the turk duck en there." Said Didi with a smile.
"Yay! We can watch the football game!" Said Stu with excitement.
"I don't know Stu, last year, that didn't exactly work out so well, and besides, the sattlelight place is closed, it's a bit too late to be renting dishes." Said Drew.
"No worries, thanks to my brother Ted, who told me about the Pay-Per-View Sports channel, we can just order the game when we get back, and watch it that way." Said my daddy.
"Oh, that reminds me! I'd better text uncle Ted and let him know our feast has changed locations!" Said my mommy.
"Wow! Uncle Ted is coming up for Thanksgiving? Yay!" I said excitedly.
"Yep, provided that snow storm that's headed his direction misses his area." Replied my mommy.
I surely hoped it would, as I'd surely love to see my uncle Ted today, along with my friends, my family, and all of my friends mommies and daddies. No matter, our mommies and daddies gathered up all of the food, put us in the cars, and we were off, to Tommy and Dil's house, where we stayed, for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, while the grown ups remembered all of the real food for the Thanksgiving feast, we natie Americans, forgotted to pack up our pretend dinner.
When we realized what had happened after getting back to Tommy and Dil's house, that's when I told my friends about the dinner I had with real Indians, AKA Native Americans the previous Thanksgiving, and how we ate fish.
"Then if fish is what we need, let's go get some." Said Tommy, opening the lock on his playpen with his screwdriver, and leading us to the hall closet, where we stood on top of one another's shoulders, where Tommy got down a box of paper fish with magnets on them.
"That's nice Tommy, but, how do we catch the fish?" Zack asked.
"Look!" I said, pointing to a stack of fishing polls with magnets, that sat on the same shelf as the box where the paper fish were. I got down enough fishing polls for all of us, and we headed back into the living room, where we all went fishing.
"What are you dumb babies doing?" Angelica asked, who came over at that moment, to admire our pretending fishing trip.
"We're going fishing. Bobby tells us Natie Americans eat fish for Thanksgiving." Replied Tommy.
"Oh, I see." Said Angelica, who was not in the least bit interested in coming to our dinner, as she skipped off to go elsewhere, probably to play with her Cynthia doll, but at that moment, my brother came back into the room.
"So little babies, still scared about the meany of Chanukah coming later on today?" Derek asked, in an evil kind of way.
"You know mommy said there's no such thing as that." I replied.
"Oh yes there is." Replied Derek.
"Derek's right you dumb babies, there is a meany of Chanukah, and he's gonna come and destroy Thanksgiving. Notice how it already broked Chuckie and Kimi's mommy and daddy's kitchen at their dumb old coffee shop?" Angelica asked.
"No, that's not true Angelica, it just, happened." Replied Tommy.
"Tommy's right Angelica, it just, happened." Said Zack.
"I don't know guys, my mommy and daddy did seem pretty upset." Said Chuckie.
"Then we've gots to help him." Said Jesse.
"But how are we gonna do that?" I asked.
"Well, notice how happy everybody was at the Gracy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV this morning?" Angelica asked.
"Oh yeah! I saw Reptar!" Said Phil.
"And Robosnails!" Added Lil.
"Goober! Goober!" Said Dil.
"And I saw the bestest hero of them all, Captain Squash!" I said excitedly.
"Exactly! If you put on a happy Thanksgiving day parade, the meany will be mad cuz you're having so much fun, that he won't wanna ruin it, cuz those heros you guys love so much will only stop him." Explained Angelica.
"And besides, after what you dumb babies did to my parade last year, it's the least you can do, by putting on your own parade this year, but only if you let me help you with it." Sauffed Angelica.
"No Angelica, you didn't keep your promise last year when your parade got ruined, and almost gotted Mister Turkey eaten." Said Tommy.
"I don't know much about that, but if Tommy doesn't want you helping with our parade, and this is his house, then you can just, leave us alone." I said.
"Fine! Go ahead and try to build a parade without me, but you babies wohn't get far, cuz you think worms is food." Said Angelica.
"I'm not a baby, I'm five-years-old, and the only ones of us who thinks worms is food is Phil and Lil." I protested.
Angelica grumbled and stomped away, and that's when we headed out to the backyard, and got started on making our parade. Unfortunately though, that's when the trouble started.
"I want Reptar to lead us in the parade." Said Phil.
"No, Robosnails should start off the parade." Argued Lil.
"No, Reptar!" Argued Phil.
"No, Robosnails!" Argued Lil.
While Phil and Lil argued about Reptar and Robosnails, Kimi intervened and said that Super Thing should lead off the parade. Zack then said that maybe Captain Squash should lead off the parade, since it was his firstest time in one this year on the TV. I personally liked that compliment, and agreed with him. Of course, Dil and Chuckie chimed in, wanting Goober to be in the parade, but Tommy wasn't going to have Goober be in his parade. Jesse grew tired of the fighting, and started throwing toys all over the yard, causing quite a commotion of a tantrum. Tommy and I tried to stop the constant fighting, but it was no use, nobody was paying attention to us. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, when Jesse threw a hand full of blocks at Tommy's head, causing him to break down and start crying in pain, the other toddlers, following right behind him.
I almost started to cry myself, but since I'm so much older than the bunch of my friends, I decided that maybe it was time, for me to head inside, and seak some help from the grown ups. But when the grown ups are off in their own world, it's not all that useful. The first people I approached, was our daddies.
"Daddy! Daddy! Can you help us?" I shouted.
"Bobby, can't you see that Stu, Drew and I, are all watching a very important football game, which, I paid 30 dollars for us to watch this afternoon on the Pay-Per-View Sports Channel." Replied my daddy, annoyed that I interrupted him.
"But daddy, I could really use your help!" I shouted.
"Bobby! Quiet! It's gonna have to wait until later!" Shouted my daddy.
It's not fair. Whenever my daddy's involved in a football game, that's all he cares about. So I headed back outside, where the crying continued, giving us all a headache. That's when I finally gave in, and started screaming at the top of my lungs, unsure what to do at this point. One thing is for sure, I did get my mommy's attention, as she came out into the backyard at that moment.
"For crying in the mud kids, what's going on out here?" My mommy asked.
"Well, we were trying to put together our own parade, but we couldn't decide who should be first in the parade, and then everybody started getting all upset and fussy over everything." I explained, in a fast tone of voice, hoping I covered everything.
"Now now Bobby, calm down, and that goes for the rest of you kids too. You know what? I think you kids need to take a break from this parade, and come inside." Said my mommy.
"But, our parade." I cried.
"You know Bobby, sometimes, if you take a break from what's got your shorts all tied up in a knot, and come back to it later, you can look at the situation with a new perspective, and approach the situation a bit more calmly. Now come on, I believe your mommies want you all to go down for a nap." Said my mommy, as she led us all into the house.
But just as we got inside the house, if our fighting wasn't enough to ruin the day, the lights all went out.
"AAAHHH!" I heard a chorus of our daddies, scream from the living room. I, along with my friends and our mommies, all went to see what was going on, or, what we could see with the light coming in from the windows, since all of the lights were out.
"What's going on in here?" Didi asked.
"Well, ask Stu, he's the one who blew a fuse, thanks to another one of his stupid inventions!" Snapped Drew.
"Uh, I guess my new electric menorah, which I was trying to get all set up before your parents got here Didi, blew a fuse when I plugged it in." Said Stu.
"I'll tell you what blew a fuse. All that electricity you guys were using. The TV to watch your game, the oven to cook Kira's turk duck en, and Stu's latest invention, just, did us all in." Said Betty.
"What are we gonna do now?" Howard Deville asked.
"I just wanted my wife and daughter's first Thanksgiving to be special." Chaz cried, sniffling into Kira's shoulder.
"Oh, but it is sweetheart. I've been watching Kimi play with her friends, and, other than everybody getting cranky a few minutes ago, I'm pleased that my daughter is having such a good time!" Said Kira excitedly.
"Don't worry Chaz, my daddy can fix anything." I said, walking over to Chaz, hoping to comfort him.
"Really?" Chaz asked.
"Yep, he fixed a garbage disposer, and a light switch in the bathroom!" I explained.
"Oh yeah, it only took him three days to fix that g golly garbage disposer, ruining my kitchen in the process." Said my mommy.
"Ah, I'm sure I can fix it, where is the circuit breaker anyway?" My daddy asked.
"Follow me everyone." Said Stu, as he, my daddy, and all of the other daddies, headed down to the basement.
Then, I realized what must have happened.
"My brother and Angelica were right Tommy, the meany of Chanukah is here." I said.
Tommy turned to me, his face looking the angriest I had ever seen it.
"There is no meany of Chanukah! And I wish you'd stop talking about it!" Tommy snapped.
"What? What did I say?" I asked, disappointed that I made Tommy mad at me.
"Just, leave me alone!" Snapped Tommy, turning his back on me.
Now I wanted to cry. I mean, there we were, none of us getting along, the lights had all gone out, leaving us in total darkness, and my newest best friend since I moved away, was mad at me, all because I sided with Angelica and Derek.
"Come on kids, it's time for your nap." Said Didi, as she scooped up Tommy and Dil, while my mommy led me by the hand to take me upstairs to Tommy and Dil's room, once everyone had found flashlights, to help us see our way up the stairs, with Aunty Celeste bringing Zack, Laura bringing Jesse, Betty bringing Phil and Lil, and Kira bringing Kimi and Chuckie up to Tommy and Dil's room.
"Why do I have to take a nap?" I asked.
"Because you're five-years-old and need your rest Bobby." Replied Didi.
"Derek, like, help me get these toddlers down for a nap." Said Kelly, who was standing at the top of the stairs, holding a pile of pillows and sleeping bags.
"Fine!" Griped Derek.
A few minutes later, Derek was watching all of us go to the bathroom, while my mommy, Didi and Celeste changed my twin little brothers, Zack and Dil's diapers.
"Hey! I can go to the bathroom on my own." I protested.
"Maybe you can, but Sticky Fingers and his loser friends, are just barely potty trained, they don't know the difference between the potty and the floor." Replied Derek.
"They do too know how to use the potty, and Chuckie here has been potty trained for a whole year, right Chuckie?" I asked.
Chuckie nodded.
A few minutes later, we were all tucked into our sleeping bags on the floor of Tommy and Dil's room, Tommy, was over in his toddler bed, while Dil was in his crib.
"Goodnight dweebs, enjoy your last sleep, before you all turn into sticky globs of goo." Said Derek, as he closed the door, leaving us alone to take our nap.
My brother makes me so angry, but I decided to not say anything, as I didn't want to start another argument. My friends had all fallen asleep, and soon, I was asleep too.
Unfortunately, while I was asleep, I had another nightmare, this time, the Meany came back, talking to me alone, in the middle of an empty field.
"Well, where am I?" I asked hesitantly.
"You're in Tommy and Dil's backyard, only now it's absolutely nothing, because I destroyed his house!" Said the Meany with a giggle.
I trimbled in fear.
"Oh? Scared are we?" The Meany sauffed.
"Uh, yeah, where are my friends?" I asked.
"What friends? Those babies you tried to build a parade with? Those aren't your friends, they're just neighbors, who don't know the difference between what's real and what's pretend." Replied the Meany.
"But Tommy says you don't exist." I replied.
"Ah, but he's wrong, I do exist, and because he didn't believe me, I destroyed him." Said the Meany.
"Well, maybe he is right, maybe you don't exist." I said.
"Want me to destroy you too?" Asked the Meany.
"No! Don't!" I shouted.
But it was too late, the Meany poured a green slimy liquid over my head, and the next thing I knew, I awoke in total darkness, to the sound of loud pounding beneath me. Then, it hit me, I had been napping in Tommy and Dil's room, and somebody, was at the front door downstairs.
"Who could it be?" I thought to myself, as I turned to the others, who were still sleeping.
I picked up the flashlight that my mommy had left in the room, turned it on, and made my way through the hallway to see what was going on.
End of Bobby POV
And this, ends chapter 3. So, what was going on? Who was at the door downstairs? And will the fuse ever get fixed? We'll find out, in the next chapter.
Author's Note: Ok, the specifications of the Captain Squash balloon in the Gracy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, were the exact same specifications as a real balloon that was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and here's a huge hint. That real balloon, featured characters, that are in our story! Bonus points to whoever can guess what balloon I'm talking about in your review!
