It was a clear, endless blue sky, sunny day on the island, like most days on the island. Og was swinging in a tree, Mike and Spinelli were reading their comic books, Action Guy for Mike and Spinelli was joining her since her luggage was lost unlike Mike's and Mike allowed her to borrow her comic books, even if they weren't Senor Fusion, her favorite back home, and Lu was holding a hoop and teaching her pet turtle some new tricks. It was peaceful to be a kid on an island today. Especially for Spinelli who tried her best to adjust with the city girl, Mike, the quiet, inventor boy, Og, and the Princess Lu.
"Is she talking about us?" Spinelli asked, noticing the narrator.
Mike, Lu, and Og didn't notice the narrator and just went about their quiet morning together.
"I, the Princess Lu, command you JUMP!" Lu encouraged her turtle.
Lancelot was standing on a rock. He tried his best to hop through the hoop to impress her. Only, he fell right onto the ground with little to no avail.
"Come on, Lancelot, you can do it," Lu handed the hoop for her pet to try again. "Atta boy! Come on, Lancelot, good boy!"
Lancelot got back on the rock and tried again. He hopped over, but this time he was only half-way through the hoop with his belly caught onto it.
"That's not bad, just practice and you'll get it," Lu handed the hoop to him and went to the other girls of the island now. "Wanna see my turtle do a trick?"
Mike and Spinelli didn't answer, they kept looking at their comic books. Spinelli grew more curious of who this Action Guy was, she had never heard of him back home and decided to read with Mike. This was really exciting, even if it was about a fictional superhero.
"Hey!" Lu snapped, which now got their attention. "Do you wanna see Lancelot almost jump through a hoop?"
The poor turtle had landed on his back and had trouble getting back up.
Mike hummed as she continued to read, ignoring Lu.
"Man, this guy is hardcore..." Spinelli was captivated by the pictures with Action Guy saving the day.
"What's with the stupid book?" Lu scoffed at them for reading instead of paying attention to her.
"Not stupid." Mike glanced at her.
"So, what is it?" Lu asked.
"The greatest book ever written," Mike answered looking back into the book. "Next to Senor Fusion, of course. Action Guy..."
"One of the best heroes ever, even better than a professional wrestler with a weakling for a opponent in the ring!" Spinelli added, baring her fists with equal excitement.
"What's so great?" Lu continued to scoff and took the book from Mike's hands.
"Action Guy stopped a tornado from destroying the whole Albanian village," Mike explained while standing up. "He stopped an oil leak from a ship in the Antarctic Ocean. He once rescued a penguin and stopped villains a bunch, a bunch of times."
Lu snorted in disbelief about the tomboys raving about their heroes.
"Action Guy and Senor Fusion could take you down, Prissy Princess," Spinelli poked Lu in the nose. "You only wish you could be like them! If we were at my wrestling camp, I'd show you what's what!"
"Yeah, they're the bravest hero known to man." Mike added, flexing her arms to show the strength.
"No braver than my Great-Uncle Bernard," Lu shook her head. "He saved Og from falling out of a tree."
"Could too!" Spinelli and Mike defended.
"Then prove it to me, show me this villain stopping better than saving Og from falling out of a tree." Lu retorted, throwing the book by Lancelot.
"Look at that," Spinelli showed a comic panel. "Action Guy hit a wall with his head and doesn't say owch."
"Pictures in a book." Lu still refused to believe them and was very skeptic.
"The man of action is not stopped!" Mike proclaimed.
Lu swiped the book, still looking, even if she didn't seem interested. "It's just dumb words..."
"You want proof? We'll show ya proof!" Mike glared at the 'princess'. "You can have all the proof in the universe. Just tune in every night at 6:00 on your local station." Mike started to walk away with Spinelli.
"What's a station?" Lu asked.
"A television." Spinelli answered, helping Mike. She felt odd explaining television to someone, nearly forgetting she and Mike were on an island in the middle of nowhere.
"What's a television?" Lu queried, following them.
"Sheesh, come on..." Mike growled.
The three girls went to a section on the island where several of Mike's bags were. She had brought many things from home with her because she wasn't sure what to expect once she joined the exchange program herself. She had to be like a boy scout, prepared. Mike couldn't find a proper television, but she took out a cardboard box after endless searching.
"Close enough, Red." Spinelli remarked, shrugging.
"This better be good..." Lu mumbled, impatiently.
"Get ready for the thrill of a lifetime!" Mike told Lu, then walked with Spinelli to set up the box to introduce Lu to the world of television.
Spinelli decided to help Mike with Lu's problem as the self-proclaimed princess sat across from them while Mike set the box down like a television set. She then took out her Action Guy figurine and Spinelli stood by to help in any way that she could.
Mike opened the box flaps and hummed the Action Guy theme song she could sing in her sleep to thrill and excite Lu. "At first, the Man of Action is relaxing by side of his home, but the call for Action beams across the night sky!"
Spinelli then took out a leaf to represent the Action Guy signal and let the beaming sun gleam against it.
"This, the call of Action." Mike continued.
"It's just a leaf." Lu scoffed, folding her arms.
"The evil being has come back to life, in a new evil leader," Mike narrated as Spinelli took out a banana from the bunch to represent the bad guy of the story. "Banana Guy!"
"And that's a banana!" Lu found this whole thing to be just ridiculous.
"This disastrous evil-doer has captured the Sweet Flower Princess." Mike narrated as Spinelli found a flower and turned it upside down. She knew that if she mentioned the P word that it would get Lu's attention, no doubt.
"Princess?" Lu gasped, showing her undivided attention. "You didn't say anything about a princess!"
"Of course, the man of Action has fallen secretly in love with the Flower Princess," Mike made her figurine stand up.
"He can't just let her go in the dastardly clutches, not his one true love!" Spinelli added, not believing she just said girly words like that without cringing. She held back a laugh as Lu was practically eating this story up.
"Never! Who wants to lose a princess!?" Lu was standing up in suspense like a regular television viewer.
Spinelli and Mike kept their act up and Lu was in such suspense. Lancelot was however, captivated by Mike's lost book and Og was still calmly swinging in a tree like nothing was happening. Lancelot was so engrossed by the book he fell back and slid down the sandy hill and hit a rock which made him fly with the book and somehow fly with him. Lancelot hit the branch that Og's swing was from which made Lancelot fall and flatten the box with Og crushing on top of the poor turtle.
"Lancelot! What are you doing?" Lu came out of her trance, now remembering her surroundings.
Og looked at the girls and had a stoic face. "Sorry..."
The top of the palm tree slammed on top of all the kids. Lu popped her head out, still in suspense, even if the show was now over. "But what about the princess? She's still caught in the dastardly lair!"
"What we need is a real TV." Mike told her.
"What's a real TV?" Lu asked.
"Only the best invention in the last billion years." Spinelli explained, since she also wasn't an island girl and knew just about everything Mike did.
"Yeah," Mike continued the explanation. "A bunch of wires connected all jammed up to a giant screen, which has every kid in his own private world. That's all."
Og clearly looked intrigued in this invention from the city.
"What's it do?" Lu continued her million questions.
"Shows shows." Mike and Spinelli answered.
"Boring!" Lu growled.
"Never, you could watch it forever," Spinelli explained. "Cuz the people in it never tell you to do your homework, or eat vegetables, or anything that you don't wanna do, especially showing non-stop wrestling and the real violence on Friday nights."
"And best of all, TV is Action Guy's home." Mike finished.
Og looked puzzled and at the same time, deep in thought. He then took Mike's hand without a word.
The red-headed girl's eyes widened at the sudden gesture. "Does this mean what I think it means?"
Og took Mike's hand and went to his tiny workshop he had built on the island.
"Yep, he's gonna make one." Lu sounded excited, even if she sounded bored earlier.
"That kid's like a midget, quiet, Gretchen Grundler." Spinelli remarked, wondering how a seven-year old island boy was going to make them a television.
Mike and Og searched the island and gathered supplies. Spinelli decided to help, it beat hanging around Lu and Lancelot. They collected items such as wood, a box of glass bottles with some messages inside, coconut shells, fish bones, a hermit crab's shell, a barrel, and of course, what's island technology without bamboo? Mike questioned if this was all really going to make a TV, but Og was certain it would, after all, he is a child prodigy. Mike and Spinelli helped Og push everything in his shack and they stood outside waiting with Lu while Og would get to work.
Spinelli found a stray nail and showed everyone. "I wonder if this is important..."
"Aw, don't worry, that junk won't make a TV." Mike told her, not believing all the stuff Og collected.
After a failed attempt that nearly exploded on Og himself and the girls, he decided to do some more tweaking. Mike was still in disbelief and Og had removed the shack to show that he did indeed build a television.
"Behold, television..." Og introduced with a smile and he bowed as the girls clapped for him.
"Let's watch!" Lu beamed. "Maybe Action Guy or this wrestling thing is on!" She then took the remote Og built and clicked it on, but all they could see was static, but Lu was still wowed by the world of television.
"They'll never believe this back at St. Alban's." Mike remarked.
"Or Third Street School." Spinelli added, surprised that Og did that for them.
"Change the channel!" Mike demanded, not wanting to watch static.
Og tried to with the remote, but the picture just got worse. After a while, the kids just decided to go with the bad picture, even if to Lu and Og it looked amazing. A while later, Marjorie, Og's mother, passed by with a bottle on her head. Spinelli and Mike looked over to see her.
"For some reason, I can see Miss Grotke doing that." Spinelli remarked.
"You got a bottle of water on your head!" Mike pointed to the island woman.
"Oh, yes," Marjorie decided to join them. "What are you watching?"
"It's a television." Mike and Spinelli answered.
Even more later, Alfred, Og's father, came running by with his plunger gun and chasing a wombat. The animal had tricked him and joined the others on a log to watch the television. Alfred tried to take him down, but the wombat signaled him to not interrupt and watch the magic box.
"I say, what have we he'e?" Alfred put up his weaponry and joined the others.
"It's the greatest invention ever!" Lu beamed.
"Fascinating..." Alfred turned into a zombie like the others.
Much later, Wendell, Lu's father, came by examining his watch. "Come along, Lulu, my dearest. It's time for your-" he now noticed the new invention on the island. "What is that...?"
"Television." Alfred droned.
"Oh, how extraordinary!" Wendell joined them.
Finally, Old Queeks, the village elder came by. He reminded Spinelli a lot of Miss Finster if he were an old guy instead of an old lady and had nothing to do but to heal and advise the others than torture them with her sadistic school faculty ways. Even if Spinelli made friends with Miss Finster after spending a weekend with her while her parents went to a babysitter convention, Old Queeks just brought back what the old Finster was like for her. He also had hints of her grandfather.
"Make some room for your elders, sonny!" Queeks snapped and pushed Alfred with his cane, knocking the wombat out of their way.
The wombat hopped down and went to sit back down on the other side next to Alfred, instead of allowing the man to sit down with them.
"They didn't keep animals on the furniture in my day!" Queeks snapped. He saw everyone entranced by the television, but didn't see Spinelli, he glanced at her. "Why aren't you with the others, huh?"
"It's boring!" Spinelli sighed. "There's nothing even on, it's like they're all brainwashed!"
"That is unlike them," Queeks scratched his head. "Maybe we should get them all back to normal, eh?"
Spinelli scoffed at him. "I'd like to see you try..."
Queeks somehow played a tune on his cane like summoning a snake in stereotypical Indian culture, but that didn't work. It did get a snake over and it raised him to get a view of the TV and he got entranced now too. "Now, would you look at that?"
"Well, he's hopeless..." Spinelli murmured.
Og's remote only showed static and TV snow, but no actual shows. The islanders were in awe, but thankfully, Mike now finally woke up out of her state and joined Spinelli and keeping her sanity.
"Television is a complete waste of time!" Queeks zoned away from them as Marjorie's water spilled from them and stormed off to count his rocks.
"What happened?" Mike asked Spinelli.
"You kinda turned into a zombie," Spinelli explained, twirling her finger by her head to show a crazy gesture. "Though, it seems like everyone else still is..."
"Hey, you're right," Mike looked with her. "Guys, this is definitely not television."
"Could I have a drink of water, please?" Lu asked, still with her eyes glued to the screen.
Marjorie took the bottle off her head and handed it to the girl allowing her to drink.
Lu took the water and guzzled it down, feeling refreshed. She then handed the bottle to one of the exchange students. "Could you give me some more water?"
"Sure," Mike took the bottle and went to the island kitchen. "Anything to get away from here. Coming, Spinelli?"
"No doubt about it." Spinelli said and followed her.
After that, Mike and Spinelli were reduced to being servants for everyone else on the island. They seemed to had regret becoming exchange students as a learning experience to this thing and wanted to ditch the island and maybe go home. They didn't sign up for this. The kitchen was empty after Mike and Spinelli served everyone for two days and they hadn't moved from the television since then.
"Alright, Sister Mary Margaret, you said this exchange program would be a learning experience, well, what do we learn from this? I mean, what now?" Mike asked herself, feeling rejected and shunned by the others because of Og's invention.
"I say we give 'em a run for their money and destroy that thing." Spinelli suggested.
"But how?" Mike asked her.
The girls both then glanced and saw the Action Guy comic book tossed aside that night. That then gave them both an idea. Spinelli dressed like she did at wrestling camp while Mike dressed up like Action Guy. They were going to put an end to this television madness once and for all. Spinelli and Mike found the end of a mountain, swung on a vine and made a boulder roll down. Mike grabbed a hold of it and made it crash against the TV set and Spinelli body-slammed the remains of it which made it all explode and everyone came out of their madness mantra over television. Maybe a desert island would be better off without such a thing. In the end, everyone grew back to normal and Lu started to read more Action Guy books, even dressing her turtle up like the caped crusader himself.
"So, Spinelli, you like Action Guy?" Mike asked as they walked together the next morning.
"Yeah, he's not bad, but you really ought to read Senor Fusion, I'd let you borrow some comics if I could, my buddy TJ let me have some extra copies of some he had," Spinelli said. "This has been quite an adventure."
"Just you wait, it's a whole new sandbox around here."
"No doubt."