Chapter Three

SpongeBob

Flip peered his head beyond the corner. He came back to me.

"Okay," He said to me. "The coast is clear. We can go now, but we better hurry. Norman's watching TV, but who knows when he'll decide to get up."

"Oh, tarter sauce!" I cursed. "How could I forget?" Flip was confused.

"Forget what?" With one look at me, he realized something. "Oh, that's right, you're a sea breather. You don't do well without water." I nodded.

"What are we going to do?" He pondered about this.

"Hmmm, this is a problem indeed." I looked at him, and got an idea.

"Can I go inside of your shell with you?" He looked at me, and nodded.

"Sure, I guess that'll work. Yeah, and with you inside with me, you won't be able to slow me down."

"I wouldn't slow you down anyway. We'll be one in the same, literally!" He jumped back into the bowl to fill his shell with water.

"Okay, come in." With that, I squeezed into his shell.

"Comfy?"

"It's a little cramped in here."

"Well, I'm sorry about that. My shell wasn't designed to have guests in here."

"Onward! Come on, I want to escape!"

"Right." With that, he jumped back out of the bowl, and went to the corner of the room to peek out again. I did too, and saw what Norman was watching.

"Hey!" I piped up, noticing what was on TV. "He's watching my TV show. There's Perch and Mr. Krabs. He's interviewing him about something." I then saw him unveil something, which got me confused.

"The Krusty Krab 2!" My boss announced on the television set.

"The Krusty Krab 2? I don't remember that at all." He looked at me. "Flip? Care to explain?" Flip sighed. He seemed to be irritated.

"He's watching your first movie. It was going to be your series finale, but the fans wanted more. So, think of it as the future." I was impressed.

"The future? Wow!" I looked at the TV again. "Hmmm, weird. I thought everything was going to be chrome in the future, but Mr. Krabs builds a Krusty Krab 2? That's even better!" I thought of something else that made me excited. I looked at Flip again. "Does Mr. K make me manager? I always wanted to be manager." But he didn't answer. "Uh, Flip; I need to know. Am I manager or what? I don't think my heart can take it anymore; I got to know!" He shushed me.

"Focus!"

"I guess I'll find out in the future." With the coast clear, he zoomed out, and headed towards the door. I never knew a sea turtle can move so fast.

"Wait, he's about to announce if I became manager or not! I know I said I'll find out in the future, but I can't; I just can't! I have to know now!" The TV then paused.

"Tarter sauce! He was going to announce it too! Oh, the suspense is killing me. What a time to pause with a cliffhanger, huh, Flip?" Flip didn't answer. He tried to push the door open. "Flip?"

"No time! Now, help me open this door."

"Uh, isn't it locked from the outside?" I then saw human feet from out of the shell.

"Aw, fish paste!" We were picked up.

"Thought you could escape, huh?" Norman said. He saw me inside. "Is that SpongeBob in your shell? So, you tried to escape, and tried to smuggle SpongeBob with you? Tsk, tsk, bad sea turtle." He took us back, and we were dropped back into the bowl. He then walked back into the other room.

"That was a bust." Flip observed. He looked at me. "Sorry, kid. I should have found the key, and used it to unlock it. I wasn't thinking."

"That's okay." I assured him. "This failure only means we got to try harder next time. In the meantime, I want to watch the rest of my future." He sighed deeply.

Sandy

We beach-combed the entire beach, and nothing. The little guy just wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Okay." Squidward began. "We searched this whole beach, and SpongeBob's not here. Can we leave now?"

"No, Squidward." I told him. "We can't go yet. We don't have SpongeBob yet." Squidward sighed.

"Thought not. Still worth a shot."

"Oh, hey, human!" Patrick greeted. I looked to where Patrick was looking at, and gasped. It was a human child!

"Hey, Patrick!" The child greeted back. "Wait right there." He ran off. "Chris, Chis; you have to see this. You'll freak!"

"Patrick!" I scolded. Patrick was confused.

"What did I do?" He asked. "I'm getting help. He might know where SpongeBob is."

"Or he might not, and do something else to us." He scoffed, and crossed his arms across his chest, mad.

"Gosh, I was only trying to help."

I can maybe help you!" A voice called out. We looked. It was a seagull flying in the air. He landed before us. "Name's Tim. Any help you need, I'm at your service. Now, what do you need?"

"We're trying to find someone, Tim." I said to the sea bird.

"Find someone? I'll try to help any way I can."

"Thanks, Tim."

"No, prob. Now tell me, who are you trying to find?" I told him everything.

"Gosh!" He said when I was done. "That's tough. I'm so, so very sorry. I'll fly over to see if I can find him. He's a sponge, right?"

"Wow!" Said am impressed Patrick. "That's right. How did you know? Wait, is he a sponge?"

"Yes," Replied Squidward. "He's a sponge."

"'Sponge' is in the title," Tim continued. "It doesn't take a birdbrain to figure it out."

"But you are a bird." Mr. Krabs put in. "And you have a brain, so, there you go, I guess."

"You search in the sky," Sandy told him. "And we're going to search the land." Tim nodded in agreement.

"I'll do that." He flew off. "I hope I won't let you down."

"Don't worry!" I shouted after him. "You won't! Just try your best; that will make us proud no matter what!"

"But it'll be better if you find him!" Patrick shouted as well. We all eyed him. "What? What?!" I looked at everybody.

"Okay, sea folks, this is where your water helmets will come in handy. Now, let's go!" We were about to go when we saw the same human boy. Another older human boy was with him.

"See, Chris?" The boy said to the other. "I told you; Patrick Star and friends! Looks like you owe me a dollar." Patrick waved to the boy.

"Hi, human child!" The starfish greeted again. The boy waved back as the other boy's jaw dropped in disbelief. The boy nudged him.

"I'll give you a dollar when I get home." He admitted.

"You better!"

"Can you help us?" Patrick asked. "We're trying to find SpongeBob." The boys were then shocked.

"SpongeBob is gone?" The boy asked. He turned to Chris.

"Chris, we have to help them!"

"But we don't know where he is, Steve."

"That's why we have to find him."

"I don't know. What about Mom and Dad?"

"They will want us to help them."

"I know, but if we say we're helping to find SpongeBob, a fictional cartoon character, they would think we gone crazy, and sign us up for therepy."

"They shouldn't do that. Patrick's real, Sandy's real."

"I just don't know, Steve."

"Please?"

"Yeah." I put in. "We could really need your and Chris's help."

"The sooner, the better." Squidward stated.

"Okay." Steve and all of us cheered.

"You won't regret this, Chris!" Chris looked at us.

"So what do we do? Where do we go first?" I told them about Tim.

"Okay," Chris declared when I was done with my explanation. "I'll go tell my mom and dad a lie, then we'll be on our way." He then left. Steve was confused.

"Why a lie?" He wanted to know. "That's bad."

"It'll probably make things easier, kid." I said to him. "Trust me." He still looked unsure.

"Okay, I guess if it works."

Gary

Pearl opened the door when we got to her and Mr. Krab's house, and we went inside. She turned on the light, and closed the door behind us.

"Mr. Doodles!" She cried. "I'm home, and I brought you a friend!" A worm then shot out from the corner. He ran to Pearl, panting, stopped by her feet, and barked. Pearl knelt down, and petted him. She baby-talked him. "Who's a good boy? Is it you? I think it is; I think it is!" I rolled my eyes. Thank goodness SpongeBob doesn't talk to me like that. I don't know how any grown pet can stand that; I really can't. It's really irritating!

She cleared her throat. "Mr. Doodles," She turned to me. "This is Gary, Dad's employee's pet." He looked at me as well, and barked once again. "I could introduce you to the scallop, but he likes to keep to himself. I'll let you guys to it then. I have to call the girls, and tell them what I'm doing. They will be so jellie!" She left. Mr. Doodles turned to me.

"So, is this a play date?" He asked me. "I never had a play date before."

"You could say that I guess." I spoke to him. "Could be really long though."

"The longer the better. When is your master coming to pick you up?"

"I honestly don't know."

"He didn't abandon you, did he?".

"Goodness no! He would never do that, well, he wouldn't mean to. It just depends. But not likely."

"Well, where is he then? Why are you here?" I told him everything.

When I was done with my tale, he frowned,

"That's sad. That's really sad." He whimpered. "I'm really sorry. That sucks."

"Thanks." I agreed. "And yes, it does. It sucks a lot. This must be what SpongeBob felt when I ran away." He was confused.

"You ran away? Why? Home is the best!"

"It's a long story."

"Well, you said this play date may be long, so tell me later, okay?" I sighed.

"Okay. If you really want to know."

"I do."

"Say, does the scallop really like to keep to himself?"

"He is. But don't worry; I'm fun! I'm really fun!"

"I can really tell."

"You know, I don't really like snails, but I like you. We'll be friends forever!"

"Thanks. I don't really care for worms, but you're alright." He smiled. I smiled as well.

"My friends are coming over." Pearl announced to us the next day "We are going to paint each other's nails, listen to boy bands, talk about boys, do things that'll drive him nuts, you know, girly things, and of course, show you off, Gary. You're the whole reason why they want to come over, that and among other things. Well, I'm going to get ready now!" She left again. Mr. Doodles groaned. I was concerned.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"Don't get me wrong," He began. "I like Pearl and her friends; I really do. But sometimes they can be a bit much if you know what I mean."

"SpongeBob is often a bit much, so I kind of know what you mean, but it can't be worse then SpongeBob."

"Oh trust me, it is. I don't know how's it like with SpongeBob, but just trust me, it's bad. You'll see when they get here."

"I'll take your word for it. Thanks for the warning."

"No problem, now, tell me your running away story." I sighed. I really can't believe this would be interesting for him, but here I go I guess.

Mr. Doodles turned out to be right. Pearl showed me her friends. Her friends did their 'oohs' and 'aws.' After that it all went downhill from there. They all lost interest, and left us alone to do their 'girly things'. They did nails, as well as other stuff, barely acknowledging us. It's like we didn't exist anymore. It was just as Mr. Doodles said. It was bad. A bit much is an exaggeration.

"See?" Mr. Doodles said to me. "What did I tell you?" I sighed.

"You're right." I said to him. "I'm just glad that SpongeBob isn't like this. But it's just a phase she's going though. She'll get better as the time goes on I'm sure."

"Very lucky. Very lucky indeed, and I hope you're right, because if Pearl says 'omg' or 'that's so coral' one more time, I'm going to puke. But I'm also lucky to have you by my side until this nightmare is over." I sighed once more.

"Yes, very lucky indeed." Oh, SpongeBob, where are you? Where did that diver take you? I miss you, as I'm sure you miss me too. Please, come home safe and sound so we can be together again.

SpongeBob

"So, is the coast clear again?" I asked as soon as Flip came into the room after checking if Norman went to bed that night. "Is Norman asleep?" The sea turtle nodded.

"But we need to be quiet." He explained. "We don't want to wake him remember." I nodded in agreement.

"I know. You got the key?" He produced the key out of his shell. I smiled. "Perfect. It looks like everything is in order. Now, help me out of here." He scooted over to the bowl. "Okay, here I come." With that, I floated up, and got out of the bowl. Flip helped me out. I then went into his shell.

"Ready?" He wanted to know. I nodded.

"Let's do this!" With that, we were off.

Once at the door, he took the key in his mouth, poked his head out, grabbed it in his flipper, and placed it into the lock.

Once he turned the key, we heard something.

"Hurry!" I whispered loudly. "I think Norman's up!" He opened it. "Great, now we have to go fast."

"I agree." He agreed. With that, he inched his way out of the house. We then heard a shout from behind us.

"Oh no you don't!" It was Norman!

"He's coming; hurry! I know sea turtles can outrun a snail."

"But they can't outrun a human." He said. Norman ran in front of us. I screamed. Flip turned to me. "See? Told you."

"Ha!" Norman laughed. He grabbed us, and he lifted us off of the ground. "Caught you guys! Good thing I woke up for a glass of water otherwise you two would've escaped. But not on my watch." He took us back to the room, but not before grabbing the rest of the water with his free hand, and put us back into the bowl. "There, now to make sure there isn't anymore escapes, I'll sleep down here." He plopped himself onto the sofa, making himself comfortable. "Uncle Patchy couldn't make it today, so he'll swing by tomorrow afternoon." He took a sip from his water, and placed it down. "Night, night!" He closed his eyes, and went to sleep. Flip sighed.

"Another bust." I turned to him with a frown.

"There must be another way." I told him. "I just know it. We just have to think."

"It's late." He said to me. "If you want to stay up, and try to escape, then be my guest." He inched towards the castle. "But me, I'm going to bed. I'm tired."

"Wait!" I yawned as well, and followed him. "I'm sleepy too. We can think better once we have enough sleep." He smiled.

"A wise decision." We made ourselves comfortable. I laid down.

Oh, Sandy, Gary, Mr. Krabs, Squidward, and everybody in Bikini Bottom, how I miss you so. But don't worry. I'm going to bust out with Flip's help. We'll reunite soon enough. I just know it! With that, I went to sleep.

Sandy

"We've been walking all day, Sandy!" Patrick complained. "I'm tired! Can we sleep?"

"The chubby sea star's right." Mr. Krabs told me. "I'm tired too. Can we take a rest, and continue our search in the morning?" I hated to admit it, but so was I. I tried to hide it. I turned to them.

"No!" I barked. "Sleep is for the weak."

"Sleep is for the weak?" Patrick wanted to know, looking sad. "But we slept last night without a problem. He was then mad. "Are you calling us weak?!" But I didn't answer.

"There will be no rest until SpongeBob is found, you hear me? There will be no rest until..."

"Aren't you tired too?" Mr. Krabs asked.

"No!" I tried to stop a yawn. "Admit it, you're tired like all of us."

"Okay, I'm tired too, but I'm not giving up on SpongeBob."

"We're not giving up. We feel like we can better focus after some shut-eye."

"No! If you want to sleep, be my guest; I'm all for it. But, as for me, I'm going to continue on searchin' until the cows come home." I could see confusion on Patrick's face.

"Sandy, what are you talking about?" Patrick asked. "What cows?" He leaned towards Squidward. "Did you send these 'cows' Squidward, and where did you send them? Don't you see they're trying to come home?" But he ignored Patrick, as did I as I turned my back and walked on.

"Come on." I heard Chris tell the sea critters. "I know where we can sleep for the night." I stopped, and sighed. I decided then and there to go with them. It wouldn't hurt if we slept for a few hours. I turned to them as they were leaving, and went after them.

"Wait for me, guys!"

"Now you're speaking our language, Sandy!" Mr. Krabs told me. Patrick was confused again.

"She always spoke our language Mr. Krabs, or are you talking about her Texas language, in which case I didn't know you talked Texas. And what about the cows coming home? What are you guys not telling me? Come on, and is sleep really for the weak? Does that make us weak? I need to know!"

"We can sleep out here tonight in this alleyway." Chris explained to us in said alleyway. Steve looked unsure about this.

"Are you sure, Chris?" He wanted to know. "What did you tell our parents?" Chris looked at his brother.

"Relax, I told them we went to Jerry's and Tom's for a sleepover, just like I did yesterday."

"But we didn't."

"Mom and Dad don't know that. That's the point of the lie."

"Oh right. I still don't feel right about that."

"Relax, kid." Mr. Krabs told him. "What they don't know won't hurt them. And it's good for us."

"Okay, if you say so, but I still don't know."

"You will." I looked at Chris and Steve.

"Thanks for helping us, kiddos." I said to them. "We really appreciate this." Chis looked back at me, and smiled.

"No problem." I turned to all my friends next.

"Okay guys, we resume searchin' as soon as we wake up, understand?"

"I just wish we were in our comfortable beds, instead of you know, here." Squidward said.

"Well, we ain't. We just have to make the best of it." I laid down. "Now, goodnight!" They all said their good nights, and we all, or at least I, went to sleep.

Potty

"Goodnight, Potty!" Patchy said to me as I made myself comfortable on my makeshift nest in his room. "Sweet dreams, don't yet the bedbugs bite."

"Yeah, yeah!" I squeaked. "Same goes for you I guess." I closed my eyes, and went to sleep.

Minutes later, I heard him snoring. Oh brother, here we go again. Not wanting to bother waking him, I flew downstairs, and landed on the couch. I was about to close my eyes again when I saw something in the window that caught my eye. Is that...? I flew closer to the window, and landed on the windowsill to take a better look. It was! I couldn't believe it! It was Sandy Cheeks!

I worked the lock with my beak, opening the window. I flew out.

I saw right. There was Sandy. I looked around. Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs was here too, but no SpongeBob. There were also two kids that I didn't know, but I didn't care. I only cared for Sandy and friends.

"Why are you guys sleeping out here for?" I asked, waking them up. They all saw me, and screamed. I sighed. Typical.