Random Acts of Spongebob
Chapter 3: A Squirrel's Gift
One morning, Spongebob was just getting out of bed and was busy getting himself ready for the day. As he passed the calendar hanging on his wall, he stopped short and then rushed back over to see a particular day that he had circled as a reminder to himself. "How could I have forgotten? Today's Sandy's birthday! I need to get ready and then get something nice for her." Spongebob said. After getting his trademark brown square pants with the red tie on, Spongebob rushed out of his pineapple so he could get Sandy a present. Arriving at the Bargain Mart, Spongebob started to look through the shelves to see if there was something that Sandy would like. After a few moments of searching, his eyes soon flew on a box of tools on the top shelf.
"Sandy will really like this. I'm sure she'll like having some new equipment while working on her inventions." Spongebob commented. He grabbed a small stool and reached up to get the toolbox from the shelf, but then he accidently slipped off the stool and dropped on the floor with the toolbox falling off the shelf and landing on top of him. "Well, at least I got the toolbox down." Spongebob said his voice muffled from underneath the toolbox, and then he lifted it from off of him with some difficulty due to how heavy it was and started to drag it across the floor towards the counter. After paying for the toolbox, Spongebob arrived back in his pineapple having dragged it all the way back there and then stopped to catch his breath.
"Oh, that was exhausting. I better get to work wrapping up this thing and then getting over to Sandy's place." Spongebob said, adjusting himself so he was standing upright again. Grabbing a roll of wrapping paper from the cupboard, Spongebob then started to unfold the roll across the toolbox but found that the wrapping paper he had only covered half of the toolbox.
"Looks like I'm out of wrapping paper. Well, I'll find something else to wrap this present up with." Spongebob commented. With this, he ran downstairs to the living room and tore off some of the wallpaper he had around on the walls, and then headed back up to his room to finish wrapping his present up. Once he was done with that, Spongebob realized that he had to find a nice ribbon to put around it. "I know what I can use for a ribbon!" Spongebob smiled, snapping his fingers as he had an idea. He ran to the bathroom and unfolded the toilet paper until he had enough and tore it off, and then he headed back to his room to tie it up around the present. But as he stepped back to have a look at how the wrapping turned out, he noticed that there was something wrong with the ribbon he used.
"I think it might be too obvious that it's actually toilet paper." Spongebob said. But then an idea hit him; he could cover up the fact that the ribbon was toilet paper if he painted on it and he knew exactly where he could get paint.
In his house, Squidward was walking over to his favourite painting board as he had a new idea. But then Spongebob poked his head out from behind the board causing him to jump and scream in surprise. "Spongebob, what are you doing in my house?" Squidward asked, obviously not happy with Spongebob being in here.
"Sorry, Squidward. I was just wondering if I could borrow some of your paint. I really need it for something important." Spongebob replied as he picked up a tube of red paint and a paintbrush. Looking up to see Squidward frowning at him, Spongebob smiled innocently. "It's okay, Squidward. I'll bring it back once I'm done. Thanks!" Spongebob said, before he ran over to the open round windows and jumped out of one of them with Squidward running over and looking out to see him heading back into the pineapple.
"Stop breaking into my house!" Squidward yelled even though Spongebob couldn't hear him. Meanwhile, Spongebob was busy painting over the toilet paper so it didn't look so obvious. Once he was gone, Spongebob stepped back to see how it looked and smiled at how the paper now looked like a red ribbon.
"It looks perfect! Now Sandy will really like what I got for her." Spongebob smiled. But when he had a closer look at how his work turned out, he suddenly realised that there was something wrong. "Dear Neptune!" Spongebob gasped; he didn't notice that in the midst of his painting, he had accidently splattered the wrapping paper in red paint so now it looked like a complete mess of colours mixed together. "Oh, now it's a wreck. There's no way Sandy will accept it in this state." Spongebob sighed looking down in dismay. But then he realised that he had to get to Sandy's place, so he started to drag the present out of his house behind him deciding not to think about the state of the wrapping paper. As he walked past Squidward's house, Squidward opened the window and poked his head out.
"Spongebob, what are you doing?" Squidward asked. But then he looked at what Spongebob was dragging behind him and he started trying to stifle his laughing. "And what is that supposed to be?" Squidward asked with a smile on his face at the state of the gift behind Spongebob. Spongebob looked at the wrapped up present behind him and then he looked back up at Squidward.
"It's Sandy's present. Today's her birthday and I wanted to get her something nice." Spongebob replied. Squidward then suddenly started laughing.
"That's some present! I hope she doesn't mistake it for trash; that would be something terrible for you to give her!" Squidward called, before he started laughing loudly and then headed back inside the room while Spongebob could still hear him laughing.
"It's not trash, it's a toolbox. And I'm sure Sandy will like it, despite the state of the wrapping." Spongebob said more to himself than anyone else. With this, he continued to drag the present behind him while on his way to Sandy's place; he didn't want to miss out on her birthday. Eventually, he arrived at the Treedome and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, the door opened to show Sandy standing there.
"Howdy, Spongebob." Sandy said, smiling to see that Spongebob was here to see her. "Hey, Sandy. Happy Birthday." Spongebob replied.
"I'm surprised you remembered about my birthday, but it's great to see you come to visit to give me your birthday wishes." Sandy said, smiling at the fact that Spongebob remembered about today. She then turned to see the gift behind Spongebob splattered in red paint and wrapping paper underneath the red mess. "What's that you got there?" she asked.
"It's your birthday present. I really wanted to get you something that I was sure you'd like." Spongebob said. The two then came into the Treedome, with Sandy supplying Spongebob with a helmet full of water so he could breathe, and the two sat down at the table with the present on the table for Sandy to see. "Getting your present wasn't very easy. See, I had to get it from the top shelf so I grabbed a stool so I could reach it, but then I slipped off and it landed on top of me. And then I had to wrap it up, but I was out of wrapping paper so I had to use the wallpaper I had downstairs. And then when I wanted to get a ribbon to tie around it, all I had was toilet paper so I borrowed some of Squidward's paint so it wouldn't look so obvious, but then I ended up getting paint all over the wrapping paper and it looked like a mess! Sorry about ruining your present, Sandy." Spongebob explained, looking down in sadness at the end of his explanation. Sandy looked at Spongebob in surprise and then she smiled, wrapping her arm around him prompting him to look up at her in surprise.
"Oh, issues with wrapping is nothing to worry about, Spongebob. But boy, it sounds like you went through a lot of trouble just to get me a good present. Let's find out if your persistence was worth it, shall we?" Sandy suggested. Spongebob smiled and nodded in agreement; he was looking forward to seeing how Sandy would react to his gift. With this, Sandy pulled off the ribbon and then tore the wrapping paper off to reveal the toolbox. "Spongebob, what's this?" she asked as she looked at the toolbox in puzzlement.
"I thought that you would need some extra equipment while you were working on some new inventions, so I figured that getting you this would help you out a little bit." Spongebob explained. Sandy opened the toolbox to see what was in it, and then she gasped in surprise at the various tools that were inside.
"Look at all these tools! These could really help me speed up my progress with my inventions." Sandy said, with a bright smile crossing her face. She then turned to Spongebob and happily hugged him while he stared in surprise. "Thanks so much, Spongebob. I really like it." Sandy smiled.
"Hooray!" Spongebob cheered, thrilled that his persistence in getting Sandy this present was all worth it in the end.
