Chapter 4 – Thrown Away
While Sandy still studies the old photo, the three toys hear footsteps approaching the room. Mike's coming back! Nina asked her older brother, "Mind if I had your stereo?"
"No." Mike told her sister in exasperation.
"Why not?" Nina asked.
"Because I'm taking it with me!" Mike scolded. The toys begin scampering back to the toy box. Sandy, SpongeBob, and Jimmy leap down from the dresser and jump into the toy box. As soon as every toy is in the toy box, SpongeBob slams down the lid in the nick of time. Mike and Nina enter the room. Nina is now a pre-teen who has an avid interest in fashion magazines and iPod music. To her brother's annoyance, Nina kept on bugging Mike about getting his stuff.
"Can I have your laptop?"
"No."
"Your video game and console?" Nina asked on more time.
Mike sits down on at his desk and said, annoyed, "Forget it, Nina!"
Nina sighs as Mike begins using his Apple laptop. Mike's mom, Mary, comes in. Her husband, Larry comes in, too. She carries some boxes and a set of sleek black trash bags. "OK, Mike. Let's get to work here. Anything that you're not taking to college, either goes in the attic, or it will be trash." Mary writes the word 'COLLEGE' on the box with a Sharpie.
Mike said, "Mom, I won't be leaving until Friday." It seems Mike is right: today is Wednesday.
"C'mon. It's garbage day." Mary said.
"Mom…" Mike said, rolling his green eyes.
"Look, it's simple." Mary replied. She picked up a Hot Wheels skateboard and continued, "Skateboard: college." Mary adds the skateboard to the box. Mike will possibly be skateboarding while at college. "Little League Baseball trophy. That can go into the attic." Mary picked up a browning granny's smith apple core, and continued, "Apple core: trash." She dropped the old core into a trash bag. "You can do the rest."
Nina lifted up the toy box, and sees Mike's toys. She mused, "Why do you still have these toys?"
Mike sighed in annoyance. "Nina, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"
Nina closes the toy box and said tauntingly, "Three more days and it's mine!"
Mike sighs and rolled his green eyes again. Larry, Mike's father, said while following her, "Nina, you're not off the hook either." He chided to her daughter. SpongeBob cracked the lid open and listened to what Larry and Nina are saying. "You have more toys than you know what to do with. Some of them could make other kids really happy and jovial."
"What kids?' Nina said, while sitting on the floor, reading a Tween magazine and listening to music on her iPod.
"The children at the local daycare. They're always eager of having donations." Larry replied, while writing the Sunnyside daycare word on the box.
"What's daycare?" Alex whispered, only to get shushed by SpongeBob.
"But, Dad…."
"No buts." Larry chided. "You choose the toys you want to donate, and Mom will drop them off at Sunnyside." He walked downstairs to watch some TV. Nina sighed, and she put a Magic 8-ball and a rainbow colored xylophone into the box to donate to Sunnyside.
She picks up a doll. She has long blonde hair down to her knees, and posh pearl pink hearts as cheeks and has big blue eyes. Usually, she wears a red hairband with devil horns and lets her hair down. She has a turquoise, sleeveless dress with four colorful stripes on the chest, white lace on the bottom, and a white bear face on her left side towards the bottom. She also wears light sea green and bluish green-striped stockings, pink boots with white bunny faces and dark pink bottoms, and a silver bracelet with spikes. Her name is Star Butterfly, or Star for short. Nina puts Star into the box and goes back to reading her Tween magazine issue with a bored look.
In the toy chest, the toys saw this in devastation. "Poor Star." Cindy said.
"I get the Corvette." Cody replied. SpongeBob looked at him with a stern look.
At the same time, Mary said, "Come on Mike. You got to start making some decisions."
"Like what?'
"Like, what are you going to do with these old toys?" Mary opened the toy box, with Mike's toys all sprawled around in the box. "Should we donate them to Sunny Side Up?"
"No." Mike replied disdainfully.
"Maybe sell them online?" Mary asked again.
"Mom, nobody's gonna want those old toys. They're junk!" Mike said.
Mary sighed and closed the toy chest. "Fine. You have until Friday to make your choice: anything that's not packed for college or in the attic is getting thrown out." She closes the door on her way out.
"Yeah. Sure, Mom." Mike said. Once she was gone, Mike exhales and closes the laptop. He turns his swivel chair, and he overlooks his bedroom filled with teenage stuff. He eyes his old toy box, and he rolls the chair to the toy box, and he opens it, while furrowing his brow.
Mike gets out a trash bag, and he begins putting each of his toys into the black bag, such as Oscar, Grundgetta, Alex, Cody (who got uncorked by Mike as he spills out his coins), Spirit, Sherman, Agnes, Clifford, Cindy, Stan, Kyle, and Craig. He checks into the toy box, and he sees that he's down to Sandy, SpongeBob and Jimmy. He picks up Sandy and SpongeBob in one hand, and Jimmy in the other hand.
He eyes the three toys, their smiles arranged on their faces. SpongeBob was his favorite pal, and so was Jimmy who was his second favorite until Sandy came along. The teen then he eyes the college box. In the trash bag, Cindy gasped as she watches Mike put SpongeBob and Sandy into the college box, then he put Jimmy into the trash bag, and the boy genius gasps as Mike closes the garbage bag. Once Mike heads into the hallway, SpongeBob and Sandy pop up from the box and gasp in horror. Their friends need help!
Inside the trash bag, Alex cried, 'What's happening?"
"We're getting thrown out, lion! That's what's happening!" Oscar said.
"This is bad. I just hope somebody would come and rescue us!" Agnes dreaded.
When Mike walks further out into the hallway, SpongeBob and Sandy jump out from the box, and peek behind the corner of the doorway. They catch a glimpse of Mike pulling a string in the ceiling. As a square in the ceiling opens, a wooden ladder unfurls. As Mike begins to go into the attic to put the toys in there, SpongeBob and Sandy sigh with relief.
Nina comes out of her room, carrying the box. It is filled with a lot of stuff she was going to donate to Sunny Side Up.
"Need a hand there?" Mike asked.
"I got it." Nina wheezed, straining from the weight of the box.
"Here." Mike said, setting down the bag. He takes the box from Nina and head downstairs. "So are you gonna miss me when I'm gone?"
"Well, if I say no, do I still get your room?" Nina asked.
"Nope."
"Then…Yes. I will miss you." Nina asked.
In the trash bag, Cindy began to hyperventilate. "I can't breathe!"
Alex panicked, "This can't be happening!"
Jimmy holds up a hand to silence them. "Quiet! What's that sound?" The ladder retracts back into the ceiling, pushing the bag of toys over a bit. The toys all shout in the bag as they are rolled over. As SpongeBob and Sandy watch the ladder finish retracting, SpongeBob gestures Sandy to follow him. As they begin tiptoeing down the hall, they scurry back to their hiding place.
Mike's mom walks into the hall, carrying another trash bag. She trips over the bag lying on the floor. "Michael!" Mary called out. She sighs in annoyance and picks up the bag to take out to the curb.
"That's not trash! That's not trash!" Sandy cried.
"Come on, think, SpongeBob! Think, think, think!" SpongeBob said. An idea flashes in his head, and he whistled through his fingers. "Pal!" He slapped his plastic knees for Pal, Mike's dog to come. "Come here, boy! Come here!" Pal enters the room. At first he was a young puppy who was very energetic, but now he is now an elderly dog with a meager amount of energy and an intense amount of laziness. White fur has grown through his yellow fur through the years. His light fur brushes across the floor. SpongeBob said, "OK, boy! To the curb!" He and Sandy hop on the dog's back. "Hyah!"
Pal yawns and flops onto his side, thus landing on SpongeBob and Sandy.
"No, Pal! No!" SpongeBob rasped.
"You're toooo…..old….for…this." Sandy wheezed.
SpongeBob and Sandy work together to roll the mutt off of their chests. They catch a breath, then they rush over to the window to see Mary dropping the trash bags at the curb. One of the trash bags have the toys in it. SpongeBob and Sandy show looks of worry because, there's a garbage truck heading their way!
In the bag, Cindy fearfully cried, "We're on the curb!"
"If we don't get out of here, that garbage truck will crush us all to death!" Agnes concerned.
"We got to get out of here!" Sherman shouted.
"Oh, I knew it would come to this!" Oscar said in despair.
"Pull, everyone! Pull!" Jimmy said, tugging at the plastic. SpongeBob picks up a pair of scissors, wraps them around his arm, and runs over to a drain pipe, with Sandy following suit. They slide down the drain pipe, but they unwittingly hit a gutter, and they tumble into the bushes below. As for the toys in the bag, the toys all start pulling at the plastic.
"It won't rip!" Alex cried.
"Ah, who are we kidding?" Cody said. "It's triple ply-high density polyetholene!"
"This plastic is too strong to rip!" Sherman grunted as he tried pulling it.
"There's just gotta be a way out!" Jimmy said.
"Oh, Michael doesn't want us! What's the point?" Oscar said.
Oscar's statement about the term "point" just gave Jimmy a huge idea. "Brain blast!" He turned to face the lion toy. "Alex! Extend your claws."
"OK, Jimmy." Alex nodded. Alex pressed a small button on his wrist, which extends his plastic claws from his paw, and he starts slashing at the plastic. It begins ripping their way through.
"I can hear the garbage truck!" Alex alarmed. The bag started to tear a bit more.
"It's getting closer!" Sherman dreaded.
At the same time, the garbage truck drives up to the curb.
At the same time, SpongeBob uses the scissors to cut their way through. As him and Sandy see the garbage truck stop, he and Sandy race out to the curb and duck behind the post of a mailbox. The garbage man, who's humming rock music, picks up a silver trash can and carries it to the truck. SpongeBob and Sandy plunge the scissors into one bag, but trash pours out, much to their disgust.
The sponge and squirrel cut open another bag. More trash. The two toys drop the scissors and hide behind the mailbox as the teenage garbage man carries the bags to the truck. As the truck pulls away, SpongeBob and Sandy run after it and they hide behind a fire hydrant. Suddenly, the garbage man pulls a lever, and a mechanism in the back of the truck crushes the newest bags. Sandy and SpongeBob look horrified, their friends being pulverized.
"Jimmy! Cindy!" SpongeBob cried.
Soft clinking is heard, and Sandy taps SpongeBob's shoulder. The two turn to see a blue recycling bin with feet scurrying up the driveway and into the garage. It's the toys, safe and sound. SpongeBob sighs with relief. In the garage, the toys topple the recycle bin upward. They're all upset for what happened.
"Michael threw us out!" Clifford said.
"Like we were garbage!" Cody said.
"Junk! He called us "junk"!" Oscar replied.
"How could he?" Grundgetta asked. As she wailed in despair, Sherman told Agnes, "That was a dreadful experience: being cramped in the trash bag and nearly being thrown out!"
Agnes told her brother, "Yeah, I know! That was very bad."
While Sherman and Agnes were talking, Jimmy leans against a tire of the family van. "This really doesn't make any sense." he muttered to himself. Toys aren't meant to be thrown away in the path of being crushed by a garbage truck. Even Cindy was seething with anger at the thought of being thrown away.
"I should've seen this coming! It's Susie all over again!" Cindy said angrily.
"Sarge was right!" Cody said.
"Yeah, and SpongeBob was wrong!" Oscar replied snidely.
Jimmy turns to face the group. "Wait a minute! Hold on! This is no time to be hysterical!"
"It's the perfect time to be hysterical!" Cody added.
"Should we be HYSTERICAL?!" Alex exclaimed in fear.
"No!" Clifford shouted.
"Yes!" Oscar shouted back.
"Maybe!" Jimmy said, intervening their complaints. "But not right now!"
"YEE-HAW!" Cindy whooped. "Fellas, I know what to do!" She motioned to the Sunnyside daycare donation box sitting in the trunk of the van.
"And your plan will be...?" Agnes asked.
"We get in the box and donate ourselves to Sunnyside." Cindy crouched down and placed her hands on Agnes' shoulders, "Just think! There will be plenty of kids there: the whole real deal!"