A/N: The italicized sections refer to Season 3, episode 11 of the original Proud Family series: "Who You Callin a Sissy?"
Michael began to narrate. "So first, let me tell you about the when I was bullied. Believe it or not, I never looked as fabulous as I do now."
"Help! Heeeelp!" Michael yelled from the bathroom. When Penny, Zoey, and Dijonay came to see where the noise was coming from, they also noticed that several boys were laughing, including Omar and Sticky. Penny moved the chair out of the way that was blocking the boys' bathroom and as soon as they did, the door opened and Michael fell right out of it.
"That wasn't funny!" Penny said, confronting Tookie and the others.
"Sure it was!" Tookie said, continuing to laugh.
"Well laugh at this Tookie! I'm not going with you to the dance!" Penny said before walking away and getting Michael. "Come on Michael."
After Penny offered to take Michael to the dance and wear the dress he made while he wears a matching suit, he goes to his locker and notices that someone wrote the word "Sissy" on it. When they noticed it, they heard laughing and turned their heads to the source.
"A sissy locker for a sissy boy!" The gross sisters said before walking away.
"Penny kept telling me to talk about it with someone, but I told her it wasn't that big of a deal. I was just like you. I didn't really want to talk about it with anybody." Present Michael said.
"But you didn't do it because it really didn't bother you. Right?" Adrian asked.
"See, that's where you're wrong." Michael said.
Penny, Dijonay and Zoey all found LaCienaga in a garbage dumpster. "LaCienaga what happened?" Zoey asked.
"I was walking by and I saw this monster coming for me! So I hid in this dumpster!" LaCienaga said.
"When you mean monster, you mean the Gross Sisters, right?" Penny asked.
"No. It was bigger! Stronger! And more stylish!" LaCienaga said.
The next day, they found the Gross Sisters in a closet. It had the words "Mollycoddle", "Namby Pamby", and "Sop Invertebrate" written on it.
"Nubia what happened to y'all?" Penny asked.
"Girl this huge monster came out of nowhere and he grabbed us. I mean we was gon' throw down on him until he grew ten feet taller and locked us in the closet!" Nubia explained.
On the day of the dance, Penny, Zoey, LaCienaga and Dijonay were all at a table. Until they heard someone call for help. Dijonay was the first one to recognize that it was coming from Sticky.
The girls found him hanging on a ceiling fan in the girls' bathroom.
"Sticky!" Dijonay called out. "What are you doing in the girls' bathroom?" She continued.
"And how did you get up there?" Penny asked.
"That monster freaked me out so much, I jumped all the way up here!" Sticky said.
Sticky was able to return to the ground. Although it was a painful landing.
"Sticky are you okay baby? Are you all right?" Dijonay asked.
"Sticky what happened?" LaCienaga asked.
"I never seen anything like it. There was this big, angry, ugly, well-dressed monster. And it said it was gonna get us all." Sticky explained.
"Us? Us who?" Dijonay asked.
"I don't know." Sticky said.
"I do. And I know who's next." Penny said.
Back in the school gymnasium, everyone was dancing and having a good time, until music that terrified the students along with torture their ears was being played. The source for the music change was the monster!
While many of the students ran in fear, Tookie, Penny, LaCienaga, Zoey, Dijonay, and several others were still in the gym.
The monster picked up Tookie after saying, "Tookie Thomas, come on down!"
"Michael! Stop!" Penny said.
"The monster that scared those kids and stuffed the Gross Sisters in the closet was you?" Adrian said in surprise.
Michael nodded. "And Penny was the first, and only one to figure it out. Baby, that girl is a lot smarter than people give her credit for, trust me."
"I would if I were Michael!" The monster said to Penny. "Who's a sissy now?" He said to Tookie, raising him up to his face.
"I am! I am! I'm a sissy!" Tookie said in fear.
"Look I know he hurt you Michael but this is not the answer!" Penny said.
"I'm just following your advice! I'm doing something about the way people treat me!" Michael said.
"Yes, but I told you to express your feelings, not hurt people! Doing this doesn't make you any better than them!" Penny said.
"But it makes me feel better!" Michael said.
"Look, I know how you feel!" Penny said.
"You don't know how it feels! How it hurts when people laugh at you! Make you feel different, like you're a freak of nature! You don't know how it feels to go home and cry! Because people who you thought were your friends really aren't! You don't know how it feels to be ridiculed because you're you!" Michael said as he shrunk back to normal.
"That... that sounds like me." Adrian said.
"Well I'll tell you Tookie! If being a sissy means you're a good student, a fabulous designer, a sensational basketball player... who schooled you on the court! A loyal, caring friend, then I'm cool with it! 'Cause that's who I am!" Michael said.
"And-And that's what I meant when I said it! No disrespect here!" Tookie said, giving a fist bump to Michael.
"Yeah Michael!" Sticky said walking up to him. "I mean, I was just going along with everybody else. I'm sorry man. I'm not mad at you. You're not mad at me are you?"
"Yeah, hey Michael! You cool with the Gross Sisters! Anybody give you grief, we got your back!" Nubia said. "All right! Break it up y'all! It's over!" Nubia said and the crowd surrounding Michael, Penny and the others dispersed.
"Hey Michael! I like what you said man! You got heart dog! By the way I like that jacket! Where can I get one?" Omar asked.
Michael gives him a paper with his number on it for him to design one for him.
"Call me!" Michael said.
"Way to go Michael!" Zoey said.
"So, do you feel any better?" Penny asked.
"Yeah, I do! I feel great! I finally stood up for myself! You were right Penny that's all I had to do!" Michael said.
"Exactly! Because it's not good to keep things bottle up inside." Penny said.
"Wow. I'm sorry for judging you Michael. That was really brave. To come out and express yourself like that when you could have just kept it to yourself." Adrian said.
"Yeah. I did it because I realized that's what friends are for. To help. Penny was trying to help me and I finally decided to listen. Yes, Sticky shouldn't have laughed but I could really tell he was sorry. Before he moved, he was another one of our closest friends." Michael said.
Adrian looked down, shuffling his feet in silence. "Do you mind if I tell you something Michael?" Adrian asked.
"Go ahead!" Michael said.
"What's happening with me. It... it's not just at school. And it's not just social media either. It's... I never told anyone else this but it's at home too. You see, my dad, he doesn't know how to feel about this. I can tell he's upset, but...he's confused too. He doesn't talk to me unless he feels like he has to. I told my dad how I was feeling and he looked devastated. He said he accepted it, but I could tell from his face and how he's been around me since that he was lying." Adrian said.
"I just don't know what to do. The bullying was why we moved from Oklahoma in the first place. And I could tell my dad felt really embarrassed about it." Adrian added.
"Sounds like you need to hear another story. Don't worry, I can do this all day if I wanted to. Let me tell you another story about me and my dad." Michael said.
