Alan managed to fend off Francine's amorous advances long enough to ask Dolly a question. "Is it true? Did you make a love potion?"

"I cannot tell a lie," Dolly answered. "Francine asked me to make a potion that would make Arthur fall in love with her. So I did, but now it seems to have been misused."

"I love you, Alan," gushed Francine as the boy continued to push her away. "You're so handsome and smart. Why won't you kiss me?" Not far away, Van rolled down the access ramp in front of Binky's house, with Fern still in his lap, hugging him tightly.

"Snap out of it!" exclaimed Alan, grabbing Francine by the shoulders. "You're under the influence of a love potion! You're supposed to be in love with Arthur!"

"Arthur who?" asked Francine as she squeezed through Alan's outstretched arms and planted a kiss on his nose.

Unable to bear any more, Alan gave Francine a firm slap across the face. The lovestruck girl backed away, and tears started to form in her eyes.

"I don't love you!" Alan snapped at her. As Francine burst into tears and ran away, Van approached Alan, who grabbed the infatuated Fern around the waist and tugged on her to extricate her from the wheelchair.

"I think that was not a wise thing to do," Dolly said to Alan. "Francine's likely to do something desperate now, like jump off a cliff."

Alan seemed not to hear her as he struggled to restrain Fern from climbing back into Van's lap. "Why's everybody acting so weird?" the duck boy asked Alan. "What did Prunella put in those snacks?"

"So it was Prunella who swiped my love potion," Dolly observed, but without the slightest hint of anger.

Alan moved in front of Van's wheelchair, blocking Fern's attempt to embrace the boy. "Was anybody else affected?" he asked Van.

"Binky and George are fighting over Muffy," came the reply. "Someone needs to go in there and split them up before they kill each other."

"I'll handle it," said Alan. "Dolly, go find Prunella and try to get some answers from her. After that, you can start working on an antidote. There is an antidote, right?"

"No," Dolly replied, "but the effects wear off in a day."

Dolly began to run down the street in the direction of Arthur's house, while Alan made his way into Binky's house in hopes of stopping his feud with George. With him out of the way, Fern hopped into Van's lap and started to kiss the exasperated boy again.

When Alan arrived inside, he found George and Muffy on the couch, snuggling and kissing; Binky was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Binky?" he asked.

Muffy came up for breath and answered. "He's in his room. His mom's chewing him out. You should have seen it, Alan. Binky started to get fresh with me, and George came to my rescue. He was so brave." Then she kissed the moose boy again.

"Did Dolly's love potion affect you, too?" Alan asked her.

"A...a love potion?" Muffy pushed George's arms away and stood up, looking horrified. "Is that why the boys started fighting over me? It had nothing to do with my beauty and charm? Why, that's utterly vomitrocious!"

Scowling, Muffy marched out of the room and through the front door. "Muffy, come back!" George called out, and hurried after her.

At roughly the same time, the frightened, panting Arthur rushed into his house, closed the door, turned the deadbolt, fastened the chain, and leaned with his back against the door for good measure.

D.W. and Nadine were holding a conversation in the living room when he entered. "I think my mom's gonna marry Mr. Winslow," said Nadine. "He's so tall, I bet if I rode on his shoulders, I could see the whole city."

"Oh, look, there's Arthur," noticed D.W. "I think somebody's chasing him."

The girls jumped off the couch and met with Arthur in the kitchen. "Whatever you do," he ordered them, "don't open that door." With that, he started toward the back door to lock it as well.

When he had done so, he wiped his brow with relief. But this proved to be short-lived, as the first things he saw when he turned around were D.W. and Nadine standing on a chair next to the front door...and Beat and Prunella bursting through it.

"AAAAARRRGGGHHH!" cried Arthur.

"Kiss me, Arthur!" Prunella pleaded, her arms outstretched.

"Don't kiss her, kiss me!" Beat insisted.

"Cool! Arthur has TWO girlfriends!" remarked D.W. with delight as she and Nadine watched Prunella and Beat wrap their arms around Arthur and kiss both sides of his face.

But three's a crowd, as they say, and friction quickly redeveloped between the two girls. "Get your own boyfriend!" Prunella growled between kisses. "Arthur's mine!"

"He's mine," Beat retorted angrily, "and I'll fight you for him!"

"Have it your way!" Prunella, confident of an easy victory over the younger girl, stepped away from Arthur and raised her fists. Beat did the same, and her expression showed no sign of fear. As D.W. and Nadine hurried into the living room to witness what they thought might turn into an entertaining slugfest, Mrs. Read came up the laundry room stairway with a basket of clean clothes in her arms.

"What's going on here?" she asked when she saw Prunella and Beat dancing around each other in hostile poses. Arthur stood by silently, thinking that if one girl eliminated the other, he would have a better chance of escape.

"They're fighting to see who gets to be Arthur's girlfriend," D.W. told her.

"Not if I can help it," said Mrs. Read, setting down her laundry basket.

But she was too late...the fight had already commenced. Prunella launched three well-aimed punches at Beat's face, but the rabbit-aardvark girl blocked them each time. Surprised but not discouraged, Prunella attempted a right hook...only to suddenly find herself flying through the air.

With a fierce scream, Beat grabbed Prunella's right arm in mid-punch, yanked it toward her, and flipped the rat girl over her shoulder. There was an earthshaking thud as Prunella's shoulder blades and posterior collided with the floor. Mrs. Read rushed to her aid as she lay on her back, moaning.

"Wow," said the amazed Arthur. "How did you..." Before he could finish, Beat grabbed him around the neck and pulled him in for another kiss. He had no idea how the girl had become so adept at self-defense, but it was clear to him that resistance was useless.

As Mrs. Read helped the shaken Prunella onto the couch, there came a knock at the door, which was still hanging open. Dolly Proctor stood on the doorstep, too polite to enter the house without being welcomed. "Come in," called Mrs. Read, assuming she was another of Arthur's friends.

"Hey, Arthur, here comes girlfriend number three," quipped D.W.

"I'm not Arthur's girlfriend," said Dolly as she walked toward the spot where Beat held the boy firmly in her affectionate clutches. "I am, however, responsible for what has happened here." She noticed Prunella sprawled on the couch, apparently in a bit of pain. "Are you well, Prunella?"

"I will be," Prunella mumbled.

"Why did you steal my love potion?" asked Dolly, looking up and down over Prunella's prostrate body as if estimating the cost of repairs.

"I wanted to cure my love for Binky," Prunella replied as she lifted herself painfully into a sitting position. "Why did you lie to me?"

"If I'd told you the truth," Dolly answered, "you would have used it to make Binky fall in love with you."

"You've got a point there," said Prunella thoughtfully.

Then Beat stopped kissing Arthur and turned her face to Dolly. "A love potion," she grumbled indignantly. "You used a love potion on me!"

"I'm dreadfully sorry," said Dolly, lowering her face.

Beat closed her eyes, and for several seconds appeared to be in intense concentration. She pulled her arms away from Arthur, clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and started to breathe heavily. Her breath became heavier and heavier, and Arthur, D.W., Nadine, Prunella, and Mrs. Read feared that she would shortly fell Dolly with a lethal karate punch.

Instead, she turned and ran quickly out of the room, up the stairs, and into the second-floor bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. The others could still hear her heavy breathing.

Arthur began to wipe the moisture from his face with his fingers. "I thought she'd never stop," he said with a relieved sigh.

"So did I!" exclaimed Prunella, and before Arthur knew what hit him, she had encircled him in her arms and started to kiss him again. To Arthur's elation his mother intervened, grabbing Prunella by the arms and dragging her back to the couch.

"No more kissing, Prunella," said Mrs. Read, taking a seat next to the girl. "Arthur's not in a romantic mood right now."

"Awww," groaned Prunella. "Can't I kiss him just one more time?"

Suddenly Arthur heard staccato cries of pain from upstairs. Thinking Beat might have suffered some misfortune, he bolted up the stairway and opened the bathroom door. A blast of cold water vapor greeted his face.

All along the floor were littered articles of Beat's clothing--her dress, her shoes, her underwear. Beat herself was standing in the bathtub, shower water pouring over her stark naked body.

"Argh!" she cried in embarrassment, sticking her hands in front of her legs.

Arthur closed the door so quickly that he almost caught his head in it. The terror filling his stomach was so intense, he feared he would throw up. He had never seen one of the girls in his class naked before. He felt as if he had lost his innocence. Of one thing he was certain--he would never forget the image, however long he might live.

He was still breathless from shock when he reached the bottom of the stairway. "Is anything wrong with Beat?" his mother asked.

"Sh-she's taking a c-cold sh-shower," Arthur stuttered. His head seemed to quiver oddly as he spoke.

Their next visitor was Alan. After charging through the doorway, he closed the door and fastened the locks and chains, glancing about warily. Walking up to Arthur, he noticed the boy's pallid expression and said, "What's wrong? You look like you just saw a naked girl."

Then they heard pounding on the door, and Francine's eager voice coming from outside. "Please, Alan! Give me just one kiss!"

D.W. and Nadine started toward the door as if to climb onto the chair and unlock it, but Arthur and Alan stepped in front of them, blocking their way.

A moment later Beat came down the stairway, dripping wet and with a towel wrapped around her midsection. Ignoring the others, she gave Dolly a scowl that could have killed a small animal. Arthur hid behind a wall, not wanting to see or be seen by her.

"I have never been so humiliated!" Beat roared at Dolly. None of them had ever seen the British girl in such a fit of pique before. "What gives you the right to make me fall in love with someone?"

"The potion will wear off in a day," said Dolly calmly.

"Then that's how long you have to get out of town," Beat warned her.

"Alan, I love you!" came Francine's voice from the other side of the front door.

"Why haven't your parents come for you yet?" growled Beat, taking a menacing step toward Dolly. "Did they get tired of your tricks? Did they abandon you?"

"I told you, my parents are dead." Dolly's expression was one of sympathy, not fear.

"You'll be dead too, once we get over your love spell," Beat threatened. "We'll give you a death befitting a witch. What will it be, Dolly? Hanging? Drowning? Burning at the stake?" Her furious words seemed to have no effect on Dolly's placid exterior.

"Beat, stop talking like that," said Mrs. Read sharply.

Beat's demeanor became calm, and she tightened the towel around her waist. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Read," she said meekly, "but filling my mind with anger and saying hateful things is helping me not to think about...Ar...thur..."

Her eyes started to glaze over, and she looked in all directions in hopes of locating the boy she was compelled to love. Failing at that, she shook her head vigorously, let out an annoyed groan, and rushed up the stairway and into the bathroom.

TBC