"SPONGEBOB!!!" this voice cried from a short distance. Faster than SpongeBob could turn his head, something knocked him down to the ground. Something flabby and pink. Thinking it was another jellyfish, the sponge girl flinched with fear. "There's nothing to be afraid of," SpongeBob said in a muffled voice as his face was being smothered by a rough pink arm he tried to lift off, "It's Patrick!"
Yes, it was indeed the ecstatic starfish called Patrick, and by his actions, he had never felt so happy in his entire life. "You're not dead!" he cried once again, squeezing his spongy friend so tight SpongeBob couldn't struggle free, "You were all over the news and papers, there's even pictures of you around Bikini Bottom!"
"There are?" SpongeBob questioned once he wriggled his head free.
"Sure SpongeBob, everyone thought you died."
There was a short pause. "Dahahaha!" Sponge chortled, "Good one Patrick!"
Pulling a sneaky face, Patrick held up one of the 'MISSING PERSON' posters, which had a poorly drawn cartoon of SpongeBob printed on it. "Gimme that!" SpongeBob retorted, snatching the paper from the starfish's fingerless hand. Seconds later, his smiling face collapsed, and his eyes widened as he handed the paper back to Patrick. "Whoa..." he spoke quietly, "I never thought the whole town liked me so much! Patrick? Pat?"
SpongeBob waved his bone thin arm up and down in front of Patrick, who seemed to have noticed something awe-inspiring. "Who's the hot lady over there?" Pat ginned, aiming his hand straight ahead.
SpongeBob turned around. There stood the sponge girl, hanging her head down, arms on her back, probably looking bored. He soon realised that she was still in the nude! Quickly he held the piece of paper over her offending parts, grinning, looking back at Patrick.
"Oh, uh, she's...a new friend of mine!" he answered, feeling a little nervous. He could cast his mind back to last night, when he first met the girl among the raging flames of the Chum Bucket inferno. Somehow he had to tell a lie. "I met her in Jellyfish Fields. And, uh...she was in trouble. I think she lost her memory somehow, but I think after a while it'll all slowly come back to her, you know what I mean?" He nudged his chubby starfish friend.
Patrick somehow wasn't listening, as usual. The girl on the other hand was just standing there, waiting to have SpongeBob's attention. "Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't pay any attention to you," he said to her, "It's just that...well...anyway, I'll show you my house. See ya later Patrick!"
"Bye SpongeBob!" Patrick replied before waddling back to his rock home, like none of this ever happened.
"Phew! Glad he's gone!" SpongeBob commented, "We gotta get you something to wear." Of course, the girl was in the nude still, she couldn't walk the streets of Bikini Bottom without any clothes on! Into the pineapple the spongy couple went. The girl's eyes widened as she was introduced to the neat, sparkling, atmospheric interior of SpongeBob's house.
Suddenly she freaked out - something wet had slithered over her feet, and it mewed in joy - a blue sea snail with a pink shell dotted with purple spots and a red swirly line; and blubbering pale green eyes. "Gary!" SpongeBob called, picking up and caressing his beloved pet snail. He would have thought Gary would be angry with him for not feeding him in the morning, but the snail was so glad to see his master again.
The girl on the other hand had crouched down in terror. Worried about what's wrong with her now, SpongeBob set Gary down and came over to her side to comfort her. "It's OK, Gary won't bite, really," he said, snatching Gary from the ground and holding him up in her face, "Why don't you pet him?"
For an even strange reason, the girl's fear grew even worse, so bad in fact that she could hear the buzzing of jellyfish...was it Gary's googly eyes that were creeping her out, his under belly perhaps, or possibly the fact that his shell was pink? Pink! Jellyfish are round and pink, and she could recall the moment she got attacked by jellyfish...she must have been afraid of pink round things! All she could do was curl up even more.
"I just don't get it!" SpongeBob commented, scratching his head, "What could you possibly be afraid of?" He put his little mollusc pet down once again, and turned on the TV. "Well, I have to feed Gary now. I won't be a minute! How about some TV to cheer you up?" Finally, he trotted to the kitchen, whistling, being followed by Gary.
Now that Gary was gone for the moment, the girl rose from her foetal position and gazed at the brightness of the television screen. There was the image of Realistic Fish Head blabbering on about minor news headlines.
"We interrupt your fear to bring you a breaking announcement! In the last few minutes, the missing sponge boy who we mentioned the last time we broadcasted has returned home safe and sound, along with another sponge who could well be the very glowing creature who was discovered at the Chum Bucket incident last night..."
As Realistic Fish Head continued to chatter about the Chum Bucket, the news broadcast displayed several pictures of the place before, during and after the fire. It was there the girl became bewildered, so awed in fact that she crawled over to the TV set and seemingly hugged it. "Home..." she muttered, as she rubbed her hands all over the screen. She continued to do so for as long as it took Gary to eat his SnailPo breakfast and lunch, in which SpongeBob had stood next to him for supervision.
Just as the girl attached her eyes to the glowing screen, SpongeBob emerged into the living room and widened his eyes. "What are you doing?" he shouted at her, feeling confused and a little angry, "Stop that! You'll get fingerprints all over the screen!"
But the girl didn't respond - she must have been trapped in fascination. In seconds, Gary slithered in and stopped next to his master. "I don't get it Gary, why is does she like the TV so much?" Sponge asked the little blue mollusc with a worried face.
Gary on the other hand frowned and meowed cynically. SpongeBob gasped, "No, that's not true Gary, she's not a fake! She might act weird, yes, but I know for sure she's a real sponge!"
Pulling a smug face, Gary mewed again. "OK, I'll turn it off and see what happens." SpongeBob retorted.
But just as Sponge finished his last word, the girl laid her hands on the volume knob, and accidentally shifted it to the right - turning the sound up so loud the whole street could hear! Soon, the pineapple house was vibrating violently, as was Squidward's Tiki and Patrick's rock! In a panic, SpongeBob quickly turned the volume dial right down and the TV set off. "Phew..." he whispered with relief.
Shortly, a fierce banging on the door could be heard, as well as the raging voice of Squidward. "Aaahh!" SpongeBob screamed, rapidly removing his clothes, "You're still nudie! Quick, take my pants!" Pretty soon the girl was fully dressed, while the boy sponge remained in his underwear.
He speedily took place beside the girl and guided her to his bedroom and sat on the bed. "Now, whatever you do, don't make a sound," he whispered to her, "And let me do that talking." Feeling nervous, he hurried to his closet, slipped on a spare pair of square pants and walked over to the front door, opening it slowly.
Before them was fuming Squidward, prepared to rant against his neighbour. "SpongeBob, what do you think you're doing making that much noise you barnacle head?" he began furiously, "It felt like the middle of an earthquake in there!"
"Oh I'm sorry Squidward," SpongeBob replied in a seemingly confident manner, "Gary and I were playing fetch and the stick hit the TV and he crawled over the volume knob and...uh." He was rapidly losing his cool, "It won't happen again, honest." SpongeBob pulled a false grin, appearing all innocent.
"For your sake I hope you're right!" Squidward snapped back, poking on SpongeBob's nose mockingly.
Suddenly Squid's ramblings were silenced by a loud thud sound. "Uh, what was that?" he asked with wide eyes.
Oh no, SpongeBob thought, she's done something wrong again. "Excuse me for a second I have something to take care of upstairs," SpongeBob spoke quietly and quickly, before closing the door and rushing upstairs to see what was going on up there.
Grumpy old Squidward felt amused by SpongeBob's worry and felt giggly on the inside. Shortly the giggles grew stronger, and eventually he fell into a fit of laughter for no reason, causing his nose to deflate and inflate. As the laughter was dying, Squid was able to open his flooded eyes, only to see what he thought was SpongeBob in drag - the sponge girl was looking out through the window, watching the flowers in the sky drift by. He switched from laughter to disbelief, and scampered back to his Tiki house with a scream.
Meanwhile in the pineapple house, SpongeBob was chattering away while he was smoothing his bedsheet - the girl had been jumping from the diving board onto the out of boredom. Somehow he couldn't take his eyes off of her as she remained gazing out of the window. "You know," SpongeBob said, "I don't know what it is but...I sorta like you."
The girl turned around to face SpongeBob and look him in his bulbous sky blue eyes. Enticed by the squeaky but soft tone of his voice, she began to walk over to him - her sense of balance was greatly improving - and sat down on the bed beside him when she got there. Her face was gradually being attracted to SpongeBob's like a magnet, and like he couldn't look away from her, she couldn't look away from his eyes. "Wait till I tell Squidward about you!" SpongeBob suddenly spoke with great excitement.
He hurried over to the window to see if old Squid was still there waiting. But when he peered over and out, the octopus had already gone. "He must have gone to play his clarinet," he commented, turning back to the sponge girl, "Now where was I?"
Later that night, SpongeBob, Gary and his new female friend were preparing to go to bed. It was decided that the girl would sleep in the triple mattress bed of SpongeBob's, while he would sleep downstairs on the couch. After all the madness that occurred today and yesterday, the girl fell straight to sleep the minute she hit the hay. She squirmed about in delight - it was certainly more comfortable in here than in that freezing cold, damp cave in Jellyfish Fields!
Downstairs, SpongeBob was laying out a blanket on top of the couch, while Gary slithered over that sheet of newspaper. "Good night Gary," he said to his mollusc pet as he climbed under the blanket. Gary mewed back, making it the right time for Sponge to turn off the lamp.
After about a minute, Gary mewed again. "Yeah Gary?" SpongeBob murmured sleepily.
"Meow meow mew meorr." The little sea snail was being cynical again.
"Listen Gary," SpongeBob snapped back in protest, "I know for a fact that my new girl friend is a real sponge! She's had a rough time, that's why she acts funny. It'll all come back to her, I know it! Let's go to sleep now shall we Gary?" After that rather tense conversation, both SpongeBob and Gary resumed their sleep.
