When Robbie Rotten decided to become Rob the Rescuer, he thought it might provide an opportunity to get back at Pixel for making all that ghastly noise while digging the hole. It had only taken Pixel a day, but Robbie had lost a good ten hours of nap time.
At one point, while Robbie was pacing in fury at the noise and rumbling, it had sounded as if Pixel was coming through the wall! Robbie had backed away from the wall running, and tripped over his orange chair. The chair flipped backwards, and Robbie was trapped beneath. As his lair shook with another rumble, he decided that was the safest place he could be.
"I meant to do that," Robbie´s voice had vibrated with the room.
Now, settled in the lawn chair, with his hat and dark sunglasses, in the shade of the tree, Robbie pulled out a piece of gum and started chewing with the fury he recalled.
"Little brats," he mumbled.
He was watching the kids playing and swimming with delight. He smacked the gum a few times. He tested a bubble. He watched as it grew bigger, then just as he ran out of breath, it popped. Robbie spent several frustrating moments pulling and scraping the gum off his sunglasses so he could see. It probably would have helped if he had thought to take the glasses off to do it. But it didn´t occurr to him. Finally the gum was back in his mouth. He chomped a minute more, then pulled the gum out, divided it into two huge wads, and carefully stuck them over his ears.
He sat up straight and listened. Yes, he could still here them, but oh, so much less! Robbie laid back in his chair, sighing relief, and prepared to enjoy a nap. He drifted off to dreamland, oblivious to the churning and cheering from the kids.
"Hey, guys!" Pixel treaded water while trying to get Stephanie and Trixie´s attention. "I know we´re having a great time, but I think I need a break. And a snack."
Trixie looked at the sun still beating down. "My stomach has been rumbling, so a snack sounds good. It´s getting hotter and I´m getting tired."
"So, we´ll take a break and meet back here in an hour?" Stephanie asked. "I really want to see how Ziggy is doing, too." Stephanie said. She almost said Ziggy and Sportacus, but she wasn´t so sure she wanted to know how Sportacus was. She was terribly confused by his actions earlier.
The three children slipped and clawed their way out of the water.
"Geez, Pixel, don´t you think you could have found a way to make getting out easier, at least less messy? I feel like I´m about to become a statue!" The mud on Trixie was already beginning to dry like concrete.
"Hey, Trixie, Pixel." Stephanie turned toward the lifeguard. "What about Rob the Rescuer?"
They walked over and leaned above the sleeping lifeguard. A hot breeze blew some flower petals over them and several landed on Robbie. The kids jumped back when he reached out and clawed the air growling. His feet and legs were twitching, too.
"I think we should let Rob the Rescuer sleep."
"I agree."
"No argument here."
Robbie emitted another deep growl in his sleep, adding, "I want you gone!"
The kids turned and took off running toward town.
With a start, Robbie bolted upright, his hat flying into the bushes behind him.
"Eeek! What was that?" Robbie was trying to breathe and calm the wild beating of his heart. His eyes focused on the water before him and he remembered where he was. He whipped off the sunglasses.
"Where did those annoying kids go?" He peeled the gum from his ears. He listened, but couldn´t hear anything but the rustle of the leaves in the tree. He started to pop the gum back in his mouth, but sniffed it, and decided against it. Instead, he dropped it in the bushes behind his chair. Robbie stood up to go home. Realizing he was missing his hat he looked around.
"Ah ha! There it is! Wait...what´s this?" Robbie gingerly lifted blue material between thumb and forefinger. "Sportadork´s hero suit!" His eyes had grown round with realization, then suddenly narrowed. "Hmm. It wasn´t very responsible of him to leave his suit lying around where anyone, meaning me, could find it. I wonder what would happen if SportyElf´s crystal got...wet." Robbie wadded up the suit into a tight ball, hugging it close to his chest. He slinked to the edge of the swim hole and hurridly shoved the suit down into the water.
Robbie watched as it disappeared into the muddy darkness. The more it disappeared, the bigger his smile became. Suddenly, the suit began to resurface.
"What? No. No! Go away!" Robbie looked around frantically. He found a large log, dragged it over to the edge of the water, and rolled it onto the suit. The suit sank below the weight of the log. "Hah! It worked, it worked!" Robbie stood up proudly. "I´m a genius. I told it to go away, and it went away. Hah. Brilliant."
Another gust of wind blew flower petals across Robbie as he headed home for a snack. He was trying to remember something from his dream.
"It must be all this fresh air," Robbie sniffed and scowled. "It´s giving me wierd dreams. Why would I dream it´s raining flower petals? And I certainly wouldn´t be chasing Stingy in a dinosaur suit, that disguise is too hot. Although, getting rid of Sportabuff would be nice." Robbie smiled at the thought, then whimpered when he remembered Stephanie coming at him with a bat to save Sportacus. "For being such a girly-girl, she swings a mean bat. Come to think of it, this disguise isn´t too comfortable, either." Robbie adjusted his suit, which was giving him a wedgie, then slid home.
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Sorry to be so late with an update. Between doing grade cards, actually teaching, and working to help get Stefan Karl´s Rainbow Children off the ground here, time to write has been a limited commodity.