Hey everyone—PrimroseRaspberry here, and welcome to my story! Personally, I'm a very big Backyardigans fan, because the plots of each episode and the five friends themselves are awesome. The episodes of their series also have me thinking a lot these days though, because there are so many mysteries within them that I try to solve. This is the second story I've written that discusses one of those mysteries; the first was "A Soccer Monster's Dream." The rest of the mysteries are a story for another time, but don't worry. Sooner or later, those mysteries will be published via fanfic of mine as well.
I admit, I haven't watched "Cave Party" as often as some of the other Backyardigans episodes, like "Monster Detectives" or "Breakout." However, I have seen it a few times, so of course I know what happens in it and everything. Several thoughts went through my mind while watching it though, and it got to the point where I really felt like I had to let them all out through a fanfiction story. Then, just as I started writing this story, I ended up including some of the characters from "The Simpsons" in it as well. I think maybe it was because Lisa would have agreed with me on some of my thoughts about Cave Party. I've seen a lot of Simpsons episodes, and I like the series, although there are some episodes from there that I don't think you should see. Let's just say not all of the content from their series is rated K plus.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy my story. :) Here it is…
"Cave people rules? There were no cave people rules."
"Lis, it's a show. Those kids are still learning how cave people lived! Ugh, I can't believe we listened to Milhouse and watched this. I'm changing the channel."
"No, wait a second."
"Hey, you said you didn't like it first."
"I never said that! I was just pointing something out. It's still a little interesting, and I wanna see where this is going."
"Mom, Lisa won't let me change the channel to Itchy & Scratchy!"
"Bart, let Lisa watch that new show! It's about time you kids started watching something more appropriate for your age."
Bart groaned loudly. "That's it. I'm going to Krusty's studio. If I can't watch Itchy & Scratchy here, I might as well join his in-person audience."
As her brother headed out the door and her mother followed him, prompting a skateboard vs car chase to Krusty The Clown's studio, Lisa Simpson turned her attention back to the TV. She had to admit; she'd been a little nervous when her friend (not love interest; friend) Milhouse had recommended this show to her and Bart. Not counting Itchy & Scratchy, he'd always liked the kinds of shows that were supposed to be for babies; like her sister Maggie. But the kids in this show seemed to have matured a bit more than the characters Milhouse usually had his eyes on, and once she noticed that, Lisa had decided maybe the experience wouldn't be so bad. So far she hadn't exactly been impressed with it yet though, so basically the only thing keeping her from turning off the show was the mystery she'd noticed about it.
The way the plot of this show worked was the mystery in question—one that Milhouse had apparently never thought much of. At first it seemed like the five kids the show revolved around just used their imaginations to do various things, but now Lisa was starting to doubt that's what was really going on. First of all, how could five kids possibly be imagining the exact same thing? And the fact that the kangaroo and the hippo—Austin and Tasha, she was pretty sure were their names—had no idea how exactly the other three animals were doing in their journey toward them made it even more obvious that this couldn't possibly be an imaginary adventure. It almost seemed, now that Lisa thought about it, like the backyard shared by the quintet was magic, and had the power to morph the area around them into whatever they wanted it to be. Everything they were doing just seemed too real to be part of their imaginations!
Lisa understood; these were kids still learning about the world around them, currently going through a cave people phase despite already knowing what kinds of things would be invented in the future. But she was still annoyed with how they were doing things in the ice age, and as the episode progressed, she couldn't stop calling out all the stuff that bugged her. Bart would have officially dubbed her a critic if he was still sitting next to her; that was for sure. "What? That's not inventing. You can't 'invent' something that's already sitting right in front of you." "You know, for someone who's using skates for the first time, you seem to know a lot of on-ice skills already." "Great. Now they're at the mountain. What are they gonna do next, invent rock-climbing? Oh. They invented stairs that were already carved in there. Nice. Before you climb, would you take a minute to think about how many stairs there are? You do realize that a mountain-sized stairwell could leave you so out of breath that you can't howl at the moon, which is the reason why you're even here!"
In frustration, Lisa slammed the remote down on the floor. Instantly the channel was changed, and she found herself watching the Channel 6 News. Kent Brockman was currently talking about too much electricity coming out of the nuclear power plant, all of which was mixed with nuclear waste by a "lazy employee who keeps napping on the job." A picture of Lisa's father, Homer, was then displayed on the screen next to Kent, and the girl groaned. Homer worked at that plant of course, and she knew he took naps on the job instead of actually working that much, which was pretty dangerous considering he was—or at least supposed to be—the plant's safety inspector. How he still had his job now was a question Lisa hoped would be answered sooner or later.
Anyways, according to Kent, the overly huge amount of electricity mixed with nuclear waste was making electronic sources all over town malfunction in the strangest ways. As he said this, Lisa was pretty sure she could hear other employees at Channel 6 panicking as one of the nearby light bulbs came to life and started chasing them (at least, that's what they said was happening from behind the scenes).
"Maybe I should turn this off," Lisa said, starting to feel a little nervous. She picked up the remote and started to press the on/off button, but as she aimed it toward the TV, the remote suddenly vibrated in her hands, causing her to accidentally press one of the other buttons instead. As the channel changed once more, she thought she heard the doorbell ring, and a woman scream. She couldn't be sure though, because at the exact same time, a green ray shot out from the TV's antenna and headed straight for her! The last thing she saw before being blinded by green light was the remote slipping from her fingers.
ZAAAAP!
THUD!
Ahhh…snow. Wait a minute—snow?! It was the middle of June, and she was supposed to be inside her house! There couldn't be any snow here…right?
Lisa lifted her face up from the ground she'd landed on and realized to her disbelief that there was snow here. A lot of snow. She wasn't in her house anymore; apparently she'd been teleported into an area near some mountains, with snow everywhere. It was nighttime here too, which was even more confusing. Hadn't it been the afternoon when she was sitting on the couch, watching TV?
Then suddenly she heard a noise coming from somewhere above her. Lisa looked up and almost screamed when she saw the source of the sound: some of the animals from the show Milhouse had recommended. It was the trio that was trying to find their way to the mountain where the other two animals lived, so they could all howl at the moon together. They were climbing the stairs that one of them had "invented," and they had almost made it halfway up by now. The sound she'd heard was them just starting to run out of breath, which was seeming to surprise them a little.
Lisa rolled her eyes, and then gasped in fear. "Oh my gosh…the nuclear waste-filled electricity must have trapped me inside the TV! Right in the middle of this ridiculous show!"
"A television show? Is that where we are?"
Startled, Lisa spun around to find a familiar woman sitting on her knees in the snow, a few feet away from her. "Cookie Kwan? What are you doing here?"
"Filling in for Lindsay Naegle," the woman replied. "She was supposed to come by and advertise a…" She paused to pick up a poster that had landed next to her so she could read what it said, then continued, "'Eating Contest For Pie-Loving Men & Boys'...but her fifth job as a nurse made her get chickenpox yesterday. Apparently she's too embarrassed to admit that she's not available this time, so she asked me, a friend of hers, to fill in."
Lisa frowned knowingly. "I guess you decided my dad would like that advertisement."
"Lindsay decided he would," corrected Cookie, "after all the times she's met your family through job swapping. Anyways, I was at your house to deliver her message, and just as I rang the doorbell, the contaminated electricity crisis sent me here."
Sitting down in the snow, Lisa tried to think positive. However, it was hard to do so in a situation like this. Getting stuck inside this particular TV show wasn't exactly life-threatening like that time she and Bart got trapped inside Itchy & Scratchy, but it still wasn't a pleasant situation. On top of that, Springfield's most efficient realtor, of all people, had gotten stuck here with her. Lisa didn't have anything against Cookie, really. It was just that whenever she was doing her job as a realtor, Cookie threatened other realtors so that they wouldn't interfere with her job. And off the job, she did whatever it took to end up with a boyfriend that led a successful life. Sure, Lisa knew there were other problematic people she could have ended up stuck with—like Ralph Wiggum or some of the school bullies—but that didn't make being trapped in a TV with Cookie Kwan any better.
Trying to get her mind off of the situation, Lisa stared up at those three animals, who were still climbing up those stairs. They were definitely out of breath now, and the girl up front was starting to look as tired as she currently sounded. The two boys behind her would undergo this stage soon too, but for the time being, they were whispering to each other, knowing how exhausted they would soon feel and not wanting to experience that next time. Next time?! They were going to climb up those stairs again, even if it meant losing their energy and not being able to howl?!
Hearing this, Lisa almost got annoyed with the animals all over again, but as she saw their tired expressions, she couldn't help feeling bad for the trio instead. She'd spent all that time getting mad at things that they'd done, when there were people out there—for example, Cookie—that actually deserved to get yelled at. They were just kids; the friendliest and most matured kids she would ever know of, now that she thought about it. Maybe the way they lived the life of cave people was a little weird, and maybe the way they "invented" stuff could sometimes be very strange, but on the inside, they weren't like the spoiled, fickle people she knew in Springfield. They deserved better than this.
Suddenly, Lisa went from a careless critic to a caring audience member. Those three animals may not have known she'd held such a grudge against them at first, but she still knew she had to make up for her rudeness earlier. So, just as the trio was three steps away from the halfway point, which marked the beginning of the boys' next tiredness stage, Lisa hollered, "STOP! DON'T CLIMB THOSE STAIRS! YOU'LL LOSE YOUR ENERGY!"
The three animals turned to look down at her, but they didn't stop climbing. "We can't stop," said the blue penguin, whose name was Pablo. He paused for breath, and then added, "We're going to howl at the moon with the…Mountain Cave People."
"YOU'LL NEED ENERGY TO HOWL!"
"We don't have time to…find another way up," said the pink animal (Lisa wasn't sure what kind of animal she was exactly), Uniqua. "We have to howl when…the moon is at its highest peak."
"Cave people…rules," added Tyrone, the orange moose.
"CAN'T YOU BEND THOSE RULES? YOU CAN HOWL AT ANY TIME!"
"No, we can't," said Uniqua. "Cave people…always howl when the…moon's at its highest peak. It's the rules."
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THAT RULE!"
"Quiet down," said Cookie. "They aren't gonna—move it!"
Before Lisa could say anything else, the realtor scooped her up and ran away from the mountain as a strange noise was heard, from somewhere near the top. Ten steps above the one Uniqua had just made it onto, a crack had suddenly appeared on the mountain's staircase, having formed and expanded thanks to the impact of Lisa's shouting. As she shouted the part about not having to follow that rule, the crack made its way to the other side of the staircase, until suddenly the whole thing collapsed, taking Pablo, Tyrone, and Uniqua with it. Thankfully, since they were at the top of the staircase area that was falling, they didn't have to worry about a hard and harmful landing on the ground. By the time they made it there, a big, soft pile of snow had formed, softening their fall enough to save their lives. Still, once it was all over, Lisa rushed toward them and asked the animals if they were okay.
"We're…we're fine," Tyrone replied, once he and the other two caught their breath.
"Aw man," said Pablo. "Ugh! Now there's no way up the mountain!"
Lisa then realized it was her shouting that had broken the staircase, and she apologized. "I just wanted you to have fun with your friends with the energy."
She heard a gasp coming from the top of the mountain, and looked up to find Austin and Tasha standing at the top's edge. "What happened to the steps?" Tasha was exclaiming in surprise.
"The soundwaves produced by my shouting made them fall down!" Lisa hollered. She gasped in fear. "Which means you're stuck up there," she realized.
"Now hold on a minute," said Cookie, stepping forward now that there was no danger of being harmed by falling stairs. "I think I may have caught on to the plot by now, but in case I missed something…care to tell me what's going on here?"
Austin smiled. "Ugh! Of course! We were going to howl at the moon, like all cave people do. But tonight, we decided to invite the Valley Cave People to howl with us. So we left them an invitation and then headed for our caves."
"And we needed to find a way up the mountain," added Uniqua. "So I invented these stairs."
"Ugh?" Tasha inquired. "I was the one who invented those! Except I decided to call them steps."
"No, they're stairs," said Uniqua. "And I saw them first, so I was the one who invented them!"
Cookie was confused. "You can't invent something that's already there. You have to make it to invent it."
"I know," Lisa said to her. "Just roll with it. They're still learning how it's really done."
Uniqua and Tasha were too busy arguing on what to call their "invention" to hear what Cookie and Lisa just said. "It's my cave, so I saw them first! And they're steps!" Tasha argued.
"No, they're stairs!" Uniqua retorted.
"They're steps!"
"Stairs!"
"Steps!"
"Stairs!"
"Steps!"
"Stairs!"
"Steps!"
"Stairs!"
"Steps!"
"Stairs!"
"ENOUGH!" Lisa interrupted, screaming to be heard over the arguing. "YOU CAN'T INVENT SOMETHING THAT'S ALREADY THERE!"
A crack formed on the mountain again, and soon another part broke off and fell as well. Austin and Tasha, who happened to be standing in the area that cracked, were sent falling down as well, but somehow they managed to land safely without any support from their companions.
"Sorry," Lisa apologized again, feeling bad that her critic side had kicked in again. "I just thought it had to be said. Really, that invention has more than one name. You were both right."
Uniqua and Tasha looked at each other in guilt, and then at Lisa. They both sighed, with the boys nodding in agreement. "I guess we're not very good cave people," said Austin.
"No, of course you are," Cookie quickly told them. "You just need to realize the difference between inventing things and randomly naming items you come across on your way around. And the howling thing? You can howl anytime."
"Ugh? No we can't," said Pablo.
"And why do you keep saying 'ugh?'"
"Roll with it," Lisa side-whispered to Cookie, and she reluctantly nodded.
Tyrone answered Cookie's question anyway. "Ugh is what cave people say. It's their favourite word, because it means whatever they want it to mean."
"Actually, I think cave people said ugh because they were still trying to invent other words back then," Lisa put in. "But if it became your favourite word when you found out about cave people the first time…well, it's your favourite."
"But that's exactly why ugh can mean anything we want it to," said Austin. "It's something you can say instead of words that weren't invented until later."
Cookie nodded, reluctantly. Normally, if someone disagreed with her perspective on things (she still thought saying ugh all the time was ridiculous), she would unleash her rough side on that someone until they agreed with her. But those people had always been adults. Even she knew better than to threaten children.
So, instead of giving the animals a hard time on the ugh subject, Cookie instead asked them, "So, why do you consider howling at the moon at a specific time…cave people rules?"
"Because cave people always howl when the moon is at its highest peak," explained Tasha. "It must have been because it was a rule."
"No, it's because it was a wolf rule," corrected Lisa. "Cave people only howled because they saw wolves doing it every night."
"Oh," said the animals in unison.
"Then, why did the wolves howl?" Uniqua asked.
"To let each other know that they want to meet up," replied Lisa. "Wolves meet up to um…have parties every night at midnight." She didn't tell them what happened during these "parties" though; she doubted these animals would be happy to hear that midnight was actually the wolves' daily hunting time.
"Hey look," said Pablo. "The moon is at its highest peak! Let's howl! Even though we know it's not the rule now."
"It's what we came here for," said Tyrone, smiling. "To have fun with our friends."
As all five of the animals howled together, Lisa found herself howling with them, surprising everyone including herself. She never thought she'd actually end up having fun with characters from a show Milhouse recommended (not enough to want to consider them friends, anyway), especially after seeing the way they "invented" things. But they were kids who were still learning, and who were more matured. They had all the qualities she'd always wanted in a friend—the kind almost no one in Springfield seemed to have at this point. So, since she was here, why not form the one kind of friendship she'd always dreamed of?
"Come on, Miss Kwan," Lisa said, noticing Cookie didn't seem into the moment. "Howl with us! It's not so bad!"
Cookie shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Nothing you say will draw me into it."
Lisa thought for a moment and then said, "If you howl with us, I'll find a way to convince your supervisor to give you a raise…"
That compromise got Cookie to come right over. "Alright," she said, "but you'll only hear one howl from me. After that, stay out of my territory."
Everyone—this time including Cookie, who actually began to enjoy herself but didn't dare admit it—howled for another thirty seconds. After that, Tasha and Austin began to wonder where they were going to live now that there was no way back up their mountain.
"Perhaps I can show you a new cave around here," announced Cookie, obviously pleased to have an opportunity to do the kind of work she preferred. "One that won't fall down or be blocked off like your old one. Who would wanna live in a place so unstable?"
Ignoring Cookie's rude last comment, Uniqua smiled. "Yeah! There are tons of caves back in our valley that you could live in from now on."
"Ugh," agreed Pablo. "Then we won't have to walk so far the next time we howl at the moon together!"
"Ugh-zactly," smiled Tyrone.
Cookie picked up the poster Lindsay Naegle had given her about the pie contest. "Lead me to your valley," she told the Valley Cave People, "and I'll take it from there."
Marge Simpson came back home, carrying a struggling Bart in her arms. "Mom, Itchy & Scratchy is not inappropriate! It's a kids' show!"
"It's too violent, Bart. Now go to your room, and stay there until dinner's ready."
Grumbling under his breath, Bart headed upstairs to his room. Meanwhile, Marge headed into the living room and was surprised to see the TV still on, with Lisa nowhere in sight. Wait a minute—there she was! She was in the show Milhouse had recommended to her and Bart! She and a woman she recognized as her old work partner Cookie Kwan were walking through the snow with the five main characters of the show, who were starting to sing a song about saying the word "ugh."
Noticing the odd green glow surrounding the TV antenna, Marge let out a loud gasp and ran into the kitchen. There, she grabbed the phone and dialled a number. A few beeps, and then she heard a familiar voice on the other end. "Mm-yello?"
"Homer, did your work naps cause an electricity contamination?"
"Oh hey Marge! Yup, there's some contaminated electricity spreading around town. Not sure it's my fault though."
"It is your fault! If you hadn't fallen asleep on the job like you do every day, whatever crazy thing came out of that situation would never have happened! Now get back home and find some way to get Lisa out of our TV!"
Homer gasped. "Lisa's inside the TV?"
"In the Backyardigans show Milhouse said we should watch. Now leave the plant and get her out of there!"
"But what about my trip to—"
"You can go to Moe's later. Our daughter's very life could be at stake!"
"Okay Marge. See you in half an hour!"
"Half an hour?"
"I'm playing cards with Lenny and Carl. It's probably gonna take a w—"
"HOMER!"
"Alright, alright!"
"Well, here we are," said Uniqua. "Our valley."
Tasha, Austin, Lisa, and even Cookie gasped in amazement. The Valley Cave People had led them to the most wide, snowy, and majestic valley any of them had ever seen. And in that valley was an entire neighbourhood of caves; kind of like Lisa's neighbourhood, except with caves instead of houses. However, one cave was different from the others: the one in the middle of the left side. Unlike the caves next to it and across from it, there seemed to be some kind of lighting source somewhere inside the cave, giving its entire inside a comforting, golden glow.
Cookie noticed the cave with the glow right away and smiled. "Now there's a place to call home! Warm and cozy, even for a cave."
"That's our cave," said Uniqua.
Pablo nodded. "Ugh. You'll have to choose one of those other caves."
Lisa peered inside the Valley Cave People's cave. "Where exactly is that glow coming from? There's no campfire here, and light bulbs and electricity weren't invented until after the ice age."
"There was a glow like that in our cave too," said Austin. "But Tasha and I never found out why."
Their backyard is definitely magic, thought Lisa. I mean, if it was their imagination, they would have been able to think of a reasonable explanation for this. Oh well.
Cookie examined the rest of the caves, trying to find positive things to say about them since they didn't have the inner golden glow that the other one had. "Hmm, this one could do, if you like having a wide open space behind it…This one seems to have a green light hidden behind the rocks inside of it. As long as it's not a poisonous source, I'd recommend it…Ooh, this cave is the biggest and widest of all! If dollars were worth anything here, it would be worth a million!"
"Is it worth a million?" Tasha asked nervously. "Because Austin and I don't have that many pebbles…"
"Eh. Just take it. I don't have any use for pebbles anyway. Just sign an agreement on…hmm…" Without any access to paper, Cookie wasn't sure what to write a home ownership agreement on. She had a pen to write with of course (as a realtor, she always kept one in her pocket just in case), but paper was a different story.
Pablo pointed to the pie contest poster. "Ugh. Why don't we just use that?"
The realtor hesitated a little, then just shrugged. She knew Lindsay Naegle wouldn't be happy if she lost this advertisement in the television show dimension, but she could easily get a new one from her once she and Lisa found a way back into Springfield. Smiling, she gave Austin and Tasha the poster and the pen, then helped them write out an ownership agreement and sign their names in the right places. As if on cue, right after the signatures were printed on the poster, the biggest and widest cave adopted the same inner glow as the one already occupied by the Valley Cave People.
"Ugh!" Tasha and Austin cheered in excitement. "We have a new home! We have a new home in the valley!"
"Now we don't have to walk so far to visit each other and howl at the moon together!" Uniqua cheered. She, Pablo, and Tyrone were just as excited as they were—no, even more. Lisa could tell, and she didn't blame them. Walking so far and climbing a mountain-high staircase were definitely exhausting, especially put together. She and Cookie had done a good deed.
Tyrone smiled. "Thanks, uh…what are your names?"
"Cookie Kwan, realtor from the city of Springfield."
The animals looked at each other in confusion. "Ugh? I've never heard of Springfield," said Austin.
"It's okay," Lisa told him, "it's very far away from here…in a way, at least. My name's Lisa Simpson. I'm also from Springfield."
"Nice to meet you, Springfield Cave People," greeted Tasha.
"Uh-uh," Cookie frowned, waving her index finger side to side. "We are not cave people. Look at my earrings! And my bracelets! Do they look primitive to you?"
Lisa stifled a giggle when the animals appeared unfazed by her comment. She was definitely wrong to have been so mad at them earlier. They were so determined and mentally strong, nothing Cookie said and did got to them!
"Um, we should probably get back to our town now," said Lisa. "But I'm glad we got to help you."
The animals started to smile and wave goodbye, when suddenly a gurgling sound startled everyone. Lisa jumped, thinking someone might be about to throw up.
"Ugh," reassured Pablo, "that was my stomach. I guess all that cave exploring made me hungry." Everyone laughed, and he added, "Hey, wanna come to my house for a snack? Cinnamon toast…"
The rest of the animals all agreed excitedly, and then the five of them rushed past Lisa and Cookie, heading through the neighbourhood together. Instantly, the ice age, sky and all, transformed into a big backyard surrounded by a brown wooden fence, with five houses that were each the same colours as the animals, along with patio umbrellas, some trees, a blue pool, a picnic table, a sandbox, and a slide. The animals' cave people clothes disappeared, making way for more present-time outfits. Cookie was weirded out by this, but Lisa was secretly relieved. The backyard and the kids who lived in its neighbourhood were back to normal—at least for now.
As the animals began to sing a goodbye song together (which annoyed Cookie as they tried unsuccessfully to get her to sing along), Lisa scanned the area, hoping to find a way back out of the TV. But there was nothing of the sort in sight.
Homer Simpson parked his car in the driveway and entered the house, where his wife was waiting for him. "Thanks for pulling me out of work, Lisa," he sarcastically mumbled under his breath. "Now there's no way I'm gonna win that card game, let alone all the money in Lenny's wallet."
"You can gamble for Lenny's money later," said Marge. "We have to get Lisa out of that TV!"
"I'll handle this, Marge," Homer declared confidently. He strode past her and into the living room, where he examined the TV screen. When he saw his daughter and the tough realtor standing in a huge backyard, watching five animals enter a blue house nearby, he narrowed his eyes. "Alright TV, showing me a show I can't stand is one thing. But trapping my daughter in the kind of show that blue-haired kid likes is going way too far! LET HER OUT!"
Marge nervously watched from the doorway while Homer grabbed the TV's antennas and started wiggling them like crazy. A green glow began to surround the television, but apart from that, nothing happened. Finally, the man screamed in fury and banged his fists on the TV, causing it to send a bright green beam forward. The beam struck Homer and sent him flying backwards, right into the wall next to the stairs.
"Homie!" Marge gasped, rushing toward him to make sure he was okay. Hearing the noise, Bart came out of his room and went downstairs to see what was going on.
Inside the TV, all the animals had made it inside the blue house—Pablo's house. The scene was starting to fade into blackness, which Lisa quickly noticed. "No," she cried, "no! I'm not part of the show!"
"Stay away from me!" Cookie screamed. She threw her arms out in front of her and tried to block the shrinking closing circle approaching them, but she was just barely able to hold it back.
Bart strode into the living room, smiling in a cool way. "Stand back, Homer. I'll show you how to deal with a nuclear waste-energized TV."
"Bart, no! Get away from there!" Marge yelled. She started to go and stop her son, but Homer moaned in pain, and she stopped so she could tend to his sore head.
Once he made it to the TV, Bart picked up the remote, which had landed on the floor, and pressed the on/off button. At the same time, he pressed the on/off button that was on the TV, causing the screen to start shaking like crazy. Zapping noises could be heard from every corner of the television, and Bart backed away from it, starting to get nervous. Then suddenly, just as Cookie was unable to hold the closing circle back any longer, she and Lisa were both sent flying out of the TV. Thankfully they were able to master a softer landing, but only because Homer was still lying against the wall and they were sent in the exact same direction as him.
"Lisa!" Marge exclaimed, and she hugged her daughter tightly, kissing her cheeks and forehead. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright!"
"Hey," said Homer. "I actually got hurt, you know!"
Cookie realized she'd landed on Homer Simpson and quickly got off of him. Marge finally became aware of the realtor's presence and asked, "Miss Kwan? How did you get stuck in our TV?"
"Long story," said Cookie. "But since your husband and son are both here, I might as well do what I came here to do." Since she'd given Lindsay Naegle's poster to Tasha and Austin, she decided to just tell Homer and Bart about the pie contest out loud. Of course, they were both really excited for it. Marge, on the other hand, wasn't too thrilled.
"Well, I guess I'll be going now," said Cookie. "You're not the only men and boys I have to deliver the message to, and I need a new ad poster after my little…adventure."
"You mean our adventure," corrected Lisa, a little annoyed.
"Yes, our adventure," the realtor told her. Yet she wasn't even looking at her and was already leaving the Simpson House.
When Cookie was gone, Lisa sighed. "Didn't everything that happened teach her that you can't mistreat anyone just because they're not perfect?"
"I'm afraid some people don't learn those kinds of lessons," her mother said, glancing at Homer wearily. "But it seems like you did, and to me, that's all that matters."
"If it makes you feel better, I learned something from this," reassured Bart. "Dad and I have a pie-eating contest to get to!"
"Woo-hoo!" Homer yelled, and forgetting all about his injury, he and Bart rushed out the door, not even bothering to close it.
Marge sighed, then led Lisa into the living room. "It's okay, Lisa. Some people are just meant to learn things the hard way, and it looks like Miss Kwan is one of those people."
"Oh! Hi Lisa! Who's that?"
Lisa and Marge gasped. They turned around to see where the voice had come from, and sure enough, someone was sitting on the family couch. And not just anyone—a purple kangaroo that Lisa knew all too well after the TV incident.
"Austin?!" Lisa exclaimed. "What are you doing in our house?"
"I don't know," he said. "My friends and I went inside Pablo's house for a snack, and while they went to eat their cinnamon toast, I opened the front door one more time to say 'ugh.' Then a bright green beam appeared, and the last thing I remember was seeing you and Cookie get zapped right out of the backyard!"
Lisa looked at the TV, which was still glowing green. Sure enough, the end credits were playing, but she could hear Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, and Tasha shouting above the music, trying to figure out where Austin was. Well, at least until the TV suddenly turned off, plunging them all into silence.
"Oh dear," sighed Marge. "Kent Brockman said they were going to cut off the town's electricity until it could be decontaminated, but I didn't think they'd be doing it this soon."
Lisa's eyes widened. "How long is the power going to be off?"
"Bart tried to escape while I was watching it from the studio, so I don't know."
"Then how is Austin going to get back home?"
"My friends will think of something," reassured Austin. "Our backyard can take us anywhere. I'll just stay with you until they're done their snack."
"Oh," said Marge. She smiled. "Well speaking of snacks, what kind would you like?"
Lisa smiled too. "How about cinnamon toast? That way you won't miss out on anything. And I'll have an opportunity to try something new!"
"Sounds good," said Austin.
Marge agreed as well, and as she led them into the kitchen, Lisa told Austin, "Hey, maybe after our snack, I can introduce you to my classmates. No offence to them, but I'll bet they can learn a lot about friendship from you."
Austin nodded, smiling.
And that's the end. I hope you liked it; I tried to make it as Simpson-y as possible while keeping it—like Marge said—appropriate. Please feel free to express what you thought about my story through the reviews, and then I guess I'll see you around. ;)
