And I'm back with another chapter! I want to thank Call Me Nettie, Kryten, Cre8ivelybankrupt87 and CukooCoa for reviewing last chapter. This chapter will be dealing with the episode Grandpa's Sister and I've also decided to dive a little deep for Wolfgang's background. Strap in this ended up being longer then I planned!
I still own nothing but the plot believe it or not
Normal pov
It was Friday afternoon another long school week was about to come to a close at P.S. 118. Everything was mostly quiet in Mr. Packenham's fifth grade classroom all the students were watching the clock as they waited out that heart wrenching moment between being stuck in class and being set free to enjoy their weekend. Wolfgang like a lot of his classmates was watching clock why was it that the five minutes before class was dismissed were always the slowest?
"Remember class that your family tree projects are due on Monday." Mr. Packenham warned and most of the class groan in displeasure at the reminder that part of their weekend would have to go to school work Wolfgang included. "And you will be presenting it to the class."
Wolfgang had gotten most of it done already his mother's side of his family tree was fairly easy because she was around to answer questions and give him pictures. His father's side was a different story luckily his Grandma Mitzi would be visiting though giving him a chance to get the information from his father's side.
"Make sure that your projects are creative and-" The rest of Mr. Packenham's sentence was cutoff with the ringing of the bell and the sound of children running as fast as they could out of the classroom.
The thrill of finally making it to the weekend was coursing through everyone's veins as students either ran outside to catch their bus or ran to their lockers to put away or get stuff that they would need over the weekend.
"Hey Wolfgang I've got the new Smash Atoms Golden Eyebrow video game for Nextado 46 do you want to come over and play it today?" Edmund asked once his own locker was closed.
"You've got Golden Eyebrow?! I heard that game was sold out everywhere!" Wolfgang says completely surprised.
"Yeah it wasn't easy but I managed to track one down!" Edmund explained. "So are you coming over to play it?"
"Can't I have to finish that family tree project due on Monday." Wolfgang explains in a disappointed tone.
"Really?" Edmund says a bit surprised. "You usually have school work done way before it's due?"
"Yeah well Grandma Mitzi is coming over to help me with…my dad's side of the family stuff." Wolfgang says in an even tone. "I'll probably be spending most of the weekend with her."
"Oh, okay." Edmund says in a quiet tone.
"I'll see you later man." Wolfgang says before walking away from his best friend and out of the school so that he could no doubt walk Nadine home.
Thirty minutes later after walking Nadine home from school Wolfgang made his way to his own house not expecting to find his grandmother waiting for him at the front steps of his house.
"Grandma Mitzi!" Wolfgang exclaims in an excited tone running up the steps to hug his grandmother.
"There's my little wolf!" Mitzi says embracing him in a hug once he reached her. "Look at you you've gotten so big! You look just like your father well at least without the trademark family chin but that does tend to skip every few generations. Course you haven't hit puberty yet so-"
"Grandma!" Wolfgang exclaims loudly before she could continue her embarrassing rant. "I thought you weren't coming over until tomorrow? And why do you have all those bags with you?"
"Yes well I thought about it and I think for your family tree project we should spend the weekend at the boarding house our family owns. Your mother agreed that it was a good idea so it's all settled." Mitzi explains to him. "Hurry now and pack some things for the weekend I don't want to go over there too late."
"Sure Grandma." Wolfgang says with a shrug as he walked into the house to grab some things.
"Oh and I can't wait to hear all about your girlfriend little wolf!" Mitzi tells him as he walked inside of the house.
"Yes Grandma." Wolfgang said as he goes to get his things, it didn't take him long to gather some things for the weekend and soon he and his grandmother were taking a short walk around the neighborhood to the boarding house. "This place looks really familiar." Wolfgang says out loud to himself as he trailed behind his grandmother a bit, at the moment he couldn't place why the boarding house was so familiar. Was it because it was close to the vacant lot? Did a friend or classmate live here?
"Mitzi!" A male voice shouts in surprise breaking Wolfgang out his thoughts, he hurried after his grandmother.
"Are going to stand there catching flies or are you gonna take my bags?" Mitzi asked the person at the door throwing her bags in his direction for him to catch who was stuttering in surprise. "This must be Arnold? How do you do kid? I'm Mitzi." Mitzi says greeting Arnold much to his confusion.
"Yeah, fine, nice to meet you too. We're just leaving on a long fishing trip." The man says quickly trying to get Mitzi to leave.
"I'll let myself in." Mitzi says ignoring him and walking inside. "Where's Gertie? You still married? She still alive?"
"Grandpa, who's Mitzi?" Arnold asked his curiosity getting the better of him.
"I'm his sister." Mitzi answered for her brother.
"You have a sister?" Arnold asked completely taken by surprise.
"Grandma?" Wolfgang asked finally making it to the door. "You have a brother?" Wolfgang asked completely confused.
"Wolfgang?" Arnold asked now even more confused.
"Oh yes this is my grandson Wolfgang." Mitzi says remembering that her own grandson had been walking behind her. "Little wolf meet your great Uncle Phil and Cousin…well second cousin Arnold."
"COUSIN?!" Wolfgang and Arnold shouted at the same time both completely taken back. It was at that moment that he remembered why the boarding house looked so familiar it was where Arnold lived with his grandparents. How could he forget? He was just over there two months ago for the greek's only party. "But…but." The two newfound cousins say together at the same time.
"I'll explain during dinner boys." Mitzi says to the two confused kids. "Hopefully we'll be having something decent." With that said Mitzi walked away from the entrance to no doubt look for Gertie.
A short while later came dinner time came and the newfound cousins plus the boarders were learning of the connection between Mitzi and Phil that they previously had never known about.
"We're twins." Mitzi explains to everyone around the dinner table in a bit of a bragging tone. "I'm the oldest by six minutes so that makes me his big sister. Ain't that right Phil?" Mitzi asked her younger brother who just grumbled in response.
"It's always better to be the oldest right grandma?" Wolfgang asked in an amused tone.
"Right little wolf." Mitzi states in an equally amused tone.
"Uh…Great Aunt Mitzi?" Arnold asked still trying to get used to the idea of his grandfather having a sister.
"Call me Aunt Mitzi. It makes me sound younger." Mitzi says to Arnold.
"Even though you have a ten year old grandson." Phil grumbled annoyed under his breathe.
"Did you grow up in the boarding house too?" Arnold asked.
"Sure did." Mitzi answers and then looks around said house in disgust. "Only it was a lot nicer back then. Looks like Phil here has let the place go to the pot."
"You got that right lady." Ernie says in agreement. "This joint's a regular flea bag."
"Yes it is falling apart." Mr. Hyunh adds on.
"How come I've never met you before? Do you live a long way away from here?" Arnold asked still not understand why he didn't know about her.
"And why weren't Arnold and I told about each other? We go to the same school?" Wolfgang adds in wanting answers himself.
"I live right in town." Mitzi explains to Arnold then turns to her left to answer Wolfgang. "Phil and I haven't spoken to each other for seventy years."
"Seventy one, but who's counting?" Phil counters in distain.
"It's seventy." Mitzi says forcefully standing up to square off with her brother much to Wolfgang and Arnold's collective surprise.
"Nice of you to show up out of the blue to point that out Mitzi." Phil says in anger standing up as well and facing his sister. "But enough small talk. Let's call a spade a spade you hate me and I hate you. So what are you doing here?"
"I want to get to know Arnold. He's my relative too you know. He seems to be a very nice boy in spite of his upbringing." Mitzi answers pulling Arnold in his chair closer to herself.
"Yeah, yeah he's a nice boy. Too bad about Wolfgang." Phil says in a dismissing tone sitting back down. "Now when are you leaving?"
"Who said anything about leaving?" Mitzi asked also sitting back down. "I'm here to stay." She said causing Phil to spit out the water he was drinking.
"Stay?" Phil questions with a stutter.
"That's right. This place is as much mine as it is yours. Me and my grandson have every right to live here." Mitzi says forcefully. "Besides Wolfgang has a family tree project that he has to do for school and unfortunately you count as a member of his family."
"Why, that's wonderful Mitzi." Gertie says in excitement. "You can sleep in our bedroom."
"Our bedroom?!" Phil shouts in dismay.
"We'll have a sleepover just like when we were girls." Gertie continues on completely ignoring her husband's displeasure as the two older woman laughed.
"Just a second. Where am I gonna sleep?" Phil asked still completely upset.
"In Arnold's room of course!" Gertie tells him. "Wolfgang can sleep on the couch up there and I'm sure we have extra sleeping bags."
"Hey don't I get a say in this?" Phil asked but got no answer.
The rest of dinner was tense with Phil and Mitzi making sharp comments about each other and Arnold and Wolfgang being stuck in the middle of it. Soon though it was time to get ready for bed and the two newfound cousins found themselves alone in Arnold's room as they settled in for the night.
Wolfgang stood near the couch as he gathered up his things for the night he couldn't help but shake his head at this turn of events. Who would have thought that this whole time he was in fact related to Arnold 'football face' Shortman? Why didn't his grandma ever say anything? Or even his supposed Uncle Phil whom saw him around the neighborhood all the time or did he not know as well?
"I don't know about you but this day has been so weird." Arnold states breaking Wolfgang out of his thoughts.
"Hey how do you think I feel?" Wolfgang proclaims to his cousin. "I just found out I was related to you too football face! Who would have thought I would in any way be related to the boy who has to be in everybody's business at P.S. 118!"
"Yeah well who would have thought I'd be related to the biggest bully at P.S. 118!" Arnold counters back and the two stare at each other before they both begin to laugh. "It's crazy!"
"Unbelievable." Wolfgang says with a laugh falling onto the couch.
"We are nothing alike!" The two cousins say at the same time laughing even harder at their shared sentence.
"Even still I wish I knew why Grandma never told me about this." Wolfgang says calming down a bit.
"Me too Grandpa never told me about this and he tells me everything." Arnold says also calming down now laying down on his bed. "I swear Grandpa is always telling stories-"
"About her childhood." Wolfgang continues on.
"To help me whenever I have a boyhood problem." The two cousins say at once again and begin to laugh once more.
"My Grandpa usually shares everything with me." Arnold states with a deep sigh.
"Why didn't she tell me about this?" Wolfgang questions sighing as well.
"We'll just have to talk to them after all-" Arnold begins to say.
"They can't keep it a secret forever." Wolfgang finishes. "It will come out like Grandma's love for Dino Spumoni."
"Yep." Arnold says in agreement then in excitement he grabs his remote for his stereo and started playing a Dino song.
"You better not touch my gal, or I'll pop you in the kisser pal." Dino sings through the stereo.
"I so dig this song!" Wolfgang says happily. "Plus I've done this kind of thing before."
"I know I saw Iggy's black eye." Arnold reminds him and begins to sing along. "So listen good, you two-bit hood."
"I'll give you to the count of ten," Wolfgang sings along as well. "And if you're not gone by the crack of dawn."
"You'll never ever eat solid food again!" The two of them say at once.
"You better not touch my chick," Arnold sang.
"Or I'll beat you with a big fat stick," Wolfgang continued.
"You better not nose around," Arnold sang.
"Or I'll bop you like a pop-up clown." Wolfgang continued.
"So get this straight, you retro bait," Arnold sang.
"I'll give you til the count of ten." Wolfgang continued.
"You'll never, ever eat," Arnold sang.
"No, you better be discreet." Wolfgang continued.
"Or you'll never, ever eat solid food again!" The two cousins finished singing the song together and laughing.
"Alright that's enough of that for one night." Phil says surprising the two boys when he came into the room and turned off the stereo.
"Sorry Grandpa." Arnold says sheepishly.
"We were just having some fun Uncle Phil." Wolfgang states from his place on the couch both boys could tell that Phil was still in a bad mood as he grumbled and got a pillow and blanket for him to sleep with from the closet.
"Doggonit…" Phil continues to mumble to himself. "I thought I was going fishing giving up my own bed so my incredibly irritating sister can hog it and stink up all the pillows with her smelly eua du toilette."
"Eh…I'm gonna go brush my teeth." Wolfgang say awkwardly as Phil continued to mumble to himself.
"I'm sure by tomorrow you'll work something out." Arnold tell his grandfather.
"Oh, we'll work something out all right." Phil says in a mischievous way. "I'll work her right out the front door."
"Grandpa I can't believe you'd throw out your own sister?" Arnold says in disbelief.
"I have no sister." Phil says evenly as he threw his pillow on the floor. "As far as I'm concern she's dead to me."
"Grandpa? You're not even making any sense." Arnold continues on in disbelief. "I mean Wolfgang and I don't get along but it's not like I'm going to deny he's my cousin."
"Second cousin he barely has to count if you don't want him to." Phil says in an annoyed tone. "And considering how bad he treats ya it's no wonder he's Mitzi's sprog."
"Grandpa!" Arnold exclaims.
"Look, Arnold I haven't spoken to her since November 13, 1927." Phil explains to his grandson.
"What happened on November 13, 1927?" Arnold asked.
"I have no idea. Go to sleep." Phil says ignoring the question.
"Well you're going to have to start speaking to her she's moving in with us." Arnold reminds his grandfather. "She said so."
"Yeah, she did say that. So I guess that means there's only one thing I can do." Phil states as he lays down in his sleeping bag.
"Make peace with her?" Arnold asked hopefully.
"P…No!" Phil says in disbelief of his grandson. "Haven't you been listening to a word I've said? I've got to get her to change her mind about moving in! That's right Arnold come tomorrow it's all-out war."
While this was going on Wolfgang was inside of the room his grandma was staying in for the night and having a very similar conversation.
"Grandma I don't understand I thought you we're only here so that I could get my family tree project done? And now you're moving in?" Wolfgang questions in disbelief. "I thought you loved your penthouse apartment?"
"Oh please Wolfgang I would never give up my penthouse for this place." Mitzi states waving him off.
"Then why did you say that you were staying here?" Wolfgang asked.
"To drive my brother crazy of course!" Mitzi explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I bet he's upstairs muttering to himself about losing his bed."
"Yes but I still don't get why you're doing this? He's your brother why haven't you spoken to him in seventy years?" Wolfgang couldn't help but to ask.
"Seventy one. And we haven't spoken because of November 13, 1927." Mitzi says evenly.
"What happened on November 13, 1927?" Wolfgang asked curiously.
"It doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you and I have every right to be here no matter what anyone says." Mitzi proclaims. "Now off to bed with you. Knowing my brother he's going to be starting a war to get me out and I need my rest so that I can prepare for it."
There was nothing else Wolfgang could do so he shrugged and made his way back over to Arnold's room. It looked like Phil had already fallen asleep so Wolfgang tip toed as quiet as he could as he made his way back to the couch. On his way to bed he locked eyes with Arnold who asked him silently if he had gotten any answers out of his grandma to which Wolfgang just shook his head to say no.
The next day Phil woke up early to drill some holes on the roof above his room where his sister was sleeping. Mitzi woke up in surprise at the sound of thunder and then suddenly water started falling from the ceiling causing her to shriek loudly. From the roof Phil laughed before making his way back downstairs he starts to whistle innocently as he passed by Mitzi who was now soaked and wet.
"Oh, unusual weather we're having." Phil states innocently peering into the room. "Been meaning to fix that roof." Mitzi says nothing just pushes passed him to get to the bathroom. "Oh, I wouldn't try to use the shower if I were you. Water heater's broken. You can take a cold sitz bath in the bidet though…in the basement!"
"Have it your way smart guy!" Mitzi yells walking away to the basement just as Arnold and Wolfgang made their way over to the two siblings.
"Hehehe fell for it." Phil says while still laughing. "What a sap! Alright if you need me I'll be in the shower Arnold." He states before closing the bathroom door and getting in the shower. "Oh you beautiful doll, you great big beautiful doll…ah! Oh it's hot! Ah…Oh, it's cold!"
"I guess the war has begun." Arnold states with a sigh as he and Wolfgang walked to the kitchen for breakfast.
"Isn't that your grandparent's room that's leaking?" Wolfgang questions as they walked past the room.
"Yes." Arnold states with a sigh. "I guess he wanted to get rid of Aunt Mitzi so bad he forgot he was ruining his own room."
"Oh, he is so going to lose this war." Wolfgang states shaking his head.
"Probably." Arnold states evenly.
After Phil was done with his shower he moved on to his next plan of attack, by putting a lot of mouse traps all around the room.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Mitzi asked when she made her way back to the room from the basement.
"Oh, just setting out the traps again like I do every morning." Phil explains seriously. "We've got a real rat problem you know."
"You don't say?" Mitzi questions.
"Oh, yes big ones with little tiny yellow teeth." Phil exaggerates with his hands before walking out of the room.
"Eek!" Mitzi yells before her brother could get too far. "Phil get in here quick!"
Without thinking about it Phil walked back into the room only to accidently step on a mouse trap and then another and another. "Ah! Ow! Oh! Ow…!"
"Hello boys." Mitzi says as she quietly got out of the room and greets Ernie and Mr. Hyuhn.
"Hey what was all that racket?" Ernie asked her.
"Oh, just the mousetraps." Mitzi explained cheerfully.
"Mousetraps? Are there mice in the boarding house?" Mr. Hyunh asked a bit creeped out.
"No mice, just one big fat rat." Mitzi says in a pleased tone before walking away at that moment Phil walked out of the room now covered in mousetraps.
"Not a word from any of you." Phil states when he finds the audience outside of the room.
"Wow all the mousetraps were covering his body I have to remember that one." Wolfgang says in an impressed tone.
"Please don't." Arnold says sighing and shaking his head.
The rest of the day continued on like this with Phil trying to come up with crazy ways to get Mitzi to want to leave the boarding house and Mitzi turning his plans back on him. Nothing Arnold said to his grandfather seemed to get through to him. Now it was dinner time again and the boarders plus Wolfgang were all sitting around the dinner table listen to Mitzi tell embarrassing stories from their childhood.
"So then what happened?" Ernie asked as everyone laughed but Phil.
"Yes tell us more embarrassing stories!" Mr. Hyunh encouraged much to Phil's annoyance.
"Well you see Phil was only partially toilet-trained at that point not like…." Mitzi begins to tell the boarders.
"Come on, grandpa these are pretty funny stories." Arnold tried to reason with his clearly upset grandfather.
"She'll be laughing out of the other side of her mouth in a minute." Phil grumbled.
"What do you mean?" Arnold asked.
"I put laxative in her yams." Phil whispers to Arnold in a chuckle.
"You what?!" Arnold asked in disbelief.
"Shhh" Phil just says.
"Oh, finished already Mitzi? Here have some more yams." Gertie says about to scoop up more yams to put on Mitzi's plate.
"No thanks Gertie, I actually don't care for yams." Mitzi says waving it off then turned to look at her brother. "I gave all of mine to Phil. I spooned them onto your plate while you weren't looking."
"That's it Mitzi!" Phil yells completely outraged to his indifferent sister. "The final straw! I have had it up to here with you. This is my house and I say that… (Stomach gurgles) Oh boy, hold that thought excuse me." He says before running towards the bathroom, Phil spent the rest of the night after that in the bathroom moaning and groaning in pain.
"Nighty-night Phil, sleep well." Mitzi says mockingly as she passed by the bathroom.
When Phil was finally able to get out of the bathroom once more he went straight towards Arnold's room to plan his next point of attack.
"Feeling any better?" Arnold asked his grandfather who was hard at work at his desk.
"Get little attacks once in a while otherwise I'm fine." Phil tells his grandson.
"What are you working on?" Arnold asked.
"Mitzi's Doomsday Device!" Phil tells him in a looming tone.
"Mitzi's Doomsday Device?" Arnold questions in an annoyed tone.
"All this time I've been thinking too small Arnold." Phil explains while walking over towards his drawing board. "Everything I've tried so far she's turned it right back on me. Well, I got to think big see? I got to invent some kind of contraption that's gonna fix her good. Oh yeah fix her butt good." Phil finishes explaining in a malicious way.
"Okay, grandpa…sounds great get some rest okay." Arnold says while backing up slowly right out of the room.
Meanwhile once more Wolfgang was having a similar conversation with his own grandma.
"I mean laxative in the yams Phil is so predictable." Mitzi says shaking her head and muttering to herself.
"It was pretty funny." Wolfgang says with a laugh.
"Always remember to be a step ahead of the enemy little wolf." Mitzi says slyly. "That's how I've been able to turn everything Phil tried to do against him."
"I know grandma." Wolfgang says to her.
"Well it ain't over just yet. Knowing Phil he's going to try something even bigger than today so I better be ready for it." Mitzi says out loud.
"I don't know Grandma don't you think this has gone on long enough?" Wolfgang asked. "I mean how much more of Uncle Phil's plans blowing up in his face could he possibly take?"
"You'd be surprise how stubborn he could be kid." Mitzi says with a smirk. "It doesn't matter I'll still turn it back around on him."
"Okay Grandma but you know I've still got my family tree project to do right?" Wolfgang asked. "We haven't really talked too much about it over the weekend."
"I wonder what his next plan will be?" Mitzi asked completely ignoring her grandson. "Probably something idiotic no doubt…"
"Sure Grandma whatever you say." Wolfgang says with a sigh leaving the room clearly his grandma would rather stay caught up in her rivalry with her twin. "Have a good night. Get some sleep."
As soon as Wolfgang walked out of the room he ran into Arnold who had a very worried look on his face.
"I think my grandpa is about to take things too far." Arnold says in a worried tone.
"My grandma is now obsessed with turning his plans against him." Wolfgang tells him. "I mean at first this was funny and all. I mean this whole thing has definitely given me some great ideas to try out at school but I still need to work on my family tree. Though I have learned that my ability to come up with plans probably came from the Shortman part of my family. I guess it had to have come from somewhere."
"You are really good at planning." Arnold states in shock as he himself thought about it. "And unlike Grandpa Most of it actually works out. Can't you come up with a plan to get them to stop?"
"Hey when I said I was good at planning I meant the whole pranking and messing with younger kids." Wolfgang says forcefully. "You're the one that's the touchy feely one getting involved in everyone's emotional crap. If anyone should come up with a plan to get them to stop fighting it should be you! The best that I could do is egg them on which is useless to me until I get my project done."
As much as Arnold hated to admit it Wolfgang was right he was better suited to get the two siblings to stop if only he knew why they were acting this way in the first place. The two cousins walked together to the kitchen to find Gertie chasing after a fly. "Grandma we've got a problem."
"Shh, I'm closing in for the kill." Gertie tells them while lifting up the fly squatter towards the fly.
"We're worried about grandpa and Mitzi." Arnold continues on. "I really like her and I know you do to."
"And I enjoy Uncle Phil's pranks even if they backfire against him." Wolfgang adds in. "It's still pretty funny and they always work."
"But they can't stand each other." Arnold continues. "He hates her so much that I'm afraid he's about to do something drastic. I just don't get why?"
"Also I still have a family tree project due on Monday." Wolfgang finishes to which Arnold gives him an annoyed look. "What? I could end up getting an F and I have never gotten anything lower than a B!"
"Colonels the thing to remember in times like these is to keep your nerve coolly approach your prey take aim, then strike." Gertie tells them then moves quickly to try to kill the fly but misses. "And try looking on the top shelf in the parlor next to the cactus." She says before walking after the fly.
"Well one of the things she said was useful." Wolfgang states after Gertie had left he was still getting used to the weirdness that was his newly found Aunt who was the type of person to wear an evening gown with a tiara to a causal dinner.
"Let's just go check the shelf." Arnold says getting up to go to the parlor. The two cousins made their way over to the parlor, Arnold walked over to the book shelf and picked out the book that was right next to the cactus he blow off the dust on the cover and it said Phil and Mitzi. "It's a photo album?" He says after opening it up.
"It's our grandparents." Wolfgang comments peering into the book.
"Yeah and it looks like they're getting along just fine." Arnold adds in turning the page until he gets to a dog. "Pooter?"
"I guess it was their dog?" Wolfgang suggests. "Grandma never told me she had a dog when she was little."
"Neither did Grandpa." Arnold says looking down at the photos, everything on the Pooter pages seemed happy enough until he turned it to photos of the twins no longer getting along.
"Those must have been taken after November 13, 1927." Wolfgang says. "So what happened?"
"I don't know?" Arnold says picking up a photo of his grandpa, Mitzi and Pooter at the beach. "But tomorrow we're going to find out."
The next morning Arnold and Wolfgang woke up to the sound of loud clattering, crashing and Phil yelling. "God football face doesn't you Grandpa know it's too early for all that noise." Wolfgang asked with an annoyed groan.
"We better see what's going on it can't be good." Arnold says getting out of bed and going to investigate the noise with a cranky Wolfgang following behind him.
The two cousins walked downstairs and made it to Mitzi's door just as Phil was walking out of it. Phil jumped when he found Arnold suddenly standing behind him. "Oh, it's only you short man."
"What are you doing?" Arnold asked his grandfather.
"It's all ready." Phil just says mysteriously.
"What's ready?" Wolfgang asked catching Phil by surprise.
"Oh nothing why don't you just run along and get some flapjacks from Pookie." Phil says shooing Wolfgang away.
"Grandpa this doesn't have anything to do with that Doomsday device does it?" Arnold asked much to Phil's irritation.
"Arnold?! Be quiet! We have a spy." Phil whispers into Arnold's ears. "Let's just say the Mitzi problem will be over soon."
"Grandpa this is crazy! There's got to be a better way for you and Mitzi to work out your problems." Arnold says forcefully. "Look at me and Wolfgang he's been a bully to me and my class but you don't see us acting this way. Not since we've found out we're related."
"To be fair though their fight has been pretty distracting." Wolfgang adds in. "Never thought old people could be so entertaining."
"This has to stop! Why don't you just talk to Mitzi?" Arnold asked.
"I can't stand her, Arnold! There's only room enough for one of us in the boarding house." Phil shouts. "And I've got to get rid of her."
"I bet there was a time when you two really loved each other." Arnold counters.
"Now, how would you know?" Phil asked not noticing Mitzi coming up from behind him. "Mitzi and I never agreed about anything."
"Oh, yeah?" Arnold asked taking a picture out of his pocket and handing it over to his grandfather. "What about Pooter?"
"Aw…Look it's Pooter." Phil says smiling down at the photo.
"And Mitzi." Arnold added.
"Nah, must be some neighborhood kid." Phil says in a dismissive tone.
"Come on grandpa that's Mitzi, look at the two of you! Look how happy you were together." Arnold states as his grandfather looked at the photo. "You guys looked like you got along great."
"Oh, our old mutt Pooter what a wonderful dog. Smart as a whip! We took him everywhere." Phil says as he thinks back to his childhood.
"Throwing sticks in the park until it was too dark to see anymore." Mitzi adds in.
"And giving him baths in the backyard." Phil continues on.
"And taking him to the seashore." Mitzi continues.
"Remember how he used to gas up the car on the way back from the beach and dad would say-" Phil begins.
"Jumping Jehoshaphat, who let one?!" They both said at the same time. "Yeah…"
"Whatever happened to him?" Arnold asked and that was when things got a bit quiet.
"Well, we kept him in the backyard and one day he got out." Mitzi begins to explain. "And Phil and I went out looking for him."
"We looked all over the neighborhood, calling his name until dark." Phil continues.
"And when we finally found him, he'd been hit by a milk truck." Mitzi continues on.
"We took him to the vet but they couldn't help him. They had to put him to sleep on November 13, 1927." Phil finishes explaining.
"It was your fault Phil!" Mitzi yells suddenly turning to glare at her brother. "You were supposed to fix that gap in the fence!"
"I did fix the fence!" Phil counters back. "You were supposed to fill in that hole he dug!"
"I did fill in the hole!" Mitzi argues back. "It wasn't my fault!"
"Well, it wasn't my fault either!" Phil shouts back.
"Grandpa! Aunt Mitzi! It sounds like it was an accident." Arnold states getting in between the siblings before they could hurt each other. "Pooter just got away, and neither one of you could have done anything about it! It wasn't anyone's fault, you both loved that dog and it sounds like you were really hurt when you lost him."
"Yeah, so much so that we stopped talking to each other for seventy years." Phil says in dismay.
"Seventy one." Mitzi corrects.
"A dog?" Wolfgang says speaking up for the first time. "You guys were fighting and blaming each other for years over a dog?!" He voice was getting a bit louder now. "That's unbelievable!" Wolfgang then marches out of the hallway clearly very upset now.
"What's wrong with him?" Arnold asked completely taken aback.
"I think I might have an idea." Mitzi say with a sigh as she followed after Wolfgang, it didn't take her long to find Wolfgang alone in the parlor working on his family tree project he was currently staring down at a photo on the table.
"A dog…pshh how pathetic." Wolfgang mumbled to himself. "Like losing your dog seventy years ago is more important than losing your own son."
"Seventy one." Mitzi corrects with a sigh sitting on couch. "And your right losing Percy was the worse feeling in the world." She says picking up the photo of a man with short blonde hair that couldn't be tamed, a shaped head similar to Wolfgang, green eyes and of course the Shortman chin that this man was Percy Theodore Fitzgerald. "I always said that Perry always looked good in his army uniform."
"You also always said not to blame anyone for his death." Wolfgang says coolly.
"I did didn't I?" Mitzi says with a sigh. "I need to start taking my own advice then. I haven't been good at helping you with your project have I little wolf?"
"Well you have been busy holding onto a grudge for seventy years." Wolfgang says sarcastically. "Why did you even decide to come here if you hated Uncle Phil so much?"
"Well part of it was to annoy him like I did when we were kids." Mitzi explains with a sigh. "But I guess if I'm honest with myself a bigger part of it was because I missed my brother and having the relationship we used to have before Pooter died."
"Really Mitzi?" Phil asked him and Arnold walking into the parlor catching the other two by surprise. "You missed me?"
"As much as it's hard to believe I did." Mitzi says with a smile.
"Aw Mitzi I'm sorry for being so mean and trying to get rid of you." Phil apologizes hugging his sister for the first time in years.
"And I'm sorry for telling all those embarrassing stories." Mitzi apologized back.
"Look Mitzi, if you want to stay here you can stay." Phil tells his sister.
"Gee, Phil you really mean that?" Mitzi asked with a tear in her eye.
"Yep! You stay as long as you want…Sis." Phil reassures his sister.
"Ha! Are you kidding?" Mitzi says with a laugh. "I'd never move into this flea bag, I just wanted to hear you actually invite me. Now that you have I'm ready to go home."
"Seriously?" Arnold asked in disbelief as Mitzi laughed.
"No dah football face! Grandma lives in a penthouse apartment why would she leave that to live here?" Wolfgang added in laughing as well.
"Come on little wolf help me pack my things." Mitzi says and Wolfgang and her stood up and left the parlor together to go to her room.
"I can't believe it after all that Aunt Mitzi wasn't even planning on staying anyway." Arnold says with a shrug.
"And to think I was trying so hard to get rid of her with the leaky roof and mouse traps and…Oh no Arnold the Doomsday device!" Phil remembers suddenly and starts running out of the room. "Mitzi, Wolfgang wait!" Phil makes it over to the room before either of them could walk in. "It's a tra-" The rest of his sentence was cutoff as he triggered the trap and landed outside in the hornet's nest. "Ow! Ow! It's me! No ow!"
"Well, let's go pull the old boy out of the hornet's nest." Mitzi says to the boys whom follow her outside.
"I hope he tells me how he came up with this one." Wolfgang says excitedly, to which his grandma gave him a stern look. "Not because I'm going to do the same thing of course!" He says sheepishly.
After the three had pulled Phil out of the hornet's nest, who lucky for him wasn't seriously injured. Mitzi and Phil finally got around telling Wolfgang and Arnold the story of how the Shortman family came to be. Finally Wolfgang was able to complete his family tree project by that afternoon. Then the group decided to spend the rest of the day fishing before Wolfgang and Mitzi would have to go home.
"Alright Wolfgang it's time for you to do your project." Mr. Packenham states breaking Wolfgang out of his daydream he was having of the weekend before.
Wolfgang walks up to the front of the classroom with a poster that he puts up on the board. "Okay so it starts off with when my Great Grandfather Peter 'The Wolf' Shortman won a boarding house in a card game."
A/n and that's the end of that chapter and wow was it a lot to do! So yeah Wolfgang and Arnold are related now! Second Cousins! It's funny the idea came to me while I was re-watching the show for this fanfic story and I noticed that a few times Phil jokes about Arnold being his favorite grandson and Arnold always says 'I'm your only grandson.' In my mind I was like well Wolfgang is also Phil's 'grandson' because he voice actor was the voice actor for 'Arnold' in the first two seasons. That idea pretty much stayed with me to the point where I wanted to make Arnold and Wolfgang related in some way. Mitzi became a fun way to do it because she's a character that's fun but we don't see her after this episode so we don't know what kind of life she has. Regardless I came up with three more ideas on how they could be related that I might do in the future but for now anyone is welcome to use them so long as they give me credit for the idea in their works!
First one Wolfgang is Arnold's older half-brother through Miles, an idea that I thought of because I noticed that the two do have similar features and attitudes. Starting with the fact that both have blonde hair that always sticks out in the same way, the only reason that people might not notice it at first is because of their head shape. And they're both the leaders of their grades just in opposite ways. But of course one of the things that makes this idea hard is that Miles was most likely far away in a jungle even before Wolfgang was conceived, but the idea of Wolfgang and Arnold coming to terms together about their shared feelings abandonment from the same person in different ways could be great if someone does it carefully. I can also picture Wolfgang knowing about it and that being a reason why he bullies Arnold.
Second one Wolfgang is Arnold's first cousin through Phil, in the Veterans Day episode Phil almost gets into a story of how he got 'together' with a French Woman. From that it could be possible that she had a child and moved to the city to find him but he was already married to Gertie by that point and eventually the child had Wolfgang. This idea I really considered putting in here only deciding against it because when I was watching the episode 'Grandpa's Sister' I started thinking to myself won't it be funny if the rivalry between those twins sort of bled into Wolfgang and Arnold without them knowing it? Also Mitzi makes sense as Wolfgang's Grandmother.
Third one was Wolfgang and Arnold's parents were best friends as children. Okay so yeah they're not really blood related or anything but it could still work. The main idea being that their fathers were like brothers growing up. And the fact that Arnold's parents went missing could be a reason why Wolfgang and Arnold didn't know or remember this friendship between their parents because Wolfgang's parents couldn't bear to see Arnold and be reminded that their best friends were still missing! And because Wolfgang and Arnold were young when it happened they just forgot about each other. I also really considered this idea for this story it would have been Wolfgang going through some old photos and him finding a picture of Arnold and himself as babies and then he would ask his mom about it.
So yes these were three other ideas on how this could have gone down. Again I might consider writing these myself one day but until then anyone who wants to give it a shot is welcome to just give me credit for the idea and as always please read and review.