Okay, here we go with this next episode, which is going to depict 'Arnold's Hat'! How will everything fall into place this time? Well, we'll have to see! Anyway, enjoy!
The end of the week had went by, and pretty soon, the weekend came in again. I figured I'd spend Saturday trying to perfect a small statue I've been preparing for the last couple of days.
See, I was in the middle of trying to get the perfect scale model of my crush, Arnold. I think I may have had the head right (well, I can always resculpt again to be sure), and I think I got his body shape pretty good. The feet I just finished handling as I smiled. It was near perfection!
Well, almost. I frowned as I knew something was missing... I gazed atop the head... and realized what it was missing. The hat atop Arnold's head. For without his hat, he'd... well, he would look like a kid with a balding pattern in the middle.
I paused as I didn't feel like recarving the head again (I done it like, twenty times in the past two days, I just didn't feel up to remaking that head), but I didn't want to leave it with a balding pattern. Well, I paused to think. Maybe the clothing stores had Arnold's hat size... one little trip to the mall wouldn't hurt anything...
While not as much of a mall as I'd like, it did have a lot of items that were conveniently needed, either for my style or if I wanted to impress somebody at a dinner party, preferably the former. I went into my favorite clothing shop as I walked towards the store clerk manning her station.
"Rhonda, my favorite customer!" Sharlene, the girl behind the counter, gave a quick chuckle. "How is everything going with you?"
"It's been going good, Sharlene. You?" I ask as I sat down.
"Oh you know, the same old activities." Sharlene said. "So, what can I do you for? There's a nice little ring that has your name on it!"
"Uh, thanks but no thanks. I love a little jewelry, but actually, I'm here for something different." I explained as I leaned towards the counter. "Sharlene, I'm looking for a hat... specifically a small cap, around child size, light blue?"
"Oh, those old things?" Sharlene asked. "Sorry to say, Rhonda, but we don't carry those size caps anymore. Nobody ever BUYS those things."
I was stunned. No child-size caps? "You sure there's none in the back that was leftover?"
Sharlene shook her head.
I sighed. "Well, thanks anyway."
I started to turn around and leave... then I quickly turned around. "Uh, what was this about a ring?"
I examined the emerald ring I purchased from the mall as I was walking through the park. Sharlene was right, this WAS my style!
But I frowned, knowing I didn't get successful in my search for the hat. I looked around in about every flea market after my purchase, but nobody seemed to contain a blue child-sized hat. I was sighing. The only way I can get that size hat is if it blew in my face, but what were the chance-
...Luck... lady luck has once again gave me something. See, I forgot to mention there was a bit of wind today, and what were the odds that a blue child-sized hat that looked similar to Arnold's would just fly right into my face?
I could hardly believe it either. I figured whoever owned this hat, wouldn't mind if I borrowed it for a while... and if it didn't belong to anybody... well, I think I can have this for my statue!
Perfect, perfect, perfect! I smiled as I placed the hat atop the Arnold statue. I giggled a bit at the marvelous masterpiece I made. The hat fit in great with Arnold's head! The perfect stone shape of the eyes, the little smile that could melt your heart, the ears that...
I suddenly glared and noticed that one of the ears was drooped. I groaned. No, no, no, this just wasn't that good! Statue ruined. To the garbage it goes.
I took the statue and hat along with it and tossed it in a nearby garbage can as I decided to walk on my way out. And to think I thought I had it perfectly too... well, the garbage truck will arrive shortly and take away this monstrosity.
A little later that day, I was walking with Phoebe and Nadine. We were talking about what we wanted to do today when we rounded the corner where Arnold's house was... and we noticed, to our surprise, the ice cream truck that the Jolly Olly Man drove had crashed nearby a lightpost and he was giving a lot of free ice cream over to kids.
"Looks like the Jolly Olly Man went a little crazy again." Nadine sighed.
"What a shame." Phoebe said.
"Yeah..." I said as I looked down sadly. Sometimes, I wonder what causes him to get mean or angry. Well, no matter. "I'm getting a Chocolate Fudge Bar!"
"Oh, I hope they have a Strawberry Sickle!" Phoebe smiled as we all decided to join in.
As soon I got the ice cream I wanted, I was about to sit down and enjoy a lick, when I heard Gerald screaming, "Hey Arnold! The Jolly Olly Man's gone insane! He's passing out free ice cream! Come on down!"
"No! I'm not coming out without my hat, EVER, for the rest of my life!" I heard Arnold yell.
I quickly turned around in curiosity and noticed that indeed, on top of his head, his hat wasn't there, and Arnold seemed pretty panicky about it as he shut the window that he called out of.
"Okay, more ice cream for me." Gerald shrugged.
"Gerald, I couldn't help overhearing. What's wrong with Arnold?" I asked.
"Oh, he's just upset because he lost his hat today." Gerald explained as he opened up one of his ice cream bars. "We were trying to get a kite to fly today, but it didn't work out. The wind did catch Arnold's hat though, and it just flew off, into the park."
My eyes widened. "A wind, you say?"
"Yeah, it was a pretty strong wind. Arnold didn't have time to react as his hat just flew off his head. He tried to chase it, but it was too late, it blew a little too far. He seemed really upset, though." Gerald said.
I gulped... all of a sudden, my mind flashed back to when I was in the park, and the hat just blew right to my face. I then suddenly remembered what I did to the hat, along with the ruined statue.
...Crap.
I quickly left Gerald as I grabbed Phoebe and Nadine, who were just finishing up their ice creams, as I whispered, "Sorry girls, I need to talk to you for a minute! This is a Code Red-74."
"'A Lloyd throwing away an important item by mistake and must retrieve back before it's too late'?" Nadine asked.
"That's the thing... and boy, do I have a story to tell you..." I sighed.
"So, what you're telling us is that you had Arnold's hat without KNOWING you had it." Phoebe said as we were on our way to the dump.
"Yep." I nodded.
"And you placed it on a statue you made, but it wasn't perfect, so you threw the contents of the statue away, INCLUDING the hat." Nadine said.
"Yes." I nodded.
"You also watched as the garbage truck come, take the trash to the truck, INCLUDING Arnold's hat, which you did not KNOW you had and had thrown away." Phoebe explained.
"Pretty much." I sighed.
"You also saw the truck DRIVE off, WITH the hat, and now that you KNOW it's Arnold's hat, you need to retrieve it back before it gets burnt or worse." Nadine said.
"Yes." I nodded as Phoebe and Nadine stopped me.
They both stared at me in silence, and then, at the same time, they both said, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
"Did you even BOTHER checking to see whose hat it was BEFORE just taking it?" Phoebe asked.
"Well, excuse me, Phoebe, but I wanted perfection." I rolled my eyes. "Look, the point is, I screwed up, I threw Arnold's hat away, and now we have to go to the dump and get it back! Please help me, guys?"
I gave very cute, pleading eyes in hopes that my best friends in the world would help me out here.
Nadine and Phoebe just looked at each other, probably knowing how pathetic I look with those eyes, before they sighed. "All right, Rhonda, we'll help you dig around the trash. We know how delicate your body must be."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" I sighed in relief.
"Let's just go and find the hat." Phoebe said as she and Nadine started to run off. I quickly followed them.
We soon arrived at the dump as we stepped inside. I turned to Phoebe and Nadine and nodded. "Okay, girls, the mission is simple!"
I quickly picked up a small stick and started drawing figures and little squiggles. "These figures are us, and these squiggles, are all the piles of garbage that is scattered around the dump. Our primary mission is to locate the hat, probably still stuck to the Arnold statue I made."
"Simple enough, we find a football-shaped stone head with a blue hat." Nadine shrugged.
"Oh, you think it'll be easy, don't you, Nadine?" I barked. "No. It won't! This is serious! We may have to dig for a few hours, we will be smelly, we will be sweaty, but it'll be worth it, just to see the eyes and smile of my crush, my sweet, sweet Arn-"
"Found it." Phoebe said as she started walking towards the first pile.
I turned towards where Phoebe was walking and stood stunned as I saw the statue with the hat still contained on it. "Oh... well..."
"So much for your garbage digging plan, huh?" Nadine smirked.
"Really feels a little anti-climatic..." I sighed. "And I had this big speech prepared too... wasted around half of it..."
I smiled as I took the hat off the statue. "Well, important thing is, I got the hat back."
"Come on, let's go back to the neighborhood and give Arnold his hat back." Phoebe smiled.
The girls and I laughed as we all decided to take the bus back to home.
"Here we are, back in civilization." Nadine said as me and Phoebe followed her out of the bus.
"Okay, no problem, let's go find Arnold and..." I started headed in one direction... and the next thing I knew, I bumped right into Arnold.
"Oh, sorry Rhonda." Arnold said.
"No problem, my fault." I assured him things were okay.
Arnold then noticed the object that I held in my hands as he grabbed it from me. "Rhonda! You found my hat!"
"Would you believe that I found it in the park?" I asked. "I saw it hanging from a tree and figured you had the same child-sized cap, maybe you knew something about it. Didn't think it was yours, but I had to check."
"I can't believe it!" Arnold said as he put his hat back on. "Thanks, Rhonda! Thanks a lot!"
The next thing I knew, Arnold slung his arms around me in a hug. I instantly blushed a bit, but then smiled. "Hey, no... no problem. I'm just glad I could help."
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Phoebe and Nadine hiding behind some objects as they were mouthing the words, "Come on, do it! Do it! Do it!"
I paused. Was it really that time? I looked down and sighed.
Just because I found his hat, and he really is thankful for me getting it back...
No... I'm afraid now wasn't that time. I sadly shook my head towards the two as Arnold let go of me, he could tell he was blushing. "Oh, sorry... guess I held on for a little long."
"No, no, that's all right." I smiled. "Why don't you head on home? I can tell you had a big day."
"All right." Arnold said as he turned around and left. "Thanks again, Rhonda."
As I saw Arnold go off, Phoebe and Nadine came up to me as Nadine said, "You did good, Rhonda."
"That was the perfect opportunity, Rhonda! You didn't take it!" Phoebe said, knowing I just passed up an opportunity to tell Arnold my feelings.
"Sorry, Phoebe. I was still nervous, and Arnold just got his hat back, I don't want to lay TOO much on him." I explained. "Suppose Gerald lost his voice and you gave him an opportunity to return the voice. He's thankful for it. Would you have confessed your love for him then?"
Phoebe paused... as she sighed. "I... I guess you have a fair point."
"I'll tell him when it's that time... but until then, I think I'm just going to relax a while." I said as we turned towards the area. "Well, why don't we spend the rest of the day at the mall? I hear there's a good sale on shoes!"
"Oh, you and your shoes." Nadine rolled her eyes in a playful manner.
The three of us laughed a bit as we walked off, exchanging a few stories for the rest of the day.
And there is the fifth episode! How do you like it? Next chapter, I believe this'll be the first I'll go to a different episode. Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!