Going back to this with 'Das Subway'! By the way, even though Harold was in the original episode, I'm replacing him with... well, if you've read the story enough times or up to this point, you can probably guess. By the way, Arnold was a complete idiot in that episode at the beginning! Why? Well, when he called his grandmother on the pay phone, why didn't he just ask his grandmother or have her ask his grandfather to pick the kids up? That made no sense! Well, then I guess we wouldn't have the plot that is about to be presented here, I guess. Anyway, enjoy!

It was still Saturday afternoon as me, Nadine and Phoebe were just getting out of the frozen yogurt place and on our way towards the mall when we bumped into Arnold and Gerald.

"Arnold, Gerald!" I smiled as we came over. "Hey, Arnold, I have to say, you did a good job at the spelling bee today. I know it was pretty tough."

"Thanks, Rhonda." Arnold gave a small smile as he turned to Phoebe. "And Phoebe, I have to say, you were a good opponent. I don't think I would have done better spelling than yours."

"Domo Arigato." Phoebe said in her native tongue as she smiled. "You were a good opponent too."

"So, what brings you guys here?" Nadine asked.

"Me and Gerald were planning on going to the movies today to celebrate our victory." Arnold explained. "Would you like to join us? I was planning on me and Gerald, but I do have enough money for more people."

Gerald frowned a little at first, but then smiled when he saw Phoebe waving at the corner of my eye. I smiled as I turned to Nadine, who mouthed 'Go for it!'. "Sure. Nadine, Phoebe and I don't have much going on today. We would love to go!"

"That's great." Arnold smiled. "Come along, we're just on our way now."

"All right." I smiled as the five of us went together. "So, what are we watching?"

"Killer Vegetables from Space." Gerald smiled.

"That cheesy movie?" Nadine rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on."

"Cheesy, maybe, but scary if viewed correctly." Phoebe said as she went near Gerald and linked her arm to his, making him blush.

It was so cute, but me and Nadine decided not to say it out loud. I smiled as I said, "Which theater are we going to? The one with the two theater sets, or the one in the mall?"

"The two theater one. That's where they're showing the movie." Arnold explained.

"Lead the way." I smiled as I followed my crush and our friends.

As we entered the theater, I decided to stop by the vendors to get some chocolate malt balls. I always did like having some of those to munch on. After I made my quick purchase, as I joined my friends in the movie theater, I ate a couple of malt balls, then closed the box up to pocket it. I can have some a little later. Guess I was still full from the frozen yogurt.

"You know, Rhonda, you don't have to buy chocolate malt balls." Nadine said.

"I know, but it's a tradition for me." I shrugged. "Besides, these chocolate malt balls are so good..."

"If you say so..." Nadine said as we went in the second theater on the right.

And so, we spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon in the movies. Nadine sat next to me, I sat next to Arnold and Phoebe sat next to Gerald As the movie started up, we intently watched as the cheesy effects were starting up. I saw Phoebe resting her head on Gerald's shoulder, which was pretty cute as Gerald pulled her to him, smiling. It was so adorable. And I have to say, even though I knew the movie was cheesy, I did get a little spooked out a few times, enough to throw my arms around my crush, who was pretty surprised, although to throw off suspicion to make sure he didn't notice I did it all the time, I did it to Nadine a few times too. She was just rolling her eyes when I did it to her, when I whispered, "Just to throw suspicion off. If I kept hugging Arnold all the time, he'll think I have a crush on him."

"You do have a crush on him, though." Nadine frowned.

"Yeah, I know." I said as I let go of her.

The movie went on for about a while, and when it finally ended, everybody was about to leave. I sighed in relief, glad that it was over.

"Rhonda?"

"Yes, Arnold?"

"I can't get up."

"Why's that?"

"You need to let go. You have your arms around my body."

I blinked back into reality as I noticed that I was still hugging Arnold. I blushed as I let go, saying, "Oh, sorry. I didn't think the movie would be over."

Phoebe giggled a bit as Gerald rolled his eyes, saying, "If we knew you'd fall for those cheesy effects, I'm glad I sat next to Phoebe."

"I knew they were cheesy..." I said as all five of us got out of the seats and headed out the door. "I mean, the movie wasn't really all that good."

"I agree with you." Gerald frowned. "I mean, who played the onion, anyway? It was hard to take this guy seriously."

"Plus, it was two hours long." Phoebe said.

"Two hours TOO long, if you ask me." Arnold said.

"I know, but at least it was a good outing amongst friends." Nadine said as we came out... as we noticed it was dark. Nadine took a moment to check her watch. "Is it dark already? My watch says 'seven-thirty'."

"What?" Gerald said as he looked up. "Aw, man. I told my mom I'd be home before dark! She's going to kill me!"

"Relax, Gerald." Phoebe smiled optimistically. "We got time. The street lights aren't on yet."

"You mean the street lights that go on right at seven-thirty?" I said, pointing up to the street lights as they started to come on.

Phoebe glared at me. "Kill my optimism, why don't you?"

"Now what are we going to do?" Gerald asked.

"We could take the crosstown bus." Arnold smiled.

"The ones that close at seven-thirty?" I asked.

"...Oh yeah, the buses usually stop running around that time." Arnold paused.

"We could always walk." Nadine said. "I mean, it's not that far, and we've done it before."

"Oh, sure, sure, we could walk." I smiled. "Then we'd risk being kidnapped, and being held for ransom, or worse."

Nadine glared at me. "You're just so pessimistic today, aren't you?"

"Sorry." I sighed. "I guess I just don't want to be separated from you guys."

"Well... we could pool our money and take a cab." Arnold smiled. "And don't say they close at seven-thirty, Rhonda!"

"Don't worry, they don't." I said. "And I guess that could work."

"But guys..." Phoebe said as she pulled out a calculator from her pocket and started calculating. "If you know how much a cab costs nowadays, you add the total of one person plus the other four, it would cost approximately thirty four dollars and twenty cents, and that's without the tip."

I looked at Phoebe oddly with the calculator as I asked, "Phoebe... do you always carry that calculator with you?"

"A lot. Why?" Phoebe asked.

I shook my head. "Never mind. Let's see how much we have."

I dug around as we pulled our money... which consisted of mostly change. Not enough for a cab.

"I must have spent most of my allowance getting that frozen yogurt for you guys." I said, turning to the girls.

Arnold smiled calmly as he said, "Okay, don't panic. I know how we can get home without anybody getting in trouble."

"How's that?" Nadine asked as Gerald's eyes widened.

"Oh no. Don't say it, Arnold. Don't even think it!" Gerald shuddered.

"We'll take the subway." Arnold said, pointing to a nearby subway station as Gerald and Phoebe gasped. Nadine and I just blinked in confusion on why the two of them gasped.

"Arnold, don't you know what they say about taking the subway after dark?" Gerald asked. "'Sun goes down, stay above ground'."

"I have to agree. The subway has many... strange people underground." Phoebe said nervously.

"Here's an idea I thought of." I smiled. "We go down to the subway, we'll use some of our money to use the pay phone, give one of our parents a call, they'll come pick us up at the movie theater and they'll take us home. Simple."

Nadine nodded as Arnold just eyed me oddly. Arnold then said, "No offense, Rhonda, but that idea is just ridiculous. We're going to take the subway."

My eyes widened as Gerald and Phoebe sighed as they went down. How did my idea not make sense?

Nadine went over to me and said, "Don't worry, Rhonda. I'm sure whatever reason Arnold is rejecting your idea, it must be a good reason. Let's just go along with this plot."

I shook my head as I followed Nadine down. "My idea is ridiculous? How?"

As we were down in the subway and went through the subway turn tiles, we were examining the map of the subway as I was mapping out the destination as Arnold came to us. "Okay, I just called Grandma and let him know we're taking the subway home."

My body stiffened as I turned to Arnold, frowning. "You... called your grandmother."

"Yes." Arnold said.

"...to tell her that we were taking the subway..." I frowned.

"Uh-huh." Arnold nodded.

"...INSTEAD of asking her to ask your grandfather to come pick us up at the movie theater and taking us home." I glared.

"Uh... yes?" Arnold raised an eyebrow. "What are you driving at?"

I said nothing as I turned to Phoebe. "Phoebe, do you have that plank of wood that you always carry around?"

"Here you go." Phoebe said, pulling a small piece of wood from her pocket.

"Thank you." I said, taking the plank of wood from her hands. Then, using both hands, I held the wood sturdy... and started banging my head on it a few times, on account of Arnold's stupidity.

"You okay, Rhonda?" Arnold said in concern.

Well, I suppose I couldn't stay mad at him. I handed the plank of wood back to Phoebe as I took a deep breath. "It's fine. So, which subway are we taking?"

As if on cue, a subway train came up as Gerald dragged me over. "Here it is."

"But, we should really check to see if-" I started before he pushed me inside, the others walking in.

"Nope, this is the right one, I'm sure of it." Gerald smiled as the subway train started moving.

"Are you sure this is the right one, Gerald?" Arnold asked.

"Yep! We take the D train to Union Park, and then the C three stops until First Avenue, then switch over to the- wait, does that say sev-" Gerald's eyes widened. "Oh no, we should really be on the F train!" Gerald said in shock.

Me, Nadine and Phoebe just stared in disbelief as Phoebe took off her glasses. "Rhonda, hold these."

I nodded as I took the glasses from Phoebe. She pulled out the plank of wood from her pocket as she held the plank with both hands, and started banging her head on the wood a few times. After a couple minutes, Phoebe took her glasses and put them on as she put the plank of wood away. "Thank you."

"You know what, that's fine. We can get off at the Waterloo station and transfer to F." Gerald said. "Well, we better make ourselves comfortable."

We nodded as we decided to sit down. I took a little time to be aware of the surroundings, noting the few people on the train. On the far left of me, I saw a blind man with a brown dog. Guess the man has the dog as a seeing eye dog. As I didn't know their names, I dubbed them 'Gantu' and 'Reuben'. I looked around the corner and noticed a hobo sleeping near the left side of the subway as well. I dubbed that guy 'Luke'. A little far from the hobo was a psychiatrist and a young girl who looked to be her patient. The doctor seemed to be helping the patient getting over claustrophobia. I couldn't help but notice that the doctor had this very deep voice... reminds me of a religious villain from a movie I watched. Anyway, I dubbed them both 'Frollo' and 'Lola'. And finally, there was a couple on the train who were talking to each other. I dubbed them both 'Kanga', and 'Roo'.

We were on the subway for a half-hour or so when I said, "Well, despite the idea being ridiculous, the subway WAS a great idea."

"Told you." Arnold smiled. "And you thought CALLING our parents to pick us up was a great idea."

"It WAS a good idea." I glared.

"Will you relax?" Gerald said as he got comfortable. "What could go wrong?"

I just facepalmed, along with Nadine and Phoebe as Gerald blinked. "What? What did I say?"

"Hold on to something." I said as I hung on to the bars. Nadine and Phoebe did the same thing.

Arnold and Gerald paused, wondering what we were doing... until they looked out the window and saw sparks flying... which caused the subway to stop all of a sudden, causing Arnold and Gerald to fly right off and hit the doors. The subway came to a complete stop as Luke the hobo woke up, looking up as he frowned at the boys. "Hey, what are you doing in my house? Go away!"

As we let go of the pulleys, we shook our heads as the others in the train were getting nervous.

We then heard the train conductor's voice from the speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm, there's no need to worry."

"Well, of course." Frollo the doctor said, in that really, really awesome voice, seriously, that voice is so awesome! "The main scene is to stay calm."

"Even though thousands of pounds of water are bearing down as we speak on the thin aging walls of this government funded tunnel, you are in no danger." The train conductor's voice continued.

"Actually, million pounds of water bearing down the tunnel is more correct." Phoebe said.

"Actually, this has..." The train conductor was then heard panicking. "...NEVER HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE!"

The people were murmuring as Arnold and Gerald came to us as I turned to Nadine. "Nadine, do you have your marbles?"

"Sure." Nadine said as she pulled out a bag of marbles and handed them to me. "Here you go."

"Thank you." I said as I pulled out five marbles, and placed two in front of Arnold and Gerald. "Arnold, Gerald, you see these two marbles? Those are you guys. You see these three marbles next to us? That's us. These three marbles represent sense and good ideas. These two marbles represent idiotic ideas and tempters of fate. Instead of listening to responsible reasoning, you two went along with the idea that taking the subway and the wrong one is a good idea. You should have listened to my idea of calling our parents to pick us up."

"Fine, I get it." Arnold frowned.

"Do you?" I asked as I put the marbles away. "Well, we have no phones, and we're stuck on a subway for who knows how long. Guess we may as well wait. Hopefully our parents understand."

Everyone nodded as we sat down and waited. I'm sure the train will start up again soon...

I sighed as I just looked up the ceiling, counting the pulleys.

I was using Phoebe's calculator to push some buttons to get a really tough math equation. I tried to divide by zero... I frowned when it somehow said 'MALFUNCTION'. How would that work?

I paused and waited as I turned to Nadine. "Hey, how long since the train's unscheduled stop?"

"Ten minutes." Nadine said.

"Wait... I spent ten minutes doing all that?" I said in surprise.

"Pretty much." Nadine nodded.

"Wow... I have a pretty short attention span tonight." I said.

The train conductor's voice then came on as we heard, "Passengers, it may just be a matter of minutes or hours..." Then we heard the boy panicking, "...OR DAYS OR WEEKS..." he tried to calm down. "...before the search and rescue team finds our..." He was practically blubbering. "...FORGOTTEN EXTRACTED SUBWAY CAR..." Everyone was now basically worried now. "...and takes us out of this..." Everyone was now really worried... except for me and Nadine. "...INCREASINGLY HOPELESS..." Okay, maybe a little worried, but we remained calm. "...situation, so let's all remain calm, there's no need to..." The conductor was crying now. "...DOOMED! WE'RE ALL DOOMED! WHY ME?"

I took a deep breath as I said, "We're going to be fine, we're going to be patient."

"This is crazy!" Arnold said in worry. "We gotta do something, Gerald! Gerald?"

Gerald was basically shaking at this point. "I got to have something to eat, man!"

"We're all hungry, Gerald. But that doesn't mean we're going to complain about it." I said.

"The girl is right." Gantu the blind man said. "The best we can do is wait... we're not going to break. We can wait it out."

"Well, of course. It is my house after all." Luke the hobo frowned. "I've been living in this train since... I'd say... December 23rd, 1996... or somewhere around that year."

"1996?" I said in shock. "How have you been living for six years? What have you eaten?"

"Dead ra-" Luke the hobo asked.

"On second thought, I don't want to know." I shook my head.

"God have mercy on her... God have mercy on... me..." Frollo the doctor sighed as he was praying. "Of my virtue I am justly proud. You know I am so much purer than-"

We all just looked at Frollo the doctor oddly.

"Sorry." Frollo the doctor said in embarrassment. "I think I was channeling my religion through someone else."

We just shook our heads as we all took a deep breath.

It was about... a half hour in, I would think?... when the train conductor's voice turned on.

"Attention passangers, I have an update. We're all doomed. We're trapped. I'm talking to you from the fetal postion, scrunched up, small, rocking back and forth, trying to think if there's any way out, I don't think there is, I REALLY DON'T THINK THERE IS, DO YOU? NO! THANK YOU FOR RIDING THE SUBWAY, HAVE A NICE DAY!"

Nadine was now starting to worry as I laid back down, everybody was worried now. Nadine was looking around in worry as she turned to me. "How have you not panicked yet?"

"I don't know." I said. "I guess I should be, but... I just feel relaxed."

I was then starting to worry. "Maybe I am starting to worry... just a little..."

"Big open spaces, big open spaces..." we heard Lola the patient repeating to herself.

We just sat down, waiting and waiting... none of us said a word... except for Lola's mantra. It was likely one of us would snap...

We didn't expect Frollo the doctor to be the first to snap. "That does it. I can't take it anymore! That mantra doesn't work, you mental case!"

"Get out of my house!" Luke the hobo frowned.

"Hey..." Gantu the blind man started to sniff something. "Do I smell... chocolate?"

My eyes widened as I smiled. "Oh, that's right."

I dug around and pulled out the box of chocolate malt balls. "I forgot I bought those at the theater."

Everyone was muttering about holding out as I shook my head, "Okay, okay, calm down. I have enough to go around, just keep calm, and I'll give you a few. Will that be good? Will it make you calm down for a few minutes or so?"

Everyone paused as they nodded. I smiled. "Good. One at a time."

Everyone took a deep breath as I started handing the chocolate malt balls to everyone. "Okay, hopefully, it'll sate your hunger a bit for a while."

Everyone then cheered as I nodded. "Good, good. Just relax."

As I was handing some to Arnold, he was looking towards the dog... Reuben, I think I dubbed him... as it laid down. Arnold looked concerned.

"Hey..." Arnold said as everyone turned. "There's something wrong with this dog. Has anybody got a newspaper?"

"Here's one." Roo the skinny man said.

"I used to be a nurse." Kanga the woman with Roo said.

"What's wrong with Killer?" Gantu the blind man asked.

Oh, Killer. That's the dog's name... and I have a feeling that dog isn't male. At that moment, I thought I heard pounding on the roof. Nobody else was paying attention as they were focused on the dog. I decided to take a look out the window for a moment as I didn't see nothing... but then I saw it... a shadow... a human shadow... and I recognized that shadow anywhere... I couldn't believe it. That was Arnold's grandmother! She came to get us out! Was this why I felt so relaxed? I knew Arnold's grandmother would come? Maybe it was... Arnold did have a very awesome grandmother. I watched as her shadow passed by. Hopefully, she can fix the train.

I turned back to the others as Arnold was finishing the delivery of four puppies, by the way I heard Gantu the blind man crying. "You mean... I'm a daddy?"

Everyone was smiling as the small puppies that were near their mother. As they smiled, they saw the train lights coming on. Looks like Arnold's grandmother fixed it.

"The train's moving again!" Nadine said in excitement.

I smiled. "See, what did I tell you? Be patient, it'll get fixed."

"Wait a minute, everybody! I got something to say!" Luke the blind man said.

"We know, we know..." I sighed as everybody joined me, "Get out of your house."

"No, not that. I got something else to say..." Luke said as he pulled out an harmonica and blew a tune on it as he started to sing a little ditty.

We smiled as we started to sing along, all the way up until we reached our destination.

"Well, what an incredible adventure that was." I said as we exited out of the subway.

"It was, wasn't it?" Arnold said as we got out.

"Hopefully, our parents aren't too mad at us..." Gerald sighed.

"I don't think they will be." Phoebe said. "I'm sure after we explain what happened, they'll understand."

"And they'll tell us to be careful next time." Nadine said.

"And I'm going to take my grandfather's advice next time." Arnold said as we were on our way.

"And what's that?" I smiled. "Don't eat raspberries?"

"Besides that." Arnold said. "Next time we're stranded a little after dark, call one of our parents, wait at the destined place until they come and pick us up, then we can go home. I don't know WHY any of you didn't suggest that idea."

I stopped in shock as I growled. "THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I TOLD YOU AT THE BEGINNING!"

"Wait, you did?" Arnold asked. "I must not have listened."

I glared at Arnold as I said to Phoebe. "Phoebe... the plank of wood please? I'm planning on using it."

"Here you go." Phoebe said, handing me the plank of wood.

"Thank you." I said as I turned to Arnold with a menacing glare. Arnold gulped as he winced, expecting me to hit him with the wood.

I smiled then held the plank up towards his head. "Here. Bang your head on this, and don't break it with your ninjutsu moves."

Arnold sighed. "I suppose I deserved it."

Arnold then started banging his head on the wood as we just laughed. Indeed, it was a good day as we stopped by Arnold's boarding house. We saw Arnold's grandmother coming by and smiling as she said, "Hello, Arnold. How was your day?"

"A little stressful, but we got through it all right." Arnold explained.

"That's good. By the way, kids, I called your parents and told them that you would be a little late. They understood." Arnold's grandmother explained.

"Thanks." Gerald smiled as the girls agreed. As they were about to depart, I turned to Arnold's grandmother and hugged her, saying a quick, "Thanks for saving us."

Arnold's grandmother smiled as she whispered, "Anytime."

Did she know I spotted her? Maybe she did. Well, either way, after that night, I just wanted to relax back at my house.

There's the twenty-eighth episode! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!