Let's get our next episode going out with 'Heat'! Anyway, enjoy!
The next day, Phoebe, Nadine and I were hanging around my house, where normally the air conditioners would be activated, but there seemed to be problems with the air conditioners as me and my friends were feeling the heat inside. It was way too hot to be in my usual clothes, as long sleeves usually made me sweat, so I just had a red t-shirt and black shorts on, with Nadine having her same attire on, and Phoebe wearing her usual outfit, albeit with short sleeves. Our hair styles were feeling the heat as well as Nadine's usual spider-like hairstyle was drooping. We were panting as we listened to the radio.
"...and today we'll see record-high temperatures in Hillwood City with a sweltering 120 degrees fahrenheit. I guess the term is no longer global warming: it's global burning." The radio announcer said. "Today is going to be a scorcher, cats and chicks. So, above all, try to stay cool."
I sighed as I tried to drink some water from a bottle, but it just wasn't feeling cool. "Man, it's so hot I'm sweating the sweat out."
"I know..." Nadine sighed, a little dehydrated as she tried to get the water bottle to drink. She sighed. "Not quite the same as cool water."
"I know how you girls feel. This heat is even starting to affect my brain." Phoebe sighed as she tried to use one of her Japanese fans to cool herself off, but it wasn't quite the same. "Remind me, Rhonda, why you didn't think of getting a fan?"
"We do have fans. They're just all broken right now." I sighed.
Nadine sighed. "That's it, we need to go out. I don't care how hot it is out there, we need some place to keep cool."
I didn't have the ability in myself to argue, and neither did Phoebe. We only nodded.
Outside was no picnic either. Every step we took, even with sandals on, felt like a hot day at the beach. A really, REALLY hot day at the beach. If only there was a beach nearby, then it would be a perfect day... but no.
We sighed as we kept walking. This heat was getting to us as we kept walking. I turned to Phoebe as I said, "Heat getting to you?"
Phoebe could only nod.
"Don't worry, we can find a quick gas station for us to cool off..." I said as we kept walking. "Maybe we can get a soda there too to temporarily keep us sane."
"I'm not into the sugary sodas..." Nadine said.
"Just take the diet sodas, Nadine. There's almost no sugar in them." I pointed out. "That's what I'm doing. I'm going for a Diet Yahoo."
"I'm taking my usual lemon-lime drink." Phoebe smiled.
"I guess I'll take a Diet Yahoo." Nadine said as we made it to the nearby convenience store. Unfortunately, upon entering, we noticed that people were lined up near the soda machines and the fountain drinks.
"Well, I think we'll be out of luck there for sodas by the time we reach the end of the line." Nadine said.
"Dang." I said as we went out and sat in some nearby shade. "Now what do we do?"
"We could go to the stores and enjoy the air conditioning." Nadine suggested.
"And get caught for loitering? No thank you." I shook my head.
"We could go spend some time at the mall." Phoebe smiled.
"Phoebe, it's a bus ride to the mall, and even then, have you noticed the traffic jams today?" I said.
"How about a movie, we could spend the day there." Nadine suggested with a small smile.
"Already looked over on our way. Too big a line for the movies. Besides, there's nothing good on there." I said to my friend.
"I would suggest going swimming in the local pool, but I looked there and there's too many people in there already." Phoebe said. "Well, we're officially in a rut... a heat rut."
We sighed as we shook our heads. We then heard a familiar jingle coming from a distance.
"THE JOLLY OLLY ICE CREAM TRUCK!" We all said in excitement, temporarily forgetting that we were feeling hot and humid.
Phoebe and I started to run, with Nadine lagging a bit behind as Phoebe called, "Come on, Nadine, the ice cream truck won't be around for very long!"
"Coming, coming!" Nadine groaned as she tried to run. "But it's really sweaty in those sandals!"
We ran closer and closer as we saw the Jolly Olly Ice Cream Truck nearby, kids were gathering around as the Jolly Olly ice cream man poked his head out and sneered. We joined a few of the kids, which happened to be Harold, Sid, Iggy, Eugene and a couple of other kids that I didn't know. We sighed in relief as we came over.
"Yeah, yeah, so what do you want?" The Jolly Olly man frowned.
"One Triple Scoop Fudgy Nutty cone, please!" Harold smiled.
"Oh, that'll be twenty bucks!" The Jolly Olly man gave a smirk.
Harold was quickly set back. "What? But... I only got five bucks!"
"Oh, that's a shame. The prices of ice cream have to be raised. Get with the economy and that. So, unless you kids have more money, you'll have to leave." The Jolly Olly man smirked.
We all stared in shock as we started to complain to the man, who just came out of the truck. By then, another group of kids were joining in, overhearing the conversation.
"Oh come on, that's not even fair!" Harold complained.
"It's Free World Economics, kid. Haven't you heard of supply and demand?" The Jolly Olly man said.
"In this case, I DEMAND that you SUPPLY me some ice cream!" Harold said, holding a fist.
"Threaten with violence all you want, I ain't lowering the price!" The Jolly Olly man laughed.
I muttered under my breath, "Even under this humid heat, the Jolly Olly man is a jerk to kids..."
"But Rhonda, aren't you like, one of the richest girls here?" Nadine whispered. "You can just buy everyone ice cream!"
"Yes, but I'm on an allowance rate of at least ten bucks right now, and I pretty much spent eight dollars getting a new hair brush!" I said.
"Ouch." Phoebe said. "Your parents cutting you back a bit, huh?"
"Only by a little." I said as we turned back to the action, which by then we noticed Arnold and Gerald coming in. They were as hot and humid as we were, and they seemed to be interested in ice cream as well.
Eugene came up as he said nervously, "Uh, how much would a snow cone cost?"
"Eighteen dollars." The Jolly Olly man said with a smirk.
Eugene looked down at his money disappointed. "All I have is seventy cents. What would that get me?"
"A big fat pile of nothing!" The Jolly Olly man laughed.
"Hey!" Arnold called as we all turned, even the Jolly Olly man turned to Arnold. I have to say, I've never seen Arnold act tough and angry before... but then again, maybe it was the heat that was getting to him... which I don't blame him... now that I think about it, the heat was getting to me too...
I felt a little more sweaty inside my own shirt, and my mind was starting to think crazy things... things that would make me do things that Curly would normally do... except that I wasn't Curly. I tried my best to listen in to Arnold's little speech to the Jolly Olly man, but I was too focused on the heat, I couldn't even listen to myself... I looked over towards Nadine and Phoebe, who acted like they were just about to snap at any second... heck, I was too.
By the time Arnold finished his speech, I turned towards the Jolly Olly ice cream man as he frowned, saying, "You're just a kid, you can't do anything?"
"Oh yeah?" Arnold frowned, then he started yelling out, "NO ICE CREAM, NO PEACE!"
We all started chanting these lines. Was I really that heat depraved that I'd be willing to follow any order? Well, truth be told... yes. I was.
"NO ICE CREAM, NO PEACE! NO ICE CREAM, NO PEACE!" We all chanted as we surrounded the man, Harold jumping up to the ice cream truck.
"Listen up! We have had enough!" Harold called from atop the ice cream truck. "We want our ice cream, and we want it at a price which we kids can afford!"
Every kid was rooting for what Harold said, and heck, I was too! This wasn't fair, this wasn't right!
"And if we don't get any ice cream, we're doing something so bad you'll start to regret ever refusing our ice cream privileges." Harold glared.
We all started to glare too as the Jolly Olly Man gulped. "Okay, okay, here's the deal!"
We all paused.
"You can have one scoop of Rum Raisin for ten bucks." the Jolly Olly Man said.
All of us started to riot angrily as Harold yelled, "LET'S TIP OVER THE TRUCK!"
I cheered with the other kids as we ran over to the truck, about ready to tip it over...
"Wait until I'm OFF the truck first!"
Whoops. Guess we forgot Harold climbed up the truck. As he climbed down, he yelled, "Let's do this!"
We all hollered as we started to push the truck, and we seemed to be doing a good job of it too... we started pushing it from all sides, when all of a sudden, we heard...
"EXCUSE ME!"
We instantly stopped as we turned to see Arnold standing nearby. The little sanity I had left not affected by the heat suddenly started to focus on Arnold as I noticed he was starting to feel a little bad for starting the riot, but I mean, why would he feel bad? He started the riot in the first place, we were all...
The heat. The heat got to us all.
"Look, you have a right to be angry, but we can't let the heat make us that crazy." Arnold explained as I looked over to my hands, when I noticed my nails weren't looking good. Wow, did I actually get heat deprived so bad I was willing to break a couple of my nails to tip over an ice cream truck? I guess I was. "The Jolly Olly man is our friend. Harold, have you forgotten about the time he sold you that slightly damaged snow cone at high price?"
Harold looked down disappointed. "And Rhonda, what about your favorite Chocolate Fudge Bars? Doesn't he always keep your favorite Chocolate Fudge Bars in stock?"
I looked down, very guiltily.
"And Eugene, didn't he help you that time you were choking on your favorite Rainbow Turbo Pop?" Arnold asked an in-pain Eugene, holding his back. "Don't you see, the heat is turning us against each other. Jolly Olly Man against kids, kids against Jolly Olly man. It's the heat! Don't you see? This has to stop! What do you say?"
We all looked down guiltily as I said, "Arnold, you're right in saying it... we all feel bad... the heat is really getting to us... but here's one thing you should know about people that suffer through the hot, humid weather."
"What's that?" Arnold asked.
"...We actually don't care what any rational person says, even if the rational person is you." I shrugged. "Sorry."
"LET'S TIP OVER THE TRUCK!" Harold called as the kids, along with me, cheered.
We all resumed work in trying to tip the truck over as we started chanting angrily and... is it me, or has the temperature dropped a little? Now that I think about, it's become a little shadier... and I'm sweating a little less. I'm starting to think a little more rationally...
A drip of water? Is it raining? I looked up as I saw a few drops of rain coming down from a completely cloudy sky. It was! It was raining! We were actually enjoying it as we laughed. We didn't even notice the Jolly Olly Man jumping into his truck and escaping.
"Guess we went a little crazy back there." I said as me, Nadine, Phoebe, Arnold and Gerald were on the porch, sheltering ourselves from the rain for a while. "Sorry about that whole 'I don't care' thing."
"Don't blame yourself. It was the heat." Arnold said.
"Yeah, like I said, the heat just affects our brains. I think this little rain shower is what we needed." Phoebe smiled as she relaxed.
"You said it." Nadine sighed.
"I normally don't like rain showers, but in this case, I'm making an exception." I said. "Though I hate to walk home in the rain... and to think we didn't bring umbrellas..."
"You can stay with us until the rain lets up, weather depending." Arnold said.
I smiled as the girls nodded. "Thanks, Arnold. Say, got any drinks? I could go for a Diet Yahoo."
"Sure." Arnold said as Gerald and Phoebe held hands as we walked upstairs to Arnold's room, where we decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing and talking about our plans for the summer.
There's the thirty-sixth episode! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!