And here we go with another chapter, this time, 'Eating Contest'! Oh boy, was I waiting to do this one! Anyway, enjoy!
On a Tuesday afternoon, Nadine, Phoebe and I were enjoying a nice salad at the mall when I noticed Arnold, Gerald, Sid, Stinky and Harold practicing for the eating contest... well, Sid, Stinky and Harold were eating like pigs. Arnold was carefully taking his time eating, and Gerald was busy watching and nodding.
"Ugh. What pigs." I groaned. "I don't even know WHY Hillwood City even HOLDS an eating contest!"
"It's tradition, Rhonda." Phoebe sighed. "Always has been a tradition since the days of old."
"But if these boys keep eating the way they do... they're going to form an unhealthy disorder!" I explained.
"Yeah, binge eating is so wrong." Nadine sighed.
"What eating?" I raised an eyebrow, turning to Nadine.
"Binge eating... it's when a person keeps eating, even when they're already full." Nadine explained to me. "People who keep overeating will eventually grow fat."
"Oh, this is horrible." I sighed. "There should be a RULE against kids overeating for amusement. What kind of sick-os would want to watch their own kid overeat themselves to the point where they can't move their arms and legs?"
"I agree." Phoebe sighed. "At least Gerald isn't part of it..."
"And at least Arnold is trying to do the right thing..." I sighed. "But I heard he's part of the eating contest, so he's probably just taking it slow..."
"Don't doubt the Shortman family tree." Nadine explained. "Arnold told me about the one time when his grandfather competed in the contest in the 1920s and won."
"And he's STILL skinny?" I asked in shock. "Man, the 1920s must have had healthier foods back then!"
"What can we do, though?" Phoebe asked.
"Well, I'm not standing for this awful binge eating. I say we form a protest group against this contest!" I said, standing up to the two girls.
"But Rhonda, would an entire group of adults listen to the whiny protests of three little girls?" Nadine asked.
I paused. "Good point..."
I then smiled. "We need MORE girls that protest this very matter of this eating contest! Phoebe, Nadine, we are going to gather every girl in town!"
"Who do we know?" Nadine sighed. "The only other person who would be willing to go along with this is..."
"Thank you so much for letting me join this, girls! I won't let you down!" Sheena gave a smile and a salute as we were in front of her house.
"...Sheena." I glared at Nadine and Phoebe. "Sheena is our only girl who would be willing to support us."
"What's wrong with Sheena?" Phoebe asked. "She loves this type of thing. I know she's part of a protesting group against violence."
"I know, and she's not wrong in joining us... but..." I whispered to Nadine and Phoebe. "Have you noticed she has a couple of SCABS? They're disgusting!"
"I'm standing two inches right next to you. I can hear you whispering to them." Sheena glared at me as Nadine and Phoebe shook their heads.
I sighed. "Fine, Sheena. You can join us in our protest."
"Yay!" Sheena smiled, instantly forgetting I just directly pointed her scabs out and how disgusting they were a few seconds ago. "So, as a member of your protest club, what do we do first?"
"Obviously, we can't do this alone." I said. "I mean, really, who would listen to four little kids concerned about health?"
"I think what we need is an adult supervisor, leading the charge against the idea of binge eating." Phoebe said.
"But who can we get that can support our group idea?" Nadine asked.
I paused as I thought of an idea. "I think I may know somebody..."
Me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena soon arrived over at Olga's house as I held up my head, expecting the headache to... yep, there it was.
"Isn't this where you say the Patakis live?" Phoebe asked.
"I don't know..." Nadine said. "You sure she can support this idea?"
"Once we show her some of our ideas, I'm sure she'll agree." I said as I knocked on the door.
Inside the house, we heard some quick footsteps as I heard Olga's voice. "Don't get up, Mom, I'll get it. You just rest, okay?"
The door opened as Olga peeked out a minute, Olga at first having a bit of a sad mood, but when she saw us, she perked up a little bit. "Oh! Rhonda! And your little friends. So good to see you."
"Hey, Ol-" I started before Olga shushed me.
"Sorry, but would you mind keeping your voices down to a whisper? Mom's in the middle of a... well, I guess you can say it's a nap, but... anyway, she's sleeping a bit, so we need to be a bit quiet."
"Sorry." I whispered. "Olga, we have a little bit of a thing going on, and we were wondering if you'd be willing to listen to our small offer."
"Sure." I said. "Come inside, but do it quietly. When we get to my room, we'll talk there."
I nodded as I motioned to my friends to come inside. As we followed Olga up to her room, I managed to catch a quick glimpse at Olga's mother in the living room. She was a blonde haired woman, about in her late forties, I should think... with glasses and a purple dress. Her eyes were merely half open, half closed, but I could tell she was sleeping. I took a little bit of a sniff, and noticed a little different smell than usual... the smell of an alcoholic drink, but I couldn't quite make it out. Anyway, we followed Olga up to her room where we pitched our idea.
"...I don't know, girls." Olga said nervously as she put her hand behind her head. "Are you sure you want ME to lead your protest club? I mean, I normally LOVE competing in contests."
I noticed that Olga used the word 'competing' rather than 'winning'. If it was true that she hated being the perfect girl... then she confirmed my belief. "But Olga, this isn't a type of contest that's academic. You surely know of the food festival coming to town."
"I do, unfortunately." Olga sighed, deadpan. "Daddy always says he hated the contests, but maybe that's because at one point in his life, he competed in one of the food eating contests and lost because he couldn't get past the first dish."
"Right, and as for the other competitors, where would they go afterwards?" I asked Olga.
"Well, they'd probably have gained weight, but those that have gained weight would either try to lose the weight or... keep eating because they think they have that immunity where they are never full when in actuality, they are." Olga said as she paused. "I mean, I see your point, but protesting against a contest... it seems kind of wrong..."
"Olga, think about this. Eating contests could leave a person mentally addicted to food for the rest of his or her life." Phoebe explained. "They'll overeat and overeat, until the day that person dies, either from a heart attack, or overfilling on food. Binge eating isn't healthy..."
"But exercising is!" Nadine said.
"Eating healthy food is also a big plus!" Sheena smiled.
"But most importantly, we'd be protesting against the contests, saving little kids' lives from being ruined!" I said. "They'll no longer have to suffer from gaining a lot of weight."
"I'm..." Olga paused. "I don't know..."
"You said your father couldn't get past the first dish? Would that mean that by him being against the contest, YOU'D be against the contest too?" I asked, curiously.
Before Olga could respond, her eyes widened, as if my little sentence just gave her sudden realization. "Holy sh- holy cow, you're right. I never thought of it that way!"
Olga then gave a determined look. "Tell you what. I'll call up a couple of my school friends, I'm sure they'd be willing to sponsor your little team-up. And come Saturday, we'll stop a contest my dad NEVER loved!"
We che-
"Quietly!" Olga quickly whispered, reminding us that her mother was still "sleeping" downstairs.
We quietly cheered for this small moment. We were going to make this club official!
The next day, Nadine, Phoebe, Sheena and I were in the mall, waiting for Olga, where she told us to meet. We waited a little bit until we saw Olga coming in with a couple girls and boys around Olga's age, a few of those girls and boys with a couple of younger kids.
"Okay, thank you all for participating." Olga said as she turned to us. "First of all, girls, boys, friends alike, I like to welcome you all to my idea to stop the eating contest that goes on every year. To start us off, let's go by names. First of all, Jackie?"
"Right here." A young brunette girl of 25 smiled as she pointed to her teenage male sibling, around 12 to 13, I would say, with black-ish hair. "And I brought my younger brother, Terry."
"Hi." Terry nodded.
"Of course, welcome, Terry." Olga smiled. "Next up, George."
"Over here." A green-haired man, about 24, smiled as he turned to his younger sibling, a black haired girl around 18. "This is Vecipia, she's just graduated from high school."
"I'm ready for this!" Vecipia jumped up and down excited.
"I'm sure you are." Olga gave a smile as she turned around. "Carver?"
"Right here, whenever you go, Olga, I'm right here!" A raven haired boy around Olga's age gave a smile and a salute.
Olga gave a slight giggle as he whispered to me, "He's a loyal guy."
"Ah..." We all said.
"And finally, there's me, and these are the four friends who brought up this idea... Rhonda, Nadine, Phoebe and..." Olga paused as she was snapping her fingers, trying to get the final name. "...um..."
"Sheena." Sheena sighed.
"Right." Olga nodded. "Now, we all gathered here for a very special reason. You all hate the eating contest as much as I do..."
"And your father also hated it as well." Carver shrugged as Olga sighed. "I'm just throwing that out there."
"Right." Olga said as she turned back to us. "Every year, children engorge themselves on food to compete in this contest. For what, though? Entertainment? For who? Themselves, or other people? Do other people ENJOY seeing children go into a food coma? In truth, they do! They play this eating contest to have fun and get prizes... but in all honesty, this eating contest was built to make children go into an unhealthy binge eating frenzy!"
We all gave some small cheers. Olga smiled. "Thank you, but we cannot just stand and protest around. Every year, some crazy protesters always talk about the eating contest and how wrong it is! And in those years, those protesters get thrown out for "irrational behavior"! Well, OUR protest group is going to ACTUALLY do something about that binge eating frenzy they call the 'Food Festival'! Healthy is what stands! Down with sugar intakes!"
We all cheered.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we need to do this exactly right in order for this to work!" Olga said in determination. "We need to bring down the idea of eating contests once and for all! Who is with me?"
We all cheered at this very moment.
"Then meet me tomorrow afternoon where we'll discuss our plans!" Olga yelled out as she pulled out a hammer and hammered the table we were sitting on. "Meeting adjourned!"
"Did it feel weird to you we were pretty much the only pre-teens here?" Sheena asked Olga as soon as everybody else but me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena left. "I was at least hoping for more kids."
"Oh, I know..." Olga sighed. "But at least we can work with what we got. And who knows? Maybe our little number at the food eating contest will get us more members!"
"Say, what's the name of our group, anyway?" Nadine asked.
"Oh, I came up with it, easily!" I smiled as I pointed to the chart. "From here on in, we are going to be known as the National Organization for People's Earnesty Over People's Love for Engorgement!"
"Wait... you want us to be called "NO PEOPLE"?" Phoebe asked.
I paused as I looked at the acronym for... hmmm. It did spell NO PEOPLE, didn't it? "Well, it doesn't matter what we're called. What's important is that we spread our message of how binge eating is wrong to the entire world!"
"Or at least to the people obsessed with this food festival!" Olga rolled her eyes.
"Okay, first, we're going to need the names of the competitors of the food contest." Nadine said. "That should be simple enough... most of the boys of our graduating PS118 third grade class."
"Uh..." Sheena paused. "I don't know if this'll help, but there is another competitor I've heard about..."
"Oh?" We raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah..." Sheena nodded. "They say he's a very ruthless competitor in terms of eating. He's the 'Garfield' of eating. Most people call him the Disposal. His name is Seymour, and he's from PS119. Nobody can beat him in terms of eating."
"Now this is an even bigger problem!" I frowned.
"I know." Sheena sighed. "Nobody in the eating contest will stand a chance."
"I'm talking about the boy's eating problem!" I explained. "Don't you see, this 'Disposal' character is a perfect example. Did you manage to see what he looks like?"
"Well, one of the boys did catch a glimpse of the boy in an ice cream store with the Jolly Olly Man watching. He looked like a skinny boy when he gobbled down all the ice cream in front of him... and I don't mean just a simple sundae, I mean a buffet of different types of ice cream!" Sheena explained to us. "And he remained skinny!"
I paused. "No doubt he's cheating. No way does anybody just keep the same weight when binge eating. He has to be wearing a girdle to hide his true weight!"
"What do we do?" Olga asked.
"You and the others leave some of the professional work to us." I said. "I think we can convince a couple to... "Drop out" of the contest."
"So, let me get this straight." Harold frowned as me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena were sitting next to him at a small table shading us from the sun. "You want ME to drop out of the contest? As if! I'm going to demolish this contest!"
"Oh, are you sure?" I asked. "I mean, sure, I have no doubt you love food, but can you beat the Disposal?"
"The who?" Harold raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, did it slip our minds?" Nadine said. "Over at PS119, there lives a kid who can eat anything in one second in front of him!"
"R-really?" Harold paused.
"Don't take our word for it. Ask the Jolly Olly Man. He'll tell you the full story." Phoebe smiled.
Harold paused... as he saw the ice cream truck go by. Harold immediately decided to run off in curiosity.
"Come on, let's see if we can peer in." I said to the other three girls.
"That's right." The Jolly Olly Man nodded as me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena peered in and listened in as we saw Stinky and Sid joining Harold. "Seymour, AKA the Disposal, can demolish any food in a second. You have no chance of beating him."
"Uh..." Harold paused. "Can he really devour all that food?"
"Any... type... of... food." The Jolly Olly Man glared down at Harold, emphasizing each word. "Well, I got a shift to run, see you later."
As the Jolly Olly Man drove off, Stinky then said, "And suddenly, I have my doubts about this."
"Yeah..." Sid said. "If this Seymour kid can really devour anything... we have no chance."
Harold nodded. "Yeah, man. As much as I like food, I don't think I can stand a chance. Suddenly, something else sounds better than the food contest."
"I'll watch, but I won't participate." Sid said. "Let's go see if there's a way to drop out."
Stinky and Harold nodded as they and Sid ran off.
Me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena smiled as we high-fived.
The next stop was... Curly's house?
"Curly is competing?" I asked Sheena as we were at the footsteps leading to his house.
"Yep." Sheena smiled.
"Okay, next person." I said as I decided to walk off.
"But, Rhonda..." Sheena started.
"Nope, next person." I said, already a block ahead of the others.
I looked back to see Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena catching up to me as Sheena said, "Okay, okay... fine... next up... Arnold."
"He should be easy. Arnold didn't really want to participate in the contest anyway." I smiled. "I'm sure he'd be glad to drop out."
"What do you mean you're not dropping out of the contest?" I asked in shock as Arnold was seen eating a pork chop with mashed potatoes and peas inside.
"I know, I originally wanted to drop out, especially after Curly told me and Gerald about the Disposal. But then I overheard Grandpa in his sleep saying something about how he'd be proud if the family tradition kept winning a trophy, and I didn't want to let him down." Arnold said.
"But Arnold, this binge eating isn't healthy! You'll end up obese!" I said.
"Or worse, dead by choking on something." Phoebe said as I shuddered.
"Please, Arnold, reconsider." I begged.
"Sorry girls, I'm gone a little too far now to quit." Arnold said as he kept eating.
Nadine whispered to me, "Just let it go, Rhonda. We got three people to drop out, that's good enough."
I sighed. "Okay, okay. I won't tell you to quit, but promise me you will go on a diet and exercise program after this is over."
"Trust me, Rhonda, I'm already considering the idea once this eating contest is over." Arnold said as his grandfather came with another dish. Arnold groaned as he saw what the dish is. "Another lobster bisque?"
"Eat up, Shortman!" Arnold's grandfather smiled as he was about to walk off. "Okay girls, visiting hours are over. Arnold is still in training."
We nodded as we picked up and left.
"So, how did you do?" Olga asked once we reunited with her in another area in town.
"Three out of six contestants have just dropped out." I said. "How are things on your end?"
"Well, Carver, George, Jackie and their siblings have recently got a list of all the foods supplied for the contest." Olga said, handing us a list. "Check it out."
I paused as I looked over the list. "Hmmm... tacos, stuffed peppers, souvlaki, huge garlic hot dog and ice cream. This is just asking for a heart attack at age 9 or 10!"
"I know..." Olga sighed. "Carver threw the idea about clobbering people on the head and holding them hostage until the people who ran the eating contest met our demands."
"Please tell me you turned that idea down." Sheena said. "We're protesters, but we're not violent protesters."
"Don't worry, I turned it down to a minimum." Olga said. "No, I threw in a better idea. We replace all the food that's in the contest with better foods of our choices, for example, celery or carrot sticks."
"Is it legal to do that?" Phoebe asked.
"Is it legal? I don't know." Olga shrugged. "But we may as well try it. I mean, the worst somebody can do is give us a slap on the wrist."
"You do know that a slap on the wrist is a figurative term, right?" Phoebe asked, but we all decided to just go along with Olga's plan anyway.
It was Saturday, the day of the eating contest has arrived. Everyone was in the food festival, and celebrating. But not me and my group known as N.O.P.E.O.P.L.E.! Wearing white t-shirts with our NO PEOPLE logo (a picture of bacon being blocked by a no sign... what were those called, anyway, the red circle with the slash that blocks it... I think I saw it in a video cassette cover of an eighties movie, but I'm not sure), we all nodded as we got started, looking around.
"Well, there's the 'Disposal'." Sheena said, pointing towards a black skinny kid with brown hair essentially devouring every meatball in sight.
"Ugh, what a pig." I said in disgust. "Don't the words, 'Know your limits', mean a thing to him?"
"Okay, spotted the food for the contest." Carver said as he pointed towards the last of the food being put on a table (except for the ice cream).
Olga then started drawing plans. "Okay, here's the plan. We swap out every bit of food and replace them with the healthy ones we brought. Speaking of which, did you guys bring a LOT of healthy foods?"
Nadine, Phoebe, Sheena, Jackie, Terry George, and Vecipia nodded as they pointed to some nearby trays of food they brought with them... an assortment of carrot sticks, some celery stalks, and a few trays of cheese, crackers and shrimp.
"Okay, let's get started." Olga said as soon as the coast was clear. We quickly put on our masks and started to put our plan into action as we started to pick up trays and dump the contents in the trash as we replaced them quickly with our healthy foods.
"We are totally going to be in trouble for this if we get caught." I said.
Olga giggled gleefully. "This is actually pretty fun. For the first time in my life, I'm actually... having a little fun! Rebellious fun, but it's fun!"
I nodded as I left small notes regarding the 'You have been struck by 'NO PEOPLE'. Eat healthy, or suffer the consequences of your own fate!'
"Okay, almost all of it is gone. Now getting the Grandma Gertie's stuffed peppers, and we're good." Carver smirked.
My eyes widened. "Wait... did you just say Grandma Gertie's stuffed peppers?"
I recognized the name. That was Arnold's grandmother's first name and... uh-oh. "Yeah, I wouldn't touch those stuffed peppers."
"Why? What'll happen?" Carver smiled as he lifted the plate...
All of a sudden, alarm bells started ringing as sirens started to wail. Everyone yelped as Olga gulped, we heard Arnold's grandmother's voice through a recording. "Attention, thieves. This is Gertie Shortman reporting to you. Step away from the stuffed peppers, put them down and carefully walk away before I come over and kick your behind! This is not a recording! Well, okay, technically, it is a recording... but, you know what I mean. Watch out for the cage trap I installed."
"The what trap?" Olga said.
As soon as Olga said it, everyone (except for me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena) got trapped in a cage. I sighed to Olga. "Sorry, if I knew this would happen..."
"Eh, don't worry. It was worth a shot." Olga shrugged. "Besides, you four are out of the cage, I can't have you girls be responsible for this."
"But we were in this together!" Nadine said.
"I know, but people are going to believe the young adults more than the kids." Olga sighed. "Don't worry, I'll take the blame for what happened. The replacing food thing was my idea, after all."
"But I started the protest idea." I begged.
"I know, but nobody ever listens to children." Olga explained, then sighed a bit as she muttered under her breath, "I learned that the hard way."
"B-" I started.
"Relax. I'll try to explain my reasonings. You girls just go and change out of the uniforms. If we get in trouble, we don't want you to be held responsible as well."
"I-" I tried to rebute, then sighed. "Okay. Good luck."
"I'll try." Olga said as I ran off, but not before I heard another voice.
"You go, girl."
What the-? That was that voice again! I know I didn't imagine it this time! It was in my mind, but I know I didn't imagine it.
"Rhonda, come on!" Phoebe said, pulling me out of view, just in time for Arnold's grandmother, along with a few cops arriving.
Because of the recent activities, Olga and her friends gave their reasons behind the whole eating contest protest shenanigans, and gladly kept me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena out of the mess. They let her go off easily because they understood that it was just concerned protesting, but they should not replace food next time. It was okay for Olga and her friends... for the most part. They had to clean up after the contest was over, but nevertheless, it was punishment enough for them. Me, Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena, at the meantime, decided to change to our regular clothes, but we decided to help out Olga so she wouldn't be handling responsibility.
The contest went on, regardless. And some of the healthy foods we put in managed to be good replacements. Of course, the minute Seymour saw the carrots and celery sticks being put out, he just got up and walked away, surprising everyone, including us. Guess there was a limit to what he wants to eat.
So, the competition was between Arnold and Curly at this point, since... well, Harold, Stinky and Sid kind of dropped out a long time ago... mostly because of anonymous sources we don't want to name. Curly surprisingly put up a pretty good fight, but in the end, Curly couldn't handle the cheese and crackers, so Arnold luckily had won it all. As expected, we all cheered, I think I cheered the loudest.
Pretty soon, the food festival was nearing completion and we saw Olga and her friends starting to sweep up the mess. Being a good friend to Olga, I convinced Nadine, Phoebe and Sheena to help out with the cleaning. Pretty soon, I was helping Olga sweep up some of the mess.
"You know, you don't have to..." Olga started.
"I know... but I want to... no, I need to. I need to share the guilt with you, Olga. You can't bear this punishment alone." I explained to her.
Olga smiled as she hugged me tightly. "Thank you, Rhonda! You're a really sweet girl."
The headache was still there, but it felt a little more warm.
"OLGA PATAKI!"
Olga sighed and groaned. She nervously turned to see her father coming over as my heart started acting up. "Dad, I can explain..."
Olga gulped as she saw the mean demeanor on her dad. "Olga, I hate the fact that you tried to sabotage a contest..."
"I know, daddy, bu-" Olga started.
"Let me finish." Olga's father said. "I'm disappointed that you tried to ruin a contest... but I'm GLAD you tried to ruin THIS contest."
"You are?" Olga asked in surprise.
"Yeah." Olga's father laughed. "I always hated that contest. Competed in it one time, almost choked to death. I decided that any food I want, I just do it myself rather than compete in a contest. Olga, do me a favor, sweetie?"
"Yes, daddy?" Olga asked.
"Next time you try to sabotage an eating contest... invite me along!" Olga's father smiled. "I wanted to get back at these types of contests for years!"
Olga smiled a bit. "Okay, daddy."
"Bob..." I heard a dazed female voice call from the van as I peered in. Olga's mother peered out the window a little dazed, but she seemed up. "Can we go?"
"All right, all right, I'm comin'!" Bob yelled. "Come along, Olga, you're out on bail."
"Thanks, daddy!" Olga smiled as she whispered to me, "Gotta go. Thanks."
Before Olga left, I started to hear the voice again.
"Poor Olga..."
Okay, that did it! I had to go into my mind.
"Who are you?"
"Huh? W-wait... you can hear me?"
"Duh! Of course I can! I heard your voice at least two times when I was with Olga."
"Oh my God... you heard me. You actually communicated to me! I-I tho- never mind."
"Who are you?"
"You might say... I'm a conscience of some kind."
I noticed Olga was getting to the car and I seemed to be losing the voice. I tried to move closer to the car before it could drive away.
"What do you mean?"
"That's all I can tell you. If you want to know more... find the black door when you go to your dreams. I'll explain everything then."
"That doesn't make sense! What do you mean, go to my dreams?"
The Patakis' car had already driven off, and I had lost the voice completely. I couldn't believe it.
"Rhonda!"
My attention snapped back to see Phoebe and Nadine coming in. Phoebe smiled. "Ready to go home?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I think I'm ready."
As we headed straight for our homes, my mind just couldn't keep an eye on things... for example... go to my dreams? Who was that voice? If this was my conscience... why am I hearing it? I've always heard of a possibility of another voice in my head, but... why now? Was this the same voice I heard in my dreams? If so... why?
There's the forty-eighth episode! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!