The next episode is officially 'Ransom'! Well, even though Rhonda isn't in the main story, she'll influence it a little. How? Read on and find out! Enjoy, every common folk!

The next day on Sunday, I yawned as I got up as I heard my cell phone ringing. I looked at the ID, noticing it was Phoebe calling. I picked it up. "Hey, Phoebe!"

"Hello, Rhonda? I'm just calling to tell you I'm going to be out today. Gerald called me up to do some babysitting for his little sister, Timberly, while he and his friends play some board games at his house." Phoebe said.

I blinked. "Why can't he just babysit her himself? He's right there."

"Apparently, his parents don't EXACTLY trust him with Timberly enough to babysit, and they and his older brother are going out today. With me around, Gerald's parents trust me to take care of her AND Gerald." Phoebe explained.

"Aw, how sweet. You're going to play with your little sister in-law." I smiled as I imagined Phoebe just blushing.

"Rhonda! Be serious!" Phoebe's voice exasperated over the phone.

"Okay, okay, I was just messing with you." I said, laying down. "I'll call Nadine and let her know you can't make the park today."

"Sorry about this, it was last minute." Phoebe said. "I better get going. Gerald told me to come over at eight."

"Okay, well, see you whenever you get done." I said as I hung up the phone. I sighed as I relaxed a little bit, putting on my glasses. Well, at least it'll be me and Nadine today...

"Shame..." Nadine said as she was releasing a butterfly from her net. We were over at the park hanging around as I saw Nadine catching another bug in her net. "I was really hoping Phoebe could help us find a rare bug today..."

"Oh, Nadine, there's always butterflies and worms in this park." I said. "What are the chances we'd find a rare insect?"

"If Phoebe were here, she'd say something along the lines of 'one in eight thousand one hundred and ninety two chance'." Nadine said as she caught another butterfly with her net.

"Still, butterflies are really pretty to look at." I smiled as Nadine let go of the butterfly she had.

"Yeah..." Nadine smiled as I then heard my phone ring.

I picked up to see it was Phoebe. "Oh, that's Phoebe calling now."

I picked up the phone. "Yes?"

"Rhonda, could you do me a favor?" Phoebe asked. "Timberly and I are planning to get back at Gerald by having him play a little detective, Gerald and Arnold are currently unaware of it..."

"Aw, you're playing detective without me? Shame, Phoebe. Shame." I shook my head.

"Yeah... could you meet me in the back alley not too far from Gerald's house and take a quick photo?" Phoebe asked. "We need to get have a ready camera as soon as possible. I'll explain when you get there..."

"All right..." I said as I hung up. "Looks like we're meeting up with Phoebe after all. Come along, Nadine."

"Coming..." Nadine smiled as she started humming and skipping a little.

Nadine and I arrived with the camera as I saw Phoebe near the back alley, seemingly holding a blue dinosaur doll. "So, what's up?"

"Okay, here's the deal. Timberly and I watched some TV for a while, then once her program stopped, she got bored and came over to see if she could play with Gerald. Gerald does this usual 'you wouldn't understand', but I think he just doesn't want to be disturbed. Yeah, he was being a little surly, and I didn't like that attitude of his..."

"So, rather than giving him your little cute eyes, persuading him to let his little sister play, you took Timberly aside and came up with this overcomplicated plan to get Gerald and Arnold to play with her." I said. "Why don't you just do the former one I just said?"

"And indicate I like him?" Phoebe asked.

"Phoebe, he knows you like him!" Nadine said.

"No, I mean that I like him... like him?" Phoebe smiled nervously.

"First of all, we both knew it all along, it was kind of obvious, heck you even told us a few times, and second, you got a good point... you can't admit you like him like him like that..." I said. "I mean, you two are kind of obvious with your feelings..."

"We're friends!" Phoebe glared.

"That's not what the Cheese Festival and your blushing says." I gave a smile as I noted the hint of red on her cheeks.

"Look, can you help me or not?" Phoebe said as she positioned the blue dinosaur doll over a trashcan, a blindfold over its eyes.

"Okay, okay, chill, chill..." I said as I postioned the camera.

"Move a little closer so that my hand is in the shot... perfect!" Phoebe said as she got me to come closer. "Snap the picture."

I proceeded to do so as the picture came out of the camera. Phoebe smiled as she took it out and waved it a little bit as Phoebe examined it. "Yep, checks out. Thanks, girls."

"Anything else you need us to do?" I asked.

"No, that's about it. I better get back now, Timberly must be finished with the fake ransom note by now..." Phoebe said as she put the blue dinosaur toy in the bag. "See you later, girls. I'll let you know how it turned out."

As Phoebe ran off, I paused as I turned to Nadine. "You know something? I think someday, Phoebe would make a really good mother."

"What makes you say that?" Nadine asked as we decided to turn back towards the park.

"She may be a little timid at times, but she's shown to be really smart, really protective AND she knows how to give proper care to both Gerald and his sister when need be." I said as we kept walking. "You know what I mean?"

Nadine paused. "I do see your point. I'm impressed with how Phoebe handles her situations, yet she scares me at the same time..."

I smiled as I said, "Yeah, she can be a pretty good manipulator if she wants to be... well, come on, Nadine. Why don't we go to the mall today and hang out? Just a little window shopping will be fine with me..."

"Let me guess, your parents cut your financing again?" Nadine asked.

"A little, but it's not as bad." I shrugged as we went to a bus stop to wait for a bus to take us over to the mall.

The next day, as me and Nadine went over to Phoebe's house, Phoebe was smiling as she was skipping and humming as I decided to ask, "So... how did the little game go?"

"Oh, we had a little fun." Phoebe smiled. "Timberly and I managed to trick Gerald and Arnold into our little detective game. Thanks to some volunteers that decided to help me out, we had a little fun."

"How so?" Nadine asked.

"Well, I called up a few people before I sent the ransom note and photo to Gerald, and they decided to go along with the game. You'd be surprised at the personal secrets that a few of our friends have, though..." Phoebe said.

My ears perked at the word, 'secrets'. "Spill. What did you learn?"

"Well... you all remember Chocolate Boy, right?"

"The boy who eats chocolate for a living?" I raised an eyebrow before I nodded. "Yep... I do."

"I'm surprised that kid hadn't gone through a sugar rush..." Nadine said.

"I'm sure he lived through the sugar rush... it's just he's more used to it now... my body can't really tolerate more than at least a little bit of sugar."

"Yeah, I remember you have constant sugar rushes every time you try to have more than two chocolate bars OR you eat more than two bowls of sugary cereal..." Nadine rolled her eyes.

"Trust us, Rhonda, we've seen you in a sugar rush. You are not normal in those states." Phoebe said. "Anyway, after persuading the boys, we went over to see Chocolate Boy and after playing along with a few schemes, we went over to see Harold. You'd be surprised he owns the same Wally toy as Timberly..."

I giggled as I wrote it down. Phoebe and Nadine glared as Nadine said, "Rhonda..."

"Relax, I'm not going to use that on anybody!" I said. "What else?"

"Well, Harold hates being called slim." Phoebe said. "That much we know. But what really hit the clincher was Curly."

"You invited the freak into your game?" I said in shock.

"He said he was willing to go along with it." Phoebe said. "Anyway, he revealed an interesting piece of information... he says that every Sunday he's not off, he attends a ballet class in Madame Bovary's Dance School for Boys."

"What?" Nadine said in shock as I stared in surprise.

I then said, "Actually, considering the fact he owns a doll, that's not really surprising to me..."

"Well, after all three of them were unsuspecting, when we came home, Arnold and Gerald looked like they didn't figure out the clues..." Phoebe explained. "But Gerald shown he was caring enough for his little sister and when they decided to talk and make amends, that was when both me and Timberly decided to come clean and explain everything. I told him that I decided to work with Timberly to teach Gerald a lesson, to let your little siblings have a chance at playing with them, even if the game didn't make sense."

"He was still a little ticked, though, that you sent him on a wild goose chase." Nadine said.

"A little, but he wasn't too mad. He knew I was trying to do good for both him and his sister, so he apologized to his sister and agreed to let her play with him on the next game he planned on doing. And so we had a little fun!" Phoebe smiled.

"Well, just be glad it's all behind Gerald now..." I smiled as we reached our destination. "Well, girls, here we are... Mighty Pete, the last tree of the neighborhood."

"Wow..." Nadine and Phoebe smiled as we saw Arnold peeking out.

"Come on up, girls! The tree house is open!" Arnold called up.

I smiled as I called, "We'll be right up!"

I turned to the girls and smiled. "Let's go hang with the gang, girls!"

I held out both my hands as Nadine and Phoebe high-fived me and I put them down, Phoebe and Nadine said, "Let's do this!"

With the confident attitude, we decided to climb up to the tree house.

And there is the fifty-fourth episode! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks! And don't forget to add and/or check out the TVTropes page for this story!