I'm sure you had a feeling this one was next, but here is 'Roller Coaster'! Anyway, enjoy!
Well, by the time the week was over, from what I learned from the others, Harold and Mr. Green learned to tolerate one another as Harold suppressed an interest to become a butcher and Mr. Green decided to accept him as an apprentice. So, it didn't affect Harold's schedule too badly as he was allowed to go to Dino Land with us, which is perfect for all of us, because it would be a good way to enjoy some time together as an official PS 118 Fourth Grade entrance group.
And thus, by Saturday morning, me, Nadine, Phoebe, Arnold, Gerald, Tucker, Sid, Stinky, Harold, Eugene and Curly (though why Curly was with us, I will never figure out, he probably invited himself) were walking around Dino Land, excited for the many possibilities on what we can do.
"Let's ride the Dino Whirl!" Stinky said in excitement.
"Let's go to the food cave and eat prehistoric pies until we puke!" Harold said in excitement.
"Okay, okay, one at a time, one at a time!" Arnold said as he gathered everyone around him. "Now, I know we are all excited for this, SO... we're going to be going in a couple of small groups. Rhonda, Gerald, Phoebe, you're with me. Tucker, Nadine, Curly, stick with each other. Sid, Stinky, Harold, Eugene, you guys will..." Arnold started.
Upon hearing Eugene's name, Sid, Stinky and Harold actually got uncomfortable as Sid said, "Actually, can Eugene go with a different group?"
"What?" Arnold frowned. "Why?"
"Actually, Arnold, I see their point, kind of." Eugene said. "Every time I go on a ride, I'm cursed."
"He's right." Harold nodded.
"Eugene is a living jinx, Arnold, nobody can deny that!" Sid said as everybody, even Phoebe, nodded.
Tucker, the only one not responding, raised an eyebrow. "Now why would you accuse Eugene of being a jinx?"
"Tucker's right." Arnold said. "He's just a kid like you, me and everybody else."
"No, Arnold, Tucker, they're right. Just watch." Eugene said as he pointed to a ride.
A few moments later, we were gathered around the ride's gates as Eugene was riding a pterodactyl egg ride. Tucker paused as he said, "So? Nothing bad's happening."
"Wait for it." Phoebe said as most of us started to back away and to the side, taking Tucker and Arnold along with us.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, the egg started going out of control with Eugene on it as it fell down, rolled to the side and started bouncing out of the ride and into a food stand. Eugene groaned as he got up. "I'm okay..."
"See?" Stinky said as he pointed over to Eugene. "There's no 'bout a doubt it. Eugene's a walkin', talkin' pair of wet lulu of a big old-handed jinx."
Tucker laughed as he said, "Oh come on. What happened was probably coincidence. Heck, I'm sure even Phoebe knows this is a coincidence."
"Actually, I stopped trying to debunk the Eugene thing long ago, ever since the first time he had these 'bouts of bad luck." Phoebe shrugged. "I just accepted the fact that Eugene really has bad luck."
Tucker continued laughing. "This is a joke, right? You're all pulling my leg!"
"We're not joking." I shook my head. "Tucker, if you hung around with us long enough, you'd know Eugene is bad luck personified. Sure, it's not his fault, but hanging around him could easily affect himself and somebody else."
"Rhonda, I hate to disagree with you, but there is one time I've hung around Eugene, and even though bad stuff DID happen to him... multiple times, nothing bad happened to me." Arnold frowned. "Eugene's a really good friend, if you all just give him a chance..."
"Sorry, Arnold." Stinky shrugged.
"No offense, but I wouldn't go near the guy..." Curly said.
Tucker rolled his eyes. "Oh, for God's sakes, if it makes you feel any better, me and Nadine can switch Curly with Eugene."
"We can?" Nadine's eyes widened.
"All right, fair enough." Arnold said as Curly and Eugene switched places.
"This is cool, guys!" Eugene smiled at Tucker and Nadine, the former smiling a little, the latter looking a little worried. "We'll have a lot of fun!"
Nadine motioned me, Phoebe, Arnold, Gerald and Tucker closer as she whispered, "Are you guys sure you want to do this?"
I shrugged as Phoebe said, "Good luck."
Arnold said, "It'll be fine, Nadine. I spent the entire day with Eugene before, and even though bad things did happen, none of them happened to me. You just have to be sure he doesn't get hurt. Okay?"
"Come on, Nadine, have a little faith. What happened was pure coincidence, watch! If we're with him, we'll make sure he doesn't get hurt!" Tucker smiled.
"Good luck, man." Gerald sighed.
"All right, are we all set?" Arnold asked as we all looked around the groups and nodded.
"Okay, we're all set." I nodded.
"All right, we'll meet around lunchtime and we'll compare what we did!" Arnold said.
"Awesome!" Tucker said as Nadine nodded.
"Okay guys, see you at lunch! Rhonda out!" I said as we started to split up, going with my group, but not before I ran back to Tucker and Nadine, saying, "Seriously, guys, handling Eugene is not going to be an easy task. He is bad luck personified. Okay, Rhonda out."
I set up to go back to my group... but not before going back to Tucker and Nadine doing the "I'm watching you" gesture to Tucker and Nadine. Nadine seemed a little nervous to be hanging with Eugene, but decided to have a little faith in Tucker's beliefs. Tucker seemed pretty confident. I ran back over with Arnold's group.
"I'm a little concerned for Nadine's safety right now..." Phoebe said to me as Arnold and Gerald were riding a dinosaur themed boat ride, we were watching.
"I know, I'm concerned for her too, but she's our tough girl. She'll live." I said. "Besides, she's with her boyfriend, so everything is fine."
"I am interested in how you are NOW referring to Tucker as Nadine's boyfriend, even if she's going to deny it otherwise." Phoebe said.
"Well, the signs are so obviously there! She likes to stand up for the guy, she and him are interested in the same things, they obviously enjoy each other's company... face it, these two are going to get together in the future." I smiled.
Phoebe paused. "I do see the logic behind it..."
"Phoebe, you're talking your techno babble again." I sighed.
"Sorry." Phoebe said. "I see the reasons behind your thoughts, but regardless of how possible Tucker and Nadine's relationship is..."
"They'll be fine, despite the bad luck personified guy with them." I shrugged. "What trouble could they go into anyway?"
Arnold and Gerald came out of the ride as Phoebe and I were about to go near the gates, I asked, "How's the ride, guys?"
"Awesome!" Gerald smiled.
"Give it a go, girls!" Arnold smiled.
"I think we will." I nodded as Phoebe followed me inside as we got all set up.
A little later, as me, Arnold, Gerald and Phoebe were in line for the biggest roller coaster, I was smiling in excitement as I said, "It may mess up my hair, but it's worth the ride!"
Arnold rolled his eyes a little as he asked, "Rhonda, do you think of anything aside from fashion or your hair?"
"Of course I do. You'd be surprised what I think about in that mind of mine." I explained.
"Hmmm." Arnold said as he looked around. "How should we do this? Boy-girl, boy-girl?"
"Sure!" Phoebe said as she clung on to Gerald's hand, Gerald smiling a little. "I don't mind this one."
"Yeah, man. We can do this." Gerald nodded as I noticed the way he and Phoebe were looking into each other, smiling. I can sense Arnold knew it too.
"Yeah, I suppose if it's your decision, what's stopping you?" I said as I went in close to Arnold. I was smiling internally, because I knew this was sort of a thrill ride... my chance to try and hug Arnold when we get to the thrilling parts! I paused. "If only the line moved a little longer. Wonder what's delaying it?"
"Well, whatever the delay, we're next." Arnold said, pointing towards the end of the line. "As long as the ride doesn't break down, we're good."
"Attention, please. There has been a slight mechanical problem on the ride. We are currently fixing it up as we speak. Until further notice, this ride is closed." We heard a female voice say.
I groaned as Arnold said, "What a shame. Guess we're not going on the ride for a while."
"I feel sorry for the people who are stuck on this ri-" I started to say before I heard my phone ringing. I paused as I took out my cell phone and looked at the number, noticing it's Nadine. I opened up my phone and said, "Hello?"
"Hi, Rhonda? Tucker, Eugene and I are going to be a little late for lunch." Nadine's voice said. "We're currently stuck on a ride right now, but we'll get there, no worries."
My eyes widened as I asked, "Uh, Nadine... that ride you're stuck on... it wouldn't happen to be the roller coaster, would it?"
"Why yes. We're stuck on the tip top at the end of the cave, looking down on the roller coaster ride, the other three carts went down, but oddly, Tucker and my car and Eugene's didn't. How did you know?" Nadine asked through the phone as we all went outside and looked up. Sure enough, there was a couple of red cars stuck up there with three people. You can barely make out the design, but it's hard not to recognize Nadine's unique hairstyle.
I blinked. "Lucky guess."
"Of all the people in the world, of course it was Tucker, Nadine and Eugene stuck in that ride." Curly said as we were reunited near the roller coaster's entrance, a few cars and people were gathering around.
"Well, Tucker DID ask for Eugene..." Stinky said. "And he's paying the consequences..."
"I'm sure they'll be fine. Besides, the authorities are here, they're going to fix the problem, Tucker, Nadine and Eugene will be back on the ground, safely with us." Arnold explained.
"Well, gee willikers, I hope you're right, Arnold." Sid said, looking up.
Harold was too busy eating one of the pies to pay attention as Phoebe and I looked up towards the stuck cars. Phoebe started to look worried, but I gave her a small hug. "Don't worry, Nadine has made it through tougher situations. She and Tucker'll make it. I don't know about Eugene, but I'm sure he'll live."
"Should we call them?" Phoebe asked.
"No need." I said as I pointed over to the officials trying to fix the ride's controls. "The officials are fixing everything, it'll be fine."
"They're setting up a white blown up trampoline." Phoebe said in a deadpan voice as she pointed over to the white blown up trampoline that was taking place. "That means they are stuck up there."
"Everything's going to be fine, fellas. We'll have you down in no time." One of the officials spoke through a megaphone.
"See, even the officials say they're going to be fine!" I smiled.
Phoebe facepalmed. "That's what the officials say when the problem gets worse!"
"You're overreacting again, Phoebe. It's adorable when you do that, but seriously, it'll be okay. Nadine has made it through worse." I explained. "Remember her little cold she had."
Phoebe giggled a little. "Oh yeah... I remember. She had a bad cold and couldn't get out of her house for a week because of it."
"And we're very loyal friends to one another, and you and I were always there for her, helping her get healthy and taking care of her bugs." I said. "The latter wasn't an easy task."
"Yeah, you were trying so hard not to scream at the amount of dead flies you were feeding her pet tarantula." Phoebe giggled.
"I can handle Nadine's alive bugs just fine... they are her pets, but seeing dead insects or wild bugs... gross." I said as I looked up.
"Yeah, you're right..." Phoebe said. "I should have a little faith in Nadine..."
Me and Phoebe looked up at the ride as we sighed.
"How long have they been stuck up there, again?" I asked.
"Only an hour." Phoebe said.
I groaned. "This is going to suck for Nadine and Tucker, isn't it?"
"Yep..." Phoebe nodded. "But at least they have each other."
"I better give them a call." I said as I picked up my cell phone and dialed Nadine's cell phone number. I heard Nadine pick up. "How's everything up there?"
"Not so bad, actually. I survived worst." Nadine said, then whispered, "Tucker's at a bit of a breaking point, but he's trying to hold firm and is determined to prove that we were wrong about Eugene. Eugene's okay, by the way."
"Hi, guys." I heard Eugene's voice.
"Hey, Eugene." I said. "Tucker, how are you holding up?"
"Fine... fine, fine, I'm just fine." Tucker said. "Easy as pie, easy as pie."
"Great. We'll keep you posted if anything changes." I said as I hung up the phone.
I turned to Phoebe as she said, "Hope they'll make it..."
"They'll be fine." I said as I looked up, crossing my fingers.
It was... getting around nighttime as we were all waiting for the ride to be fixed. Of course, we were concerned for our friends as we stuck around, but Harold, Stinky and Sid wanted to mock Tucker when he got down about how we were all right. I shook my head towards them, saying, "It's up to him to figure it out, when he comes down, if he admits it, he'll be fine. If he doesn't... he's a stubborn goat."
Harold, Stinky and Sid paused as they realized maybe I was right and decided to wait it out.
We later saw the cherry picker coming over as it was lifting up as Arnold smiled. "See? The cherry picker. Tucker, Nadine and Eugene are going to be..."
Me and Phoebe raised our hands as we started counting down from five. Arnold noticed as he asked, "Why are you two raising your hands and closing them up to a fist, finger by finger?"
"One." Me and Phoebe said as we closed our hands up. At that moment, the cherry picker started to malfunction a little. Everyone stared wide-eyed as Phoebe and I said, "Knew it."
I heard my phone ring as I picked it up to see it was Nadine. I picked it up. "Hello?"
"It's going to be a LONG while. When we get down, could you bring a sandwich?" Nadine asked. "I'm fine, not really hungry, but Tucker's starting to hallucinate a little."
"Food'll be on the way." I nodded as I hung up the phone. "We'll be right back guys."
With that, me and Phoebe started to leave to find an open food stand.
By the time we arrived back with some food, the roller coaster had finally gotten fixed and the ride was finished as Tucker, Nadine, Eugene and a fireman exited out as I asked Arnold, "What did we miss?"
"You're not going to believe it when I told you, but the cherry picker fell, Eugene made a small lasso, and with Nadine and Tucker's help, saved the fireman from falling out of the cherry picker." Arnold explained.
I paused as Nadine nodded. Tucker sighed in relief as he grabbed the sandwich and started eating, I said, "You're right. I don't believe it."
"You should have seen it!" Gerald said as Nadine sighed in relief.
"I'm just glad it's all over!" Nadine sighed in relief as me, Arnold, Gerald, Phoebe and Tucker started to walk off, Tucker eating as he sighed.
"Finally, I can think rationally again!" Tucker sighed. "Do you have any idea how irritating Eugene's voice is? He would not shut up!"
"Oh come on, Eugene isn't that bad." Nadine said. "He at least kept us company."
"Yeah..." Tucker said as he smirked. "But I was proven right! He's not a jinx!"
"Well, at least everything is okay now." I said. "But he IS still bad luck personified."
"Come on!" Tucker said as we kept walking. "We've been stuck on that ride for who knows how long, and you STILL think he's bad luck?"
"Sure, that one moment of instance was good luck on our side... but yeah, you can't change a bad luck personified person... you have to go with the flow." Gerald shrugged.
"Wel, it doesn't matter now. What matters is that you guys are safe and sound." I smiled. "Come on, we should probably get home. We'll make up for it with a milkshake from Slausen's tomorrow."
"Sounds good." Nadine and Tucker nodded.
"All right." Arnold and Gerald smiled.
"Count me in." Phoebe smiled.
"Wonderful!" I smiled. "Come on."
And so, we went on home, ending another adventure in the life of me and my friends.
And there is the sixty-second episode! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks! And check out and add to the TVTropes page for this story!