Welcome to the fourth grade, everyone, as the Hey Arnold characters were in canon! And to start this off, we're bringing in the 'New Teacher'! Anyway, enjoy!

It was on a Monday, the last Monday of August, to be exact, as I entered the bus and put in a quarter in to pay the bus fare, some of the girls that were in a different fourth grade class gasped as they suddenly noticed my glasses.

"Oh, ew, Lloyd. You have GLASSES?" Caroline said with a frown as I was passing her seat in the front. I turned to her and glared. "I know you like these geeks MORE than us, but to actually join them? This is sad."

"Caroline, I JOINED my "friends" LONG before I heard of you." I said. "If you don't like my glasses, tough. I have friends who actually appreciate them."

"Fine, fine..." Caroline said as she started polishing her nails. "But the front seat is still warm... when you finally decide to ditch your nerd friends and your dumb glasses... geek."

I rolled my eyes as I went over to Nadine and Phoebe and sat next to them. Phoebe smiled as she said, "You go, Rhonda."

"Thanks. Ever since I got these, I feel my confidence is booting up." I smiled. "Well, girls, what impression should we make on Mr. Simmons once we see him?"

"I think we should feel like we are paying attention..." Nadine said.

"Which I do every time so I don't miss a detail." Phoebe nodded.

"And we should give him some respect and respect his rules. If he's a strict teacher, do what he says, no matter what. If he's nice, then give him the same respect." Nadine smiled.

"Agreed." I nodded as I looked and peered around. I noticed Arnold and Gerald talking to the other guys, no doubt Arnold and Gerald were telling them ahead of time about the new teacher. Hopefully, our new teacher doesn't get driven away because of Harold, Stinky, Sid and Curly's antics...

Well, I was determined to make Mr. Simmons welcomed to our school, even if we haven't met him yet.

Pretty soon, we all got into our seats as we waited. We got the right classroom, but our teacher obviously hasn't arrived yet as we settled in. I quickly whispered to Arnold, who was sitting next to me, "So, how goes convincing Harold's group to stop them from trying to humiliate our new teacher?"

"I tried all I could, but..." Arnold sighed. "The least I could do was convince them to give him a chance BEFORE they act."

I sighed, "At least you made some progress. Don't worry, buddy. At least WE'RE going to try and make him feel welcome."

Pretty soon, we saw somebody coming in. It was a bald man, about, I'd say thirty-four. He had a white t-shirt with a green vest and some red jeans on, and he had this happy-go-lucky smile on his face as he entered inside. That must be Mr. Simmons, I thought.

My thoughts were proven correct as he said in a cheerful voice, "Hello, class!"

"Hello, Mr. Simmons." Everyone said in a bored voice.

Mr. Simmons laughed. "I bet you all have your own individual way of saying hello. So, when I say "hello, class", everyone respond in their own individual way."

Mr. Simmons coughed as he smiled. "Hello, class!"

We only just stared in silence. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to make of the new teacher... he was certainly unique in a way.

"Well, that's one way to respond... by not responding." Mr. Simmons said. "Silence often speaks volumes. Anyway, before we begin, I like to play with the structure of this classroom. Let's break free and move the desks into one big circle."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion as I heard some of the kids groan. Well, we decided to do his wishes as we moved the desks around in a circle. As we sat down and got comfortable in the circular fashion, I suddenly felt like I was in kindergarten again.

"Now, I love getting to know a new class, so I thought we should break the ice by doing a communications exercise." Mr. Simmons said as he pulled out a little crown. I was actually pretty interested in that crown, even if it was paper mache. "This is the truth crown. Whoever wears this crown has to look across the circle and tell that person what they like about him or her, one thing you like about... anyone... at all. We'll start with you."

Mr. Simmons said as he put the crown on my head. Heh, if I had my mirror, I would probably want to see how fashionable I look. Mr. Simmons smiled as he said, "Just state your name, the person you're staring at opposite of you's name, and what you like most about the person."

I looked towards the person opposite the room... and oh God, it's Curly! I had to say something NICE about him?

But I wanted to make sure Mr. Simmons felt welcome, so I nodded. "Okay... I'm Rhonda Wellington Lloyd... and the person opposite me is Thaddeus Gammelthorpe, though he prefers to be nicknamed Curly... Curly, what I like most about you is that... you have..."

I paused to think about something nice I could say to Curly. "I think you're... you have a very... unique haircut."

"Well, thanks for the compliment, sweetheart." Curly smirks as I groaned. It was really tough to think up something NICE to say to Curly, so I guess it's the nicest thing I could say.

Mr. Simmons nodded as he said, "Good, good, that's a good start. Rhonda, if you can pass the crown over to the next person, you can pick either left or right."

I passed the crown to Arnold on my left as we continued the exercise. It didn't start out too badly, we were doing okay. Once we were done with the exercise, Mr. Simmons smiled. "That's good, that's good. This exercise I just did with you is just a way I want to get to know my new students. As you may not be aware, I'm actually just starting out... honestly, I'm a little nervous, but you all seem to be getting along just fine."

We all nodded as Phoebe said, "It is... unique, in a way."

"Thank you, Phoebe, somebody who understands what I'm going through." Mr. Simmons said. "I know there are a lot of rowdy students, there are times I have to be prepared for it... and even though I don't see signs of that yet, getting to know each of you and how you learn is certainly a pleasure."

We all nodded as Mr. Simmons continued. "Now, I want to start by telling you about my two main beliefs about teaching. Number one, in my class, each person is a unique individual, and the things they do, good or bad, they do because that's who they are. My second belief is that students should never stop asking why. Why? Why? All your life, you should never stop questioning, because it's how you learn."

"Why?" Harold asked.

"Yes, never stop asking why." Mr. Simmons nodded. "Anyway, this little circle is only for this week. I'll ask you to put all the desks back in their order soon enough, but for now, let's just remain like this for our first week. Okay, moving on, we don't need to have a schedule, so any class I teach you, it'll be anything... for now, why don't we start with English and Reading."

And so, we started having our first class with Mr. Simmons, learning about him and how he teaches... until the recess bell rang.

"So, what do you guys think of Mr. Simmons?" I asked as all of the fourth grade class was sitting down near the playgrounds.

"What a throw pillow!" Harold frowned. "Who does he think he is, teaching us? We should probably give him the new teacher treatment."

"NO!" Me, Arnold, Phoebe, and Nadine said.

"Are you crazy? We are TRYING to make him feel welcome, not run him away!" I frowned.

"What's wrong with what we normally do... the dropping pencils, Stinky not understanding, the swapping names, the coughing gag... and I eat my lunch in the MIDDLE of class..." Harold smirked.

"You guys ALWAYS get in trouble for it!" Arnold said. "And besides, these pranks AREN'T funny!"

"Guys, if you chased our new teacher away, he'll probably be replaced by a new teacher. What if it was... I don't know, a guy from the military?" I frowned. "He wouldn't accept the same behavior you're thinking of doing to run off our new teacher!"

"Yeah, Mr. Simmons is easy-going, he's pretty self-aware, and he's really friendly!" Phoebe pointed out. "Can you imagine if he WASN'T that at all?"

That actually got Harold, Stinky, Sid and Curly thinking as Curly said, "Actually... I do see your point..."

"Yeah..." Harold said.

"If we drove Mr. Simmons away, we'd be just as bad..." Stinky sighed.

"Exactly, man." Gerald nodded. "Look, if you want to go through with your pranks, fine, but we like Mr. Simmons. Sure, he has an odd teaching style... but it's who he is... he's unique!"

"Indeed..." I nodded. "He wants unique... we should be unique... we're not slave drivers... or horrible people!"

"Come on, guys." Nadine said as she led me, Phoebe, Arnold and Gerald over to the hopscotch area where we decided to hang out.

When we heard the bell ring to get back to class, we went back in as we were about to get back in our fourth grade classroom. Mr. Simmons was already there as he looked up and smiled as we were getting comfortable. "Hey, I overheard what you were saying about me outside the windows."

"You did, huh?" Arnold said as we looked up.

"Yes, and I just want to say, thanks." Mr. Simmons said. "You're the first students to actually be interested in my teaching style."

"What can we say?" I shrugged. "It's... unique."

Mr. Simmons smiled. "You're finally getting the idea, Rhonda."

I nodded as Phoebe said, "Welcome to PS 118, Mr. Simmons. We hope you enjoy your stay."

As the classroom was filling up again, Mr. Simmons moved on with his class to learn more about geography... now, this would be bad for me... until I heard we have geography partners, and inside, I was actually smiling in glee as Arnold was chosen as my geography partner. This truly was the best day for me. And I guess me and my friends actually got Harold and his group thinking as they decided to not prank Mr. Simmons. They actually did like the unique style of teaching, even if they didn't think it was that good. And once lunch had begun, all of us were happy with who we had... we even had a field trip after lunch to the park, which is actually pretty cool.

Truly, Mr. Simmons was one of our greatest teachers ever. I was... along with our fellow students... actually looking forward to learning from him...

And there is the sixty-fifth episode! How do you like it? Yeah, I had to wipe out about half the episode's plot, but I think overall, the story worked. Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!