Some of you guessed what this episode is, but yes, indeed, this is 'Best Friends'! How will this play out? Oh, you'll see! Anyway, enjoy!

At lunch, I was sitting next to Phoebe as I made eye contact with her, ignoring Nadine as she sat down as I said, "Mr. Simmons just HAD to put me and Nadine with Arnold!"

"No, you see, this is perfect!" Phoebe smiled. "You don't have to be direct on your feelings with Arnold. All you have to do is pick two separate projects and..."

"And of the two, he'll probably choose mine!" I smiled. "Because I think up great ideas and I know him in and out!"

"Exactly!" Phoebe said as she turned to Nadine. "Will that work, Nadine?"

"Sure... if it convinces Rhonda I don't have feelings for Arnold." Nadine said.

"Great!" I said as I pulled out a fashion magazine. "Nadine, whatever project you have, say it to me. I'm sure my idea will blow yours out of the water."

"All right..." Nadine paused as she pulled out a jar containing a small bug. "I have been studying the habits of the Malaysian beetle. We can release it, wait for the bug to collect stuff, and take pictures!"

Phoebe nodded. "Hmmm... a good, possible choice."

"Good... but not great!" I smiled. "Bugs may be a boy's first choice..."

"Technically, a beetle isn't a bug... okay, it is a bug, but still..." Nadine sighed.

"BUT... I know EXACTLY which project Arnold would go for! I've been looking at a few fashion magazines, and today's views on fashion is clothes of the sixties! You know, eyeliner, white lipstick, and little pillbox hats!" I smiled as I pointed at a picture in my fashion magazine.

Phoebe just gave a blank stare at me as she said, "Rhonda, you are missing the point. It has to be stuff Arnold actually li-"

"He'll love the idea!" I said, not paying attention to what Phoebe had to say. "So, it's your stupid bug idea against MY awesome fashion idea!"

Nadine just stared blankly. "Rhonda, you're the only person who'll GO for the fash-"

"Terrific! Let's talk to Arnold, and we can prove that he doesn't like you!" I said as I took Nadine over to Arnold's table.

I heard Nadine groan. "Not only are you missing the point, you refuse to listen to us... this is going to be trouble..."

As me and Nadine sat down with Arnold as we presented him our ideas, each on two pieces of paper, Arnold said, "So, I can choose whichever project I wish?"

"Sure." I smiled. "So, Arnold, would you like to do my idea, which is showing off fashionable sixties' clothing, the most awesomest idea ever, or do you want to Nadine's idea, studying a tiny bug, which is the dumbest idea in the world THOUGHT UP BY A BACK-STABBING BUG FREAK!"

I glared at Nadine at the last part, as Nadine glared. "Irrational drama queen!"

"What?" Arnold blinked in confusion.

"Oh, uh, nothing." I smiled to Arnold. "Just choose which one you want."

"It's your choice." Nadine nodded.

Arnold paused as he examined both our ideas. "Well... as a boy, it would be perfectly natural that I choose the beetle idea..."

"Hold up, just a quick thing." I said nervously as Arnold looked at me. "Just food for thought. If you had previously received an interest in my fashion idea, would you then do Nadine's bug idea BEHIND the fashion idea's back BEFORE resolving a potential relationship with the fashion idea?"

Nadine just groaned. Arnold just blinked in confusion, not having any idea what I was saying. "Uh... can I make my decision?"

"Sure!" I smiled. "Pick the one you want."

Arnold paused as he looked at both ideas. I carefully scooted my fashion idea closer to him.

Arnold just gave a slight glare at me as he asked, "Rhonda, if you wanted to do the fashion idea so bad, why are you even ASKING me for a choice?"

"See, I told you he'd go for the insect idea!" Nadine frowned.

"Oh, what do you know, bug freak!" I glared at Nadine. "My fashion idea is awesome, and you know it!"

"Uh, girls?" Arnold asked in concern.

"You know what, drama queen? Fine! Do your fashion report with Arnold! I'll still do my insect report with him!" Nadine frowned.

"No you won't!" I glared at Nadine. "In fact, I forbid you to see him!"

"You can't tell me what to do, drama queen!" Nadine glared.

I ignored Nadine as I turned to a shocked and confused Arnold. "Arnold, I apologize for my FORMER best friend's behavior. You and I are going to do our fashon report together, and it's going to be awesome!"

"No, because he's doing the bug report with me!" Nadine glared at me.

"You don't know what he likes!" I growled at Nadine.

"Well, your fashion idea SUCKS!" Nadine's eyes flared with anger. "Arnold, you'll be working on the bug project with me..."

"SEE YOU AFTER SCHOOL!" Nadine and I said as we stomped off, leaving Arnold very confused and concerned.

As we rejoined Phoebe, we noticed she had her hands to her face as she muttered, "Why am I the only rational one of the group?"

"That could have gone better, both of you!" Phoebe said as she looked at both of us.

"Well, come on, how were we supposed to know that would happen?" I groaned.

"You know what?" Phoebe frowned at both of us. "Do your projects separately with Arnold... it'll give you a little life lesson!"

"Come on, Phoebe, can't you help us?" Nadine asked.

"You girls are on your own until you make amends!" Phoebe glared at us. "And Rhonda, get over that dream that never happened!"

As Phoebe angrily walked off, muttering, I said, "I'm sure she'll get over it..."

"Yeah..." Nadine said. "So... we're separating then?"

"Looks like it... but if Arnold tells me you and him have fallen for each other, I'm killing you!" I glared at Nadine.

"I would never do such a thing to you, Rhonda! You and Arnold are meant to be together!" Nadine argued as my eyes continued to narrow directly at her. "Look, you're having him first, that's the deal. I'll be taking him second, but NOT for your stupid reasons!"

Nadine then walked off as I glared at her leaving. "We'll see about that..."

I usually hated to get near him, but my raging jealousy was talking, and I needed someone crazy to do a job for me. Pretty soon, I spotted Curly sitting on the grass with his hands closed, praying up at the sky. I sighed. "Curly, I need a favor!"

Curly snapped out of his praying mode as he smiled, "Sure, sweetheart. Anything for you!"

I shuddered as I explained, "I need you to spy on Nadine when she is with Arnold from four o'clock until after they separate! Can you do that for me? I'll give you a few candy bars for the job."

"By Marcie, I'll do it!" Curly smiled. "I needed a small break from my usual activities anyway."

I nodded as I handed him a paper with my cell phone number and a couple candy bars. "Great. Here, this is my cell number. Call me after they're done."

Before Curly could say another word, I quickly walked off. If this had to go to a point where I had to talk to CURLY... my God... I am desperate to make sure Arnold and Nadine didn't go together...

After school, over at Arnold's house, I was busy setting up charts for my fashion idea as Arnold said, "But I keep telling you, Rhonda, I don't know ANYTHING about fashion!"

"Nonsense buddy, you'll come to love it!" I said as I put up a clipping of a nice sixties outfit. "In fact, let me ask you something. Do red and orange go together?"

"Well..." Arnold paused.

"No, they don't! See, that's all you need to know!" I smiled. "You should try telling that to Nadine, but she never listens... that dumb bug freak."

"Rhonda, listen..." Arnold started.

"You know what I don't like about Nadine? Her dumb hair style. Been wearing it the same way since she was four." I started with Arnold, hoping that describing Nadine to Arnold will turn him off. "She could use a change, am I right, or am I right?"

"You see..." Arnold said, but I was having none of it.

"Yeah, of course I'm right. Hand me those scissors, Arnold." I said as Arnold handed me the scissors as I started cutting off a nice dress that was in the magazine to put on the clipboard. "Of course, Bug Freak doesn't know that fashion is what makes people VERY different from animals. I mean, we have the ability to create and redefine our own self image. Show me a bug that can do that!"

Before Arnold could say anything, I interjected. "Exactly, you can't. Okay, buddy, why don't we study our fashion together, and forget we ever talked about bug freak?"

Arnold just sighed. "Sure."

I smiled as I hugged him. "You really are the best buddy ever!"

So, with that out of the way, I proceeded to work on my awesome project with Arnold.

A little later that day, as I was settling into my room, I heard my cell phone buzz. I picked it up and said, "Yo, Curls. What's the buzz?"

"Well, the bees are." Curly said over the phone.

I glared at my phone. "Seriously, what is the update with Nadine and Arnold?"

"Oh... they were just looking and collecting bugs. Nadine was talking about you, mostly. She mentioned a story how you thought a spider's egg sac she held in her hand was snot. Was that true?"

"That was the one time!" I glared. "Did she say ANYTHING important?"

"No, just that she was talking about bugs... and you, mostly. They didn't say anything important." Curly said.

"Okay, that's all I needed to know!" I said as I hung up the phone. I then started calling Arnold as I waited for him to pick up.

Sure enough, Arnold picked up his phone as I said, "So, how goes your little romp with bug freak!"

"Rhonda, why are you so concerned on whether I hang out with Nadine? We hang out with each other all the time when yo-" Arnold started.

"Ha ha! A confession! How long has this been going on? Why didn't I know about this first hand?" I started angrily.

"Rhonda, I'm saying that-" Arnold started when I heard a beep. "Hang on."

"Don't you dar-" I started before I saw Arnold putting me on hold. I frowned. Nadine was calling him, I knew it! I waited until Arnold switched back to me as I said, "I knew it! You're talking to her, aren't you, Arnold? What is she saying about me? You put me on hold, and I KNEW you were chatting away with her like it was nobody's business! Well, it certainly is my business, Arnold! Nadine was always jealous, she's jealous, isn't she, Arnold?"

"Rhonda, stop!" Arnold said as he silenced me. "Yes, Nadine called, but it was about something that was bugging her about you! Look, I don't know what is wrong with you two, but whatever it is, I'm sure you two can work it out!"

"We aren't working it out!" I frowned. "She is not my friend anymore! Good night, Arnold!"

I hung up the phone angrily as I laid my head on my pillow. This is all Nadine's fault!

The next day, I was arriving at my locker as I started collecting my books. All my thoughts were on Nadine as I was angrily muttering. It was then I noticed a note that fell out. Curiously, I picked it up and read it.

'Dear Rhonda,

Since you and Nadine aren't friends anymore, I guess I can't be your friend. You two keep fighting and it hurts me more than it hurts you guys, so I guess you don't care if I was gone. If you two aren't going to make amends... I find no reason to hang out with you two.

Signed, Phoebe AKA the glue that keeps you two together.'

I dropped the note in shock. Phoebe... ran off? My little girl... ran off because of us? All of my feelings of hatred for Nadine turned into concerns for Phoebe. My heart nearly stopped. She couldn't survive on her own! Maybe she was with Gerald, that was probably it!

I quickly stopped by Gerald's locker where he was as I asked, "Have you seen Phoebe?"

Gerald shrugged. "Wouldn't know. I haven't seen her since yesterday."

My eyes and heart nearly went. I was so worried as I started to run off... but then I ran right into Nadine, who was coming in the opposite direction.

Nadine and I looked at each other, at first in hatred, but then sudden realization.

"Phoebe gave you the note?" Nadine said, worried.

"Yeah. Phoebe gave you one?" I asked, in that same worried tone.

"Hm mm." She nodded.

"She can't survive on her own! She needs us!" I said in concern for her.

"I'm pretty sure she'll be fine... but she does always need us for moral support... like we need her..." Nadine looked down.

"Yeah..." I sighed.

"Look, obviously, we need to tackle this problem head on!" Nadine sighed. "If we can do this, maybe we can have the confidence to find our friend!"

"All right." I nodded as I looked at my watch. "We're early anyway, class doesn't start for another hour..."

A moment later, Nadine and I were sitting together downstairs in the boiler room as Nadine took a deep breath. "Okay... state reasons why I would never betray you..."

I sighed. "Kind of hard to do when I think of you betraying me!"

"Well, try!" She glared at me.

"Fine, fine... uh..." I thought about it. "You've been my best friend since kindergarten... we always hang out together with Phoebe, Gerald and Arnold the same age... Arnold never had feelings for you... you never had feelings for Arnold... you have feelings for Tucker Wittenberg..."

My eyes widened as I smiled. "That's it! You can't possibly have feelings for Arnold... because you already have a crush!"

Nadine rolled her eyes. "Tucker and I are just friends!"

"That's not what your eyes are saying..." I smirked as I looked into her disbelieving eyes. "If you and Arnold really were going out, you'd probably be the first to tell me... and you'd probably dissuade him because..."

"Because I'm your best friend... we both are..." Nadine said as she looked down in guilt.

I looked down in guilt as well. "Nadine, I'm sorry for being a witch... for real this time. I should have known better than to be jealous of a relationship that was never going to happen."

"That's all right, Rhonda. I'm sorry I escalated this further." Nadine sighed.

We looked at each other with a smile as I said, "Friends?"

Nadine and I nodded as we shook hands. "Friends."

It was then apparent we heard clapping. We turned to see Phoebe smiling as she was clapping her hands. "Good job, girls. You've done well..."

"So, this was all a test?" I asked as we were hanging out again.

"Pretty much." Phoebe explained. "See, you girls weren't going anywhere, and I knew my slight apology schemes wouldn't work... so I tried one more... which was the ditch the trio aspect."

"Aw, Phoebe, you would never REALLY ditch our trio... would you?" Nadine asked.

"Of course not." Phoebe smiled. "I care about both of you too much... but the fighting was really affecting our friendship, and I just wanted it to stop until you guys came to the source of the problem..."

Nadine and I looked down in guilt as I said, "I'm sorry, Phoebe. We didn't mean for our fighting to affect you."

"Yeah..." Nadine said. "I guess I just took everything Rhonda was saying personal."

"Yeah..." I hugged Nadine. "You're a bug freak, Nadine... but you're my bug freak!"

"You're a drama queen, Rhonda..." Nadine hugged me back. "But you're my drama queen."

"And you're both my best friends!" Phoebe joined in the hug.

I paused as I turned to Nadine. "We should probably apologize to Arnold for our irrational behavior yesterday..."

Nadine nodded.

"Sorry about our little tiff between me and Nadine the other day, Arnold." I said as we were meeting up with Arnold at recess. "I guess I just wanted to do the fashion idea so bad, and Nadine offered the bug idea, and we both hated the ideas..."

"That was exactly why we were fighting in the first place!" Nadine smiled, offering her little lie to Arnold.

"We didn't mean to put you in the middle of it, and I'm sorry. Both of us are." I sighed.

Arnold gave a little smile. "That's okay, girls. I know you girls didn't mean all the stuff you said about each other... but Rhonda, I was a little surprised by your behavior last night. Normally, this isn't you..."

"Oh, buddy, I guess I was just jealous that you and Nadine were alone doing that project..." I said. "And I was just being protective. I'm sorry about that."

"That's okay..." Arnold said. "So, which project are we doing now?"

Nadine and I paused, getting a good idea as Nadine said, "We were thinking about combining our projects, actually."

"An insect fashion show!" I smiled as I started to do some motions with my hands. "The best idea since sliced ham! And Arnold... you just volunteered yourself as a insect clothes show-off!"

Arnold's eyes widened as he said, "Can I throw in my own project idea?"

"Nope, me and Nadine go two to one. We're doing the insect fashion show!" I smiled.

Arnold groaned as both me and Nadine chuckled. Nadine said "Aw, don't worry, Arnold, I'm sure you'll look completely cute in the costume we'll design..."

"That's what I'm afraid of..." Arnold groaned as we decided to play some catch.

And so, me and Nadine were friends again... it just felt so good to be friends again... even if the dream felt real... I just had to repeat to myself... it was only a dream... speaking of dreams...

Later that night, I went off to bed as I decided to sleep, wanting to talk to my mysterious voice...

In dream land, I knocked on the door that lead to Deep Voice's room. As usual, the voice didn't open the door, but I did hear the voice.

"So, how was my little test?" Deep Voice asked.

"Wait... that dream you did was a test?" I glared at the door. "You changed my dream?"

"Well... yeah, I suppose I did, in a way. It was simple. All I had to do was up your dream to a nightmare. Problem solved." Deep Voice laughed.

"But why?" I asked.

"In a way, I knew you and Nadine were going to have a falling out ahead of time. I just thought I'd escalate that early."

"What do you mean, you knew we were going to have a falling out?" I asked.

"Long story short, you two did have a fight, but over which project you wanted... you two remained like that for almost a week... you're lucky you have Phoebe around..."

"Yeah..." I sighed. "She's an awesome friend to have... she's adorable and she can keep us together, no matter the cause."

"I know what you mean..." I heard the voice say in a quiet voice.

I paused as I said, "I guess you really got me going, huh?"

"Yeah, it was pretty funny, seeing you jealous..." Deep Voice said.

"But I was proven right. I wouldn't have cared if one of my friends was going out with Arnold... in the end, they do care enough about my feelings..." I smiled.

"We'll see about that... but that's another thing for another time..."

"Huh?" I asked.

"Never mind for now... I guess we'll have to end our conversation early... Bond or Arnold?"

"Bond please." I said. "I need a break from the Arnold dreams."

"Very well. See you next time..." I heard Deep Voice say before I was teleported right into a spy dream, where I decided to take my break.

That's the sixty-ninth episode! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!