For our next chapter, we are going to bring you... 'Mudbowl'! Anyway, enjoy!
It didn't take too long for us to find Nadine. She was holding her butterfly net nearby a tree where she saw an orange butterfly. She carefully snuck up on it and caught it in her net. She smiled as she examined it. As me and Phoebe were coming over, Nadine smiled as she said, "Hey, girls! Take a look at what I caught!"
"Aw, that's nice." Phoebe smiled.
"A monarch butterfly..." I examined. "Pretty big wings, too."
"Yep!" Nadine said as she let the butterfly go. "So, what's up?"
"Arnold just invited us girls to play football with the guys! You want to come with?" I asked.
Nadine smiled. "When don't I?"
We girls laughed as we decided to go on our way to find Arnold and his friends...
Pretty soon, we were in teams as Phoebe was watching from the sidelines, Phoebe was holding my glasses so that I couldn't risk breaking them. Me and Nadine were both on Arnold's team, with Gerald and Eugene. We were against our opposing team, Harold's team, consisting of himself, Stinky, Tucker, Sid, and Curly as they were conversing with one another. I turned towards Arnold as we were now conversing with our team, Arnold giving out the plays.
"Okay, remember, this is touch football." Arnold said to us as we nodded. "Let's run our Statue of Liberty play. Double reverse, flee flooker, razzle dazzle, fumble-rooski! Ready?"
"Break!" We all said as we all went into our positions as Arnold assumed the quarterback position. Tucker did the same for the other side.
"Be prepared to get whipped, guys. I'm going to get that ball and run circles around you!" Tucker smirked.
"Forty-two, thirty-three, hut, hut!" Arnold called as Gerald threw the ball at him. I barely brushed past Harold as I was ready to catch the ball when it came to me. Arnold passed the ball to Nadine, who past it to Eugene, who started running until he saw Tucker blocking his path, as he then threw it to me, as I threw it over to Arnold. We watched as Arnold threw a long pass over to Gerald, who was about to catch the ball... but then... oh no... Gerald ran right into Wolfgang, who caught the ball.
"Nice try, tall hair." Wolfgang smirked as a few of his fifth grader friends came in. I shook my head as we all came towards Wolfgang and his gang.
"Very funny, Wolfgang. Now give us the ball." Gerald frowned.
"This is OUR field, amateur, so clear out and let the fifth graders play!" Wolfgang glared.
"Hey come on, we fourth graders have much right to play here as you guys." Arnold said.
"Yeah!" Gerald glared.
Wolfgang paused as he smirked. All the while, in the corner of my eye, I noticed Phoebe was squinting at Wolfgang as she was using a tape recorder to record Wolfgang, who said, "Really? Well, tell you what. If you want to play so bad, why don't you play us?"
"Play you?" Gerald squeaked.
I yelped. "In football? The strong tall people against the not so tall ones?"
"Yeah!" Wolfgang smiled. "Saturday... right here!"
I turned towards Phoebe as she was putting her tape recorder to a jack she installed as she put headphones in. Sid, in the meantime, chuckled nervously. "How about a nice game of chess instead? That'll be nice!"
"No. No chess. No baseball, no basketball, no bowling. FOOTBALL! HERE! On Saturday!" Wolfgang glared.
"We'll be there!" Arnold glared.
"We will?" Me and Gerald said in worry as the other kids gasped (all but Phoebe, who was still doing something with the tape recorder).
"Yeah!" Arnold smirked. "And we'll beat them, too!"
"You punks think you can beat us?" Wolfgang laughed. "I'm so scared. See you on Saturday then... two o'clock, right here!"
Wolfgang and his gang then laughed as they started to depart. As they were out of earshot, Phoebe nodded as she pulled out her earphones. "That confirms it. With the tone pitched higher, Wolfgang does INDEED sound like Arnold."
"What?" Arnold frowned. "Wolfgang sounds NOTHING like me!"
"Never mind Wolfgang's voice!" I frowned. "Arnold, what made you brag that we are going to beat them? They are strong fifth graders, and some, if not MOST of us are scrawny fourth graders!"
"Sorry..." Arnold looked down. "I got carried away."
"Well, nothing to be done about it, I guess..." Tucker said. "Well, we only have two days until the football match, so the best thing we can do is practice!"
"Good idea." Nadine nodded.
"But where can we practice on such short notice?" Harold groaned.
"Well, we could go to Gerald Field." Gerald said. "May not be a lot of room, but we can do a lot of practice around the area there."
We all nodded in agreement as we all started to head over to Gerald Field.
As all of us got there, I turned to Arnold as we all did, as I asked, "Okay, so you got any bright ideas, Arnold?"
"Well, we could try the double-switcheroo." Arnold said. "Just listen up to all the plays I have, we can get through this together."
We nodded as we listened to Arnold giving out all the advice as best as he could to everyone. Once that was done, we started training as we practiced our catches and plays. Tucker was a little bit dizzy at first, but he was getting the hang of all the plays we have. In fact, you may say that we were getting close to be the best players... I was a good football player myself, and I didn't mind getting a little dirty... even if it does ruin my nice sweater, but it's worth the game...
Phoebe was still a sideline cheerer as Tucker, Harold and Gerald, along with Arnold were the best tier players... with Nadine and Stinky being second tier. Eugene and Curly did great on their own, and Sid was a good runner. Overall, we had a bit of confidence boosting within each other... but we were still a little nervous as soon as we were done training.
"How do we know we can beat the fifth graders for sure?" Nadine asked.
"Well... only one way to find out... we need to know how they play." Tucker said.
"Yeah..." I said as I turned to Arnold. "We can pick up training again tomorrow, I'm curious to see the fifth graders... if you're interested."
"They're probably playing in the park, no doubt..." Arnold said. "We'll check it out."
As we were nearing the park, Gerald started to talk. "I'm still not sure about this. I mean, they're still fifth graders. We'll get killed for sure!"
"Aw, come on, Gerald. I think we're all doing well!" Arnold said.
"Hey, look, fellers! Here are the fifth graders!" Stinky pointed out as we all turned to see some of the fifth graders playing football.
We watched as someone threw Wolfgang a long pass as he came right to us. He jumped up, grabbed it, and crushed a mailbox. In the corner of my eye, I noticed Phoebe pulling out her cell phone and dialing a number.
My attention then turned back to Wolfgang as we all yelped nervously. Wolfgang laughed. "You see that, fourth graders? You're dead meat!"
As Wolfgang marched back to his friends, Gerald yelped. "We're dead, man."
Phoebe then hung up the phone as she said, "Don't worry, I think I just got ourselves out of the game."
We all turned to Phoebe as Arnold asked, "What do you mean?"
"That mailbox was federal property, and Wolfgang destroyed it." Phoebe said. "I'll leave the rest of you to connect the dots."
Our eyes then widened as we then heard a police siren.
"I DEMAND A PHONE CALL!" Wolfgang yelled as he was being taken in by the police towards the police car.
Officer Pudney nodded towards Phoebe, who beamed. "Thanks for reporting this matter to us."
"Anything to help our city." Phoebe smiled.
"Uh, how long exactly will Wolfgang be in jail?" Gerald said nervously.
"Normally, three years... unless he or his parent pay the fine of two hundred and fifty grand... in which case he'll only be in jail for a while." Officer Pudney said as Wolfgang was in the car. "See you around."
As we all watched Wolfgang being taken away, the other fifth graders stared in shock as Edmund asked, "Does this mean the football game's off?"
As for us, we all just stared at Phoebe in disbelief and relief at the same time. Phoebe raised her eyebrows and smirked. "You're welcome, by the way."
"This is bad..." Arnold said. "I have a feeling Wolfgang will be back... I don't know when, but I just know he'll be back again..."
"Well, come on, at least we don't have to do that football game, am I right?" I said.
"Yeah!" Harold said. "With Wolfgang gone, we don't have to worry about him for a while!"
"I guess it's a victory for us!" Gerald said.
"I guess..." Arnold sighed. "But I just know he'll be back, and he's not going to be happy with what we did..."
"Aw, don't worry, buddy." I said. "When Wolfgang comes back, we'll worry about it then. Until that time, let's just be happy he's gone and he won't bother us for a while. Until then..."
I turned to everyone. "Anybody for a soda? I'm buying!"
"Sounds good to me!" Nadine smiled as all the boys nodded in agreement.
"We deserve a reward after that!" Phoebe smiled.
"Wonderful!" I smiled. "Let's go to my house and we'll talk!"
And so, we had a pretty good rest of the day. We didn't have to do that football game anymore, so that was all good. I have a feeling we're going to be having some smooth riding from here on in...
That's the seventy-first episode! How do you like it? Yeah, I purposely cut the episode's plot halfway through because... come on, destroying a mailbox is a federal offense! If I saw somebody destroy a mailbox, I would call the police! Besides, Wolfgang will be back in full force in Arc 3... when I get around to it. Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks! And don't forget to check out and/or add to the TVTropes page!