Let's move on with 'Freeze Frame', with Rhonda now in the story! Anyway, enjoy!

"Move a few cables around and... there we go." I nodded as I got the cables inserted to the television screen. "Can your camera play on the TV?"

Arnold nodded as he pushed play on the camera, causing the TV to switch on. "That should do it!"

Gerald smiled as we got comfortable around the screen. "This is going to be great!"

"You know, Gerald, I hope someday we'll make movies together." Arnold said.

"Hey, Arnold? We're doing it now!" Gerald smiled.

"So, this is basically what you guys did yesterday afternoon after the trip to the aquarium?" I asked.

"Pretty much." Arnold nodded. "It was just for a little fun though, just a ten to twenty minute documentary on what goes on in the park."

"Wow..." I smiled. "So, where's the narration?"

"Oh, I'm editing that in later on." Arnold said. "Hey look, there's you girls doing some butterfly catching."

I looked up to see me and Nadine holding butterfly nets as we caught some butterflies, Phoebe was nearby smiling as she was taking notes on the butterflies we caught. The next scene we saw was Harold catapaulting Stinky into a pile of leaves as I laughed. "Oh, boys will be boys..."

"Wait... hang on..." Gerald frowned in suspicion. "What's that guy doing?"

"What guy?" Me and Arnold asked as Gerald rewound the tape.

"That guy, right there, when Stinky got catapaulted into the leaves. Look in the background!" Gerald pointed.

I squinted and... hmm, there was a suspicious guy in the background... stuffing something inside a tree. "Oh yeah, I think I can make him out..."

"So can I... but he's a little too far away to see..." Arnold said as he took the camera out of the TV cables. "Hang on, let me see if I can get a better view on my computer."

Arnold took his camera over to his computer as he woke it up revealing... oh God, he had a picture of Ruth for his background picture! Luckily, I managed to restrain myself a bit.

Arnold then put up a video maker as he linked the video camera to his computer to play the footage, then he paused it at the man stuffing something inside the tree as Arnold then enlarged the photo. He hit play as we saw what the man was stuffing the tree with... an envelope that seemed to contain a letter.

"What is that hat he's wearing?" Gerald said as he pointed to a hat.

"Whatever it is, it's so out-of-style!" I rolled my eyes.

"I think it's called a 'porkpie' hat." Arnold said.

"Okay, so we'll label him 'Porkpie' for now." I said. "But what is that envelope that he stuffed in the tree... for that matter, is it still there?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it looks suspicious." Arnold said as Gerald smiled.

"Hey, it's almost like a mystery movie thriller! I already have a perfect title for it!" Gerald smiled. "Porkpie and the Mystery of the Envelope in the Tree!"

"I'm coming in with you guys! You two obviously need a stylish femme producer to help you out!" I smiled.

Arnold nodded. "Okay... Gerald, grab your camera, and we'll check it out!"

"Isn't the camera right next to you?" I pointed out, but Arnold and Gerald didn't listen to me as Arnold unplugged the camera and gave it to Gerald.

"Come on!" Arnold said as we decided to head towards the park.

Pretty soon, we came over to the park, near the exact location where Porkpie was located. As we got near the tree, I peered in as Gerald started narrating what I was doing. I sighed. "Gerald, could you shut up and let me look?"

"Excuse me for building suspense." Gerald frowned.

I looked inside and nodded. "Yep, the letter is still there... but it seems like it was already opened up..."

I reached inside and pulled it out. I looked over the letter and paused. "Hmmm... seems to be cut and paste letters on this one... saying 'Porpoises at 2 PM Monday'. That's today!"

"Interesting..." Arnold said. "Now, the question is... where would there be porpoises?"

We paused to think... as Gerald snapped his fingers. "It's obvious! At the aquarium! They're meeting by the porpoise tank!"

"Gerald, we were just at the aquarium yesterday. Remember, all the porpoises were on loan to Underwater World?" Arnold said. "We just had an announcement saying that..."

"The only other set of porpoises I know about is that carnival down at the docks." I said. "There was a porpoise ride over there!"

"Oh yeah!" Gerald said as he snapped his fingers as I looked at my watch.

"It's 1:30 now. If we can catch a bus, we can make it to the docks in fifteen minutes!" I said as the boys nodded. "Come on!"

Arnold and Gerald nodded as we decided to make a stop at the carnival.

Pretty soon, we arrived at the docks as we went over to the carnival as we caught the smell of meat. Gerald groaned. "Whose idea was it to put a merry-go-round next to a slaughterhouse?"

Before Arnold or I could answer, we spotted the merry go-round as Arnold said, "There it is..."

"And here's Porkpie." I said as we saw the man in the porkpie hat coming out. We then saw Porkpie coming over and talking to someone. "Looks like that guy over there is the one he's meeting."

"Well... Porkpie and Slick here are about to become the stars of our movie..." Gerald said as he turned the camera on. "Rhonda, you stay right here and watch from a distance for anything suspicious. We're going to try and see what those two are up to."

I nodded as Arnold and Gerald proceeded to follow Porkpie and... Slick, I guess I'm calling the other man... to the merry-go-round. I decided to look around for anything suspicious. I looked over to the slaughterhouse sign and sighed. Why there was a slaughterhouse there, I wouldn't know...

A couple of minutes later, I saw a taxi pulling over as I turned towards the merry-go-round, which stopped the ride. Porkpie and Slick got off as Arnold and Gerald followed suit. Arnold and Gerald joined up with me as I pointed towards the taxi as Porkpie and Slick entered the taxi.

"What info did you get out of them?" I asked.

"It was very vague... all we heard was that the two were going to get a gun, rope and knife." Arnold said. "It made it sound like a murder plot!"

"Well, don't look now, but these two are just leaving in their taxi." Gerald said as I quickly spotted the number.

"Seems to be leaving in taxi number sixteen..." I paused. "So, what's next?"

"I think I may have an idea. Come on!" Arnold said as we followed him.

Pretty soon, we arrived at the office where people gave the signal to send over the taxi cabs.

"Rhonda, you better wait right here." Arnold said as he and Gerald entered inside. "We're going to see where Taxi Sixteen took these two suspicious characters."

"All right, but don't be long." I sighed as the two boys went inside.

I paused as I waited. It was at this point I wondered if this mystery was going to unfold... unlike last time, with the mystery of Mr. Smith, it was a case of a test of character... here, we seem to be sneaking in on a murder plot... kind of like a James Bond book...

I smiled at that. Almost like a dream come true for me. I hummed a little tune as I waited for at least nine minutes before Arnold and Gerald came rushing back out, Arnold saying, "Okay, let's go, we got the information!"

"Really?" I asked. "Did you ask the girl?"

"Sort of..." Gerald said. "Not quite. We asked, but she left for the bathroom, told us all cars are classified, we had to break into her office and disguise our voices to get the info we needed... but we know where they went."

"So, where are Porkpie and Slick at?" I asked as I started to follow them.

"The corner of Third Street and 27 Grand." Arnold said.

"I think there was a hardware store there..." I paused. "We better go check it out, hopefully they're still there."

Sure enough, as we hid behind an alleyway, we saw the two suspicious characters leaving the hardware store with a couple of ropes in hand. I couldn't hear a whole lot of the conversation, but it seemed to go along the lines of this, Slick wants to show Porkpie something in the back of his van, Porkpie reached for his phone and started to dial his number as he listened to it.

Porkpie groaned as he said, "He's asking when we're going to get Marty. I keep telling him, seven o'clock, seven o'clock, seven o'clock!"

At that time, he started pulling out some gas tanks as Arnold asked, "What would Porkpie want with gas canisters?"

"Boy, these canisters will help in blowing them up... and you know how Marty hates it when things blow up." Porkpie said

The thugs laughed as Slick said, "He sure has it coming to him after all he's done for us!"

Arnold frowned. "I do not trust that guy... and who IS this Marty?"

Gerald and I shrugged as we turned towards the car as Porkpie and Slick were now putting on some clown masks.

"These'll be a nice touch." Slick laughed.

"Man, oh man, these'll do Marty in!" Porkpie joined in laughing.

Arnold gasped as he went close to me. "You hear that? This is bad, they're going to eight-to-six him!"

"What does that mean?" Gerald asked.

"Rub him out, take him off the menu..." Arnold said.

"They're going to kill Marty, is what he's saying." I sighed.

"Oh calm down, Arnold, let's not jump to conclusions." Gerald smiled.

"For all we know, they're just planning a surprise birthday party, the gas canisters for balloons, the rope to hang a piñata, and the clown masks for enjoyment!" I smiled.

Arnold and Gerald stared at me with blank eyes as Arnold said, "Rhonda... did they say ANYTHING about a surprise birthday party in those sentences? No, they didn't."

"No doubt about it. Tonight, we are going to finish Marty off!" We heard Slick laughing.

"Okay, NOW we can jump to conclusions..." Gerald said in worry.

"Maybe they meant the guy is finished with his last day of being whatever age he is, and today is his first of a new year... for the guy?" I asked, trying to assure them.

Arnold and Gerald glared at me as Arnold said, "You're just reaching now, aren't you?"

"Well, I don't see you coming up with anything!" I rolled my eyes.

"So what do we do?" Arnold asked.

"We better go straight to the police, tell them what is going on, and say to them what we know! That would be the right thing to do..." Gerald said as we started to quietly sneak away without anybody noticing.

I frowned as I turned to Arnold and Gerald. "What gave you that idea?"

"Why not?" Arnold shrugged.

I sighed. "Arnold, Gerald, we can't go to the police with this!" I sighed as I pulled out a notepad and started to do some quick drawings.

"Why not?" Arnold and Gerald asked.

"Let me show you." I said as I pointed to the first picture, which is of weapons. "Okay, we saw some sort of weapon items, correct?"

I drew the next picture, which were crude drawings of the two people we saw. "And we saw Porkpie and Slick doing a confession, right?"

I quickly drew the next picture, which were crude drawings of us three on a Wanted poster. "That'll make us wanted by criminal masterminds!"

"It does?" Arnold said.

"Yes!" I sighed. "Our families and us will then have to be relocated to Alaska, where we'll be living in igloos, wearing those Eskimo clothes, and we'd have to own husky dogs, and keep saying 'Mush' in every sentence!"

Arnold and Gerald stared at me in disbelief as I said, "That, and we don't actually have physical proof, and none of the officers will believe us kids!"

"Even though that worked before." Arnold said.

"That was a different situation." I sighed. "This is a murder plot where the guys seems to be ambiguous! For all they know, it'll be a surprise birthday party, too! No, what we need to know is who Marty is..."

"Rhonda, you're a social butterfly around the place..." Gerald said. "Do you have any idea on first names of all the people named Marty?"

"Well, I never usually mention first names... using refer to them as Mister, Miss or Missus." I paused. "But let me see if I can think of a time when I heard the first name Marty..."

As I paused to think, we decided to head back to our neighborhood.

By the time we were passing the streets with some of the local shops, I sighed. "I got nothing."

"Great..." Arnold sighed. "What do we do now..."

"Look over the footage, obviously." I sighed as we were passing by Harold and Mr. Green, who were just closing shop.

"Hey, Arnold and friends!" Mr. Green smiled.

"Oh, hey Mr. Green. Hi, Harold!" Arnold smiled. "Just closing up shop."

"Yeah, I figured I'd help out Mr. Green today, since I don't have a school day today, may as well help him out." Harold explained.

Arnold and I noticed that Mr. Green seemed to be dressing up nicely as I said, "Looking stylish, Mr. Green!"

"Yeah... really nice." Gerald smiled as he put the camera up to Mr. Green's face.

"Thanks, fellas." Mr. Green smiled. "Well, I need to go drop off some rump roast before I get going to my shindig. Harold, is the shop locked up?"

"Got it, sir." Harold said as he handed Mr. Green the key.

"Thank you. See you around." Mr. Green said. "See you same time Friday afternoon?"

"You got it, Mr. Green!" Harold smiled as Mr. Green as Mr. Green left. By that time, Harold had noticed the camera as he asked, "Say, what are you guys doing? Still shooting that movie?"

"We're currently on a potential scheme case, Harold." Arnold said. "We're trying to prevent someone named Marty from being killed by two guys."

"Hmmm..." Harold paused. "Where have I heard the name Marty before..."

"One of them was wearing a porkpie hat, and the other had a slick attitude, dressed in what seemed to be thug clothes..." I paused.

"The problem is, we don't know who OR what Marty is, but we know the two guys are being suspicious..." Gerald said.

"Porkpie hat, hmm... you know, earlier this week, I saw two characters that fit the description of those two guys you were talking about." Harold said.

Arnold, Gerald and I stopped as we turned to Harold. "Really?"

"Yeah, it was during one of my shifts for Mr. Green." Harold said. "Turns out, he and these two people are old friends going back."

"Those two suspicious characters are FRIENDS with Mr. Green?" We raised an eyebrow as Arnold said, "But Mr. Green is so nice... unless... Harold, did you catch anything of their conversation?"

"How would I know? It's not my business!" Harold frowned.

I smirked getting an idea as I fished around in my little backpack and pulled out a chocolate bar. "Oh Harold... Mr. Chocolate wants to talk to you!"

Harold seemed very hypnotized by the candy bar. "Oooo... Mr. Chocolate..."

"Yes, look at Mr. Chocolate... tell him what Mr. Green and those two characters were talking about, ooo..." I said as I gave Harold the chocolate bar.

"Okay, okay..." Harold said as he gobbled down the chocolate bar. "The two guys names are Dan and Sherm, Dan is the one with the porkpie hat. They and Mr. Green go way back... all three of them are butchers, working pretty well together. They often joke around, as they normally do... what the jokes were, I don't know..."

"So, Harold, why is Mr. Green so chummy with Porkpie and Sli- er, Dan and Sherm?" Gerald asked. "Did Mr. Green get anything suspicious today?"

"How would I know, I'm not that curious!" Harold frowned.

I pulled out another chocolate bar as I said, "Mr. Chocolate wants to know..."

Harold smiled. "Gimme!"

I tossed the chocolate bar over to Harold as he munched on it happily. Harold said, "Well, he did get a letter in the mail telling him to come to Front Street and Market at seven o'clock for a big surprise... I did catch the envelope's address... said Mr. Green's first name."

"Front and Market... that's right near the merry-go-round where they started..." Arnold said.

"What was Mr. Green's first name?" I asked.

"It started with an M." Harold shrugged. "That's all I know, the writing was pretty messy..."

"Thanks, Harold! You may have just saved us a lot of time!" Arnold said as I handed Harold another chocolate bar.

"Oh, uh, no problem! Just bring over two extra chocolate bars... maybe I can spill some more information!" Harold explained.

"Right..." I said as I looked at my watch, all of us leaving Harold.

"It's almost five o'clock! If we get to Front and Market now, we'll be too early!" I sighed.

"Right..." Gerald said. "We may as well leave around six-thirty, after dinner. Buses should still be running at that time..."

"Right!" Arnold nodded.

"I'll call my parents and let them know I'll be home a little late." I said as I started dialing my parents' phone number.

Pretty soon, around five minutes to seven, after we had some dinner and we started to compare our notes, we were at the docks as we compared notes one more time.

"Okay, so let's see what we know..." I said. "We know Dan and Sherm are planning to off Marty..."

"Right." Gerald said.

"We also know that Marty may be, in fact, Mr. Green's first name." I said.

"It seems to be that way, yes." Arnold said.

"We also know that Dan and Sherm and Mr. Green are butchers and good friends." I nodded.

"Which I don't get it!" Gerald frowned. "If Mr. Green is good friends with these Dan and Sherm characters, why do they want to off Mr. Green?"

"Maybe they ARE throwing him that surprise birthday party after all!" I smiled. "I'm actually right!"

Arnold and Gerald just stared at me with unamused stares. I frowned. "Well, it could be true!"

"Never mind, here's Mr. Green!" Arnold said as he pointed down towards the docks, where Mr. Green seemed to be heading towards to a slaughterhouse.

"Or a convention for butchers. That's another one!" I said as we headed downstairs.

"Mr. Green, wait!" Arnold said as they came down.

"What a coincidence, Arnold, Gerald and Rhonda!" Mr. Green smiled. "What are you fellas doing here?"

"They're here to stop you from being murdered, I'm just here because I'm the female producer." I sighed.

"Murdered? By who?" Mr. Green said as he reached for the door.

"Mr. Green, don't!" Arnold said as Mr. Green opened the door. "Dan and Sherm are out to get you!"

Mr. Green stopped and sighed. "Dan and Sherm... my fellow friends... they were always out to get me for years... looks like they're finally getting me."

"We better get out of here, Mr. Green. It's almost seven o'clock!" Arnold said in worry.

"No, Arnold. I'm not going to run. They've been trying to get me, and well, it's time to face the music." Mr. Green sighed as he opened the door to the slaughterhouse. "Hello?"

We came in closer as we saw what was inside... seemed to be leftover Merry-Go-Round stuff as Mr. Green kept calling, "Hello?"

We heard some chains rustling in the wind as the Merry Go Round carnival stuff lit up as a bunch of men in clown suits jumped out and released balloons.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARTY!" All of the men said.

Gerald and Arnold stared in surprise as I smiled. "HA! CALLED IT! FREAKING CALLED IT!"

"Okay, Rhonda, you were right!" Arnold sighed as we were now at his house, watching the birthday party on Arnold's computer. I was dancing behind them as Arnold said, "You can stop that victory dance!"

"I solved the mystery, I solved the mystery!" I smiled.

"Through a mere guess!" Gerald said.

"But still, it's good to know that Mr. Green was never in real danger." Arnold said.

"And it does make a for a good twist!" Gerald smiled. "Who knew there were so many butchers in the city!"

I sighed. "Yeah..."

I paused. "Say, Arnold, Gerald... you think your little documentary will be a mystery thriller now?"

"Who knows?" Arnold said. "With the right editing, though, I can probably make it seem like that."

"Hmmm..." I said as I decided to get up. "Well, it's getting late. I told my parents I'll be home. See you guys later!"

"Bye, Rhonda!" Arnold and Gerald said as I started to leave.

As I was heading home, I was smiling a little bit, thinking about the day I had with Arnold and Gerald. Truly, a good day to be myself! All of a sudden, I heard my phone ring as it snapped me out of my thoughts. I picked it up and saw that it was Nadine. I put the phone on my ear as I continued walking home. "Hello-lanes?"

"Why do you always say that when you pick up the phone?" Nadine asked. "It makes it sound like you're talking to bowling lanes."

I laughed. "You know I like to do outlandish hellos, Nadine. Now, what's the buzz?"

"Well, you know how Mr. Simmons is opening up a student lounge on Wednesday?" Nadine asked.

"Oh yeah, Mr. Simmons did say something about that, another after school activity for us to do." I smiled. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was talking with Mr. Simmons the other day, and I told him a few of my jokes that I made up... Mr. Simmons liked them so much, he wants me to do a little comedy act as a headliner for the stage after school, for the opening of the lounge!" Nadine explained. "I was wondering if you and Phoebe can hang out with me after school so I can practice a comedy routine!"

I smiled. "Hey, that's no trouble, Nadine. We'll go over to my house tomorrow after school, and we'll see what you're rocking with!"

I heard Nadine laugh. "Thanks, Rhonda, you're a great friend. See you tomorrow at school!"

"Bye!" I said as I hung up the phone and started to walk off.

So, Nadine is going to be a comedy star, hm? Well, I hope she pulls out some interesting stunts... I know for sure that she is pretty much the funny girl in our group, along with the tough persona she carries. I'm interested to see where her comedy goes!

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