Here is the next episode, 'Crush on Teacher'! Anyway, enjoy!

A week later, on a Monday, me, Nadine and Phoebe settled down in our seats as we were looking eager to learn... well, Phoebe was. I tried my best to cooperate as I got my books out. I didn't know what Nadine was doing, but from what it looked like, she was setting her supplies up.

As every one of our classmates were settling in, Arnold sat down next to me as I whispered, "Wonder what Mr. Simmons has for us this week."

Arnold blinked as he whispered to me, "Rhonda, Mr. Simmons is gone for the week. Remember?"

"What?" I whispered. "When did he say this?"

"Don't you remember what he told us before school ended on Friday?" Arnold whispered.

I paused to think.

Last Friday, the school bell rang as we were packing our stuff.

"Now, class, before we move along, I have a very important announcement." Mr. Simmons said as we looked up. "I'm going to be going to a..."

I paid less attention to Mr. Simmons' words at this point as I was in my thoughts to think. I smiled. I couldn't wait for the last Jolly Olly run before the ice cream van stopped their business for the year. I wanted that Chocolate Fudge Bar so bad!

"Best Chocolate Fudge Bar ever..." I sighed happily.

"I'm going to assume that no, you didn't listen to Mr. Simmons." Arnold sighed. "Before we left, he told us that he was going to a teaching convention this school week, so he will be unable to teach us at that time. Fortunately, he is going to be sending over a substitute teacher to take care of things."

"Oh..." I nodded. "I see. Well, I'm sure the substitute will be interesting..."

"Here she comes now..." Arnold said as everyone turned their attention to the new person coming in.

This teacher was a blonde haired woman, red shirt, blue skirt and... all right shoes. The woman smiled as she said, "Good morning, class. I'm Miss Felter, and I will be your substitute teacher for this week."

We all became silent as we nodded, understanding.

"So, let's get started." Miss Felter smiled as she went to the chalkboard, setting up a division problem. "Okay, who's ready for a pop quiz on long division?"

We all looked as none of us said anything, not even Phoebe, who was just more observing the substitute.

Miss Felter looked around... and spotted Arnold as she smiled. "You look like a very confident volunteer. Your name?"

"Arnold." Arnold said, looking up at Miss Felter.

"Ah, Arnold..." Miss Felter gave a smile. "I'm very impartial to that name..."

I then snapped to attention as I heard what Miss Felter said. Of course, I knew she only said that, but I had no idea what it meant. Maybe she had a husband named after my crush?

As Arnold went up to the board, Miss Felter stated, "Okay, Arnold, when I say go, start dividing."

Arnold nodded as Miss Felter gave a smile. "On your mark, get set, go!"

Arnold then started doing the problem as we watched Arnold solved the problem with ease.

Miss Felter smiled. "Good job, Arnold. You divided and conquered!"

I smiled for Arnold as he went back to his seat. In a way, I was pretty proud of Arnold...

Little did I know though that I was about to run into a little problem...

Later that day, over at Gerald Field, we were doing a pretty good baseball game as we tried to do one more practice of baseball before the cold weather could settle in.

"Hi Arnold!" I heard a familiar voice.

"Hi, Miss Felter." Arnold said in that lost puppy dog voice as I turned for a moment... just in time to see a red Ferrari drive pass with Miss Felter at the wheel. Arnold seemed to be out of it. I raised an eyebrow in concern. I heard the bat crack as the baseball was heading in Arnold's direction.

"Hey Arnold, heads up!" Gerald called.

"Huh?" Arnold blinked as he turned around... only to be beaned in the stomach as he fell down.

As his friend, I did what any concerned friend would do... well, everybody did too, but I believe I initiated it first. I went over to him as I said, "Buddy, you okay?"

"I'm fine, Miss Felter..." Arnold gave a lovesick smile.

I blinked as I looked him over, Stinky saying, "His eyes must not be working right. You don't look anything like Miss Felter."

I looked at Arnold in concern as I turned to Nadine and Phoebe, who were raising an eyebrow as well.

"Well, it's happened again..." Nadine sighed as me, her and Phoebe were walking together.

"You saw the lovesick smile, too?" I said in concern.

"Yep..." Phoebe sighed. "Worse than that, his mind is on our substitute teacher." Phoebe sighed.

"I just don't understand what attracts young boys to older women." I sighed. "I mean, yeah, it's pretty cute, but it's freaking creepy!"

"Relax, Rhonda." Nadine said. "Like with Ruth, it's only just a fantasy dream. Besides, Arnold barely KNOWS the substitute... nobody has a crush on a substitute teacher and falls in love immediately!"

I giggled. "Yeah... I know it took me some time before I realized my own feelings for him. And I'm still keeping it secret..."

I sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right... besides, Arnold knows better. He's nine, she's... what, thirty-one? Nothing more than a fantasy dream."

All of us laughed as we went our separate ways to our houses so we could do our homework.

The next day, I noticed Arnold looking at Miss Felter, interested in her moreso than usual. I tried not to put my mind on it as I looked up to Miss Felter. "Now, before we go over our math homework, I thought we'd start our session on poetry."

Everyone (except for me and Arnold) groaned. I noted Arnold didn't groan and still had the lovesick smile.

"Oh, come on. You all might be a poet, and you don't really know it." Miss Felter laughed. "Let me read you a poem written over a hundred years ago by Matthew Arnold."

Arnold seemed to snap into attention as I groaned a little. Miss Felter continued, "Mister Arnold..."

"You see?" I heard Arnold whisper to Gerald. "I knew she had a crush on me!"

I raised an eyebrow in concern. He seems to think Miss Felter is in love with Arnold. I had to keep a straight face so I couldn't laugh, but at the same time, I was concerned.

Miss Felter, however, didn't let the whispering between Arnold and Gerald go unnoticed. "Arnold, is there a problem?"

"Uh, no." Arnold shook his head.

"Why don't you move up closer to the front, to this desk by me so I can keep an eye on you?" Miss Felter suggested as Arnold just obeyed willingly.

Again, I was really being concerned for Arnold. I'm really hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself...

It was a little later in the day as me, Gerald, Nadine, Phoebe and Arnold were hanging around outside the school as Arnold was reading a book. "Listen to this one..."

Gerald groaned as he said, "I'm sorry girls, but Miss Felter seems to be on his mind right now!"

"We figured that was what was going on..." I said.

"Would you just give up that obsession, man?" Gerald said. "You're only reading poetry because Miss Felter read a few poems by a guy who's probably dead by now that has the same last name as your first name!"

"I just like reading poetry! It has nothing to do with Miss Felter!" Arnold said.

Phoebe looked at the book as she sighed. "Arnold, that is not a poetry book. That is the complete works of William Shakespeare. You just borrowed that from the school library and started reading it!"

Gerald just shook his head. "Man, it's hopeless! Will you just stop talking about Miss Felter? There is no chance you and her can go together!"

I nodded as Nadine looked in her backpack. "Whoops, I forgot my homework. Rhonda, could you come with?"

"Sure." I said as I went in.

"Hey, I also left my science book in there, can you get that?" Gerald asked.

"All right." I said as me and Nadine went inside the school.

As soon as Nadine and I got Nadine's homework and Gerald's science textbook from his locker, I nodded to Nadine as we started to leave. We started to pass by the teacher's lounge when we heard Miss Felter's voice.

"Guess what! On Friday night, Arnold is coming over! I'm going to make him dinner. I can't wait to be alone with Arnold!" Miss Felter said.

My eyes widened as Nadine shook her head in shock as I whispered, "What the heck?"

"We better keep listening in..." Nadine said in worry as we kept hearing the conversation.

"You see, tomorrow night is the first night I'm going to be spending in my new apartment with my fiancé, Arnold Skelter." Miss Felter explained.

Me and Nadine sighed in relief. Okay, my friendship status with Arnold is completely safe. I said, "For a moment, I thought..."

I shook my head. "What was I even concerned about? Arnold's a pretty common name!"

"Yeah..." Nadine said. "You think we should tell Arnold?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I think we better... but let's do it gently."

As me and Nadine came back with the book, Gerald frowned. "Where were you two? I had to listen to Arnold's reading of Shakespearean poetry for the past fifteen minutes, replacing a few females' names with 'Miss Felter'."

"Sorry about that..." I said. "But we happened in on a conversation with Miss Felter about someone."

That got Arnold's attention as he asked, "Did Miss Felter say anything about me?"

"Hmmm..." Nadine paused. "Well, she did mention something about an Arnold..."

Arnold's eyes widened in joy. I felt bad about what I was going to do next, but I knew it had to be done. "She mentioned something about having a date with Arnold on Friday..."

"Really?" Arnold smiled.

"What?" Gerald said in shock.

Phoebe just shook her head in disbelief at what she just heard.

"Moving into a new apartment... cooking for Arnold..." I listed. "She even said his last name."

"Really?" Arnold smiled.

"Arnold Skelter." I said, being honest.

Hearing the last name immediately darkened Arnold's eyes. "Wait, who?"

"Arnold... Skelter." Nadine explained. "She's getting married to Arnold Skelter pretty soon, she's having a date with him Friday night..."

"So..." Arnold looked down. "Not me..."

"Sorry, buddy." I sighed. "But I think Miss Felter's already taken."

Arnold sighed. "I guess I was really aiming too high..."

"Don't kick yourself over it." I said as I sat next to him. "It was just a small crush on a pretty adult girl. Most boys your age have crushes on substitute teachers... they just don't usually work out... I mean, you're nine going on ten, buddy. She's... I'm thinking, thirty-one-ish, maybe? Nothing about this would work in your favor, anyway... if you want to go out with someone, just try someone more your age..."

Arnold paused as he looked up... I immediately noticed the lovesick smile came back. "You know... you're right, Rhonda. Maybe I can't get Miss Felter... but I do have other chances at other girls..."

"That's the spirit, bud-" I then noticed that Ruth was passing by, which was Arnold's current affection right now. "-dy."

"And, he's back to normal." Gerald said as he got up. "Come on, Arnold, let's go to the park."

"All right, Gerald." Arnold nodded, immediately going back to his normal phase. "See you around, girls!"

Me, Nadine and Phoebe nodded as we parted ways.

"That was pretty good, Rhonda." Phoebe smiled. "Too bad Ruth had to walk past at that moment..."

"Eh, who's complaining?" I said as we started to walk towards Slausen's. "At least we snapped Arnold out of his Miss Felter crush."

"Yeah..." Nadine nodded as we decided to keep walking forward to our houses. Pretty soon, Halloween was about to be upon us...

That's the seventy-ninth episode! How do you like it? The final episode of Arc 2 will be a two-parter, so keep your eye out for the first part! Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!