Next episode... 'Stinky Goes Hollywood'! Anyway, enjoy!
Pretty soon, Arnold was taking me, along with Harold and Sid, over to the sign he saw the other day. "Here's where I saw the sign. Yahoo Soda is currently holding auditions for the next Yahoo spokeskid. Must be looking for a new mascot to promote their products."
"Yahoo Sodas must still be stuck in the nineties." I laughed a bit. "Whatever happened to their old mascots, those angry beaver brothers that always fought for which one got the soda, and it's almost always the yellow furred beaver with the purple nose who got it?"
"Who knows?" Arnold shrugged. "I guess they want to follow the trend of 'kids make the product cool'."
"Well, I certainly know one thing for sure!" Harold laughed. "It could be me!"
"Or me!" Sid smiled.
"Oh, please, you two. Not that I'm bragging, but it's SO obviously going to be me. With my sense of fashion and style, I'm a natural!" I smirked.
"Well... it could be anyone." Arnold said. "It is an open casting call."
"But... if they pick me... I could be a millionaire and then I could... buy a million Mr. Fudgies!" Harold sighed.
"I think it's time they have a feminine touch in those commercials!" I smiled. "I could give it my all and give my family a lot of publicity..."
"More than it already has?" Arnold asked.
"Well... okay, maybe it's mostly for me." I shrugged. "But I'd love to audition!"
"Well... only one way to find out! Come on, why don't we go down there and find out about the auditions?" Sid said.
We all nodded as we started to go down. I was really excited for this. A big audition for something big. Even if it is a TV commercial, I couldn't wait to get an early start on my acting career.
About halfway through, I noticed Arnold had left our group. Only in about a few minutes did I see why. Arnold had just picked up Stinky, who was just about to return to his house when Arnold brought up the audition to him. Stinky figured since he had nothing better to do, may as well watch. When I saw how big the line was, I whistled a bit.
"Holy frick." I sighed. "Look at that line."
"Hey, it'll go by pretty quick." Arnold said as we were all in line. "Besides, the auditions don't usually take too long, if they don't like it, they just send them out."
As Arnold said that, one of the kids was leaving the theater, sighing as he was walking away, depressed. I noted, "Guess he didn't get the part."
"I reckon he didn't." Stinky sighed.
I raised an eyebrow in confusion. I have never seen Stinky THIS depressed. Usually, he's all happy, simple-minded and mischievous when with the other guys. "What's gotten into you?"
"I don't know. I guess I feel depressed. Feel I'm not anything special." Stinky said. "Can't do a whole lot, nothing simple, nothing special."
"But... aren't you like, one of the best sleeping bag rollers or something?" I asked.
"Aside from that, I'm nothing special." Stinky sighed.
I paused in thought. I wonder if this had anything to do with what happened between him and Nadine a few months ago...
"Here comes somebody." Phoebe paused as she squinted. I noticed somebody walking over towards Nadine's direction.
"Wait... isn't that... Stinky? What's he doing here?" I said in surprise.
"You don't think he's Nadine's secret admirer?" Phoebe asked.
"I..." I paused... as I laughed. "Oh my gosh, this is so hilarious!"
"What?" Phoebe asked.
"You see, Nadine and I were just having this talk about how if the fake boyfriend plan would go wrong in that one of them would fall for us for real, and I didn't think it would happen. Oh wow, was I proven wrong in that aspect!" I said as we see Nadine look over in surprise as the two were talking.
"What's going on over there?" Phoebe asked.
"Hard to say, but it seems they're talking a bit. Stinky seems a little nervous and disappointed... but Nadine seems to be comforting the guy, making him feel a little better... looks like they're shaking hands... they're talking a small bit, they're waving good-bye... Nadine is coming here." I said as I summarized everything, up to Nadine coming over to our direction. "So, Nadine, Stinky's your secret admirer, huh?"
"Yeah..." Nadine blushed. "Turns out after our little 'fake' date yesterday, Stinky had some... mixed emotions and thought he liked me liked me. He told me about how he went over to Arnold for advice and told him how nervous he was. Arnold must have told him to do the secret admirer thing or something and he did do that. Anyway, I talked to him that the date we had was just fake, and if I did lead him on yesterday, I apologized for it. I didn't mean to make him feel that way about me... but if it was all cool to him, we could still be friends. Stinky agreed, and we just decided to stay friends."
"Well, I'm glad we got that little mystery solved up." I smiled. "I mean, it would be hilarious if Stinky still yearned for you for a couple days!"
"Well, I'm sure he'll find another." Nadine shrugged. "Until then, he's having a good time with the single life."
All three of us nodded as we decided to go along the park.
"You're not still upset over what happened with Nadine, are you?" I asked, out of curiosity.
"What? That thing from months ago?" Stinky said. "Nah, I moved on from that. No, I'm just depressed over something else."
"Oh." I said as we kept moving through the line.
Pretty soon, we were getting near the inside of the stage in the theater where the auditions were being held as we leaned near, watching a Campfire Lass scout doing an audition. "Yahoo soda, just drink it!"
"Next!" the director groaned.
We kept moving along in line as I was next. I smirked. "Watch this, boys. I'm going to knock this out of the park!"
I walked up to the stage as I held the soda in my hand, turned with my back to the audience, but turned my head slightly so that I could give them a good angle. With a very, seductive voice, I gave a smile, and said, "Yahoo Soda. Just drink it."
"NEXT!" The director yelled.
"What?" My eyes widened in shock. "Come on, that was like my best one, you didn't even look, did you?"
"Next! Get this girl off the stage! Next!" The director said.
I muttered angrily as I walked off, and waited for my friends to take their turn. Arnold came up as he said the line... and he got rejected.
As he joined me, I sighed. "At least I feel a little better about myself."
"Don't worry, Rhonda. I thought you did good." Arnold said.
I smiled to him. "Thanks, buddy."
As Harold flubbed up his audition and got booted off, we waited for Sid to take his turn. Naturally, Sid didn't get in.
"That's disappointing." Sid sighed.
"Well, at least you tried your best, Sid." Stinky said.
"Well, guess we all failed the audition." I shrugged. "Why don't we go get a milkshake at Slausen's?"
All of them agreed as I nodded. "That's settled then."
As we were about to leave, we heard the director's voice.
"Excuse me, you with the big nose?"
We stopped as we all turned to see the director. Stinky paused as he pointed to himself. "Who, me?"
"Yes, you. You haven't auditioned yet." The director said.
"Oh, no, no, I'm no actor..." Stinky started.
"Just give it a shot, Stinky. What do you got to lose?" Arnold smiled.
Stinky paused... and sighed. "Okay, I guess if you think I can do it, Arnold, but I don't see the point."
Stinky sighed as he started to walk up to the stage as he took the Yahoo soda bottle and said, regularily, "Yahoo Soda. Just drink it."
That was the most awful acting I have ever heard or seen in my entire li-
"Say that again." The director said in shock.
"Yahoo Soda. Just drink it." Stinky said, still with that bored expression.
"People, our search is over! We have found our Yahoo spokeskid!" The director smiled as everyone applauded.
I looked around in shock. What? No way! That was the most terrible acting I have ever seen in my entire life! My seductive character was more convincing than that boring thing Stinky did. He didn't even try!
Later that night, I was muttering angrily as I was focusing on my book... but I couldn't! I just couldn't!
"How did I lose a freaking audition... to STINKY! STINKY, of all people? He didn't even try! He didn't even be convincing! What did those directors see in him, anyway?" I frowned as I looked up at the ceiling. "I should have gotten the audition! I was perfect! I had it all under control! What did that director see in Stinky, anyway?"
"You really wanna know?" I heard my voice in my head.
"What is it, Deep Voice?" I sighed.
"Come by my door tonight, and I'll tell you what you need to know about acting." Deep Voice said.
I pondered a bit before nodding. Guess it was time for another go at my dreams...
After arriving at the door in my dreams after going to bed, I knocked on it as I waited nearby.
"So, you want to know how the life of acting works, do you?" Deep Voice asked.
I nodded. "Yes, if you can help me with that."
"Criminy, where do I begin?" Deep Voice sighed. "First of all, you do understand how the audition process works, right?"
"Yes, I believe so." I nodded. "People running auditions always look for the best people to work out."
"Indeed they do. However, there are some people running auditions who look for people who don't even try... like with Stinky and the Yahoo Soda auditions, for example." Deep Voice explained.
"So, what you're telling me is that there are people who actually APPRECIATE bad acting?" I frowned. "What sort of people ARE they?"
"The kind that suck, that's who." Deep Voice sighed. "The reason the director picked Stinky to be their Yahoo spokeskid..."
"...was to find the worst sounding person possible!" I snapped my fingers. "I think I understand now."
"Yeah, now you're finally understanding it. Don't feel bad, though. You'll get your second chance in the spring play." Deep Voice comforted me.
I blinked in confusion. "Spring play?"
"Oh, um... nothing." Deep Voice chuckled nervously. "Anyway, keep up your good work, I'm sure you'll make a good actress someday. Sure, they'll be people who'll reject you, but that's just a part of life."
I nodded. That was understandable. "So, what's going to happen to Stinky now?"
"Well, if a couple of days is anything to go by, he won't have the Yahoo spokeskid position for very long. You'll see why in time." Deep Voice explained. "Well, if there's nothing else, I'll get you to an Arnold dream, if you desire."
"I would desire that, yes." I nodded as I teleported off to an Arnold dream, where I was most comfortable.
The next morning, when I woke up from the dream, I sighed. It was good to learn from Deep Voice... but still, that voice is always a mystery to me...
Hopefully, I can find answers on who or what Deep Voice is... maybe someday...
Well, as it turns out, Deep Voice was right when he or she said that Stinky didn't have the job for very long. Sure, two days was mostly filmed for commercials, and he had a spot on a television show on the third day scheduled... but on the first Monday of December, for some odd reason, he just refused to sign a million dollar contract.
Some people say it was a stupid decision Stinky made, but from the look on Arnold's face when I talked to him later about it, he told me the whole story. Apparently, as Deep Voice predicted, the directors only wanted Stinky because of his bad acting. So, I felt proud of Stinky for what he did, stood up to the masses and deciding to keep his pride.
"Well, I'm proud of Stinky...in a way." I said as we were walking home that night.
"Yeah..." Arnold said. "It may not be the best thing for other people's eyes, but if you look at it from Stinky's point of view, you can understand why he did what he did, even if some people didn't agree."
"Of course, I guess this means Yahoo will have to get new mascots." I sighed. "I really wished they kept those beaver brothers, though. They were the best mascots in the commercials."
"I agree with you there." Arnold said. "Well, I better get going. I'm sure Abner misses me. I'll see you tomorrow, Rhonda!"
I nodded as I waved good-bye to Arnold, heading off. Tonight was going to be another night...
And there's episode ninety-five! How do you like it? Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks! And don't forget to check out and/or make edits to the TVTropes page of this story!