Next up, 'Gerald's Tonsils'! Anyway, enjoy!
Pretty soon, a majority of the PS 118 fourth grade students, including myself, arrived over near the music room as Mr. Simmons came over.
"I'm glad most of you have decided to join me on this wonderful project I'm working on." Mr. Simmons smiled. "As you all know, the spring concert will be in two months from now, and I need all the best singers there are."
Phoebe was about to raise her hand...
"An orchestra has already been set up, so if you want to join a band, sorry to say you've just missed out." Mr. Simmons explained as Phoebe put her hand down, dejected. "Fortunately, I don't think there'll be any trouble to select all the singers, because in a way, you're all special! Now, I've got a couple of songs selected, including a personal, classical favorite of mine, 'Moonlight Bay'. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the song, but in case you don't, it's been a popular song for many decades. I'm sure you're all eager to learn the song by heart. Now, not ALL of you are probably going to make it in the auditioning process... but rest assure, you all try your best."
Mr. Simmons looked around as he smiled. "Now, one at a time, I want all of you to line up and show me a sample of your voice."
We all nodded as we were each tested by our voice. I was a natural soprano. The others got assigned by how well their voices worked. Pretty soon, Mr. Simmons looked over and smiled.
"Well, I'll be. Looks like all of you have great talent. That's wonderful to witness! And Gerald, I have to say, you have a good voice."
"Thanks, Mr. Simmons!" Gerald smiled as he looked up.
"You might have potential for something... what that something is, well, you'll all find out." Mr. Simmons smiled. "I'd like for our practice sessions for our spring concert to be every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully you'll all be able to attend. Anyway, we have about fifteen minutes left, so I'm just going to hand each of you a music sheet with the melody and the words on it. I want you to sing the words you read on the paper. Don't worry if you don't get it your first time. There will be other times before March 15th comes around."
We all nodded as I was handed my sheet, afterwards, I handed it to Gerald. I looked at the songs I was to perform. 'Moonlight Bay', 'Imagination' and 'Sweet Home Alabama'. Odd choices for songs, but if Mr. Simmons could make them work...
I smiled as Mr. Simmons started playing the music and we started to sing... a bit off-key at first, but Mr. Simmons warmed us up a little bit before proceeding. We proceeding in singing a bit of 'Moonlight Bay' before being dismissed.
Me, Phoebe, Nadine, Arnold, Gerald and Tucker were walking together later on as I turned, "So, guys, what do you think of Miss Pataki?"
I had to keep a close eye on Arnold to make sure he didn't have another teacher crush like he did Miss Felter.
"I think Miss Pataki is doing pretty good." Arnold said. "I can't explain why, but... I feel like I can connect with her. She seems to be a good teacher."
"Big enough to have a crush on?" Nadine raised an eyebrow.
Arnold blushed. "I wouldn't go THAT far! I may think Miss Pataki's a cute teacher, but I wouldn't go that far... I learned my lesson after my slight crush on Miss Felter."
"Yeah..." Gerald said, although I noticed he looked sluggish, and his voice had a slightly different tone.
"You feeling okay, Gerald?" Phoebe said, noticing it too.
"Oh, I'm fine. Just a little... tired, that's all." Gerald said as we arrived at his house. "Better get going. See you guys later."
We said our good-byes to Gerald before continuing on.
"Gerald didn't look okay..." Phoebe said, concerned.
"His voice did sound a bit different..." Arnold said.
"I think I may have seen it before..." Tucker sighed. "I think Gerald might have tonsillitis."
"Oh!" We all said.
"You think that's it?" Nadine asked as we kept walking.
"Well, his parents will bound to notice something. If he doesn't arrive at school tomorrow or the next day, we'll know for sure." Tucker said. "It's nothing to worry about. He'll just have a bit of surgery to remove the tonsils. No big deal."
"Well..." Phoebe sighed as she looked over. "I hope Gerald's okay..."
"Phoebe..." Arnold and I went over and put a hand on both her shoulders. I said, "He'll be perfectly fine."
"Besides, Gerald's toughed out many things, he can tough this one out." Arnold smiled.
Phoebe paused. "I suppose you're right."
Later that night, in my dreams, I was talking to Helga as she was laughing. I glared at her as I said, "So it was another trick from you!"
"Oh come on, princess, I love seeing you squirm!" Helga laughed. "It keeps you on your toes!"
I rolled my eyes. "I can't believe I was worried that Olga would reveal a personal secret!"
"Not your dimension's Olga, anyway..." Helga paused.
I sighed, wondering what Helga's beef was... but remembering yesterday, I decided not to push the matter further. "So... Gerald... did he have tonsillitis in your dimension as well?"
Helga chuckled. "You bet he did... and he had the most hilarious voice for a while! He couldn't even do the solo right... until he pulled out that bass voice, but that's another story?"
"Solo?" I asked, causing Helga to cover her mouth. "So he did get a little solo? Moonlight Bay?"
"However did you guess?" Helga sighed.
I groaned. "I mean, it's nothing big... but everything's going good... aside from Caroline giving me trouble, but she's just that smug!"
Helga raised an eyebrow. "Caroline?"
"Yeah, that Caroline!" I rolled my eyes. "Was she always this smug in your dimension?"
"Uh... Rhonda... I don't know anybody named Caroline in my dimension." Helga said, simply.
I blinked in confusion. "Didn't my dimensional counterpart from your dimen-"
"It was just you and Nadine, with most of us! There's nobody named Caroline in any of our fourth grade class!" Helga explained.
I blinked. "What?"
"Look, don't worry about it, okay? Just try to get through your regular life. Just ignore whoever this Caroline is!" Helga said. "Unless, maybe... no, it couldn't be..."
"What?" I frowned.
"Don't worry about Caroline, okay? Look, just try to keep calm, all right?" Helga sighed. "If you need any help, just think of me, okay?"
"Uh... fine, I guess..." I said as I looked up at the ceilng, pondering in confusion.
The next day, Gerald wasn't in our classroom, which did confirm that, indeed, Gerald had tonsillitis. There was not much we can do, so we just did our regular school day, all the while concerned for Gerald.
After school, I joined up with a few of my fellow PS 118 classmates, Arnold, Sid, Stinky, Gerald, Harold, Phoebe, Nadine and Lila as Arnold said, "I called up Gerald's dad and he told me that Gerald just had his tonsils removed. He says we're allowed to visit him, he's currently eating a couple bowls of ice cream now..."
"Oh man..." Harold sighed. "I wish I had my tonsils taken out... imagine... all the ice cream I can eat..."
"Of course you want all the ice cream you can eat..." Nadine said in a deadpan voice.
We were over at the doctor's office, visiting Gerald as he was pushing away a full bowl of ice cream in disgust.
"Sorry to hear about your tonsils." Phoebe said as she looked over at Gerald.
"Ah well, at least it happened now..." Gerald said in a hoarse voice. "If it happened before..."
Gerald took a bit of a deep breath...
"...before the spring concert?" I asked.
"Yeah, that. If it happened before, I'd be devastated..." Gerald sighed.
"So, when will your voice recover?" Arnold asked.
"The doctor says it'll probably be in a couple of days..." Gerald said.
"You're tough, Gerald. You survived before, you can do so again." Nadine assured him.
"I certainly hope so..." Gerald said.
"Just don't talk too much, Gerald. You'll be fine." Arnold smiled.
"All right." Gerald nodded.
"Say, uh, sorry about your throat and that..." Harold said, looking down at the bowl of ice cream. "Are you going to finish that?"
Gerald just shook his head.
"All right!" Harold said happily as he started gobbling down the ice cream.
I groaned. "What a pig!"
So, for the next couple of days, Gerald went into good recovery... almost. His voice was sounding slightly different, which we laughed about at first (and shamefully, I did as well) until Phoebe, the only one who didn't laugh, glared at us.
"He's just going through a slight recovery!" Phoebe yelled. "What the heck is wrong with you people? You're just as insensitive as Gerald is most of the time! And Lila, I'm surprised at you! You were laughing at Gerald's voice too!"
"I'm ever so sorry, but..." Lila giggled. "Guess I've been hanging around you girls a lot, I started picking up a couple... bad habits?"
"...right." Phoebe glared as she turned to everyone else. "As for you, how would you feel if it was YOUR tonsils?"
"I'm sorry, but hearing that coming out of Gerald's mouth, I reckon that's just too funny!" Stinky said. "Just hope it doesn't affect your singing voice..."
"It won't!" Gerald glared. "It's not like Mr. Simmons is going to kick me out of the choir!"
"I can't believe Mr. Simmons kicked me out of the choir." Gerald said in disbelief as we were walking out of the music room.
"Well, we can't blame Mr. Simmons for his decision." Arnold said. "Besides, Gerald, it's just until you get your regular voice back. Just a couple of days."
"I guess you're right." Gerald sighed. "At least it didn't come at a bad time..."
As Arnold and Gerald were talking, I noticed Curly was heading in a different direction, wearing his little cross necklace. I didn't know where he was going as he ducked behind an alley. I couldn't fathom it... it was probably just Curly being Curly again...
"Just keep training your voice, you'll get it right..." Phoebe comforted Gerald as I turned back towards Arnold, Gerald, Tucker, Nadine, Phoebe and Lila. "Besides, it's only for a couple of days..."
Gerald smiled. "I guess it's okay..."
"Everything's not okay!" Gerald said, in a slightly different voice than before. It was Sunday as me, Phoebe, Nadine, Lila, Arnold and Tucker were hanging around, watching Gerald holding his head in a panic.
"Calm down, Gerald. Don't get excited..." Arnold assured Gerald.
"No! Something went wrong! My voice has changed, it's butchered completely!" Gerald said.
"I for some reason find this new voice... very attractive..." Phoebe whispered to us. Nadine, Lila and I nodded.
Tucker paused as he stood up and started comparing his height to Gerald's.
"Gerald, have you grown a little taller?" Tucker asked.
"Can we please focus on my voice?" Gerald said in a panic. "Those doctors must have butchered my voice during the operation!"
"I don't think it was the operation..." Tucker paused. "Gerald, what did your voice sound like BEFORE the operation?"
"It was normal! It had a slightly different tone, like a bit of a crack, but it was normal!" Gerald frowned.
Tucker sighed. "I think maybe we better talk with your parents about this..."
"No! If they find out the doctors butchered my voice, they'll-" Gerald started.
"Gerald, the doctors didn't butcher your voice, you're just going through early puberty." Gerald's dad explained as we hung around, watching Gerald talk to his parents.
"Wait, what?" Gerald asked.
"Yeah, honestly, we've noticed this at least a couple of days BEFORE the tonsillitis was announced, we just didn't want to say anything until you asked on your own." Gerald's mother explained. "Jamie-O went through something like this as well. It's nothing wrong with your voice, it's just your body being ready to accept the changes, growing from a boy... to a man..."
Phoebe, upon hearing that, blushed. "I'm suddenly liking this idea..."
"So, what you're saying is, Gerald's voice is just the result of puberty?" I asked.
"Exactly." Gerald's father nodded.
"I figured from him a bit taller, he was probably going through something like that." Tucker explained.
"So my voice is just changed... into this now?" Gerald asked.
"It'll take some time to adjust, but you'll get used to this voice." Gerald's mother smiled.
"Besides, the more manly your voice goes, the more chance you may get noticed..." Gerald's father smirked.
"Noticed?" Gerald asked... before Phoebe grabbed him in a hug, surprising Gerald as he blushed.
Gerald's father and mother laughed. "Yeah, like that!"
A little later, as we were walking together, Gerald smiled in relief as he said, "I never thought it was just my voice changing... I could get used to it..."
"Who knows, Gerald?" Arnold asked. "Maybe Mr. Simmons will give you a different part of the choir."
"I know one thing... no way will the girls ignore that beautiful voice of yours now!" Lila giggled, pointing towards Phoebe, who was still clinging on to Gerald.
"Phoebe, do you mind?" Gerald asked.
"Hm?" Phoebe looked up... then realized she was hugging Gerald. "Oh, sorry."
As soon as Gerald and Phoebe continued walking and talking with each other, continuing on their way, Tucker and Nadine going to a basketball court, and Lila heading straight home, it was just me and Arnold walking along as he was taking me home.
"Puberty, hm?" I sighed. "I wonder what it would be like if you went through something like that?"
"I know one thing..." Arnold said. "I don't want to be tough or mean to anyone if I grow up..."
"I agree, Arnold. You're just not the mean type..." I smiled as we reached my house. "Well, see you tomorrow, Arnold!"
"See you, Rhonda!" Arnold smiled a bit as I was about to head in... when I heard him mutter something.
"What was that?" I turned in confusion.
Arnold's eyes widened a bit, before chuckling. "I said, I need to buy some soup for Grandma. She's on the soup kitchen craze tonight and I figured I pitch in."
"Oh, cool." I nodded. "See you tomorrow, buddy!"
I shut the door as I walked upstairs to rest in my room. Another pleasant day, accomplished. Hopefully, the rest of the month is going to work out!
And there's episode one hundred and seven! How was it? Yeah, I decided to go the early-puberty stage for Gerald for this one, since from what I heard, his voice in later seasons were digitally repitched. I figured this would be more appropriate for Gerald to have his voice change to a man's. After all, boys often do go through puberty pretty early, so it's not that uncommon. Hope that clears a few things up. Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks! And as usual, don't forget to check out/add to the TVTropes page!