After Sportacus made sure everything was alright with Stephanie and the kids he had left them to play and retreated back to his airship. Stephanie was now sitting with her back to a tree, writing in her diary.
Dear Diary,
Today Ziggy caught his kite in a tree. I climbed up to get it for him, but I lost my balance and fell. Fortunately Sportacus came just in time to catch me.
Stephanie stopped writing, remembering what happened next. For some reason she didn't want to write that part down. It made her feel funny just thinking about it.
Stephanie never decided whether or not to record the awkward comment. She was interrupted by the sight of Ziggy coming up the hill towards her. She closed her journal and smiled at him.
"Hey, Ziggy! What's up?"
"Well... Trixie was just wondering if you'd like to play hid and seek!"
"Oh sure!" responded Stephanie. They set off to find the others.
~On the other side of the funny yellow wall~
Robbie Rotten smiled mischievously. He was wearing a fake mustache and was dressed as a mailman.
"Hide and seek! The perfect game!"
He laughed his strange evil laugh and began setting up his trap.
~Back with the children~
Trixie saw them coming and called, "Oh good, you found her!"
Stephanie smiled at her and asked, "Who's going to be it?"
There was a silence. Nobody wanted to be it. Eventually Pixel spoke:
"Hey, why doesn't Stingy be it?"
Stingy looked shocked, then indignant.
"No way! If I was it somebody might steal my hiding spot!"
Pixel reconsidered.
"Um... Well then... What about Ziggy?"
Ziggy shuffled his feet. "I don't know... I'm not so good at finding people." After a moment of hesitation he added, "What about Trixie?"
Trixie shook her head indignantly.
"No way!" she declared. "I know, Pixel, why don't you be it?"
"Yeah!" everyone agreed, relieved that it wouldn't have to be them.
"Oh, Uh-" Pixel tried to object, but everybody was already running away. "Okay." he answered glumly.
"Count to fifty!" Stephanie yelled over her shoulder as she ran away.
Pixel started to count.
"One. Two. Three. Four..."
As soon as Stephanie heard Pixel start counting, she ran for the park. She was planning to hide in one of the large bushes nearby, but when she got there Trixie was already hiding in it. Trixie shooed her away.
"They'll find us if we're both here! Go hide somewhere else!"
Stephanie nodded, and ran over to the play structure. She ducked inside, but ran into Stingy.
"My spot!" Stingy whispered fiercely.
Stephanie backed out and kept on running. She checked under a bench.
"Oh, hi Stephanie!"
It was Ziggy. Bother. Where could she hide? Just then she spotted an empty cardboard box beside the mailbox. It looked like it might fit her. She climbed inside and closed the lid on top. She fit in, but only just. It was a tight squeeze.
Robbie Rotten laughed delightedly as he watched Stephanie step into the box and close herself up. He ran over and taped the box shut. Laughing to himself, he muttered:
"They'll never even guess!"
He picked the box up and began carrying it back to his lair. Inside the box, Stephanie felt the movement and knew that something was wrong. Someone was moving the box.
"Wait! Put me down! There's somebody in here!" she yelled, presuming that someone had taken the box by accident.
Robbie laughed at this. "Nobody can hear you!" he hissed into the box, "Not the kids, not your uncle, and especially not Sportacus!"
Just then Pixel came around the corner.
"Hey," He yelled, "Mr. Mailman! Have you seen anybody around here?"
Robbie jumped a bit, then tried to look inconspicuous.
"Mm, no." He answered in a funny sounding false voice, "I haven't seen anyone recently..."
Just then Stephanie yelled from the inside of the box. She had yelled "help", but it came out too muffled and indistinct for Pixel to understand.
"Did you hear something?" Pixel asked.
Robbie shook his head furiously.
"No! But if I did, it was Definitely coming from over there..." he pointed in the direction opposite from where he had to go, which happened to be the park.
"Oh, thanks, man!" replied Pixel, walking off towards the playground.
"Anytime!" Robbie muttered under his breath.
There was little or no difficulty from there on out. Robbie managed to get past the kids, smuggle Stephanie out of the town, and carry her all the way to his hideout entrance before he had trouble. He set the box down by the entry hatch and climbed up the ladder to open it. After it was open he realized that he had a dilemma. There was no way he could climb down the chute and hold the girl-in-a-box. He would have to let her out.
Robbie stepped over to the box and peeled off the tape. He opened up the lid and prepared to grab the little girl inside, but the little girl was prepared too. She jumped out of the box and started running back towards Lazytown.
"Stop!" Robbie yelled.
Stephanie, of course, did not stop. Robbie gave a great sigh and started off after her. Stephanie may have been in better physical condition, but despite Robbie Rotten's loathing for physical activity he was still taller, and had longer legs. Besides this Stephanie was panicked and clumsy. Robbie eventually caught up with her and grabbed her by the arm. Stephanie tried to tug away, but Robbie held her tight. In one final effort to escape she yelled for help, just before Robbie clamped his hand over her mouth.
But Robbie was too late. Up in the airship above, a small crystal on a certain superhero's chest had caught her distress call. It chimed and lit up. The superhero wearing it looked down in surprise.
"Someone's in trouble."
Thank you guys ever so much for reviewing! I must admit I was surprised; somehow I didn't expect that anyone would really read this story. At any rate the surprise was a pleasant one! Many things in this chapter were rather unrealistic, but I was kind of copying the bizarre cartoon logic that Lazytown uses. Yes, Stephanie just happened to hide in that specific box, Robbie was miraculously able to lift her without effort, and, the typical one: Nobody recognized Robbie. But hey, that sort of thing happens in the actual show all the time! Thanks for reading and reviewing! I highly appreciate it.