Chapter 7, The Rest Stop
Back in the bathroom, Chuckie made it to a toilet just in time, as he pulled down his pants and used the potty, right before having an accident. Meanwhile, Skeeter got himself, Phil, Lil, and Dil changed into some fresh clothes, as Skeeter had brought himself a change of clothes, and had done that often ever since he encountered that dog, Lady, in the yard next-door to Patti's, just in case. Once everybody was cleaned up, they headed back out to the main area of the foodcourt, where Doug, Angelica, Tommy and Kimi were holding them a table. Doug looked up to see Skeeter approaching and smiled.
"Hey Skeet, got everything taken care of?" Doug asked.
"Yep, sure did, and we got Chuckie to a bathroom just in time. The little guy kept telling me he didn't need to go, but seeing we're starting to potty train my baby brother, I knew by his body language, he wasn't telling me the truth, or perhaps it's all he knows how to say, as Dale is known to do stuff like that too." Skeeter whispered into Doug's ear, just as all of the toddlers congregated beneath the table to talk amongst themselves.
"Wow that's great Skeet. Well, I bet everybody here is starving, and judging by the clock on the wall, we've got about seven minutes before we need to be back at the bus. I'm gonna head over to Zappy Burger and pick up some food to go. Want anything?" Doug asked.
"I want a Whacky meal! I want a Whacky meal!" Angelica screamed at the top of her lungs, interrupting Skeeter's thoughts.
Doug turned towards Angelica, looking less than amused.
"Angelica? What's the magic word?" Doug asked in as calm of a voice as he could master at this point, as he was nearly fed up at the girl, but he didn't wish to blow his top and get so angry at her that she ran off, making it impossible to catch their bus.
"Uh, vencity vinchi?" Angelica asked in a sweet, fake innocent voice, hoping to fool her babysitter who had used those magic words just a few hours before, but apparently, her babysitter wasn't fooled one bit.
Doug shook his head no, hoping his blond headed charge would get the hint that she was incorrect.
"Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?" Angelica asked with a huge smile.
"That's better. I'll go get some food to go. You stay here and watch the kids Skeet." Doug said, leaving the table to go grab some food to go at the Zappy Burger window that was nearby.
He figured Skeeter would eat whatever he ordered, so he'd order two of what he decided to get, and seven Whacky Meals, one for each kid. While he was gone, Skeeter decided to look at his Beets book, as he was near the end of it, and he really wanted to finish the book before the concert, but little did he know he was about to make a terrible mistake, by getting lost in his book and not paying attention to the kids. From beneath the table, the toddlers peered out to look around at all of the sights around them, and take a wiff at the delicious aromas that met their noses. It was at that moment when Tommy glanced in the direction of the arcade, and saw a really neat prize in one of the claw machines. A giant my size stuffed Reptar toy.
"Reptar!" Tommy cried, pointing to the toy.
This got the other toddlers attention, as they saw where Tommy was pointing.
"Woe! That's the biggerest Reptar toy I ever sawed!" Phil exclaimed.
"Yeah! We gotta get it!" Lil added.
"All we gotta do is play the games in there and win the toy! Come on!" Kimi encouraged, standing up and leaving the table, Tommy, Phil and Lil joining up with her, leaving Chuckie in the shadows as usual.
"Wait! Wait! Don't leave me you guys, I'm coming too!" Chuckie cried, catching up to the end of the line, as he tagged after his sister and friends over to the arcade, which luckily at that moment, was more or less, desserted.
"Where'd Reptar go Tommy?" Phil asked, upon them entering the arcade.
Tommy looked around, until he spotted the giant Reptar toy inside one of those claw machines.
"There it is!" Tommy cried, pointing to the claw machine, as he led his friends over to the machine.
Noticing the claw was way up, he had his friends crouch down and pile on top of one another, Chuckie on the bottom, then Phil, then Lil, and then Kimi on top, as Tommy climbed on top of his friends and reached the mechanism that made the claw work. However, just as soon as he tried to move it around, the device locked up.
"Uh oh, it won't move." Tommy said.
"Maybe we need tokens, like that time we had to rescue Taffy from that dragons game." Lil suggested.
"That's a great idea Lil, now to find some tokens. They're round and shiny like dimes, right?" Tommy asked his other friends, as he got back down on the floor and the other toddlers nodded their heads yes, remembering what tokens looked like from the time Taffy took them to the arcade.
At this point, the toddlers split up, looking around for the tokens, only to get distracted by other video games in the process. Chuckie found a game of Space Munks, just like the one Doug played a while back, completely losing track of time when he had a paper due, only it was the arcade version, and continued where another player who had previously left the game had left off. Phil and Lil found those ride in vehicles that go back and force, and lucky for them, somebody had left some tokens outside of the cars, but being more interested in riding in the cars, they incerted the tokens, and barely got inside the two cars before they started moving. Tommy found the actual tokens despenscer, only he was too short to reach where the tokens came out, so he started calling for his friends, but even Kimi got involved finishing off a Dummi Bears video game that somebody had been previously playing and hadn't finished.
"You guys, I founded it!" Tommy called, but likewise, all of his friends were too busy playing other games that had been left unoccupied post inserting tokens to notice Tommy calling for help.
He looked around, hoping to find something to stand on, but didn't have much luck at even moving the trash can over which was close, as it was bolted down to the floor. A few minutes later, Chuckie and Kimi's video games ran out of time, and Phil and Lil's cars stopped, telling them all it was time to go find Tommy, only now, everybody had one problem. They weren't sure which direction to head in.
"Help! Help!" Chuckie screamed, running around in circles near the Space Munks game, hoping somebody would hear him.
"I bet Tommy's back by Reptar waiting for us." Kimi said to herself, noticing the giant Reptar in the claw machine, so ran back over in that direction, only to run into a candy machine on the way.
Upon bumping into it, she knocked a Reptar bar out on to the floor, so picked it up, and started nibbling on her treat, forgetting where she was suppose to be going in the first place, while Phil and Lil, over at the ride in cars, kept arguing over what direction they should head in to find their friends.
"I bet they're by Reptar, come on Lil." Phil said, pointing in the direction of the claw machine.
"Nuh uh Phillip, they're looking for tokens." Lil argued.
"Reptar, Lillian." Phil argued.
"Tokens, Phillip." Lil argued.
"Reptar!" Phil shouted.
"Tokens!" Lil shouted back.
Little did these babies, all currently separated from one another know, that their two babysitters were also looking for them at this point. Doug went up to order his food, when he saw a familiar face behind the counter. A tall boy with yellow skin, an orange mohock, and beneath his Zappy Burger apron, the all too familiar black leather jacket.
"Welcome to Zappy Burger where every meal is a happy surprise, and, why if it isn't Funnie! What brings you to this stop? Too much of a loser to make it all the way to that Beets concert?" Roger asked in his all too familiar high pitched, scratchy voice, laughing at the end of his sentence as usual.
Of all people to run into at the rest stop, why Roger? I wasn't gonna let him get to me though. I figured he was there, trying to make some extra cash, like Skeeter and I were at the Honker Burger, so I decided to just, order my meals like it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Oh, hi Roger, what are you doing working here?" Doug asked.
"Cannit Funnie, can't a guy go spend the Thanksgiving holiday with his dad in Bloatsberg, and make a few extra bucks come the Christmas season, without a Police investigation?" Roger asked.
"Well you're about an hour outside of Bloatsberg." Doug said.
"Yeah yeah yeah, it was the only location that would hire me. Now, what can I get you?" Roger asked.
"Uh, I'll take, seven Whacky Meals, and two Bongo Burgers please." Doug said.
Roger just started laughing at what Doug ordered.
"You're ordering yourself, seven kid's meals? What a loser!" Roger cackcled.
Doug glared at Roger in embarrassment, as he slowly turned his gaze towards his table where Skeeter and Angelica were still sitting, but none of the toddlers were anywhere in sight.
"No Roger, if you must know, I'm babysitting." Doug said, before he gasp when he noticed over fifty percent of his party was missing.
"What's the matter Funnie, you look like you're about to die!" Roger commented, noticing Doug had a shocked worried expression on his face at this point, and was shaking nervously, the color nearly drained from his face.
"Uh, put my orders on hold Roger, I've gotta find them!" Doug cried, running away from the Zappy Burger window, never hearing anymore of Roger's useless comments.
Doug, nearly out of breath returned to the table to sure enough, only find Dil still sitting in his double stroller, sucking on a pacifier, Angelica sitting at the table coloring in a Cynthia coloringbook she had brought with her, and Skeeter, still buried inside his Beets book, but looking around the table, he couldn't spot any sight of Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, or Kimi anywhere. Realizing this, and noticing that their bus would be leaving in two minutes when looking up at a clock on the wall, Doug nudged Skeeter in the ribs to get his attention.
"Ow!" Skeeter cried, glancing quickly up from his book to see Doug to the left of him.
"Doug, what are you doing?" Skeeter asked.
"Skeet, enough with your Beets book." Doug snapped.
"But Doug, I'm near the end! Chap Lipman is about to…" Skeeter started to say before Doug cut him off.
"Where are the kids? Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi are gone!" Doug cried, interrupting Skeeter's sentence.
The blue skinned boy threw down his book on to the table and glanced around frantically, but couldn't see them anywhere.
"Oh my gosh! Come on Doug, we've gotta find them!" Skeeter cried, standing up from his seat at the table.
"Come on Dil and Angelica, let's go." Doug demanded, grabbing Angelica's hand, while Skeeter grabbed up the two strollers and the diaper bags.
"But I was almost done with my picture!" Angelica cried.
"Now!" Doug snapped, snatching up Skeeter's book and Angelica's coloringbook, stashing them away in his backpack, and together, the crew left the table, in search of the missing toddlers.
"Okay Skeet, where do you think the kids would most likely disappear to in a place like this?" Doug asked.
Skeeter looked around, when the entrance of the arcade caught his attention, as he saw the game for Space Munks in there.
"Oh my goodness Doug! They have the Space Munks video game in there!" Skeeter cried.
"Skeet, we don't have time to play some video game right now, but wait! You just gave me an idea! Skeeter! What if the kids went in there to play?" Doug asked.
"You're probably right Doug, let's go!" Skeeter cried, as everybody ran towards the arcade.
"Like those dumb babies would know anything about video games." Angelica thought, as she wasn't with the gang when Taffy took the kids to an arcade, so had no idea of their experience.
Sure enough, as soon as they got inside the arcade, Skeeter broke away from Doug's hand and ran towards the Space Munks video game, when he nearly tripped over a small child who had bumped into him. He stared down to see it was a little boy with long uncontrollable red hair wearing purple square rimmed glasses. Then it hit him who he had run into.
"Chuckie! I'm so glad we found you!" Skeeter cried.
"No!" Chuckie said with a smile, grabbing Skeeter's hand, as he led him back over to where Doug and Angelica were waiting.
"Okay Doug, I found Chuckie, now, only four more toddlers to go." Skeeter said.
At that moment, Kimi overheard Skeeter say Chuckie's name, and ran in the direction of his voice. Before Skeeter could head off to find the other kids, he felt somebody bump into the back of him. He turned around to see that it was Kimi.
"Kimi, is that you?" Skeeter asked.
"Uh huh!" Kimi cried excitedly, giggling and reaching up to grab Skeeter's hand.
Skeeter high fived the Japanese toddler, than handed her over to her brother.
"Here, you stay here with your brother while I go find Tommy, Phil and Lil." Skeeter said.
While Kimi really wanted to help Skeeter look for them, she knew that she'd better stay put with her brother, so obeyed her babysitter, while he went off looking for the others.
"Hurry Skeet, we've only got ten seconds to make it back to the bus!" Doug called, glancing up at a clock in the arcade that told him the time, but it was no use.
By this time, Tommy had wandered away from the tokens machine, looking for his friends, when he overheard Phil and Lil arguing over by the cars, so he headed in that direction to catch up to his arguing friends.
"You guys, have you seen Chuckie and Kimi?" Tommy asked.
"No." Phil and Lil said in unison.
"Well come on you guys, we gotta find them, they might be in trouble!" Tommy cried, grabbing Phil and Lil's hands and running through the arcade.
"Chuckie! Kimi!" Phil, Lil, and Tommy all cried out in unison, but it was no use.
The arcade was noisy enough as it was for anybody to hear their name being called. Just then, Skeeter was also circling the arcade quickly, hoping to find his three missing charges, when he nearly toppled over on top of the three toddlers, landing on the floor of the arcade, face first. Skeeter sat up on his knees, rubbing his forehead where he had hit the floor, creating a giant bruise there, then looked to see that Tommy, Phil and Lil were before him.
"Oh my goodness! Tommy! Phil! Lil! I'm so glad we found you! I found them Doug, honk honk! I think we'll make it!" Skeeter yelled, snatching up Tommy, Phil and Lil and despite scraping his knees upon landing on the hard arcade floor, and being nearly out of breath at this point, he hurried back over to where Doug, Chuckie, Kimi, and Dil were waiting, but he noticed that now, Angelica was missing.
"I found the other babies, but where did Angelica go?" Skeeter asked.
"I don't know Skeet, but since you found everybody else, I'll go find Angelica. Whatever you all do, don't leave." Doug demanded, as Skeeter got Tommy, Phil and Lil strapped into their strollers, figuring they'd have a harder time getting away if he got them strapped into their strollers.
Doug ran around the arcade, looking everywhere for Angelica, until he found her at some skiball machine.
"Angelica, it's time to go." Doug called, but Angelica was too engrossed into her game to pay any attention.
"Go away mister I'm busy." Angelica demanded.
"Angelica, it's Doug, and we need to be going, now!" Doug snapped.
Angelica turned around and glared up at him.
"Oh, hello Doug Nancy Runny." Angelica said teasingly.
Doug simply rolled his eyes at her, as he grabbed the blond's hand and drug her back over to where Skeeter and the other toddlers were waiting.
"All right, let's hope the bus was late leaving this time Skeet, everybody, outside." Doug demanded, as everybody made their way to the exit of the rest stop.
While Skeeter and I managed to find all of the kids inside the arcade and get outside, sadly, we were too late.
When they got outside, the spot where the bus had been was completely deserted, and there was hardly a person in sight.
"Uh oh." Doug and Skeeter said in unison.
"After all of that, and we missed our bus again." Skeeter said in a sad tone of voice.
So now what will happen? Will the gang find another way to the Beets concert? Will they make it in time? Or will they remain stranded at the rest stop? Find out, in the next chapter!
Author's Note: I made a reference in this chapter to the season 9 Rugrats episode, 'Diapies and Dragons,' when Taffy took the babies to the arcade, and the babies think she got trapped inside a video game, and imagine themselves in the game, trying to rescue her. Also, we learned that Roger's parents are divorced and his dad lives in Bloatsburg in the episode, 'Doug and Patti P.I.' When Roger was upset that his dad wasn't around to do the wheelbarrel race and attempted to sabotage the race by steeling the bumper stickers. Also, just as I've had Chuckie speak to Doug and Skeeter using the only word he knew in the series post 'Rugrats in Paris,' noticed how we heard Kimi say, "Uh huh," several times to her mommy and daddy during season 7? I thought again, I'd have her speak to Skeeter, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to have her do that. Also, I recall Angelica getting Tommy to play a skiball game for her in the season 7 episode, 'Sister Act,' and I believe she also played that at Piggy's Pizza Palace in the season 5 episode of the same name, trying to win enough tickets for the Cynthia Drive Away Dream Car, and so, I thought it might be interesting for her to sneak off and find the same game at this arcade as well. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and be looking for more chapters, coming soon!