Of all of the times he had to be hungry, why now? Normally his stomach wouldn't growl when he played sports with his friends or exercising to keep his weight down. Oh, and there was that time when Stoop Kid chased him down the block when he made fun of him after he got back from a trip to his uncle and aunt out in Michigan. Hey, how was he supposed to know? He left shortly after he and the others made fun of the guy for being afraid to leave his stoop in the first place. Then again he did have some sort of berry ice cream before he walked by.
Anyway, it obviously wasn't the right time to eat. He was sweating a bit even though he didn't have to. But boy, Sid and Stinky sure could get on his nerves. The three of them made a good trio most of the time. They got along well enough that they all would get in trouble together just so they could stick by one another. Of course though there were times where he felt left out like the time they wouldn't let him play with them or the time they made fun of his weight. But some good came out of those he guessed. He wouldn't have met the kitten Cupcake who belonged to that mean old lady or realized that he didn't need the approval of others to like him. Nope. He was just Harold – a kid who liked taking on challenges. Of course at that time, it was a perfect example.
"Come on Harold! Are you afraid you'll fall?" yelled Sid. Everyone had said goodbye to their families less than an hour ago at the airport entrance. And although he hated to admit it to himself, it was still hard to breathe from his mom's hugs and her cries about missing him and blah blah blah. His dad tried to calm her down, but she yelled back at him. Harold knew he was going to miss his mommy while he was in San Lorenzo. Even if she embarrassed him sometimes, he still loved her.
"Yeah Harold, are you some sort of chicken?" Stinky said. Oh, chicken. Tender, warm, grilled…wait a minute! He stopped thinking about food for the moment as he looked at his friends. They smirked at him, wondering if the race was on or not. Everyone was on the moving sidewalks in the airport now, after dealing with the annoying security guards. And of course, he and those two were in the back of the group because they couldn't help but stop and stare at the screens of random football games. Fall was fall, and now even with Halloween being over yesterday, the sport was shown everywhere – he could tell that there were a lot of replays of his favorite games.
He tightly gripped on his heavy blue suitcase. "No I'm not! You guys are on!" Somehow they managed to squeeze side by side together on the moving floor. Sid had a smaller suitcase than Harold did, and it was white to match his beetle boats. Stinky had a long brown backpack over his shoulders. But he wasn't worried. Chances were that between the two of his friends, they probably packed more stuff than he did. The good thing about having his mom was that she forced him to pack only the essentials for the trip.
Glancing at each other, Harold took his role. "One, two," and he knew that his other classmates would be mad at him later for doing this, "three!" They were definitely running down the walkway, bumping into the occasional grouchy person whether that was their fault or not if those people were already upset enough. But it was hard to tell who they had run into after a minute or so because they knew that they had ran in front of their other friends, causing everyone to bump into the sides.
He guessed Helga must have been standing right in the middle because he pushed her out of the way first since he was in the lead. He could hear her stumble a bit and Phoebe asking her if she was alright. He smirked to himself. He was going to win alright even if it knocked him out before they got on the plane. "Hey you morons! What's with you guys? We're in an airport so stop running unless it's an emergency! " Helga shouted, "And it's not! Crimeny!" He couldn't see her since he was looking ahead, but he could still hear Olga trying to tell Helga off. Served her right for being so mean all of the time."Now, baby sister, don't say those little nasty things to your friends silly."
Harold couldn't hear the rest of the conversation after that, but he didn't care. It wasn't his business anyways. Next thing he knew Stinky had gotten the lead because he got distracted by what happened back there. He was breathing heavy too. Actually, it was probably the longest moving sidewalk in the world because it didn't seem to end. He still kept bumping into people, even Eugene and Sheena. Well, mainly it was Eugene. But bad stuff like that always happened to him. Hah! He even had Sheena as his nurse basically since the beginning of last year of school. But he still had to win no matter what the cost was.
Next, he could tell that Curly must have been preaching about something random, possibly on how he had plans to overthrow Principal Wartz again when they got back from this trip, because he held his fist up in the air as he posed and laughed manically. He was weird. Most of the time Harold just wanted to avoid him, but in this case he couldn't help it. He continued running after Stinky while Sid was still luckily behind him. Pushing Curly aside, he managed to get the boy to bump into Rhonda. Oh man, this was too good to be true! "Well, well, well my darling. It seems that fate has plans for us to be joined together for all eternity. Does it not?" Harold could only imagine what Curly was doing. He probably was leaning on the girl who as always was disgusted by his tries. And she had no other way to go too. "Ewww, get off of me you piece of filth! Principal Wartz!"
Oh man, he forgot about the adults.
He, Sid, and Stinky all were running close together at this point. But they didn't realize how close they were until they ran into a couple of people and landed on the walk. They all had hit their heads, and Harold just wished that he would black out because he knew who they were. He didn't need to open his eyes to know that because Mr. Simmons and Principal Wartz were already scolding them. "You three! How dare you do this in a public airport! You could have seriously injured somebody! Now what in the world-" He was cut off by their teacher who thankfully helped them up. His head still ached, but it would probably be better soon, after he had something to eat of course.
Mr. Simmons dusted off their shoulders as they gathered their things. He looked at the other man, "Principal Wartz, calm down," he turned with disappointment which suddenly made Harold feel guilty. And his friends looked guilty too. "What I believe he is trying to ask is why did you do that? He does have a point you know. You ran into your friends over some race?" They had to admit that was true. If not, it would come close to the mooning incident they pulled before where they tried their best not to get caught. Of course it did almost ruin Arnold's record…So they nodded, but didn't say anything. Their teacher sighed, as they finally came off of the moving sidewalk.
Harold felt a little dizzy from the fact that he was standing fully still again. But Sid and Stinky felt the same way too because they kept wobbling side to side. "Well, obviously coming from me, I'm not surprised that you would do that. And since we are going on this trip, it's more reasonable to say that you are pretty excited to be leaving. Just," he stared at the three of them, "don't do this sort of thing when we get down there. We are going into a new culture and they don't know our ways of life. You might scare them." He hadn't thought about that. But they weren't even on the plane yet! So why should it matter?
Suddenly, Harold raised his brow as he saw that Sid shot up his hand like they were in class. He rolled his eyes. This had better be good. Otherwise he'd have to pound him in the next restroom if he said something stupid. Mr. Simmons stepped back, but smiled. What? They hadn't even said that they were sorry yet and already he forgave them? Man, he was a pushover! "Um, Mr. Simmons, how much longer are we from getting to the plane?" Wow. That was the question? How pathetic it seemed to him. It was only…uhh….
They started to follow their classmates, Olga, and Principal Wartz down the airport. His teacher held on to his two brown suitcases as the wheels rolled. "Well Sid, we actually are here already," looking at his ticket and back up, "Gate C6. Paraíso Costa, San Lorenzo." It was down on the right, and his classmates were messing around on the seats, looking out the windows, or just talking in general. Apparently his friends must have run over to others because Harold found himself being the only one next to the teacher. Oh man….now he would be called teacher's pet. He looked at the planes on both sides of theirs, but they were a lot bigger. Glancing up at his teacher, Harold had to ask. "Um, Mr. Simmons," he felt stupid for asking this. Harold frowned. The person beside him looked down to him, still smiling. It was creepy how he kept doing that all of the time.
"Yes Harold?" They had reached the edge of their gate and set their bags down. Man that suitcase was heavy and the chair was uncomfortable. No wonder why most of his friends decided to stand up. The boy faced the window, still puzzled by what he had to ask. He turned back to Mr. Simmons, who pulled out a Persons Magazine. "Why is our plane a lot smaller than the other ones?"
His teacher gestured to the window on the left. "Well, you see Harold, our plane has less people going on it. Mainly because it is actually for us since Arnold won the contest. The organization arranged it for us since the other airport is about three hours out of the way and they didn't want to bother us by having your parents drive all of the way out there and all of the way back. So they arranged it to take off here." That made sense. But why would Arnold choose a stupid country like San Lorenzo? He never heard about the country before. He could have picked someplace else that was cooler. Like China! Yes…oh Chinese food…sweet and sour…wait a minute.
Harold sat up and looked straight ahead. Even with all of those annoying people around, he could definitely tell who it was over there. He had to admit, the sunlight did help too. She wasn't facing him, but he recognized her parents. He only met them a couple of times at her house when she helped him learn new techniques for the arm wrestling tournament, but it was definitely Patty!
He didn't bother to tell Mr. Simmons where he was going – he was too absorbed with reading about some random famous person who probably got arrested. He shrugged and stood up and went over to her. He looked behind his shoulder, hoping that Sid and Stinky wouldn't notice him. They always made fun of him when it came to Patty. But of course he hadn't seen her for a long time. Now that she was in the seventh grade, she went to Hillwood Junior High. And that was pretty much across town. So if the guys bothered him about it he'd sock them in their faces.
Getting around the occasional person who had been waiting to board at C5 to someplace in California, Patty and her parents were at C4. He tugged his shirt, even though he knew it was going to show his stomach not matter what. He wanted to so her how strong he had gotten since he left, not how fat he was. Turning to his left, she and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were sitting next to each other. Her dad was reading the newspaper while she and her mom were knitting. Wow, he didn't know that she did that.
He felt nervous. He hadn't seen her in a long time. Would she still like him? What would he say to her? Shuffling his feet, he stood a few feet away from them. "Hey Patty." That was all he said and she looked up. She set aside her stuff and she smiled. That was good. She didn't forget him. "Hey Harold. Mom, Dad," she nudged them in the side, making him laugh, "Harold's here." They twitched too - which made it all the more fun.
Also, it finally dawned that unlike him Patty looked different. She looked nice. Her hair was still the same, but without the blue bow. Oh and she still had her skirt and shoes, but she had a light blue T-shirt and a gold pin on it. Harold smiled – she won that from the wrestling tournament. And of course she deserved it. She was the best.
Well her dad set down the newspaper and her mom put away the rest of their knitting stuff too. Mr. Smith held out his hand. "Hey Harold, how have you been? It's been awhile. How's school?" Patty nodded when she stood up and shook his shoulder. And it was great just seeing her again for Harold. But for some reason, his muscles tightened around where she touched him. He didn't know what to make of it either. All he knew was that it didn't hurt. It actually felt nice.
"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you," she started rubbing her arm. Was she nervous too? "So are you flying out like we are?" Harold nodded. "Yeah, actually all of us are." He pointed his hand over to where everyone else was, doing different things that he still could care less about. When he lowered his hand, he continued, "You see Arnold won this contest so now the whole class is flying to San Lorenzo on some sort of class trip." The boy felt proud of himself too. Patty probably had never left the country before. He put both of his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. Patty laughed, making Harold feel even better that he made her feel happier. "That's cool. I hope you guys have a good time." Suddenly the sunlight came through the windows a lot brighter, and she actually looked even nicer. Wow, that was strange to admit.
But it was true. "Thanks Patty. So," he turned to her parents, "where are you guys going to?" It still seemed funny how they ran into each other at the airport basically at the same time. Mrs. Smith smiled, even though she was the only one sitting. "Well, we're heading off to see my sister. She had a little baby girl and we wanted to congratulate her." Mr. Smith continued, "Yes. But our flight is delayed for another hour so we are just waiting for now." Harold nodded, but he was still confused about something. Looking over to the monitor for Gate C4, he asked, "Well, um, Phoenix is a long way from here..Um I think?" He hated to admit that he blushed from embarrassment. He still didn't do that well in Geography class. Lucky for him Patty saved his butt by nodding. "Yeah, it's a couple of hours away. Although I'm sure that yours will be longer. Since you are flying straight there it will probably stop a couple of times because that's about sixty hours or a couple of days for you." She frowned a bit, but he could tell that she was about to laugh at any second.
But what she said caused his headache from earlier to come back and he brought his hands to his head. He shut his eyes. "Oh, man! Why does this-" Then the intercom came on, shaking him, Patty, and her parents. "Flight number 6934 to Paraíso Costa, San Lorenzo is now boarding." Harold's eyes then shot open. Since he had no time left to talk, he did the only thing he could do until the next time he saw Patty. He hugged her, thankful that she hugged back.
"I'm so sorry Patty," he didn't want to let go of her. Besides Stinky and Sid, Patty was the only other one that understood him. Of course he knew that she wouldn't be there much longer either. But he had to go. "I didn't think that we would have to leave so soon." He really did feel bad. And he stopped smiling. When Patty pulled away from him, it seemed to hurt more.
"That's ok Harold," he could tell that she was the one who was trying to cheer him up, "When we both get back here, do you want to go to the boardwalk and go for another round of arm wrestling?" she asked. Stepping back, he blushed again. Why was he feeling like this? Especially in front of her parents? Well, at least they weren't overreacting like his mom would. He already had enough of that. But what she offered to him seemed good enough to make up for it. Harold nodded. "Yeah Patty, that sounds great." He backed away. "Well, um, I'll see you later! And it was nice seeing you Mr. and Mrs. Smith!"
Woah, where did that come from?
All three of them sat down in their seats and waved to Harold as he went back to the others. This time he actually made sure that he didn't run into random people. After all, there were old people and kids younger than he was. He walked very fast too, but at least he didn't run. The weird thing was that by the time he got there, no one had boarded yet. Slowing down, Harold could hear the shouts of his friends as they gathered around Mr. Simmons and Principal Wartz in groups.
"Sheena, here you go. Here's your ticket," Mr. Simmons told her. Looking down, and then looking up around the place he asked, "Has anyone seen Harold? Anyone?" Oh Madame Fortress Mommy, he was panicking. Harold rolled his eyes as he pushed Lorenzo and Nadine out of his way. He held out his hand. "Sorry about that Mr. Simmons," he shut his eyes as he heard some of the others gasp. Were they that surprised that he apologized to a teacher? When he opened his eyes again, he finished. "I saw an old friend of mine and I wanted to talk to them." He smiled at the thought. He was going to miss her. Well, it was good that Mr. Simmons believed him. Otherwise he might have had to stay in Hillwood – away from his friends and probably doing chores for his mommy. "Well, Harold, thanks for telling me. At least you're here so here's your ticket." He handed him the piece of paper and Harold shrugged, trying to play cool when he knew he was really excited. He was leaving this crazy country! Maybe San Lorenzo wouldn't be so bad…
He went around Gerald and Arnold, who were talking to each other of course. They always did. Even though Harold went for his blue suitcase, he did see that Arnold was practically on his toes. He must have been really excited like he was or something. Then again Arnold did choose to go to the country. He must like the food there. He couldn't think of anything else.
Once he had his bag, he could hear Sid and Stinky talking a few feet away. He turned and saw them snickering at him. What did he do? His eyebrow furrowed as he went over to them. Although it was getting louder now that they were about to get on the plane, he could still manage to listen in on what they were saying. He was right behind them too. In fact, they were in front of everyone else to board. The airport lady stood by the table as the ticket checker. As his friends got theirs checked, he heard Sid laugh. "Yeah, poor Harold. He probably likes Patty so much that he made a date with her when we get back! Hah!" What? Harold was getting angrier by each word that idiot said. He and Patty didn't make a date! They just made plans to arm wrestle and go to the boardwalk. That's all. What were they thinking?
After he had his ticket checked by the woman taking care of it, saying the standard "Enjoy your flight." and "Thank you", Harold ran with his stuff down the long hallway. "Hey you guys!" Deciding not to tell them what he heard, because he honestly didn't want them telling him that he can't be friends with a girl like Patty again, he thought that he would get them back in another way.
Stinky turned around after grabbing Sid's shoulder to get his attention too. "Hey Harold!" he snickered, "What do you want?" But that didn't bother him. Gripping onto his bag he asked, "We didn't finish our race back there and Wartz and Simmons are still handing out tickets. They won't see us." Sid and Stinky looked at each other worried as Harold smirked. The guilt ate up at them at first, but then they would follow his orders. "Well, what if we get caught?" Stinky asked. Harold shook his head, pretending to be annoyed. But just in case he turned his head to see that Lila and Nadine were walking down with Rhonda. Oh man…
He shoved them a bit to face the end that took them to the plane. "Oh come on you guys. We won't get caught. After all it's only going to be a minute race. And we can even jump over that space you know – the one in between this walkway and the plane. Whoever gets there first and makes the biggest jump is the winner. Ok?" He patted their shoulders with a grin. He couldn't see their faces because he was looking down the hall, but he could tell that they nodded.
"Yeah, you're right Harold. This is going to be great." Sid said lowly. Harold nodded next. Letting go of them, they kneeled on the ground into their starting position. Lowering their heads he calmly began, "Once again, one, two, three, go!" And they were off. Harold knew he had the lead this time again. He had this whole thing planned out. He had run so much in the past, a lot of the time when he was scared of something or someone, so he used that as motivation. Because of that he had to say one thing. Not shout it with Mr. Simmons and Principal Wartz behind them, but say it. "Ahhhh! Mommy!"
And he felt like he was flying. Oh yeah, he felt stupid, he was going to fly pretty soon. Oh well, he was winning so what was the matter? He could see the end and was almost at the turn to the left. Then the worst thing happened to him – he tripped. And Harold knew where he went wrong the moment he hit the ground. He didn't tie his shoes that morning because his mother was in such a rush to get to the airport that it never occurred to him. Oh man he was so stupid! "Hah! See you on the plane Harold!" Sid shouted, obviously ahead of him. Ughhh…He knew he scraped his knee since it happened a lot before. It felt sore, causing the rest of his race to end up a lot slower than he wanted. His right foot dragged the floor. Up ahead, Harold could see Stinky made his big jump over to the plane. With no Sid there, he must have won the race. That idiot…
Harold went toward the plane but stopped. Looking down at the floor and the gap to the plane, he smiled. He may have lost the race with Sid and Stinky but that didn't mean that he couldn't jump it. Backing up about three feet, he ran two steps and made his leap over to the plane. And it turned out successful – well for the most part anyway. He made the jump without falling again, but he hit the other side of the entrance. "Ouch." He hit his nosey. Now it was becoming red. He was leaning against the wall, and hearing his friends laugh at him, when he heard something that crinkled when it landed on his hat. Harold raised his brow and used his left hand to grab what was there. The immediate crunch that followed made the boy smile again – oh sweet potato chips. Alright!
Keeping it in his hand, he ran into the airplane. There were three blue seats on each side with every row. He was surprised. The seats looked a lot bigger than he figured. When he went to Michigan, the seats were a lot smaller and the arms hit him in his stomach. This, this was cool. But where was he supposed to sit? He scratched his head all confused. Then he felt something scratch it. "Huh?" Harold looked down. His ticket! That's right, he forgot all about it with the race. Lifting it up to his eyes, it said "Seat: 6F". Ok, so he was in the sixth row on the left side.
"Hey Harold! Over here!" Sid shot a paper airplane toward him. Of course Sid did that all of the time in class, so it was nothing new to him. Rolling his eyes, he frowned as the pathetic toy landed two seats in front of him. Still carrying his suitcase, he went down the tight aisle to his seat. It was a kind of sad thing for Harold because even though he was happy with his weight, he was still too big to sit by the window. He never got to. But he accepted it. At least he had some chips.
Apparently Sid and Stinky were in the same row as him. Sid got the window seat and Stinky got the middle, which meant he would have to sit on the aisle seat. Oh well, more leg room for him. When he reached his friends, Stinky stepped out. "Here, let me help Harold. I didn't think that you and Sid could reach the shelves up above us for our stuff, so I thought I could help. Do you mind?" He turned and unlocked the compartment above them. Finally, at least Stinky was nice enough. Harold nodded as he handed him the luggage. "Thanks Stinky."
He nodded too. "You're welcome Harold. We could talk until this here plane takes off because I think Sid is getting carried away with them paper airplanes." His friend took his seat and Harold sat next to him. Wow, the seats were bigger. That was great. He pulled out his chips and opened the bag. Looking at them, they were obviously Cool Ranch flavored. Ohhh…He took a bite. Now his headache was gone. And Sid did seem a little caught up with whatever he was doing. And Stinky seemed to have a Yahoo Soda. He must have found one when he came on the plane too. He seemed thirsty a lot. He mainly drank lemonade, milk, or Yahoo. Harold had to admit he was impressed. Stinky never took anything without permission unless he was following his orders. He knew there was a reason why he liked Stinky.
"Sure I guess. So," he ate a chip, "You ever heard of San Lorenzo Stinky?" he asked. He could see Rhonda coming up on the plane with Brainy behind her. Finally, everyone was getting on! When would they get out of there? He was ready to leave! Well for the most part, but he wasn't going to say that of course. Stinky shook his head. "No, although Arnold sure must have," he leaned forward, "He seemed rather excited I think about winning this here contest. I don't think I had ever seen him so happy before either." Harold agreed. Arnold was a good friend. And yeah he made threats to Arnold and made fun of him sometimes, but it was all for fun. He was pretty sure that most of the others hadn't heard of the country before, so where had his classmate heard of it? Maybe it was Geography class. But he must know something about it. Ughhh, it was too much thinking for him. He nodded. "Yeah, maybe it's because of the food." Stinky laughed. What did he say? "Oh, Harold. That would be you're reason if you won the contest. But I think," and he pointed to himself with his left hand, "it's something else." Harold didn't get it. What was there -
"Ahhh! Get away from me Curly! Now!" He and Stinky looked in front of them. Rhonda was right in front of Stinky's seat even though he could only see the back of her head. And Curly was in front of her, leaning over the back of his seat giving her air kisses. Harold wrinkled his nose – disgusting. Who'd want to kiss a girl? "Come on Rhonda, why won't you sit with me? You'd have a better time if I sat there with you."She backed even further in her seat. "Because you piece of filth, I reserved this row all to myself courtesy of my parents. So I'm in charge of this row and I say hands off! And don't you even try kissing me, hugging me, touching me, talking to me, and especially kissing me!" Harold ignored the rest after that. It was just like her to do something stupid like that. Curly would never stop.
All he could hear next was annoying giggles. Oh man, who was it now? He tapped Stinky on his arm and they turned down the plane. They could only make out Olga, who was in the row across from Curly. He could hear Stinky mutter. "Wow, who knew Helga's sister could look there mighty pretty." Eh, to Harold she was okay. The laughing was a problem; but he could deal with it, especially since she embarrassed Helga with that bed-wetter story last year. Hah! Another way to get back at Helga – by humiliating her.
Harold reached down and expected to take another handful of chips, only to realize that he already ate them all without knowing it. And he was still hungry. That sucked. He frowned. He turned back to Stinky, but he was looking at something else. He turned around only to see Sheena running by with Eugene in her arms flying him in the air. "Wow Sheena this is so much fun! Keep it going! This is sure to help with getting me used to the flight's turbulence so I don't get sick! Thanks ag- Woah!" He crash landed in front of Mr. Simmons who was in the second row on Harold's side."Ouch," he smiled as he rubbed his head when he was on the floor, "I'm okay." Sheena immediately sat next to him as well as their teacher. "Oh my Eugene! Are you sure?" she asked. Eugene nodded. "Yeah actually I'm really fine-"
The speaker came on."We are sorry to report a small technical difficult with the plane. Rest assured none of you will have to leave. But we will have a short delay." Harold, along with everyone else groaned. He mumbled, "Madame Fortress Mommy." This sucked. Principal Wartz sat in the second row too, only across from Mr. Simmons. But he didn't bother to stand up. He looked tired with that eye patch covering his eyes. "Will all of you be quiet? They are fixing it right now so-"
"In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy listening to the radio I had set up. Enjoy and thank you for choosing our flight. We hope to arrive to Paraíso Costa as soon as possible."
"One, two. One, two, three, four!"
Then the music came on. And it was actually one of Harold's favorite songs too. It was cool. He listened to it with his dad all of the time. He just leaned back and watched everyone's reactions to it. He should have seen it coming too.
Eugene had stood up in the front and everyone else just sat down, knowing that they were going to get a show. He started doing some pretty good air guitar actually and lip-syncing this time.
"Some lovers just rely on their hearts
The core cold remains of what began with a passionate start"
Eugene stepped in front of Wartz leaning in closely. Of course, he wanted everyone to join in.
"And they may not want it to end
But it will, it's just a question of when
I've lived long enough to have learned
The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned"
He poked their principal. It must have been the music because normally he would not allow someone to do that. Then he stepped aside and used his hand as a microphone.
"But that won't happen to us
'Cause it's always been a matter of trust"
He did the air guitar all of the way over to Olga and Helga.
"I know you're an emotional girl
It took a lot for you to not lose your faith in this world"
He kept leaning in between the two of them.
"I can't offer you proof
But you're gonna face a moment of truth
It's hard when you're always afraid"
Harold smirked when he saw Helga pushing his face out of hers because he was really coming too close. It was confusing though. Helga actually seemed scared before she did that. It was like the day he laughed at her and Brainy in art class.
"You just recover when another belief is betrayed
So break my heart if you must"
Eugene walked away still looking at them, pressing his hand against his chest as if he had a little bitty broken heart. Good acting.
"It's a matter of trust"
He turnedand walked behind Brainy's row. At this point everyone was getting caught up, even him, in Eugene's performance.
"You can't go the distance
With too much resistance
I know you have doubts
But for God's sake don't shut me out"
He stepped on top of one of the seats like some sort of rock star. Actually, it was really cool. He kept pointing to everyone. Some had to turn in their seats to see what he was doing. But Harold had the best seat since he was basically right next to him. He could feel Stinky shake his shoulder with excitement as Sid tossed a paper airplane that missed Eugene by an inch! That never happened before!
"This time you've got nothing to lose
You can take it, you can leave it, whatever you choose
I won't hold back anything
And I'll walk away a fool or a king"
He got back on the ground and tried to pop the collar of his shirt.
"Some lovers love is just rely on their minds
It's make believe until it's only a matter of time
And some might have learned to adjust
But then it never was a matter of trust"
He did another backwards air guitar down the aisle to where he started from. He was doing that really hard and some of his classmates started tapping to it or shaking their fists for the fun of it.
Then he leaned on Curly's shoulder and gestured to Rhonda. Oh boy.
"I'm sure you're aware love,
We've both had our share of believing too long
When the whole situation was wrong"
Eugene stepped away and did the backward walk again with the spread out his arms and stopped by Gerald's row. Pulling himself left to right, it was like he was in the middle of a tug-of-war game or something.
"Some lovers love is just rely on their souls
A constant battle for the ultimate state of control"
He started pointing at everyone again and shrugged his shoulders.
"After you've heard lie upon lie
There can hardly be a question of why"
He went over to the seat across from Gerald's row and stood up on the seat. He did a bunch of dramatic poses and would reach out between him and everyone else. Harold knew the song was coming to a close, but it was a great thing to watch.
Everyone else could also tell it was ending because they already starting clapping! Even Mr. Simmons and Principal Wartz were doing it too! Harold joined in of course. Or else he would be an idiot.
"Some lovers just rely on their hearts
The core cold remains of what began with a passionate start
But that can't happen to us
'Cause it's always been a matter of trust"
He did his last air guitar.
And they all cheered.
"It's a matter of trust
It's always been a matter of trust
It's a matter of trust"
"Ladies and Gentleman, we are now ready to lift off. So if you could buckle yourselves up we will be ready to go to Paraíso Costa, San Lorenzo. We hope you enjoy your flight."
Everyone cheered at the news.
Finally! Bye American food and Hello..um..What kind of nickname does the food at San Lorenzo have again?
Thank you guys for reading this! The song is A Matter Of Trust by Billy Joel. And the inspiration for the arrangement of the students/teachers on the plane was inspired by the picture "To San Lorenzo We Go" by Sofy-Senpai on Deviantart.
Therefore, I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE MUSIC, THE ARTWORK THAT INSPIRED THIS CHAPTER, OR THE CHARACTERS/SHOW (THEY BELONG TO NICKELODEON AND CRAIG BARTLETT)