Special thanks to Denouncingwhalesofvenice for being co-writer of this episode of Duckie and Tammy!

These characters don't belong to me, they belong to Martin Walls and his video called The Mysterious House. The only characters that I own are characters that aren't in The Mysterious House or the unnamed character's headcanon names.

Duckie is a proud yet cautious young duck. As many know, he's constantly hanging out with his friends, more particularly, Tammy. He and her practically do everything together.

One day though, Tammy called Duckie through telephone. Duckie picked it up.

"Hello?" asked Duckie. "Hey Duckie *cough cough*" Tammy coughed. "Woah Tammy, are you okay?" "Yeah *cough* I'm fine." "You don't sound it." "Well, I am feeling kind of sick *cough cough* today. You probably won't see me for a few days, or a week at most. *cough cough cough*" "Really? Aww, dang. I know this isn't your first time being absent from school, but what am I going to do?" "I don't know, hang out with our friends. You can trust Angelo, Jessie, Porter, Rex, and Johnny." "Right." "*cough cough* I gotta go, I need to rest up for now, but I'll see you when I get better." "Alright, see ya Tammy." "See ya Duckie."

The two hung up their phones. Duckie felt really unsure what he was gonna be able to do with himself until Tammy got better. "Oh come on Duckie!" he said to himself, "Your being too hard on yourself! You'll do fine without Tammy." Deep down though, he doubted himself. Even with having his other friends, he still felt unconfident.

The day started off like any other day. Duckie took the bus to school, put his bag and stuff in his locker, and go to his first class of the day. The only difference was Tammy wasn't in today.

When everyone went to their seats, Duckie's friends noticed that Tammy wasn't in and Duckie quieter than usual. "Is anyone seeing this?" asked Angelo. "What?" asked Porter. "Look at Duckie," said Angelo, "He looks a little down. I think I know why too." "All because Tammy's not in?" said Porter, "You think he'd get used to it by now." "Think of it Porter," said Rex, "That's like me being absent and you having to fend for yourself. After all, you would literally be crying at times if I wasn't around for less than two days." Porter didn't say a word after that.

"Tammy is absent, huh?" Johnny asked, in which everybody nodded, "Aww, I feel for Duckie." "I know, I'll tell him some jokes!" said Jessie. But before she could go over to Duckie, Angelo stopped her. "Jessie, please don't," said Angelo, "Maybe I should say something."

Angelo walked up to Duckie. "Hey Duckie," he said. "Oh, hey Angelo," replied Duckie, "How's it going?" "I'm doing fine, yourself?" "I guess I'm doing...alright." "Tammy's sick, isn't she?" asked Angelo, in which Duckie nodded in response, "I understand why your down, but look on the bright side, you got us when she isn't around."

Just then the teacher came in. "Good morning class," Mrs. Conway said, "Open up your math books to page 16 as we are going to get onto the more interesting side of math." Angelo sat back down in his seat, hoping Duckie would take his advice. Unfortunately though, that didn't seem to be the case.

Later in the day when it was lunch time, Duckie sat by himself. It wasn't very clear as to why he did so, but what was clear was Duckie didn't seem to take Angelo's advice. Maybe he thought he'd be fine by himself, but nobody knew except for himself.

The next day, Duckie was hoping Tammy would come in, but she didn't. So he believed the cycle would pretty much be the same as yesterday. Being a loner for almost the entire day. However, things would be different.

Since Tammy wasn't around, Duckie was more susceptible to things. More specifically, the bullies of the school. First starting off with his locker being glued shut by whoever, which ment he had to carry his bag all the day. Then a group grabbed his bag, opened the zipper, and made everything fall out, before they ran off to their next class. Then finally, he was harassed by some bullies near the end of the day as it was getting close for those to go home.

All the while, not wanting to hang around the others or tell them what's going on. This worried Angelo and the others as they saw at least one of the incidents.

The third day was when things really hit the fan. The same things from yesterday and the day before happened, but the things from yesterday were much more intense. The bullying towards Duckie was worse than before and Duckie became ever more quiet and distant from the others.

Later during lunch, Duckie's friends gathered up. "Okay, something needs to be said to him," said Porter. "As long as it doesn't shame him in any way," said Angelo, "And seriously guys, no joke telling or ukulele playing. We don't need Duckie feeling worse than he probably already feels. Let's just listen to how he feels and maybe he can reconsider what I suggested to him days earlier."

Angelo, Jessie, Johnny, Porter, and Rex went up to where Duckie was sitting. Duckie was as quiet as he was before. "Hey Duckie," said Angelo, "We noticed that things haven't been so great for you within the last 3 days. You wanna talk about it?" "Not really," replied Duckie. It was silent for a moment, until Rex decided to come in with something to say. "Duckie, I think you need to talk to us about these problems," he said, "I saw at least one of the things yesterday." "What my friend Rex means is, stop being a-" Porter butted in, before Jessie stomped on his foot to stop him from saying something that might Duckie turn away from them further, "Ow! What the heck Jessie?!" Jessie just glared at him. "We don't like seeing you like this," said Johnny, "Why don't you wanna hang around with us?"

Duckie took a deep breath and said, "Because I thought I'd be fine alone." All his friends looked at him, kinda understanding, but also confused too. "You thought you'd be fine alone?" asked Angelo, "Why?" Duckie knew he had to explain himself a bit more. "Because I was afraid," Duckie explained, "I was afraid to go to you guys. I wanted the independence to be by myself and not rely on you guys to look out for me. Yes, I know you told me I could hang around with you guys, even Tammy suggested it. But since I wanted to try and be independent, it didn't go so well. I became more vulnerable to the bullies around here. Looking back on it now, I should have listened to you and Tammy. It wasn't smart of me to not listen."

Angelo looked at Duckie with sympathy in his eyes. "I think I know why you did what you did," he said, "You were afraid to take alternate options, out of your own fear and denial. So in response, you backed away from the idea and tried to be independent. In doing it though, made the bullies come swarming to you, when they realized Tammy wasn't around to help you, let alone anyone else." Duckie knew Angelo was right. He knew what his only option was if he wanted to be overall more happy.

"With all of what I said," said Duckie, "Would I be able to hang around with you guys?" "Absolutely!" said Rex. Everyone agreed with him too. "It's better than being victim to who you've been bullied by," said Angelo.

For the next 2 days, Duckie hung around with his friends and noticed how much it helped. He didn't feel as alone as he did before. He also noticed that the bullies weren't really coming towards him as much when his friends were around. It especially helped when Johnny was around, since he was so popular around the school, that no bully would dare to try anything with him or whoever he was with.

Angelo could tell that it was working too. He noticed that Duckie seemed overall more happier being with them. Duckie would give he and the others updates on how Tammy was doing. It looked like Tammy would be back in school by Monday. For now though, Tammy still needed more time to recover.

Even when the weekend came, things were still going fine. Duckie hung around his other friends almost as much as he would with Tammy. Even Duckie himself could start to see himself improving.

When Monday morning came at school, Tammy was back! Obviously, Duckie and her were happy to see each other after at least a week apart. Duckie told her about what had happened while she wasn't around.

"I mean, I did tell you about our friends," said Tammy. "I know," replied Duckie, "I admittedly put it on myself. But lessons were learned too and I will take your advice next time." "How were you doing before you came back?" asked Porter. "Boring!" said Tammy, "I wanted to get out of bed and do stuff so badly! But I knew I couldn't do much. Little by little I could as time went on, but for the most part, all I could really do is stay home and take some medicine until I got better."

"Well it's good to have you back!" said Angelo, "Now things can go a bit smoother than last week I'm sure." The bell rang as it was time for everyone to head to their classes. Duckie, Tammy, Angelo, Johnny, Jessie, Porter, and Rex headed off to their first class of the day. And with Tammy back, things could only go up from there.

THE END!