The new kid
"Come on little guy." Said Mikey as he looked into a plastic cup half filled with soil, before turning to Dede and Spinelli who were next to him watering the small plants growing in their cups. "I don't get it, I've been waiting 3 whole days and my little plant just won't grow."
"Hey lud nut, did you remember to put the seed in?" Asked Spinelli.
"Oops." Said Mikey looking into his cup again.
"Okay, everybody know the plan." Asked TJ as he walked up to the 3.
"We're with ya TJ." Dede said as she and TJ fist bumped,
"Ok that's good, then let's do it." As soon as TJ finished talking he looked to the side and nodded to Gretchen who nodded back.
"Ms grotke, ms grotke." Said Gretchen grabbing ms grotke's attention.
"Yes Gretchen, do we have a problem with our science project."
"No ms grotke, I'm quite clear on the basic purpose of light and no light." Gretchen held up two different plants, one alive and one dead. "But I'm more interested in the effects on nitrogen enriched soil."
"Well...errr...gee, I don't know."
"Or perhaps a richer fertilizer, like a nitra frosted plant, I've also heard rumour-" as Gretchen kept talking to ms grotke TJ turned and looked at Vince who nodded and ran passed ms grotke to her desk, where he opened the top draw to grab a key which he tossed to Spinelli, who in turn threw it to Dede who was kneeling on top of some more students, pyramid style, next to the clock. Dede put the key into the clock and the screen popped open, before turning the minute handle around an hour, it was now only a few minutes to 10am, before she moved it to 10 o'clock she looked back at TJ who nodded at her, when Dede moved it to 10 she quickly closed the clock glass face grabbed the key and jumped down, as everyone ran back to their seats.
"What the?" Asked ms grotke as soon as the bell ran, she turned to look at the clock then as the students who were all smiling at her from their chairs. "Recess already? I must be having trouble with my inner clock. Oh well, class dismissed."
"Alright." Shouted Dede as she jumped up and ran to the door with the other students behind her, as she opened the door she was stopped by a tall man in a green military uniform.
"Ms grotke, LT griswold U.S.M.C, here to deploy my son." Said the man.
"Deploy?" Asked ms grotke.
"Yes ma'am. My boy gustav has been assigned to your barracks, I mean class."
"Any guy name Gustav is bound to be trouble." Whispered Vince next to TJ.
"Well we're always happy to welcome a new student to our circle of friends, umm… where is gustav?" Asked ms grotke.
"Private, report." Said LT Griswold as he stepped aside, revealing a scrawny looking kid also dress in green.
"That's gustav?" Whispered Mikey.
"Well my duty here is done." LT griswold saluted. "Ms grotke, boys and girls." Then he turned around and left.
"Oh… welcome to our little classroom family gustav, why don't you describe for us a bit of your personal journey." Said ms grotke.
"Well my name is gus, I've been to 12 schools in the past six years and my only friend is my pet snake named Herbert." Said gus in a dull voice.
"Uhhh… ms grotke." Said Willy.
"Yes Willy."
"Can we go to recess now?"
"Why certainly." As soon as she said that all the kids cheered before running out.
"Excuse me but…. isn't it kind of early for recess." Questioned gus.
"Oh no, it's part of our daily ritual. We always go to recess at 10."
"But it's only-"
"Come on gus. ." Said TJ interrupting gus before he can tell ms grotke what the time was.
"We'll show you around." Said Dede as she led the boys outside.
"Darn solar watches, I'm gonna have to stop buying outta the home catalogs.
Outside on the playground the 6 friends were showing gus around the school.
"Now over there is the jock section, their basically harmless, but you could get a nasty wedgie if you catch them in a bad mood." Said TJ.
"Uhhh… TJ, Dede, can I speak to you both privately please." Asked Vince.
"Sure thing Vince." Said Dede.
"You guys introduce gus to the bug eating kid." Said TJ before the others all left. "We'll catch up."
"What are you both doing, you know the rules, you not suppose to speak to a kid like him for at least 48 hours." Said Vince.
"A kid like him?" Said TJ.
"What'd you mean a kid like him?" Asked Dede.
"You know, a new kid." Whispered Vince.
"Awww come on Vince, I'm not gonna say anything, Dede's not gonna say anything, you're not gonna say anything, the rest of the class isn't gonna say anything, who's gonna know?" Said TJ.
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"And way back there is where they keep the kindergarteners pinned up." Said Dede pointing to where the kindergarteners were.
"You wouldn't wanna go in there." Finished TJ.
"I'll say, the last kid that wandered over there, they never saw him again." Said Mikey, but out of no where gus burst out crying. "It's alright, he might just have got transferred or something."
"No it's not that." Said gus as he walked forward a bit before turning and looked back at the group. "It's just, I've been to 12 schools in 6 years and nobody's ever been this nice to me before, it's so beautiful."
"There, there, little guy,." Said Mikey when gus started crying again. "Things are different now."
"Yeah." Said Spinelli as she walked up to gus. "Here you'll always have friends." Before Spinelli could say anymore the sound of drums rang out.
"Sixth graders." A fellow fourth grader shouted before running off. The group of 6 looked back to see king Bob coming, as the dropped to the floor to bow, TJ and Dede both pulled gus down with them.
"Who's that?" Asked gus.
"King Bob, he runs the place." Informed Dede.
"Just be real humble and what ever you do, don'tsay you're a"before TJ could finish his warning he got interrupted.
"HALT." Said kink Bob looking at gus. "Who are you?"
"Oh uh, hey there Bob, your majesty sir, this is uh gus griswald, he's umm..well he's." Stuttered TJ before gus interrupted him.
"I'm a new kid." Making TJ and Dede facepalm.
"A new kid eyy, we haven't had a new kid around here lately. Where's the old new kid." Asked Bob as a kid stepped forward.
"Here I am your highness." He said bowing.
"New kid, you're no longer the new kid from now on you are, you are." Said Bob struggling to remember the kids name until one of the guards whispered to him. "Right, you are Morse P Hingle again."
"Oh thank you, thank you." Said morse kissing bobs hand.
"Ok your welcome, just easy on the ring huh."
"I got a name, I got a name. I'm not a nobody anymore wow." Morse cheered. King Bob looked at gus before grabbing him and holding him up.
"Behold, we have a new, new kid. From now on he will be known as the new kid, the new kid and nothing else." Said king Bob as other kids cheer.
"Hehe, how bad can It be?" Asked gus, looking at the group of 6.
"He has no idea." Said Dede looking at gus in pity.
"Yeah, poor kids gonna lose it." Said Spinelli, before anyone could say more there was a ringing noise.
"Uhh, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick." Said Dede before she ran off, once she reached the bathroom she made sure there was no one in there be fire pressing the button to teleport herself onto her red space ship, on the way up she changed into her blue galactic guardian uniform.
"Atomic Candy reporting for duty sir." Said Dede as she jumped onto her chair, looking at the screen where admiral degill was.
"I have a mission of the utmost importance, our sources indicate that the supreme overload Maximus I.Q has a secret lair on the planet nirimbasix and that he's creating a horrible bio weapon. Destroy the lab, before maximus can put this weapon to good use." Said degill.
"We'll take care of it right now, over and out." Said Dede and the communication ended. ( the rest follows the episode of maximus displeasure.)
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The next day Dede rode her skateboard to school, when she got there the school bus had just pulled up and she watched as all the kids pushed past gus, tell him to move it and calling him the new kid.
"The first day and it looks like he might not make it." Said a voice behind Dede, which turned out to be Spinelli.
"Yeah, but there's not much we can do, king bobs words are final." Said Dede and she and Spinelli walked into school to head into their class.
"Willy." Asked ms grotke
"Here." Replied Willy.
"Megan."
"Here." Said Megan.
"New kid."
"Here." Said gus as he sighs, Dede looked over at gus and frowned before looking at TJ who was also frowning. At recess most the students decided to play a game of kickball, every kid seemed to get picked except for gus.
"What about me?" Asked gus.
"Huh, oh sorry, but according to the constitution of the playground, section 3 paragraph 2 under kickball, no new kids." Said Willy. Things like this kept happening all throw out the day and even at the start of the next day, where gus was sitting on a picnic table where he put his head on the table.
"Look at the bright side, lots of people have gone threw life without a name and they turned out fine." Said Mikey trying to cheer gus up.
"Oh yeah. Like who?" Asked gus.
"Well like the artist formally known as Prince, the unknown soldier, the other 4 guys of the Jackson 5."
"Look guys, I may as well face it, I'm nothing but a loser, a nobody, a kid with no name, even my own snake won't look me in the eyes anymore. See you guys later, if I don't shrivel up and blow away first." Said gus as he got up and walked away. "Dust in the wind, it's all we are is dust in the wind."
"You know, that kid is really starting to bug me." Said Spinelli.
"Hey how would you feel if they took away your name." Replied Mikey.
"Yeah, rules or no rules, I sure wish we could help the guy." Said Vince.
"Hey maybe we can help him." Said TJ.
"What are you talking about TJ." Asked Spinelli.
"Maybe we can give him back his name, me and Dede have some favours we can call in, heck a lot of kids would do it for nothing. Yes sir when we're through he'll never be the new kid again, he'll be...he'll be…umm.. what was his name again?"
"Gus griswald." Said Dede smiling at TJ's forgetfulness.
"Right, that, ok here's the plan."
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The next day the plan was set into motion, as gus was walking to school the group of 6 were all stationed at various different places.
"Fat man to little boy, Elvis has left the building." Said Mikey as he hid behind a tree.
"Rodger, little boy standing by." Said TJ, behind a fence.
"Rodger, lucky lady standing by." Said Gretchen, standing by a plane.
"Rodger, travel girl standing by." Said Dede on the school bus.
"Rodger, music band standing by." Said Vince in front of the school with a bunch of other students.
"Rodger already, let's get this show on the road." Said Spinelli as she hung from a billboard.
"Ok, operation gustav is a go, move, move, move." Said TJ.
"How's it going GUS." Said Mikey walking behind gus.
"Oh, uh, fine, you know." Replied gus.
"Hey gus, looks like it's gonna be a beautiful day." Said TJ appearing next to gus' other side. "Ehh GUS." As gus was looking between TJ and Mikey the school bus pulled up next to them.
"Hop on the bus, gus." Said the driver, as gus was walking on the bus to the back all the kids were saying hello to gus as he passed them.
"What's going on here?" Asked gus.
"Going on, why nothings going on, GUS." Said Dede. As the bus drove to school Mikey sat at the back with Gus and TJ and Dede sat in front of them, not long before they got to school they passed a pink billboard that said 'good morning gus'. As soon as gus stepped off the bus at third street school he looked up to see a plane flying over head a banner trailing behind that said 'have a nice day gus.'
"2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate, Gus gus gus." there was Vince with other students singing. As they were finished singing and then cheered a banner came down from the roof that says '3rd St. school welcome gus", along with another student revealing a statue of gus.
"Gee, maybe I am more then a new kid, maybe I am somebody, maybe I really do have a name." Said gus feeling really touched. Before anyone could say anything the sound of drums could be heard as someone shouted 'sixth graders'.when everyone heard that the sign that was for gus got covered up by a sign that said '3rd St. school barely recognises the new kid' and the statue was quickly pulled down and covered by some students standing in front of it. "But, but you guys all know me, billy? Rachel? What about you guys? You know who I am, right?" Asked gus turning to the six standing behind him.
"How can we know who you are if you don't know who you are, new kid." Said TJ folding his arms.
"I am not a new kid, I am a human being." Replied Gus.
"Well don't tell us, tell him." Said Dede as she pointed to King Bob.
"Alright I will." Said Gus after gulping. As gus started to walk to where king Bob was the students were all starting to whisper his name in encouragement.
"Hey, who's blocking the way down there." Said King Bob as he was launched forward a bit as the people carrying him stopped walking abruptly. "Oh, it's you new kid, move aside."
"Sorry Bob, not this time."
"What! You can't talk to me like that."
"Oh yeah, just watch me. All my life I've been treated like a nobody, ignored by kids because they didn't know me, getting given the worst stuff because everyone else got there first, made to eat paste. And why? Just because I was the new kid." Gus the walked over to the group of 6 friends and stood in front of them. "But then I come to this school and then for the first time in my life a bunch of kids treated me like a friend, then you came along and made me a nobody again. Well you listen here Bob, who graduated and made you king? I am not a nobody, I am a somebody, I am Gus P. Griswald, you hear me, Gus P. Griswald."
"So, what's you point?"
"Well, I want my name back, that's my point."
"Ok, you can have your name back."
"That's it?"
"What do you want, a parade? You got your name back, now get outta the way."
"You hear that, I got my name back; I'm not a nobody, I got a name. I got a name." As gus had said this the students surrounding gus cheered and picked gus up, carrying him into the school.
"But...it's not fair." Said Morse, the old new kid. "He only had to be the new kid for a few days, I had to do it for 3 whole years."
"Hey, you should have said something." Said Bob as he then had the people carrying him continue waking on.