Hilbert was snoring in his bed. He was still bitter from that tide mice fiasco that his sister had caused. When he did another experiment with Spark and it blew up in his face, he decided to turn in for the night. However, nothing can compare with what will happen next with him and Hilda. As the boy still slept, his door creaked, unbeknownst to him. He felt something like a fly on his cheek. He tried to wave it away, but it kept bugging him. Hilbert had enough and decided to smack his cheek to kill it.
"OW!" a small voice was heard.
Hilbert's eyes snapped open immediately. He looked around for the source of the noise as he got up from his bed. His pupils shrank when he noticed white goo on his cheek. "Ack! Alfur, are you ok?!"
The tiny elf stretched himself after pulling himself out of Hilbert's cheek. "Well, apart from the fact that I have been squashed like a mosquito, I've been through worse. But no time for that, Hilda needs you!"
Hilbert rolled her eyes. "Oh, sure she does. After what she pulled, what does she need me for next? A punching bag for the Marra? Use me as bait for the rats?"
"Well, she actually needs you to help Frida out with her problem."
Hilbert raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"
Before Alfur could answer, the door swung open. Hilda was putting on her clothes as she ran to her brother. "Come on, we have to get going! Frida needs us, including you!"
Hilbert wasn't in the mood to argue since he just woke up. Not to mention he was hungry. "Can this wait a bit? I haven't even had breakfast yet."
Hilda wasted no time yanking the boy from his slumber. "You can eat on the way there. Now, come on!"
The two kids made a mad dash to Frida's place against Hilbert's will. They eventually met up with David and Vivian at their destination.
"Hey, guys! Seems whatever Frida needed was important," Vivi chirped.
"No dip, Sherlock." Hilbert groaned.
"No time to argue," Hilda went up the doorbell and rang it.
Frida popped right in. "Oh, thank God you guys are here. Come on!"
Everyone ran up the stairs to head to Frida's room. They were agape at what they witnessed: a total mess.
"Wow," David was astonished. "And I thought my room looked bad."
"Big deal," Vivi snorted. "Mine looks like a city dump."
"This is a strange occurrence," Frida shook her head. "The room should have been cleaned like I usually leave it."
"You think a ghost could have caused this?" Hilda made a theory.
"I'm not sure, but I don't want to have one because class president's my priority!" Frida cried as she held up a poster telling people to vote.
"Still better than most presidents," Hilbert muttered.
"You got nothing to worry about, Frida," Hilda assured her friend. "I'm willing to get to the bottom of this. As your friend, I'm your light. I'm your supporter! I won't let you down!"
"Uh, Hilda?" The gang looked up to see Frida being lifted by Hilda. "Could you let me down?"
"Before we do anything else, should we get something to see the ghost's behavior as Frida sleeps?" Vivi broke the silence.
"I got it!" David felt a lightbulb turn on above him. "Let's use my dad's camera. That should be helpful."
"Good plan," Hilda snapped her fingers. "You and Hilbert will transport that here while me, Vivi, and Frida will clean up this room."
Eventually, Hilbert was panting on the sidewalk back to Frida's house. Hauling the camera was no easy task for him. "How.. do you have… stamina for this?"
"You really need exercise," David shook his head. "Seriously, you should head out more. Not to mention do more stuff on your own."
"I ain't gonna be hearing of this crap anymore!" Hilbert kept pushing the TV at a faster rate.
"Whoa," David was astonished. "If only he had joined Hilda during the vitra chase."
It was a matter of time before the gang regrouped. As the room got cleaned, Frida screamed when she noticed an empty spot on her bookshelf. "It's gone!"
"What's gone?" Vivi asked.
"My book! The Legend of Great Condon! Gone!" Frida panicked.
"Do you know where you last saw it?" Hilbert wondered.
"I placed it back there when I finished reading it,"
"Less talk, more action!" Vivi cut in. "The sun is setting, so let's set up the camera before it's time to nap!"
Once the proper setup was made, the gang went back to their homes. When Frida prepared for bed, she felt a breeze along with some mumbling. The girl noticed her window was open and decided to check out what was the commotion, but she didn't have luck since nothing was out there, so she had to sleep.
The next morning, the gang met up and watched the tape. It was unbelievable that Frida would mess up her own room. Then again, she is a kid.
"Did a ghost control you to do this?" Hilda asked, which Frida shook her head.
"I assume you also created the mess the other day?" David wondered.
"Quite frankly,"
"What's the point of getting us here if you are just making your room messy?" Hilbert popped in.
"It's not supposed to be the messy in the mornings! It should have automatically been neat!"
Vivi blinked. "You're joking, right?"
"No! Rooms work like that!" Frida defended herself as she was met with awkward stares from the group. "They don't work that way, do they?
David burst out laughing. "You really thought rooms clean themselves? Now I seen everything!"
"Hey!" Frida was offended. "Cut it out!"
"You're regarding as the smart one, yet you are a smartass!" the boy chuckled.
Frida was pissed. She charged at David to punch his elbow. The boy returned with an uppercut to Frida's mouth. The two kids growled and rolled on the floor, making a bigger mess. David started punching Frida in the face and vice versa. As this was going on, they got injuries from each other.
"We have to do something!" Hilda cried.
"On it!" Vivi ran outside and returned. She placed a beach chair and grabbed popcorn to eat and watch the fight.
Hilda and Hilbert exchanged glances in disbelief.
Moments later, the two kids were still punching each other in the face. They still had several bruises, missing teeth, and blood was on the floor. Frida even has a black eye while David has missing hair.
"Ok, that's enough!" Hilbert complained as he grabbed both kids by the ears.
"Ow! Ow!" Frida complained.
"Stop it!" David whined.
"Ok, now I've seen everything!" Vivian was astonished while Hilda frowned awkwardly.
"Now, I'm gonna let go of your ears. And when I do, I want you both to calmly settle this like adults," Hilbert stared at the kids in a cold manner. "Understand?"
"Mmm-hmm," both Frida and David whimpered.
"Good," Hilbert released both children, which they started to rub their ears.
"Ow, haven't felt that since I spilled the milk," Frida whined.
"You're telling me," David added. "I don't even get treated by my parents like this."
"You know Frida, that whole thing about your room being clean by a ghost the next morning after you mess it up, I find it strange that it suddenly stopped." Vivi burped after drinking a soda.
"Take it from me," David got up. "You're normally gonna see this a lot till you do something about it."
Frida laughed nervously after hearing that. Later in school, she was being a kissass to the other students while telling them to vote for her for class president.
"So, you plan to make yourself class president, huh?" Kelly raised an eyebrow. "How do we know you won't screw things up?"
"Hey, this is Frida you're talking to," the girl defended herself. "I am pretty organized, I must admit." As she opened her binder of charts to prove it, her papers fell off.
"I rest my case," Kelly crossed her arms.
"Hey, give me a break!" Frida was upset. "I usually don't make mistakes!"
"Oh, really?" Another voice popped in.
Frida looked around to see it was Miss Hallgrim. And as usual, she was grumpy.
"Miss Hallgrim?"
"You ended up turning in last week's homework!" Hallgrim handed back Frida's assignment, which she marked with failure. "I thought you were better than this!"
Frida couldn't believe it. "But I am better than this!"
"Well, you thought wrong." Hallgrim walked off with a huff.
Frida felt her knees collapse in despair. Kelly scoffed. "So much for being pretty organized."
Back with Hilda, she had been wondering about her brother. There were times that when she went on adventures, he usually sticks with Vivian. Yes, he wasn't fond of their adventures since some would most likely get them killed, but the fact that he was bonding with another person aside from Spark was very odd. Ever since the marra fiasco, Hilbert was detaching himself from Hilda, which she seemed suspicious. But she didn't have time to worry about that since Frida appeared in the corner.
"Frida?" David was concerned when his friend reached them while panting. "Are you ok?"
"No! I can't participate! I can't be class president at this state!"
"Well, why not?" Vivi asked.
"My reputation is crumbling. I was known as a very organized kid, but with these circumstances happening, it can't be accurate to my peers! And the sad truth is, I'm not tidy. The ghost is!"
"Don't beat yourself up, Frida," Hilbert consoled. "Let's not forget this: the ghost did not do everything for you. You put in the hard effort of getting good grades and the Sparrow Scout badges."
"He's got a point there," David added as he handed more Frida posters. "I mean, at this point, you might end up at my state by having the same grades as I do."
"Don't be an ass, David," Hilbert shook his head. "We're supposed to be helping Frida, in case you forgot."
"Oh, sorry," David rubbed his elbow in response.
"Well, I do have an idea," Vivi suggested. "Since you can't claim that you are organized, you should make promises about changes. That can be the next best thing you can put effort on."
Frida had doubts on that idea, so Hilda decided that they should find the ghost. Their next destination was to stop at the library to see if Kaisa had any solutions. While this was happening, Hilbert and Vivian were walking around Trolberg to find any connections to the ghost.
"You think the Marra had anything to do with this?" Vivi theorized.
"Doubt it," Hilbert shook his head. "They did promise to leave Hilda and the others alone when they scared the shit out of me. I pretty much became their punching bag the other day."
"Uh-huh, what about elves? Any chance they stole the book?"
"No clue. Alfur would have told us about it," Hilbert stopped and noticed the junkyard. "Let's stop by here so we can see if there's anything to help them out."
The two kids were soon greeted by the elves that reside there. And who should they run into but the man that Hilbert befriended. "Hey, hey! If it isn't the blue haired tyke and his girlfriend."
"WHAT?!" Both kids were shocked and embarrassed by what they heard.
"Heh heh, I'm joking," the man laughed. "What has been going on with you two?"
"Just going on adventures with my sister," Hilbert yawned. "We might need something from you that can be some help."
"What are you dealing with?"
"Well, something to catch ghosts. Nothing too complicated," Hilbert coughed. "You got anything that can help us, Mr..?"
"Oh, I should have mentioned this earlier. My name is Flint Watterson, but you can call me Flint," The man went inside his home to find anything that can be some good use for Hilbert. He eventually found the right equipment. "Here you go. A vacuum cleaner and a flashlight!"
The two kids were confused by Flint's arsenal. "That's it?"
"Well, yes. This is what it takes to get what you are looking for," Flint cleaned off the dust of the flashlight. "Just hold the button of this flashlight, and you will stun the ghost! I've did it before in my youth."
"Really?" Hilbert handled the equipment carefully. "Well, Flint. You really made our problem much easier to deal with. I just hope this works."
"It might as well," Vivi looked up to see the sky darken. "Come on, we need to meet up with Hilda and the others!"
"Right," Hilbert started his mad dash to the rest of the gang. "Thanks for the stuff, Flint!"
Mr. Flint waved in return. "Good luck with your objective!"
Just as the two kids ran out of the junkyard, Hilbert noticed Twig running to them. "Wait, what?"
"Twig!" Vivi kneeled and petted the deerfox. "What's wrong, boy?"
The deerfox made some grunts to communicate, though it was a challenge for the kids to understand. It was just their luck as Alfur hopped on Twig's head.
"Alfur!" Hilbert took notice.
"Hilbert! Vivian!" Alfur panted. "There might be a chance Hilda won't succeed in her adventure."
"What makes you say that?" The red-haired girl was curious.
"Well, it is based on my assumptions. But Hilda seems to have her doubts when I spoke to her about it."
"Crap. Well, looks like it's Hilbert to the rescue," the boy replied sarcastically, still bitter from that marra adventure of theirs.
"Maybe there's a chance it can go well this time," Vivian smiled nervously.
"Or it can be a total disaster. Face it." Hilbert grunted. "But might as well go and help Frida find her book. Come on."
In the graveyard, Hilda and her friends stopped by the graves. In no time at all, the ghosts were summoned. Apparently, Frida's ghost only cleans her room because he enjoyed reading her book. But it got into a halt when it went missing. Push comes to shove when he accused his sister of taking it.
"Alright, I had enough," Hilda was annoyed by the constant bickering between the two beings. "I got a challenge for you. How about we all fight you for the book?"
Englibort raised an eyebrow. "Go on,"
"Let's do some wrestling or something. That can be something you ghosts enjoy doing, right?" Hilda explained.
The ghost laughed. "Of course we do! It is entertaining for us to tackle down others!"
Frida nudged in to scold Hilda. "Are you listening to yourself? Are you sure this is the way to get my book back?"
"Honestly I can help pay for a replacement book in case we can't find it," David peeked as well.
Hilda had a determined look on her face. "Look, we came so far. We cannot give up at this point! I promised that I would help you get your book back, and that's what I'm gonna do!"
"But why include us in this stunt?" Frida cried.
"Hey, more of us means more chances to succeed, right?"
Soon, the referee ghost blew his whistle. "Alright, I'm here to see a good, clean fight. Here's a big rule. You will not cry, or whine. Or laugh or giggle. Or sneeze, burp, or crap. And just so we are very clear about this; no, no, no annoying sounds. Alright?"
David stepped in. "Does this count as annoying?" He started clapping his face cheeks, making some sounds.
The referee glared at him closely. "Very."
Hilda got in her fighting stance. "Ready?"
Englibort cracked her knuckles. "Oh, you don't have to ask!"
The whistle was blown before the three children charged at the ghost. Englibort ended up tackled briefly, but this didn't last long as she ended up moving her soul and bones away to get back standing. She was called out for this.
"Boo! You can't do that!" a ghost yelled.
"That's cheating!" another added.
"Boo! You stink!" a ghost child flipped off Enligbort.
The aforementioned ghost got pissed and decided to raise the stakes. Eventually, Hilbert and Vivi reached the graveyard, panting. They were hearing the cheering crowd of ghosts.
"You know what to do?" Vivian wiped sweat from her forehead.
"Yup," Hilbert prepared his equipment. "Time to catch some ghosts."
The two children proceeded to enter, but Hilbert felt his vacuum stutter. He pounded on it to make it work, but what happened next was a wild result.
"Come on, Hilbert. Hilda's getting her ass kicked there." Vivi suddenly noticed that Hilbert was having a hard time controlling the vacuum. "Hilbert!"
"Uh, this thing is out of control!"
Vivi leaped and grabbed Hilbert's shirt. "Oh, come on! Not now!"
The equipment started going crazy. The bright lights were turned on, which caused their eyes to burn.
"AAAAGGHHHH!"
"IT BURNS!"
Eventually, Enligbort was grabbed by Hilda. She was about to win the wrestling match, but the ghost had some tricks on her bone. Just as she was about to win, they heard some screaming. Everyone looked up to see a vacuum in the sky.
"What the hell is that?" Frida cried.
Soon, Hilda recognized the screaming. "Oh, no…"
It was a long fall for the two children. When they finally landed, the ghosts were blinded by the bright light and covered their eyes in pain. Some of the ghosts were sucked in the vacuum. This unintentionally caused Enligbort to fall to the ground. With enough luck, Hilda managed to pin the ghost down.
The ghost referee rubbed his eyes before blowing the whistle and holding Hilda's arm up. "The winner!"
The other ghosts were in shock at first. The silence was interrupted when Vivi started clapping her hands, followed by Hilbert. Soon, the ghosts joined in the clapping. The gang did it! They won!
"Augh!" Englibort complained. "No fair! They cheated!"
"Technically, you cheated first, smartass." Frida smirked.
Just then, the sun started to rise. It was time for the ghosts to return to their graves. Hilda and the others were pleased that things went well. Hilbert pulled his head from the ground. "What did I miss?"
"A lot," David answered. "Seriously, you missed a lot."
"Well, glad you guys won." Vivi spat out a tooth.
Englibort confronted Hilda. "Fine. Here is your book back. I hope you choke on it,"
Hilda smiled as she retrieved her item, though this was short-lived. Frida realized that this was the wrong book. It turns out that Englibort didn't take her book after all. And when Frida requested her ghost to clean her room, he just flipped him off.
"Frida," Hilda tried to console her. "I'm so sorry."
All Frida responded with was a sad look. "You gave it your shot. We should head back home before our parents worry about us."
"Can't argue with that. We actually tried," Hilda proceeded to glare at her brother. "Unlike some people."
Hilbert was flabbergasted when he heard that. He was about to throw a rock at her head, but Vivian stopped him. "Probably not the time."
A few days later, things were not looking good for the gang. Frida has been a mess ever since she lost the book. She didn't even attend the meetings for class president. Her friends stopped by her place to comfort her. They even noticed that the room is still messy.
"Frida, are you ok?" Hilda consoled.
"This mess really affected her," David spoke with concern.
"It's not just the room," Frida sighed. "It's pretty much everything. Like I said before, I'm known for my reputation of being organized, even my parents know me only for that!"
"It's really that important to you?" Hilda rubbed her arm.
"What do you think?" Frida facepalmed.
"Look, just because that life of yours of being perfect is falling apart, that doesn't mean it's the end of the world," Hilda comforted.
"That's simple enough for you to say," Frida rolled her eyes. "You have it easy! You're the cool wilderness girl that doesn't give a crap about anything!"
David inhaled sharply. "She's got you there, Hilda."
"Look, that is a bit of a stretch," Hilda sighed. "But you shouldn't let your organization habits define you as a person. It is unhealthy."
"Unhealthy as being dragged into your adventures?"
Hilda furrowed her eyebrows. "You know, if you really just don't want to be with us, just say it."
Frida didn't say anything. While she did agree with the fact that she would get stressed about Hilda's adventures getting them almost killed, she wouldn't go as far as to part ways with her friends. This was a conflicting argument for them.
"Hmm. Just what I thought. Too 'perfect' for a comeback," Hilda shook her head as she started leaving Frida's room. "Come on, David and Vivian. Let's go."
Vivian wanted to object, but she knew that she might make things worse between the friends.
Before David left as well, he had something to say to Frida. "No offense, but you could just learn to clean your room on your own, you know."
Hilda was grumbling angrily as she entered the apartment. How was she supposed to know that the ghost took the wrong book? If anything, she can't be blamed for something that was out of her control. Unless…
After finishing his cereal, Hilbert went to brush his teeth. He couldn't believe that they hadn't found Frida's missing book. As he was about to head to his room, he felt a tug on his shirt. "What?" He eventually noticed that Hilda was holding him in an angry manner.
"This is all your fault!"
Hilbert was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Don't give me that crap! You foiled our plan to get Frida's book back!" Hilda hissed with venom in her voice.
"Excuse me, princess," Hilbert rolled his eyes. "I was just trying to help since you would usually complain about me being in the sidelines of you adventures!"
"Congratulations," the girl clapped sarcastically. "What a great help you were. Frida is sure pleased."
Hilbert was cross. "Hey, don't blame me for you guys not getting the right book. Even you didn't know that it wasn't the one Frida was looking for,"
"We would have found it if you actually stepped in rather than doing jack crap!"
Hilbert glared at his sister. "Oh, yeah? Like how you raised Frida's hopes, only to let her down?"
"At least I'm doing something to help her out!"
"And look how that turned out. You almost got us killed in our adventures, and you even put Frida and David in danger!" Hilbert snapped. "What's the matter with you?!"
"Rich coming from you, egghead," Hilda shot back. "I'm taking risks to help them out with their problems! I don't even see you helping them out unless I drag you against your will!"
"That's because I'm keeping myself safe rather than throwing my life away," the boy rolled his eyes.
"Well, that's a waste of a life you got there! I thought you would have changed after we moved here, but you're still the same selfish, cowardly jackass!"
Hilbert had it. "Ugh! Why can't you consider the outcomes of your actions! It's no wonder why it's your fault we moved here! Mom was right about you! Even you admitted it! You're a brat! I wish you did something with your life rather than risk being killed! I wasn't born to be killed by almost everything we encounter!"
Pissed off, Hilda yelled out "Oh yeah?! Well, I wish you were NEVER BORN!"
If Hilda listened carefully, she would have heard a crack in her brother's heart.
Hilbert had no words to exchange except to give her a scorn. He flipped off Hilda and headed to his room. Hilda groaned angrily and did the same. No one noticed a furry brown figure that witnessed the whole argument. It grabbed a book and teleported away.