Rikareena's M.A.D. Fun Tumb'lings

"What?! No I--"

"Yes! You owe us compensation! Look at her!" Louise gently pulled Tina up by the shoulders and shook her gently, "She's a ghost of her former self!"

Gene joined in, grabbing Jimmy Junior and turning him around, "Quick! Tina. How many butts does Jimmy Junior have?!"

Tina blinked, but didn't even glance in Jimmy Junior's butt's direction.

"Um, one?"

Jimmy Junior blinked and looked down.

"Wait, really? It's not two?"

"I think two cheeks make one butt set, buddy" Zeke answered thoughtfully.

"Who cares! Tina didn't even freeze up or blink once at Jimmy Junior's backside! JIMMY JUNIOR! You. Broke. Her!" Louise shouted again, pointing a dramatic finger at Steve.

The poor boy held his hands up defensively, looking overly flustered as Mr. Frond approached with a clipboard in hand.

"Louise, knock it off. Tina. Are you alright? Any headaches? Blurry vision? No need for your folks to file a lawsuit against the school, right?"

"Uh....I'm okay, Mr. Frond, we don't have that kinda money anyway," Tina shrugged. Frond visibly relaxed,

"Oh good! I mean--"

"You don't know WHAT we have! For all you know, our family has a gold mine for inheritance! We're coming for you, Frond!"

"Louise!"

"My folks have resources, we could sue," Steve offered, raising his hand.

Tina blinked at him, "Wait, what?!"

Frond splattered, "What?! But-but-y-you're the reason she fainted in the first place!"

"Yeah, under your adult supervision," Steve shrugged.

"You'd share your family's resources so my family could take advantage of them for me?" Tina asked lowly. Steve's eyes fell heavy as he smiled at her,

"In a heartbeat."

"Aww!" Tina touched a hand to her heart.

"Damn. That was beautiful." Zeke sniffed.

Jimmy Junior scoffed, "It was alright."

"My guy! This guy here, he's family now! Ya'll seeing this?!" Louise asked, throwing an arm over Steve's shoulder.

Mr. Frond shook his head, "I don't have time for this foolishness! Tina, if you're fine, get up and walk it off. We have more activities coming up." Frond said, looking at his clipboard and scurrying off to put as much distance between him and the situation as possible.

"Coward!" Louise shouted after him.

Steve quietly put his hand on top of Tina's and she turned to face him,

"I uh...sorry again. And, I'm glad you're alright," he said, brining her fingers to his lips and kissing her knuckles. Tina gasped, and proceeded to fall into her trademark groan, which Louise and Gene clocked immediately as her heart rate sped up and her cheeks flushed.

"WOAH! Okay, hands off lover boy," Louise said, pulling Tina's hand away.

"Yeah. Before we have to take her to a hospital for real! We don't have that kinda insurance! We're just burger kids!"

"S-sorry!" Steve said.

But Tina couldn't stop smiling--so much that her cheeks hurt.

And Jimmy Junior, oh he definitely noticed.

---------

About 35 minutes later found the students all assembled again as Frond approached the microphone, only to announce they would be partnering with there pen pal to put on an inter-regional talent show to...

"Experience collaboratively learning in an excitingly innovative way."

"This sounds completely bogus!" Tammy whispered, folding her arms tightly against her chest in a huff.

The others agreed, as Frond went on to explain they had all day to come up with an act, which they would perform the next day.

24 hours to come up with a bit with people they'd predominantly only known on paper for a month.

Great.

But Steve cut his eyes around at Tina and beamed. He started toward her, already thinking he could convince her into doing their own rendition of Thriller, when the tall, red haired boy with a lisp intercepted him.

"We need to talk."

Steve gulped.

"Oh....uh..."

15 minutes later found them in the hallway, Jimmy Junior with his arms folded as he stared the bespectacled boy down.

"We're doing an act together. You and me. And you're not getting out of it."

Steve blinked in shock.

"W-wait, what? B-but Tina's my..."

"This way Tina'll be able to see whose the best and who she wants to be her real crush."

Steve narrowed his eyes skeptically..."I don't--how--but, wouldn't it be easier if we competed instead of performing together?"

Jimmy Junior folded his arms and smirked,

"Nope. This way, she'll see which one of us really outshines the other for real! Head to head!"

Steve blinked in confusion as his brain tried to run the calculations. It technically didn't make sense. He looked back in the room at Tina, who was talking with her siblings, then back to Jimmy Junior who was smirking confidently...

Then again, this chould be interesting... Steve smiled.

"Alright, deal. May the boy-crush win."

"Oh, I plan too!" Jimmy Junior said, shaking Steve's hand.

In the end, Tina was confused when Steve and Jimmy Junior explained they'd decided to pair up for the talent show, and slightly disappointed--until Louise pointed out that Tina would probably be too smitten by Steve to coherently perform on stage with him anyway. So, the Belcher sibs decided to revive one of their trademark acts as a slight remix.

As far as the other acts, Jocelyn was partnered to perform with Barry, Zeke with Toshi, Tammy with Snot, and Jimmy Junior's pen pal, Roger, had suddenly went MIA and no one knew where to find him (though J-Ju thought he saw someone suspiciously resembling Roger drowning in drinks at the hotel bar...though he couldn't prove it). So him pairing off with Steve worked out fine.

With that, the teens all practiced with tummies filled with nervous butterflies that made them feel like throwing up as they geared up for their acts.

----

The Next Day...

"Oh my god, I'm so nervous-uh! What if I make a mistake and mess us up?!" Jocelyn said anxiously from behind the curtain, just offstage.

"Don't worry, you won't!" Barry said, trying to comfort her.

"But what if I do-uh?! I'll be the worst pen pal ever and you'll probably hate me-uh!" She said, pouting slightly. Barry gave a small smile and took her hands,

"Jocelyn, you couldn't mess up if you wanted too! And even if you did, I'll be right there with you! And I could never hate you. You've been the best pen pal I could ask for."

She sniffled, "Oh-em-gee, Barry you're so sweet-uh!" She threw her arms around him in a big hug. Oh wow... He flushed, and was about to hug her back before she pulled away, taking his hands in hers with a squeeze. "Ok, let's do this!" She said, determined. He nodded.

With that, the two of them made their way on stage. Behind them was a long buffet table with bowls of various finger foods that had already been brought out: popcorn, grapes, apple slices, diced cucumbers, and different kinds of candies. Jocelyn made her way to the microphone,

"Hiiiii! Um, okay so like, Barry is like REALLY good and catching things with his mouth..."

"And Jocelyn is REALLY good at tossing stuff!" Barry said, briefly grabbing the mic. Jocelyn blushed slightly,

"Aww! Anyway. So like, we wanted to show you guys! Ready Barry?" He nodded,

"Let's do this!"

They started off easy, with Jocelyn stepping just a few feet away from Barry and tossing popcorn toward him, which he caught like a breeze.

Then, they stepped it up.

Jocelyn picked up different finger foods, and tossed them to Barry blindfooded, taking a few steps further and further back with each round.

Eventually, Barry put on a blindfold too, and they were both blindfolded at opposite ends of the stage. At one point, someone even brought out a ladder so Barry could catch the toss while also elevated a few feet higher than Jocelyn! They continued this until the last round where Jocelyn was in the front row of the audience, Barry was onstage, and--with both still blinfolded-- Jocelyn did a ninja star throw of some beignets, which Barry caught with with hands behind his back.

He didn't miss a single throw during the whole act. Needless to say the crowd was in an absolute uproar when they finished. Jocelyn giddily bounced from where she stood before running back on stage and crashing into Barry with a big hug.

"OHMYGOD Barry that was AWESOME-UH! You were amazing!" She kissed his cheek.

Barry's eyes grew wide and he flushed before mumbling that he needed to be excused and bustling off stage. Jocelyn blinked after him, confused, but then shrugged and waved to the audience before heading off herself. Tammy met her just behind the curtains, clasping their hands together and jumping.

"Oh. My god. Jocelyn, that was actually like, NOT lame!"

"I know, right?!" She glanced over at Barry who was surrounded by Steve, Snot, and Toshi, who were all trying to calm him down. Jocelyn approached,

"Um, is Barry okay?"

Snot stepped in front,

"Oh! Er, he's find Joce! He just got a bit winded."

Jocelyn peered around the boys.

"You do look a bit flushed. I'm gonna go get some water for you, okay Barr? Brb!" And with that she skipped off.

Barry stard after her before whining to his friends,

"Guys...this isn't good. She's too nice to me and way outta my league! I can't do this!"

"Barry buddy, don't stress it. She likes you, that's a good thing!" Steve said, putting his hands on his friend's shoulders.

"But girls aren't usually nice to me!"

"Well this one is!"

"I can't handle this! Being around her is making my heart beat like crazy!" Barry said, his breathing picking up.

"Barry! Barry, calm down! Don't think of her as a crush. Okay? Just, think of her as your friend! She likes you, as a friend! Start with that!" Steve said. Barry tried to slow down his breathing.

"A friend? .....A friend....yeah, okay. Okay, I can do that...." he said, staring after Jocelyn as she got water in a small paper cup from a nearby fountain. She turned back toward him and beamed as she approached, and all he could see around her were sparkles through a rose-colored filter. He swallowed thickly.

He knew he was doomed.

-------------

Next up was Zeke and Toshi, who no one thought would be able to come up with an act together.

But it turns out, they had actually bonded in their letters over Zeke having genuine interest in learning Japense, and Toshi being open to hearing about some of the different places Zeke had moved around a lot to.

One thing they both shared an interest in was wrestling, so they used this as an opportunity to teach the other about stylistic differences in the sport--Zeke learning about sumo wrestling and Toshi learning about competitive American middle school wrestling.

"You ready for this Tosh-meister?!" Zeke asked, donned in a custom tailored sumo-wrestling outfit.

"Yarouze, Zeke-kun!" Toshi nodded, in his own tailored American-style competitive wrestling uniform.

When the two came on stage, their bit was more on the performative side. It started with Toshi introducing the name of the sumo wrestling move in Japanese, Zeke translating it to English, then Zeke demonstrating the technique. Then the switch, with Zeke naming a move, Toshi giving the Japanese translation, then Toshi demonstrating it.

Then, in a twist no one saw coming, the two attempted to pit the techniques against each other: Zeke doing his standard American style moves and Toshi doing his sumo style moves. Seeing it with the boys in their opposite cultural garb made it a very interesting performance, and they got a solid round of applause from the kids when they were done. Off stage, the duo attempted to catch their breath. Tina and Jimmy Junior brought them each a Gatorade.

" 'Pppreciate 'cha T-Bird, J-Ju!"

"Hai, arigatou gozaimasu!" Toshi bowed to them after accepting the drink, then turned to Zeke.

"Yoku yatta ne, Zeke-kun!!"

"Arigatou, Toshi-kun! Tanoshikatta yo, mata itsuka yarou yo"

Jimmy Junior blinked, "Wait, Zeke you speak Japense now?"

Zeke shrugged.

"Just a lil' bit. It's pretty cool! Ya'll should try it sometime!"

"You can understand him?!" Steve asked.

Zeke blinked confused, "You can't? How long ya'll been friends for, now?" he asked. Though he already knew because Toshi had mentioned in their letters how frustrating it was that his friends didn't seem to understand him after all this time.

Steve's face heated up in slight embarrassment. Barry, who had come up with Snot, Tammy, and Jocelyn, rolled his eyes,

"Sonna ni muzukashikunai yo," he said.

"Wait, you too?!" Steve asked, baffled.

Everyone started at Barry in shock, especially Toshi.....because if Barry was the one person in the friend group who could understand him this whole time.....this changed everything.

Zeke grinned and held up a hand to high-five Barry?

"Right?! My man here gets it!" He beamed! Barry smiled and high-fived Zeke in return. Jocelyn clasped her hands together.

"Wow! Barry, you're like so smart! Like, Super Smart!"

He flushed, "Er....thanks Jocelyn."

Tammy rolled her eyes, "Ugh, nerd love. Gross. C'mon Lonstein, our bit is up soon and I'm not gonna let you embarrass me!" She said, taking Snot's wrist and dragging him away for them to get ready. He shrugged to their friend group as he was pulled along,

"Hope ya'll enjoy the show!"