The Adventures of Pete and the Pals

Timothy James Scott

So Amy can’t snoop in this, Pete is letting me hide it in his dresser, under his socks. Amy will never look there (I hope). Speaking of Amy...we were over at Pete’s yesterday, watching War in Space 2: Attack of the Shurbs (which just came out on Netflix instant). Johnny assured me there was nothing in it Amy would get mad about, even if she walked in. I should have known better than to believe him. Johnny’s idea of ‘objectionable’ is nothing like Amy’s. Of course, Amy walked in right when the hero was slicing up the Shurbs (which are these greenish blue aliens that can change form and look like anything). It didn’t help that the Shurbs he was attacking were in the form of female humans. Sooo....that’s why I’m writing my first entry today and not yesterday. In other words, I was grounded til now.
I hear Amy calling...gotta go.

LATER, SAME DAY

So, where was I? Oh yeah, being grounded. Sometimes I wonder why I ended up with such a strict guardian. Why couldn’t VidKid...never mind.

That reminds my of this weird conversation I had with Johnny:

Johnny: You’re soooo lucky to be a Scott!

Me: Huh? I thought you always said you were glad you weren’t born into my family...

Johnny: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But your last name is SCOTT!

Me: .....

Johnny: Like SCOTTY!

Me: Um....

Johnny: From Star Trek!

Now he randomly calls me Scotty sometimes. It’s getting annoying. Not to mention he keeps saying I’m deprived because, not only have I seen Star Trek, but I have never seen The Lord of the Rings. Or even all the Star Wars episodes. Well? He ought to realize how long it took me to get Amy to let me watch PIXAR MOVIES!
 
GGray said:
Timothy James Scott

So Amy can’t snoop in this, Pete is letting me hide it in his dresser, under his socks. Amy will never look there (I hope). Speaking of Amy...we were over at Pete’s yesterday, watching War in Space 2: Attack of the Shurbs (which just came out on Netflix instant). Johnny assured me there was nothing in it Amy would get mad about, even if she walked in. I should have known better than to believe him. Johnny’s idea of ‘objectionable’ is nothing like Amy’s. Of course, Amy walked in right when the hero was slicing up the Shurbs (which are these greenish blue aliens that can change form and look like anything). It didn’t help that the Shurbs he was attacking were in the form of female humans. Sooo....that’s why I’m writing my first entry today and not yesterday. In other words, I was grounded til now.
I hear Amy calling...gotta go.

LATER, SAME DAY

So, where was I? Oh yeah, being grounded. Sometimes I wonder why I ended up with such a strict guardian. Why couldn’t VidKid...never mind.

That reminds my of this weird conversation I had with Johnny:

Johnny: You’re soooo lucky to be a Scott!

Me: Huh? I thought you always said you were glad you weren’t born into my family...

Johnny: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But your last name is SCOTT!

Me: .....

Johnny: Like SCOTTY!

Me: Um....

Johnny: From Star Trek!

Now he randomly calls me Scotty sometimes. It’s getting annoying. Not to mention he keeps saying I’m deprived because, not only have I seen Star Trek, but I have never seen The Lord of the Rings. Or even all the Star Wars episodes. Well? He ought to realize how long it took me to get Amy to let me watch PIXAR MOVIES!
Click to expand...
Now he randomly calls me Scotty sometimes. It’s getting annoying. Not to mention he keeps saying I’m deprived because, not only have I seen Star Trek, but I have never seen The Lord of the Rings. Or even all the Star Wars episodes. Well? He ought to realize how long it took me to get Amy to let me watch PIXAR MOVIES!
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That is HILARIOUS!!!!! Poor Timothy...
 
I loved Johnny's story. Especially the first paragraph. And the thing about Tim having to convince Amy to let him watch Pixar movies is really funny.:D
 
Poor kid. Pixar movies. I can just imagine him desperately trying to explain why Finding Nemo wouldn't be too violent for him to watch. These stories never fail to make me laugh, GGray!

I took the character quiz, too, and I got Johnny McGillis. I think that was because of our common interest in movies and movie quotes.
 
The Journal of Henry Lincoln McGillis, 1st entry
4:34 PM
Topic: Recent Noteworthy Events
None.

4:35 PM
The above entry has been rendered incorrect. One thing of note did occur today—Rory’s allowance was raised by twenty-five cents. I suppose that counts as a noteworthy event, to Rory at least.


RORY J. MCGILLIS, Pal Club Official Picnic Basket Packer

If future generations end up reading this like Pete claims, I won’t have them making fun of my spelling, so I’m typing these entries up on the computer, spell-checking them, and then gluing them in here.

Pete said to include Memorable Events. Two of those happened to me today—my allowance was raised and Johnny tested out a prank on me. He SAID he was just making sure it would work on enemies, but I say replacing the rootbeer in my glass with foamy stuff that tasted like soap was EVIL.

Since Those in The Future will be reading this, I just wanted to say not to think Johnny’s so cool and everything from the way he writes about himself. And don’t believe everything he says about me, either. He’s probably preparing to poison the minds of The Future Readers against me by telling how annoying I am. Well, I can do that, too. There was this time in one of our old apartments when he dressed up like a ghost and hid under mine and Teddy’s bed. And that time he renamed a document of random typing the same thing as one of my school paragraph documents, so I printed it out and brought it to school. It wasn’t MY fault I was in too much of a hurry to actually look at the page! But just so nobody thinks I’m Revengeful and Bitter, I’ll write down something good he did. It took me three hours to think of one, but here it is: When I accidentally broke Henry’s model of some germ or something, he lent me some cash to buy a new one. He charged twenty-five percent compound interest, but still, it was one of his better moments.
 
If future generations end up reading this like Pete claims, I won’t have them making fun of my spelling, so I’m typing these entries up on the computer, spell-checking them, and then gluing them in here.
Click to expand...

Hee hee. :D

I agree with Zella- it's hilarious how Rory capitalizes certain words.
 
TEDDY’S JOURNEL

Pete said we have to do this, so I’m doing it. But the other Pals probably said everything in their journels, so why should I even write anything?

LATER

Henry looked over my shoulder and said ‘journel’ is really spelled with an ‘a’. I knew I should have used a pencil instead of a pen. Since scribbling out would look worse, it’ll just have to stay.

I found one of Johnny’s old stories when we were cleaning out under the beds. It’s from when he was nine. He said I could put it in here for ‘inspiration’.

The ground shook as Mighty Whirligig the Mighty Slayer rushed over the ground, slaying millions. The enemies shook with fright they were so frightened. Mighty Whirligig snarled in rath as he brought his mighty axe down on the head of the enemy king. The skeleton army rushed from behind Mighty Whirligig with great haste, whirling their weapons hastily. Who could stand against such a mighty force of mighty villains? Only one person....Johnny the Warrior, armed with swords and machine guns.

I always thought a whirligig was one of those spinny things you put in gardens.
 
PETER MATTHEW LEWIS


Ed threw a HUGE fit this morning, claiming I snuck onto his Facebook account. Evidently, somebody used his name and posted rude comments under his friends’ pictures. I let him know I wasn’t criminal OR stupid enough to do that, and none of us Pals were, either. Then I had second thoughts and interrogated Johnny (because of his password-deducing ability) and Rory (because Ed had insulted him a couple days ago). They both denied it. Turns out it was some coworker at Burger Bud’s who was doing it ‘for the heck of it’ (to paraphrase Ed).

With Arch and VidKid gone, the Spikers seem to have ceased activity, except for little things like leaving their chewed gum around the edges of our apartment doorknobs. And yeah, I know it was them. Teddy witnessed Laser in the act. This alerted us, and we scraped it off. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to Tim’s apartment in time, and when Amy came home from work she got a fistful of gum contaminated with Spiker germs. She practically had to be rushed to the ER from the shock of touching something UNHEALTHY. Okay, I’m exaggerating—a little. But she did have a major freak-out.

The newest TV craze, according to an Kids Entertainment magazine some relative sent me, is this anime-style cartoon called Tweenage Rebels. And yes, it’s Tweenage. With a ‘W’. It’s aimed at the 10-12 age group. It’s about a generation of children on the planet Ankh, where just about everybody over 13 is brainwashed by the Empire into being a mindless killer zombie-soldier. ‘Heelies’ brags that he’s getting the exclusive deluxe Xbox game when it comes out. He also brags that it’s rated ‘M’, but I happen to know it’s ‘T’. He blasts the theme song on his Ipod 24/7, so I have it memorized. Johnny’s working on getting permission to watch an episode, just to check it out. Tim remarked in a hopeless tone that it looked ‘kind of interesting, but Amy...’ He didn’t even bother to finish. By now, we all know what he means.

Speaking of Xbox games, I got a new one from Ed. Seems one of his work friends gave it to him for me because an aunt who thinks he’s still twelve gave it to him. Confused yet? Anyway, it’s called AxeQuest 3.0: Curse of the Dragon-Qworks. From the case, it looks kind of like what would happen if J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and a bored third-grader collaborated. I’m off to play it now. Review forthcoming.
 
From the case, it looks kind of like what would happen if J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and a bored third-grader collaborated.
Click to expand...

THAT would be interesting. ;) I'll look forward to his review!
 
First Officer’s Log

Second-Command Jonathan E. McGillis.
Quote Success Rate: 5/10. Three were not recognized as quotes, and two were tried on the wrong person.

Pete got this WICKED AWESOME new game, but I bet he described it in his journal, so I won’t. I also bet he told about the gum incident and the Facebook incident. Hang on, Rory’s yelling for me...

A FEW MINUTES LATER

Rory dared me not to say or speak or write ‘I’ (except in this explanation). Agreed to take dare. Will see how this goes.

MUCH LATER

Wish hadn’t taken dare. Went to the Ice Cream Shop with Pete. Amy, and probably every other person encountered by me, thought myself was purposely being rude. Could not defend myself properly because of the dare. Will definitely get Rory back for this one...

MIDNIGHT

I won the dare!


The Journal of Henry Lincoln McGillis, 2nd entry
2:39 PM

Johnny is convinced he can win a Young Writers Contest (Ages 10-12). The first prize is publication of the story and fifty dollars cash money. We’ll see how that turns out. Speaking of Johnny, he’s been acting strangely today. He seems to have an aversion to the word ‘I’. Oh, well, who knows with him. He once spent an entire day walking around with a book on his head. He claimed it would enhance his balance, thereby improving his battle skills.


RORY J. MCGILLIS, Pal Club Official Picnic Basket Packer

I had a great idea yesterday and dared Johnny not to use the word ‘I’ all day. Man, everybody must’ve thought he was crazy! Or maybe that he had a weird speech impediment. He won the dare, but I got the Satisfaction of knowing it was Difficult.


TEDDY’S JOURNAL (Notice I spelled it with an ‘a’.)
Johnny’s story inspired me, all right—to dig up one I had to write in school next year. The teacher gave me the subject, but I made up the names and events.

On the first day of summer vacation, Frank glumly kicked a soda can down the hall. “I’m bored,” he muttered as the can rolled around a corner.
His mother confronted him with folded arms.
“You won’t be bored for long,” she said, “Because you kicked that soda can right into the wall. Soda is everywhere!!”
It took Frank an hour to clean up all the soda.
“I’m sooooooooooo boooooored,” Frank moaned, tossing a baseball back and forth in his hands.
CRRRRASH!!
“Oops!” Frank gulped.
It took Frank until dinnertime to sweep up the broken vase and superglue it back together.
After dinner, Frank frowned. “I’m boooooooooored.”
“You have sweeping duty tonight,” his older brother Joe reminded.
“It’s summer vacation,” Frank mumbled, “I have stuff to do.”
“Like what?” Joe asked.
“Like . . . stuff,” Frank replied.
The next morning, Frank wandered the apartment halls, kicking his soccer ball. He kicked it a little too hard just as Joe opened the door to their apartment. The ball flew through the air, just missed the kitchen window, and knocked over a whole shelf of cans. Frank ran down the stairs before Joe could tell on him.
“Ah-ha!” he said to himself, “ Now I know just what to do today.”
Frank wandered down to the baseball field, where his baseball team, the Alligators, were playing against the Green Monsters. Instead of joining the game, he caught a fly ball and purposely tossed it into the golf course water trap next to the baseball diamond.
After riding through three flower beds on his bicycle, Frank snuck into the apartment house recreation room, being careful to avoid everyone else. He put a plastic quarter into the pop machine, got a can of ginger ale, and shook it hard. Then he opened it.
Whoooooooooooooosh! Ginger ale sprayed over all the furniture.
Frank sat in the elevator and sang loudly just to annoy the other passengers. Then he rode down to the basement and threw ping-pong balls at the piano. It was a satisfying ending to an exciting day.
That night, Frank ran into his apartment—and was confronted by the Alligators and the janitor (who had to clean up the soda spill downstairs). Frank spent the next day doing dishes and mopping the apartment floors. He also wrote a note of apology for monopolizing the elevator and posted it behind the main desk. Then he bought the Alligators a new baseball. (The old one had rolled into the water trap.) Finally, he paid the pop company for slugging the machine. Frank spent the rest of his vacation wisely and did NOT play any more mean jokes!
I wrote it all myself. Well, Henry helped with some of the bigger words. In case you want to know, the subject was to write a story about a kid who was bored. The teacher insisted that I add the last paragraph for some reason. When Johnny read it, all he said was that the names sounded familiar.

LATER

I went out to grab a snack from the vending machine . On the way back I almost crashed into this guy standing in front of the elevator. He looked familier. I realized who it was when I was about to go into our apartment—the guy that Amy whacked on the head at the hotel. I’m on my way to tell Johnny.

EVEN LATER

When I told Johnny, this happened:

Johnny: He’s STALKING us for REVENGE!!!

Me: Hey, he should stalk Amy, not us. She’s the one who clobbered him.

Johnny: Think we should set him straight?

We were undecided, so we’re about to go tell Pete.
 
The story about the bored boy is so much like something a kid would write. When I read the last paragraph, I was a little suspicious, though... ;) Then I was like, Ohhh... The teacher made him add that...

I'm looking forward to hearing more about this "stalker"!
 
PETER MATTHEW LEWIS

My AxeQuest 3.0 Review:

It was so-so. It’s kind of addicting, actually, but when you think about the storyline it all comes apart.

First of all, the creatures. Qworks are half-dragon-half-human things that spit fire. The chief Qwork is fittingly named Spitfire. Qworks don’t seem too smart. When you try to talk peace terms, they wave their axes and make orc-ish noises. The game’s called “Curse of the Dragon-Qworks” because back in the First Age (Tolkien influence!) the first Qwork stole the Emperor’s magic axe and cursed it so whoever wielded it wielded great power. I’m not done with the game yet but I’m guessing this will be a wipe-out-all-opponents button.

The minions that you get to kill dozens of are Murbles. (Bored third-grader, remember?) They’re like shiny silver living superballs. The other villainous creatures are Blurqs, Spungi, and the Xiyk. The good guys are Elflings, Gimlings, and Istarian Staff-Mages—more Tolkien influences.

The weirdest lines were definitely in the beginning voiceover. “This is the story of me. Of me and my companions. Of me, my companions and the Axe. The Axe of Fate. Of the Fate of me, my companions, and all of the world. The world of AxeQuest.” Another cheesy one was thanks to the Xiyk, who turns out to be a rogue Istarian Staff-Mage. “Nothing can stop me. Oh, yes, nothing in the known universe can stop the mighty power of me, of my Murbles!” I laughed so hard that I died. Well, my avatar died. I guess I was supposed to be paying more attention to the Mighty Murbles.

The funny thing is, every time you hit “hint”, the Mentor Mage says, “Follow your heart!” or “Do as your heart tells you.” It’s getting annoying.

As for the George Lucas influence? The romantic dialogue. That’s not really a good thing.

Hang on, I just heard the Pal Club knock on the door.

LATER

The knock was Johnny and Teddy coming to give a report—Teddy had spotted a familiar person in the lobby. It was the guy Amy clobbered at the hotel. Now, if this was a movie, he would have been following us for revenge. In fact, Johnny and Teddy actually thought he WAS. (Okay, I’ll admit the thought crossed my mind, too.) Faced with that possibility, I did what any sensible leader would—I sent Teddy out to scout around. Seems this guy just moved into an apartment on the third floor. That could mean three things. One, he really is following us. Two, this is all a weird coincidence. Three, we’re all the victims of massive Plot Contrivance (that’s from Johnny).
 
Yay, an update! :D

The funny thing is, every time you hit “hint”, the Mentor Mage says, “Follow your heart!” or “Do as your heart tells you.” It’s getting annoying.

As for the George Lucas influence? The romantic dialogue. That’s not really a good thing.
Click to expand...

This was my favorite part!!! :D
 
PETER MATTHEW LEWIS

The results of Teddy’s latest spy mission were the cause of much relief in the Pal Club. Turns out the ‘stalker’ just moved here to be near his sister. Did I say much relief? Well, except for Johnny, who said it was a cruel letdown or something.

The rest of my AxeQuest review:

About halfway through the game, the main quest is sidetracked by the rescue of an ungrateful elfling princess. Why do I say ungrateful? Well, after my avatar saved her from her pursuing captors FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A ROW, she proceeded to mouth him off about how she didn’t need help, how dare he save her, etc. Man, I was tempted to feed her to the Murbles! And I would have, only that wasn’t an option.

Finally, after a few minor battles, you face the Xiyk for the last time. But to get to his fortress, you have to hack your way through tons of crocodile-headed things in rows. This is easy, but time-consuming. During the Big Fight, the elf princess ‘helps’ by shooting massive crossbow bolts into the duel. Yeah, I lost my two spare lives that way.

The game manual says this is the part where you discover “crucial information” about the Xiyk. It turns out his dark secret is that he put all his life force in a glass cube, and he foolishly blabs it during the showdown. So I let Princess Elfling shoot at him while I went into the dungeon, found the glass cube just sitting there, and smashed it. The Xiyk came running down the stairs, but he exploded in a shower of pink confetti. (Well, I think it was actually supposed to be staff fragments, blood, and magic mixed. But it looked like pink confetti.) After that, peace was restored, along with some bonus lives. There are two more discs, though, so I doubt the peace’ll be permanent.

Speaking of video games, I tried to play Henry’s—Math: Advanced. I lost on the fifth round, and just to rub it in, a blue screen announced, “You lose, therefore you are a loser.”

First Officer’s Log (Stardate Something)

Second-Command Jonathan E. McGillis.
There was nearly some excitement around here. Teddy spotted that guy Amy clobbered back at the hotel. Naturally, we assumed he was here for revenge. I should have known better than to HOPE. On to a happier topic: I finally got to play AxeQuest! It’s AWESOME—epic battles, cool graphics, and QWORKS! An army of those Murbles would be soooo useful. Pete thinks the names in the game are weird, but I explained that it adds to the otherworldliness. I mean, did he want names like Joe the Dragon and Bob the Heroic Warrior? It just wouldn’t go. I’m not even going to bother writing Henry’s opinion. What do you expect from a kid who plays Math:Advanced for FUN?
 
Pete thinks the names in the game are weird, but I explained that it adds to the otherworldliness. I mean, did he want names like Joe the Dragon and Bob the Heroic Warrior? It just wouldn’t go. I’m not even going to bother writing Henry’s opinion. What do you expect from a kid who plays Math:Advanced for FUN?
Click to expand...

Bob the Heroic Warrior? :p That's such a funny paragraph! xD
 
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