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Private Notes
Curiosity gets the best of Billy, Marcus, and Ruby when they try to sneak a peek in Lydia's class journal. Lydia, understandably upset, accuses them of snooping, and informs them that her journal is private. Besides, who's to say that she's been writing about them? She could be writing about anyone: her parents, her uncle's cat, Earl. Earl? Convinced that Lydia is writing about him, Earl transforms the school into a 1960's spyscape, and he dispatches a rogues' gallery of spies to retrieve the document. With time ticking down, Billy, Marcus, Ruby and Lydia must outmaneuver the colorful henchmen and deliver the journal into the proper hands (in this case, Mrs. Snodgrass, patiently waiting for them to turn in their journal assignments). In the end, Billy, Marcus and Ruby forego the opportunity to ""sneak a peek"" at Lydia's journal, learning a valuable lesson about the need to respect the privacy of others
It's student election time, and Billy and Ruby are both vying for the coveted title of school president. Though initially friendly, their rivalry heats up, and before you know it, the mud starts flying. When Earl's petition to include his name on the ballot is rejected, matters are complicated by the late entry of a mysterious third candidate. Buoyed by a glitzy ad campaign (compliments of his spin doctor/campaign manager, the Phantom), the third candidate (none other than Raticus in a clever disguise) shoots ahead in the polls. If Billy and Lydia are to defeat this upstart, they must clean up their acts and work together.
In the end, they learn that ""no one's a winner when you don't play fair"" -- a fact confirmed by the other students who, disgusted with the dirty campaign, end up electing Fred Smertz as a write-in candidate.
It's time for the annual Flying Rhino Junior High Games, in which students compete against one another in the glorious field of athletic competition. Everyone has been practising their skipping, pogoing and yo-yoing... well, almost everyone. Billy, a natural athlete, feels that he doesn't need to practise. Earl, irritated by Billy's arrogant posturing, strikes a blow for uncoordinated geeks everywhere by transforming the school into the site of the original Olympic Games: Olympus! Now Billy, Marcus, Lydia and Ruby must beat the ultimate competitors -- those overbearing Greek gods -- if they have any hope of saving their school. Fortunately for our heroes, guess who didn't come prepared?
Inspired by a class lesson on pirates, Johnny and Rod start shaking down the other students for their milk money, terrorizing the school. But when Earl hears Lydia pass judgement on the two thugs -- ""Those guys are low-down, dirty sneaks. They're no better than Earl."" -- he loses it. After all, his stellar villainy is leaps and bounds above their amateurish thuggery. To prove his point, he dons a pirate's hat and becomes the infamous Peach Fuzz Beard, morphing a pirate ship into existence and commanding it from the boiler room. His scurrilous crew drafts our gang (Billy, Ruby, Lydia, Marcus, Johnny and Rod) into service. The pirate ship embarks on a pillaging voyage through the school in search of ill-gotten booty with our unhappy heroes in tow. Well, actually, not all of them are unhappy. It turns out Ruby has decided that the pirate life is for her, delighting in her position as ship's treasure-counter.
Our gang must convince Ruby that stealing is wrong if they have any hopes of tu
Lydia allows her stint as hallway monitor to go to her head. Super-bossy, she delights in setting down rules and regulations for the others to follow. Earl finds the whole situation endlessly amusing -- until Lydia vows to crack down on individuals holding overdue library books. ""She wouldn't dare,"" thinks Earl, glancing over at the cobweb-covered pile of library books lying beside him. Would she? Incensed, Earl morphs the school into a lawless town right out of the Old West. Lydia, assuming the mantle of sheriff, sets out to bring her own brand of justice to the place. She succeeds -- perhaps a little too well. With everyone in the hoosegow, who's going to back her up when the nefarious Harwood Gang rides into town?
Ultimately, her friends come through for her in the end as Lydia comes to realize a simple truth: it's bad to be bossy.
It's been days since Billy struck out in the Junior High Baseball Championship Game, and he hasn't stopped moping yet. If only he had the chance to do it all over again. Lydia rightly points out that Billy should just forget about it and move on: ""You can't change the past."" Not yet, Billy agrees, but with the advancements in science, it should only be matter of time before time travel is possible -- and he'll be able to go back into the past and rectify things. Picking up on their conversation, Mrs. Snodgrass discusses time travel and its treatment in literature. Marcus points out that, though a fun idea, time travel is impossible. This sets off Earl. One of his very first creations was a time machine. Time travel is possible! And to prove it, he uses his machine to send our foursome into the past. Ten whole years into the past!
Stranded in the past, our heroes befriend Earl P. Sidebottom, a hapless nerd who will one day become the Phantom as a result of the D that he receives in sh
It's Career Day, and a variety of career exhibits have set up shop throughout the school. Marcus feels sorry for Buford. No one seems interested in his janitorial exhibit. Marcus guilts the gang into visiting by reminding them how helpful Buford has been in their past adventures. Pleased by their visit, Buford enthusiastically tells the kids about his general duties. He gets into plumbing, explaining such things as clogs, traps, sewer gas, etc. But the kids show no interest. Buford picks up on this and slinks off, his feelings hurt. Marcus is angry with his friends. Made to feel guilty, Ruby argues with him. She really likes Buford, but she doesn't think that he should be pushing sanitation engineering as a career. Making a living in a sewer? ""Come on, what kind of a crazy person would want to work underground for a living?""
Earl is outraged! He works underground for a living, and he's certainly not crazy! He transforms the school into a sewer, complete with noxious sewer gas, bursts
Ask anyone what Billy's favorite movie is, and they'll tell you: ""Daredevil Donnelly and the Amazon Adventure."" He's seen it 20 times. And with all of the hype surrounding the cheeseball classic release to video, Billy has caught Daredevil Donnelly fever all over again, suddenly patterning himself after the film's dashing hero. He shows up at school sporting Daredevil Donnelly's trademark fedora, toting Daredevil's trademark lasso, spouting his trademark lines (""Make way for adventure!"", ""Stand back and be amazed!"", etc.). He's even got Daredevil Donnelly's bluster and bombast down pat. Well, Billy's heroic posturing proves too much for Earl, who decides to transform the school in a real-life Amazon adventure. But, alas, the thick-headed Raticus inadvertently triggers the morph while Earl is topside fixing a camera and, before you know it, the Phantom (in a less-than-clever Heidi disguise) has joined our heroes on a hair-raising ride down the Amazon.
Over the course of the adventure,
The hot topic of the day is the three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Billy, Lydia, Marcus and Ruby are doing their part to help protect the environment by cleaning up the school. Earl, watching from the boiler room, scoffs, ""Foolish children! Who cares about garbage?"" He hands Raticus a pizza box with the remains of his lunch. Raticus throws the box into an old coal storage room, which is already stuffed with garbage. He quickly slams the door shut. The Phantom cackles, ""Out of sight, out of mind!"" The kids echo those sentiments with their first solution to the school's garbage problem: they stuff all of it down the unused coal chute. But the extra garbage is too much for the storage room, and it explodes into the boiler room, burying Earl and Raticus. Furious, the Phantom transforms the trash pile into a living garbage monster!
Our heroes must make use of everything they know about reducing, reusing and recycling to strip the garbage monster of, first, its organic elements, then it
Visiting the school for a routine safety inspection, a fire chief drops by the class to deliver a lesson on emergency preparedness and fire safety. An ensuing safety tour of the school is complicated by Earl, who figures that if Flying Rhino Junior High fails the safety inspection, the school will be shut down, and he will have the building all to himself! A few keystrokes later, the enviromaster has morphed the school into the most dangerous place imaginable. Suddenly, everything is in a state of disrepair, exposed wiring abounds, the cafeteria floor is covered with grease, and improperly labeled household cleaners lie about. Unfortunately, the visiting fire chief turns out to be a magnet for disaster, and our heroes have their hands full trying to keep him out of trouble and in one piece
When Ruby's poor eating habits result in an in-class fainting spell, Nurse Cutlip takes it upon herself to lecture the kids on the importance of proper nutrition, exercise and rest for the promotion of health. But down in the boiler room, Earl scoffs at the notion. Eat healthy? Exercise? Ha! He eats terribly, he doesn't exercise, and he's in fine physical form. But when Nurse Cutlip holds up an old photo of Earl as a warning of what could happen if they don't take care of their bodies, Earl becomes enraged. He morphs the school into his body, determined to give the kids an up-close and personal look at just how healthy he is. Our heroes are ambushed by a gang of bacteria, unpleasant thugs who have laid claim to this turf (Earl's body), and who challenge our heroes to a rumble. Marcus realizes that they are no match for the bacteria, but they know who is: the body's defenders, the white blood cells. Unfortunately, the white blood cells are a weak, sickly lot, lacking in self-confidenc
Spring has sprung, and it's time for the annual Flying Rhino Junior High Garden Bonanza! The classroom becomes a sea of plant pots as Mrs. Snodgrass teaches the kids about growing everything from crops to Venus Fly Traps. As part of the lesson, each student is given the opportunity to plant and take care of his or her own crop. After Ruby has planted hers, she stands there waiting. When the others ask what she is waiting for, Ruby replies, ""I'm waiting for my plant to grow, silly."" It is a very annoyed Ruby who learns that it could take days, even weeks before she sees the fruits of her labor.
Earl sees this, and he decides to take advantage of the situation. This is the perfect opportunity to test his new plant growth formula. If the experiment is successful, he will use his Phantom X Brand Fertilizer in his ultimate goal of total world domination! But first things first. He dispatches Raticus upstairs to drop off a bag of the stuff where our heroes are sure to find it.
When our her
When Marcus inadvertently breaks the sink in the boys' bathroom, he bolts, allowing Johnny to take the blame. But when he hears that Johnny may face suspension, Marcus instantly regrets his decision not to step forward. Of course, regretting his inaction is one thing. Actually having the courage to step forward and admit to his mistake is something else. While Marcus wrestles with a guilty conscience, Earl, a regular fall guy during his high school days, decides to teach Marcus a lesson. Inspired by an in-class discussion of Lewis Carroll's ""Through the Looking Glass"", Earl sends our heroes to a bizarre alternate mirror world. There, they encounter weird mirror versions of our Rhino regulars: a sharp and eagle-eyed Principal Mulligan, an erudite Rod Harwood, a squeaky-clean Fred Smertz. As it turns out, our heroes have quite a reputation in this mirror world -- and not a good one. It turns out that their mirror-versions are some Class A troublemakers -- and our heroes are paying the
