literature

Contest Entry: BeckyxTobey Flipped Crush

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Author's Note: I started with the assumption that the beginning dialogue from the original short has taken place, and I’m basically using the general plot of those shorts as a template as well as ripping off some of the other dialogue, so keep that in mind. If you haven’t seen them, here
www.blinkx.com/watch-video/epi…
www.blinkx.com/watch-video/epi…
www.blinkx.com/watch-video/epi…



It had all started one afternoon when her mom let the self-proclaimed boy-genius come over for a playdate. Becky Botsford was instantly struck by his intelligence. Not that she fell head-of-heels in love with him, of course, as he was still rather rude. She maintained her interest in the school’s reporter. It was more of an intrigue that Theodore MacCallister III presented for her, and, after all, she had to admit that Scoops was unyieldingly passive toward her. Not to mention that the robot-builder’s feelings of intellectual superiority, though a bit obnoxious, were at least understandable due to Fair City’s... uniquely naive populace. At any rate, Becky figured it wouldn’t hurt to keep her options open.

“Hm, interesting,” the boy quipped shortly after their initial introduction. “Someone my age who actually has a brain in her head.”

She had only just met Theodore, but something gave her the feeling that the remark was actually a compliment coming from him. “Thanks... I think.”

As he sat on the couch, he passed by the coffee table and glanced down at the WordGirl doll. He hadn’t met the superhero yet but figured he would soon, given that today was his first real test-run of his robots. Seeing as how Miss Botsford’s mother was the District Attorney, he decided against remarking about his destructive tendencies. After a moment, the silence was getting uncomfortable, and he spoke again.

“I build things.”

“What?”

“You asked what I like to do for fun, Becky. I’m a genius, so I create technological marvels with my leisure time.”

“Like what?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he sneered.

“Oh yeah? Try me!” Becky crossed her arms and took a seat next to him.

“Miss Botsford, I think the creation and programming of artificial intelligence is a little beyond the average 10-year old.”

“Well I’m not your average 10-year-old!” Becky asserted, amused in thinking about how wrong he was. “So, you make artificial intelligence, then?”

Theodore, however, merely rolled his eyes at her persistence. “Do you even know what that means?”

“Of course! Artificial means fake, simulated, or unnatural. Something is artificial if humans make it instead of it existing on its own.” Becky smirked at the boy. If there was one thing to be said about his arrogance, it was that it gave her an opportunity to actually prove herself. The challenge was refreshing and a little energizing. “Who’s average now, Theodore?”

“Alright, you have a grasp on the English language, I’ll give you that. But-“

”I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“But that doesn’t mean you can understand the mechanics and advanced innovation, and I certainly don’t have the time to explain it to you.”

“Well you’re stuck here until your mom comes to get you, so we might as well talk about something.” Becky tried to casually inch closer to encourage the boy to go into more details. Subtlety was not her forte.

“I have little interest in idle chit-chat.” A bit flustered by the decrease in personal space, Theodore picked up the TV remote from the table, opened the battery compartment, and feigned an interest in its layout. “Why are you so intent on socializing anyway?”

“Because, for one thing, I’m trying to be friendly. For another thing, you’re the guest, so it’s my assignment.”

“Mm, ‘assignment’,” he said, tapping his chin. “Why didn’t you just say ‘job’?”

“‘Job’ is so overused,” she sighed.

“What about ‘task’?”

“I like ‘assignment’.”

“Chore? Appointment? Occupation?”

Becky was about to argue with him when a thought occurred to her. “Are you just trying to initiate an altercation over vocabulary with me to discern how impressive my lexicon is?”

“That... was just unnecessary. And no, Becky, I’m not. I don’t need to argue with you to know who has the better knowledge of words.”

The statement certainly wasn’t a compliment, but the young heroine mistook it for one and smiled to herself. She thought this Theodore just had a unique way of expressing his admiration and approval. Besides, in terms of vocabulary knowledge, he could almost give her a run for her money. Almost. “Pity,” she responded. “It would’ve been fun.”

“For you, maybe. As a boy-genius, I find entertainment in more advanced things.”

“Alright, suit yourself. But I doubt that TV remote can keep a ‘boy-genius’ amused for very long,” she taunted. “Since you obviously don’t want to watch television, we’ll have to find something else to pass the time. There’s books, board games, food, uhm, what else...” Becky hopped off the couch and started pacing to come up with ideas, causing the remote she found earlier to fall out of her pocket.

“Where did you get that?!” Theodore demanded.

“I found it.” She wasn’t quick enough to grab it before him.

“It’s mine!” he insisted, clutching the devise protectively.

“Is not!”

“Is too! ‘TTM’.” The boy indicated the inscription on the back. “‘Theodore Tobey MacCallister’!”

“You’re Tobey?!” Becky exclaimed, more than a little disappointed to learn this boy was potentially an enemy of hers but even more disappointed in herself for failing to put the clues together sooner.

“You’re Word...Girl?” Tobey asked warily.

“Pfft, no I’m not,” she quickly covered.

“Oh.”

“And don’t change the subject! You built and controlled a robot that caused major destruction to the city?!”

“It wasn’t that big a deal, just a little hullabaloo,” he shrugged, pocketing the remote control.

“So you’re telling me that you... weren’t trying to destroy the city?” His words were just vague enough for her to avoid jumping to conclusions, but the hopefulness in her voice was unmistakable.

“My intentions are hardly any of your business, Miss Botsford.” Again, Tobey kept in mind that anything he told Becky was just one step away from being known by the District Attorney who, as chance would have it, appeared in the room at that very moment.

“Snack time, kids!”

As she placed a platter of tacos on the counter, the two fell silent. Tobey shifted his weight around in his seat, nervous that the woman might’ve overheard some of the conversation or that Becky might give him away. Mrs. Botsford looked over at the two expectantly, and in response her daughter put her arm around the boy and produced a large grin to prove just how well they were getting along. Satisfied, the District Attorney took her leave, and the conversation resumed.

“I live in this city, don’t I?” Becky said in a determined whisper. She, too, thought it best to keep her mother from finding out about the robots. In that moment she had decided to take it upon herself to reform the young robot-builder. If his intentions weren’t purely evil, then there had to be a chance for him, right? After all, her mom did ask her to befriend the boy. It seemed the only respectful thing to do was to fulfill that agreement. “I say it is my business.”

“You can say whatever you want,” he sighed, walking over to pick up a taco. “But you’re wrong.”

“Why does it have to be such a big deal if you tell me?” she asked, following closely after him.

Her endless inquiries were getting quite bothersome. All he wanted to do was get out before he said something compromising. Tobey narrowed his eyes at Becky as she leaned past him to grab her own taco. “Ever heard of a little thing called ‘personal space’, hm? Well this is mine, and that is yours.” The boy walked over to the table and sat down, only to be followed again.

“Have you ever thought about using your robots for good? Or was that what you were trying to do all along? I noticed there weren’t any robots in the city before, so I understand if these just malfunctioned. You know, if there was something wrong in their programming that made them-”

“I know what ‘malfunction’ means, and-”

“Right, of course. But you know they have a lot of potential if used the right way. For instance, you could have them repair the damage they caused to the city earlier!” Becky told herself she was only so determined to keep Tobey off the track of villainy to make her job easier and to keep the city safe. However, she really felt that it would just be unfortunate to be on poor terms with a boy who possessed such an excellent vocabulary.

“I hardly think I need advice on how to use my own robuts from a lawyer’s daughter of all people.”

“And why’s that?” Becky asked, leaning down in attempt to make eye contact.

“Oh, enough!” he cried at last. He jumped up from his chair, knocking it over with momentum. “All these intrusions and questions aren’t worth it! I suppose you would’ve found out eventually anyway.” With that Tobey whipped out the remote and pressed a button that resulted in an unsettling beeping.

“Found ou- hey, what did you just do?”

“Whoops, it appears my finger slipped.”

“It did not! ...Did it?”

“Hmph. You can’t prove anything.”  

As he spoke Becky heard a deep rumbling and felt the floor of her house shaking at the impacts of some large object.

“That’s not a- ?”

“Yes, I’m afraid it is.” Tobey turned from her, clutched his sides gleefully, and whispered to himself, “it’s my ticket out of here!”. After a pause, he shot Becky a sideways glance. “You know, Miss Botsford, I suggest you alert your mother as soon as possible. You never know when these things might... what was that word you used again? Ah, yes. Malfunction.”

Becky found herself torn. She wanted more time to get to know this strange boy, and it was so hard to tell what his real intentions were. Still, the safety of her home and family trumped everything, so she ran off to get her mother.

Once she had cleared the room Tobey let out a sigh. “She just left me no choice! At least getting grounded will keep me from running into her again for a good long while...”

The rest, from there, became a typical parting for the two fifth graders. Whether Becky had to get one of her parents to contact Tobey’s mom or whether she, as WordGirl, would fetch the woman herself, Claire MacCallister would come time and time again to drag the smug inventor away. In each instance he would relish the temporary peace of mind, only to again be pestered about getting onto the straight-and-narrow and benefitting society with peace-robots. Their encounters worked themselves into some form of backward rivalry. Tobey would always try to out-do himself and create enough chaos to merit a more lengthy punishment, keeping him out of school and away from Becky as long as possible; inversely, WordGirl would, with little success, do everything in her power to come up with some way either to excuse the destruction or for Tobey to make up for what he had done. Of course he never took option, so the stubbornness on both sides perpetuated their battles for a long time to come.
For :icontobeyxwordgirlfans:'s "Flipped" contest wherein WordGirl/Becky is presented as crushing on a resistant Tobey. :eager:

Please let me know if you see any typos. I've read and reread this so many times that I think if there are any others I just glaze over there. ^^; ...Also if there's a way to indent, I can't figure it out, 'cause my indentation's aren't showing up on the deviation page. :confused:

I wanted to do a picture, but I didn't have a tablet/pen-pressure for ages, and after awhile I just realized it was too late to draw anything. Plus I didn't have any great ideas. So I decided to try my hand at fanfiction and gave it a lame as crap title apparently! :dance: Though... I realize this is subpar. ^^; The ending is rushed so the pacing is weird, I abused italics, I should've added the Narrator in for some sass, and I shouldn't've used the show as a crutch as much as I did. But I suppose it's not too awful considering that I'm really not a writer...? ^^;

Though, looking back, I kind of wish I'd done it as more WordGirlxTobey than BeckyxTobey, but oh well. *

I guess my main thing is that I was trying to make it realistic and mostly still in-character. Just like… if things had gone a little differently. Because I know the whole idea of the contest slightly goes against their characters, but I don't like unexplained romance, so... I tried. :shrug:

Best of luck to the other entrants~! :boogie: (Ooooo, speaking of which, I'm delighted to see so many other entries! :w00t:)


WordGirl belongs to Soup2Nuts. B-)
© 2013 - 2024 VoiceActressKurutta
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Lilproject's avatar
Whoa!! I love how you're entry is actually probable. XD Like, it's actually possible that Becky was thinking this from scene to scene. It's awesome!! :D