Someone in Trouble

Chapter 4: Living in a Montage

Over the course of the next several days Robbie had no time to relax. He was constantly woken up from naps, disturbed during cake breaks, and interrupted from watching TV by his trusty orange speakers dropping down and blaring out the activities of the children. Every energetic broadcast that would normally fill him with disgruntled fury now gave a devious lift to his spirits and tipped him off to the next occasion where trouble might brew and need saving.

And there was no end of opportunities to be had. Kids were climbing trees, slipping on skateboards, losing their kites and balls, and being the general nuisances that all children were in Robbie's eyes. All of the constant misadventures of the kids gave Robbie plenty of practice scrambling up out of his lair and rushing to be the first person to answer the call for help. The constant checking and running and coming and going had Robbie showing up around the kids in an almost uncanny fashion. He felt like he was living in a montage!

Did Ziggy pile his icecream cone too high and find himself in over his head with the teetering tower of dairy delight? The little boy's staggering to and fro trying to keep the scoops balanced had him tripping over his own shoes and at risk of falling down into a faceful of icecream— Until seemingly out of nowhere Robbie was already there trying to grab him, and in their clumsy collision Ziggy smooshed most of the multicolored frozen sweets down the front of the man's clothes. But what was left on the cone was safe and still delicious!

Was Stingy driving his car on that pothole filled road again and steering straight for a sinkhole big enough to swallow both him and his vehicle? Robbie would be there, jumping in front of the young boy to try to force him into a detour! At least that would have been what would happen if Stingy would put on the brakes, but no one was going to tell him where to drive HIS car. Robbie realized quickly that this road hog wasn't afraid to play chicken, forcing the villain to turn and try to run away— and fall straight into the pit himself. But with the lanky man filling up most of the hole Stingy could drive right over his head and shoulders and maneuver his car to safety, and isn't that what counted?

Robbie may not have possessed the overblown showboating style and finesse of Sporta-JERK, but he still got results that kept the kids from serious harm. On top of that and most important of all he was consistently getting there before the meddling hero. It was sweeter than any slice of cake to see that dumbstruck look on Sportacus' face when he arrived at almost the same time as Robbie, but oh— just a hair too late, the trouble had already been taken care of. And with no trouble to take care of Sportacus could only linger around for so long before going back up to his airship.

Nobody knew what to make of it all. Exclamations of "Robbie Rotten!" were even more frequent now than when the villain used to be called out and exposed for his failed plots. Each time they said his name it was another notch in his post. It was like the people of LazyTown didn't know how else to respond to Robbie's interference in their lives, even when his interference was for their own supposed benefit.

This was all too easy— while at the same time it was harder than any other stunt Robbie had ever pulled. The accident-prone townsfolk were running him ragged. It had to be worth it, he insisted to himself. He would get banged up, bruised, and battered as much as it took to keep that air-headed blue elf up in his blimp and out of town.