Someone in Trouble

Chapter 16: Not Enough

It wasn't unusual for Robbie to have trouble sleeping sometimes. For as much as he napped, it didn't make up for a bad night's rest. Sometimes his insomnia got so bad he couldn't sleep for three days. If he could just stop thinking for long enough, he would fall asleep. But his thoughts were noisier than ever and he couldn't shut them up.

And how his body ached! His stomach kept gurgling ominously after he'd dared to nibble on a banana at Ziggy's insistence. It was lucky he wasn't completely sick from it. And his neck still felt stiff from when Trixie had sat on his shoulders the other day. The giant ghost prank had gone spectacularly, sure, but at the cost of the alignment of Robbie's spine. His legs were aching with shin splints from hopping around like a mad fool on that dancing pad at Pixel's house too. He wouldn't be able to walk right for days.

These things weren't just physically taxing. That was only the beginning to his restless nights. For every exhausting encounter he recounted in his chair his mind couldn't stop latching on to the same repeating note like an earworm. One after another each child had shown that same sort of sad expression, and they'd said those two wistful words...

Robbie pressed his pillows against his ears but he couldn't drown out their voices in his head.

It's just—

It's just—

Just—

It's just not enough, they were saying. Cake couldn't compare to sportscandy. A pocket chain couldn't compete with a beeping crystal. Simple pranks couldn't live up to flashy moves and stunts, sitting down couldn't stand up to moving and dancing and swishing and flipping and—

They were trying to change him. No one ever came out and said it, but it was obvious when he looked at it all together. The kids weren't content with him as he was. They wanted him to be Sportacus, not Robbie Rotten.

His lip curled in a silent sneer at himself. It figured as much that the flipping blue elf didn't even have to be around to get the better of the villain. Even when Robbie was the winner, he was still the loser.

Insufferable little ingrates. Robbie was running himself ragged trying to give those kids everything they wanted, to make them happy—

But why? Why was he doing this to himself? He'd gotten what he wanted, hadn't he? Sportacus was gone, and LazyTown was a little quieter and a little lazier for it. So what if it made the sniveling children unhappy? He didn't care...

Except he did...

His plan had been so simple. It had worked. Yet he couldn't even gloat over his success, not anymore. He could never have foreseen this side effect in his plot. Somewhere along the way, he had started to actually... like... those kids. To care for them.

The realization burned in his throat. He dug his nails into the arms of his chair hard enough to rip out some of the bright orange fur, better that than his own hair. His scheme had been too clever. He'd trapped himself! No, no!

How could this have happened?!

He'd spent weeks watching after the uppity little imps and saving anyone in trouble: catching Ziggy whenever he fell out of a tree looking for lollipops; or serving as a speed bump for Trixie in her runaway wagon; or filling in a pothole for Stingy—

Weeks of keeping those kids busy with all the ways they'd found to play together: fishing off the dock; or puzzling through board games; or going for a picnic— Getting invited to Pixel's house for video games or setting up pranks with Trixie. Jumping in puddles or making chocolate fondue or loaning cufflinks.

Why was he not enough for them?

He glanced down at himself, slumped back deep into his chair, his house coat frumpy and wrinkled. Was it because he refused to eat sportscandy? Because he wasn't strong or athletic? Because he didn't try to wear a perky a smile all the time? It was the lack of a mustache, he bet.

He hadn't done any of those things but still in his own lazy way he'd managed to connect with those unruly urchins. The kids had befriended him in return, had welcomed him into their games and their lives. He didn't have to force them to do what he wanted them to anymore because he didn't want to. It was good to be bad, but he liked to be liked, too.

They just didn't like him enough, not as much as they liked Sportacus. And they were missing their hero more and more every day.

That was it, the Something that wasn't right. As hard as it was for Robbie to admit, Sportacus was as much a part of LazyTown as any of the other residents or himself. Getting rid of Sportacus had only made it all the more obvious how important he was to everyone in town, how much they needed him to be there encouraging them, playing with them, saving them. Robbie never thought it possible, that he would actually come to understand why Sportacus did all those things. Now that he was the one doing them, or trying to, the blue-suited man's absence was more profoundly felt than ever, like a hole in his chest.

He couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't give the kids everything they wanted, try as he might. The way things were going, no one could be truly happy. Not Stephanie, not Ziggy, not Pixel or Stingy or Trixie. If they weren't happy, Robbie couldn't be happy.

But if Sportacus were to come back, what would happen to everything that Robbie had worked so hard for? Without Sportacus around the kids actually listened to Robbie and showed a little respect to him for once and to the things that he liked. The moment that elf set foot back in town he knew the kids would be off running, and leaving him behind in their dust. Was it so easy for them to forget about Robbie Rotten? Didn't anyone care about what he wanted?

Robbie ground his teeth together in his frustration. What did he want anymore? He thought he'd gotten it, but he was wrong. He had been wrong about everything. He was always wrong, wrong, wrong!

He tossed and turned in his recliner, unable to find a way out. They were all in trouble without Sportacus, and it was up to Robbie to save them... but how?