PAW Patrol: Marshall Gone Missing.

Chapter 8

Okay, Rubble, you can do this," Rubble muttered to himself as he leaned forward from his seat. It had been a week since he had officially joined Paw Patrol. While he hadn't been sent on missions yet, it gave him plenty of time to learn how to use the bulldozer Ryder had given him as the new construction pup.

At the moment, he was still getting used to the controls and trying to lift a large hill of sand as practice. Turning his truck, he howled with the engine roaring as he shouted, "Rubble on the double!" he pressed his paw down on the gas, only he felt his bulldozer head backwards instead. Gasping, the bulldog realized he had left the stick in reverse. "More like Rubble is in trouble!"

His bulldozer continued to move backwards until it slammed into a tree, nearly knocking the wind out of Rubble. Moaning, he turned it off and sighed, "I'm never going to get this down."

"Hey, Rubble! What's going on?" Rubble turned his head to see the Paw Patrol's fire rescue pup, Marshall, walking towards him with a smile on his face. "Hey, you're trying out the bulldozer Ryder made. How's it working?"

"It works fine, it's me that's not working right," sighed Rubble, sinking into his chair.

"Really?" asked Marshall, jumping up and landing near the bulldog. "What's wrong?"

"I keep screwing up. I wanna be a Paw Patrol member so badly, but every time I try to do work this thing I keep forgetting something," said the saddened pup. "Maybe I'm not cut out to be a construction pup."

"Hey, don't think that. If Ryder thinks your perfect for the team then I trust him. Besides, everyone screws up. I even did when I started using my fire truck," said Marshall, putting a paw on Rubble shoulder.

"What did you do?"

Marshall blushed and chuckled. "Every time I used my ladder, I used to always come down riding on my butt. It got really sore and red, to the point where I could have been named Marshall, the Red Butt Pup."

Rubble snorted before laughing out loud, imagining the sight of such a thing. "That's so funny! Did you get better?"

"Oh, I did. But I still fall on it occasionally. While also getting in a ton of other crashes as you well know," pointed out Marshall.

"Like this afternoon when you slipped on Zuma's marbles and slammed your head into Ryder's pizza?" asked Rubble.

"Yeah, but that was worth it for the pepperoni," said Marshall, rubbing his stomach and licking his lips at the memory. "The point is, we all screw up a bit. You just need to keep practicing, and you'll be awesome in no time."

"Okay! Let's give it another go!" shouted Rubble. He turned on the bulldozer and this time, remember to put it in drive. Pressing forward, Rubble grit his teeth with determination as he lowered his large blade and began scooping up the sand. "Yeah! I did it!"

The two dogs began to bark with joy until Marshall gasped. "Wait, Rubble! You forgot to stop the blade!"

The two watched as the scooper continued going up until it reached the top and tipped the sand to pour on top of them. The two dogs held their breath until they were covered in a pile of sand, head down. Popping out of it, they looked at each other and just laughed at the sight of themselves.

"Hey, when you're done. Do you want to watch Apollo the Super Pup with me?" asked Marshall.

Rubble tilted his head. "Who's Apollo?"

Rubble chuckled at the memory. True to Marshall's word, he did get better as time went on, and was just as good as the rest of his friends. He then whimpered again when he realized that he had insulted the very pup who had given him the confidence to be who he was today by calling him a screw up. But Marshall's helped saved the day so many times, even with his screw ups. Yet I yelled at him, all for messing up my favorite cartoon that he introduced me to!

A cartoon was just a cartoon. It could be seen again, even on demand. But a friend was irreplaceable.

Vowing to never see another Apollo cartoon until he found Marshall, Rubble continued on his search.