Lola's Pet Mouse

**Lola's Pet Mouse** is a fan-made episode of *Robotboy* that focuses on Lola Mbola.

## Plot

Lola is out in the backyard, singing to herself while picking flowers, happy with herself and what she has collected so far when she hears a squeaky sound. She looks and sees a small mouse behind some tall grasses, who runs away from her at first until he tires out. Lola sees that the mouse is sick, so she picks him up and tells him that Tommy Turnbull will know how to make him better.

In her house, Lola has the mouse lying comfortably in a basket and tells Perry to go get Tommy. Tommy comes and examines the mouse, saying that he can't find what is wrong with him, but that he will prepare an herbal broth that his mother made for him. Lola thanks Tommy for his help, and then later in the evening she is feeding the broth to the mouse, hoping that it will make him feel better. She gently swings the basket that the mouse is lying in like a cradle while singing a lullaby to help him sleep. Soon she finds herself getting tired and gently lowers the basket to the floor while she lays on her bed to get some sleep. In the middle of the night, the mouse awakens and climbs onto Lola's bed, awakening her and showing that he is all better. Lola likes the mouse and the funny noises he makes that she decides to call him Squeaky.

The next morning, Katie Jones is playing fetch with Lola's new pet mouse, and Gus feeds Squeaky a fresh blueberry. Oliver tries to feed him one of his rotten blueberries, and it tastes so awful that the mouse spits it out. Lola doesn't like what Oliver tried to do and then walks off with Squeaky following her. She goes to Tommy's room and tells him that the broth made him well again, though Tommy says that it's Lola's love and care that did it. Lola now asks if she could keep Squeaky as a pet, and Tommy says that it should be Squeaky's decision and to give him a chance by letting him loose into the yard.

Lola and a few other friends (including Katie, Krystal, and Perry) gather near the backyard to see the little mouse go back into it so that he may find his home again. After making their goodbyes, Katie tries to comfort Lola as they head back to the village, with Lola saying that she will be okay. Then Squeaky returns and shows that the home he now has is with Lola. She goes to tell Tommy, and he says that she now has a pet of her own. Soon Lola's friends bring over things to help Squeaky feel right at home in the village: Her dad brings over a mouse house, Gus has baked some mouse muffins, and Oliver brings over a bag full of garbage, the last of which Lola has him deliver someplace far from Squeaky.

By evening, Tommy and Robotboy has their experiment ready to boil and leaves the cauldron over the burner while they go to sleep. During the night, a bit of wind blows into the room and causes some paper to slip into the burner, which then slowly starts a fire. Squeaky notices the fire and goes inside Lola's bedroom to warn her about it. She sees the fire for herself and gets Tommy, Robotboy, and everyone else awake to deal with it. Soon the fire truck is wheeled out, and Tommy and Melanie get the hose and sprays down the laboratory. Tommy sees that all his toys and games have been saved and nobody was hurt, and Lola says it was all because of Squeaky, which makes Tommy feel glad for her new pet. But in their relief, none of them notice that Squeaky looks very strained from the ordeal.

By morning, however, Lola finds Squeaky by his mouse house unable to wake up. She gets worried and calls for Tommy to take a look at the mouse and puts Squeaky up to his ear. After he hears no breathing, he gives her the heartbreaking news that Squeaky has died, which makes Lola sad and react in disbelief. The other kids are also heartbroken that Squeaky died, and out near the Tommy's yard they hold a funeral service for the mouse, with Tommy trying to comfort Lola by telling her that death is a part of life and that all living creatures will die eventually. Lola finds no comfort in Tommy's words and so throws her bouquet of flowers on the ground over Squeaky's grave, saying that life is terrible and that she will never be able to love anything again. Katie watches as Lola runs off, seeing how upset she is, and Tommy says that she needs some time alone to work out her sorrow.

Two days later, Tommy and Gus go to Lola's house, seeing that she hasn't eaten anything since Squeaky died, and try to check in on her to see if she is all right. After no response, Tommy and Gus go into her house and find that her bed is only filled with pillows, so that means that she is gone. They summon everyone together for Tommy to tell them the letter that Lola wrote, saying that she couldn't stand to be around to see losing another friend, and that they must now go out to find her. Katie is eager to start the search, and so everybody follows him as he goes into the forest and picks up Lola's scent. He says that her trail leads up to the mountain he is pointing at, and Tommy recognizes it as the Mountain Of Mists.

High on the mountain, Lola finds herself cold and miserable. She sees what she first thought was Squeaky, only to remind herself that the mouse isn't him. Then she sees a friendly squirrel, but then she feels like she doesn't want anymore friends to give her trouble. As the squirrel runs off, the black shadow of a vulture appears over him, ready to take him as prey. Lola intercepts the vulture and tries to scare him off as the squirrel runs for cover, but in luring the vulture away she trips and falls off a precipice, grabbing onto a branch and holding on for dear life. Her cry of help is heard by Katie as she and the others are going up the mountain. The branch slowly breaks and Lola is about to fall when Katie shows up tied to a rope and grabs her, with her fellow friends pulling them up to safety.

Lola is glad to see Tommy and her fellow friends again, and they are also glad to see her. Upon her return to the village, she pays a visit to Squeaky's grave, telling the mouse that she will miss him, but that she now has to go on with her life. Sometime later, Debbie Turnbull presents Lola with a "surprise" that Tommy decides to open for her, but instead of exploding, the box contains a baby mouse that will become Lola's new pet. She loves the present and thanks her fellow friends for it.

## Appearances

* Lola Mbola
* Tommy Turnbull
* Squeaky
* Robotboy
* Gus Turner
* Katie Jones
* Melanie Collins
* Perry Register
* Debbie Turnbull
* Krystal Walker
* Ambassador Mbola
* Oliver Doherty

## Trivia

* This episode is unusual among Robotboy stories, in that it deals with an actual death (something normally considered taboo in children's television shows), and of a cute forest animal befriended by Tommy and his friends.