Omega Kids

Everyone was playing at recess. All the playing equipment is packed. There are too many kids at the cheese box, too many kids doing jump ropes, even too many kids on the seesaw! There are also kids on the roundabout.

Rus and Greta are in the line to play tetherball, but the line is long. Rus points out how many kids there are in line. Greta tells him that there are 27 kids ahead of them. But when another kid pushes them out of their way and cuts them, well, make that 28.

Out of all of them, the jungle gym looks the most crowded. There are kids piling on to it from top to bottom. Beaver tries to get them to let him in, so he jumps in, only to get trapped in.

C.J., Rigalli, and Vance are playing baseball. C.J. gets ready to throw the ball, but there are incoming kids that prevent her from doing so. When C.J. throws the ball, Vance catches it with the glove, but only to be tackled by a bunch of football players shortly after.

Then the bell rings, and everyone goes inside. The hallways are packed with students. Vance points out that the school is getting more crowded every day. Greta tells him that over crowdedness is a real trend of the public school system, their school is no exception. C.J. is looking forward to lunch, but the gang and other kids find out that the lunchroom is packed with a line, much to the gang's dismay. Vance notices that they are having Tuna Fish Tacos for lunch.

The gang gets excited because there is one more kid until them. But the lunch lady announces that they are all "out of Tuna Fish Tacos", much to the gang's dismay. But Greta tells the gang that they are probably "cooking up a batch of Tuna Fish Tacos" as they speak, but the lunch lady instead gives them cream liver and eggplant, much, much more to the gang's dismay.

As the gang go home from school, they complain about what a lousy day it was, and they wish they could have the whole school to themselves, but then, they tell themselves and each other, that at their school, there is no room for dreaming.

The next day, as the bell rings, the gang run to school, thinking that they are late. When they see that both the entrance and the hallways are downright ***DESERTED***, Greta tells them that she has the time for the Colorado region, and that it is only 30 seconds after 8:00 AM. The kids rush to Miss Ropey's classroom, to see only Miss Ropey there. Miss Ropey tells the gang that the kids who ate the Tuna Fish Tacos are home sick, to which Greta asks that they are all alone. Rus asks Miss Ropey if she ate the tuna fish tacos, but Miss Ropey tells Rus that "the faculty eat slightly different than the kids eat."

Miss Ropey tells them about the Faculty Lunchroom, where Principal Prickly tells the waiters what he and Miss Ropey would want to eat. Miss Ropey says that since the rest of the kids are out, they are going to spend the day exercising the creative side of their brains. Vance tells Rigalli, in other words, to which Rigalli says, pretty day. And C.J. says her catchphrase, "Tender."

After the gang plays around in the classroom, they go outside at 10 o'clock for recess. The playground is all theirs, with Mr Boyd checking on all the sick kids. Mickey does a Tarzan yell on top of Old Crusty, Vance plays tetherball with Rigalli and Greta, C.J. acts like Queen Barb, and Rus plays with his toy plane.

The fun gets better during lunch, when the gang learns that they are having pizza! Each of the kids gets as many slices as they want from Lunchlady Velma, and each kid gets their own table. After that, they have a food fight. By the end of the day, Rigalli is actually looking forward to the next day.

However, the next day starts to get boring as Miss Ropey makes all the gang sit in the front, and the leftover pizza is so stale it shatters on the plate. Soon, they are given a lot of homework to give to all the sick kids. On the way home they complain how their perfect dream has turn into a total nightmare. C.J. says sooner or later everyone sick will get better and come back to school. She says most of them could be back tomorrow.

The next day, the school is still deserted, and the kids wondered how bad that tuna really was. Desperate, Rus pulls out... a note! Everyone reacts to Rus' plan like he is about to commit suicide! Heck, when Vance and Rigalli take the note from him, Rus even sobs, "I could have got out! I really could have!"

C.J. reads the note:

"Dear Miss Ropey,

Please excuse our son Rus from school, he is so sick he should probably stay home until all the other kids are better.

Signed... *My Mom*?"

This gives C.J. an idea. When Rigalli asks if it involves sick notes, C.J. replies that that would be too obvious. Instead, they will give the school nurse the idea that they are sick.

They start by sending Rus to the school nurse, having him pretend he's sick while Greta gets a book on childhood diseases. As soon as she finds a good one, C.J. gives the signal, and Rus suddenly "gets better."

Later, Greta colors dots on the others' faces with green markers while having them eat blue candies. The result: Nurse Grader is shocked to see that the whole gang has green spots and blue tongues. When Greta and C.J. tell her to check the medical text, Nurse Grader cries out "Good Sweet Mike!" for she is led to believe that the children are seriously ill. C.J. asks if they can go home, but Nurse Grader says that it is "much worse than that." Shortly after C.J. asks what she means by worse, the CDC comes to quarantine the gang!

Rigalli sarcastically calls Greta "Einstein," while Greta apologizes, saying that she thought that the disease's symptoms were green spots and blue tongues instead of *blue* spots and *green* tongues. C.J. is optimistic that the CDC cannot keep them in forever. But a CDC man tells them that they will all pull through before walking away, crying. The episode ends as Rus, Vance, and C.J. wish they were outside with all the other kids.