Post by ral365 on Apr 22, 2010 14:54:18 GMT -5
Author's Note: Ok, I know I already put up a fic like this, but I made some changes to the plot I felt needed fixing. I also changed a good deal of the dialogue and characterization scenes. For those of you who know the original, I hope you'll enjoy the revision.
This fic follows up the theory that Flint Lockwood may have Asperger Syndrome...
Also a warning, contains some brief rude language, and MAJOR SPOILERS!!
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: A Gift or a Curse?
Based on a True Story
-----------------------------
Chapter One: Unexpected Tension
Life in ChewandSwallow was pretty busy after the big food storm. Even though the town was very proud of me for fixing everything, the did leave a huge mess to clean up. Thanks to some of my inventions, I cleaned enough of the food to get people's houses and businesses back in a few days, including my lab. Unfortunately, a good deal of it was still scattered around. The town's construction workers were busy moving the food out, and getting people's homes fixed, and I was able to help a good deal of the time.
Also during that time, the day after the food storm, I got a phone call from the Mayor asking me to come and see him in the hospital. While he tried to escape, he got a heart attack from his…uh, obesity problem...
The Mayor spoke with sleepy, slow voice on his bed, as though he were about to pass out. "Nurse, please…let Lockwood in on the double."
"Yes, Mr. Mayor."
A black nurse in a white dress opened the door. "Mr. Lockwood, the Mayor is ready to see you now."
"Yes, m'am."
Now, don't get me wrong. I had no interest in visiting the mayor at all. I still remembered what he did to me, and it was gonna be really hard to forgive him. I walked in the room ready to give him a good dressing-down, but my anger died down a little when I saw the mayor. A miserable, pale 1,500 pound man laying on a seemingly under-sized bed with a plastic, oxygen mask over his mouth. He stared at me with half-open eyes, and I just looked at him squeezing my hands together tight.
"Flint…come here, son."
Still remembering how much he hurt me, I gave him a suspicious, scornful look.
"Yes, sir?"
"Flint…I know I said I've always wanted to be a…big mayor, but…this wasn't quite what I was going for."
"I'm very sorry to hear that, sir."
The mayor welled up with tears. "I absolutely hate myself for being so idiotic, especially since...my dream may just lead me to my own undoing."
"Mr. Mayor, whatever it is you're trying to drag me into, forget it. I'm sorry you're sick, but I'm not gonna let you take advantage of me again."
I was about to storm out, but the Mayor wheezed out. "Flint, you have to be the next mayor of Chewandswallow!"
I froze in my steps, and turned around shocked. "Wh-what?!"
"Flint, I won't be able to keep this town running anymore. You've proven yourself to be bigger than I am. You saved our town from a raging food storm. Now I think you're better off protecting it from just about anything else. Which is why I elect you, Flint Lockwood, to run in this year's mayoral election in Chewandswallow. You couldn't be a more suitable man for the job."
I felt like I could fall harder than a forty-story building.
"What?! Y-You w-want me to be mayor?! N-No, sir…I-I can't! I-I'm not a mayor, I could never-"
Suddenly, the Mayor started groaning and held onto his heart.
"...I'm sorry."
My eyes and jaw went wide as the Mayor started screaming and clutching onto his heart. I stood back against the wall, not sure if I should go anywhere near him, or stay here in case he needed me. The nurse tried to help, but then, his face turned completely pale, and his entire body fell right over the left side of the hospital bed, landing on his head with a CRASH!!
"MAYOR!!"
The nurse came back, and we both rushed over to the motionless mayor. I turned his head forward and when I saw his sick face, I nearly fainted.
"Mayor!"
The nurse started to perform CPR on the Mayor, and as other doctors came in, I just stood at the back of the room. I wasn't going to take my eyes off this scene for a minute, though deep down, I wish I could've. Then after about ten minutes, the nurse stood up.
"I'm sorry, Flint Lockwood."
And on that note, I actually did faint.
The Mayor's body was fork-lifted to the black horse carriage of the Chewandswallow Funeral Service to see what they would do with his body. I, on the other hand, felt more freaked out than even handling the spaghetti tornado. I sat on the sidewalks outside the hospital, completely lost in thought. Then the nurse walked outside and found me.
"Flint Lockwood?"
I almost fell over again, but then I turned around.
"WAH! Oh, sorry, miss. You scared me."
"Flint…just so you should know. The Mayor, he wanted me to give these to you."
The nurse handed me what looked like a stack of written papers with a signature on the bottom of each one; a contract.
"Just in case you…decide you wanna be the new mayor. I certainly couldn't pick anybody else better."
Then the nurse walked away.
"Oh no..."
I didn't even have to look at the first page to know what would happen if I did become the new mayor...
I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon in the lab pacing and thinking out loud while Steve was chewing on a giant pickle leftover from the food storm. In my mind, I couldn't calm down until this problem was solved. I couldn't let go of this anxiety that only got stronger and stronger the more I thought about the situation.
"What am I gonna do?….If I become the next mayor, then…I could use my inventions to help keep our city successful…ugh!! But then there's making all these important decisions for everyone, keeping track of businesses, helping real estate…I don't know anything about running a town, let alone a mayor's desk Plus, I may be so busy, I won't even have time to invent."
Steve's lips puckered up tight. "Pickle!"
"I know, Steve, this is a real pickle. What am I gonna do?"
I stood still for a moment or so. Then Steve started looking at what looked like an ordinary magician's wand with a set of red buttons on the side. He chewed on the front and ZAP! I screamed and ducked when a flash of blue light zipped across the lab, and left a five-foot hole on the wall.
I took the wand from Steve.
"Steve, no! Don't touch that! That's my latest invention; the Actual Magic Wand, or AMW, for short. Eh, still working on the name. I'm saving it's juice for cleaning up the food storm."
I put the wand back down, and went back to thinking hard about being the next mayor. After a moment, I heard someone ring the door bell, and I jumped back and screamed, startled again.
As I rubbed the tears that were brimming in my eyes, I looked at the monitor to see who it was.
"Flint? It's me, Sam! Are you there?"
"Hold on, Sam! I'll be right there!"
As I quickly raced down the elevator, Steve had his eyes on the AMW again….
"Oh, hey, Sam."
Sam squeezed her hands tight and had a nervous look on her face. "Flint, I just wanna let you know that…I'm really, really really sorry about what happened with the Mayor."
I started feeling down, too. "Thanks, Sam. It was so scary seeing him like that. But now, he wants me to be the next mayor of Chewandswallow."
Sam gasped and gave me a hug. "Oh, Flint, congratulations! I'm so happy for you!"
"No, Sam, I'm NOT happy about this!"
Sam immediately let go. "Oh, I'm sorry..."
"I'm just starting to learn how to socialize with people; there's no way I could handle a mayor's office."
"I've had social skills training throughout my whole life; I could help you, if you want."
"That-that would be nice."
Suddenly, Dad came walking outside.
"Flint, I need to talk to you for a minute."
"Ok, Dad. Hold on, Sam. I'll try not to be long."
I rushed back into the house, and Dad and I talked in the kitchen.
"Yeah Dad?"
Then he showed me a bunch of W-2 forms and bills. "See these, son? These are your tax forms and health insurance bills. I've been doing them for you since you were born, but now, you're gonna be twenty-six in a few months, so...I'm gonna have to cut you off as a tax dependent."
"What?"
"Once you turn twenty-six, you're gonna have to be filing your own taxes, paying for your own insurance, and...I really think it's about time you started living in your own house."
"What?!"
"Flint, you're not a kid anymore. You're all grown up. It's time you started taking more responsibility for yourself instead of being so dependent on me. It's not that I don't love you; I really think you should start taking care of yourself."
I felt my anxiety rise to a new high. I started hyperventilating, and my voice started to choke up.
"No, Dad?!! No, I don't wanna leave!!"
"I know unexpected changes are hard for you, but this'll be good for you-"
"I don't care! I'm not leaving my house or my lab and you can't make me!!"
"Son, calm down-!!"
I covered my ears as Dad raised his voice. "AHH!! Dad, stop, you're hurting my ears!!"
"FLINT, LISTEN TO ME!!"
Finally, I felt so overwhelmed, I burst out of the room and ran straight for the lab before I could explode.
"Flint, wait, come back!!"
I refused to look at Sam as I raced by her.
"Flint, what's the matter?!"
I was about to run to the elevator when all of a sudden...
"WHOA!!"
I was being lifted in the air, zig-zagging all over the backyard uncontrollably, twenty feet over Sam. In the lab, Steve was shaking his head around with the AMW in his mouth. Every time he shook his head around, I flew right up or down at the exact same direction. Suddenly, when I was about fifty feet above Sam, I started plummeting from the air. Sam rushed around in all directions with her arms open. She caught me, but we both ended up stumbling on the barrel of junky inventions on the ground, and I tumbled backward so fast that I hit my head on the pointed top of the fence.
"Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!!"
Sam, covered in grass stains and her glasses slightly chipped, rushed over to me. Dad looked up and saw Steve sitting on the lab window, chewing on the wand.
Sam knelt down beside me. "Flint! Flint, are you ok?! Are you hurt?!"
I lay on the ground rubbing the top of my head. I felt dizzy, but I stared weakly at Sam.
"I think I'm ok..."
Sam immediately helped me up to my feet, but I groaned as I felt my head lurch upward. I also felt sick to my stomach, and about ready to faint again.
"What happened?! H-How did you-"
Then I gasped. I felt my head a little bit longer, and then, I looked at my right hand and saw that the tips of my fingers were wet and red...
Sam covered her mouth and her eyes went wide. "Don't worry, Flint! We'll call 911!!"
Sam immediately rushed into my house, but Dad was already dialing on the phone in the kitchen. I sat on the sofa pressing a clean, white rag against my head. Sam sat beside me gently rubbing my back as I sat there staring in space. As soon as Dad hung up, he walked over to me, too.
"I just called the hospital, Flint. They'll be here any minute to look at your head. There's also a good possibility you might have to go to the hospital for the right treatment."
I finally couldn't take all my anxiety anymore. Without warning, I burst out bawling my eyes out in front of everyone, with no other thoughts in my mind except on how to get out of all these situations.
Dad and Sam gave me a group hug as I wailed on their shoulders. Sam tried to say as many comforting words as possible, but Dad sat there in silence, as if he was thinking a little deeper about the situation at hand....
This fic follows up the theory that Flint Lockwood may have Asperger Syndrome...
Also a warning, contains some brief rude language, and MAJOR SPOILERS!!
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: A Gift or a Curse?
Based on a True Story
-----------------------------
Chapter One: Unexpected Tension
Life in ChewandSwallow was pretty busy after the big food storm. Even though the town was very proud of me for fixing everything, the did leave a huge mess to clean up. Thanks to some of my inventions, I cleaned enough of the food to get people's houses and businesses back in a few days, including my lab. Unfortunately, a good deal of it was still scattered around. The town's construction workers were busy moving the food out, and getting people's homes fixed, and I was able to help a good deal of the time.
Also during that time, the day after the food storm, I got a phone call from the Mayor asking me to come and see him in the hospital. While he tried to escape, he got a heart attack from his…uh, obesity problem...
The Mayor spoke with sleepy, slow voice on his bed, as though he were about to pass out. "Nurse, please…let Lockwood in on the double."
"Yes, Mr. Mayor."
A black nurse in a white dress opened the door. "Mr. Lockwood, the Mayor is ready to see you now."
"Yes, m'am."
Now, don't get me wrong. I had no interest in visiting the mayor at all. I still remembered what he did to me, and it was gonna be really hard to forgive him. I walked in the room ready to give him a good dressing-down, but my anger died down a little when I saw the mayor. A miserable, pale 1,500 pound man laying on a seemingly under-sized bed with a plastic, oxygen mask over his mouth. He stared at me with half-open eyes, and I just looked at him squeezing my hands together tight.
"Flint…come here, son."
Still remembering how much he hurt me, I gave him a suspicious, scornful look.
"Yes, sir?"
"Flint…I know I said I've always wanted to be a…big mayor, but…this wasn't quite what I was going for."
"I'm very sorry to hear that, sir."
The mayor welled up with tears. "I absolutely hate myself for being so idiotic, especially since...my dream may just lead me to my own undoing."
"Mr. Mayor, whatever it is you're trying to drag me into, forget it. I'm sorry you're sick, but I'm not gonna let you take advantage of me again."
I was about to storm out, but the Mayor wheezed out. "Flint, you have to be the next mayor of Chewandswallow!"
I froze in my steps, and turned around shocked. "Wh-what?!"
"Flint, I won't be able to keep this town running anymore. You've proven yourself to be bigger than I am. You saved our town from a raging food storm. Now I think you're better off protecting it from just about anything else. Which is why I elect you, Flint Lockwood, to run in this year's mayoral election in Chewandswallow. You couldn't be a more suitable man for the job."
I felt like I could fall harder than a forty-story building.
"What?! Y-You w-want me to be mayor?! N-No, sir…I-I can't! I-I'm not a mayor, I could never-"
Suddenly, the Mayor started groaning and held onto his heart.
"...I'm sorry."
My eyes and jaw went wide as the Mayor started screaming and clutching onto his heart. I stood back against the wall, not sure if I should go anywhere near him, or stay here in case he needed me. The nurse tried to help, but then, his face turned completely pale, and his entire body fell right over the left side of the hospital bed, landing on his head with a CRASH!!
"MAYOR!!"
The nurse came back, and we both rushed over to the motionless mayor. I turned his head forward and when I saw his sick face, I nearly fainted.
"Mayor!"
The nurse started to perform CPR on the Mayor, and as other doctors came in, I just stood at the back of the room. I wasn't going to take my eyes off this scene for a minute, though deep down, I wish I could've. Then after about ten minutes, the nurse stood up.
"I'm sorry, Flint Lockwood."
And on that note, I actually did faint.
The Mayor's body was fork-lifted to the black horse carriage of the Chewandswallow Funeral Service to see what they would do with his body. I, on the other hand, felt more freaked out than even handling the spaghetti tornado. I sat on the sidewalks outside the hospital, completely lost in thought. Then the nurse walked outside and found me.
"Flint Lockwood?"
I almost fell over again, but then I turned around.
"WAH! Oh, sorry, miss. You scared me."
"Flint…just so you should know. The Mayor, he wanted me to give these to you."
The nurse handed me what looked like a stack of written papers with a signature on the bottom of each one; a contract.
"Just in case you…decide you wanna be the new mayor. I certainly couldn't pick anybody else better."
Then the nurse walked away.
"Oh no..."
I didn't even have to look at the first page to know what would happen if I did become the new mayor...
I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon in the lab pacing and thinking out loud while Steve was chewing on a giant pickle leftover from the food storm. In my mind, I couldn't calm down until this problem was solved. I couldn't let go of this anxiety that only got stronger and stronger the more I thought about the situation.
"What am I gonna do?….If I become the next mayor, then…I could use my inventions to help keep our city successful…ugh!! But then there's making all these important decisions for everyone, keeping track of businesses, helping real estate…I don't know anything about running a town, let alone a mayor's desk Plus, I may be so busy, I won't even have time to invent."
Steve's lips puckered up tight. "Pickle!"
"I know, Steve, this is a real pickle. What am I gonna do?"
I stood still for a moment or so. Then Steve started looking at what looked like an ordinary magician's wand with a set of red buttons on the side. He chewed on the front and ZAP! I screamed and ducked when a flash of blue light zipped across the lab, and left a five-foot hole on the wall.
I took the wand from Steve.
"Steve, no! Don't touch that! That's my latest invention; the Actual Magic Wand, or AMW, for short. Eh, still working on the name. I'm saving it's juice for cleaning up the food storm."
I put the wand back down, and went back to thinking hard about being the next mayor. After a moment, I heard someone ring the door bell, and I jumped back and screamed, startled again.
As I rubbed the tears that were brimming in my eyes, I looked at the monitor to see who it was.
"Flint? It's me, Sam! Are you there?"
"Hold on, Sam! I'll be right there!"
As I quickly raced down the elevator, Steve had his eyes on the AMW again….
"Oh, hey, Sam."
Sam squeezed her hands tight and had a nervous look on her face. "Flint, I just wanna let you know that…I'm really, really really sorry about what happened with the Mayor."
I started feeling down, too. "Thanks, Sam. It was so scary seeing him like that. But now, he wants me to be the next mayor of Chewandswallow."
Sam gasped and gave me a hug. "Oh, Flint, congratulations! I'm so happy for you!"
"No, Sam, I'm NOT happy about this!"
Sam immediately let go. "Oh, I'm sorry..."
"I'm just starting to learn how to socialize with people; there's no way I could handle a mayor's office."
"I've had social skills training throughout my whole life; I could help you, if you want."
"That-that would be nice."
Suddenly, Dad came walking outside.
"Flint, I need to talk to you for a minute."
"Ok, Dad. Hold on, Sam. I'll try not to be long."
I rushed back into the house, and Dad and I talked in the kitchen.
"Yeah Dad?"
Then he showed me a bunch of W-2 forms and bills. "See these, son? These are your tax forms and health insurance bills. I've been doing them for you since you were born, but now, you're gonna be twenty-six in a few months, so...I'm gonna have to cut you off as a tax dependent."
"What?"
"Once you turn twenty-six, you're gonna have to be filing your own taxes, paying for your own insurance, and...I really think it's about time you started living in your own house."
"What?!"
"Flint, you're not a kid anymore. You're all grown up. It's time you started taking more responsibility for yourself instead of being so dependent on me. It's not that I don't love you; I really think you should start taking care of yourself."
I felt my anxiety rise to a new high. I started hyperventilating, and my voice started to choke up.
"No, Dad?!! No, I don't wanna leave!!"
"I know unexpected changes are hard for you, but this'll be good for you-"
"I don't care! I'm not leaving my house or my lab and you can't make me!!"
"Son, calm down-!!"
I covered my ears as Dad raised his voice. "AHH!! Dad, stop, you're hurting my ears!!"
"FLINT, LISTEN TO ME!!"
Finally, I felt so overwhelmed, I burst out of the room and ran straight for the lab before I could explode.
"Flint, wait, come back!!"
I refused to look at Sam as I raced by her.
"Flint, what's the matter?!"
I was about to run to the elevator when all of a sudden...
"WHOA!!"
I was being lifted in the air, zig-zagging all over the backyard uncontrollably, twenty feet over Sam. In the lab, Steve was shaking his head around with the AMW in his mouth. Every time he shook his head around, I flew right up or down at the exact same direction. Suddenly, when I was about fifty feet above Sam, I started plummeting from the air. Sam rushed around in all directions with her arms open. She caught me, but we both ended up stumbling on the barrel of junky inventions on the ground, and I tumbled backward so fast that I hit my head on the pointed top of the fence.
"Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!!"
Sam, covered in grass stains and her glasses slightly chipped, rushed over to me. Dad looked up and saw Steve sitting on the lab window, chewing on the wand.
Sam knelt down beside me. "Flint! Flint, are you ok?! Are you hurt?!"
I lay on the ground rubbing the top of my head. I felt dizzy, but I stared weakly at Sam.
"I think I'm ok..."
Sam immediately helped me up to my feet, but I groaned as I felt my head lurch upward. I also felt sick to my stomach, and about ready to faint again.
"What happened?! H-How did you-"
Then I gasped. I felt my head a little bit longer, and then, I looked at my right hand and saw that the tips of my fingers were wet and red...
Sam covered her mouth and her eyes went wide. "Don't worry, Flint! We'll call 911!!"
Sam immediately rushed into my house, but Dad was already dialing on the phone in the kitchen. I sat on the sofa pressing a clean, white rag against my head. Sam sat beside me gently rubbing my back as I sat there staring in space. As soon as Dad hung up, he walked over to me, too.
"I just called the hospital, Flint. They'll be here any minute to look at your head. There's also a good possibility you might have to go to the hospital for the right treatment."
I finally couldn't take all my anxiety anymore. Without warning, I burst out bawling my eyes out in front of everyone, with no other thoughts in my mind except on how to get out of all these situations.
Dad and Sam gave me a group hug as I wailed on their shoulders. Sam tried to say as many comforting words as possible, but Dad sat there in silence, as if he was thinking a little deeper about the situation at hand....