Buster's New Friend

Arthur's tidying up his stuff again. (One of the problems that Arthur must have when cleaning up is that every single thing he has triggers some long-winded story) As Arthur picks up his things, he remembers the circumstances behind each acquisition.

Then Arthur picks up a horseshoe magnet. Arthur remembers that this magnet came from the time...

Arthur: ...when me and Buster almost stopped being friends!

* * * Buster's New Friend * * *

Arthur and Buster are working together on a project for school about magnetism. Arthur's at home on his own. He picks up a key with the magnet, and writes some notes down.

Bionic Bunny is on TV.

Bionic Bunny must stop a missle. When he does, the townspeople thank him for saving them. Bionic Bunny says that they don't need to thank him...

Bionic Bunny: ...just a citizen doing his duty.

* * *

In school, Arthur enquires how Buster's part of the project is going, but Buster is too busy talking about something else: his new friend Mike. Mike is great.

• Mike took him to play mini-golf, and Mike got a hole in one!
• Mike also has a cool CD collection.

Arthur looks slightly troubled, but doesn't say anything. Arthur reminds Buster that they're going to be working on the project together later on in the week.

Buster says ok.

* * *

The day of the group work comes, and Arthur's Mom comes up to see how it's going. She's brought some juice and popcorn up for Buster and Arthur to have as a snack as they work.

The only problem is that Arthur's on his own -- Buster's failed to show up.

Arthur phones Buster to find out what's going on. Buster says that he hasn't been over yet, since he's with Mike.

Arthur says that that's fine -- why not bring Mike over to his place?

Buster gives a non-commital answer.

* * *

The day drags on, and Arthur slowly finishes all of the juice and popcorn, but Buster fails to show.

Arthur imagines that this darn kid, Mike, who we only can see from the back, (so we can't see his face) hypnotizing Buster so that he won't be friends with Arthur anymore.

* * *

Arthur discusses his difficulties in regards to Buster with his classmates over lunch. Seems that Buster's been treating everyone the same way as Arthur -- badly.

• He never showed up after promising Francine he'd play catcher at the baseball game -- She was pitcher, and without Buster catching, it was hard to play without him.
• Muffy has a similar story -- Muffy knows that Buster's a bike expert, so she asked him to accompany her to the bike store to help her select a new bike. Only he didn't show. So Muffy was forced to buy the store's entire stock of bikes, since she couldn't decide on her own.
• Brain mentions that Buster promised to login to his computer via modem to play a computer game. Buster was supposed to dial in at five, but he didn't. Brain comments that the game wasn't much as much fun without someone to play against.

Buster is seen approaching their lunch table, and the gang decide to teach Buster a lesson by ignoring whatever he has to say.

This fails miserably, since Buster doesn't even care about what anyone else is doing. He sits down, and talks non-stop about how Mike is helping him to perfect his bowling technique. Once Buster's finished, he gets up and leaves.

Francine: Well, we sure taught him a lesson.

Francine's sarcastic comment sums things up perfectly. It's suggested that they take "drastic action".

* * *

Back in class, Arthur imagines:

Arthur is presenting his project with a small horseshoe magnet. Buster's beside him. The mysterious Mike has a gigantic horseshoe magnet. He uses this to pull Buster over to him.

While Arthur's thinking, Mr. Ratburn has been asking students to tell him what they are doing for their projects.

Arthur and Buster are sitting beside each other. Buster hasn't done much work yet, so he asks Arthur to give him some info about magnets. Arthur says he is working on a project on magnets, but he's working on his own!

Buster is flabbergasted.

Arthur: I don't want to work with you anymore. I want to work on the project myself.

Buster is called on by Mr. Ratburn.

Buster: I, um, eeee, I don't know what I'm doing...

* * *

That was a drastic move by Arthur to dump Buster like that. But back home, Arthur continues to act drastically -- he's purging his room of all Buster-related materials, throwing them into a large cardboard box.

D.W. comes in to find out what's going on.

Arthur: I'm throwing out anything related to Buster.

D.W. looks in the box, and pulls out a large two cassette portable stereo. She's surprised that Arthur's throwing this out, since this was the radio that Buster gave Arthur when he got a new one.

Arthur KNOWS. That's why it has to go.

* * *

Arthur takes the heavy box downstairs and out. He's going to drop it off at Buster's. Then they won't have anything to tie them together. The only trouble is that it's quite a long way to Buster's, and carrying the heavy box makes it a very slow process.

Buster skateboards up to Arthur. Surprisingly, Buster isn't mad about the project.

Arthur says that he has to get this box over to Buster's.

Buster doesn't know Arthur's motive, and comments that his house is 12 blocks away. He suggests that Arthur could borrow his skateboard. If Arthur puts the box on the skateboard, he can roll it there.

The two decide to do this, and push the box along on the skateboard. Along the way, Buster apologizes for not helping out with the project. Arthur starts explaining how magnets work to Buster. Buster apologizes for being so preoccupied lately.

When they get to Buster's, Buster and Arthur are back to being friends. They give each other the secret Bionic Bunny handshake.

Then their Bionic Bunny watch alarms go off:

"Click-click-click-click-click-clack click-click-click!"

It's 4:30! Time for Bionic Bunny. They rush into Buster's to watch it.

* * *

Bionic Bunny saves the day again. At the end, Bionic Bunny is thanked for saving the people's farms. Someone asks who Bionic Bunny really is...

Bionic Bunny: Just someone trying to do the right thing in a mixed-up world.

And he's gone.

* * *

Buster asks Arthur about the box. Arthur tells him that he had intended to give Buster all his stuff back because he wasn't going to be friends with him anymore. But there's no need for that now, since they're great friends again. But now Arthur'll have to take the heavy box all the way home...

Buster says that Mike can help; they can take the box back in Mike's car.

Arthur blows up. He can believe that Mike is a great bowler, and a great mini-golfer, and that he has a great CD collection. But no kid can possibly have his own car.

Mike isn't a kid, explains Buster. They head outside. Mike is there, in his convertible. Mike isn't a kid. He's a grown up, and he has nice hair. Buster explains that Mike is his "Big Brother" -- Buster's Mom figured that Buster should have an "older male influence", what with Buster's parents being divorced, and his father being away working as an airline pilot.

Arthur had NO idea...

The three of them drive off in Mike's car, with the box. As they head off, Arthur wonders if Mike can give him some tips on bowling and mini-golf...

End.

What's there to say? Buster shouldn't have acted as badly as he did, and he's lucky that Arthur's such an easy-going guy. Buster's lucky he wasn't permanently exiled by Arthur's clique -- no doubt Muffy or Francine would have dropped him like a sack of... err, really heavy stuff that's droppable.

I know how Arthur feels in regards to kicking Buster off the magnet project midway through. Been there, done that -- with mixed results.

The big stereo resurfaces later this season in #11601 - "Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest".

Buster has quite the commute to school everyday if it's 12 blocks from his place to Arthur's.

One would imagine that Buster is a magnet expert by the end of this story. But in #21102 - "Buster Hits the Books", Brain tries to foist a book on magnets on Buster as being very interesting, as if Buster's never heard about magnetism before.