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Original Air Date: March 2, 2008
After FRANNY horrifies JUSTIN with the news that she’s scored two tickets for them to the forthcoming Sound of Music sing-along, Justin and CLAIRE are horrified again to learn that RAJA has asked their mom to drive them to school.
Raja can’t understand why the siblings are so against an easy trip, until they arrive at school and Franny embarrasses Justin by yelling after him to pick up their Sound of Music tickets while also calling him Pumpkin. This grabs the attention of super bully TREY TOZER (Enormous Guest Star Dylan Taylor), who’s obsessed with weird self-made weapons and who’s so freaky, even other bullies are scared of him. Trey promptly informs Justin that he’s going to kill him at lunchtime.
To avoid a butt-kicking, Justin tries to stay out of Trey’s way for the rest of the day. The bully bumps into him in the hallway anyway, but grows bored while accosting him with his numchuks. Trey then decides to experiment with other weapons until he finds the right one for the occasion. Fortunately, Justin is sent to MR. MATTHEWS‘ office when his mom calls with the news that she won’t be able to pick the kids up later because she was just in a car accident.
After running an errand at the mini-mall earlier, Franny mistakenly backed up into a hybrid car in the parking lot. Although she only made a small scratch, she left a note because Raja’s visit has increased the family’s awareness of how moral they are(n’t). For instance, Raja thinks it’s wrong to fast-forward through commercials when watching recordings of TV shows because watching the advertisements is how you pay for TV.
When Franny tells her husband GARY about leaving a note later, he immediately goes to the parking lot to retrieve it without telling his wife. He reasons that the car’s owners probably aren’t as moral as they are and will therefore try to scam them into paying for every scratch on the car. He finds the note easily enough. Unfortunately, his car backs up into the same car, causing major damage this time.
Worse, as Gary walks to his car, a man standing with the crowd of curious onlookers yells that he’s trying to drive away. This accusation forces Gary to lie that he was about to leave a note, and he returns the one that Franny left earlier on the hybrid’s windshield. His wife, unaware of the second accident, gets furious soon when the car’s owners fax her a bill for $1,500 in damages.
Justin gets a surprise, too, when Raja later suggests that maybe the reason he’s picked on so much is because he’s doing something to antagonize people. Regardless of what the visitor thinks, Justin rejects Raja’s advice to ask Trey if that’s the case. In fact, when the boys bump into Trey in the hallway, Justin lies that his mom’s in a coma in the hospital after Trey reveals he felt bad for him when he received the call about her accident the day before. Trey even threatens Raja when the bully suspects he’s bothering Justin — he was chastising him for lying about his mother’s health — which causes Raja to lie, as well, by confirming Franny’s coma.
At lunch, Trey approaches Justin and Raja while they eat with DOOLEY and CRAIG, and the bully admits he empathizes with their situation because his own mother is in prison, which means they’re all separated from their parents in one way or another. Trey even hands over a card he stole from the store and an aluminum-foil angel he made for Franny, who shows up at that moment to pick up the Sound of Music sing-along tickets. Justin reacts quickly, urging his mom to leave as a drooling Dooley volunteers to go to the sing-along with her in Justin’s place.
Franny’s new sing-along date turns out to be unnecessary, though. Still playing hardball with the hybrid’s owners, she obtains video footage of the mini-mall parking lot from security. Watching the tape causes Gary to confess his role, and he offers to pay for the damages by selling his memorabilia collection. Franny, who was angry at Gary just moments earlier for lying to her, must then admit that most of his collection was faked by the family, such as the autographed football she signed herself.
At school, Trey gives a very reluctant Justin and Raja a lift to the hospital, where they claim they’re going when they bump into the bully. Raja manages to locate a patient to be Justin’s pretend mother. But, the plan fails when the doctor mentions her by name after a medical crisis. Everything works out for Justin in the end, however, because Trey is arrested for punching him in the face and dependable Franny arrives on the scene quickly, proving once again that she’ll do anything for her family. Justin adjusts his attitude and goes on the sing-along after all, with an irritated Dooley tagging along, too.
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