Squeakerfoot is the very first episode of the Ramona series.
Synopsis[]
The Quimbys are getting ready in the morning. Ramona shows off her new shoes to Picky-Picky, before Mr. Quimby hurries her up. Meanwhile, Beezus is embarrassed about her own shoes since they don't resemble those of her peers. Ramona imagines herself as a ballerina, but Mrs. Quimby snaps her out of the daydream and tells her to get ready. Aunt Bea phones and Mrs. Quimby answers. Both girls want to talk to Bea, but Mrs. Quimby tells them they have no time and sends them both to school.
At school, "Yard Ape" walks around the class in a mask, pretending to be a mad scientist. He tries to scare Ramona, who is changing from her regular shoes into her new ones, but Ramona is not afraid. Two other girls ask her why she nicknamed Danny "Yard Ape", and she replies that it's because he's a "big ape who chases you around the playground".
Later, Mrs. Whaley is teaching about life cycles and says that they will be studying the life cycle of a fruit fly. She has jars of blue-dyed oatmeal with fruit fly larvae in them and wants someone to hand them out. Marsha is chosen, and Ramona is chosen to label the jars. Despite finding both the oatmeal and the larvae gross, Ramona enjoys labelling things, so she accepts. While teaching the lesson, Mrs. Whaley hears a noise, which turns out to be Ramona's shoes squeaking.
On the way to lunch, "Yard Ape" teases Ramona and calls her Bigfoot, and at lunch, Ramona's classmates have hard-boiled eggs and are showing off breaking them on their heads. Ramona tries to do the same with hers, only for the egg to turn out to be raw. When a teacher asks who did it, he doesn't believe the students when they tell him what happened. He asks one of the students to take Ramona to the office and Marsha volunteers, but Ramona goes by herself instead.
At the office, the secretary wipes Ramona's forehead with a tissue while Ramona complains about her bad day. The secretary tries to cheer her up by saying that egg is meant to be good for your hair. She washes Ramona's hair at the sink and tells her about other students who got strange things in their hair. Ramona thinks that Mrs. Quimby knew the egg was raw and put it in to be mean and she becomes even more sullen in the hallway when she overhears Mrs. Whaley talking about the incident to the secretary and calling Ramona "my little showoff" and commenting, "What a nuisance!".
Back at class, Ramona and another girl talk about what happened, when Mrs. Whaley interrupts asking Ramona if she's okay. She responds in the affirmative, and lessons continue. Ramona draws a drawing which Mrs. Whaley describes as original, and then the class wraps up, with Ramona happy that she's still the "paper monitor".
The students leave, except Ramona, who confronts Mrs. Whaley on her "nuisance" comment and explains that it was Mrs. Quimby who gave her the egg. Mrs. Whaley tells Ramona that Mrs. Quimby almost definitely didn't give Ramona a raw egg on purpose and that she only called Ramona her little showoff affectionately. She reveals that the "What a nuisance" comment was saying that having to wash Ramona's hair was a nuisance. Ramona is not sure about Mrs. Whaley calling her drawing original, but she says that she meant it as a compliment.
On the way to the bus, Howie reveals that Ramona has started a craze for squeaky shoes, and "Yard Ape" calls her Bigfoot and Egghead, but Ramona says, "Squeakerfoot to you, Yard Ape!".
Differences from Book[]
- In the book, when "Yard Ape" calls Ramona Bigfoot, she responds, "Superfoot to you!". In the show, she responds, "Mrs. Whaley liked my shoes; she said they were musical. So don't call me Bigfoot, Yard Ape!". Likewise, Ramona also dubs herself "Squeakerfoot" in the show, which she never did in the book.
- In the book, it took a few days for the misunderstanding regarding Mrs. Whaley's "nuisance" comment to be cleared up. Here, it took a few hours.