This is basketball, not checkers!

Stay on your man, TJ!

Gretchen, set up the pit!

Jeez, what do I gotta do?

Everything myself?

Ha!

In your face, Spinelli!

Get it?

The ball hit you in the face, and I said, in your face!

Why, you little...

Help me!

She's crazy!

Crazy!

Oh, you ain't seen crazy yet!

Let him go, Spinelli!

Yeah, lost in jammy fair and square.

I don't care!

He's got it coming!

All is well, Spinelli.

All is peaceful.

Breathe deep with me now.

I don't wanna breathe!

Let me go!

Only if you promise to remain calm.

All right!

All right!

I promise already!

Come on, Spinelli!

Quit being a jerk!

Me, a jerk?

You've got to admit, Spinelli, this is somewhat jerk-like behavior.

Fine!

If that's what you guys think of me, then I am outta here!

Gee, what was that?

That was Spinelli in a bad mood, Gus.

She's never pretty, but she always calms herself down eventually.

How?

Usually by breaking stuff.

Oh.

Stupid, lousy, rotten basketball with its stupid, lousy, rotten rules!

Will you stop that, Spinelli?

Why should I?

Cause if you don't, I've got Finster's pager number on speed dial!

Fine!

Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the cage this morning.

How's a kid supposed to blow off a little steam around his joint?

Hey, Ashley A, something has a crush on you!

Uh, excuse me, Spinelli.

You're about to smush my chalk.

Your chalk?

Oh, take it.

I'm outta here anyway.

Thank you.

I need white to make the whiskers on my kitty.

Kitty?

What kitty?

The kitty I'm drawing on the blacktop.

Isn't it neat?

You call that a kitty?

It doesn't even have any ears.

Oh, yeah.

Plus, you got its eyes all wrong.

And its tail needs to go up like this.

See?

Wow, that's great.

Thanks, Spinelli.

And then you can give it big, pointy fangs like this.

See?

And razor-sharp claws.

Then you make it your own.

Like this.

See?

Uh, Spinelli?

And then you need to add some more over here, and a little bit more over here.

Then get big.

Big like this!

Ah, Third Street.

Another day, another dollop of knowledge.

I gotta see if the gum I left on the jungle gym kept its flavor overnight.

Wait for me!

I wonder where Spinelli is this morning.

I hope she's in a better mood than yesterday.

Heh, you can say that again.

Excuse me, mister.

I wouldn't walk there if I were you.

You might smear the nice picture.

Picture?

Whoa, what's with the crazy designs?

I just asked her to help me draw a kitty, but she wouldn't stop.

A little more over here, and a double more over here.

Spinelli, what are you doing?

A lot more over here, and some over here.

She seems to be entranced.

Draw something.

Yeah, but what?

Guys!

Guys!

You gotta see this!

This better be good, Gus.

Spinelli's doing something strange down there.

Strange and wonderful.

Look!

Whoa!

It's beautiful.

It almost resembles one of those giant aboriginal petroglyphs that can only be seen from the sky.

It's a masterpiece that touches the soul and makes one cry to the heavens.

Arch Thinamus Spinelli.

Yeah, but I wonder what it's supposed to be.

I don't know, Gus, but whatever it is, Spinelli sure worked hard to make it.

And it's too bad those digger boys are gonna miss it all up.

What?

She's right!

Come on, we gotta stop them!

Sam, Dave, wait.

You guys gotta stop digging.

Huh?

What are you talking about, TJ?

You guys gotta dig somewhere else today.

We've been digging where we want on this playground ever since we were in kindergarten.

Why should we dig somewhere else now?

Come with us and we'll show you.

I feel inspired.

Yeah, inspired to dig.

For chalk!

An excellent idea, guys.

At a current rate, Spinelli will consume the school's entire chalk supply within the hour.

We better get digging then.

See ya.

I gotta hand it to you, TJ.

You sure saved Spinelli's drawing.

Hey, when it comes to dealing with diggers, I'm the man.

How are you at dealing with fifth graders?

Let's get this game started already!

Somebody stop those batmen!

Let's go!

And here I'll add some blue.

And then some green.

After what Spinelli did to me yesterday, why shouldn't I play basketball over stupid chalk squiggles?

One very good reason, Lawson.

Follow me.

It makes me feel things I've never felt before.

I could never play basketball in that, Lawson.

It's too pretty.

Yeah.

Okay, TJ.

We stopped the diggers.

We stopped Lawson.

But face it.

Sooner or later, somebody's gonna mess up Spinelli's drawing.

What are we gonna do?

Bring every kid on the playground up here?

Guess, my friend, that's not a bad idea.

One at a time, people.

No pushing.

All get in turn to see Spinelli's thing.

Come on.

You can do it.

Just a few steps.

No, I won't do it.

You can't make me.

Why?

This isn't a trick at all.

It's... it's art.

Wow.

Now blend these two together.

Shouldn't you like it?

I mean, it is Spinelli.

True, but it does pick up the pink in your sweater.

Scandalous!

I got limited editions of the artist's early work.

Doodles from yesterday's math class.

A threatening note signed by the artist herself.

Easy there, art lovers.

Everyone's gonna get a turn here.

Next!

Hey, you guys don't go to our school.

Of course not.

We attend SCUMA.

The School of Modern Alternative Art.

We have come to view the so-called action chalk girl in action.

What's going on here?

This is a playground.

Why isn't anyone playing?

We can't, Ms. Finster.

Spinelli's drawing this amazing stuff all over the asphalt and...

No graffiti, huh?

Well, I'll fix that.

Randall, tell Hank to get out the hose.

But Ms. Finster, you don't understand.

Oh, I understand plenty.

That's why I'm gonna wash this mess off the blacktop right now.

What?

You can't do that!

Please, Ms. Finster, leave it be.

As Oscar Wilde once said, art school should be the street.

And well, the playground is sort of like a street.

Only with play equipment and no traffic.

Spinelli's work is a breathtaking expression of vital spiritual needs.

It brings up all kinds of feelings and stuff.

Any unauthorized drawing on school grounds is officially classified as graffiti.

And I'm cleaning it off once and for all.

Now what are we gonna do, TJ?

There's only one thing we can do.

Gondor Primulon.

Gondor Primulon.

Gondor Primulon.

It's JT.

Code epsilon.

Gondor Primulon, JT.

What's the trouble?

We got an emergency situation on the playground, guys.

We need your help.

We'll get on the bird and take a look.

Geo-secret satellite online.

Track longitude at 80 degrees west.

Latitude at 40.4 degrees north.

Extrapolating.

Closer.

Closer.

A most impressive piece of work, JT.

And Finster's trying to wash it off.

Fear not, JT.

We're online and on the case.

Thanks, guys.

But hurry.

Hurry!

Come on, Miss Finster.

Have a heart.

You needed something hosed down, Muriel?

That's right, Hank.

Wash it off.

Gosh, Muriel, are you sure?

It's an awfully nice piece of work.

If you're gonna whip out on me, Hank, just give me the hose and I'll do it myself.

Sorry, Muriel.

You're not authorized to operate a hose this powerful.

Union rules.

Give me the hose, Hank.

Now's our chance.

For beauty!

For art!

Force the journey!

Look!

A Mondrian F-71 Bobcat!

Stop!

Stop!

Who the heck are you?

Des Coupages.

Colette Des Coupages.

A chairwoman of the American Arts Endowment.

Oh, I just saw this tremendous work of art on the Internet.

Way to go, Kidarf.

Well, that's not art.

That's graffiti.

Au contraire.

This is one of the most original pieces of art I've seen in years.

In fact, the Endowment wants to offer this artist a grant and declare this entire blacktop a protected public institution.

What?

You can't do that!

This is my blacktop, sister!

It's not blacktop.

It's art!

Blacktop!

Art!

Blacktop!

Art!

Mike!

Spinelli!

Done.

Quick!

To the jungle gym!

It's incredible.

It's incredible.

It's magnificent!

To think I wanted to wash it away.

Why, we should laminate the whole blacktop.

I hereby declare that Spinelli's masterpiece be preserved for future generations.

Yeah!

Um, excuse me, but I hear something rattling.

Balls!

It's gonna blow!

It's gonna blow!

The drawing, it's gone!

All gone!

Why, great god of the arts, why?

Hey, what's everybody looking at?