Germophobia

Summary
Buster has always has had very poor hygiene. But when everybody tells him about what germs can do, he becomes scared of them and starts to see them everywhere. Will he be back to normal by the time of his pool party?

Plot
Buster has bad hygiene. He is shown picking up a slice of pizza that fell onto the ground and subsequently eating it afterward much to the disgust of his friends. As shown by Arthur it wasn't the only time he has been disgusting.

He is seen walking out of the bathroom without washing his hands, when out on the playground the kids are playing hide-and-seek and Buster decides to hide in a trash can, Buster never showers, and finally; never covers his mouth when he sneezes.

The problem gets so bad that one day in school while Arthur was looking at a poster to a pool party at Buster's house Sue Ellen approached Arthur and gave him a note that stated he needed to meet at the Sugar Bowl for a meeting and the note all said not to tell Buster.

After school, Arthur arrives late to the meeting and asks the girls why they didn't want him to tell Buster about the meeting and finds out that the meeting is about Buster.

The girls gave various complaints about Buster and told Arthur that he needs to tell Buster to stop being disgusting and to change his ways since Buster will only listen to him and not the girls.

Buster then walks by the Sugar Bowl and Arthur, Francine, The Brain, Muffy, and Sue Ellen duck underneath the table. Buster then picks up a harmonica from the trash can and Arthur approaches Buster while the rest of the gang watches.

Arthur then comes back into the Sugar Bowl and tells them that Buster will do it, but unfortunately they hear the harmonica being played and they subsequently move onto the next plan.

The next day at school in the lunchroom, Buster is seeing playing with the same harmonica and Arthur tries talking with Buster and goes as far as to mentioning germs to which Buster replies, "Germs haven't hurt me yet." Arthur then asks Buster if he ever has been sick before and Buster remembers the time where he faked getting sick so he didn't have to go to school and Buster replies that he has.

As Arthur continues talking to his friend, Buster accidentally hits the harmonica, which lands into one of the chocolate pudding that was sitting on the table and after picking it up out of the pudding Francine then yells. Feeling like they won't change his ways Muffy suggests they don't go to Buster's pool party.

Then Brain comes up with an idea to show Buster what germs look like. At The Brain's house, Brain explains that germs are capable of carrying many diseases, but yet the attempt to scare Buster seems to have failed.

While sleeping, Buster is dreaming. He is at the pool with his friends and as he dives into the water he finds the harmonica at the bottom and grabs it and pulls it up to the surface and starts playing it. Soon, a cloud of germs come out of the harmonica scaring his friends away and soon the cloud of germs comes out of Buster's mouth. Then Buster wakes up from his dream and then takes the harmonica and washes it.

Then as Buster gets into bed he then ends up taking a bath. In the morning Buster's mom is making breakfast and she drops an egg shell on the ground and picks it up and tosses it into the trash making Buster more nervous.

At school, Arthur sees Buster and then sees that Buster is wearing hockey gloves and asks why he is wearing it. Buster tells Arthur that his hands get cold and walks into the school. Buster ends up seeing germs coming from the other kids. Buster then runs into the bathroom and tries to take off his gloves with his mouth, but ends up having to wash his mouth and then his hands soon after.

Buster arrives to Mr. Ratburn's class late and still sees germs. As Buster walks towards his seat, he cleans it with a spray and cloth and then sits down. Buster then asks Mr. Ratburn how many germs are at the school with Ratburn telling him that there is thousands on the pencil that Buster has in his mouth and Buster then freaks out.

Buster's friends then realize their attempt to change Buster's ways worked. However, at lunch Buster refrains from eating the lunch made in the cafeteria and has a sandwich in wrapped in wrapping paper. When The Brain tells Buster that germs are already inside of him that help break down food and disgust, Buster panics and says he needs to wash his hands.

Then the entire gang soon realizes something is wrong and Francine tells Arthur that he made Buster very nervous. The day of the pool party, Buster asks his mom if it's too late to cancel the pool party and his mom tells him they already sent out all the invitations and rented most of the stuff for the party. Buster than puts on a gas mask. Soon, the rest of the gang arrives and Buster tells them they need to shower first and everyone is wondering why.

Arthur was the last one to shower and asks Buster if he wants to come outside and Buster declines. As everyone at the party is having a good time, the girls are discussing what to do about Buster and the girls turn to Arthur who tells them, "Don't look at me." The girls decide to talk some sense into Buster, which unfortunately fails and Buster then ends up falling into the pool and as he gets out of the water he falls face first into the ground.

Buster then gets up and walks back into his house to sulk and his friends realize they had upset their friend and so the next day Buster is at lunch and the pizza he had fell onto the ground. Buster throws the pizza into the garbage and prepares to eat when his friends approached him. They apologizes to him and give him a new harmonica, which was cleaned and Buster accepts the apology and plays the harmonica.

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Francine Frensky
 * Binky Barnes
 * Brian
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Nancy
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Maria
 * George Lundgren
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Alex
 * Norman Hedgehog
 * Mary
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Tibble Twins
 * Molly MacDonald
 * 3rd Grade Female Rabbit

Trivia

 * This episode marked the first time Buster has ever taken a bath or better yet has ever been cleaned.
 * This is one of the episodes that focus on health. The others being Arthur's Knee, Arthur's Chicken Pox, Binky Goes Nuts, Buster's Breathless, Sick as a Dog, and Operation: D.W.!.

Errors

 * Right before Buster sneezes, Maria is replaced with Nancy.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: Season 11
 * Arthur's Germophobia