This is an entry for the Village Square Contest (theme Dance) as well as The Dares Forum Crack Pairing Contest by swingdancer23.
Just to let you all know, this is not a songfic. I did not use any song lyrics in this one-shot, just the titles!
Dancing Queen belongs to ABBA and Girls Just Want to Have Fun is by Cyndi Lauper! I do not own Harvest Moon.
I was dared to write this lovely Howard x Jessica fic by my dear friend, Lyric. Enjoy!
"I'm going to the Bluebell Café for dinner, okay mom?" Ash said on his way out the door. "Cam invited me."
Cheryl popped her head out of her room. "Is Laney going to be there? I can't have you hanging around her. She'll try to marry you! I'm going too."
I sighed and took off my stained apron. I had been cooking my favorite food, cheese dumplings, but it would have to wait. I wasn't about to eat dinner all by myself, and someone needed to keep Cheryl from poisoning Laney's food.
"I suppose we'll all go," I concluded.
As we left the house, Cheryl skipped ahead to grab Ash's hand, her golden pigtails swaying lightly in the breeze. When we approached the café, Cam was still tending to his flower stand. He was absently twisting a single flower around between his fingers, making it look like a tiny ballerina performing a pirouette.
"That's a nice flower," Cheryl said. She stood on her tip-toes to lean over the stand and get a better look at the flower.
"Oh this?" Cam held up the delicate blossom and nodded. "Yeah. It is. There wasn't any room for it in this arrangement. You want it?"
"Okay." She reached out and accepted the flower from Cam. After turning to me, she said, "Could you help me put this in my hair?"
"Sure, dear," I said. I took the flower and secured it in her hair with ease.
After Cheryl was satisfied with the job I did, Cam led us all inside. The café was warm and smelled of pastries.
"Tee hee! Oh Laney this cake looks simply lovely, don't you agree?" Howard squealed.
Laney nodded as she set the cake down on the counter. She looked up at us and gave a small wave. Cheryl tightened her grip on Ash's hand.
"Please do sit down!" Howard ushered us to the table and we all took a seat. He sat directly across from me and an admiring expression took hold of his features. I glanced away for a few moments. He continued to gaze at me, and I was beginning to wonder if I had something on my face.
"Jessica dear, did you get highlights in your hair?" Howard asked. "It looks so nice!"
I felt a slight blush rise up into my face. It had been so long since anyone complimented me.
"Should we put on some music?" Laney suggested, walking over to the dusty old stereo.
"Oooh! Tee hee, Laney, put on my 80s mix!" Howard clasped his hands together in delight.
Laney dug through a box of old tapes for several minutes until she triumphantly held up a slightly cracked tape entitled Howie's Party Mix. Howard used to go by that nickname back in the day.
The first notes of the song blared through the speakers. The nostalgic melody had me tapping my foot to the beat before I even recognized the song. Howard looked up from his plate in surprise; his mouth formed a small "o" shape. The eyeliner around his eyes created a striking contrast with the paleness of his face. His features were all pointing upward, like someone had taken a threaded needle, poked it into the corners of his mouth and eyebrows, and pulled on it. The amused look persisted as I began taking forkfuls of macaroni and cheese.
When realization hit, I dropped the utensil and it clattered on the table. The song reverberated in my ears and opened up the floodgates of my mind. Memories spilled out. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth and Howard's eyes brightened at my sudden reaction.
1984.
Prom night.
Dancing Queen.
The electric pink train of my dress left a trail of glitter on the ground as a record of my ungraceful movements. Ruffles bursting with more multicolored sparkles cascaded over one shoulder. The rest of my dress fell to knee length. Neon green leggings peeked out from underneath the mass of pink poofs and glitter. A lock of crimped neon pink hair insisted on falling into my eyes, and I had to repeatedly push it aside.
ABBA's Dancing Queen echoed throughout the cool evening atmosphere. I looked into the eyes of my date. His permed afro bobbed up and down in time to his dance moves. I giggled. Didn't he know that was out of style now?
"Tee hee!" Howard laughed. "Jessica that dress is totally glam!"
"Oh Howie! You're embarrassing me." I gave him a playful shove to counteract the blush that crept onto my face.
"Is someone blushing?" he teased.
I turned away from his intense staring eyes that were accentuated by heavy blue eyeliner. I was almost positive he wore more make-up than I did on that night.
Howard threw his hands up into the air and jerked his arm from side to side, a move that I recognized as The Sprinkler. I stretched my arms out in front of me, pumping them up and down sporadically until I finally settled on The Lawnmower. The music played louder and I was overtaken by the moment. A spotlight fell on the two of us, and the sparse crowd backed away to give us some space just as ABBA hit the chorus.
"You are a beautiful dancing queen," Howard spoke barely loud enough to be heard over the thunderous music.
"M-me?" I stuttered.
His eyes sparkled. The song faded out as he leaned in. The entire world faded out at that moment as I leaned in too. A volt of electricity shocked my hand as he entangled his fingers with mine.
"You are my beautiful dancing queen," he whispered mere inches away from my lips.
"Mom? Mom? Are you okay?" Ash was waving his hand in front of my face.
I closed my mouth, which had been hanging slightly open, and my eyes snapped away from Howard.
"Yes dear, I'm fine," I said hastily and stabbed some noodles with my fork, trying to shake the memories out of my mind.
"Oh good. We were getting worried! You had been staring at Howard for almost five minutes straight without blinking!" Ash said, his hands flying up for emphasis.
My gaze flickered back down to the plate of macaroni and cheese that had now lost its steam.
"Did you like that song, Jessica?" Howard inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Well… um… it certainly… uh…" I struggled to find the right words. What was he trying to do? We only dated for a season. Our romance should have been long over by now. I stabbed another noodle and thrust it into my mouth.
Howard eyed my children with a mischievous grin. "Kids, did you know your mother was quite the dancing queen?"
I swallowed and the pasta went down the wrong pipe. I coughed violently and pounded my fist on the table. My kids had no idea of my dancing queen past…
"OOH!" Howard stood up abruptly from the table and knocked over his chair. He hurried over to me and wrapped his arms around my torso.
"What are you doing!" Cheryl jumped up from her seat.
"The Heimlich maneuver!"
"Now isn't the time for your strange eighties dance moves," she exclaimed.
I tried to pry his strong arms off of my body. After much wrestling with his death grip, I finally freed myself. Everyone was staring at me silently with blank expressions. My children deserved to know who the real Jessica was. Before I took over the animal business, I was a dancing queen.
"I believe it's done like this," I said slowly. I turned to Laney and motioned for her to turn the stereo back on.
Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun began playing. I thrust my stomach forward and backward in time to the music and pumped my arms up and down. Howard joined in once he realized I was doing our old made-up dance move, The Heimlich.
He grabbed my hand and twirled me around until I was dizzy. It was just like old times.
"Mom, stop it!" Cheryl cried. "This is weird!"
Howard spun around, advancing toward the wall, and he pushed a button. A multicolored disco ball lowered from the ceiling and sent neon spots of color flying and bouncing off the walls.
"Ash, I'm scared," she whimpered.
"Me too," Ash responded soothingly. "Let's go home now."
Cheryl looked up at her brother with tears glistening in her eyes. "You want to know the scariest part?"
"What's that?"
"I don't think mom was the dancing queen," she began, her voice quivering with fear. "I think Howard was."
Haha, okay I know the ending was sort of lame, but hopefully you enjoyed reading this! My mind is scarred from writing it. :P Please leave a review with your thoughts. :)
I must give credit to HorseGirl784 for the disturbing idea of Howard's afro and the disco ball. *shudders*
- Violet