Title: Turn Around
Fandom: Hairspray (2007)
Pairings: Gen-ish (w/ Link/Tracy, Penny/Seaweed)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Summary: "Now, I think what we really need to do is celebrate," Mrs. Turnblad said.
The end of the first day of Little Inez's reign and after Mrs. Turnblad and Penny came down from the stands, Mrs. Turnblad said, "Now, I think what we really need to do is celebrate." She was speaking to Link and Tracy, yeah, but to Ms. Maybelle and Inez and Seaweed, too.
And apparently to Mr. Collins as well, since she said, "You too, Mr. Collins. You should come with us. I'll whip up us up a nice dinner. Pork? Or chicken? Or a roast. How would you all feel about a roast?" Then, "The more the merrier, that's what I always say."
("Since last Saturday anyway," Tracy whispered in Link's ear, giggling. Her breath sort of tickled, but that was only one of the reasons that Link laughed, too.)
And that was how Fender and I.Q. and Noreen and Doreen and half of Seaweed's crew ended up crammed into the Turnblad living room. Well, okay, they weren't all in the living room, because Mr. Turnblad was giving Ms. Maybelle and Mr. Collins and some of the other kids a tour of his shop, but the room was still pretty full. And loud. They had the record player going in the corner, spinning something from Ms. Maybelle's shop.
"Remember when Ma would have told us to keep this racket down?" Tracy asked, shouting to be heard above the music, and Penny nodded, lips pursed around the stick of her lollipop. She pulled it out of her mouth—red today—and 'ahem'd softly before saying, in an attempt at a gravely voice, "Now girls, you think my ears are garbage cans?"
The four of them were sitting on the couch together—Link, Tracy, Penny, and Seaweed—enough witnesses in the room for it to be totally appropriate.
"I never said any such thing!" Mrs. Turnblad called from the kitchen, which had Tracy laughing again.
"Only every afternoon for two years, Ma! Hardly ever!"
"Now Tracy," Mrs. Turnblad said a minute later, coming to the doorway. She was glaring, hands on her hips. "I don't appreciate you talking to me this way when we have company—"
And at that, before her mother could say another word, Tracy hopped off of the couch, stepped around Doreen and I.Q. and gave her mother a hug.
"Oh, Ma," Tracy said. "I love you."
Link watched Mrs. Turnblad attempt to resist Tracy's charms for about two-point-five seconds, but then she visibly melted and patted Tracy on the back. "I know," she said. "I know. Now come help me in the kitchen."
The look that Tracy turned back at Link was almost despairing, and beside him, Penny sighed. "That's my cue," she said. She pulled her lollipop out of her mouth for long enough to give Seaweed a quick kiss, and then she was out of the room.
I.Q. was standing in the center of the room now, showing Doreen his twist on the Twist, and Seaweed said, "Man, man, have you thought about—" and then he was standing up, too, imitating I.Q.'s moves, but adding an extra shake and shimmy in there, and yeah, that was the way it should work. I.Q. didn't look quite so sure, but Doreen was already trying her hand at it, and at the top of the next twist, Link joined in. It still needed something else, though, he thought, which was why he added in a quick kick before starting the cycle again.
"Oh ho," Seaweed said, but he was grinning, adding Link's kick into his own dance. And then he did something with his hands, a finger-flap thing, arms swinging, and Link totally knew how this worked now: no different than any of the dance-off's he'd had with Brad and Fender and I.Q. back in the day, when they still dreamed of making it onto the Corny Collins show. Back when they'd known that they, too, could be teenage heartthrobs.
I.Q. seemed to pick up on it, too, because he was the one who turned Link's kick into a shuffle step, and then Doreen added a slide step, and Link added a half-turn and clap, and by the time Tracy got back, the dance they were doing didn't resemble the Twist so much anymore as it did something completely different.
"Oh!" she said and ran to join their circle. She just moved with the beat for a few steps, snapping her fingers, watching them until she thought she had it down, and then she leapt right into the action, and when it was her turn, she added in a half-step where she drew her fingers over her eyes, and then Seaweed added in a jump, and that was when Link finally heard Penny say (shout, because she'd obviously been trying to get their attention for awhile), "Mrs. Turnblad wanted us to tell you that dinner was ready!"
Seaweed stopped immediately, and Tracy slowed down until she was leaning into Link's side. "Oh yeah," she said, and she was laughing again. "Dinner is ready. We should go eat."
"Do we need to get your dad?" Link asked, but then he heard Mrs. Turnblad yell, "Wilbur! Dinner!" and Tracy said, "Yeah, she's taken care of it."
As a group, they started walking in the direction of the dining room—already Link could hear the group from the joke shop making their way up the stairs outside—and as they turned into the hallway, Seaweed said, "You've got some wicked moves, man," putting his hand out for Link to slap.
Link did, then said, "You too, man. You too. Like that thing you did with the—" and he shuffle stepped in the hallway, to illustrate. "That was—"
"You should see my sister do—" Seaweed started, and Link could feel Tracy, pressed against his side, laughing again. When he looked down at her, she was grinning at Penny, who was shaking her head, twisting her lollipop in her mouth.
"Our boyfriends," Penny said, but it was fondly, and Tracy said, "Yeah," wrapping her arm just a little bit more tightly around Link's waist.
Yeah, Link thought as they walked into the dining room, pulling her more tightly against him, too. He checked his hair in the mirrored sideboard out of habit, saw the reflection of Tracy smiling up at him, and said, "Hey there, darlin'."
Tracy stopped where she was, pushed up onto her toes so that she could kiss him, which prompted Mrs. Turnblad to "Ahem" loudly, and as Link pulled away, he thought, yeah, yeah, yeah, again.