Chapter One

The doorbell rang, and Alicia went to answer the door. The last person to arrive at the slumber party was there. She didn't know Alicia that well, but she was really good friends with Jenna, the other person present at the slumber party.

"Hey there," she grinned. "You must be Alicia! I'm Lulu! It's so nice to meet you!"

"I'm Alicia," the hostess replied, hugging her hello. "It's nice to meet you, too! Come on in! We're getting ready to watch a movie!"

"Awesome!" Lulu said, following her into the other room, where Jenna was waiting. She ran up to hug Lulu when she saw her.

"I'm so glad you could make it!" She said when they pulled apart. "We're going to watch Roger Rabbit first!"

"Oh, sweet, I love that movie!" Lulu said enthusiastically, setting up her sleeping bag. For a while, the three of them were quiet as they watched the screen. The silence was broken when Lulu sighed dreamily. Alicia looked over at her and shot her a funny look. "What are you staring at?"

"Him," Lulu said wistfully, pointing at the leader of the Toon Patrol: a weasel in a light pink suit. "He's so dreamy…"

Jenna snorted. "He's wearing a hot pink suit!"

"Light pink," Lulu corrected dramatically. "And tough guys wear pink! He's a tough guy…I love tough guys…and he has an amazing voice!" She squealed, hugging a pillow to her chest. Jenna laughed and threw another pillow at her. Lulu tossed it back at her. "Anyway, you two should talk!" She pointed at Jenna. "You've been staring at that icky one ever since he went onscreen! You like him!"

"Yeah, so what if I do?" Jenna asked, blushing a little. They were referring to another weasel, one that was wearing a green suit. He had a pretty sexy voice, too. He spoke with a heavy Spanish accent, one that drove Lulu wild, too.

"He's creepy!" Alicia protested.

"Yeah, and Eddie Valiant is the American dream!" Jenna shot back. "Just picture it…" She got to her feet theatrically. "You and he…moving into a three-story house, having two kids…you'll stay home and cook and clean, and every night he'll come home with a bottle in hand."

"Okay, so he's a drunk! But nobody's perfect!" Alicia said, also blushing a little. Lulu laughed.

"It doesn't matter," she told Alicia. "He has Dolores."

"That's true," she admitted. "Still…I can dream!""

After that, they were quiet. They fell asleep before the movie was over. They hadn't even bothered to change into their pajamas yet. Lulu was tired from the drive over to Texas, Alicia was tired from school, and Jenna was bored by the lack of weasels that were onscreen. She wasn't too happy about going to bed this early: it was still eleven, not even midnight.

"I have a huge AP Macroeconomics project that I should be working on," Lulu yawned before she passed out. "But I'm too lazy."

"Join the club," Jenna told her, and Alicia rolled her eyes and smiled. They slept until about six in the morning. Lulu was up first. She nudged Jenna and Alicia awake. "What should we do today?"

"Let's go for a walk," Alicia suggested, rubbing her eyes. "I like watching the sunrise." The other two nodded and after they had all brushed their teeth and hair, left the house and went for a walk.

"You live in a very urban part of Texas," Lulu observed as they walked out of the house.

"I know, right?" Alicia said. "They're always building new stuff around these parts. The construction is driving me crazy! It makes so much noise!"

"Well, as long as it doesn't seem to be coming from one specific house, everything should be fine…" Lulu commented.

Jenna shot her a weird look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lulu grinned. She was sweet fifty percent of the time, but during the other fifty percent she had a sick sense of humor and a desire to tell sick stories. She knew a lot of good stories about Al Capone, Ed Gein, and other serial killers. "Well," she began ominously, "my mom lived in Chicago when there was this popular clown…a guy named Pogo the Clown. His real name was John Wayne Gacy…and his neighbors complained about him because he was always doing construction work on his house…but later, they found out that he was keeping the bodies of the boys he murdered underneath the floorboards!"

"Gross!" Alicia exclaimed, covering her ears.

"That makes several of the Disney villains look like saints!" Jenna said.

"Now I don't feel so bad about liking them!"Lulu declared happily. She and Jenna high-fived, and Alicia sighed in exasperation.

"Let's change the subject," she suggested. And they spent the rest of their walk talking about movies, movie characters, the future, Chicago, Europe, Disney World, and books. Eventually they stumbled into an unfamiliar part of the neighborhood. "Hey, this must be where those new apartment buildings are going to be!" Alicia said. "Let's take a closer look!" The other two agreed, and they walked into it, past several men smoking cigarettes, past several women buried under too much lipstick and mascara, past the tall, beautiful, animated girl…wait a minute, ANIMATED GIRL?

"Hold on!" Jenna did a double-take and stared at the woman. It was an animated woman. She was not three-dimensional, and way too beautiful to be considered human. She was wearing a skimpy white outfit, and she was primping her blond hair, fretting over something as she examined her reflection in the mirror.

"Let's say something to her," Alicia murmured, and the other two agreed. Jenna was very excited. She knew who this was: Holli Would, the antagonist from the film Cool World. Lulu recognized her, too, but she didn't believe her eyes…how was this possible?

"Hello, Holli," Alicia said timidly when they approached her.

The woman sighed. "Hi," she muttered, putting away her mirror. She seemed very despondent, and Lulu, in spite of being shocked and almost speechless, felt bad for her.

"Can we help you with something, Miss Would?" She asked, trying to be professional and polite. She decided that this was how she would react if she was talking to a "real life" celebrity. (She had actually met Hugh Jackman in New York a few years ago, but the circumstances had been very different.)

"No," the Doodle sighed. "I'll be okay. They'll be doing a casting call in a few weeks. Maybe my luck will be different then." She turned to the three girls, and her eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry. You three must be the new assistants, right? Mr. Maroon was looking for you three. You're wanted on the set in about ten minutes. C'mon, I'll take you there." She seemed friendly enough, and Alicia and Jenna didn't see any harm in following her…Lulu, however, was still trying to make sense of what was going on. Holli was leading them past more and more Toons and Doodles…some of which looked very familiar. There was the ostrich from Fantasia…there were the brooms from the same movie…and was that Dumbo?

"Oh, Jenna," Lulu whispered, jogging up to keep up with her friend.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Do you want to explain to me what the hell is going on?!"

Alicia and Jenna looked at each other, exchanged small smiles, and shrugged. "We think we know what's going on…it's kind of a long story," Alicia said slowly.

"Tell me," Lulu insisted. "I'll believe anything at this point," she added when Bugs Bunny wandered past, winked happily at their celebrity guide, and went about his business.

"Okay," Jenna began. "This sort of thing has been going on for a while now…."

Review, please? :)

This story is, by the way, dedicated to x-The Devil's Advocate-x. Check out her stories if you haven't already!