Chapter 9
The two stooges got an ear full from Skips when he found out where they were hiding the rest of the day after sneaking the sticky note on him. As a way to make it up to him, they told him they'd treat him to dinner. He only agreed to let them on the occasion that they invited Pops, Benson, and Herman and paid for them as well. And no more tricks! They easily said that they would and it was decided that that Friday they'd go.
However, the place they were taken to was a place called Club Palace. A place where people in clubs hung out. The four felt out of place at first, but then Raymond pointed them back behind the bar and lead them down a hall.
"Are you sure we can go back here?" asks Benson.
"Hey, don't worry about it bro!" explains the cheetah. "My buddy Lorie set me up with a private room for me and Carl's secret club."
"The bad joke club," Herman says, but got a boo from the others. The jokers, however, enjoyed it. "Nah, nah good buddy!" Carl says. "Our club's even better than that." They stand in front of a door and Ray pulls out a key and unlocks the room. "Now before we enter," he begins, "I just would like to take the time to say thank you park employees for welcoming me and Carl to your humble abode. I know it's not typically easy to live with us, but you are the first group who could stand us this long. So I would again like to say thank you for accepting us as we accept you into our club."
Opening the door revealed a red shag carpet and a soft cushioned couch that ran along the wall starting from the door. Despite the small room, walking into it they noticed a table in the middle and a karaoke machine and TV in the corner of the room. Pops gets excited and runs straight to the machine to check it out. Herman sits down on the couch while Benson opened the closet door in the back of the room after asking Carl. Inside were other games and junk like that.
"What kind of Club is this anyways?" he asks as he picked up a handheld game.
"This is the Hang Kool Club!" Raymond shouts.
Skips stares at the sign above the door frame noticing that "cool" was spelled with a K. Shrugging he walks in too and shuts the door behind him. "So what do you want to play first?" Carl asks.
"What did you have in mind?" Skips asks.
"We were going to let you guys choose, but if you insist..." Ray says slyly with a huge grin.
They first pulled out a deck of cards and played old maid, poker, and Egyptian rat screw. Then they brought out a few racing video games. They stopped when a certain gumball machine and yeti turned it into a full contact game and became more interested in pinching each other raw. Next they ordered up some sodas and pizza and turned on the karaoke machine.
Pops enjoyed it the most. He picked many songs to sing and sang them all. They finally decided to pull him away and give someone else a try. Herman went second, but as soon as one note was sung the microphone was taken away by the swift cheetah-man whose ears were bent back against his head and looking around the lion-man saw that everyone was holding their ears. The two jokers ended it with a duet of "Living La Vida Loca".
"Alright, it's about time to call it quits, don't you think guys?" Skips asks opening the door.
"Oh come on! One more! No fair!" complained Pops, Raymond, and Carl at once.
"Don't you think it's late? We really should be heading out, right Herman?" asks Benson.
He flinches and blushes at being put on the spot. They all looked at him putting him in a deeper hole. He then looks away twiddling his fingers. "Well I don't know, I mean one more song or something wouldn't really hurt don't you think?" He says.
"Yeah! One more song! One more song!" cheered the three that had booed.
"You gotta be kidding me!" both Skips and Benson say at the same time. Herman is taken aback by both of them. "B-but, we've all been having fun, right?" he asks.
"Oh how mature!" Benson shouts.
"Fun is besides the point and is completely off the topic that it's late!" Skips agreed.
The lion-man just stared at them not sure what to say. The two thunder twins were giggling like crazy as Benson and Skips laid into Herman about the late time. Pops claps his hands out of nowhere in a pattern. In an automatic response, the others went quiet and copied the pattern. Then after realizing what they did, they blushed and cursed the field trippers that walked by the park with the so misbehaved children that the teachers had to come up with a system just to keep them silent(...hint...).
Smiling, Pops caught the attention of his peers. "Now I have to concur with Benson and Skips about the current time. I'm sure we can all agree that we're tired right?" Everyone nods. "Well then, tonight was eccentric and lollygagging, but all good times meet their end." Then coming closer to the yeti and automation he grins. "So as a way to end this good time-" He hands the microphone out to Benson. Then with big puppy-eyes he says, "One more song must be sung, Benson, it must!"
He tries to protest, but then the others started cheering and Skips just shrugged at him. Sighing he hands it to the yeti only to have it handed back. He glares at the bigger man and was about to argue, but then Skips smirks at him. "You seem pretty skittish for a guy with so many balls." The others stand in shock by the words and Raymond and Carl oooed at him. With fierce anger in his eyes he heads over to the machine and began looking for a song to sing while muttering under his breath.
Once he picked the song, he stood, unzipped his jacket and placed it on his shoulders. "Alright then!" he shouts into the mike. The others stared and blinked. The music starts to play. "Having the nerves to talk about me like that! I'll show you balls, through the power of ROCK N' ROLL!" He tosses off his jacket and begins.
An angel's smile is what you sell,
You promise me heaven then put me through hell,
Chains of love got a hold on me,
When passion's a prison you can't break free,
Oh~! You're a loaded gun! Yeah!
Oh~! There's nowhere to run,
No one can save me the damage is done,
Shot through the heart! And you're to blame,
You give love a bad name!
I play my part and you play your game!
You give love a bad name!
Yeah, you give love~! A bad name!
Without notice, the music flowed out through the door and to the bar. The bartender had been in a conversation with someone when the music hit his ears. Liking the beat, he shouts for everyone to quiet down and heads back behind the bar and down the hall. He came to the open door, but just stood outside watching the little man at the mike.
Also hearing the music, many others followed suit and stood outside the door listening to his song. Then the manager comes walking down the hall from the other end and notices the crowd. He sees one of the security guards and tries to complain about all the people standing or dancing in the hall only for him to be pulled by the buff man closer to see what was going on.
Paint your smile on your lips,
Blood red nails on your fingertips,
A school boy's dream you act so shy,
Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye,
Oh~! You're a loaded gun!
Oh~! There's nowhere to run,
No one can save me the damage is done,
Shot through the heart! And you're to blame,
You give love a bad name!
I play my part and you play your game!
You give love a bad name!
You give love~!
The song switched into just a music solo, so Benson switched to playing air guitar. Skips had nearly dropped his jaw at the gumball machine when he started the song while the others just cheered. They couldn't see it, but he could. The way he moved, the way he sang, the way he merged himself with the song like he made it. Anyone else, he knew, would hold a karaoke microphone a bit clumsily even if they had been at the machine for years. He held that mike with no fear like it was made for him. He was all perfectly balanced. No mistakes, no hesitations. A true professional.
With a tiny smile creeping on his face, he starts to cheer with the others. Benson looks at him for a moment without stopping and noticed it. And without interrupting the song, he gave the yeti a small grin back as he began the rest of the song.
Oh~!
Shot through the heart! And you're to blame,
You give love a bad name!
I play my part and you play your game!
You give love a bad name!
Shot through the heart! And you're to blame,
You give love a bad name!
I play my part and you play your game!
You give love a bad name!
You give love~!
The music ends and Benson follows the ending strum of the guitar with another air guitar strum of his own. The whole crowd claps and whoops surprising the original six people in the room. Benson is the most surprised and starts to blush from embarrassment.
The people start to pile in with comment after comment making the shy gumball machine start to back up away from them. Seeing his nervousness, the others stop their gawking and try to block them from coming further in. Benson looked over at the others as the crowd booed at them for blocking. Skips catches the glance and with a grin throws the car keys to him. Then catching his hint the others push the crowd out of the way a bit and Pops took Benson and they ran through the opening. Then the rest of them followed and got into Skips Volkswagen and Benson drove them away.
Song: You Give Love a Bad Name, Bon Jovi
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