Christmastime in London.
It's really hard to explain what exactly is the true meaning of Christmas. A majority of them say that Christmas is the time for family, to forgive and forget those that have harmed or wronged you in the past, the time to be kind and generous to others, though sometimes, it can be very annoying and some parents used that excuse a lot to get their children to be 100% kind and generous to others, expecting them to not think about themselves and their individualities and blindly obey them all the time like mini-servants.
That is NOT how parenting goes, mind you!
To children however, Christmas is the time for presents, see what kind of toys they received from Santa Claus if they have been good this year. To them, the time to be 100% kind and generous to others and thinking about family is not all that important to them, of course, if you happen to be a rich, spoiled brat.
You don't need to be 100% kind and generous to others just to feel good about yourself, or to prove others that you're not a scrooge. The idea of being kind and generous is entirely based on your actions, not your parents', not your friends', just your action and yours alone.
Twas a week before Christmas, a week before Danger Mouse saved Santa Claus from the evil Snowman that almost destroyed Christmas, where Danger Mouse and Penfold are busy decorating their flat with Christmas decorations and putting the Christmas ornaments on the ever-so-large fake Christmas tree, because Professor Squawkencluck would make suck a huge fuss if she sees a lot of pine needles scattered all over HQ should Danger Mouse and Penfold use a real pine tree.
So while Danger Mouse and Penfold are busy putting the final touches on the Christmas tree, Professor Squawkencluck enters the main room with an envelope on hand. "Danger Mouse, you got mail."
"From one of my relatives?" Danger Mouse asked the professor. "It better not be from Uncle Patrick."
Usually during the holidays, Danger Mouse is fairly neutral when it comes to receiving a lot of mail from his relatives, especially his mother, but the ones he gets annoyed at the most were the ones coming from Uncle Patrick - his mother's brother. Every year it's the same - Uncle Patrick sends Danger Mouse a letter, asking him for lots of money, Danger Mouse turns down the request, knowing fully well that he'll spend the money on vodka and cigarettes the instant he gets his hands on the money. It's a good thing he didn't mention the fact that Penfold's family are super rich to Uncle Patrick, else Uncle Patrick would use Penfold as a weapon to get Danger Mouse to lend him money.
He understands the whole 'be kind and generous to others' lesson, and he's not being a scrooge here, but he couldn't give money to Uncle Patrick, even if Uncle Patrick decided to use the guilt-trip method on him. It never works on him. It may work on morons, but Danger Mouse is far too smart to fall for his uncle's lies.
"Nope, it's from the principal at your old high school - Cosgrove Hall High School." Professor Squawkencluck replied. "Apparently, there's going to be a high school reunion on Saturday. Oh, and it says here that you can bring your friends to the reunion."
A high school reunion? Danger Mouse hasn't been in high school since he graduated a year earlier than his peers and went to various colleges like Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, the Sorbonne and Wurtembery. As far as he can remember from his high school years, he remembered the constant bullying he gets from others due to his small size and the eyepatch he had to wear over his left eye, and the spider Eric, the new student from Liverpool who is racist towards mice, hates Danger Mouse's guts and was the one responsible for injuring his left eye.
Fifi didn't go to Cosgrove Hall High. Danger Mouse had met her during his early college years.
Sometimes, he wonders what some of the other students will think of him when they realizes that the mouse they picked on in the past grew up to be the world's greatest secret agent?
"Oh, can we go to the reunion, Chief? Can we?" Penfold pleaded Danger Mouse, loving the idea of going to Danger Mouse's high school reunion with Danger Mouse. "Can we?"
What if there's a chance that Eric might show up at the reunion, still being racist towards mice and still hating his guts? What if Eric spots Penfold and starts feeding the naive hamster lies about Danger Mouse's teen years, hoping to bring misery to the one-eyed mouse?
Then he remembered the spider being expelled from school, a month after stabbing his left eye with a knife, all because of a failing grade on a math test. Thinking about it now, it was utterly ridiculous.
Then again, Eric probably didn't get the invite because he was expelled and would rather spend his Saturdays drinking and hanging out with his buddies and being a total pain in the butt to everyone. Though the all-boys boarding school he had to go to may have changed his attitude a little, so that could be a good sign.
He knew that he would never forgive Eric for what he had done to him. But this Christmas, maybe he might find it in his heart to forgive the spider that injured his eye, put all of that in the past and start fresh?
The only way to find the answer is by going to the high school reunion.
"Alright, Penfold." Danger Mouse informed Penfold. "We'll go to the reunion on Saturday."
"Yes!" was all Penfold shouted as he jumps up and down in joy.
()()()()()
Saturday came finally as Danger Mouse and Penfold, each wearing stunning black tuxedos are piloting the Mark 4 in the skies, heading to Cosgrove Hall High School in the evening, but having come late than usual because Danger Mouse had to stop Baron Greenback from melting Antarctica with a gigantic heat ray.
"It's a good think we weren't wearing our tuxes when we had to stop that terrible toad." Penfold spoke to Danger Mouse.
"What makes you say that?" Danger Mouse asked Penfold.
"If we have been wearing our tuxes while stopping Greenback, we would've suffocated to death in our tuxes from the boiling heat coming from the baron's heat ray." Penfold replied before giving a chuckle.
Danger Mouse rolled his eyes, but understands what Penfold is saying. "Well that makes kind sense. Now hang on, I'm putting the Mark 4 down."
The wings of the Mark 4 retreat as the car lands and hits the pavement of the road in which it bounces a few times before pulling up to the school's parking lot where Danger Mouse parks it at an available spot.
Already, he heard people talking amongst themselves just after he and Penfold arrived.
"Who would've guessed that he used to go to our high school?" One of the former students muttered.
"That idea alone is so cool." Another one muttered. "I'd totally be friends with him if that was proven true."
"I wonder if he was the popular guy during his teen years." Another one, possibly someone that didn't go to this high school, muttered.
The talking continued, but gradually died down as Danger Mouse and Penfold walk up the steps of the school's main entrance and followed the other former students and teachers of this high school to the big school gym where the reunion is taking place.
Danger Mouse and Penfold could see former students scattered around the gum, sharing conversations with each others. He could even hear the song "Better When I'm Dancing" by Meghan Trainor playing in the background. Penfold immediately recognized it as a familiar music he heard from The Peanuts Movie. Some of the guests were even dancing to that music.
Don't think about it
Just move your body
Listen to the music
Sing, oh, aye, oh
Just move those left feet
Go ahead, get crazy
Anyone can do it
Sing, oh, aye oh
Danger Mouse could see some familiar faces he remembered from his teen years, which is kinda ironic since he grew up with having little to no friends until he met Penfold a comic-con when he was 17 and Penfold was 12. Since then, Penfold had been his only friend.
The majority of the guests stopped talking and stared at Danger Mouse and Penfold when they entered the gym. Some started to whisper to one another.
Show the world you've got that fire
Feel the rhythm getting louder
Show the room what you can do
Prove to them you got the moves
I don't know about you
But I feel better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah
Better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah
And we can do this together
I bet you feel better when you're dancing, yeah yeah.
"Is he who I think it is?" One of the students asked.
"Can it be?" Another one asked.
Penfold was starting to feel nervous about this. "Um, chief?"
"Yes, Penfold?" Danger Mouse replied.
"Why is everybody staring at us?"
For once, Danger Mouse couldn't give Penfold an exact answer. Even he doesn't know why everybody is staring at him and Penfold. Was it something they wore? Did they do something that might've upset them?
Was it because they saw Danger Mouse, the world's greatest secret agent, at their high-school reunion, and were shocked to see him there?
That, my friend, is correct.
"Estella, you never told me Danger Mouse used to go to this school." One of the former students, a male spider with black fur and his hair gelled in a 50's bad boy hairdo, informed one of the female guests. "That guy's awesome, and I'd totally be friends with him if that was proven true."
Estella? The most popular girl in school during his teen days whom he used to have a massive crush on was here?
Yes, Estella. When Danger Mouse was a young teenager at the mere age of 16, right before Eric arrived, and before he met Fifi, he used to have a massive, not-so-secret crush on the pretty blonde mouse, Estella. She was one of the high school cheerleaders and one of the prettiest and most popular girls in school. He though he would have the chance to be with Estella, but it was not meant to be. Sure she was one of the few students that was actually nice to him, but whenever he had the chance to try to talk to her and tell her how he felt about her, some random jerk or unfortunate event kept destroying his chances of getting close to Estella. It became worse after Eric injured his left eye and had to wear an eyepatch for the rest of his life. Estella wouldn't even talk to him without trying to hurt his feelings like the other students expected her too. Even worse, his chances of ever being with her was destroyed for good when he heard that she got hooked up with someone else. He has no idea who Estella was dating. Because of that, he had no choice but to give up on Estella and moved on with his life, to save himself from being turned into a creepy stalker.
When you finally let go
And you slay that solo
Cause you listen to the music
Sing, oh, aye, oh
Cause you're confident, babe
And you make your hips sway
We knew that you could do it
Sing, oh, aye, oh
He'd never knew that the one guy Estella is dating would be the one thing he is deathly afraid of - a spider. He sees the black spider. wearing a navy blue tuxedo specially made just for spiders, talking to the blonde, female mouse, definitely Estella all grown-up, looking lovely as usual in her sparkling red dress.
Wait. Why does the spider's black fur and hazel eyes look familiar to him? Where has he seen them before?
His fur is the same shade of black as Eric's. Danger Mouse thought. Same with the hazel eyes.
Could this mean that the spider Estella is dating is his once-tormentor, Eric? If that's the case, then why is he having a fun time with Estella despite the fact that he was racist towards mice?
It has to be some sort of trick. Eric is probably using Estella to hurt Danger Mouse even more, if somehow that spider had already figured out that the world's greatest secret agent was once a small, weak mouse with a not-so-secret crush on one of the popular girls. If hurting him physically doesn't destroy him in the past, then hurting him mentally in the present might just do the trick.
Show the world you've got that fire
Feel the rhythm getting louder
Show the room what you can do
Prove to them you got the moves
I don't know about you
But I feel better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah
Better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah
And we can do this together
I bet you feel better when you're dancing, yeah yeah.
Besides, Danger Mouse had moved on ever since he graduated. Maybe Eric had decided to do the same and tried to start fresh. If Conway and Natasha were able to start fresh after coming clean with their schemes to get a hold of Penfold's family fortune on his wedding day, then it wouldn't hurt Eric to do the same.
But then again, what if the spider isn't Eric? What if it was someone else?
"C'mon, Chief, the song's still playing!" Penfold cried as he tries to get the one-eyed secret agent to dance with him on the dance floor. "Try to lighten up a little."
Before he knew it, Danger Mouse finds himself dancing with not just Penfold, but everyone else on the dance floor as "Better When I'm Dancing" is still playing. Sure he was having a blast dancing with Penfold, but he could never keep his eye off of Estella and the spider whom he thought would be Eric all grown up.
I feel better when I'm dancing
I'm better when I'm dancing, aye, oh aye oh
Feel batter when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah
Better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah
Don't you know
We can do this together
Bet you feel better when you're dancing, yeah, yeah
I feel better when I'm dancing
I'm better when I'm dancing, hey
Feel better when I'm, yeah yeah
The song ended and everybody stopped dancing for a moment, before another song began to play in the background. Penfold immediately recognized it as a familiar song he heard from the anime show Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. The song was called "Chocolat" by TeddyLoid and Mariya Ise. Danger Mouse's good eye is still fixed onto Estella and the spider as he and Penfold kept on dancing with the others.
I see you before me, you see me before you
Never thought that I'd fall in love with you
I will take your soul if you take my heart
Fly away together, far away forever
He saw Estelle and the spider dancing together. From the looks of it, they seemed ... happy together.
One part of him wanted to walk up to the couple, push the spider aside and share a dance with Estella, like he always wanted.
Chocolat, chocolat, you make me feel
Chocolat, chocolat, so sweet and pure
Chocolat, chocolat, I'll wear the ring forever
But the other part of him decided not to. Just leave them be. They seemed genuinely happy together.
Chocolat, chocolat, you make me feel
Chocolat, chocolat, so sweet and pure
Chocolat, chocolat, I'll wear the ring
So take me to heaven or hell, I don't care where.
And besides, even if the spider Estella is with really is Eric, he wouldn't want to make Estella, or any other lady upset and be the bad guy in this situation.
Maybe ... after all these years, Estella really didn't feel the same away about him, even if he ended up having a good life. Come to think of it, he rarely thought about Estella over the years since he left high school and fell in love with Fifi.
Fifi meant the world to him, even if they're not together anymore. Estella was just some popular girl he used to have a crush on in high school. Every high school boy is bound to have a crush on a popular girl, and in the end, it'll never work out like in fairytales. On one hand, the boy would put that small crush aside and do something with his life. On the other hand, he wouldn't move on and spend the rest of his life stalking the girl he had a crush on, up to the point where he could be arrested for harassing her.
So Danger Mouse decided to let Estella and the spider be and let them be happy together as he and Penfold continued on dancing on the dance floor.