Having actually finished his shift after apologizing profusely to Alonzo and getting his pay slightly docked, Mistoffelees dragged his feet back out to his car, all but collapsing into it. Today more than needed to be over.

Starting the car, his MP3 player came to life, set on shuffle and he almost screamed at the song that started playing. Why did he still have this song? Shouldn't he have deleted it a year ago?

After a moment though he frowned, starting to drive home. He would really have to delete this song... but maybe after tomorrow. He had something of a plan first.

o.o.o.o

Coricopat spent most of the next day in the dance studio again, making notes on potential choreography, having talked to Jemima about the sort of rhythm they would probably be looking at for the song she was working on. He had some music with a similar feel and went over steps, correcting them each time, and making marks on a few different sheets of paper. At this point it was looking like possibly a lot of singles dancing, but it would be possible to adapt it into pairs, the trick was teaching paired dance without a partner.

He finally took a break around lunchtime, settling in one of the chairs along the wall and just letting the music wash over him, trying not to think about a certain small waiter. There wasn't any point to that sort of thing, Mistoffelees, though confusing yesterday, had been pretty clear on a couple of points.

Except for the fact that said waiter was once again standing in the doorway. "Now, I cannot be late for clocking in again unless you convince Alonzo in general to give me a half day," Mistoffelees said by way of greeting, looking a little annoyed at himself for actually being there again.

The taller teen startled at that, looking up, "We'll try to keep you from being late again. But...what are you doing here?" Just when he thought he'd figured something out it changed.

"I'm not entirely sure," he replied, shifting his shoulders. "But, I think too much. So, I want to... try something."

That earned a cautious look, "Try what?"

"My music is out to get me," Mistoffelees started, moving over to where the music was and finding the hookup for a MP3 player. "Do you mind?"

The other simply shook his head, still beyond confused.

Mistoffelees dealt with that before turning back to him. "One more dance. Before I decide on anything."

Coricopat hesitated at that, but rose, nodding, "Agreed, your lead?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "You know the waltz I'm assuming?"

Another nod, "Yes. It's been a while, but yes."

"Alright," Mistoffelees said as the first strains of the notes began. He stepped forward, holding his hands out in the lead position. It was a little bit awkward considering the height difference, but manageable.

Cori took the follow's position and let himself be guided through the dance, focusing on the cues as much on the lyrics of the song. The more they sunk in the less he was sure he wanted to continue this dance.

The song itself had a bit of a jazz feel to it, but the lyrics were entirely about forgetting someone and moving on. Mistoffelees kept his eyes up during the song, though he could only focus on Coricopat's face a few times over the course of it. He led the dance smoothly, having apparently spent as much time if not more on the waltz then the salsa.

Finally it ended and swallowing he took half a step away, dropping his hands.

Coricopat drew back as soon as the song ended, "Why that song?"

"It seemed to describe the situation better than I could," he said, posture weary. "Why I stopped dancing. Also what I think I should do with you."

Coricopat ran a hand over his hair, having for once in his life forgotten he was wearing a hat and knocking it askew before he remembered it and stopped the motion. He looked the other in the eye finally, "What happened?"

Mistoffelees hesitated and then shrugged. "I had, basically the same dance partner since I started learning paired dances. I may have been a little bit in love with them. The bluntest terms possible I can come up with for what happened is they betrayed me and left me completely embarrassed on a stage."

The taller teen swallowed at that, "I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything yesterday, and I shouldn't have asked the dance of you. If-if that song does express what you want to do, I'll step back, let you do so."

"I don't know what I want," he said softly.

"Well, I do. Not what you want I mean what I want. But..." he shook his head.

"Might as well say it," Mistoffelees shrugged.

He hesitated for a long moment, "You. Not the dance, not the award, not even all the wonderful potential friendships. You. Your friendship, at least."

The smaller teen had been fiddling with getting his music player back but he froze at that, turning wide eyed to the other teen. "Y-you...?"

Coricopat glanced away, nodding slightly, "I...y-yes?"

Really hoping he wouldn't regret it, Mistoffelees took a sudden step forward, cupping Coricopat's face to turn it toward him and pulling the taller down to kiss him.

The other stiffened initially before relaxing into the kiss, his arms moving to wrap around Mistoffelees and pull him closer.

It wasn't a particularly graceful kiss, and Mistoffelees managed to mash their noses together at one point but it settled quickly enough into something a bit slower. His hands remained on Coricopat's face, one slipping around to cup the back of head.

Coricopat drew back for a breath after a moment, one hand resting on Mistoffelees' waist, the other having moved to his cheek, "I..."

"Should I have not done that?"

"N-no. I...I mean...I didn't mind. Startled me, but I didn't mind." He bit his lip, "I've...been trying to avoid doing so to you."

"Is this going to be a bad idea?" Mistoffelees asked after a moment, finger's tracing through Coricopat's hair from where he'd knocked the hat off.

"I...don't know. Maybe? I, I want to try though, if you do," the taller boy leaned into the touch a bit.

Mistoffelees' breath caught slightly. "What would trying even mean?"

"Getting to know one another? Dinner? maybe a movie? Avoiding my sister."

"Oh god," he said with a strangled laugh. "Your sister. And Macavity. And preferably a dinner I don't have to wait on."

Coricopat paled slightly at that, "Yes. And Macavity. And I'm sure we could see about dinner somewhere that you aren't on wait staff."

"We haven't liked each other in the last six years that I could tell, what are we doing now?" Mistoffelees couldn't help but ask, still leaning a bit closer.

Cori bit his lip, "That depends on what you mean by like. Now? We're seeing whether this is actually going to work."

"Alright," he said, nodding slightly and glancing at the clock. "Still have half my break..."

"Have you eaten yet? Cause you should probably do that at some point..."

"I may have stolen some food from Jenny's lunch," Mistoffelees said with a faint smile.

That got a quiet laugh, "Well, as long as you've eaten something."

"Yeah, enough to get through the shift," Mistoffelees said and hesitated. "Kiss me again?"

Smiling slightly, Coricopat nodded, "Gladly." He leaned down, kissing the other almost hesitantly.

Taking a shallow breath, Mistoffelees tilted up into the kiss. This one was even slower and more careful than before. Coricopat leaned down into the kiss, one hand moving to comb through the other's thick hair.

After a moment Mistoffelees drew back. "You mentioned dinner and a movie at some point?"

"I...Yes, I did."

"We should," he swallowed. "Do that."

"We should. When?"

"Well, can you actually leave the country club this summer?" Mistoffelees asked with a faint smile. "Because I have a day off here soon."

Coricopat smiled in response, "I can, yes. So, we should do that then."

"Alright," he said, blushing. "That would be, nice. Different."

"Any particular movie you've been thinking of seeing?"

"Not really," he said with a smile. "Though I have to say I'm used to doing the dinner thing before the kissing thing."

Coricopat smiled faintly, "You and me both, usually."

"Not that that's happened much," he admitted quietly.

"And I say again, you and me both."

"That's somewhat reassuring in some ways," Mistoffelees murmured.

"I..." He glanced around the dance studio, "You really are quite good."

"At?" Mistoffelees frowned, thinking on a different wave length while still pressed up against the other.

"Dancing. Leading."

"Oh," he said softly, looking down. "Thanks."

He paused for a long moment, "I know you would rather not dance with a partner, and I understand that, but would you be willing to help me choreograph a singles group dance?"

"Making it more like sports?" Mistoffelees murmured, forcibly stopping himself from stepping back.

"Sort of...mostly don't feel like teaching people how not to step on their partners mid-dance."

Mistoffelees smiled faintly. "I need to think about it."

That garnered another smile, "Thank you."

"That's not a yes," Mistoffelees warned him.

"No, but it's at least considering it."

"I should get back," he said softly.

Cori sighed faintly, "Probably."

"But I get off work after the main dinner shift," Mistoffelees said.

"Good to know, maybe we could meet up after that? Though...wait I had scheduled first rehearsal for tonight."

"With everyone?" Mistoffelees asked.

"Pretty much, it's mostly just getting a feel for what everyone's thinking, where they'll fit, how much work we have ahead of us things like that."

The smaller nodded. "I... might lurk."

Coricopat offered him another smile, "Well, if you come I promise you don't have to participate. I'm not Mrs. Harris after all."

Mistoffelees laughed. "Thank god. I would never date her."

"Good to hear, I might be concerned if you would."

The shorter laughed again. "Okay, now I really do have to go."

"Alright, well, maybe I'll see you at rehearsal later."

"Alright," he said, kissing him quickly before leaving.

Coricopat watched him go before picking up his hat from the floor and returning to working on possible choreography.

o.o.o.o

Tugger glanced around in some confusion at where Alonzo had deposited him. He really didn't feel like he was doing much work lately.

Tant saw him and scurried off of the stage to his side, "Tugger! Hi!"

"Oh, hi," he managed. He'd rather be washing dishes. "What's up here?" he said, glancing around the tables that were being set up.

"They're getting everything set for the talent show." She motioned to a table right near the stage, "Daddy and the scholarship committee will be sitting over there. It'll be a fabulous evening!"

"Oh," Tugger said. "Look, Tant..."

"I was thinking we could rehearse now?"

"Rehearse?" he asked, blinking rapidly. "What are we even rehearsing?"

"A song Jemima wrote, we upped the tempo a little bit."

"A bit?" Tugger managed, remembering only too well the audition Tant had performed for the main song of the musical that winter. "I mean, I don't even know the song and..."

"It's really simple. And you did promise to sing with me." She grabbed his wrist and dragged him up on stage, shoving the sheet music into his hand, "You set? Okay." She turned to the band, "Five, six, seven, eight!" And started immediately into the song, special effects, back-u singers and all.

Tugger started back. However, when it came to his cue he started to respond, voice gaining in strength even if he honestly had no idea what to do with the entire special effects monstrosity in front of him.

Eventually he ended up at the front of the stage, belting the lyrics. Too much of him loved preforming to back down from this.

The song came to an end and Tant was smiling widely, "See? I knew you would be fabulous!" Tugger blinked at her, looking like he was now considering bolting. "Should we run it again?" she asked him, batting her eyelashes in his direction.

"I," he shook his head. "No, no, I don't think so."

"Well, we need to go over it again sometime."

"I, sure," he managed, turning and fleeing anyway. She smirked, even as she watched him leave.

o.o.o.o

Pouncival caught Mistoffelees before he could head out, "Hey, Misto?"

The smaller teen turned from where he had just clocked out. "Yeah?"

"You haven't been with us for lunch for a couple of days, everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah. Just..." he really had no way of explaining that.

Pounce looked him over, "You're sure?"

"Well, yeah." He considered. "Are you going to that rehearsal thing?"

"Yeah, I think we pretty much all are. Grids is making Mac and Munkus participate."

Mistoffelees laughed at that. "Scary woman. No one's tried to get me to go yet."

Jemi suddenly appeared at his elbow. "I can if you like."

Pounce grinned, "I'll even help her. Come on, it could be fun."

Biting back a smile, Mistoffelees shrugged. "I suppose."

"Cori's going to be there," Jemi chirped and Mistoffelees couldn't actually help the choke at that.

"That matters to me, why?" he asked, trying to look innocent.

Jemi just arched her brows and started dragging him along. Pounce blinked in confusion at that, but followed his friend and the pianist to the dance studio Cori had reserved for them.

Macavity was standing by his girlfriend with his arms crossed over his chest, entire posture informing her she owed him a lot for this.

Entering, Mistoffelees leaned against one of the walls, a small smile dancing around the corners of his mouth.

Munkustrap was standing near his brother, scowling as Coricopat moved to stand by the mirrors, "Alright, glad you all could make it. The end goal of this is to have some sort of performance we can use in the talent show. It's tradition for the staff to have some number. Today I'm just trying to get some idea of what we're working with. How many of you have danced before? And I don't mean the shuffle-step that everyone likes to use at school dances."

"Hey, don't diss the shuffle step," Macavity muttered and Mistoffelees rolled his eyes.

Coricopat grinned slightly at that, but shook his head as he saw one hand possibly raised toward the back, "Alright, so we're going to start from scratch then."

Standing next to Pounce, Mistoffelees' mouth twisted from one side to the other, his hand tapping against his other arm as he considered.

Cori glanced around again, "Alright, so before we start, anyone have any suggestions what sort of thing you'd like to see? I've got some ideas, but I'm open for suggestions."

Mistoffelees bit back his suggestion and Jemi stepped up next to Coricopat. "I write duets best," she said softly.

The choreographer bit his lip at that, "So you'd need two central vocalists?"

"I would certainly prefer it," Jemi said, shrinking slightly now that everyone was looking at her and she was asking for what amounted to a favor for herself.

Cori offered her a bit of a smile, "We'll figure that out then." He looked around, "Tumble would you be-"

Tumble hesitated, but shook his head, "Sorry, I...I freeze up. There's got to be a lot of chemistry between me and the other person for me not to."

Mistoffelees made a choking sound at the idea of chemistry and Jemi couldn't help but seeking him out from the crowd after the baseball game. Coricopat looked around, "Is anyone else here at least able to carry a tune?" Mostly everyone avoided his gaze. Great.

Mistoffelees leaned over to Pounce. "If I were to say yes, likelihood of Macavity ever speaking to me again?"

"Slim, though if you complained to Grids higher," Pounce answered. "I'll bribe him with brownies for your sake too."

"And you're not yourself going to freak?" Mistoffelees couldn't help but press.

"About what? You singing? No."

"And dancing," Mistoffelees said, voice getting a bit smaller as Coricopat still looked around the room. It occurred to him if he admitted to dancing since he was young Macavity would probably blame his influence for Tugger's apparent sudden interest in musicals.

Pounce shrugged, "We're all here to dance and sing at this rate."

"Point," he said, raising his hand to his chest, hesitating and finally raising it fully from where he stood at the back.

Coricopat's eyes lit up at that. He paused for a moment, "Any female vocalists?" No one raised their hands, "Do you mind singing with another guy?" He still hadn't called on Misto by name, but he met his eyes as he asked.

"I think that's become fairly acceptable at this school," Mistoffelees returned and Macavity's eyes snapped back, Jemi trying not to clap happily at that.

Munkustrap darted a look in Mistoffelees' direction, frowning a bit. Coricopat offered a bit of a smile, "Great. Jemi, can you write a duet for our voices, and I'll see about the choreography?"

"Sure, yes, yes, so yes," Jemi said, nodding and Mistoffelees was already half thinking about sinking down to the ground to avoid the Hollisters.

"Alright, well, as this is the case, we're going to need to see about dance partners among the rest of you as well," Coricopat spoke, calling for attention. "If you all can sort that out among yourselves by tomorrow that would be fabulous and I'll see what can be done with anyone who doesn't have a dance partner then?"

He got a few nods and murmured agreements there.

"Alright, great!" He grinned a bit, "So tomorrow we'll sort that out, and if you have any suggestions at all, ideas in general, concerns, questions, comments, bring them then, we'll address them and see what we can do to make this the best staff performance this club's ever seen."

Scattered applause met that and most of the staff filed out, Jemi staying to talk to Coricopat and Mistoffelees eying the Hollisters who were also still there.

Grids murmured a "behave" to her boyfriend as she slipped out of the room to double check that everything was cleared and she wouldn't have to clock back on to fix anything.

Coricopat spared a glance for the Hollisters before turning to Jemima and Mistoffelees. He looked at Mistoffelees for a long moment, "Thank you."

He shrugged. "No one else was doing it."

"You know," Jemi remarked. "I don't think I've ever actually heard you sing before."

"Still. Though I think Jemi's right, I don't think I've heard you sing."

"Oh," he managed as Jemi looked around desperately for a piano.

Coricopat put a hand on her shoulder and nodded toward one of the far corners.

"Oh, excellent," she said, moving over and testing the keys. "Do you know any songs?" she asked looking up with a smile.

Mistoffelees gave Coricopat a half frightened look. "Um..."

Coricopat glanced toward the Hollisters, "Jemi, give me a minute to clear the room and we'll see if he feels up to it, alright?"

"Oh, no," Mistoffelees said, stepping quickly between the two groups. "You stay here, I'll talk to... them." Taking a breath he turned and glanced at Macavity. "You want to say something, don't you?"

"Well, yeah," Macavity said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hell you doing?"

"Trying to beat Tant?" Mistoffelees tilted his head to one side.

"By joining the poodl-"

"Don't," Mistoffelees cut through.

"By singing and dancing with him, Misto? Seriously?" Munkus revised what his brother had at least sort of been saying.

"You were friends with him before, surely he has some redeeming features," Mistoffelees replied.

"Yeah, except as soon as his sister gets sick of her new toy and comes back he'll drop you like you're a burning potato," Macavity snapped.

For a second it looked like that beyond anything would convince Mistoffelees. "Maybe. Maybe times change."

"Or maybe you're deluding yourself," Munkus responded. "It's a pattern they have."

"We'll see," Mistoffelees returned. "It's just a song and dance." Which ran counter to what he'd actually said to Coricopat about dancing and trust.

Munkustrap looked skeptical, but finally shrugged, "Whatever. Don't say we didn't warn you."

"I am warned. Can we drop it now?"

Munkus glanced at his brother and then nodded slightly, "Sure."

Macavity shook his head and turned, leaving the room. Munkustrap fell into step with his brother, closing the door behind them.

Mistoffelees twisted his mouth and glanced back at the others. "Were they right?" he asked Coricopat.

Coricopat's gaze was focused on the door, his mind back several years, "What?"

"Your sister comes back, are you dropping me if she says so?" he asked, voice a little strained though trying to pass it off as a joke at the same time.

The taller of the two shook his head firmly, "No. I'm sick and tired of her thinking I'm following her whims, but beyond that I care too much to do that."

After a moment Mistoffelees smiled faintly and nodded. "Alright. Alright."

"Shall we see about finding our range?" Coricopat murmured.

Nodding, Mistoffelees approached the piano, running through the musicals he knew, and the songs he'd used to practice before naming one.

Jemi grinned broadly and started the first few notes of "Camelot." At first Mistoffelees just went through the words before he remember how fun the song actually was to sing, putting in the humor it deserved.

Coricopat leaned back against the wall, smiling as he watched the other, listening and enjoying the song greatly.

Once the song was over Jemi just about hit her hands on the keys and gave him an accusing look. "You've done this before!"

"Yes," he admitted, drawing back slightly.

"You're a great singer and why have I never heard you before? Do know how many productions could have used you?" she was just about squeaking.

"Several," Coricopat supplied. "You'll have to pardon Jemi, she's had to put up with dealing with either mediocre singers or my sister's whims, alright sometimes mine as well."

"Your whims were better than your sisters," Jemi assured him before returning to glaring at Mistoffelees.

Mistoffelees offered her a faint smile. "Sorry."

Coricopat chuckled, "I should hope they are. Well, Jemi, do you think you can whip something up for us?"

"Uh-huh," she said, already scribbling on a piece of paper.

"Should we, um, leave her to it?" Mistoffelees asked, looking back at the taller teen.

He smiled, nodding, "Best to do so while she's composing."

"It's still early," Mistoffelees said after a moment.

Jemi's head snapped up and she considered them for a long moment.

Coricopat considered that, glancing at a clock, "It is...Well, what time do you need to be home?"

"No. I have my own car, so as long as I'm not coming home at the wee hours of the morning," he said, shrugging.

"Well, we could...hm...it's not like we're lacking for things to do here...and you're off shift so we could call you my guest if you'd like to see the other side of the amenities, or we could head into town."

"I vote town," Mistoffelees replied perhaps a side too abruptly. "Mostly due to the fact I'm not quite willing to spend extra time here at the moment."

That earned a smile, "Sounds good, we should probably figure out where, unless you want to drive me all the way back out here."

"Well, it's not that far," Mistoffelees said with a shrug and Jemi had given up trying to compose for the moment.

Coricopat glanced toward Jemi, though he spoke to Mistoffelees, "Well, give me a minute to run up and get a jacket and then we could head into town?"

"Alright," he said, glancing back at her as well and blushing as she made an "eep"ing sound and went back to scribbling.

Coricopat offered him a brief smile before exiting the room, heading up to his suite and returning a few moments later with a nice enough, though light-weight, jacket draped over his arm, "Shall we?"

"Yeah," Mistoffelees said with a nod and half waved at Jemi. "Good luck composing."

"Oh, I feel the inspiration already."

Walking out of the room, Mistoffelees glanced at Coricopat. "Um, is it just me or is she actually just a little bit scary?"

"I...haven't ever seen her like that, but I don't think it's just you. She usually just hides behind the piano, though if you get her talking on certain subjects she'll go on and on."

"I think she was a little too excited about the duet idea," Mistoffelees glanced back and sighed. "Oh, god. I can't believe I agreed to this."

"It...could be worse?"

"It could be," he said, giving the other a smile. "I think. I'm sure something could come up. I could be doing this in New York and not Arizona for example."

Coricopat offered a bit of a smile, "Exactly."

Mistoffelees blinked at him. "That was an exactly statement? Okay. Now, to figure out how to explain this to my parents before they decide they want to snoop on what I assume is only going to look like suspicious behavior over the next few weeks."

Cori shrugged, "If you don't want to do this in front of a lot of people, Arizona's a better venue than New York." He paused, "Will your parents be alright with this?"

He tried to react to neither of those statements too obviously. "Oh, they'll be fine with it. The concern is my father attempting to stuff me with three cheese ravioli or Moussaka and wrap me up in big fluffy blankets despite the ninety degree weather and get the proud teary eyed look he tends to. Mom? Will probably give me the long look, a few questions, and then leave small gifts and words of encouragement around the house for the next few days."

"Moussaka?" He arched an eyebrow at that, not entirely sure how to respond to the revelation regarding Mistoffelees' folks' reaction. "They sound like they care a lot."

"They do and that's a Greek dish. It would either be the Moussaka or the Fasolada. My dad's big on going back to his traditional culinary roots when he wants to comfort," Mistoffelees said with a shrug, smiling as he thought about it.

Cori offered a bit of a smile at that, "Must be nice."

"It is," Mistoffelees nodded. "It's been better since we moved out here too."

"Moved out here? Where are you from?"

"I moved here in sixth grade," Mistoffelees said. "And New York." They had reached Mistoffelees car and he got the keys out to unlock it.

"Right, I knew you'd moved, I just don't think I ever knew where from," the other teen looked the car over, "Nice ride."

The smaller teen glanced his car over. "It runs," he replied. "Decently new and hasn't died on my yet so, by definition, yeah, it's nice." He slid into the seat, making sure the music was off before starting the car.

Coricopat settled into the passenger seat, "So, where to?"

"No idea, any requests?" Mistoffelees said, pulling the car toward the gate already.

He shrugged, "Not really, maybe just head into town and see if anything catches our eye?"

"Vague plans," Mistoffelees nodded. "We can deal with vague plans."

Coricopat offered him a faint grin at that, "Good to know."

"So the question is, goals," Mistoffelees continued, turning into town. "Food, games, shopping, entertainment value..."

"Games or entertainment methinks. Though...have you eaten yet tonight?"

"No, I was too busy carrying everyone else's food," he said with a shrug. "I mean, I had a snack or two but legitimate meal, less so." He glanced at Coricopat quickly and back to the road. "You seem rather concerned with my eating habits."

The other shrugged, "Comes from knowing how easy it can be to skip meals."

The smaller glanced at him. "Do I want to know? Are we going tohave to make feeding check lists or something?"

Coricopat shook his head, "No. To both questions."

"Alright, no feeding check lists. Except, now I do want to know."

He shrugged, "Not much to know. I get busy with rehearsals and forget if Tant doesn't remember."

"Well, I suppose that's something to know. Even if I skip meals during the day I never get away with it as soon as I set foot inside my house, so don't worry," Mistoffelees smiled, turning into town.

The taller teen smiled a bit at that, partially at that, and partially at the fact that the answer had been accepted, "Good to know. So, do we want to grab dinner and then see about some sort of entertainment?"

"Alright," Mistoffelees said, pulling into town. "Do you need to be fed or are we good there?"

Cori considered and then shrugged, "I'm good if you are."

"I need to be fed. The question is are you sitting there watching me or are you partaking in noms?"

"I believe I shall be partaking in noms, as you say."

Mistoffelees laughed. "I get to use words like that when I'm not around Pounce or Macavity. I think Pounce takes food related terms personally and Mac is just... Mac. He has the weirdest standards in proper English."

Laughing at that, Coricopat nodded, "Very well, noms it is."

Mistoffelees glanced around, picking a random restaurant. "That one?"

The other nodded, "Looks good to me. Though there's a nice little Greek place down the street too."

"Let's stick with this one. Mostly because I don't think you need to meet my dad quite yet."

Cori's brows rose at that, "He works at the other place?"

"Mhm. Greek chef," Mistoffelees said, pulling in. "I mean, if the whole last name and comfort food thing didn't give that away. He used to traumatize all my friends in elementary school by cooking all kinds of Greek food when all they wanted was like, hot dogs."

That got another laugh, "He sounds like quite the man."

"Mom's great too," Mistoffelees said. "Just... quieter is all." He paused a moment before getting out of the car, glancing at Coricopat. "Maybe some other night we could go for Greek." It was basically an offer to meet his parents, though he was not quite sure what he thought about the idea yet.

Cori offered him a smile in response, "Sounds good to me. This will be more than good for tonight though I think."

"Cool," he said, popping out of the car.

This entire story really started with a desire to finally give Mistoffelees a happy home life, so his parents will be making more appearances.

As for the songs from this chapter, the song they dance to at the beginning is "I'll Forget You" from the Frank Wildhorn musical The Scarlet Pimpernel. Preferably the one from the Concept Cast recording (it's very jazzy) but there's also a version on the actual musical encore CD.

The song Misto sings is "Camelot" from the musical Camelot. It's a very fun song all things considered.

Thank you all for reading this! Remember, getting reviews is the lifeblood of authors, because we all deeply love hearing that people are reading our work (and hopefully enjoying it)!