SH'BAH - ANTICIPATION
"This is a K-ACME news update. Here's your host: Mary Melody."
"Good afternoon, I'm Mary Melody, and this is a K-ACME News update." She was very cheerful today, for some reason. "It seems that some students still haven't recovered from the prom last Friday night, as our news crew found out today." The scene switched to the gym, where Sneezer and Sweetie were dancing on top of a rafter to the tune of "Blue Danube".
Back in the studio, "That's right, the prom has effectively 'prom-oted' a lot of relationships. They were advertising for love, and, apparently, the subject audience responded. It gave some couples the little push they needed. And in some cases, it downright shoved the relationship into existence." Elmyra was dragging Montana out the main doors again, flopping him around as she would any of her pets, with him screaming protests of all sorts.
"Meanwhile, the clean-up continues." Next, the screen showed an impossibility: Dizzy Devil was on the floor of the gym, nearly unconscious, with a bloated abdomen, apparently in great pain. Beside him was a table, and on top of it was a half-eaten cake.
"The prom committee apparently miscalculated the amount of food to bring, so the clean up crew is currently backed up, and feeling a little flushed. Granted, the job was sure to be draining at first, but the crew saw no problem with taking the plunge-er, at first." She continued smiling at the camera despite some laughter in the studio, as well as a very faint moan of pain from a Tasmanian devil.
"Unfortunately, there have been cases of anger amongst some females." Fifi LaFume was stomping down the hall, spilling fumes, as always, only this time the fumes were greener than usual. Her eyes radiated wrath like never before. Behind her, suffocating toons writhed in agony, and paint peeled all around.
"So mark my words, boyfriends, if you found your girl appealing when you asked her to the prom, but decided to stand her up for whatever reason, she's now a-peeling—the walls of the Loo. You'd better appeal to her better nature, and BEG for a second chance, because time is running out! Not to mention the Looniversity, and Warner Brothers, are running out of paint. Principal Bugs has threatened to withdraw funds from the male sport teams if this issue is not resolved soon. More news tonight at ten. This is Mary Melody for K-ACME News!"
The following four days were quite hectic for the "bit players", and Mary knew that. Though she had offered to help, her boyfriend insisted that she relax and wait until Friday because he wanted to surprise her. So, as Mary got ready for school Tuesday morning, she knew that some two hours earlier The J.A.M. had already awakened and was looking for a hotel that would rent him a ballroom. Having been in press conferences in hotels, she knew that finding one wasn't that much of a problem, since he had the money for it, but the rent contract threw in quite a few responsibilities. A ballroom would have to be available all day, giving everyone time to decorate and set up the sound system, if it didn't include one. Since everyone had school on Friday, she knew that The J.A.M. would have to get up pretty early to start setting it up, then either miss lunch and/or get out early to finish decorating and make sure it was ready. He'd probably have to get himself ready in the hotel itself because of the limited time he had. Mary also wondered if he would get the hotel to provide food, or if they would have dinner somewhere else. It was a HUGE job, she knew, too much for him to handle alone. After all, the Looniversity prom committee had about ten toons, and each toon had several assistants to get everything ready.
Then there was the clean up job. She knew that the hotel ballroom would have to be restored to its original condition that very same night or on Saturday morning, if the hotel had no other events planned for that room in particular. Here, Mary realised that her boyfriend would have to shove down his solitary instincts and work with a team. And he did, too. Over the next four days she saw him talking extensively to the other "bit players", who helped him out without question, but not only them. She also saw him talking to Arnold, Vinnie, and Concord as well.
Of course, since it wasn't a prom for a whole school but for only one couple, or two if Sneezer and Sweetie decided to have a date there as well, the preparations would not be that extensive and elaborate. Still, with limited time, Mary knew that it was going to be pulling it close.
And she smiled.
Because she knew that he was doing all of this just for her.
The Fourteen, too, had their paws full for the next four days. While Team Beth had no problems sticking with Mary, Team Gimmel was being thrown all over the place as they tried to keep up with the jaguar. So much, in fact, that Junior decided that the two teams would alternate their targets daily, despite Anni's to stay with The J.A.M. Team Aleph was already stretched thin as it was, with three rabbits looking after "each Elmyra". And while "neither Elmyra" ever got close to the hotel that the "bit players" were going to hold their private prom in, what had them worried was that late at night, in Elmyra's house, one top floor window glowed faintly with what they knew was the light of a computer monitor.
And they all prayed that it was just Elmyra's father using the computer.
They had no way of knowing if it was Elmyra or Dakota, either. Neither of them had bags under their eyes, which meant that either they both slept well, or one of them knew how to apply make-up and take just the right amount of caffeine to stay alert during the day.
Inside the Looniversity, there were absolutely no other clues as to who was who, either. Having a two-week advantage helped Dakota move around the school without any difficulty. "Both Elmyras" stayed relatively apart while on campus, but both were either in class, in the library, or in the Film Vault, separately, of course.
They simply couldn't tell who was Elmyra and who was Dakota.
Fourteen against one was barely enough, especially when the one was practically invisible.