AN: OK, I won't lie. I have no excuse for being so late with this update. But that doesn't mean I'm not infinitely sorry. That being said: This idea was brought to you by AnimeCrazedGirl7! If you like it, you have her to thank, if you hate it, you have me to blame.

Chapter 9

The moment my mother walked into the living room, I knew something was up. I tried my best to ignore it by keeping my attention on the television, but the weather forecast could only hold my interest for so long. That and the moment she sat down she shut off the set. She wasn't mad, but I could tell she came in for a reason. Something in the way she looked said so. With a quiet sigh, I sat up and looked my mother straight on.

"Hey, mom. What's up?" I asked.

"Well," she began, "You know how your father and I have our anniversary on Saturday..."

"Uh-huh..."

"I was- we were thinking of going out to dinner that night and-"

"And you need me to watch Leo?" I guessed, though it didn't explain why she was acting so strange. I'd babysat Leo tons of time and she knew that I normally didn't mind.

My mom shook her head, "No, no, no. We already have him staying at Kenny's house." Kenny was a boy from my brother's class. They'd met earlier this year and already they were joined at the hip. "What I was going to say was... well, we thought that we'd go to that nice restaurant where you work."

In an instant, I felt the back of my neck go cold. They wanted to go to the club. They wanted to eat where I worked. What was I going to do? "Y-you want to eat at my job?" I asked, hoping against hope that I didn't sound nervous.

"You don't have a problem with that, do you mi'ja?" There was a problem. A very big problem. Up till then, my parents didn't exactly know the truth about my job. They thought I worked about eight blocks away from the south end of the park, in a part of town we barely ever visited. In a restaurant that didn't exist. It was the perfect cover up location. Close enough for me to walk, but far enough so my parents wouldn't go past it every other day.

I swallowed and plastered on what I hoped was a convincing smile, "Of course not."

And that was how, four days later, I found myself panicking over just how I was going to pull this off. I racked my brain on my way to and from work, hoping that an idea would pop out from the bushes or the animated widows. Needless to say, nothing came to mind. That is, until the Friday night before the dreaded date.

The club was fairly empty for a Friday, which allowed for a good amount of downtime between orders. Somewhere around the middle of the show, I decided to pace around the lobby and see if I could think something up for the next day. It was while I was in the midst of this that help came in the form of Cheshire Cat.

"There's gotta be some way..." I muttered and turned to pace the length of the lobby once more, then stopped. That is when I finally noticed the Cat floating near a column by the Mirror. How long he'd been there, I didn't know, but the amused look he wore hinted he'd been there long enough.

"No, no, keep going," he smirked, "I want to see how this ends."

"Very funny," I retorted. My cheeks grew pink with embarrassment, "Um, do you need anything?"

Cheshire shook his head 'no', then added, "But it seems you might. What's troubling you?"

"It's nothing," I said, "My parents just want to visit the club tomorrow."

"Oh my! That is a travesty," the Cat pressed his paw to his forehead in fake lament.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't keep a small smile from creeping up my face, "That's not the problem. It's that they don't...exactly know... the truth about the club. So now I have to think of a way to fix this."

"Ah," the Cat's eyebrows rose in understanding, "That's the trouble. Well, there is one way out of this."

"How?"

"The truth."

"Yeah, right," I scoffed. The truth, I knew, was inevitable, but there had to be some way to a least delay it. Besides, my parents would never believe me. At least, not until after they discovered the new restaurant I'd invented was a lie. By then they'd be angry and there would be no reasoning with them after that. "If I'm gonna go with that, I might as well shoot myself now. It might be better to tip-toe around it. Y'know, ease them into it."

Cheshire sighed, "Oh what a tangled web we weave-"

"I get it."

"Do you? Do you really?" Cheshire tilted his head, "Well, if you insist on doing things the hard way, I suggest you think about the way things are."

"Think about things?" I repeated.

"Good luck," said the Cat and began to vanish.

"What? Wait! I don't understand."

Now only Cheshire Cat's eyes, nose, and smile were visible, "You will." With that, the rest of him disappeared and I was alone once again.

"Crazy cat." I said, then set off back to work. All the while, I thought about the nonsense Cheshire had said. Rethink the way things are? The very sentence is a mess! How did he expect me to know what it meant? After a few orders, I made my way towards the kitchen when a great bellow came from backstage. Pete was back again for the monthly rent pick up. I rolled my eyes. Every time he came around he was always complaining about this or that, yelling about how he'd shut down the club.

I froze.

Shut down the club. Shut down the club... What Cheshire had been aiming at had finally gotten through. My parents knew nothing about my job except for what I had told them. If I were to, say, tell them the club was closing down there was no way they'd know I was lying. There was just one problem: no way I could convince my parents that the restaurant was shut down AND keep working.

Unless it was closed temporarily. Now there was an idea! But how would I pass that off? If I said they were redecorating, then my mom would want to see place even more than she did already. What else... I turned back towards the kitchen, but jumped back in surprise when something small and glowing whizzed past my face. A second look would reveal that it had been Ray, the firefly.

"Oops," he laughed, " 'Scuse me dere, miss. Didn' see ya."

In that instant, I felt as though someone had flicked on a light.

"It's fine, Ray," I said, " Thanks actually."

"Fumigating?" My mom deflated the moment I dropped the bomb. That night, I walked into the house wearing a slight frown and announced that a health inspector had visited the restaurant. Said 'inspector' had told the 'owner' that there were signs of a possible infestation and ordered the club be fumigated.

I nodded, "Yeah, it was real last minute. The owner says they'd be closed all weekend, maybe even through Wednesday." Mom dropped onto the couch in disappointment.

"But what about our anniversary dinner?" she asked.

"Yeah," My Dad called from the kitchen, "You made us a reservation, right?"

"They were all canceled," I lied.

" They don't do some kind of rain check or anything? Maybe we could just postpone the dinner," he said.

I flinched inwardly. Crap.

"Uh, no. No. There's no rain check or anything. I guess you'll just have to go somewhere else."

My mom sighed and tapped on her coffee mug, "I guess so. Oh well, maybe next time."

"Yeah," I said, "Next time." Relief flooded through me. They fell for it.

The next night, or D-day as I had come to think of it, my parents decided on a night at the movies and replacement dinner at the local Olive Garden (AN: Which I do not own!). Meanwhile, your's truly was going to spend some time at a 'friend's house', which gave me an excuse for leaving the house.

Around five o' clock, my parents stood at the door, told me to behave and be home before it got too late, and walked out the door. At five fifteen, I was on my way to the House of Mouse yet again feeling like I had escaped death itself.

If I only knew how wrong I was.

Later that night, I was busy filling a couple of drink orders when Max came into the kitchen. "You look happy today," he said.

"More like relieved," I placed some of the full glasses onto a tray.

"How so?" Max leaned against a wall.

"I just dodged a major bullet on the parental front," I said. I filled the two remaining drinks and hefted the tray up by my shoulder again.

"Congratulations," he smirked, "Before you get out there, Dad wanted me to let you know that there's some late guests that haven't been served at table 18 and he's a little busy."

"Sure thing," I said and headed out the door. I stopped by Timon and Pumbaa's table, then at Pooh's to deliver the drinks before heading off to take care of the late customers.

Table 18 was a nice table, so I was surprised it hadn't been taken until then. It was tucked against a dividing wall in the dining room that was decorated with plants, which hid the guests from certain angles. It was hot spot for couples and offered a surprisingly good view to the stage. Most nights, it was one of the first tables claimed.

A few seconds short of reaching the table, I pulled out my pen and notebook from my pocket and rounded the divide.

"Welcome to the House of Mouse," I said, still looking at my notebook, "I'm Riley and I'll be your waitress tonight. Is there anything I could start you off with?"

"Yes," said one of the guests. His voice wiped the polite smile right off my face, "To start, we would like an explanation." At that I snapped my head up and found a sight that ran my blood cold. Sitting on the cushy chairs of the House of Mouse's best tables sat none other than my parents. My parents! In that moment time had officially stopped. I saw no movement. I heard no sound. Nothing else existed beyond my parents, the table, and myself. About a million questions fought for attention in my mind, but my jaw was not paying them attention. Instead, it was busy hanging slack from the shock of seeing them.

"Hello, Riley," my mother's greeting was a venomous one and my father's glare wasn't any less dangerous.

"M-mom. Dad..." I blinked several times, "Um, wha- how-?"

"We decided to take a walk in the park," my Dad answered. His face was frightening pink, "Guess who we saw run under the bridge?"

I sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I can explain."

"Oh, you'd better!" my mom said, "And we'll be expecting a good reason or so help me Riley, grounding will be the least of your worries. But for now, I think your father and I will enjoy a little dinner. What do you think, Greg?"

My dad gave a nod, "I think it's a great idea."

I gulped.

That night at the club was, without doubt or fear of exaggeration, the most humiliating night of my life.

First, were the overdone signs of affection. Every time I brought something to their table they'd give a sugary smile and say, "Thank you! You're the best daughter ever! Come here!" in a loud enough voice to be heard by the surrounding tables, then proceed to deliver pride crushing hugs and kisses.

After a while the occasional visit didn't cut it, it seemed, and they took it upon themselves to follow me around the different tables. Each time, they'd introduce themselves to whatever characters there as "Riley's parents!" and big fans. Then they'd give the "we're so proud" speech and give them all the details of my childhood reactions to their movies. My mom even went as far as to sing "Part of Your World" to Ariel and company while trying to get me to sing along. Some characters were nice enough to shoot me sympathetic looks, but most just laughed.

Once they grew tired of ruining my reputation in front of as many toons as possible, they moved their efforts to embarrassing me with their love for each other. They cuddled, they giggled, they hugged, stared deeply into each others eyes, kissed, and even ordered spaghetti to recreate the famous "Lady and the Tramp" scene. People stared. I cringed.

Finally, near the end of the night came the worst of the worst. It was an act to put all the other forms of humiliation to shame. How this occurred to them, I do not know, but it proved just how angry they must have been. By that time, I had been thoroughly embarrassed and for some reason thought that the worst of it was over. What came next blew my false sense of security out of the water.

I was walking out of the kitchen when I Mickey announce my name from the stage. Not a second later, Horace had a bright spotlight aimed in my direction. Toons were laughing as Mickey began talking again, "...wrote a poem dedicated to their daughter." I tensed. No.

Mickey cleared his throat and read off a napkin,

" Roses are red, violets are blue, but nothing's as clear

as how much we love you.

You sing in the shower, as a kid you picked your nose,

and you still giggle when we tickle your toes."

I shrank behind my tray by then to hide the flaring red coloring in my cheeks. But nothing, NOTHING, could prepare me for what came next.

" We embarrass you now, for you deceived us highly

but no matter what, you're still our Wriggly Riley."

That name. That cursed name which deserved to be cast into the very depths of hell. That horrible, humiliating nickname I had had to bear sense infancy was just revealed to a room filled with hundreds of familiar people. I couldn't believe it. They had sunk that low. So low as to reveal the ugliest of secrets. I shut my eyes and clenched my teeth wishing that this entire night had been nothing more than a dream. I had no such luck. The heat of both the lights and my red face were too real, the claps and hoots of laughter too potent. Summoning my courage, I peeked over the top of they tray. Every toon in attendance was laughing straight at me, to the right, I saw my father give me a thumbs up while my mom blew me a kiss. Closer to the stage, I could make out Mulan shaking her head and giving me a sympathetic look. She was one of a very select few. I sank my head behind the tray yet again and skulked back into the kitchen. There I stayed for the rest of the night.

Of course, the show came to an end and one by one the guests filed out until no one but the staff and my parents were left. Needless to say, I had to give them the explanation I had promised.

"I thought you wouldn't believe me," I said.

"If that's what you were afraid of, then why didn't you just show us the bridge?" my Dad sighed.

I frowned and looked down at my shoes, "Because I didn't want you to freak out and say I couldn't work here."

"You didn't want us to freak out?" my mom asked, "Riley, how do you think we felt when we saw you disappear under that bridge today? We thought you'd been hurt! If we hadn't seen the plaque we would have done more than freak out. And how about after we followed you? How scared do you think we were to find ourselves here instead of back home! We were almost run over by a car." Had I not been in trouble, I might have chuckled at the thought of my mother dodging a cartoon car.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "But be honest. If I had come to you guys and told you that the Bridge was magic, you'd have thought I was crazy. Am I right?"

"That's not the point-"

"But am I right?"

For a second Mom and Dad exchanged looks. They didn't say a word, but their expressions spoke volumes. In the end they took a deep breath and my dad answered, "No. You're right. But that still doesn't justify what you did. Don't think you're off the hook. As of this moment you are grounded for a month. And we'll be taking away your computer privileges for just as long. You will not text. You may not go out with friends. Your weekends are dedicated to studying and cleaning out the cages at th pet shop. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"As for this," my mom indicated the entire club.

"I'll let Mickey know I-"

"Let me finish," she said, "As for this, I think embarrassing you was worse than making you quit. You can continue to work here. Of course your grades need to stay up, but that goes without saying."

I allowed myself a small smile, "Thanks. But why?"

"Well," my mom started, "For one, you'll have to deal with showing your face around here for a while. I doubt anyone is going to forget tonight any time soon." I winced. It was true. There was no way I'd live this one down for a while, especially with table 13. My mom continued, "And... your father and I have to admit... you're doing a good job around here. This job has definitely taught you some responsibility. We're... proud of you. We're still mad, but proud of everything else."

I nodded and, call me cliche, gave my parents a hug. After a moment they returned it and we embraced until my dad said, "Alright. Let's get home."

I can honestly say, without doubt or fear of exaggeration, that was the most welcome phrase I'd ever heard in my entire life.

Finally got this chapter done! To be honest, I had to rewrite this chapter at least four times and I'm still not completely happy with it. Oh well. I just had to get this chapter out of the way. The next one should be better. I'm tired. Thanks for reading! Please review.

Daydreamer747