On a very special night, Waldo is dressed formally, from his grey vest with diamond patterns to the sky blue suit and tie beneath, for his "date" with Luan. He stops by the porch of the Loud house, accompanied by Ralph, who is ensuring that his friend will get over his nerves to gain the confidence that he is dating the girl he wishes to pursue.
"Alright, this is it. This is the night where everything changes," Waldo utters confidently but reverts back to being concerned, "Do I look good, bro?"
"You look fine," Ralph replies, "Just adjust the tie." With that, Ralph adjusts Waldo's tie for him."I don't know about this. What if I bust this opportunity, like last time?" the Asian teenager worriedly implies.
Thankfully, his best friend assures to him, "Waldo, my friend, that's the past. It no longer defines you. This is a fresh start. I know you can do it. You just need to loosen up yourself."
"Okay you're right," Waldo says as he stretches his arms to boost his confidence. "I can do this!"
"Well, go for it. My work is done here." With that, Ralph leaves Waldo by the porch.
"Wait Ralph, where are you going? I thought you're going to the fair too?"
"Originally. But I have to watch over my baby brother and baby sister tonight." Ralph's sudden commitment change slightly saddens Waldo. For that, Ralph gives him a brotherly handshake and hug to Waldo.
"Thanks man," Waldo utters.
"I am always here, Waldo bro," Ralph guarantees. "Good luck tonight. Oh, and you forgot." Ralph then hands Waldo a daisy as a date gift. "Thanks. Needing this."
As Ralph leads, Waldo takes deep breaths before he rings the doorbell. When he does, a trap door opens where he stands, making Waldo slip to a low hole with his butt stuck. As he tries to get out of it, Mr. Loud answers the door.
"Hello? Anyone? Nasty intruders," he suspects. He then hears Waldo's pleads and notices him stuck in a hole. "Oh. You must be Luan's friend?"
"Yeah. Yes sir," Waldo replies, "And sir, if you don't, can I please get your assistance to help me out of this?"
"Oh sure chap," Mr. Loud says as he pulls Waldo out of the hole. "So, just in time for the night. Just a helpful advice from Luan's old man, if there is anything you shouldn't do is to not make Luan laugh. She needs to be happy every minute. If you give her a hint of sadness, you're going to have to go through me."
Waldo gulps in fear at the conditions from Mr. Loud. Mrs. Loud then enters the scene to notice a decently prepared Waldo.
"Is this the friend Luan is talking about?" Mrs. Loud asks.
"Certainly is, honey," Mr. Loud answers, "We have her to let him arrive at 6, remember?"
"I am Waldo, sir, ma'am. Indeed I am…" Waldo awkwardly confirms.
"Well, honey, why don't you call Luan that her friend is here?" Mrs. Loud persuades her husband, to which he responds by doing so. "Okay, son. I know you two can be responsible. So, I want her back by 10. Just let her do her stand-up and that's it. No snooping around after that. Okay?"
"Got it, Mrs. L," the Asian teenager , Lynn Sr. pops right back in. "Just wait for a brief moment, my boy. She'll be coming down soon."
"Well…okay…" Waldo replies. Suddenly, the porch ceiling opens a skylight above him, making why would something like that be built in the first place. Just as that non-sequitur contraption shows up, Luan jumps from the window and lands on top of Waldo.
"Now I really came down. Hehehe," she utters excitedly before she notices landing on Waldo. "Oh sorry Waldo." The jokester then tries to brush off the debris from Waldo's clothes and his hair. "There, good as new."
"Thanks…"
"Luan, next time, use the stairs. And enough out-of-place tricks like that to our visitors," Mrs. Loud warns.
"Aww, come on mom," Luan responds, "That's just part of the fun."
"Fine. Just make sure you follow what we talked about."
"Don't worry mom. We're gonna have a lot of fun tonight."
"Oh, Luan. For you," Waldo says as he gives Luan the daisy, making Luan delighted.
"Awww how do you know?" the jokester squirms, then brings out a hat to pull out Gary, her assistant rabbit. "Gary, a snack for you." She then feeds the daisy to her pet bunny, making Waldo get stunned. "Come on, we got no time to lose!" she insists as she drags Waldo away from the porch, to the streets till they reach the bus stop. It is clear that Waldo is mildly ready for an overeager Luan.
Her parents smile and ponder of Luan's state of being, but Lincoln, who gets to see the both of them from the window swiftly heading out, is saddened by this. "Hey, anything wrong boy?" Lynn Sr. asks Lincoln, noticing his sad expression. "Okay, if you need to share, I'm always here." Without giving him an answer, Lincoln sulkily walks to the couch and sighs in consternation.
Suddenly, Lucy appears right beside him and utters to her brother, "You did the right thing. The trauma is given, but it will not stay inside of you forever."
Lincoln can only sigh in response. "Movie night with me?" he gloomily asks.
"As long as it is not about corny romance, I'm fine," Lucy responds, making Lincoln turn on the TV for their own movie matinee night.
Meanwhile, back to the "couple", Waldo and Luan get a glance of the winter-themed book fair by the park. With snow falling on this season, the fair is secured by a white-sheet canopy, giving the illusion of a big-top circus. Every stall sells books in any variety (from young adult novels to mangas) and also novelty items. Every visitor ranges from little kids to middle-aged hipsters. And on the center of the fair is a stage where a live jazz band currently performs.
Before Luan performs, the duo stops by at an outdoor café, where Luan checks out the novelty items she bought while Waldo nervously watches her.
"Gosh, glad there are neat items we find here in the fair," Luan utters."Yeah. ," Waldo timidly reacts.
"Hey Waldo, check this out. A cup with the handle ," she says, showing him a cup with a factory defect.
"Wow. It had one job and, failed at it," he reacts.
"Yeah, I guess it can't handle the cup-acity. Hehehe. Get it?"
"Hehehe. Yeah. cup-able."
Luan brings out more items from her shopping bag. "Oohh, there's even this. A wall clock with the numbers jumbled."
"Huhh…that must have come from Wonderland."
"I know right. Kinda this from prank stall at the front. And look they even gave me a giveaway loot bag."
"Ooooohh nice. Why don't we take a loot? Hehehe."
"Or perhaps go to its loot cause. Hehehe. Get it?"
"Okay, what do we have?"
"Let's see. We have this." Luan then throws a fake finger, which scares Waldo. "Hehehe. Glad I put a finger on it."
"Yeah…." Waldo chatters from fright.
"Bubble gum?"
"Ohh. Thanks." Waldo tries to grab a piece, until a fake cockroach clasps on his finger, frightening him in screams.
"Chill dude. The roach almost got chew. Hehehe. So better chill it out. Get it?"
Waldo tries to calmly remove the prank cockroach out of his finger, rubbing off the fact that the girl he is dating is actually an over-the-top pranking machine. "Yeah…uhhh…got it."
"Aww…sorry about that. Here, Danish cookies?"
"Ooohh, I love Danish cookies." Waldo then excitedly opens the tin container of Danish cookies to reveal realistic-looking cooties that really shocked Waldo like a girl in a horror movie.
"Hahaha. Get it? Danish cooties?" Luan jokes hysterically, becoming the girl Waldo fears. "Don't worry. They don't bug that munch. Hehehe."
Waldo heeds from the scares that his date brought to him. He does not wish to address that Luan's pranks really scared him to avoid hurting her feelings. So, he opts to go along. "That…you got me."
"Really?" Luan replies, "Wow, I'm sure I would p-rank this as one effective scheme I can pull off in just a minute. That's just the tip of the iceberg for next April Fools."
"Wait. You do April Fools pranks?"
"Yeah. It's an annual tradition from all-time pranking genius. This guy right here. All pranks in the Loud house and no one is spared."
"Uhmmm can you rephrase that?"
"Uhhh what? You mean no one is spared…" As Waldo hears Luan say that, he imagines her as a demonic being, who is bent on unleashing her schemes to everyone. Just to further describe how Waldo sees Luan now.
"Waldo? Waldo?" Luan calls him from zoning out. Waldo gets shocked at Luan's calls. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Fine," Waldo somberly replies.
After that, a beatnik host steps onstage to announce, "Good evening guys. I just want to call performers to proceed backstage for a last minute huddle before we go to the program. Thank you."
"Well, that's you," Waldo utters, "Good luck."
"I don't need luck," Luan says, bringing out her magician's hat and pulling Gary out, "I got my rabbit's foot. Hehehe. Get it?" The two then laugh at this, with Waldo hesitantly laughing along. "Well, keep calm and carrot on. Hehehe. Oh can you watch for my stuff? Pranks. Hehe." The 14-year-old then proceeds with the other performers for the fair.
Eventually, Waldo gets up from the café seat and occupies a seat in the back row. Sooner, people start occupying the seats, and the show starts. The performers before Luan compose of acoustic guitar performers, spoken word artists and one standup routine from a Louie C.K., all of which Waldo find subpar.
It becomes time for Luan to perform her standup. Her act includes Gary in a cage, doing his usual bunny business.
Luan starts off her stint with an icebreaker. "Good evening folks. Before we start everything, tonight I want to introduce you to my boyfriend." When Luan says that, Waldo gets stunned, thinking that Luan might confess her liking to him. "I want you to meet Gary. He's a fine specimen of his own." But with that, he gets bummed.
"I know what you are thinking. Me having a bunny for a boyfriend? I know. I mean why would he carrot all. Hehehe. That's thing. You need some bunny to love. That's all he hops. Hehe." This prompts the audience to laugh. "But there's more to Gary than looking cute everyday. He's busy searching for gold. And all he got was 24 carrot. Hehehe. But it's not end there. This bunny gets all the gold and ladies more than those guys from the movie 'The Fast and the Furriest' that he calls himself a millionhare. I don't know how he gets to multiply a lot. Maybe he keeps hopping from one bunny to another. I might as well call him 'Bunny Mars'."
Luan's rabbit icebreaker catches the attention of the audience, who are all out laughing at the rabbit puns and the hidden green jokes there. Seeing this as a sense of relief, Waldo laughs along. Luan's entire routine consists of talking about her siblings and awkward moments. It glimmers hope for Waldo to think that Luan is indeed the perfect girl for all him. That is until this routine.
"It's almost a new year. And you know what that means? No, well yeah, New Year's expectations are a given. But there's something else. New Years babies. You know it's a delight to see newborns being born in the first day of the year. Well, yeah, all babies are cute. Including Lily. If you get to see her in my videos, just glance on how goo goo-reatly cute she is. Hehehe. And you know, it's fun to call your baby brother or sister names. I used to call Lily 'Poo Poo Mo'. I used to call Lincoln 'Lin-Lin' when he was a baby. And I heard other people call their babies 'Sweetie', 'Tweety Pie', 'Cutie Pie' and there was even 'Pookie'."
Hearing the word "Pookie" triggers Waldo to get flashes of memories from his past: students laughing at him, a girl cheering him up, an embarrassing moment and a time where he gets a black eye. These repressed memories haunt him once more that he walks out with on hesitation. Luan onstage notices Waldo walking out, making her grow concerned for him. He departs from the fair on a frigid weather and sits at a cold park bench. There, he tries to suppress the painful memories he had, to no avail. He embraces Luan's bag, but he unnoticeably sets off one of her prank items, a pop-in-a-can, to his face, making him worried more and more.
Eventually, Luan finds him. "Waldo, you walked out of the fair. What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just nothing. Why don't you go back to the fair?" Waldo utters while shivering.
"I just finished my gig," she replies, then wraps her yellow jacket on Waldo, "Hey, anything wrong?"
"Nothing. This just not what I expected."
"What were you expecting?"
When Luan asks that, Waldo gets stunned, realizing that he has almost revealed his feelings to her. Out of denial, he says, "Uhmmm just ahhhhhh I don't know…"
"Is that why you walked out?" Luan asks out.
"No, there's…something else."
"What?"
With no other options to go for, Waldo finally blurts out his story, "You remember when you said 'Pookie' in your standup? That was my nickname back in Hawaii. It was obviously named after the teddy bear that Garfield had. I had one when I was 3 that looks just like Pookie, so I named him Pookie too. He was the best friend I ever had when I was little. I even brought him in my first day of school and introduced him to the class. But I was shunned out. 'Where's Waldo? Where's Waldo?' My classmates kept making fun of my name that I became a butt of their jokes. Except for one.
Her name is Camille. She noticed my teddy bear that she called me 'Pookie' from that day to relive me. We became partners in crime in making up puns, inventing random stuff and setting up pranks. I knew that I just had the friend I need. I mean really. We are both Filipino-American. We love jokes. And we sing along Disney movies. Our times were great.
That is until the end of elementary. One day, when we were about to celebrate our ten years of friendship, we planned to set up a prank for my rival, the bully Reggie. As I waited, I saw them together. She was hugging him. And he accepted it. I don't know why but it troubled me. Eventually, I got caught on our prank. Days passed, and though we contacted each other, we weren't the friends we ought to be. So, in the last day of school, I did the inevitable: I confessed my feelings to Camille, on public. I was embarrassed in front of everyone that even though I tried to joke, I get laughed. And she never talked or showed to me that day, and ever since. She and Reggie went along with their friendship, which became a relationship. Those times scarred me because the only kid who cares about me abandoned me for good. And then, my parents brought me here to the mainland for a fresh start. We struggled in our business. But we're still fine. But not me. Sorry about that."
"No, no. It's okay," Luan utters, "I should be sorry."
Waldo sighs, then confesses, "You know, you remind me of her. I mean a lot. That's why I love your jokes, and your laugh, and your smile."
As Waldo gets more frank about his feelings, Luan feels nothing but slight embarrassment that causes her to blush. "Okay, I get it. I just don't understand why you would go to these lengths to be with me, if I remind you of her and your past."
With that question, Waldo realizes he is cornered. He stutters, "Uhmmmm…uhhhhh…ahhh…" And finally, he pours out his feelings, "Okay you got me. Okay? I like you. I felt something the first time I saw you onstage. I love to be with you. I love you Luan Loud!"
And then, the line has been crossed. With Waldo confessing his feelings for the object of his affection, how does Luan react?
Give me your thoughts on how Luan reacts to this before the real finale before New Year's eve.