Words that describe this chapter: shorter, less heavy on content, not as well written, and screwed by writer's block. I'm really sorry. But at least you're getting it. I created another original character who may come back in later chapters if I can find a place to stick her. She hasn't popped up until now because she's closely tied to school life for the girls.

Life at Duckburg Junior High was not easy.

You know that whole thing where people say middle school is the absolute worst years of your life? Well, that was true if you weren't at the top of the 'social food chain'. And at their school the most popular kids were part of the drama club, like April… and Sara Chandler, the queen bee and president of said club. Sara looked down on people outside her circle, and for some reason she had a particular dislike of June that nobody knew the reason for. But our girl doesn't take insults lying down, and she'd always combatted Sara's barbs and jabs with her own.

On this particular day, the day of the dance, June was grabbing her books to go home. Suddenly her locker slammed shut and there was Sara with her two cronies, Karen and Veronica. June sighed.

"Hello, Sara."

"June."

"I'm guessing you're here to taunt me about my skates or my fashion sense?"

"No, nothing of the sort. I just wanted to say that I hope you have fun at home tonight."

"At home?"

"You know, when you miss out on the dance because you can't find a reason to go. Like usual."

"It's a junior high dance, Sara. Not prom or homecoming."

"For us it might as well be, Grease Monkey." June rolled her eyes.

"You know that name doesn't bother me. Get some new insults or leave me alone." June reached into her backpack and pulled out her helmet. "Now if you'll excuse me, I do have to get ready for the dance tonight. I'll see you there."

Sara narrowed her eyes as June left.

Louie fidgeted as he adjusted his suit.

I can't believe I agreed to this.

"This is the dumbest thing I've ever done," he muttered.

"I think the time-tub incident was worse," Huey told him. "But this comes close."

"All right all right!" Dewey cheered, sliding through the room. "We're going to Dewey this right tonight!"

"There are two kinds of people—those who hate school dances and those who think they're one of the greatest gifts to mankind. Guess which one Dewey is?"

Dewey scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Listen, Huey. We're probably not going to get a chance to go to a real school dance until we're teenagers, so let's take this opportunity to enjoy one while we're still kids."

There was a knock at the door. It was Della, who looked happy while holding a camera.

"Before you boys get going, I want to get some pictures!" she told them. "Daisy's finishing up getting the girls ready so you should be leaving soon. Oh, this is the first 'first' I've been a part of—your first school dance!"

"Mom, it's not a big deal," Louie sighed. "It's a junior high school dance."

"High school dances are different, kiddo. Trust me. They are so different." She stared off into space before shaking her head. "Just let me have this."

"Okay, fine."

"Come downstairs. We'll take pictures in the foyer."

Donald was waiting there, as well as Scrooge, Mrs. Beakley, and Iris. Launchpad was in St. Canard again, so he was missing all the 'fun'. Della made sure to get plenty of pictures and Louie didn't fail to notice the slight nostalgic look on Scrooge's face.

"Ah, I remember doin' this for the twins," he sighed. "Della was excited, and Donald managed to rip his suit before he even got to the dance."

"Yeah, yeah," Donald muttered. "Just be good, okay?"

"We're ready!" Daisy sang from the top of the stairs.

All four girls (Webby had begged to be allowed as a 'third wheel' to May and Dewey) descended the staircase. They were wearing matching dresses in their respective colors—knee-length things that were layered and elegant while not being too fancy. April's pigtails had been curled and the hair-ties replaced with yellow ribbons. May's hair was up in a bun. June, rather than her normal ponytail, wore her hair down and slightly curled with a purple clip in the back that matched her dress. Webby hadn't done much to her own hair, save for braiding the bit that had her signature bow.

"Aw, you girls look adorable!" cooed Iris.

"Thanks, Mom," May stated.

Louie, however, was no longer paying attention to anything else but June. It was like she was moving in slow motion and everything else had faded but her. He snapped back to reality as his mom moved him to stand next to June.

"Louie, honey, look like you want to be here," she told him.

He smiled nervously.

Don't think about your crush. Don't think about your crush.

When pictures were finally done, the kids got into the car and headed off to the dance. Louie was sitting right next to June and sweating rather profusely from nerves. He'd never in his life been to any kind of school dance and from what he knew from TV they usually sucked because you never went with who you really wanted to. Well, this wasn't TV or a movie and he was in the car next to the girl he'd been crushing on for months at this point. She gave him a kind smile and his heart jumped a foot from his chest to his throat.

"I wonder what Sara is gonna say," April mused.

"Who's Sara?" Dewey asked.

"You know how every school has its queen bee? Sara is ours. She hates June more than anyone else. I tolerate her because we're both in drama and May's too introverted to get on her radar."

"Yep," June sighed. "Sara Chandler is the worst."

"Does Sara have a date?" Webby snorted.

"Not as far as I know but we're not friends."

They pulled up to the school and Daisy snapped one last picture of them heading into the building.

Inside the school, there was a dark presence.

This presence was none other than Magica de Spell, the Shadow Sorceress… who was currently chaperoning the dance. She'd used a glamour to disguise herself from the eyes of Scrooge's brats and from her plan to trap them. She smiled out at the dance floor, which was currently littered with children talking and awkwardly dancing to the music. Not one of them was aware that every tile on that floor, a floor that she had put up for the event, was actually the home of a very specific creature that she'd captured. It was spine-tinglingly awful.

She grinned. It was time.

Entering the gym felt odd.

It had been transformed into a 'wonderland' of sorts for the sake of the dance. Someone had even gone the extra mile to install some kind of dance floor in the middle of the room and it was occupied by a bunch of awkward-looking kids. June's eyes weren't on the dance floor, though. They were scanning the room for the epitome of evil at Duckburg Junior High as the group broke apart to check out the dance. Upon not seeing Sara she decided to go over to Louie. Dewey had made his way onto the dance floor and was drawing a crowd with his moves.

"I'm glad your brothers were able to come," she commented. "It seems like Dewey's enjoying himself, at least."

"Yeah. At least everyone will be distracted by him and that girl won't mess with you."

"I doubt that but thanks for the hope." She smiled. "I'm really glad you came with me tonight."

"Hey, you know—anything for a friend."

"Oh, and your laptop's almost done. I'll give it to you tomorrow."

He'd forgotten about that part.

"Well, well, it seems like Greasy Girl has figured out how soap works," sneered a voice nearby. The girl was a swan with long brown hair tied in a braid. Her dress was clearly designer and she wore heels. To a junior high dance.

"Sara," June greeted her coldly.

"Where'd you get your dress? Thrift store? It would make sense."

"It makes more sense for a junior high dance than designer. At least I'll wear this more than once."

"You're not even wearing dress shoes. Are those your stupid sneakers?"

"Yes. Because I'd rather be comfortable than stumbling around in shoes that don't even fit me correctly." Louie covered his mouth to stop the 'OH' that wanted to escape. This got Sara's attention and she turned to him.

"And who are you? You don't go here."

"Louie Duck. Pleasure to meet you, Sara." He had a little smirk and June knew what that meant. "I'm June's date."

"June got a date. Okay, how much is she paying you?"

"Nothing but her time. At least she has one. Where's yours?"

"I don't have one because I'm too good for it." She flipped her braid back over her shoulder.

"More like they're too good for you." Her two sidekicks gasped.

"Whatever. I'm done wasting my time with a nobody like you, Louie Duck."

Sara and her posse walked away. June let out a sigh of relief, turning to Louie.

"Thanks, Lou."

"Don't mention it. So, what do you usually do at these things?"

"I don't usually go, but April's gone to a couple. It's mainly awkward dancing and eating terrible food. And talking in the corner with your friends."

They both looked back out at the dance floor, where Dewey was being cheered on by several kids (and booed by a couple more). June blinked; what was that behind everybody? Were those shadows moving? Her eyes widened.

"We have to clear everyone out," she whispered. "There's shadow magic going on."

He nodded and without hesitation they dashed out onto the floor just as Dewey took notice of the moving shadows himself. The middle triplet rushed off, but the other kids ignored June and Louie's pleas to leave. That was when the shadows began to transform. Rather than turning into the students as Louie had expected, the shadows instead became… different things. Every person who faced a shadow found themselves dealing with something different and they were clearly terrified.

"What is it?" June asked.

"I don't know! Over there it's a spider and over here it's… a big fan?"

"That's because it's a fear-beast," cackled a voice that Louie knew all too well.

"Magica de Spell," he spat.

"Ooh, it's the green one."

Dewey leapt up to tackle her but she dodge him easily, holding him away from her with her shadow powers.

"As I was saying, this is a fear-beast. Whatever you fear is what it will turn into, and there's no way to stop it!"

"Why would you unleash that at a school dance?!" April yelled.

"Because you're here. And it's funny."

Webby's efforts to get to Magica were thwarted when the fear-beast appeared in front of her, turning into Lena. Thankfully the pink-clad duckling was too smart to fall for that bit, but it began to ripple and warp as the fake Lena screamed in pain. The sight of her best friend hurting made Webby freeze and go to help her.

"What do we do?" whimpered May.

"Give me a minute to figure something out," Louie said to June.

"Oh, no you don't." Magica raised her arms and the floor broke apart to reveal more fear-beasts. The one approaching June turned into a clown, laughing and smirking as it approached her. She didn't hesitate and smacked it in the face before delivering a kick to its jaw.

"NICE!" yelled Dewey.

"I'll keep them off you so you can think," she assured Louie, backing into him.

Louie nodded, glancing around. It was then he noticed the dance floor was littered with a few glowing tiles. Runes, maybe? Webby or Violet would know but the latter wasn't here and the former was occupied.

"I think those runes might do something," he told his companion. "I can't read them, though."

"So what, we just start hopping on tiles?"

April broke away from a skeleton by using one of her shoes to crack its skull and her eyes landed on the floor. She'd never seen those runes before but… in her mind, their meaning was as clear as if they had been in English. 'Fear'. 'Death'. 'Fire'. 'Thorns'. 'Safety.'

"That one!" She pointed to the 'safety' rune. "Go to that one!"

"Since when can you read runes?" May yelled.

"I don't know! I just know that one's safe!"

June and Louie nodded to each other and June hopped onto the tile April had pointed out. Nothing bad happened. Experimentally, Louie picked up a shoe one of the fleeing kids had lost and dropped it on a different tile. It was incinerated by fire.

"So only these ones," June stated.

Louie glanced around at the floor and he suddenly had an idea.

"June, I believe I owe you a dance."

"What? We're about to be consumed by a fear-beast and your reaction is to ask me to dance?"

"This is a dance floor, isn't it?" She blinked and her cheeks turned red.

"Right. Right. Sorry." She held out her hand and he leapt to another safety tile that was just a couple away.

Immediately the fear-beasts took notice. They knew what would happen if the two figured everything out and they didn't want to lose their newfound freedom that Magica had afforded them. They began to swarm Louie and June as the runes on the tiles began to change. April's eyes scanned the floor.

"You know which ones mean safe!" she called. "Just focus on that and not the fear-beasts!"

Dewey took the opportunity to make his way over to the abandoned speakers and laptop that held all the music for the dance. He picked a song. It blared throughout the gym as Louie and June began to move in sync, moving from tile to tile. Louie's eyes were either on the tiles or June. With each step and every rune they touched, the fear-beasts grew weaker. The rhythm of the music set in and Louie spun her on one of the tiles.

"Step on that one!" April advised, pointing to a different tile. To them it meant nothing but it said 'banishment'.

Trusting in the eldest female triplet, Louie stepped on the tile, accidentally pulling June towards him. He managed to catch her just as the entire floor lit up. The fear-beasts screamed in pain as they faded from existence and the light hit Magica in just the right way to send her reeling back.

When the light faded, Louie was still holding June in a dip. Both of them blushed bright red as they once again stood upright. June dusted off her dress with a shy smile. Then applause broke out around the gym as the other attendants of the dance emerged from their hiding spots. Several kids came up to thank the group of seven for what they'd done to protect everyone. The attention was a little too much, though, and June backed away. Sara let out a scoff and narrowed her eyes.

"Figures you'd hate this. Loser."

"Can I punch her?" Webby whispered.

"No. She'll just scratch your eyes out," replied June with an eye roll.

Magica escaped but they knew they hadn't seen her for the last time.

"Magica de Spell to F.O.W.L. The plan failed."

"The fear-beasts failed? Well, then the plan succeeded."

"How so?"

"Our plan, Magica, is to make them think that others are a bigger threat while Agent Iris gathers intel from inside the mansion. You very much succeeded in doing so."

"So now what?"

"Now we wait. Be ready for our next task."

Magica shut off the communicator and grabbed her staff, making her exit.

So I have run out of ideas. I may do a time-skip to when they're older (because they're children and I'm not making children start dating) or if you all want I can do another gen-swap chapter while I'm trying to work out what I'm going to do. Or I can post one of the two alternate versions of how the triplets met the triplets. I have a lot of options until I can go back to the normal part of this AU.

Also, yes, I touched upon April's magic again. Our girl can read runes like they're written in English and they respond to her. No, I will not explain at this point in time… mostly because I'm still working that out. I write myself into corners that I have to write myself out of.

BIG REQUEST—PLEASE REVIEW AND SHARE THIS STORY. I am review-hungry because they make me feel like I'm doing something good. I also want more people to read this so recommend it to your friends so Daisy's nieces can get more love. Honestly, I'm shocked the fandom hasn't picked them up much; they're three adorable little girls.

Anyway, I'll see you next time!

So long and thanks for all the fish!