Chapter 2: Lola meets her fellow Toons and Mel
The very next morning, Lola showed up bright and early on the Warner Brothers studio lot at 7:50 AM sharp, with just ten minutes before her shift. Approaching the guard tower, Lola spoke to Lester Ward, one of two uncles to future WB security guard, Ralph T. Guard. Unlike his nephew, he is more competent.
"Good morning, Lester."
Turning around and seeing the Toon in front of him, Lester smiled and greeted her by tipping his hat.
"Oh, good morning, Lola." He took out an access ID card, "Mr. Plotz asked me to give this to you, that way you'll have full access to the Warner Brothers studio lot for as long as you're working with us. Everyone has one, be it Toons or Stars."
"Thank you," said Lola. "Where do I report to for my shift?"
"Termite Terrace," replied Lester, who revealed the name of where the Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies cartoons were made. "I can take you there if you like."
"Please," answered Lola, who nodded her head, "that'd be great."
So Lester gave Lola a lift in one of the Warner Brothers studio carts.
In the meantime, at Termite Terrace, Bugs was speaking to his fellow Toons about Lola, among the people who he talked included, but did not limit to: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, his girlfriend Petunia Pig, Cecil Turtle, Tweety (or Orson, to some) and Sylvester.
"So B-B-Bugs," said Porky, "is Lola a k-k-keeper f-f-for W-W-W… the c-c-company?"
To which Bugs replied with warmth in his voice, "If Har and Mr. Plotz thinks she's the real deal, then that's good enough for me."
"I still say that's the last thing Warner Brothers needs," frowned Daffy, who folded his arms in disgust, "another female Toon. Next thing you know, they'll be taking over the world."
"You're just jealous you don't have a girl your own," mocked Tweety with his trademark baby speech impediment.
"Indeed," agreed Sylvester. "You really need to get one."
"Tweety's got a point there," nodded Cecil.
"Well, I for one am happy to have another girl to talk to," said Petunia.
"Oh, shut up, all of you," huffed Daffy. "What is this, 'Pick on Daffy Duck Day' ?"
No answered the question.
"That's not important right now." said Bugs, "The important thing, if anything, is this: we all need to make Lola feel welcome and like one of us. We all know how our first day at the Studio was, right?"
"Right," agreed the other Toons, who nodded.
"So," continued Bugs, "it's only fair we give Lola the same equal treatment."
A few minutes later, Bugs told the Toons to take their positions. Shortly their afterwards, Lester arrived and dropped Lola off.
"Good morning, Bugs," she said feeling oh-so-chipper.
"Good morning, Lola," he said. "Ready for your first day?"
"Am I ever," Lola replied.
"Good," beamed Bugs, "I'll introduce you to some of your colleagues that you will be working with. Sometimes they be in a short with you, other times, you're on your own."
Lola nodded enthusiastically, "I would love to meet the rest of the gang. Incidentally, when do I get to be in my own cartoon?"
"Becoming a star doesn't happen overnight," explained Bugs, "if anything, it takes time. So don't be surprised if it takes a long time for you to get a short."
"Fair enough," shrugged Lola.
Bugs then whistled rather loudly and the gang then came out of hiding, appearing one by one and then shook hands with Lola.
"Hello Lola," said Porky, "it's n-n-nice t-t-to me-me-me-make your a-a-acquaintance, I'm P-P-Porky."
"Pleasure to meet you, Porky," Lola replied.
"You t-t-t… likewise," replied Porky.
"I'm Porky's girlfriend, Petunia," said Petunia.
"How do you do?" asked Lola.
"Hanging in there, I guess," Petunia replied. "I haven't been in a short since 'Naughty Neighbors' . Which, incidentally, was my last one."
"That's a shame," said Lola. "I hope that Warner Brothers does have some tasks for you to do."
"They do, but it's not the same in my opinion," sighed Petunia.
"Well, chin up," Lola assured her, "things'll get better."
"Thanks," smiled Petunia.
Lola then turned her attention to Cecil.
"Hello there, Ms. Bunny," he said, "nice to meet a new face. I'm Cecil."
"Glad to meet you, Cecil," said Lola.
"Same," Cecil replied.
"Hewwo, Lola," said Tweety, who landed in her hand.
"Why hello, little guy," answered Lola, "and what's your name?"
"My famiwy members call me Orson," replied Tweety, "but my fwiends call me Tweety, because of how sweet I am."
"I can see that," agreed Lola, "you're definitely an angel."
"Ooh," Tweety said giggling as he looked at Bugs, "I like her, Bugs."
"So do I, Tweety," agreed Bugs.
"I am Sylvester," said Sylvester, who shook Lola's hand several times. "Sylvester J. Pussycat at your service."
"Nice to meet you, Sly," nodded Lola.
"Wow!" Sylvester admitted rather impressed, "No-one's abbreviated my name before, I love that!"
But when it was Daffy's turn, he didn't say anything. Instead, he looked away in disgust at the new girl while having his arms folded in disgust.
"Hmph!" he grunted.
"Well," Lola asked Daffy, "aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Daffy didn't so, he still refused to speak. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?"
All the other Toons laughed at Lola's joke, including Sylvester.
"Hey, don't encourage her, guys!" Daffy snapped at the others. "Next thing you know, she'll be looking to get more pay than us!"
"Eh, just shut up and introduce yourself, Daff," said a rather annoyed Bugs.
"Fine," huffed Daffy, as he turned to Lola and spoke sarcastically. "I'm Daffy, pleasure to meet you, doll."
"Doll?!" asked Lola, all steamed up.
"Yeah," nodded Daffy, still thinking had everything under control, while he pointed a finger down her chest. "You got a problem with that, sister?"
It was quite clear that Lola did, as she grabbed Daffy and tied him up to look like a donut.
"What the Sam Hill was that all about?" Daffy asked Bugs feeling rather surprised.
"Well, Daff," replied Bugs, speaking rather nonchalant. "I'd like to tell you, but I'd rather have Lola do so."
Sure enough, Lola approached Daffy and pulled him over to her side.
"Mother," Daffy gulped nervously.
"Don't ever call me, doll," said Lola.
She looked at her ears, saw that they were close to her face and blew them back.
"Now that that's taken care of," said Bugs, as soon as Daffy restored himself back to normal, "let's get to work, everyone. And let this be a lesson to all of us, do not upset Lola and call her… you-know-what."
"Yes, Bugs," The Toons all agreed and understood, then went on their way.
When Bugs and Lola were all alone by themselves, Lola spoke to Bugs with concern, "I hope didn't upset Daffy too much, Bugs."
"Eh, don't worry about that, Lola," Bugs replied, "Daffy's always in a bad mood, even on his good days."
"So what do I do for today?" asked Lola.
"Well," said Bugs, thinking, "as you'll have to wait for Har to make cartoon for you, I think the safe thing for you to right now is help us by running little errands here and there for us."
"I see, what kind of errands?" wondered Lola.
"Oh, you know," replied Bugs, "the usual easy stuff: bringing us fan mail, our scripts that we rehearse with, all that jazz."
"Once I have some cartoon of my own and I'm a star, will somebody take care of that for me?" asked Lola.
"Of course," said Bugs. "We're all like a big family here. In the meantime, knowing Mr. Plotz, he's probably doing interviews so we can hire a voice actress or two for you." He snapped his fingers, suddenly realizing something, "And speaking of which, there's someone I'd like you to meet, Lola."
"Who's that?" asked Lola.
"Follow me and you shall see," replied Bugs.
So the two entered a studio lot with a recording room, there inside recording some lines to the upcoming short 'Tale of Two Mice' was the very man Bugs wanted Lola to meet.
"Have a seat, Mr. Bunny," said a sound engineer, "he'll be right with you."
Bugs did so and sat on the couch, Lola followed his example. While they waited, Bugs took out a carrot and started eating it, he offered Lola one, but she politely refused and instead started eating a celery stick.
A few minutes later, the man in question spoke to the sound engineer, "How was that, Treg?"
"That was good, Mel," replied Treg, who nodded in approval. "Take five."
The man in the recording booth then hung up his headphones and stepped out and shook Bugs' hand.
"Good morning, Bugs, how are you, old friend?"
"Doing just fine, Mel," replied Bugs, "I have someone here that I'd like you to meet." He turned to Lola, "Lola, let me introduce you to the Man of 1000 voices himself and me and the gang's voice actor: Mel Blanc. Mel, this is Lola Bunny, no relation to me."
Lola shook his hand, "Hello, Mr. Blanc, lovely to meet you."
"Well, hello there, Lola," Mel said warmly, "it's nice to meet another Toon. You the one who Har created just yesterday?"
"Guilty as charged," nodded Lola. "How long have you been working with Warner Brothers?"
"Since 'Picador Porky' ," replied Mel. "That's February 28th of 1937."
"So, essentially eight years?" asked Lola.
"That's right", nodded Mel. "Any chance that Mr. Plotz is going to have you work side by side with Bugs or the others?"
"I don't know," shrugged Lola. "I guess that we'll just have to wait and see."
"Indeed," said Mel. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Lola."
"You too," Lola replied.
So for the rest of the day, Lola's day was essentially just as Bugs said: bringing the gang their fan mail, scripts that they read to rehearse with, etc. All in all it was a most easy engagement for her to get done. In time, Lola also got the chance to deliver donuts and coffee, as well as partake in sporting events for Warner Brothers… be it tennis, golf, swimming, etc.
Basically, life was good so far, but it was bound to get even better. But that's a chapter for another time…
Author's notes:
* So that was the second chapter of my Lola AU, as always, let me know what you thought of it.
* For those of you didn't figure out the Har reference in the last chapter, it's derived from a classic form of laughing, or 'har-har-har'…
- Also, I didn't mention this in the last chapter, but no time like the present as they say… I named Lola's creator, or Stephen L. Harris, after Leo Benevenuti, Steve Rudnick, and Timothy Harris, all of whom were 3 writers for the original Space Jam movie, the first two were also the writer duo team to one of my other favorite movies, the (original) Santa Clause.
- If you're wondering why I didn't mention the fourth writer, Herschel Weingrod, my reasoning is simple: I have yet to watch Kindergarten Cop, that and it's his first namesake that I gave as a middle name to Lola's dad, Walter.
* For those of you who didn't figure it out: when Har says to call him Har and admits 'everyone does' in the last chapter, that is a nod to Batman's Harley Quinn saying 'Call me Harley, everyone does' .
- The water tower reference is indeed a nod to Animaniacs, but Bugs' warning about it in the last chapter was a nod to the film version of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as uttered by Count Olaf, played brilliantly by Jim Carrey.
* Take note for this chapter, I, the author, in no way, shape or form, hate Daffy Duck whatsoever. If anything, I find him very funny, I was just trying to make a little sexist, seeing as he can be that way sometimes.
- You can be rest assured that one day, he will grow fond of Lola, just not now.
- The whole idea of Lola teasing Daffy was a nod to Snow White trying to make Grumpy happy, which comes from her movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
* And Sylvester being wowed by Lola abbreviating his name, was a nod to Good Burger.
* The sound editor, or Treg, if you have to ask, was named after Treg Brown who was in charge of both the sound department and film editing for "Tale of Two Mice".
* As a nod to Bugs eating carrots, which is a nod to both Clark Gable and Groucho Marx smoking, Lola's eating celery is a nod to actor and actresses who used to smoke in the early days of Hollywood, as well as present day.
* I own nothing in this fanfiction, as such: Lola Bunny, all rights and everything else are owned and © by Warner Brothers.
Until the next chapter, my fellow readers and Toons:
I'm M. R. Parkerson signing off…