With the end of the celebration that Stephanie wouldn't be leaving LazyTown for a far-away dance school after all, the friends she'd been dancing with instead gave her a dozen more hugs and continued to profess how glad they were that she was staying. Especially Ziggy, the youngest and most effected by the idea of her leaving, and who had been Stephanie's first friend.
The parting gifts they had given her, Stephanie was told to keep. She would be leaving LazyTown eventually, whenever her extended stay with her uncle was over, and so she would still be needing them. Gladly, just not now.
Stephanie had kept a smile on her face, led the dance and sung the ever-popular Bing Bang song with as much gusto as always, but when the celebration was over, she informed the others that they ought to make the most of Dream Day too. It only took a little convincing, but the others did decide she was right, and soon the group dispersed to find their own dream activities to work at making come true. Stephanie insisted she would be fine on her own and wanted to keep doing hers. She waved them all away with that smile still fastened in place.
Then her hand went down by her side as she stood looking after them. When she was sure they were all gone, that smile peeled away. Stephanie let it fall like her hand, her brow creasing as she let her emotions be true. Liquid brimmed with a sharp sting on her eyelids and the girl with the pink bob let out a small choked noise.
Head dipping, she shuffled slowly towards a bench just outside the court she'd been using for her dance practice. She sat on that bench heavily, folding her arms across her body firmly and trying not to start sobbing, but wishing she could have been able to explain to her friends just how this whole thing made her feel.
Of course she'd been upset over the idea of leaving LazyTown. Of course she was glad she didn't actually have to part with her friends. But...she'd been so ready. Even if it was hard to do, she loved dancing, and just like she'd told Ziggy, she still thought it would have been the right thing for her to go. To follow her passion and make something of what she loved. In the end, he'd finally even supported her.
But then it had turned out that it had all been a lie. There had been no school. The dance instructor who had come to recruit her had turned out to be nothing more than Robbie Rotten, the town villain, in disguise. When it had been revealed, Stephanie couldn't even describe how it had punched her in the gut. It wasn't like his usual disguises. It wasn't just some mild inconvenience or something that turned out to actually be pretty silly. This had felt...nasty. Absolutely horrid. Stephanie felt used. Her own desires had not only been used against her, but had made her go through the added pain of thinking she was losing all of her loved ones. Stephanie had thought Robbie was a grouch who was usually kind of funny and was more of a softy inside than even he thought, but now? Now she wasn't so sure. This felt like a truly evil act.
The way everyone had been so focused on how Stephanie would be staying in town, however, it seemed like no one even noticed. They treated the reveal like it had been any other, and didn't seem to realize just how personal the plan's target had been. How offended Stephanie had looked when she realized how everything she'd been struggling with had been a lie. And everyone had been so happy to keep her, Stephanie hadn't wanted to bring that down. Didn't want them to think she was being selfish or whiny, complaining that there was no actual school for her to attend. Didn't want them to say she was overreacting because it was just Robbie Rotten doing what Robbie Rotten did. Stephanie doubted anyone could really understand. So she'd just smiled and danced like she always did.
As she sat there, trying to sort through everything she was feeling now and what she could do about it, a nearby motion caused her head to lift some.
It was Robbie.
The tall, slick-haired man was back in his usual vertically-striped magenta clothing, and he was looking rather smug as he hummed to himself and carried a picnic basket that he'd repacked neatly, now going for a do-over on the picnic he'd been trying to have in the park before being disrupted by all of the music and dancing breaking out.
Strolling past Stephanie's bench, Robbie paused in curious note, backed up a couple of steps, and passed the girl in the pink dress a quirked brow. She was hunched, fingers gripping the edge of the seat, and was giving him a steely, tear-filled glower much darker than any expression the villainous man had seen on her before.
Eyes flicking left and right, then returning to the girl's, Robbie asked snidely, "What are you staring at?"
"You, Robbie Rotten," Stephanie snarked back, "That was a really nasty trick you pulled."
Standing taller, Robbie beamed, "Thank you..!" Then his face turned puzzled again and he questioned, "Which one?"
Stephanie scoffed. "The one you just pulled on me! Dangling my dreams in front of me? On Dream Day? How could you? It's the meanest thing I think I've ever seen!"
Seeing the girl's eyes finally well up enough to send a pair of tears leaking down her face, Robbie began to look uncomfortable. His gaze darted around again. He'd...never made any of the brats cry before.
"Yes, well..." he tried to argue reasonably, "Being mean is...kind of what I do. I'm a villain, after all." He lifted his hands in a guilty 'what can you do' kind of fashion.
"But this was especially mean!" Stephanie pushed back harder, causing Robbie to flinch away. "Haven't you ever had a dream, Robbie? Don't you know what it feels like?"
Here Robbie stood up again with a sharp grunt. Him?! A dream?! "What do you think I'm doing every time I try to make you stop playing?" he pointed out gruffly, "I was trying to make it come true by getting rid of you!" Pointedly, he lifted up his picnic basket and patted an open palm against it as his eyes widened to accentuate the meaning.
Stephanie's lips tightened as her brow knitted again. The sharp tone stung a little, but she supposed she ought to have known Robbie did have his own dreams in a way. He longed for peace and quiet. He wanted Sportacus to leave town so he wouldn't have to like being around him. And today he apparently had just wanted a simple picnic. Still, hadn't he gone a little far?
"You wanted to kick me out of LazyTown...over a picnic..?" she asked weakly, "Do you really hate my dancing that much?"
Feeling another pang of guilt, Robbie flustered and tried to decide which of his clashing emotions to listen to. He should just leave. Let the girl deal with this herself. She was fine. She was always fine. But...she was crying! She was really upset with him! Robbie didn't actually like being disliked. Being included and invited to share in the others' fun was something he always enjoyed, no matter how he protested. He just couldn't leave Pink Girl feeling so bad when he'd been responsible, could he?
"Well, I-I-I don't know about...I don't know if I would say, um, what I mean is...th-that is, um, dancing is just so...wh-when you put it like...I just...what was the question again~?" Here Robbie put one hand to his cheek, resting that elbow on his other arm, and smiled innocently, simply unable to explain his pettiness when it was put before him, nor able to offer any proper consolation despite the urge.
Stephanie let a dejected sigh tumble out of her nose as she slumped. Robbie's hands twitched forward as his face grimaced in concern, wishing he knew what to do but not having the instincts.
"Did you really even have a place for me to go..?" Stephanie wondered, causing Robbie to perk again, this time in surprise at the girl's choice of direction.
"Hm?"
Looking at him again, loosely wrapping her arms around her sides, the petite girl pressed, "Did you have a school for me to go to? Once you got me out of LazyTown, would there have been a place for me to stay? Were you going to come too and instruct me? Or was I just supposed to..." Her hands flurried briefly as she struggled with words. "...disappear or whatever? Live in some random town on the streets?"
Robbie faltered as he registered that he hadn't actually...thought that far ahead. He'd come up with the ruse on the spot as he most often did, but this one had been kind of a desperate rush job. Perhaps he'd ended up with more loose ends than expected. Perhaps it was also how he'd inadvertently ended up creating the nastiest personal attack he could have concocted.
Images of Pink Girl struggling on the street in some foreign town flashed through Robbie's mind, crying there instead, cold and hungry, and he felt particularly guilty again. He might have been a bad guy, but he just couldn't stop the consequences of his actions from making him regret them sometimes! Blast him for having a conscience! Why did it have to make it so impossible to ignore when he truly upset someone?
"Uh...I must admit...I hadn't really thought about it," he dithered, "So long as you were gone, nobody would be dancing. That was about it." Another helpless shrug. "Out of LazyTown, out of mind. Haha. But...I wasn't trying to turn you into a street urchin! Okay?" That should be comforting...right?
A heavier sigh this time, out of Stephanie's mouth as she rubbed away one of her tear streaks. "So it really was all a lie. You weren't even going to keep teaching me. I was really looking forward to what Sully Swingahip was gonna teach me, too." A sideways tug of her lips as she referenced the man who didn't exist. "You danced so well...it sure really had me fooled." Once more her head went down, feeling shame over how her excitement had let her be so easily misled.
Here Robbie's heart melted as he too sagged, hating how miserably swayed he was by the defeat Pink Girl displayed. Her anger and sadness had drained into pure dejection. But the things she'd said...they were just so nice..! She thought he danced well? She had really been looking forward to learning from Robbie's steps? Just knowing someone who actually liked dancing thought he was skilled enough to learn from was touching enough, but knowing he'd hurt that person and disappointed a child so badly...Robbie couldn't take it. He couldn't leave things this bad. He had to do something.
Meanwhile, across town, Sportacus had been helping Trixie with her Dream Day activity, convincing her that yoyo tricks were a much more suitable skill for her than whip tricks, when the crystal on his chest flashed brightly with a high-pitched ringing sound accompanying it.
Promptly, he looked down at the thing and gasped, "Someone's in trouble..!" Just as readily, he unlooped the yoyos he'd been using as demonstration tools and passed them into Trixie's hands. "I'm sorry, Trixie, but I have to go. Use these to practice and I will keep helping you when I get back."
Trixie watched the elven man in blue depart, parkouring his way over a wall and flipping his way up into a tree. Then she looked at the yoyos she'd been given, but bent down to pick up a bullwhip that had been lying in the grass. A thoughtful, indecisive hum drew itself out of her throat.
At the highest point of the tree, Sportacus pulled a spyglass from the electronic backpack he always wore, and scanned the surroundings in search of the source of trouble. Soon enough, he spotted Stephanie in the park, her posture indicating she was very down. And she was with Robbie. "Stephanie," Sportacus deduced with concern. Was Robbie giving her grief? Well, no matter what the case, he needed to help whether any trouble was emotional or otherwise.
With his goal set, Sportacus swung himself down out of the tree and headed for the park as fast as possible. However, when he arrived, he heard something that made him pause. Something quite shocking.
"Well...if you would like, little pink girl...I could...still dance with you? Sully Swingahip is me, after all."
Blinking, Sportacus shook his head in disbelief. Had he heard right, or was Robbie Rotten already helping Stephanie? Carefully, he peeked around a wall and had to see. Indeed, Robbie was shrugging meekly as he made the offer, and Stephanie was looking up, some doubt understandably on her face.
Expressing that doubt, though having to admit the suggestion was oddly hope-raising, Stephanie countered, "Maybe, but...Robbie Rotten doesn't dance, right?" A slightly sarcastic pull of her lips as she quoted back to the tall man something he'd professed quite adamantly in the past.
In response, Robbie fidgeted. Lousy smart girl, remembering things. With a clear of his throat, the villainous man returned, "Well, just because Robbie Rotten doesn't dance, doesn't mean he can't. You said so yourself, I was convincingly good at it." A swished index finger indicated he was confident in his correctness.
Stephanie's eyes shifted to the ground in the distance as she mulled the offer over. She couldn't exactly say Robbie was wrong. And he wasn't usually nice. Did he actually feel bad for making her upset? Did he want to make it up to her? Honestly, still getting the practice she'd been denied sounded inviting. But did she want to forgive Robbie?
Looking at the man offering her a guilty grin, clearly apprehensive about her reception of him, Stephanie hemmed. In the end, he really was just a big goof who messed up a lot. There was a soft center in there, and he didn't want Stephanie to hate him because of a poorly-executed plot.
"Okay, Robbie. If you really mean it, I'll dance with you."
Robbie gasped and stood taller in glee. He'd gotten a yes? He'd actually made the girl feel better? Disgusting as it was, he couldn't help feel a little bit good about accomplishing that.
"Swell!" the man in stripes agreed, "Well then, you've got the musicy box thing, yes? We should probably go over there." Heading into the small courtyard, he approached the stage to put his picnic basket down atop it.
Unseen to either of them, Sportacus moved to look over another nearby wall, hardly believing his eyes but smiling widely to witness this. He hardly ever got to see Robbie acting so sweet, and here he was choosing to do it all on his own. It was one of the elf's favorite sights in LazyTown.
Allowing herself a small giggle, Stephanie stood off the bench to follow into the court. "It's called a boombox, Robbie..."
Robbie looked a tad concerned. "Boombox..? It's not going to explode, is it?"
Another short laugh from the pink-haired girl. "No, Robbie. It just plays music. But it can boom it alright!" She pressed a button on the device she'd left sitting on the stage, and an energetic beat sprung to life. Stephanie twirled and giggled some more as Robbie jumped at the volume, twitching in signature uncertainty over this rather alien activity. But he chuckled back awkwardly, meanwhile Stephanie ended her small move set and gestured to him, openly inviting him to share the area in front of the stage with her.
Still hesitant, Robbie did step forward, merely standing in place as he absorbed the peppy trills and electronic dance vibes filling the air.
Then, throwing it all into the wind and committing to doing this, he did begin moving. He hopped to part his legs, swished his arms overhead, and did a spin himself, ending in a flashy pose with one knee lifted sharply and his arms fanned wide.
Stephanie grinned in impress and clapped, and rolling with the momentum, Robbie entered a series of showy kicks. Observing, Stephanie jumped in and copied the actions, following Robbie's increasingly tap-inspired moves. He got faster as he went, feet becoming a blur as he seemingly got carried away by the flow, and performing exactly like he had while under his disguise.
As his speed increased, Stephanie did try to keep up, but she couldn't see where he was stepping as the complexity became too much for her eyes to follow, and soon enough she was letting out a sharp yelp as she tripped over her sneakers and collapsed.
"Hmm?" Robbie paused and twisted his neck to see the girl on the ground, and snorted. Then he instantly felt sheepish considering he was supposed to be making things up to her, and rushed to help her stand. "You good, Pink Girl..? You didn't break anything, right? I don't want to have to drag you to a hospital."
Stephanie rolled her eyes and shook her head, a lopsided smile in place. "I'm fine. You don't learn to dance without a few bumps." More interested in what he'd been doing, she gushed, "How do you do that so fast?!"
Vainly, Robbie beamed at the admiration. "Ah, right. Teaching." That's what he was supposed to be doing. "Well, okay, first I suppose I should go a little slower for you..."
And so he did, redoing the steps at a much easier to follow rhythm. Stephanie wasted no time copying him, and before long at all, they'd matched each other in synchronization, Robbie expanding his moves as they swapped styles and even incorporated a partner spin or two. Robbie had to admit, the girl was good at this grossly energetic activity.
Likewise, Stephanie was surprised at just how much Robbie knew. He was good. He did have new things he could show her. Already she was learning. Where had the lazy man even picked this stuff up?
However, Robbie's stamina was quick to burn out. When it did, he plonked down on the lip of the stage behind him and dug into the basket he'd brought. "Okay. I'm taking a cake break," he wheezed, "You just keep...prancing around..." A vague hand wave in Stephanie's direction as he pulled out a giant slice of purple cake. This wasn't at all how he'd imagined having his picnic, but at least it looked like he was going to get to have it. The circumstances were oddly acceptable.
A tut from Stephanie. "I hope that's not all the energy you have. I wanna learn how to do that Flashdance step..!" She attempted it herself, but her legs were not fast enough and it was more like she was stomping in place while leaning forward. "Or the disco thing!" Here she tried to perform an elaborate pose, but couldn't remember exactly how Robbie had done it and it felt off. An idea came. "Or...would you actually...mind doing this again sometime?" she wondered, "School doesn't happen just once. I'm not sure I can pick it all up at once, either."
Robbie grimaced in stun at the entire prospect of dancing more. Looking at Stephanie, the girl's lips thinned in hope as she was clearly trying to wheedle with her expression, the tall man then sent his eyes upward and snarled. What had he gotten himself into?
An authoritative finger was held up swiftly. "Only. If it is a complete secret, to everybody," he insisted, "Especially Sportaflippy! Then I might consider it." That overactive jumping bean would praise his activeness for sure, and that was the one kind of praise Robbie detested receiving, even if it still felt best to have Sportacus' approval.
It was Stephanie's turn to roll her eyes once more, a smile creeping in, however. "Sure, Robbie. It can be a secret dance class." Why did he always care so much about his image? Couldn't he just have fun?
"Good." Robbie stuffed a forkful of cake in his mouth and spoke with his cheeks full. "You're not smooth enough when you ball change out of that jazz walk on the downbeat. Do it better." His hand performed a dainty shooing motion, telling the girl to carry on.
Not appreciating the word choice, Stephanie decided to let it go. Likely she couldn't expect Robbie to be completely nice. He just wasn't very good at it. Instead, she opted to focus on her practice and take his words as Robbie's way of being encouraging. It was good advice to try and improve, and so, hoping the curmudgeonly man would gain a second wind to perform once he'd indulged in some of his favorite sugary snack, the bright girl took her steps from the top.
Sportacus shook his head fondly when Robbie insisted on keeping his kindness a secret. Well, he supposed he would have to keep it a secret that he knew Robbie was capable of something like this. And as wholesome and heartwarming as it was to watch the pair dance together, perhaps bonding just a little as friends, Sportacus figured he should let them enjoy their practice. He was honestly glad not to be needed here.
He was just turning away when his crystal beeped again, alerting him of a fresh danger. Sportacus' brow went up as he looked at it, and then his face fell into an exasperated knowing sigh. "Trixie..." In a hurry, he got himself moving to prevent that rash thrill seeker of a girl from injuring herself or anyone else.