This two-part short story is a tribute to the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson, for what would have been his 63rd birthday. He is my favorite musician of all time, and he is very influential on me. His vocal style, his range, his innovative music videos, and his legendary dancing are unmatched, and few could even get close to his talents. Even though he died 12 years ago and his golden years were decades ago, his legacy holds up to this day as one of the greatest musicians ever, and his millions of fans around the globe, young and old, will say the same. This short story was conceived by my love for MJ's artistry and vision, and this short story is a parody of one of his music videos. These "short films'' in a sense were more than just videos. Each of them told a story. And that's what I'm planning to do here. Several songs by Jackson were considered in my head. Thriller. Billie Jean. The Way You Make Me Feel. Those were a few that I tried to develop a storyline under, but one song stood out. Black or White. It's an amazing, provocative and innovative video, and its story was something I could really get behind. So...here it is. I hope that you enjoy it!

Hee hee! - mitch :)

black or white

written August 21st through August 26th, 2021

part I: turn it down! not up!

The night was here. It was a rather chilly autumn evening, with the moon over the pristine, white clouds. It was late in the night, almost 11:30 to be precise. The town was empty, and all the lights were out most of the town as only one car ran through the dimly-lit streets. Everyone in Adventure Bay retired for the night. Except for seven teenage dogs, ripe with energy. They were all jamming out at the top of the lookout with a record player blasting incredibly loud rock music, temporarily forgetting that Ryder was trying desperately to catch some sleep. As the guitar riffs and drumming got even louder, the boy was constantly tossing and turning underneath the covers. After almost 30 minutes of a continuous battle, he had enough. He reached for the tablet on his nightstand.

"Chase...Marshall...anyone that can hear me...turn that noise down!" Ryder pleaded through all of their pup tags at the same time. But it was proving to be absolutely futile. The pups were having a great time, as they had been dancing for almost 2 hours now.

"Guitar solo!" Marshall cried to Rocky, as he grabbed an inflatable guitar and strummed it Jimi Hendrix-style.

"I got the bass, dude!" Zuma added as he got another inflatable guitar of his own.

"Broooo, I'm not even tired yet!" Chase exclaimed, as he was dancing without breaking a sweat.

"We should totally do this more often!" Rubble shouted with glee. Skye and Everest were dancing together, squealing with puppy-hood innocence.

"Oh my god, the best part!" Rocky cheered as the song entered the third verse. Ryder, who was below them in his dark bedroom, couldn't take the noise anymore. He marched out of his room and walked into the elevator. As Ryder reached the top floor, he saw his canines really letting it loose. He simply walked over to the record player and as Rocky slid on his knees holding the inflatable guitar like a rockstar, Ryder stopped the party by abruptly removing the needle to the vinyl record. All seven dogs stared at him in surprise. Ryder was not happy.

"Chase...pups...I thought I told you to turn that thing down! It's way too late, and it's too loud! People are trying to sleep, you know?!" Ryder fumed.

"Dude...we didn't hear you." Chase scoffed.

"That's probably because your volume is turned up to freaking 50! It's SUNDAY NIGHT! You guys should have stopped playing music a while ago…" Ryder mumbled.

"But Ryderrr….we're not even tired. At all! What the hell are we supposed to do, man?" Marshall protested.

"Marshall...don't talk back to me. I've had a rough day...I've helped everyone do everything. By myself, because you guys don't wanna help me." The boy sneered.

"Maybe we just wanna be normal! Like, we have our own lives. You're not the boss of us anymore." Everest remarked coldly.

"I am still the boss of you dogs. And I don't wanna hear no backtalk, you understand?" Ryder demanded.

"Dude, still, that was the best part of the song! You completely ruined our vibe, Ryder!" Zuma barked with disapproval.

"Yeah, you don't have to deal with us. Go and crash Katie's house, I'm sure she would be fine with it!" Rocky asked the boy, trying to diffuse the situation in his and the pups' favor. But Ryder stood very firm.

"I don't care that I ruined your vibe! I'm doing this for your own good! Either turn that music down...by a lot...Or GO TO BED!" Ryder snapped, as he stomped back to the elevator. He picked up a stranded chew toy on his way and threw it into the distance, hitting the door on the opposite side of the room.

"Soooo...what do we do now? I mean, turning it down to 20 is not fun at all." Skye wondered aloud. All of a sudden, an idea-a messed up but brilliant one-came up.

"Okay...I think I might have something." Rocky spoke up with an evil grin, raising his eyebrows up and down.

"What?" All six of his pals inquired. The mix asked them all to get closer, and he told them of his sick plan.

"Ok, guys. I have this really nice red guitar on me. It plays REALLY loud, and it works with every large speaker we have. We are gonna march into his bedroom with all of this stuff. We're all gonna get noise-cancelling headphones on us. Then, I'm gonna strum that guitar so loudly and blast him out of the tower into the bay due to the loud noise alone. Because NOBODY is gonna stop our party." Rocky asserted.

"Bro...that plan is so messed up. We're gonna get grounded for two weeks...but what do we have to lose?" Rubble pointed out.

"Yeah, Ryder's been really bossy lately. He's been such a boring buzzkill for a while, and we're not gonna put up with it!" Zuma exclaimed.

"If I was younger, I would have said hell no. But I wanna do this. Count me in!" Chase agreed. The seven pups cheered and got to work immediately. The septet rode the elevator down to the basement, where they all got their materials. Rocky grabbed his red guitar, while Skye, Zuma and Everest got the amplifiers. The dalmatian, bulldog and german shepherd all teamed up to bring the large speakers into the elevator. When the dogs got all of their materials into the elevator, they both went up to the second floor, which was Ryder's bedroom (the top of the lookout tower was the third floor, while the main area was the first floor). The seven dogs got to work quietly, pushing the amplifiers all around the room with a lot of effort. The speakers were intentionally directed at the boy, who was still sleeping. Rocky then plugged in the red electric guitar to the main amplifier, which was connected to all the speakers. The mix turned the speaker on, and then turned the volume meter. He cranked the volume level from Loud to LOUDER to ARE YOU NUTS!? respectively. In other words, the volume was turnt to 11.

"Ok, guys! Get the headphones! Or be subject to massive earrape." Rocky warned his friends. They all grabbed the headphones and put them on. They almost couldn't hear anything.

"This is gonna be epic." Rubble laughed to himself. The mix barked to get his owner's attention. He put on some black glasses and gloves. Ryder woke up and almost pissed himself. The boy knew damn well that he was gonna feel this one tomorrow. Feeling rebellious as a Terminator, Rocky gazed at Ryder with an unquelled blaze in his eyes.

"Eat this!" Rocky shouted with a cocky grin. He strummed his guitar, and the effects were immediate. The bedroom windows behind Ryder broke, and as Rocky strummed the guitar again on an even higher note, sending Ryder flying out of the room screaming. The force of the sound caused him to fly and fall all the way into the bay, culminating in an explosive splash. The pups saw this from far away, as Rocky put down his guitar and ran to the edge of the room, which was completely visible from the outside now. "YEAH, RYDER! SUCK MY RED ROCKET!" The recycling dog bellowed as he howled.

"Bro, I've never seen you like this…" Chase laughed. Rocky was always the most quiet, intellectual one of the group. But tonight was a rare exception.

"Don't worry, guys. I'll fix it tomorrow morning." Rocky shrugged, as he put the guitar back into its case before walking back to the elevator.

"Dude, THAT WAS AWESOME! He's definitely staying at Katie's now!" Rubble smiled. The seven canines got their materials and put them back into the basement in the span of just a few minutes. In no time, they were all back at the top of the tower, staring at the record player.

"Well, that was the last song from that album anyway...anyone got any suggestions?" Rocky asked his friends.

"Rocky! I got one! I got one!" Marshall blurted out excitedly, wagging his tail at the speed of a cheetah.

"Sure, dude, what'cha got in mind?" The recycling dog asked him.

"Follow me, dude." Marshall grinned, as he walked over to the stand beside the record player. It had several different albums from many different stars, such as MJ, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, The Beatles and others. The dally pulled out a familiar artist's album that the dally and mix both loved: Michael Jackson's Dangerous.

"Oooohh, good one." Rocky smirked.

"Thanks. And I know EXACTLY what song to play. It's the first song on the second vinyl, first side." Marshall pointed out. He then put the vinyl on the record player as Rocky looked on the back cover of the album.

"Black or White...I love that one. The guitar in that song is amazing." Rocky stated. As the needle dropped, the party started back up once again rather quickly. The dogs all started to dance to the retro-1990s style song, while Ryder just happened to resurface from the water hundreds of feet away. By pure coincidence, he landed right next to Capn' Turbot's boat. Wally was sleeping at the bottom of the water when he heard the boy crash land in the bay, and swam up to see what was the matter. The walrus tried to communicate to Ryder, but the boy was having none of it.

"Wally...this is not a good time." Ryder muttered. His body was completely soaked: including the fact that he was weaning his favorite pajamas. He couldn't find his slippers, and assumed that they went all the way to the bottom of the bay.

"Ryder! Ryder! I heard you crash land into the sea! Are you alright, my friend?" The captain asked urgently as he ran to the boat deck to see what was the matter.

"Physically and mentally...I don't wanna talk about it." Ryder told him. "But physically, I'm fine."

"Okay, then. Do you wanna stay in my boat? I got a guest room below deck." Cap'n Turbot pointed out.

"Nah, it's fine. I'll find somewhere to crash." Ryder sighed as he began to swim away from the boat. Wally looked to the boat captain and shrugged in confusion.

"Wait, what is it, Wally? Oh, you mean the tongue twisters. Yeah, I'm too tired to do that right now. The tongue takes timeouts at 10 PM till' 10 before 7 the next day." Cap'n Turbot spoke, as he went back inside his boat. Wally groaned and promptly smacked himself in the face, then slowly swam back to the ocean floor. Ryder swam for almost three minutes until he made it back to shore. Feeling uncomfortable in his sogged-out clothes, Ryder looked around town for options. Mr. Porter's house...no. Mayor Goodway's mansion...no...oh. Of course. Katie's place. She's the only other human who's normal around here. Ryder smiled as he thought to himself. The boy was 12 years old now, and puberty was just starting to take control of him. As a consequence (or a reward), he started looking at Katie rather differently. He started liking her more than just a simple friend. The two were great pals for a few years now, and Ryder secretly wanted to take the next step: ask her out on a date. But he didn't want to do it for two reasons: he didn't wanna get distracted in his job and get laughed at by his own dogs for dating their groomer. Still, Ryder had plenty of confidence for the future. The thought of Katie and her gorgeous long hair kept him from feeling the pure hell of wearing wet pajamas: until he made it to her pet parlor. Since it was almost midnight now, the boy did not expect her to be up. So, he rang the doorbell. In less than a minute, Katie (who was now two inches taller than him) answered the door.

"Katie, can I please crash at your place?" Ryder begged her.

"Woah, Ryder...what happened to you?" Katie gasped.

"My pups are partying again." The boy sighed in defeat.

"Then why are you drenched in water from the bay?! That doesn't make any sense." The groomer pointed out as she got a hair dryer for him.

"Ok, so it was just a few moments ago. It was 11:30. Those pups have been dancing for several hours. I've had a long day. And I'm trying to sleep. You see why I'm a little irritated right now?" Ryder complained to her as he was getting dried up. Katie simply nodded. "They kept playing their loud music. It was so loud, I could hear it from my room in the basement. I tried to tell them to stop through their pup tags, but it did not work. So, I turned off the record player myself, scolded them and went back to bed. Only, they got revenge on me in the worst way possible." The boy continued.

"Oh, boy." The groomer cringed.

"Rocky and the others brought a guitar and several amplifiers into my room when I was sleeping. Next thing you know, I woke up. Rocky plays an insanely loud solo, the windows break behind me and I am sent flying into the bay." Ryder sulked.

"Aren't you gonna do anything about it? They're not slowing down from the looks of it." Katie observed as she pointed at the tower across the bridge. The lookout was still lit up, and faint cheering was heard.

"No, I can't...they're teenagers. I completely lost. So, again...can I sleep at your place tonight?" Ryder asked her.

"Yeah, of course. I don't have an air mattress, so you're gonna have to sleep next to Cali." Katie said, pointing to an area where her beloved cat was sleeping. Cali was sleeping like a rock and heard absolutely nothing.

"At least Cali likes me. I gotta shut it down, I guess." Ryder yawned. Katie handed him a pillow.

"Good night, Ryder. Just hit me up if you need anything." Katie spoke as she hugged him and left, shutting off the lights. The boy laid on the floor and started to catch some well-needed rest. Nobody would bother his precious sleep this time.