PART THREE: BEADS, MUSIC, AND BEADS AGAIN

Adventures in New Orleans, Part 1: Much Ado About Beads

Many hours later, Grobyc shuttled the bus straight into New Orleans. Everybody scrambled out, putting on a whole menagerie of costumes. They were just in time--it was Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, and everybody was celebrating. The entire party streamed away, dancing and singing and celebrating a holiday they never knew existed until this point.
Multitudes of people began tossing beads at Kid, Riddel, Leena, Miki, Irenes, Orlha, Harle (who was the only one that didn't need a costume), and Steena. Serge looked at Kid quizzically, wondering what the purpose of the beads was.
"Search me, mate!" she grinned, hanging the cluster of beads on her neck. "I ain't got any idea as to what they are, either! But it sure is fun!" Kid leaped up and grabbed more beads, tying them to her arms and legs. Miki leaped up on a float and began dancing along with the music. She was completely drowned with beads and the occasional flower, but continued to dance anyway.
"Isn't this fun, Karsh?" smiled Riddel, who had almost as many beads as Miki. Karsh growled. He did not have any beads.
"I don't like this!" he said. Karsh had gone as himself for Mardi Gras.
"But I think-om it's fun-om!" exclaimed Mojo, who was dancing like mad. He had several beads hanging from his nail. Skelly was dancing with him, also carrying many beads. Karsh fumed.
"Forget about the frickin' beads!" he growled, storming off away from the party. Zoah sighed. He didn't get any beads either.

Adventures in New Orleans, Part II: The Concert

An hour passed. Miki was soon tired of dancing, and even Mojo and Skelly were out of steam. Everybody merely watched the festivities, content to catch an occasional bead. Nikki suddenly leaped up onto a float.
"Come on, everybody!" he said, grabbing a mike. "Who here's ready to rock?!" The crowd gave a lukewarm cheer. "I said, are you ready to rock!?" The crowd gave a semi-enthusiastic cheer. Miki leaped up next to Nikki, and Razzly, Kid, Serge, Mojo, and Skelly followed.

"I said, ARE YOU READY TO ROCK!!!?" shouted Nikki, cueing everyone else to liven up the crowd. The crowd suddenly went ballistic, and Nikki went into a tirade of music, treating everyone there to one of his stunning concerts. Girls screamed in hysteria, but some people just screamed.
"Oi! C'mon, everybody!" shouted Kid, taking the backup vocals. Serge prepared his drum set, Skelly, Mojo, and Razzly started dancing, and Miki took the leading vocals. Nikki raised his pick, slamming it down on his beloved ax. He started off his concert with "Revolution" and "That Old-Time Rock n' Roll", which really livened things up, then went into a wild frenzy of songs: "Twist and Shout", "Born to be Wild", "Walk this Way", "Johnny B. Good", and capped it all off with Jimmy Hendrix's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner". The crowd went berserk by then, hurling buckets of beads and flowers at Nikki, begging him for more. Nikki finished off the night with a great improvisational piece, leaving his news fans breathless.

Adventures in New Orleans, Part Three: No Beads

"I didn't get any beads," said Karsh.
"DON'T WORRY," said Zoah as soft as he could. "NOT MANY OF US GOT BEADS. PERHAPS THE PEOPLE THAT GOT BEADS WILL SHARE THEM WITH YOU?"
"Yeah, right. What are those stupid things for, anyway?"
"I HAVE NO IDEA," said Zoah after a pause.
"Saaad," sighed Karsh.
"SAD," sighed Zoah.
"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad," sighed Karsh and Zoah.
"Boo-hoo-hoo!" whimpered Pierre. He had gotten a negative number of beads. Worst of all, he didn't even have a costume. Even more terrible was the fact that Pierre suddenly remembered he was on a diet! Oh no!

Adventures in New Orleans, Epilogue

The entire bus was crammed full of beads. It was so full, nobody could fit in there, not even Pip. Karsh grinned.
"We can't take all these frickin' beads with us. We're gonna have ta dump some of them!" he snarled.
"Noooooooooooooooo!!!!" screamed everybody that had gotten beads.
"Just take one bead each! Jeez! Maybe then, everybody can take something from what's left over, and we'll all be happy." Everybody thought this was a good idea and they all kept one necklace of beads. Kid and Mel, however, had secretly kept ten.

Meanwhile...

"Well, it took me awhile, but I got out of Canada!" smiled Janice, waving good-bye to Santa. She continued to walk across the long road, sticking out her thumb (and her leg!!!) whenever she saw a ride coming. Janice did not have to wait long. Soon, a long limousine pulled up, and the door opened.
"Wow, thanks bud!" grinned Janice, stepping into the limo. She squished herself between two fancily-dressed couples.
"Where are you going?" asked one of the men.
"Vegas. What about you?"
"We're going to prom!" blushed one of the girls. Janice grinned a mischievous grin.
"Really?" Janice chuckled to herself, remembering the last time she had been to "prom"...


Meanwhile-meanwhile...

"Two bottles of beer on the wall, two bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, one more bottle of beer on the wall!" Everybody had started singing once Skelly hit the twelfth bottle, and soon they would be finished. "One bottle of beer on the wall, one bottle of beer, you take it down, pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall!" Everybody cheered, throwing beads and flowers in the air. Grobyc did not cheer.
"Grobyc-is-glad-that-that-song-is-over," he stated.
"One... more... time!" grinned Skelly. Everybody screamed bloody murder, pummeling Skelly and tossing him out on the road. "Aw, man!" he groaned, wiping the dust off of his hipbones. "Now how'm I gonna get to Vegas? Hitchhike?" Suddenly, Skelly grinned, stuck out his bony thumb, and waited.

And waited. And waited.

Meanwhile-meanwhile...

"What's next after New Orleans?" asked Zappa. Kid looked at her atlas.
"Well, we're close to Houston," she said.
"Ooh! Ooh!" squeaked Mel. "I wanna go inta outer space!"
"(I'm tempted to do just that)," mumbled Korcha.
"Anyone opposed ta goin' to Houston?" asked Kid.
"Where's that?" asked Funguy.
"I'm hungwy," stated Pip.
"I'm serious! One of you guys took my cheesecake!" said Doc.
"Isn't that a lovely tree?" asked Radius.
"Arr, I don't care," sniffed Fargo.
"Then it's settled! Grobyc, our next destination's Houston!"
"Understood."