A/N: I don't own the song Cookie performs in this chapter! It's for comic relief!

Friday night was finally here! The homecoming dance! Tonight was going to be Cookie's night. He waited outside the school gym for Lisa. He wore the same platinum suit he wore to school a few days before. He didn't really have anything else on and it was a bit cold for Bay Area weather, 54 degrees so it was a bit freezing for him. In fact, he was one of the first people there! There were already a few teachers there setting things up and a few students came earlier. It was around this time Ned and Kaitlyn came up to the front of the gym.

"Hold up, Ned." Kaitlyn said, gesturing her hand towards her brother and walked ahead.

"Where are you going?" Ned asked.

"Once I get inside the gym, our only connection is blood relation."

"Oh, you're a great big sister, Katie!"

Kaitlyn continued to walk into the gym.

"Is anybody else here yet?" Ned asked Cookie.

"A few people, not many. The only person we'd know in there is Moze." Cookie said. "Speaking of Moze, weren't you going to go to the dance with her?"

"Well, I was going to ask her to go to the dance with me but she seems to think me and Suzie are going out again."

"Well, are you two going out again?"

"No!"

"Then tell Moze that, she can't hold a grudge against you that long."

"Oh, she can hold grudges all right. Remember when we were 6 and I dragged you guys to see Doug's 1st Movie? She still hasn't forgiven me for that."

Mr. Mosely came out of the gym and greeted Ned and Cookie. "Why aren't you guys inside? The dance is just about to start!"

"I'm waiting for someone." Cookie said.

"And I just got here." Ned said.

"Oh, well, you guys can come on in. It's freezing out here."

Ned and Cookie went into the foyer of the gym. Javier was already there running the bake sale. "Hey guys, how you doin'?" Javier asked them.

"Fine." Ned said. "Is Suzie here yet?"

"I'm here now!" Suzie said walking through the door. "Hey, Javie!"

"Hi, Suzie!" Javier greeted her.

"So are you ready to dance with me tonight?"

"Absolutely."

Ned beamed up. "Hey, hold on a second you guys!" Ned ran into the gym to find Moze. The gym was lit darkly for the dance to set a mood, but Moze could be clearly seen. She was sitting on one of the bleachers looking pretty lonely. Ned ran over to her.

"What do you want?" Moze asked faintly.

"Moze, I know you hate my guts right now but I want to clear up this whole thing between me and Suzie."

"Ned, I know you two are going back out and you didn't want to tell me. It's not a big surprise."

"No, you don't understand. Just come with me!"

Ned dragged Moze out to the foyer. Cookie, Suzie and Javier all greeted her. "So tell me what I need to understand, Ned."

"OK, follow me here." Ned began. "You see, all this time I was helping Suzie get Javier to be willing to go out with her. We were never going out! I was just doing her a favor!"

"Then the kiss and hug were just…"

"Just being friendly." Suzie said.

"So you two were just partnering together to get Suzie a date… that isn't you, Ned… for this dance." Moze confusedly said.

"You pretty much summed it up." Ned said.

"Oh my god." Moze said under her breath and placed her hand on Ned's. "Ned, I am so sorry. I can't believe I thought you two were going back out. I shouldn't have been so judgmental. I mean…"

"Moze, stop criticizing yourself!" Javier yelled.

"Sorry."

"Anyway, Moze," Ned said. "There is something I want to ask you."

"What?"

"Do you want to go to the dance with me?" Ned gave her sad puppy dog eyes to convince her even more. Moze thought for a second.

"Sure!" She finally said.

Lisa came into the gym foyer and hugged Cookie.

"Are you ready to go to the dance?" Cookie asked her.

"I'm ready when you are." Lisa responded.

By now, the whole gym was nearly full. It's the homecoming dance after all, one of the biggest dances of the year. Cookie and Lisa followed Ned and Moze into the gym. Cookie was ready for some dancing!

"A'ight, Dukakis!" The DJ yelled out into his microphone. "You ready to get down at the homecoming dance?" His question was received with a howling applause. "Okay, let's get a groove on!" He put on a song, Cookie tried to dance to the song, but he couldn't really feel it the same way he felt the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. A few more songs passed, Cookie wasn't feeling it at all. He looked around, Ned and Moze were doing great together, Suzie and Javier a bit less but they still looked like they were having a blast. But he and Lisa were just awkwardly staring at each other while dancing.

"Um… I'm going to go use the bathroom." Cookie said. Lisa nodded as Cookie headed out of the gym and sat down on a bench. Mr. Mosely happened to come out a minute or so after Cookie went to sit down.

"Hey, Simon, shouldn't you be in the gym dancing?" He asked Cookie.

"Well, I was but I really can't dance and I don't even want to risk it."

"You only have one freshmen homecoming dance, Cookie, you shouldn't really avoid it."

"Yeah, but if I blow this night, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, I've been going out with Lisa Zemo since June and our relationship is going nowhere fast and I thought that if I impressed her with dance moves, she'd be willing to continue going out with me but I'm just not feeling it."

"I can understand what you mean Cookie, back when I was a freshman here…"

"You went to Dukakis?"

"Class of 1976! Anyway, there was this girl named Samantha Thatcher who I had a crazy crush on. I was head over heels in love with her since seventh grade and I finally had the guts to ask her out. We went out for a few weeks; the only problem was I had kept trying to impress her by being this guy I wasn't we eventually broke up and I started to getting to know Courtney around that time…"

"Courtney who?"

"Mrs. Mosely to you, please."

"Sorry."

"So, you know, you really shouldn't try and be someone who doesn't want to be just to impress someone. Now is that what you're trying to do with Lisa?"

"Well, if you consider trying to be John Travolta trying to impress her, then yes."

"Then don't try to be this disco guy. Just be yourself. Improvise! Don't you sing? Jennifer told me about your Cowboy Cookie song."

"I guess I could show some of my musical abilities."

"There you go! Come on!"

Mr. Mosely and Cookie walked over to the DJ and whispered to him. The DJ laughed happily and gave Cookie thumbs up.

"You ready for a change of pace, Dukakis!" The DJ said into the microphone, accompanied by a "YEAH!" and the DJ introduced Cookie. Cookie somehow had gotten an electric guitar and moved the microphone out near the center of the gym.

"Okay then… um… here's a song by a little white guy." He began to play a guitar riff which lead into "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Cookie made it through the whole song (abridged here to save you reading time).

"We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what's I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

We've know each other for so long
Your heart's been aching
But you're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it

And if you ask me how I'm feeling
Don't tell me you're too blind to see

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you…"

Cookie ended up getting a huge round of applause from the student body at the dance. As the applause died down, Cookie yelled "You all got Rick Roll'd! Good night!" Cookie walked back to Lisa and dance went on as normally. When the dance was over everyone (our central three, Lisa, Suzie and Javier) were walking home together.

"Cookie, that was…" Ned tried to look for the right word of Cookie's performance. "… just plain amazing!"

"I know I'm surprised at myself. That was just awesome!" Cookei said before truing to Lisa. "So, Lisa, do you still want to go out?"

Lisa kissed Cookie. "Yup. Good night, guys." Lisa went inside her house as everyone continued to walk.

"Well, good to see this story is wrapping up rather happily." Moze said.

"Yeah and we all learned a valuable lesson about being yourself, right Cookie?" Ned said. Cookie was frozen from Lisa's kiss.

"Wow, what a woman!" Cookie said.

End of story #2.

NEXT TIME: Moze still isn't loosening up to the idea of having her dad for social studies. Will it create a tension between them? Will father and daughter be torn apart? Well, maybe that's an exaggeration but it'll be quite something!