Chapter 12 – A series of familiar events

Dot woke up early in he morning by habit, but instead of rushing out of bed to go to the gym, she stayed in bed, smiling. She closed her eyes, turned over to her side, and just smiled. At first, she didn't even notice how wide her smile was. But her cheeks did, and told her that she was stretching her face a little too much.

She stopped smiling for a bit, only to slowly begin a major giggling fit. She wondered for a moment why she was smiling in the first place. Then, it hit her: she was proud – happy. Proud of herself for have gotten through the rehab process with Scratchy. She was happy for finally being normal again. She was finally back to being the small, slightly chubby, and irresistibly cute Warner sister she had always been.

The rehab hadn't been easy, though. For days, she had ordered her brothers to let her out of the tower, so she could go to the gym. They had even had to fight her one time, because she had been getting desperate. At one point, she had looked at her gym stuff, and trembled because she knew she couldn't use it.

Another thing that had been hard for Dot to get used to was the usual Warner food. Every time she had eaten something, she had felt like she needed to either work it off, or puke it out. Again, her brothers had had to fight her to get her away from the bathroom door. But, eventually, she had gotten used to it – mostly because Yakko had told her that she had become cuter after gaining a little weight.

The easiest part of the rehab had probably been to stop wearing make-up, and start wearing her usual clothes. After seeing how ridiculous it had been for her to wear such slutty and revealing clothes, she had thrown them away (Wakko had even burned the push-up bra).

For the past few weeks, Dot had almost never left the tower. It was Scratchy's advice that she should spend as much time as she could with her brothers, since she had kind of ditched them for Hello Nurse for quite some time.

As Dot looked back on the rehab, she smiled even wider. She had read many stories about people who had gone to rehab, but didn't come back clean. And here she was, Dot Warner – after weeks of rehab – all better, and ready to continue with her life. Another reason for widening the smile was the thought of actually listening to Scratchy. She and her brothers were known for doing everything but that.

She sat up in her bed, and stretched. She stood up, put on her skirt, and put the flower in her ears. She looked at her reflection in the mirror on her desk, and giggled. I'm so cute! She then walked out of the room, but as soon as she took the first step, she bumped into Wakko.

"Ow!" she whined. "You did that on purpose!"

"No, I didn't!" Wakko exclaimed while rubbing his head. He then looked her in the eye, and chuckled.

"What?" Dot whined, and then pouted. "You know I don't like bumping first thing in the morning! Why are you laughing?"

"Because this is exactly how this all started," said Wakko, and kept smiling, his tongue now hanging out of his mouth.

Dot's pout leaked off, and was replaced with the cheesiest smile she could put up. "Wakko…"

Before Dot could even begin to think about what she was going to say, Yakko came running into the tower, holding a stack of letters in one hand, and a single letter in the other.

"A letter!" he yelled. "I got a letter! Good for me!"

He ran into his room, and slammed the door behind him, giggling like a sissy girl. Wakko and Dot looked at each other. Yakko never acted that way, and he certainly wouldn't be so happy if those letters were from fans. Wakko shrugged while Dot made a small motion beside her head, indicating her brother was crazy. She then pulled up the fur on her left arm to reveal a wrist watch, looked at it, and put the fur back in its place.

"I gotta go," she said. "Scratchy asked me to stop by his office today. See how the rehab was doing."

With that, Dot left the tower, leaving Wakko scratching his head, still curious about Yakko's behavior.

--

Dot walked into the psychiatry office gracefully, and when she took the first step into the lobby, she eyed the nurse, whom she hadn't seen for weeks. She squealed and raced to the desk. She hopped onto it, and saw the back of Hello Nurse, who was too busy talking on the phone to notice Dot.

"Hellooooooo Nurse!" Dot exclaimed in Warner brothers-style to get the nurse's attention. Hello Nurse turned around, and for some odd reason, she didn't greet Dot, nor did she smile. She just gave a little "Hm…" and went back to talking on the phone. Dot cocked an eyebrow, and poked the nurse's shoulder. She didn't react, so Dot decided to use force. She cracked her knuckles, inhaled, and then jumped on Hello Nurse's head, shouting: "Head cling!"

Hello Nurse shrieked, and jumped off her chair. She started running around the lobby, trying to get Dot off her head. Dot was having a blast, and when laughter got the better of her, she let go of the nurse's head, and fell to the floor, still laughing. She wiped a tear off her face, and stood up again.

"Ahh… That was priceless!" said Dot and fixed her skirt. She then put up her index finger and said: "For everything else, there's MasterCard."

Dot heard a foot tap, and looked up to see Hello Nurse glaring at her, while trying to brush her hair back in its place. She didn't look pleased at all. "You think that's funny, huh? So this looks funny to you? Do you even know how long it took me to do my hair this morning?"

"Actually, no," said Dot, and just smiled. Hello Nurse did an awesome Pesto impression. "I don't do it anymore – besides putting curlers in it before I go to bed, but I've always done that."

"Well then, maybe you should start thinking about others for a change, before you start jumping on their heads," said Hello Nurse and went back to her chair. "Scratchandsniff's ready for you."

Dot didn't know what to say. The nurse acted as if they had never been friends. She was just back to being the old, stuck-up, mean beauty she always was. While walking towards Scracthy's office, Dot couldn't help but wonder if she had also changed the life of Hello Nurse, like Cute had said in her dream a while back.

As usual, seeing Scratchy was pretty boring. All he did was ask how she felt, if the rehab was working, and if she was starting to feel like her old self again. The whole time, Dot thought about nothing but Hello Nurse, and wasn't paying any attention to Scratchy (as usual). But apparently, her nods and little sounds were enough for Scratchy to let her go early. That gave Dot another chance to talk to Hello Nurse.

She raced to the desk again, but didn't hop onto it this time. Instead, she tried to get the nurse's attention from below. She knocked on the desk, and reached up to be able to at least see Hello Nurse's face.

"Oh, you're done," she said. "Then why don't you just run off?"

"Because I wanna know what's going on!" Dot exclaimed. "You're acting all weird today. You're acting as if you don't even know me! Why won't you talk to me?"

The sudden blunt blow struck Hello Nurse, and for a moment, she didn't know how to respond. After a few seconds, she cleared her throat, stood up from her chair, and walked to the other side of the desk, where Dot was standing. "Look, Dot. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just being myself, that's all."

"No, you're not!" Dot shouted. "If you were being yourself, then you'd listen to me when I'm talking to you, and not just "hm" me away!" She hadn't shouted at someone for a while, and for some reason, it didn't feel right.

"You want to know what's going on?" said Hello Nurse, her voice level rising. "Do you realize how I felt after the accident? I was miserable! I found it all to be my fault, because I was the one who encouraged you to begin all that crud!" Dot noticed that the nurse's face got redder with every word. "I've been trying to forget everything, but it all just pours into my head again! You crossed the line once, Dot, and I can't forget that! Your behavior was unacceptable!"

The nurse panted, and rubbed her face. She turned away from Dot, and sat back down in her chair. "In all honesty, Dot, I liked you better when you were just…" She didn't finish her sentence, and began using the phone again. Dot was speechless, and slowly backed out of the office.

The walk back to the tower felt longer than usual, but that was mostly because Dot couldn't get Hello Nurse out of her head. Loads of fun memories with her began to pop into her head, and she was reminded of all the good times they had had together – not the bad ones, like always.

Dot remembered the stages of life, and what they had told her. She remembered how she had changed her brothers' and Flash's life after becoming a model; but she never thought that she would change the nurse's life after quitting.

As Dot climbed up the tower ladder, she got a sudden, strange thought. Maybe Hello Nurse liked her better when she had bulimia, and was ready to go to the gym with her. Maybe she never really wanted her to get back to being her normal self. Well, whatever the reason, it was clear to Dot that Hello Nurse had completely lost interest in her, and that she was back to being mean to the Warners.

Another slight flashback greeted Dot when she opened the tower door. But instead of hearing Yakko shouting, she heard Wakko laughing like crazy. She stepped inside, and saw Wakko rolling on the floor, laughing, with an irritated Yakko standing above him. Dot could've sworn he had blushed a little.

"For the last time, Wakko, she is not an obsessed fan!" he exclaimed angrily. "She's just a perfectly normal girl who happens to like me a lot!"

Wakko wiped some tears out of his eyes, and tried to speak between the laughs. "You call sending you hundreds of fan letters a day, telling you how much she loves you and wants to meet you; not an obsessed fan?" he managed to say. "I'll bet she's not even pretty!"

Dot cleared her throat, and the brothers finally noticed her. Wakko stopped laughing for a moment, and began snickering instead. Yakko ignored him. "So, were you two planning on telling me what you're talking about sometime before the next ice age?" said Dot.

"Well, if sir laugh-a-lot would give me a moment to explain, then yeah," said Yakko, and glared at his brother, who was slowly recovering from all the laughing. "Had your fun time there, dearest brother of mine?"

"I think so," said Wakko. "That is, until you get to the funny stuff." He snickered again.

Yakko turned to Dot, and held up the stack of letters from before. "You recognize these?"

"Uh, yeah. I think I saw you holding them earlier today," said Dot. "Why? Who sent them?"

"It's a long story, actually," said Yakko. "You see, for the past few weeks, I've been getting letters from this fan, and she obviously has a thing for me. She kept saying how good I look, and how well I sing, and how she desperately wants to meet me. At first, I thought: 'Oh, brother…' and just threw the letters away, thinking it was just another obsessed fangirl who does nothing but sit around and watch Animaniacs all day."

"Well?" Dot questioned. "Is she?"

"She totally is!" Wakko exclaimed and began chuckling. "No one in their right mind would send so many letters – except maybe pen pals, but that's going off track."

"As a matter of fact, she isn't!" said Yakko. "And Wakko, I was just about to show you this photo she sent me of her. Dot, you wanna see too?"

"Sure!" said Dot. She and Wakko watched as Yakko pulled out one of the letters from the stack, opened it, and then pulled out a small photo. He handed it to Wakko, who gladly received it, expecting to see a really ugly, fat girl. But as he looked at the photo, his grin slowly began to leak off his face. Dot was beginning to get curious, and took the photo away from her brother. She was just as surprised at what she saw.

The girl was far from being ugly and fat. On the contrary, she looked really good! She had long, straight, brown hair and dark-brown eyes. Her face looked like she had just come out of a make-up treatment (like Dot had, back in the day); though it was obvious that she had nothing on it. As Dot scanned the photo, she also saw that the girl was in very good shape, and her body was as hot as they can get! In the lower left corner of the photo, she had written: To Yakky-kins, from Casey, and drawn a little heart on the side.

Wakko and Dot both looked at Yakko, who just stood there with his armes crossed, wiggling his eyebrows. "So," he said. "Believe me now?"

Wakko's jaw dropped, and it took him a while to put it back in its place. His eyes were wide as he stared at his older brother. "Dude! That's so awesome! Oh man, why can't I have fans this hot?"

"Hah! Jealous much, now that you've seen her?" said Yakko. "Not so funny now, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" Wakko exclaimed. "I'd do anything to have a fan like this! What is it you have that I don't?"

Dot rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Wakko. It's not like Yakko's even gonna meet her. I mean, it's obvious that she's just another fan." She eyed Yakko. "Am I right?"

"Aaaaaahhh-" Yakko's voice slid, "not exactly." He scratched the back of his head. Dot and Wakko looked at him in awe, as he held up another letter. "This is the newest one, the one she sent today. It says that she's in town this week, and wants to meet me in person. She even says that I can go see her tonight. And, with a hottie like that, how could I say no?"

Wakko gasped, and Dot slapped her forehead. "So… you're going to see her?" Wakko asked. "Tonight?"

Yakko shrugged. "Maybe. She did give me her address, so I might as well come over there tonight." He grinned.

"Boys…" Dot sighed.

--

Later that evening, Yakko stepped out of the tower, knowing exactly where he was going. He had read Casey's letter over and over again, memorizing where she was staying. Conveniently for him, her temporary apartment was on a long, straight street not too far away from the movie lot.

Yakko carefully climbed down the tower ladder and, to avoid attention, tip-toed through the lot. He snuck past all the familiar houses and roads, and lastly, the opening gate. Though when he went past Ralph the guard's spot, he couldn't help but notice that he looked unusually calm. He almost looked… Nah! Yakko shook the thought out of his head, and focused on meeting Casey.

It felt a little weird to be walking outside the movie lot so late in the evening – especially alone – but the thought of his hot fan made Yakko feel slightly more confident than he would otherwise be. He kept looking at road signs, trying to see the right one. Finally, after half an hour of searching, Yakko found the right street. All what was left now was to find the right building.

Yakko thanked the luck that the street was straight, and that the numbers on the buildings were big, and hard to miss. Finally, he saw the right one: a large, blue building (with possibly fifteen floors), with a huge number "12" written on the very center of it. Yakko smiled to the thought of how easy it was to find it, and proudly went in.

"Should have figured…" Yakko muttered as he stood in the small lobby. He remembered that Casey had never told him which apartment she had. He looked on his right, and saw a big entrance door (which was locked from the inside and could only be opened from there), along with dozens of doorbells – at least four for every floor. He sighed, and decided to find Casey's apartment the hard way.

Yakko was just about to push the first doorbell, when someone whistled from inside the building. His ears perked, and he looked at the entrance door. He squinted his eyes, and saw that there was indeed someone there.

"Hey," he said. "Can you help me out here? I'm trying to find a gal named Casey. Do you know where she's staying?"

The person chuckled, and Yakko immediately heard that it was a woman. "I sure do, hunk. She's standing right in front of you!"

Yakko's mood brightened up instantly, and his tail flicked. "C- Casey? Is that really you?"

Casey gave a little fangirly squeal. "You said my name!" she exclaimed. "Oh, this is just like in one of those cheesy "Romeo and Juliet" rip-offs! Two lovers, separated from one another only by a single door… I love the idea!" She giggled.

"Yeah… You know what'd be awesome?" Yakko said. "If you'd open the door, so I could see you in person."

Casey gasped. "I know just what to do now! I'll open the door! That way, I can finally see you in person!"

Yakko was just about to remark to that, when the door slammed open. There was a long, awkward silence between the two, which was broken by another one of Casey's squeal.

"Holy wow, baby!" she exclaimed. "You're even hotter than on TV! I could just… jump on top of you right now!"

"Are you psychic?" said Yakko. "Because that was exactly what I was going to say!"

Casey put her palms on her cheeks and blushed. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship."

"Count me in!" said Yakko. He then looked around, and realized they were still standing in the lobby. "Say, uh, how's about we get inside?"

"Oh, yeah!" said Casey. She gestured Yakko to walk inside. "Welcome to my humble, temporary, block-of-flat home. My apartment is on seventh floor. Come on, loverboy, and we'll have some fun!"

--

Just like in those cheesy kids' movies, Wakko woke up when the sun hit his eyes. But that wasn't really what woke him up. It was the fact that the sun was shining in his eyes in a closed tower. How in the world would that even be possible? He opened his eyes, and sat up in his bed. What he saw almost made him shout. Yakko was standing right in front of him, his face actually glowing! Wakko had to pick up sunglasses from his mallet space just to be able to look his brother in the eye.

"Yakko?" he said. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you asleep?"

"Who needs sleep?" Yakko exclaimed. "I slept over at Casey's! You're not gonna believe how awesomely ho she is in person!"

Wakko chuckled. "I can imagine…" he said, before a sudden disturbing realization popped into his head. "Yakko… what did you do last night?"

Yakko shrugged. "Oh, nothing unusual. Just chatted about me. It was really fun, actually." The glow on Yakko's face faded slightly. "That is, until Casey didn't know what to do with her hands. That was pretty annoying."

"What do you mean? Didn't know what to do with her hands?" Wakko questioned, getting a little bit confused.

Yakko's face slowly stopped glowing as he spoke. "Yeah, you know, she couldn't decide where to keep them. First she put them on her laps, then on my lap, then on her shoulders, then on my shoulders, then on her face, then on my back, then on my hands, and she was about to say something, but that's when I told her I knew she had some kind of a touching disorder."

"I bet she was just really nervous or something," said Wakko and took down his sunglasses.

"That's what I thought too," said Yakko. "Until she said something like: 'I never thought I'd get to do this with a child star', or something like that – I wasn't listening anyway."

Wakko jerked backwards in his bed, his ears perking. "Say what now?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," said Yakko, as if what he had said couldn't be more common. "She did that a couple of times, actually: said something that made no sense. Like when she was boiling water for her breakfast this morning, she accidentally spilt some on me, and said: 'Am I making you burn?'. I really don't get our fans sometimes… But her hotness makes up for it!" Yakko smiled widely.

But Wakko was far from smiling. All the things Casey had done sounded uncomfortably familiar. "Yakko, did she, in any case, say that she'd do all the work? And that you should just lie back and enjoy?"

Yakko thought for a moment. "Uh… yeah, I think so. It was this morning. When she was going to the kitchen to boil the water, she turned on the TV for me. Why?"

Wakko gulped. "What about: 'The younger, the better'?"

"Well, no," said Yakko. Wakko was slightly relieved. "But she did say something like: 'The bigger, the better'." He eyed his brother, saw his shocked, yet grossed out expression, and realized what he had said. "Ugh! We were talking about my pants, and how they're too big for me to wear! Geez, Wakko, you have a dirty mind!"

"No, I don't!" Wakko exclaimed. "Don't you see, Yakko? This is just like in my dream!"

"Your… dream?" said Yakko, and tilted his head a bit.

"Yes! My dream!" Wakko shouted. "The one with the… the… child molester…"

Yakko looked at his brother, still trying to figure out what he meant. Casey wasn't a child molester. She was just an obsessed fangirl who really liked him, and saying cheesy one-liners! "Nah! You're way off!"

"Yakko, think about it," said Wakko. "That dream could have been there for a reason. Maybe it was a warning that one of us might…" He hesitated. "That maybe that would happen to one of us. I mean, she said stuff that was very much like in my dream, and she tried to touch you all the time! Maybe when she held your hands, she was about to say: 'It's just you and me now. Don't even try to get away'!"

Yakko's eyes went wide, and he realized that Wakko was absolutely right. "You- you don't think--"

"I don't think – I know!" said Wakko. "And unless you want that to really happen to you, I suggest you end it with Casey a.s.a. now!"

Yakko plumped onto Wakko's bed, his eyes still wide. "I can't believe I didn't get the hints! And they call me the smart one…"

He stood up, and walked out of the room, still in somewhat of a shock, leaving Wakko behind with horrible memories of the infamous dream. He walked through the hallway, and towards the little telephone table. When he reached it, he hesitated a bit. If he called, maybe Casey would want to meet him again. After all, he had told her that they should meet again that evening. He shuddered to the thought of it, and decided that it would be better to "dump" Casey, than to experience something he would never be able to forget. With a deep breath, Yakko dialed Casey's number.

It rang for a few seconds before Casey picked up. "Yellow!"

"H- hi," Yakko said nervously. "C- Casey?"

Casey gasped in excitement. "Oh my god – Yakko!" she exclaimed. "Hi! How's everything? Did you have a good time last night? Are you looking forward to tonight?" She squealed. "I sure as heck am!"

Yakko cleared his throat. "Yeah, listen. Uh, about that…"

"What's the matter, Yakky-kins?" said Casey. "Don't you want to meet me again?"

Yakko didn't know how to say it politely, so he simply said what he as thinking. "Not really, no. I don't think I'm ready for something like this. I'm only twelve, you know."

"I know! That's the beauty of it all!" said Casey. "Didn't you ever wonder why I picked house number twelve? It was a Yakko reference!"

Yakko shuddered. Under all the hotness, Casey really was the typical obsessed fangirl who did nothing but sit around and watch Animaniacs all day. "Like I was saying, I don't think this can work out. I'm afraid I can't see you anymore."

"Aww…" said Casey. "But I just bought that leather cat-suit you said you liked--"

Yakko instantly hung up.

--

Later that day, Yakko felt the urge to have another look at the blog sites that had those blogs about Dot. Now that she wasn't a model anymore, and hadn't gone out in weeks, maybe the writers had edited the old blogs – or deleted them.

Still, he couldn't fight off the urge, so he decided to have a look at it for himself. He went into the computer room (which included a mildly uncomfortable flashback) and sat down in front of the big desktop computer.

He knew that his siblings would pop up any minute to ask what he was doing, so he stood up again, and closed the door to the room. By the time he returned to the computer, it had fully started. He opened the internet and googled the headlines to the title. While Google searched, Yakko waited anxiously in his seat, begging the almighty that the writers had edited the blogs. Finally, Google was done, and Yakko looked at the screen.

The results were shocking.